SORRY it's taken me a while. I have work constantly and I don't think I've slept a full 8 hrs for the entire summer. Lucky me.

but here it is. Chapter two in my saga. Lucky you. And because this one isn't with Marco's pov, i won't give you the interesting little tidbit about him.

Chapter 2: Long Live the King

After the football game, Allie drove home with her parents. They seemed perfectly content to ignore her in the back seat. If they hadn't, she was pretty sure that they would ask for every single detail of her two glorious kisses with Will, and while she was quite happy to relive them over and over again, she would rather it only be inside her own mind.

Happily, her mother was still talking about how the return of Arthur should have happened that night, and her father was being disbelieving.

At least it was that way, until they got home.

"Wait, dear, wasn't Will still in the locker room when they went and continued the game?"

Allie's father looked at his wife. "I guess so."

"And that's when Allie got up and left with that little friend of hers," Nicole Pennington was getting very excited now. She turned to Allie. "You went to find Will, didn't you sweetheart."

Allie, who had been trying to get upstairs turned and said, "Yes, Mom?"

"Did you find Will? Did he become King Arthur?"

Well, this is awkward Allie thought, as she tried to come up with a polite, truthful, but not truthful response to that. "Yeah, me and Miles found him."

"Miles and I, Allie," her father corrected automatically. He was a college professor, after all.

"So," her mother urged her to continue.

"And he was just feeling sick in the locker room. We made him drink a little and lie down, but he insisted on going out and playing. Said his team needed him. That's just how Will is."

"He didn't turn into King Arthur?"

"You kissed a sick boy?"

Allie's parents' reactions were perfectly timed, perfectly together and perfectly opposite.

Crap, she thought, looking at her father's incredulous, slightly disappointed face, a face that showed very clearly how startled he was by her lack of judgment when it came to kissing boys.

Her mother, of course, noticed nothing. She was so distraught in the fact that her Order of the Bear leanings had brought her nothing that she was in her own little world, surrounded by the cold, pressing walls of the dark ages.

"Nope, nothing," Allie said blithely, and escaped to her room.

Her mother wouldn't drop it, Allie knew, and she felt horrible just lying to her parents. She needed advice. This wasn't a decision she could make alone.

Flopping down on her bed, she grabbed the phone and dialed 7 recently memorized numbers.

"Miles, my parents keep asking about King Arthur!"

"Well, yeah," the boy on the other end said. "They're medieval scholars, Allie. You can't expect them to just drop it. Especially after we told them it was true."

"I just don't know what to say. Should I tell them the truth? I just don't know," Allie whined, picking up the book of the Order of the Bear from her bedside table.

"Do you want to be a freak for the rest of your life?"

"No."

Miles sighed. "Then don't tell them, Allie. Your parents are great people, but medieval scholars having a daughter who's the reincarnation of King Arthur. They would go insane, and you'd be a freak. Even with your own parents. With Will it would be a phenomenon they would want to study. With you, they'd probably forget you're Allie and only treat you as Arthur. You don't want that."

Allie dropped the book and the phone, and hurriedly picked the phone back up. "Why do you always have to be right, Miles?"

He got defensive. "I just see things."

"I know you do, Miles," she flipped over onto her back and kicked her feet up towards the ceiling. "I'm just really confused right now. Everything's happening too fast."

"I know it is. I just barely found out I'm Merlin and now I have a girlfriend."

"Wow. How's that going?" Allie hadn't remembered. At the football game, Miles had finally gotten together with his long term crush. She felt like a horrible friend. Luckily, Miles didn't see it that way.

Miles laughed, almost sounding joyful, but considering it was Miles, Allie marked it off as a trick of the phone. "She's wonderful! Likes chemistry and math and school. She's absolutely perfect, Allie."

Allie laughed too, at the happiness in his voice, and the fact that it was Miles who was sounding so happy. People did change, she figured. "What's her name?"

"Oh, yeah," Miles obviously remembered that he had never told Allie a name, "Her name is Mareanne. Mareanne Langston. But Allie, I really have to go, it's ten. I'll talk to you later."

The sky was black and red, and looked sickly, the light hitting the ground in a way to make it seem like you were standing in a pool of blood.

Allie had no idea how she had gotten there.

It seemed like another world, but it wasn't. She was standing in front of the main doors of Avalon High.

The high school looked spun by shadows and pure evil, and Allie did not want to enter, but as the double doors opened to meet her, exposing the abyss-like hallways, she felt strangely compelled to enter.

And did so.

There were no lockers in this dark version of her high school, and no doors except the ones she had just entered, and the ones at the other end of the hallway. On either side, instead of classrooms, there was darkness, and holes where one might enter the neverending dark.

And yet, none of it worried the single girl walking through.

Allie felt no fear, in fact, she felt nothing, as she passed through the school, coming to a second set of doors that opened for her as the first ones had.

The entire football field was that same blood-like color. The running track, pure black. Even the normal blue bleachers were dulled and distorted into a brownish-grey.

She continued. Past the field, the track, the bleachers and the locker rooms. She knew where she was going now.

The student theater looked positively malevolent, with the strange lights and bloody props.

The same sword she had used against Mordred found its way into her hands. At least, she thought it was the same. The way this sword gleamed black as onyx with spilled blood was exactly the opposite of Excalibur.

She raised it, and suddenly, there was another with her.

The woman walked toward her. She was swathed in a frothy green dress that trailed behind her in water-like waves, her brown hair was also wavy and trailed behind her.

Allie raised the sword. The woman smiled slightly and lifted her hand, pressing it to the side of the sword.

It shined. In the darkened world, Excalibur shown silver and bright. But when the woman removed her hand the sword again gleamed dark.

"You dare to use the sword against it's mother?" The gentle grin, the chiding tone seemed so familiar to Allie. "You know me child, but not in this form." The woman chuckled as she answered Allie's thoughts. "I was the first lady of the lake. I stayed by your side through your first life, and I shall be with you throughout this world. I shall never leave you

"But all I know may be gone very soon.

"Dark days are coming, and all I know may not be enough, but my new form has an urge to protect you that is unlike anything I have felt before."

"Who are you?" Allie whispered.

Again, that slightly disappointed smile. "I am the mother of the blade, the Lady of Avalon, and your Protector."

Allie was still confused, but as she went to ask more, the lady held up one graceful finger to shush her.

"I do not have much time. Neither do you. If what I have seen comes to pass, you will be in grave danger. My form is in danger. And we. I. Am the only one standing between you and the gathering darkness."

Allie took a deep breath. Her surprise at becoming King Arthur was nothing compared to this.

"You must become King in your own right. I will stand beside you for all of time. And so will one other, but many more will you have to lead in the coming battle, and you must be their King. You must become who you are destined to be."

The rushed question escaped her lips before Allie had a chance to stop it. "What do you mean?"

"I cannot tell you." This said with a sympathetic smile. "Not now, and nowhere near everything. It is not allowed. All I can say is be warned. Please. Be careful." The woman drew Allie to her and kissed her forehead. Allie, for some reason felt extremely comforted. "I am so proud of you, Arthur. I know you will take care of me."

And she was gone.

Allie looked around. With the woman there, there had seemed to be a radiating silvery-blue light all around. Now, though, the entire room was black again, except for faintly silver footprints, now slowly fading.

As she turned to leave, she was assaulted by a large, black raven. It's wings beat against her head and shoulders, it's claws raking her shoulder and attacking her face, forcing her to the floor.

The world went black and a voice resounded around her.

When the King is betrayed

And the Protector pained,

Then shall the Witch take the throne,

And Darkness shall cover the Earth.

Monday morning, Allie could hardly remember the dream. In fact, she could not remember anything except the voice piercing through the darkness.

She didn't remember the woman at all.

Her mother drove her to school in silence, she still wasn't fully aware after finding out that Will was not King Arthur, and Allie was not going to get into that discussion again.

Yet, as they pulled into the school's parking lot, her mother spoke. "Your father says not to go kissing that boy again until we know him better. And definitely not if he's sick."

"Yes, Mom," she promised docilely, getting out with her backpack.

Will was waiting for her just inside the doors, but, as he leaned down to give her a kiss, she held up a hand to stop him.

"What's wrong?" he asked, hugging her instead, still with a bright grin on his face.

"My father doesn't want me kissing you."

"Well, fine!" And he swooped down, giving her a kiss on the cheek. "If he insists."

Allie grinned. Will's good humor was infectious. He led her down the hall, his arm through hers, to her locker.

Spotting Marco with some of his friends at the end of the hall, she raised an arm, waved and called out his name. "Marco!"

She knew he had heard her, because his head looked up and he focused on her for a moment, but then his face changed and she saw a momentary flash of longing and fear. Then he turned away and disappeared down a different hall.

Troubled, Allie turned to Will as they reached her locker. "Do you know what's wrong? He's acting strange."

"Don't worry," Will advised. "He's been like that ever since Saturday. I think he's confused, probably about you being Arthur. I don't think it's anything important."

Allie turned to her locker, still slightly troubled, but willing to accept Will's advice to just let it go.

She heard Miles before she saw him. As she went to close her locker door, she heard his frantic voice calling her name. Seconds later, she saw to actual boy himself, hurrying down the hallway, probably the quickest he had ever gone in the school.

"Allie," he said, stopping by her and waiting a few seconds so he could catch his breath. "Allie, Mr. Moore is still teaching!"

"What?" Will said disbelievingly. His arm tightened on Allie's waist, unconsciously pulling her closer. "That's not possible. He was arrested. He was sent to prison."

Miles grimaced. "He was arrested, yes, but he wasn't sent to prison," he told Will, "I went to get the book I left in there on Friday and there he was. Sitting at his desk. He yelled at me and I ran."

The boy looked absolutely terrified and he grabbed her shoulders. "Allie, you can't go. Not to his class. He'd try to kill you again."

She looked at her best friend, and her boyfriend. "Not with so many people around. He's not stupid. He couldn't try anything with the whole class there. As long as there are other people he won't try anything," she said decisively, knowing if she looked uncertain, there was no way that either would let her go.

Miles still did try to argue, but Will laid a hand on his shoulder. "Don't try to argue with her. She's got her mind set." He looked at her like she was crazy, but didn't try to stop her as she led the way to European History.

"I have reviewed the projects handed in to me last Wednesday." Mr. Moore's glare never left Allie as he paced around the room. She kept her head down, and slumped in her seat. The obvious hatred spitting out in his voice scared her more than she would ever admit.

"And I have decided that none are satisfactory."

Miles looked stunned. They had worked hard on that paper. Even Allie's parents had said that they had done a 'very good job.'

"If you do not want to fail in this class, you will do the make up project. I will assign different partners and there will be different topics."

Everyone's hand came up. This was a required course. If you failed it you would just have to repeat it the next year.

Mr. Moore looked pleased. "I will assign these new projects next Monday. For the next week, we will be reviewing basic Arthurian legends, since none of you seem to know anything." He smiled maniacally.

The class groaned. Review. Notes. Probably a very hard test. Allie exchanged looks with Miles and Will, both shrugged at her. Miles waved his lion pen at her. And she grinned.

Then she looked at Marco. He was staring at her, and there was something in his eyes, some kind of pain, or anger. Was he glaring at her? Was there a chance…

She quickly looked away, down at the paper on her desk. Dropping her pencil, she leaned down to pick it up and whispered to Miles. "Do you think Marco might really be evil? That he's just playing us?"

Miles looked at her worried eyes, as she straightened and looked at him through the corner of her eyes. She bit her bottom lip and looked completely vulnerable. As stealthily as he could, he shook his head.

Allie relaxed a little, but kept sneaking glances at Marco, and then looked at Miles for his reassurance.

When the bell finally rung, they stood quickly, but as Will reached Allie's side, Mr. Moore called their names.

Slowly, they walked up to his desk, Allie flanked by Will and Miles. All three stopped about a foot away from his desk.

"Do you think you'll get away with it?" Mr. Moore hissed at them, when he was sure no one else could hear. "Do you think there will be no others who will try to stop you?"

Allie unconsciously took a step back. Miles and Will stepped in closer to her; bodyguards.

"You are only a silly little girl. The world does not want you!" He snarled. "They do not want King Arthur and they definitely don't want a teenage girl who thinks she's better than anybody else."

Allie didn't try to defend herself, only shrank a little farther away. Her eyes were down, and she didn't intend on letting the European History teacher know he was frightening her.

Beside her, Miles bent and clutched his head. Though his visions came easier now, they still caused him great pain. Standing straight, he reached across Allie and grabbed Will's arm. "Come on, Will, we have to go now! Jen's getting hurt." And when Will looked worriedly at Allie, "Allie will be fine. You will be fine." He told her, and dragged Will out of the now almost empty classroom.

Mr. Moore turned to look at Allie, his eyes turning devilishly red as he glared. "No one will believe you. You have no one, except for those two, and they won't even stay here to protect you. And I won't stop. Not ever."

He lunged, grabbing her wrist and dragging her closer to him. Allie shrieked.

And Marco stepped out of the shadows and in turn grabbed the teachers arm.

"Let her go," he ordered, tightening his grip until Mr. Moore released Allie.

Their teacher glared, rubbing his wrist as Marco stepped in front of Allie, keeping him away from her. "Ah. The little bad boy turned rescuer. If this is all the protection you have, you will be gone in moments." And he laughed, a terrible, high pitched laugh.

Marco, if anything, grinned at Mordred. "I will always be there though," he said. "If you try to do anything to her, I will stop you. Always." He put an arm around Allie's shoulders and led her from the room.

As soon as they were in the crowded hallway, he dropped his arm, Allie looked at him, almost wanting to say something to her rescuer, but Marco didn't give her the chance. He inclined his head in a slight bow. Whispered, "My Queen," and kissed his middle knuckle before pressing his fist to his heart in a kind of salute.

Then he ran down the hallway, not giving her a chance to say anything.

Allie looked after him, more confused than ever. And whispered to herself words that she didn't know she knew. And she couldn't imagine where they had come from. "The mother of the blade, the Lord of Avalon, the Protector."

She wondered what the three things meant. And why she had said them while thinking of Marco.

Releasing her thoughts, at least concentrating on not thinking them, she hurried to her next class, content for the moment, to leave Marco in the shadows of her mind. She would figure him out later.