Hooray! Part 2 is done! It's a good deal longer than Part 1, so plenty to savor. I'd like to thank AsItThunders and Merlyn Pyndragon for beta-reading, as well as my friend, muzicdreamz, for being supportive. Thanks for being patient with me, and enjoy!


Part 2: The Wizard

Dave paced across the deck, head in his hands. His eyes darted from the tops of his Converse sneakers to the two guys still sprawled on the pavement. His brain was yelling at him (in a voice too much like Balthazar's for his liking) to check their pulses to see if they were even alive, but the main thought driving his actions, running through his brain and tumbling from his lips was, "What do I do? What do I do? What the HELL do I do?'" His head spun, and he felt for a moment he might join the other two on the ground until he heard –

"Urrrrrrgghh."

Dave's head snapped towards the bodies. The smaller one shifted his head. Dave immediately bolted over to him and bent down. The stranger had rather thick eyebrows and dark, curly hair. His smaller stature and hairless chin led Dave to think he was a few years younger than him, at least. Dave shook his shoulder a bit. "Kid? Hey, kid? You okay?"

.

The first thing Miles Ambrosi thought as his mind stirred to consciousness was, 'Why must I keep waking up like this? It's seriously getting old.' As if in response, his head throbbed in pain. Finding himself sprawled on the ground after another painful migraine was becoming a bit too typical these days. But, as Miles became aware of the cold and the hard surface (concrete? stone?) underneath him, he realized - the last thing he remembered was doing homework at the library.

So, what was he doing outside?

His eyes shot open, and he found himself staring at a stranger in a red sweatshirt leaning over him, whose terrified expression split into a nervous grin upon seeing Miles awaken. "You're not dead!" he gasped in relief. "Oh, thank God, that would have been really, really bad."

Miles blinked, unsure of how to respond. "Uh... yeah... it would be." He sat up, and the other guy responded by standing and taking a few steps back. Miles observed that he was lanky and half a foot taller, though probably not much older. He frowned. "What am I doing here?"

And the terrified expression was back. Dave wracked his brain. What was he supposed to say? "Ah... well," he began, "it's... you see... this isn't my fault!" Dave cursed in his head. Anything he could have said would have been better than that.

Miles raised an eyebrow. "I … never said it was. " He stood up, wiping down his blue-and-gray argyle v-neck. "I just want to know what I'm doing here. And for that matter," he said, glancing around at the narrow landing lit by large spotlights, "where is 'here?'"

Dave grimaced, then decided he could at least tell the boy that much. He took a steadying breath and plowed ahead. "The top of the Chrysler building."

Miles stared, then smirked and crossed his arms. "The Chrysler building? Yeah right, that's in New York City." He wasn't going to fall for any practical jokes, especially one so impossible.

Dave, whose back was to the railing, smiled, stepped to the side, and gestured towards the skyline. "Don't believe me? See for yourself."

Miles glanced to where he was gesturing. It took him a moment to realize what he was looking at, but then recognized why there were so many lights and silhouettes of buildings beyond the edge of the landing. He rushed towards the railing, staring out at the magnificent glowing streets and skyscrapers. Then, upon seeing the largest building not too far away, his jaw dropped. "That's... that's the Empire State Building."

Dave rolled his eyes. "Well, obviously."

"But that means... I'm really in New York City!" Miles was grinning now.

Dave nodded, standing beside him. "I told you. Cool, right?"

"Very cool!" Miles muttered, breathless. "I've never been to New York before. Man, it's awesome from up here."

Dave nodded. "Yeah, I know."

"You come up here often?"

"Well, it's becoming a habit. A... sort of friend introduced me to this view not too long ago, but I've discovered it helps me sort things out in my twisted brain." He chuckled at his own joke, then frowned, a cold dread creeping on him as he realized what his "friend" would think of the situation. "Wait, kid, where exactly do you come from?" 'And how am I supposed to get you back?'

Miles turned and glared at Dave. "'Kid?' Really?" he drawled in the bitter, haughty tone he always used in the face of those larger than him. "First of all, my name is Miles. Second, you call me a kid? You barely look older than me. You're, what, 17? 18?"

Dave rolled his eyes. "Actually, I'm 20. Not old enough to drink, I admit, but still legally an adult." Because of his bony stature and his late growth spurt, he'd often been taken as younger than he was, which was annoying. "You, on the other hand, can't be older than 15," he said, studying the shorter boy. Based on his gangly limbs and large hands the boy was definitely still smack in the middle of his awkward adolescence, his voice certainly deep (heck, deeper than Dave's), but probably prone to an embarrassing squeak every now and then. Except for the voice and the clothes (because this Miles boy dressed much more neatly and preppy than Dave ever did, always preferring sweatshirts and jeans), the boy reminded him of his younger self, right down to the dark, unruly hair, deep blue, inquisitive eyes, and fast-paced, awkward gait.

Miles folded his arms. "For your information, I turned 16 last week, so you're only 4 years older than me."

Dave snorted. "Well, I'm still legally an adult, and you aren't. Therefore, you're a kid. And you didn't answer my question."

He rolled his eyes. "Annapolis, okay? I'm from Annapolis." Then, a thought occurred to Miles. It was a bit far-fetched considering the man beside him. Not only did he seem to have even less muscles than Miles himself (and that was saying something), but he wanted to trust this college student for some reason. However, quite recently Miles had discovered that his amiable, dorky history teacher, someone who Miles thought he could relate to, was just the mask of a twisted, horrible human being that tried to kill him and his friends. If there was anything he'd learned in the past few weeks, it was that appearances could be deceiving, so despite how he felt he couldn't take chances. So, Miles fixed his gaze on the older man. "Now you have to answer my question." He stepped closer, drawing a hand to his right pants pocket. "How is it that the last thing I remember is doing my homework at a library in Maryland, and I wake up on top of a skyscraper in New York?"

Dave guffawed, giving Miles an expression that almost made him laugh. "No! No, no, no, no, I know what you're thinking, but I had nothing to do with this! I really don't know what happened, I was just standing up here, minding my own business, and then this stupid ring started going berserk, and then – "

Miles's thick eyebrows shot up. "Your ring?" His eyes darted to the rather large, striking dragon ring on the college student's bony finger.

Dave winced. "I really shouldn't have said that. Uh, I'm talking nonsense, forget I said anything. Can we please just agree that this isn't my fault?"

Miles didn't hear a word Dave said, instead studying the ring. He could have sworn he'd seen one like it before, even though he could tell this was a very unique object. And perhaps he was crazy, but the ring seemed to be studying him as well, its emerald winking in the light. Miles put a hand to his temple as a familiar ringing headache surged in his skull. "Uh, what did you say your name was?" Miles said, trying to force his attention away from the ring.

"Er, I didn't," the older boy said, relieved that the high-schooler wasn't questioning his sanity or his motives. He stepped towards Miles, holding out his hand. "Dave Stutler."

Miles glanced at the hand, the dragon ring perched comfortably on the pointer finger, then back up at Dave. Again, he liked and wanted to trust Dave. And trust wasn't something that came easily for him. In fact, the only other person he'd felt this kind of friendly attraction to was a girl named Allie. He had only met her a month ago, but somehow she quickly took her place in his life as the best friend he never really had.

He had been startled by this feeling when he'd first met Allie, that day in Mr. Moore's class when she was seated next to him and introduced herself. He tended to keep a solid barrier of snark and intellectual condensation between himself and his peers because, aside from the fact that nerds like him were on the lowest rung of the high school social ladder, he felt no one could ever understand and accept him completely. So, why would the perky, blonde new girl who seemed destined to be one of the popular kids interest him this way? He tried to ignore it, but Miles was drawn to Allie, and couldn't help wanting to help her. It wasn't a crush by any means. Miles considered her the Harry Potter to his Hermione Granger rather than the Ron Weasley (And yes he was comparing himself to a female character, but screw gender roles). Hermione, despite her disapproval of Harry breaking the rules at the beginning of their first year, couldn't help getting drawn into his conversations and conflicts time and again, until they, with Ron, finally bonded over defeating the troll and became friends for life. There was no romance between them, despite what Ron, Rita Skeeter, and crazy shippers may have thought, but they were nonetheless connected. That was just how Miles felt about Allie, and though he had been reluctant to let her in, he was now so glad he had. If connecting to Allie turned out to be so good, maybe following this same instinct and connecting to Dave would turn out the same.

With this in mind, he finally smiled at Dave, and replied, "Miles Ambrosi." They clasped hands. Behind them, the young man still unconscious on the ground shifted slightly as the ring on Dave's finger grew warm and glowed upon touching Miles' skin.

.

"Woah!" Miles gasped.

"Gah!" Dave cried, trying to cover the ring with his other hand. 'Is this thing trying to kill me?' Both boys quickly drew back. Dave's eyes flickered from the ring, which was losing its unnatural glow, to Miles's shocked expression, his stomach sinking. Times like this he wished Balthazar had taught him how to do Jedi mind tricks rather than plasma bolts. "I – I, uh," Dave stuttered, then forced a smile and lied, "It, uh, runs on batteries! Cool, huh?" 'Please fall for it. Please fall for it. Please fall for it.'

Miles snorted. "Cool? Yes. Batteries? Doubtful. Come on, even I can lie better than that, and I'm really bad." This, he thought, was partially why he kept people at such a distance – with a secret like his, he couldn't afford slipping up, which he knew was all too easy to do. Case in point, Allie had figured out within mere days of them knowing each other. Lucky for him, he could trust Allie.

Dave cursed in his head. "Okay, this... this really isn't what it looks like – "

"The ring is magic," Miles said. It wasn't a question – he knew.

Dave sagged, smacking a hand to his forehead. This was bad, very bad. Balthazar had told him point blank that civilians couldn't find out about magic. But he couldn't see a way out of this (again, Jedi mind tricks would be useful right now). He sighed. "I... yeah. Yeah, the ring is magic. It brought you here. It just kind of happened, I – I don't know why."

Miles nodded. Not only did the glowing practically scream "Magic!", but he could feel the ring's energy, like pinpricks of heat running over his hand, before he'd seen the glow. "Okay, so, is it just the ring that's magic, or are you a …?" He wasn't sure which term to use, there were so many nearly interchangeable titles used throughout the centuries.

Dave pinched his eyes shut "I'm a..." He stopped, taking another breath. This was actually the first time he'd had to tell someone what he was. Balthazar had already known, and the Morganians had figured it out. Actually saying the words out loud was... hard. It made everything that had happened a lot more real. But, the kid knew this much, he might as well tell all. "Well … I'm a sorcerer." He paused, then thought he should add, "Or at least, I was learning to be one."

"That … is awesome."

Dave opened his eyes, surprised by this response, and saw Miles was grinning from ear to ear. "You... you're okay with all this? You're not freaking out that magic is real or something?"

Miles shook his head. "No, I'm good with that part."

"And you won't go telling people?"

"No, of course not."

Dave shook his head. "But... but... why? How are you okay with this? I'm not even okay with this, and I'm the one with the magic!" He sighed. "And even if you are okay with this, normal people aren't supposed to know, so I'm screwed either way."

Miles smirked. "Who said I was normal?"

Dave stared at Miles, mouth slightly ajar. "... Huh?"

Miles reached into his right pants pocket and pulled something out, then held his closed fist out to Dave. "I may not have a fancy ring, but this has been just as useful." He opened his hand, revealing a pen with a blue crystal on the end.

Dave raised an eyebrow. "That... is a pen."

Miles grinned. "That's what you think." He closed his eyes, held the pen out besides him, then opened his hand. A flurry of gold sparks sizzled around the pen, and before Dave could blink, it turned into a tall staff.

.

The young man on the ground stirred.

.

Dave gaped at the staff, and then at Miles. "You have – but that means – " Dave's open mouth turned upwards into a smile, and he pointed ecstatically at Miles. "You're a sorcerer! Like me!"

Miles shrugged. "Well, I call myself a wizard, but magic is magic, right?"

Dave gave two thumbs up. "Definitely! And you aren't insane! That's a plus." Dave frowned and his eyes narrowed towards Miles. "At least, you don't seem insane. You aren't trying to kill me, are you?"

"No."

"Good. Had to make sure." He held up his hands defensively. "Nothing personal, man. It's just that every sorcerer I've met has tried to kill me in some way." 'Even the one who says he's 'helping' me,' he thought. 'Though how throwing white hot balls of magical energy is "helpful" is beyond me.'

Miles sighed. "I know the feeling. The only other sorcerer I've met was my history teacher. One day he was all smiles and 'history is awesome!' Then that night he blasted me into a wall." The honors student crossed his arms and grumbled, "And I thought I was his favorite student."

Dave winced. "Ouch. That sucks. Is he still your teacher?"

Miles smiled. "No. After we stopped his evil plan, he was, quote-on-quote 'given a leave of absence' for claiming a student attacked him with a sword." He shrugged. "The ironic thing is, that was the one thing he wasn't crazy about."

Dave looked surprised. "You attacked him with a sword?"

Miles rolled his eyes. "Do I look like the sword-and-shield type? No, that was my friend, Allie. She totally owned Mr. Moore. I just helped even the playing field with this baby," he said as he stroked the staff.

Suddenly, a groan bubbled from behind them. The sorcerers turned to see the third man, still unconscious, stirring slightly. Dave scowled. "Aw crud. I forgot about him." Today just wasn't his day. Dave walked over and bent down to shake his shoulder. "Hey, man, you up? You okay?" The man laid still. Dave shook his head. "Nothing. Geez, what are we gonna do with him? He's been out a while, I feel like we should lay him down somewhere, get him indoors." After a moment of silence, Dave turned his head back towards the other boy. "Miles?"

A shudder went up the high-schooler's spine as he stared at the prone figure on the ground. He felt disturbed, shocked to his core. All his senses were screaming that this was wrong, that this man should not be here, that he couldn't exist. Miles shook his head. Why did he feel this way? It wasn't as if he knew the man. Yet there was something familiar about him – the high cheekbones, the large ears similar to Miles' own, except they stuck out significantly from the cropped dark hair, the red neckerchief...

.

Suddenly, the world seemed to shift around him. He saw himself kneeling by a lake, seeing his face's reflection in the smooth surface of the water... until the water rippled, swirling and distorting the image. When it resettled, the reflection showed not Miles's face, but the stranger's, the eyes open to reveal a bright, piercing blue, a few shades lighter than Miles's own. The reflection smirked, before his eyes glowed molten gold...

.

"Dude!"

Miles shook his head as the real world came back into focus, only to find Dave staring at him.

"What happened?" Dave asked.

"Um... sorry," Miles muttered, blushing, "That happens a lot. I, uh, think deeply." He knew it wasn't the best excuse, but it was the best he could come up with, his mind reeling over what he'd just seen. That vision, if it was that, wasn't normal... even for him. However, he decided to worry about it later. "What were you saying before?"

Dave frowned – Miles wasn't kidding about the lying thing. But Dave felt no need to push the issue, so he simply repeated, "I want to move this guy somewhere, lay him up on a bed or a couch. But I really don't want to call an ambulance, 'cause there'll be too many questions. And we certainly can't carry him, 'cause that would look, well, kind of weird."

Miles nodded, "Yeah, that's an understatement." Miles looked back to the strange figure. "Y'know... it sounds strange, but I feel like I know him, or at least I recognize his face from somewhere."

Dave frowned. "Huh." Dave kneeled down to get a closer look at the guy. "Actually, I feel like I've seen him before too. He looks a little like..." Dave shook his head. The high cheekbones and long, straight nose reminded him a bit of an illustration in Balthazar's books, but he couldn't think of who it was supposed to be. Dave shrugged and stood up again. "Well, we can't think about it now. We've got to move this guy."

Miles quirked an eyebrow. "We? I'm still one of the victims here."

Dave's eyebrows leapt up in horror. "Dude! C'mon, I told you this was an accident!"

The high-schooler smirked. "I was kidding. Look, can you apparate?"

"Can I what?"

Miles gave the college student a bemused smile. "Apparition? Y'know, what they call teleporting in Harry Potter?"

Dave crossed his arms and shrugged. "Oh. Guess I never read that far."

"You must've at least seen the films, though." When Dave responded with a shake of his head, Miles couldn't help but exclaim in surprise, "Seriously?" Because maybe Harry Potter wasn't the same kind of magic he or Dave did (look, Ma, no wands), but it was still about growing up with magic, feeling different from everyone else. If anyone could relate to that series, he figured someone like Dave, who was so much like himself, would be just the guy.

Dave crossed his arms, curtly explaining, "Look, I tried the first two, a long time ago before the first film came out. Kind of lost interest soon after, never really got into it. It's really not a big deal."

Miles was going to give a quip about how he was missing out on the most amazing series ever, but he noticed a haunted look cross Dave's face and stopped. Though he was confused by this reaction, he decided now was not the time to ask, and instead rephrased his former question as to whether the older spellcaster could use magic to take them somewhere else.

Dave shook his head. "I've seen it done, but I don't know how to do it myself. What about you?"

Miles bit his lip. "I don't think so, but I've never actually tried. My magic tends to act on instinct. Sometimes the magic words will come to me, sometimes my magic will react without words, and sometimes nothing happens at all. " 'Not to mention I've only known I could cast spells for a few weeks,' he thought, though he didn't want to embarrass himself by revealing that.

"I know the feeling," Dave grumbled. "So basically, we're a couple of amateur sorcerers stuck at the top of the Chrysler Building and neither of us is competent enough to do anything."

"Pretty much," Miles said, showing his mastery of the art of deadpan. He continued, more thoughtfully, "Maybe if we combined our powers?"

Dave snorted. "What are we, the Wonder Twins?"

Miles' eyes glinted at the taller boy underneath his thick brows. "Do you have any better ideas?"

Dave shrugged, surprised at how intimidating the kid could be. "Fine." Then he realized, snapping his fingers, "Why don't we aim for my apartment? My roommate won't be back for a few hours since he has a date tonight."

"Sounds like a plan," he agreed, nodding. "Now, how do we do this?"

.

After a few minutes of brainstorming off each other, they decided to each crouch down on one side of the stranger, before Miles would touch his staff to Dave's ring, concentrating the magic through that to teleport them to Dave's apartment. The boys got into position, then Dave said, "Okay. I think we're good. Now, I'll focus on my apartment, you try to come up with an incantation."

"Right," Miles said, "If I can't, I'll just feed my powers into you through the staff. On three, we bring them together. One..."

Dave closed his eyes, focusing on his mental reconstruction of his apartment room.

"Two..."

Both pleaded they wouldn't get blown up.

"Three!"

Dave stretched his hand towards Miles, who clutched the ancient wooden staff tightly as he tilted it towards Dave's ring. Just like when the ring touched Miles's hand earlier, the ring's jewel glowed bright green, while the large gem on the staff radiated an electric blue aura, sending shocks of energy down the arms of their wielders. But before the two sorcerers could focus this energy towards their goal, they felt the man below them shudder violently. A millisecond later, Miles trembled as well. An incantation rose to his mind, but before he could utter it, another voice, low and reverent as if in prayer, spoke them aloud:

"Ásetaþ."

Miles and Dave's eyes shot open, staring in surprise at each other before looking down at the stranger. His eyes were still closed, but there was no doubt he had chanted the spell, his brow creased in effort. Before either could marvel at this, or wonder if he was conscious, cold, spidery fingers grasped both their outstretched arms. "Ásetaþ!" the stranger chanted again, with more volume, his hands suddenly very warm on Miles and Dave's skin, his glassy eyes half open to reveal glowing gold irises.

"Woah!" Dave cried as the already bright auras of the staff and ring increased to a blinding light. He wanted to pull back, but his body felt frozen, fiery magic more intense than any amount he'd practiced with pumping through his veins and spilling out through the ring. He blinked his eyes rapidly, uncomfortable both from light of the ring and from the strange prickling sensation starting behind his eyes. His thoughts and emotions were torn between horror and absolute elation. He didn't want to like this sensation... but he did.

Miles felt similarly, except that the force of magic now rushing through him felt more raw, more ancient, more vast. He'd tapped into his magic before, of course, but right now it felt like it was embracing him after a long absence, filling him whole. He gasped as his eyes burned.

The air shifted, and Miles and Dave, having experience the lightheaded, gut-wrenching sensation before, braced themselves as the world around them disappeared...


Sooo? What'd you think? Who is this powerful stranger? Why do Miles and Dave find him familiar? What's with that coincidence of Dave's ring summoning two people who also have magic? And did the spell work, or will they end up somewhere entirely different? We shall see! Until then, some ending notes:

1. I will be changing aspects of Dave and Miles' backstories to fit with the Merlin universe and with how I see the characters. For example, though the actors who played Dave and Miles in their respective films have brown eyes, their characters are noted to have dark blue eyes in this chapter. Additionally, I changed the appearance of Miles' staff from the film (see comment 5). These are artistic decisions, so if you see similar continuity discrepancies these are conscious changes.

2. Ásetaþ (pronounced ah-say-tahth, according to some sites) = to transport

3. Did anyone notice the Percy Jackson film shout out? ;)

4. The original Avalon High novel takes place in Annapolis, Maryland. I don't know if that's the case for the film, but they never offered another name so I stuck with the novel's setting.

5. Miles's last name is completely original for the story, since he is the only character who didn't exist in the original book and thus was never given a last name. Connected to this, I changed the description of Miles' staff from the original film because it was just too perfect to pass up making a certain connection. See if you can guess what's going on.

6. Yes, I will be mercilessly referencing Harry Potter a lot in this story. After all, I feel works like Sorcerer's Apprentice and Merlin may not have come to be if Harry Potter didn't exist, and I can see Miles being a huge Potterhead. Apologies if I spoil anything, but I'll try to avoid it.

And that is that, until next time. Please comment or PM! A review is always appreciated :)

~*Astraea*