Disclaimer: Merlin's not mine.

Thanks for all who reviewed! This is the last chapter of what I call of pure "finale recovery." After this I'm going to get more into current plot, so if it feels a little slow, I promise it'll pick up soon. By the way you guys, everything I write is unbeta-ed so sorry about spelling and grammar issues! Here 'tis.

The Afterfall

"My lady—"

By this point, Guinevere had learned how not to sigh or groan aloud whenever a subject addressed and all she wanted was to sleep. She stopped walking and closed her eyes for a moment instead. "Leon."

His voice sounded strained and urgent. "M—May I speak with you?"

Guinevere forced her eyes open and she whirled around to face him, only to find she had never seen him look more frazzled, confused, terrified, and…actually, she wasn't sure she'd ever seen so much emotion from Leon, not since he was a boy and Elyan stole his favorite doll horse. "Go right ahead," she replied, trying not to stare at his curls, normally so neat and clean, now almost standing on end.

"Somewhere else, my lady—" his eyes darted around him and his hand was hovering over his sword. Gwen realized she couldn't blame him for the fear, but it looked ridiculous on him. Without a word, she headed for the corridor outside her chamber. Leon followed her, but looked stunned when she stopped and didn't open the door.

"Will this do, Leon?" she asked tonelessly.

"I—" he stuttered, "…my lady, he's a sorcerer."

"I know, Leon."

"How long?" seemed to be the only question he could get out.

Gwen shrugged, feeling un-queenly and not particularly minding. "He won us Camlann, that's when I learned of it."

Leon blinked. "The old man on the mountain—"

"Is Merlin," Gwen interrupted, mind suddenly flashing back to the past, to every other moment she'd ever seen that old man before in her life. Pretended to enchant me. Killed Uther. "Has always been Merlin," she trailed off. Merlin, what have you been doing all this time?

"What…" Leon stopped and inhaled before he spoke again, and Gwen caught sight of his hand shaking, "—what are we to do with him?"

She locked her gaze to his and watched him squirm. "If you have any suggestions, Sir Leon, I'm perfectly open to them."

All he did was gape at her, wordless.

Guinevere nodded. "I see," she said slowly. "Well, until a suitable answer can be thought up, let alone agreed on, there is nothing more to be discussed tonight. Sleep well, Sir Leon."

"The law is the law, my lady," he finally said before she could turn on her heel.

"Yes, well," Gwen said to the floor, unable to look back up at him without feeling the urge to scream, "—the law was Arthur's law, wasn't it?" she asked before she could stop herself.

Silence for a moment. So many silences. "It was," he finally said.

"And I," she heard how her own voice shook, "—am not him," and she almost choked on that last word.

"My lady, I…" Guinevere bit the inside of her mouth and forced herself to look back up at Leon, meeting his eyes, "I never thought you should be."

She blinked at what she saw. Leon had always been a friend to her, but she remembered how strong the pull of duty grew on him, and how it made him like iron—difficult to bend any other way. Now, though…his eyes were wide and his chin was unsure as a child's. A flush spread across his face.

Without warning, another memory, this one splintered and dark, passed through her mind. Morgana.

It was a sensation Gwen was familiar with by now. Morgana's spell left her with amnesia for the first few days, but slowly all had been returning in sharp, stinging fragments. Now she saw glimpses of Leon before her, telling her she could rule, telling her he'd support her if Arthur were to fall. He believed she could do this. His eyes when he said that looked so certain and full…

The image went black in her mind and Guinevere blinked once again. "I need to sleep," she breathed, suddenly feeling as though she could collapse. "Leon, I need time. Will—" she began before she realized she had no right to ask him for anything.

Leon, though, nodded as if she had. "Yes, my lady." He hesitated before speaking again. "Shall I post guards outside his door?"

"Hah," the shout escaped her throat before she could stop it. Leon looked quite affronted, which only made Guinevere want to laugh more. "Whatever for?"

Leon, for the first time, looked angry. "He's dangerous, Gwen."

She felt oddly better now that he dropped the 'my lady's. "He always has been," Guinevere responded, feeling a twist tug her lips. "Do as you will. Don't expect it to make a difference."

"How have you met her before?" Merlin's voice was intent and his perfect eyes were almost bulging out from his head. They were so blue, such a dark blue…Gwaine tried not to get too distracted.

He looked down and shrugged. "Remember that time I wandered off while we were stopped at that pub halfway to Camelot?"

Merlin raised an eyebrow. "The time you got so drunk you didn't find your way back to the inn until the next morning?"

"Well, maybe we shouldn't act like that's an incident specific to one time," Gwaine couldn't resist, and it was worth it to see Merlin's eyes spark and something almost like a grin pass over his ghost-pale face, "…but this was when I wound up falling asleep by a lake." He stopped himself from saying Not just any lake, it was the most gorgeous place I ever saw. Merlin already knew that.

"And you saw her?" Merlin whispered, leaning forward, with still absurdly wide eyes. "You saw Freya?"

He twitched away from that stare again. The closest expression Gwaine had ever seen on Merlin was the one he wore when he looked at Arthur. And, as if Gwaine were not disturbed enough by this, there was also the fact that Arthur was dead. "I saw Freya," he confirmed. Thinking about Arthur still hurt too much, even without thinking about Merlin.

"What did she tell you then?" Merlin pressed on.

She told that you were special and she told me that Arthur killed her. "She told me you couldn't face Morgana alone," Gwaine said. "She told me to look out for you and protect you. Which was bloody unnecessary, really, I would have done those things anyway."

Merlin tensed and darted his eyes to the side. Gwaine hadn't meant to say that last part. "And this time?" Merlin asked softly. "What did she say when she saved you?"

Gwaine paused the tiniest moment before he answered. "What do fairy ex-lovers usually say when they save a knight?" he asked, smiling his old rake smile as best he could. Camelot needs me. Merlin, you need me. "She said I still have more to do here."

Suddenly, the door burst open and Merlin leapt from his seat. The sound seemed to snap something inside of him, because all his returning color drained from his face within a second. Gwaine frowned at it—the ones at the door were just Percival and Leon, looking no taller than they usually did, but Merlin was scared. He was frozen.

"You're awake," Percival finally said to him, smiling wide.

He escaped Morgana. Seeing that made Gwaine smile back and feel a bit lighter. "Believe it or not, I noticed that," he replied quickly. Banter. Ahh, he missed the banter. It had stopped a week before Camlann.

"We're glad, Gwaine," Leon interrupted with a warm grin before the banter could erupt into full-scale.

Gwaine nodded. "So am I," he said, but that was when he realized something seemed off. Why hadn't they tackled him yet? Why were they still standing in the doorway? Then he saw it—saw Leon's eyes dart to Merlin who swallowed and looked away.

"I'll be back later, Gwaine," he said, almost in a whisper and barely glancing at him. Gwaine didn't even have time to say goodbye before Merlin passed Percival and Leon, both of whom almost jumped out of his way, and shut the door behind him.

"What the hell was that?" Gwaine raised his brows at his friends as they walked towards him. They could tackle him and tell him how glad they were that he wasn't dead after they explained themselves.

Leon's mouth was clenched and he didn't speak. Percival, looking extremely out of his depth, cleared his throat. "Err, well. You know that old sorcerer that probably killed Uther and saved us at Camlann?"

"…Yes?"

"Well. Um. Merlin's that sorcerer."

"…Oh," Gwaine blinked twice, then shrugged. "That explains a few things."

He didn't know a name for the look on Leon's face.

Hey guys. Um, so I've got 31 followers for this story, and I'm starting to feel a little stalked. If you could review and say why you like this (or why you don't like it but are reading it anyway), that would make me suuuuper happy :D