Disclaimer: I don't own Aquaman or BBC Merlin, their characters, storylines or related films, comics and novelizations set in the corresponding universes. The franchises are property of DC Comics and BBC One/Shine Limited, and they were created by Mort Weisinger, Paul Norris and Julian Jones, et al., respectively. I am only borrowing them for the purpose of nonprofit expression of personal creative ideas in the same settings.

Chapter 2: An Enemy in the Making

Arthur unknowingly creates a vengeful enemy for himself.

~0~0~*~0~0~

Somewhere in the Arctic Ocean

Arthur swam fast towards the submarine. Noting the strange ship attached to the roof of the Russian vessel, he figured the pirates were already inside.

He shrugged, no time to waste then.

Without stopping, Arthur swam to the sub's rear and crashed against the propeller. Then, he proceeded to the underside and grabbed hold. Straining his arms and shoulders against the watercraft, Arthur pumped his powerful legs and swam upwards.

The submarine surfaced violently before retaining balance and remaining adrift. Arthur pulled himself aboard, blond locks dripping on his eyes before he swept them back, and walked to the hatch. Deliberating, he decided against kicking it in and just opened it.

Inside, silence reigned for a moment before the rumble from automatic weapons discharging reverberated. Bullets ricocheted against the open door of the hatch, and Arthur held a hand up to protect his face before jumping in.

The pirates continued their indiscriminate firing, probably surprised at Arthur's invulnerability to their ammunition but too well trained to stop their attack.

Arthur sighed, rolled his shoulders and cracked his knuckles. This would be a nice warm up.

A few minutes later, the intense fire power being directed at him halted. Arthur had successfully found and knocked out all the pirates in that level, disabling their weapons and rummaging their suits for anything that could identify them. Finding nothing, Arthur turned to a crackling communication device lying nearby. A voice was requesting a status update from the other end.

It seemed there were more. Even better, the voice questioned if the vessel's crew had somehow gotten out of the torpedo room where they had escaped to during the initial infiltration.

With a new goal in mind, Arthur made his way along the submarine, quickly reading the layout and directions along the walls and frames.

Upon finding what he was looking for, Arthur walked briskly to the sealed door when a sudden punch snapped his head back. Apparently, there was a pirate guarding the entrance. He turned to look at his opponent, and smirked.

Making quick work of the guy, Arthur stretched his neck, ready for a break back at his favorite bar. The things he did to fulfill his annoying noble impulses. This was surely the Bat's fault. Or maybe his father's.

Arthur unsealed the door, greeted the stunned crew on the other side, scolded them for making him miss happy hour and, ultimately, lead them off to the hatch to escape.

Because, of course, everything was going too well for Arthur in this day, bullets started raining on him and the few remaining officers, injuring one. Immediately, Arthur interposed his body between the escapees and the pirate.

Where were they even coming from? Did they multiply by osmosis?

This guy moved differently, though. Measured steps, lethal grace and equipment that packed a punch more noticeable than the others, this one was carrying himself like a commander.

Having no choice than to lead him away, Arthur jumped down a sublevel. Grumpy guy followed, completely ignoring the huddling officers by the hatch.

It seemed that these pirates were not here just to assassinate anyone specific, kill everyone or disable the vessel. Something else was going on. Arthur had no time to ponder, however, before big scary guy was onto him.

After exchanging a few blows (this guy was good), mister not-very-nice-pirate started thanking his lucky stars for meeting the Aquaman (oh great, he was one of those). Arthur held himself still, staring at the blades that had released from the other man's armored wrists.

"I have been looking forward to meeting you, Aquaman" said the man, with an ugly grin. "My name is Alvarr, I hope you are prepared for me".

Arthur resisted the urge to roll his eyes (very unprofessional). It was as if villains of any shape, form or intergalactic origin attended the same seminar for cliche villainous behavior. It was always something along the same lines.

"Now, you will remember me!" Alvarr roared, launching an upper hand swing with his right sword, while coming low with his other one.

Arthur used the heel of his palm to parry the swinging wrist of Alvarr upwards, before deciding to let the low swing reach his side. Alvarr's triumphant grin faltered, seeing as the sword did not dig into skin nor drew blood.

Arthur's atlantean durability was very effective against human threats.

He trapped the sword against his side with his arm, and brought his other hand down hard on the junction that connected the sword to the armored suit.

Alvarr screamed as his wrist broke under that devastating blow. The sword snapped clean off from the suit, and Arthur quickly bent it out of shape. Seeing that Alvarr had forgotten that he had another sword under the pain of broken bones, Arthur straightened and eyed the rifle that his opponent had discarded in favor of the hand-to-hand approach.

"Please, let's not make a habit of meeting each other, alright?" said Arthur, ready to dive for the weapon and disable it.

Before he could, however, a yell from the other end of the room distracted him before a resonating boom preceded a rapidly approaching missile with Arthur as the target. The explosion shook the room and echoed in the watercraft. The blast sent Arthur back, hard, against the hull of the submarine. He fell heavily, face down to the floor.

A relieved, incredulous laugh escaped Alvarr, who turned to see the man who had shot down Arthur.

"Dad, what-?"

"I told you before, Alvarr" responded the man, smoking launcher lowered in the peace of the moment. "I still have a few tricks up my sleeve"

Arthur was, understandably, annoyed at the situation. He should have been better prepared but, well, hindsight and all that. With a groan, the blond pushed his body up, until he was kneeling, and gazed back at the stunned, gawking pair of villains. His chest was unmarred by the blast, if slightly smoking.

"Ow" Arthur uttered, to which rocket-launcher-man visibly shook himself and started to reload a missile. Alvarr growled, standing up to sidetrack the blond, to no avail.

With quick steps, Arthur pushed Alvarr away, making him crash hard against the pipelines nearby. Without pause, he grabbed the launcher's muzzle and pointed it up, ready to kick its wielder back when a rifle started firing at him from behind. Right, Alvarr had reached his discarded weapon.

Fed up with the situation, Arthur grappled the launcher off the other man, whose struggles were pitiful against the might of a sea-blooded being, and bent it out of shape. A hard punch to the sternum sent the man flying, and what was left of his launcher was thrown towards Alvarr, who dodged at the last second.

Arthur took his chance to grab a steel pipe close to him, ripping it off its place and throwing it straight and true to the man Alvarr called his father. The agonized scream from the man, at having the improvised javelin tear through his shoulder and effectively hold him to the wall, was echoed by Alvarr's enraged howl.

"That is your son?" said Arthur, sarcasm and derision on his every word. "You should be ashamed" His anger at the whole situation was bringing out Arthur's darker tendencies and somber memories.

A crack from the back had Arthur hit the deck as an untargeted missile flew to the wall nearest him. The following explosion breached the hull and water started pouring in. It seemed Alvarr had, in spite of it being bent out of shape, fired the launcher.

The pressure started opening the hull more and more, and the water was dragging everything out of place. A nearby steel rack broke off and fell sideways, trapping the legs of Alvarr's father underneath. He cried out in pain.

"Dad!" Alvarr yelled.

Arthur ignored them, studying the break and the water level, quickly calculating how to get to the few officers left inside the submarine who were probably waiting for him.

"Ruadan! Stay with me! You don't get to go like this!" Alvarr's desperate rants in the background barely distracted the blond.

Making a decision, Arthur lept to a nearby ladder. He was about to disappear to the upper level when-

"Wait!" a shout stopped him. Arthur turned to look at the pair, the water rising rapidly on them. Alvarr looked furious, reluctant but eager. "Help me save him!"

Arthur paused, and glared back.

"Please! You have to help him!"

"Do I?" answered Arthur, his voice echoing chillingly in the sinking room. "He has probably killed innocents, too many to count."

Alvarr trembled helplessly, grinding his teeth. "Have mercy!"

"Did you have any for those people?" Arthur asked sardonically. "Ask the sea for mercy. You will get none from me." With those angry words, Arthur turned back to the ladder and headed up.

His heartbeat was fast, and his temples were throbbing in time with Alvarr's enraged scream as he left them to their fates. Arthur closed his eyes, breathed deep, and hastened to the hatch. He was not going to regret anything right now.

The leftover crew was relieved to see him. Only one of them had been hurt in the previous shootout, and they had been trying to get him up the ladder. Arthur waved them off, carried the man on his shoulder and stepped up to the roof. The others had been busy, getting the emergency floats ready and climbing them in preparation. The few that had been left inside were quickly organized to their own groups.

Asking them to release ropes on each float, Arthur took hold of them and swam off, pulling all the floats as far as possible in case the vessel decided to explode. He was feeling very tired all of a sudden.

Perhaps he would visit his father after all. He was yearning his home shores, right now.

The crew was thrilled at their survival, doing headcounts, talking to each other, and yelling their relief to the skies and their thanks to their hero.

Their mumbles calmed something in Arthur, reminding him why he did what he did. Saving the innocent was his job; protecting those who could not protect themselves.

But, it still felt like his heart was twisting inside and the weight of the world was once again on his shoulders.

Why did Arthur suddenly feel so empty? As if the ocean itself was disappointed in him?

^0^0^~^0^0^

Kingdom of Xebel - Castle's Royal Wing

"It's started!" announced the Second Princess of Xebel, Morgana, once the double doors to the private chambers of her elder sister opened with a bang.

Morgause, First born to the throne of Xebel, groaned from her place at the desk. "Shouldn't we wait until Merlin deems to grace us with his presence? For that matter, why is it we always meet in my rooms?"

Morgana waved her hand carelessly, taking a seat across her. "Merlin will be rather busy in the coming days. And, it's tradition! It wouldn't feel right to meet anywhere else!" Her beaming smile caused nary a blink from Morgause, who set aside the pile of documents she had been poring over and focused on her sister.

"So, your vision, it's finally coming true?"

Morgana sighed and stared into space. "Yes. Mordred is making his move. It will be up to Merlin and… him, now."

Morgause smirked. "You can name him, you know? It's not like I didn't suspect from the beginning."

The sable haired beauty flashed her a smile but did not acknowledge the admonition.

"What we can do, however, is prepare Xebel for the upcoming conflict."

"You think father will allow us to go to war against Atlantis?"

"... I know he will go to war for Atlantis"

"Morgana, you-! Are you telling me Balinor will side with Mordred?!"

"Extenuating circumstances, sweetie."

"If Hunith doesn't skin the man, I will!"

"Morgause" Morgana's grave tone cut through the blonde's rising fury. "Certain events must come to pass for the best outcome to occur. It is not father's fault. Xebel might be influential but Atlantis is no less powerful. Mordred's reach is great."

Silence reigned in the room.

"Fine… what's in it for me?"

A wicked smirk accompanied the response, "By the end of it all, Merlin's new beau will be a joy to tease."

The sing-song words caused a snort from the elder of the two. "Very well. All for our adorable little brother".

The two thirds of a powerful triad continued scheming into the night, while its last member traversed the halls of a castle, thousands of leagues away, within the borders of the Kingdom of Atlantis.

~ End Chapter 2 ~

Next on Chapter 3: Prelude To War

Atlantis' King makes the protector of the oceans and the surface his enemy by threatening war.