Disclaimer: I don't own 'Supernatural' or 'Merlin'; they belong to their respective creators, and I'm just borrowing them for this story
Feedback: Always a pleasure
AN: Mainly an expositionary chapter explaining how I think the mythology of the two shows tie together- mainly regarding how the dragons of Supernatural are connected to the dragons of Merlin-, but I felt that it was important that the Winchesters understand what to expect before they get to the past, particularly regarding the mythological mysteries of Merlin's origins in the present.
The Cup of Life
"Camelot?" Bobby said, looking incredulously at the Winchesters as they stood in his library area, his scepticism of their story obvious even as they shrugged on the clothes that he had acquired for them. "You idjits are goin' with the angel to visit Camelot?"
"Did you think we were going into action dressed like this for fun?" Dean asked, indicating the lightweight chain mail- apparently it was meant to be blessed to reflect demonic powers or something like that; Bobby had a contact who'd acquired it from an old relative some point, apparently- and leather shoes and robes they were wearing; there was no way to know if it was historically accurate, of course, but given the time they'd had to get this all together Dean liked to think that they'd at least pass muster based on what he'd seen in relevant movies. "You got the stuff together when we called-"
"Because I thought you were infiltratin' some renaissance fair thing when you made the original request; you're talkin' 'bout travelling all the way back to Camelot here, Dean!" Bobby said, looking sceptically at the younger man. "Are you even sure that he can do it?"
"This isn't like last time, Bobby," Sam said, picking up a sword from the small collection that Bobby had lain out on a table and giving it some experimental swings; Dean was still going to take a gun or two with him in case things turned particularly ugly, but he recognised the importance of including more conventional weaponry in their immediate arsenal to avoid attracting too much attention while they were in the past. "Cas has access to Heaven's energy resources this time around, and we know exactly where to go and what to do, without even having to worry about killing anything; all we need to do is get to Camelot, find Merlin, and get him back here so that we can take out the Cup before sending him home."
"Yeah, and on that topic, you got anything about Merlin that we could use?" Dean asked; he might not like the research part of the job as much as Sam did, but the day he went into any hunt without at least some idea of how to deal with what he was up against/working with...
"'Use'?" Bobby repeated, looking over at Dean with an expression that was so intense Dean couldn't tell whether Bobby was glaring at him in frustration or disappointment. "Are you asking me if I have anything about how to kill Merlin?"
"Uh..." Dean began, before his voice trailed off as he realised he had no idea how he was going to continue that sentence; he might not like witches as a whole, and he had no problem killing them when he encountered them- even if he still recognised that a few of them didn't know what they were doing when they were making their original deals; unlike with Crossroads deals, you could be tricked into these kind of pacts-, but this was Merlin he was talking about here...
"Because," Bobby continued, still staring firmly at the other Hunter, "I've gone over everythin' in the library that might even hint at Merlin bein' anything more than a story, and while there are a few sources hintin' that he was the son of a demon, there's a few more suggestin' that his powers came from his dad bein' an angel-"
"Actually," a voice said from behind Bobby, "Merlin's father was a Dragonlord."
"Seriously," Bobby said, turning to glare at the angel with only a slight sigh at Castiel cutting him off mid-sentence- he'd spent too much time working with the angel on top of everything else he'd experienced to be totally surprised by anything these days-, "would it be askin' too much for you to just knock sometimes?"
"Uh... dragonlord?" Sam asked, deciding to focus on the more immediate topic of discussion, looking curiously at Castiel. "What's a dragonlord?"
"They were humans capable of commanding the true dragons of what was known in Merlin's time as the Old Religion," Castiel explained.
"The Old Religion?" Sam repeated in confusion at the unfamiliar term.
"It would be most appropriate to consider it an early step towards the modern interpretation of my kind's role in the tales of Heaven and Earth, incorporating a principle of balance that existed between the world perceived by others and the world of magic and creatures that we live in," Castiel explained, answering Sam's immediate question before he continued with his original explanation. "The precise origin of the dragonlords is known to only a few angels- of which I am not one-, but they possessed the power to command the true dragons of Merlin's time, which were large, sentient creatures possessing great wisdom and with power over many forms of magic."
"Beings of wisdom?" Dean said, looking sceptically at his friend. "Cas, those dragons we fought last month-"
"Were mere corruptions of dragonlords driven to the brink over the centuries by the loss of the dragons that they once commanded," Castiel clarified. "After the death of the last true dragons, as time went on, the remaining dragonlords, aware of their power but lacking dragons to teach them how to use it or explore what it would mean, became increasingly twisted, fixating on the purity of gold as an echo of the power and magic that once filled the world and attacking the world that was not what their bodies were designed to exist in, with their power subconsciously warping their bodies to echo the dragons that are no longer among us."
"So... what it boils down to is that... the dragons we know are just warped cousins who've twisted themselves to be more like their missing relatives, and actual dragons are a bit more like... Draco?" Sam asked.
"Dude, what does Harry Potter have to do with anything?" Dean asked before Castiel could reply.
"I was talking about DragonHeart, actually," Sam clarified, smiling slightly in embarrassment at the admission.
"What?" Dean asked in confusion.
"It was a film, Dean," Sam explained, rolling his eyes in frustration. "Remember that time back in 1996; I snuck out to go to the cinema when Dad was off hunting the spirit of that guy who'd been wrongfully convicted?"
"Oh yeah..." Dean said, his expression briefly darkening at the memory- even after everything he'd been through since those days, that night when he'd woken up after going to bed for a quick nap to find Sam's bed empty still made him freak out when he dreamed about it again- before he looked quizzically at Sam. "So, Draco?"
"Basically, Dragonheart was about the last dragon, Draco, who formed an alliance with this knight to defeat the corrupt ruler of their kingdom," Sam explained. "Draco was this massive dragon who could breath fire and talked- he was actually voiced by Sean Connery-, and at one point in the film he explained that dragons had promised to guard humanity because one of the oldest dragons saw our potential when we were a young race..."
"And you went to watch this?" Dean asked, looking sceptically at Sam. "We hunt monsters, and you deliberately went to check out something portraying the creature as the good guy?"
"Hey, I was a kid; I still needed something to believe in to help reassure me that the world wasn't all about killing things," Sam countered, a slightly embarrassed tone to his voice despite his overall defensive manner.
"Regardless of your sources, your essential description of the old dragons is correct," Castiel said, bringing the brothers' attention back to the present as they turned to look at the angel. "In the days when magic filled the world, dragons were powerful representatives of that magic, capable of sharing knowledge of rare spells with suitably receptive minds and providing protection and guidance when needed, but the dragons eventually died out as human society began to reject magic, leaving them gone and the dragonlords-"
"Uh... could you get back to the part where magic once 'filled the world'?" Dean asked, looking uncertainly at Castiel. "What does that actually mean?"
"Magic was once a lot simpler to practise than the versions that you have encountered these days, Dean," Castiel explained. "As humanity turned from magic to explore science- which, unlike magic, could be controlled by anyone with enough training; even back then wielders required a certain understanding of magic before they could fully master its power-, the amount of magic freely available to humans became increasingly more limited as they drew on it less and less; in the time of Camelot, Merlin was a natural conduit for the magic in the land around him, but it is virtually impossible for a human to be born with that potential in the present as there is not enough active magic left in the world to cope with it."
"So... Merlin's not like the witches we've encountered?" Sam asked, a slightly hopeful expression on his face that Dean would have dismissed if it wasn't for the fact that he wanted to hear a positive answer to that question himself; after spending a not-insignificant part of his childhood enjoying those stories, it was good to know that the guy wasn't 'their' kind of witch.
"He was not," Castiel confirmed. "Those witches have only achieved power by making pacts with demons to open themselves to the world's remaining magic; Merlin achieved a greater level of power than any witch that you have encountered simply by being born, growing in power and skill through training and diligence, and he only acquired greater power when his status as a Dragonlord was awakened."
"He wasn't born with that power?" Dean asked.
"Dragonlords only inherited their dragon-related powers when their fathers were dead," Castiel clarified. "Merlin's father left his mother for his own safety before he knew that Merlin had even been conceived, Merlin only learned his father's name when circumstances forced him and Arthur to seek out the last dragonlord to protect Camelot from an attack, and father and son only spent enough time together afterwards for his father to teach Merlin the essential powers of a dragonlord before his father was killed by a bandit raid."
"Oh," Dean said, the tragedy of it striking him as he processed what he'd just heard.
John Winchester might have been an erratically-present parent while they were growing up, but at least he'd been there sometimes, and he and Sam had never doubted that John cared about them even if they didn't always agree on his methods.
For a guy to grow up completely without a father, and then lose him when they'd finally met...
"OK," Dean said, trying to lighten the mood as he picked up one of the swords that Bobby had selected earlier, giving it a few experimental swings to get used to the feel of the thing- John Winchester had covered sword-fighting in their training just in case, but it was one of those skills that they rarely had the chance to use- before he turned to look at Castiel, his arms spread in a casual manner. "So, what do you think of the outfits? Convincing enough?"
"So long as you don't decide to get undressed in public, it will suffice for our purposes," Castiel said, briefly looking Dean and Sam over as they stood before him in their leather and chainmail before he glanced down at himself, an expression of concentration briefly appearing on his face before his usual trenchcoat and suit vanished, to be replaced by a long robe of a similar colour to the trenchcoat over dark leggings.
"How-?" Dean began, looking at Castiel in surprise.
"An extension of my ability to repair damage to my vessel's clothing as well as to him personally," Castiel explained. "Normally Jimmy's original attire is suitable enough for my purposes, but on this occasion a change seemed appropriate; these clothes are similar enough to Jimmy's that the effort required to maintain them is minimal, but they shall suffice to help me walk in the past relatively unnoticed."
"Yeah, this could work..." Sam said, nodding in agreement as he took in Castiel's attire in a contemplative manner. "Maybe we could pose as... travelling warriors or something?"
"Travelling warriors?" Dean repeated, looking sceptically over at his brother.
"It's not like I ever took medieval history in depth, Dean; when was something like that ever going to be useful?" Sam pointed out.
"Hey, just used to you being the font of all unusual knowledge; kind of nice to have something you don't know about for once," Dean clarified, smiling over at Sam before he turned to face his angelic ally. "So, what's the plan when we get there?"
"I will tell you when we're there," Castiel said, reaching out to place a hand on the Winchesters' shoulders as he looked solemnly between them. "Remain calm and focus on me; time-travel of this distance will be... complicated."
Dean didn't have time to ask what Castiel meant before he suddenly had the uncomfortable feeling of something squeezing in around him as he was pulled towards some other location, only just aware of Sam and Castiel around him without knowing how he knew that, followed by the sudden sensation that they were heading towards something very large...