*Note: Sorry for the late update! I just felt like this chapter came out so hard for me and even with two hours on the bus each day I couldn't keep writing. I guess I just suck at action stuff. XDXD More character development (I hope) for Merlin but their backstories are still a secret. Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this overdue chapter and please leave a review or follow this story if you like it! Any support is very very appreciated!*
"Do all you wizards and witches have a manual of "How to find the weirdest clothing" tucked away in your little hut?" Arthur hissed as they hid behind a wide concrete pillar from a bombardment of spells cast by three wizards and a witch who had clearly, just come back from their exile to Hot Topic.
"First of all, there is no such manual. Second, we do not live in HUTS."
Ah, you know there is true love friendship when you're four very angry magical beings bent on killing you away from dying but you're still arguing about the fashion choices of your attackers.
Merlin managed to twist around and fired one paralyzing spell before a barrage of killing and maiming spells were blasted at where he had stuck his head out a second ago.
"Ok, that's not gonna work." Merlin said breathlessly eyeing the missing chunk of concrete apprehensively as he tried to calm his fleeing heart.
"I'll cover for you, and you do your spell and wand thing." Arthur flipped the safety off.
"3, 2, 1."
The sound of gunfire joined the incantations before Merlin quickly started shooting off spell after spell at their attackers.
Soon three of them had fallen unconscious to the ground, only one wizard remained standing trying to slink back from Merlin and Arthur's combined attacks.
"Expelliarmus!"
Arthur froze at the flash of the wand. He wanted to duck, to get out of the way and curse all the times he slept through his Latin classes but none of that happened as Arthur merely stood there paralyzed for a few seconds too long.
All of a sudden, what seemed to be a golden shield appeared and absorbed the spell before vanishing without a trace. If not for Merlin's stunned face and the wizard stopping his attacks, Arthur would've believed that that was only a figment of his imagination.
Merlin, who had seen the powerful spell in action was several paces ahead of the wizard and was therefore able to quickly disarm and bound the wizard up with a "incarcerous" before he could do anything else.
Merlin stepped up to the now bound wizard and revealed his face from under the heavy hood with one swift movement of his hand.
The wizard's face was haggard and lean, there was something strange about the way he held himself. Arthur had no idea what was off but something, something was not right.
Merlin took tiny pouch from his pocket and pulled out the knight's helmet worn by the girl under Arthur's incredulous gaze. The helmet landed on the dusty ground with a clunk.
"Now." Merlin's wand was pressed against the wizard's bobbing throat, his eyes steely and interrogating. "Speak."
"Try anything funny, and we'll see what happens."
Arthur hid his shock at Merlin's transformation. His usual witty and carefree attitude was long gone, all that was left in his eyes was a coolness that Arthur did not care to have directed at him.
The wizard merely laughed, he laughed until he wheezed and coughed. "Our lady has predicted everything… this time Emrys, this time you'll lose again, but not just this underserving mortal. Everything that you are and was will be lost. Without losing… you'll never bring about the golden age of Albion."
"Your lady, is she a seer? Why was this address carved onto the helmet?" Merlin pressed on clearly unimpressed with the wizard's cryptic blabbering.
"Our lady sees all, she sees what is, what was and what will be. Nothing that happens from now on will be a coincidence. Even the words I speak now has been long predicted. Now if you'll excuse me gentle men…"
The wizard was interrupted by his own hacking coughs. Both Merlin and Arthur's eyes widened slightly as blood started appearing on the ground.
"Oh my god, we can't let him die on us, he's our only source of information!" Arthur wanted to tear his hair out at the absurd amount of people being poisoned on this case.
Merlin had already whipped out a lumpy stone and was in the process of shoving it down the reluctant wizard's throat.
If the situation wasn't so serious Arthur would've laughed at Merlin's futile efforts. But he refrained from doing so because first of all, the situation was dire and second of all, Merlin looked like he was ready to rip the other wizard's mouth open.
It took another moment for Merlin to force his mouth open and quickly pop the bezoar in before closing his mouth and trying to make him swallow.
A death glare sent from Merlin urged Arthur to help even though he had no idea how to make the wizard who seemed pretty intent on dying to swallow whatever Merlin had just shoved down his throat.
"Stop standing like a useless toad and come help me make him swallow! Don't you know that first aid thing?"
"First aid is meant to save people!"
"Which is exactly what I'm trying to do!"
"Look, I'm sorry but I don't know what to do. I think it's best that we call an ambulance."
"He's poisoned with magic Arthur, your muggle medicine isn't gonna do a lot for him. We just need to get him to swallow the bezoar." Merlin was clamping the wizard's mouth shut while Arthur was trying to hold him in place.
*Chomp*
Merlin pulled his hands back with a hiss before the bound-up wizard coughed up a bloody blob along with the bezoar.
Then, he went limp in Arthur's grasp.
Arthur tried to feel for his breath first and then his pulse. Neither held any sign of life.
He shook his head solemnly at Merlin whose gaze fell to the floor. They looked around at the other wizards and witch who were taken down and had probably already died from the same poison that killed their once conscious colleague.
Merlin stood up, his hands balled and unballed as he tried to bottle up his anger, disappointment and frustration deep within himself. Now was not the time to let himself drown in these feelings.
"Merlin, I can see this case means a lot to you, as it does to me. This isn't our only string that can be followed." Arthur tried to console Merlin whose back was turned to him. The young man's back was hunched as if being crushed under the sheer feeling of disappointment.
There was a pause in the air before Merlin suddenly turned around and slammed his hat into the ground.
"Damnit Arthur! You don't understand! You'll never understand!"
Merlin's chest was rising and falling from the exertion of his outburst.
"None of my family's crazy, I-I'm not crazy… I'll prove them wrong! I'll prove them all wrong!…I have to..."
Silence settled between them once again before Arthur knelt and picked up Merlin's hat.
"As ridiculous as this hat is, I think it looks good on you. Let's keep it there." Arthur smiled briefly as he offered up the hat to Merlin who took it into his hands slowly and pressed it to his chest. His eyes were still pained but they no longer held a desperate and hopeless look to them.
"Whenever my father he left on a mission he would give the hat to me for safekeeping, it kept me hopeful of his return." Merlin smiled at the hat before sighing and securing the hat on his head again.
"Failure isn't something to fear, hopelessness is."
Merlin's back had straightened again, making him just a bit taller than Arthur.
"That's the spirit. Now, we search them, take back what we think could be evidence and crack this case." Arthur gave Merlin's shoulder a punch which just earned him a confused look from the other man.
"Ow! you do realize that cases, hell, life in general doesn't work like that."
"Yeah, but it's nice pretending." Arthur smiled shrugging.
Merlin gave Arthur an empathetic look before he started going around collecting all of their wands and putting them all in his tiny pouch.
Arthur was in the process of rummaging through the wizard's pockets before Merlin came up to him.
"There's no need Arthur, I've dealt with them before. They don't carry anything that can count as evidence except for their wands." Merlin said as Arthur stood up.
"Can you tell what spells they've used by the wand?"
"Yep, you can usually only tell for the last two to three days. The time period really depends on the wand, but I find that wands with unicorn core have the best memories which is unfortunate because I'm guessing that with the way they turned out, none of them had a wand with a unicorn hair core."
"I'll have to inquire about the wand cores at another time but look- their boots are all wet." Arthur pointed out to Merlin and sure enough, all of their boots were wet.
"Yeah, it was raining this morning." Merlin arched an eyebrow at Arthur who looked exasperated.
"Look, even though their boots were wet the rest of their clothing are dry, they don't have umbrellas, so they were probably indoors. If they were indoors—
"Their boots shouldn't be wet." Merlin looked to a pretty cocky Arthur as a thought suddenly dawned upon him.
"Arthur, I think I have an idea of their last destination."
"Just wait Merlin, I have something else to show you. a on my laptop, in the car."
So they started towards Arthur's little stead and quickly slid in As Arthur started pulling up the report on the blue van.
"Look, the van was reported missing three years ago and was actually found but never given back to the owner." Arthur pointed towards the screen as Merlin inched in closer to read.
"Why wasn't it given back?"
"The report doesn't say, everything about the car's extremely vague, it just reeks of government intervention."
Arthur quickly scrolled to the bottom of the report as if to prove to Merlin how short and vague it was.
"Wait, can you scroll up to the picture again?" Merlin's eyebrows furrowed as he saw something on the picture of the plate of the car.
Arthur complied, and a grin appeared on Merlin's face as he confirmed what he thought he had seen.
"Well, well, looks like we owe the Ministry a visit."