A/N: sorry for the long update on this chapter. I've been working on like four different stories right now and its somewhat hard to juggle all of them. Ya I figured it was bad to start them when I don't have the time to finish them but it really can't be helped. :( anyway I wanted to take this time to respond to the people that reviewed my last chapter, btw I love you guys.

doctor-emily001: You know I actually added the whole harry potter flashback after I read your review so thank you for that. On the Doctor Who note, I totally guessed that River and the Doctor were together and your right I LOVED rose with ten/nine mostly ten because they were like made for each other and she was my favorite companion…besides Donna. It is going to be torture waiting till September but I can't wait. "Let's Kill Hitler" But anyway, it's cool reading Doctor Who fanfics but just remember to read mine I loved Vampire Knight, Yuki and Zero, like I would marry him. Thanks for your review.

Seillean: You know I hadn't realized that until you said it bit ur right… Oh well, I think it would be weird if I went and changed it now but thanks for ur review. Hope you like this next chapter.

Elin Marc: I would just like to say that I love you. Really, I do 3 -look there's a heart and everything

Choralreif: Thank you and on the Morgana thing it will be made pretty clear in this chapter.

The next morning came a little too soon for Morgana's liking. This was the final match of the cup and after it was over, Merlin would go back to Ireland. As the sunlight peaked through the curtains she squinted at its brightness.

"Really Morgana, you really should be better about getting up on time" Gwen called from the end of her bed.

She looked up at her friend for a moment and then slumped back down onto her pillow, "Gwen, I don't need to get up on time, everyone will just have to wait for me."

"Spoken like a true princess, come on get up! You don't want to miss Merlin's last match do you?" Gwen cooed.

Morgana's eyes shot open and she practically jumped out of bed causing Gwen to jump back in surprise.

"Wow Morgana, I've never seen you this excited before" she mused with a knowing look. Considering that the majority of guys that her friend dated were either disposable or jerks, it was rather surprising that she would be interested in a guy like Merlin.

"I...like football" the blush that was rising to her cheeks as she walked into her closet did not go unnoticed by her friend.

"Really..."

"Yes really, now help me pick out what to wear. There's my green BCBG dress and J. Crew top with leggings and that other dress that I got at the spring fashion show and then what about shoes oh and should I wear a sweater, do you think he'll like a sweater?-"

"Morgana!" Gwen yelled trying to stop her friends nervous ranting, "I'm sure whatever you wear he will like just the same. Just, don't wear anything too...distracting, he still has to focus on the game you know." She winked knowing how Morgana was with men she liked. "Now come on, choose something quickly, the match is in three hours."

Later that day Arthur met Merlin in the locker room for some...male bonding.

"I will beat you this time you know, last time was just a fluke" Arthur gloated over his mate/rival. In their last match Merlin had scored the winning goal with twenty seconds left in the game. Arthur had been furious and swore that it would never happen again. He got his competitive nature from his father.

Merlin just rolled his eyes "Whatever you say Arthur" as he put on his uniform with the Irish crest imprinted over his heart.

Arthur and everyone else had already changed and were running a few drills before Merlin had gotten there. The Irish prince had been late because of a discussion he needed to have with his uncle, confirming his suspicions. From what Gaius had told him, no one else knew. But that was most likely going to change very soon. Especially with everything that has been going on recently. The truth is bound to come out sooner or later, and he needed to do something before that happened.

*beep* beep* Merlin's mobile got a text and Morgana appeared of the screen.

Hey, Good Luck today. Don't tell Arthur this, but I'm cheering for you ;)-morgana

Merlin smiled and typed in a response:

Thanks, I'll see you after the match-merlin

He then put it away before getting on the rest of his gear.

The blond prince eyed his reaction to his sister's text "So… you've been spending a lot of time with my sister lately" Arthur said casually with just a smidge of a threatening tone in his voice.

"Ugh, not you too" Merlin shook his head. Why did everyone want to know about his relationship with her, they were friends...sort of. Why did everyone have to make such a big deal about it? "Look Arthur we're friends, that's it."

"Really?" he gave him a disbelieving look with the raised eyebrow and everything. It was clear he was not convinced.

"Really"

Arthur let out a big breath "Well, don't tell her that"

"What do you mean?"

"Merlin, I know my sister. And the way she's been eyeing you..."

"What?"

Putting his hand on the other man's shoulder "Let's just say that it won't be long before she does more than just looking..."

Merlin's eyes widened "Do you really thing she likes me?" He wasn't really sure about Morgana's feelings for him. Yeah she had been flirting with him a lot and they do talk ever ten minutes but he had met a billion other girls who did the same thing, and all they wanted was to use him for his title. But if she really liked him then...

"Yes she likes you. Although I have to admit I'm a bit surprised. She's never gone for a guy like you."

Now it was Merlin's turn to raise an eyebrow "A guy like me?"

"Well yeah, you know" Arthur was gesturing at air, trying to convey what he meant without it sounding bad but let's face it, he is Arthur. "A guy with more...brains then brawn."

"Hmm and who beat who last time?"

Arthur let out an exasperated breath and rolled his eyes, "What I mean is, I'm glad she's going out with you and not another boneless wanker,"

Merlin laughed and gave a small smirk, "Yeah, I heard about her last boyfriend, he was a real tosser"

"He was, and I was about ready to clobber him, but Morgana said that it wouldn't look good if the Crown Prince went around hitting people,"

The Irish prince tilted his head in consideration "That is very true, but I would've done it anyway,"

The two men laughed and began to head out to the pitch, "Oh and we're not going out" Merlin called after Arthur.

"Sure you're not."

The stadium was packed. Irish fans covered half the audience holding up the green, white, and orange of the nation's flag. The other half was filled with English fans, the famous red and blue smearing their bodies. It was going to be a hell of a game. At least three different stations were covering this match, and news crews were strategically placed all around the pitch.

The Irish and English royal families (with some exceptions) were in the royal boxes that looked out over the field. The match was about to begin, and Morgana was staring down at her brother and Merlin coming to the middle of the field to see who would start.

She saw Merlin and Arthur turn their heads to look at them and Morgana and Gwen both waved back at their respective footballer. I'll let you guys guess who's was to who. After that slight interruption the boys turned back to each other with knowing looks before the ref flipped the coin. Arthur called heads so it was his ball. The two then shook.

"Don't hit your face too hard when you trip" Arthur teased

"You either, don't want you crying on me" Merlin retorted. Arthur scowled at his insinuation. Apparently Morgana decided to tell him all of his embarrassing moments of childhood, and the sod had been on him about them non-stop since. Those two had really been spending way too much time together.

The timer buzzed and the match began.

Morgana had never been so nervous about anything in her entire life, and that was saying something. She was clenching Gwen's hand, who was as anxious as herself (only for a different person). The first half had gone by pretty quickly and the score was tied at zero. The two teams were in the locker rooms and halftime was around fifteen minutes so Morgana had decided to take this time to pay Merlin a little visit.

He had sent her a text to meet him, and after sneaking out of the box and away from the camera crews, Morgana went to meet Merlin in one of the various alcoves on the underside of the stands. She had texted she was there and was waiting for him in the shadows like every good little stalker.

"Morgana? Morgana?" he whisper-yelled so hopefully no one would notice them. It would probably be bad if any of the various news people that were covering this match found the English captains sister talking to the opposing teams' captain in a dark alcove during halftime.

Suddenly, a hand came out of nowhere and pulled him into one of the alcoves he was passing.

"Hello" Morgana's voice teased in his ear as the Princess stood in front of him, still holding on to his arm and looking up at him through emerald green eyes.

Merlin let out a breath, "Morgana, you could've given me a heart attack," he chided putting a hand on his chest to steady his breathing.

"I'm sorry" her smile was captivating and he found himself smiling too. "Didn't mean to scare you, how are you doing?"

"Fine, you're brothers pretty tough though."

"Aw you can beat him."

Biting her lip Morgana looked him up and down. His jersey was sticking to him like glue and she could now clearly see how muscular he really was. And for this moment she had never liked football more then she had right now.

Noticing this, Merlin coughed awkwardly to gain her attention. He had to ask her. It was really the only reason he asked to meet her, other than the obvious. And it was far too important to wait.

"Hey, Morgana?" he began, choosing his word very carefully. This was a delicate topic and if he said this wrong, he could, not only loose her forever, but be back at war with England. Even though that was highly unlikely, but he was not willing to take that chance.

"Yeah?" she cocked her head in a rather adorable manner that momentarily made him forget what he wanted to say.

After a moment of composing himself, "So yesterday, when you were telling me about you're…accomplishments," He paused so she would hopefully follow where this was going.

"Yeah" she nodded her head, urging him to continue now noticing the seriousness on his face.

Sighing, "Well all those…abilities, it got me thinking, and I was just wondering if anything had…happened to you, recently, or-or growing up?"

"Happened to me" she repeated slowly, not really understanding what he was talking about.

"Yeah" he looked around trying to find some way to explain this, and it's not like he could just come right out and say it. God, why did she have to be the English Princess? Why couldn't she just be a waitress like everyone else?

"Like, has anything ever…happened to you, like things that you couldn't understand or, or couldn't explain?"

She looked at him incredulously still not following along, finally fed up with his delicate manner she said "Merlin, why don't you just say what you're trying to ask me?"

Oh screw it, it's not like he hasn't embarrassed himself enough already. Letting out and annoyed grunt he decided that the best thing to do was to just dive right in to it. And hey what's the worst that could happen? Wow, that was a stupid question.

With his eyes never leaving hers he bluntly asked "Alright, have you ever had nightmares, ones that miraculously come true?"

Her widened eyes and scared expression were confirmation enough but he still wanted to give her a chance to answer. This was kind of huge because she had obviously not told anyone about this before. And if he was the first one to find out, then the others were most likely to follow.

A minute had gone by and she still hadn't said anything but just as she was opening her mouth to say something the buzzer rang, indicating halftime was over. He could hear his teammates down the hall cheering and he knew he would have to rejoin them, but he just didn't want to leave her like this.

Then her grip on his arm tightened as she whispered into his ear "Don't tell anyone,"

Even though her voice was a whisper, it was strained and frightened. This was clearly not something she was expecting and to have to expose something she had kept hidden for so long must have been terrifying. But giving her a reassuring smile, he replied,

"I won't I swear, we'll talk after the match, okay?"

She nodded tearfully and wiped her eyes that were beginning to well up. Seeing her like that, he was still reluctant to leave her, but if he didn't get out to the field soon, people would know something was up.

That was when she went on her tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek and whisper "Good luck" before scurrying out of the alcove and back to the box, leaving a bright red lipstick mark and a stunned Merlin in her wake.

Merlin stood there for a moment going over what had just happened and replaying it about several times. Finally after he collected himself he ran out to the field with a bright smile spread across his face.

The second half was just beginning as Morgana got back to the box. She sat down and replayed the conversation over and over in her head until it was branded there. So Merlin knew her secret. Well that was twenty five years of her life wasted. But he did promise he wouldn't tell anyone. And he was surprisingly understanding about the whole thing. In fact, it almost seemed he like wanted her to tell him, like he already knew. But how was that possible? Unless… Oh no, someone else knew. But who could know, she never told anyone, not even Gwen.

She had known her nightmares weren't just nightmares when she was twelve and she had a dream Arthur would break his leg. The next day her brother ended up with a cast on his foot after failing a trick that he had been practicing. She knew it had to be magic, what else could it be? And things got worse when she got older. Whenever she had been upset or angry or scared, things would tend to explode or break all on their own. That's why she made sure to be able to control her emotions or at least steer clear of everyone when she was in a mood.

She had also made sure to not get angry around her father. He couldn't find out she had magic. He was so proud of her for being who she was. For having so many accomplishments without the special additive of magic, and at first she didn't even know it was magic. All she knew was that she was special. But the dark realization had finally hit her when she was fifteen and conjured a ball of fire in her hand. She put it out in seconds and thankfully she was in her room so no one had seen it but it confirmed a fear that she had been harboring for years.

She had magic. And now someone knew.

But wait, he had magic too, didn't he. Wouldn't he be the most understanding about her situation? Hell, he could even teach her to control it. But wait, didn't that mean she was doing alchemy. After she did every one of her tantrums that ended in something catching on fire, she did feel somewhat tired and she would get a really bad migraine. But the nightmares were never draining. And she had them much more frequently, almost every night. She had a lot of questions, and now she had someone to answer them. She should consider this as a good thing.

"Where were you Morgana?"

Her father's voice started her out of her thoughts and she whirled around to face him.

"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't mean to frighten you" She found it somewhat ironic that her own words were getting repeated to her but his fatherly smile gave her a little reassurance.

"I just went to get some fresh air"

"Headaches again?"

Morgana had chronic headaches throughout her life. While they weren't serious, she had gone to many doctors to treat them. She had always considered them to be a hormonal thing or maybe even stress related, but after hearing about alchemy, she wasn't so sure anymore.

Nodding her head, she turned her attention back to the pitch. She thought it was better if she interacted with her father as little as possible, at least until she figured everything out.

She began focusing on Merlin, who was racing down the pitch with the ball when out of nowhere; he was clipped by one of Arthur's mates. Valiant, she had unfortunately dated him for a grand total of two days, before she realized what a tosser her was. But when she was him slam into her man (okay when did she start calling him that) she wanted to flay the guy alive. Valiant had hit Merlin with the same amount of force as a truck because he went flying and tumbled about four feely from where he had been previously.

Morgana shot out of her seat to get a better look. Everyone gasped as he lay, unmoving on the ground for what she could swear was the longest moment of her life before she saw the slight movement of him rolling over onto his back before Gwaine lifted him to his feet. The crowd cheered when they saw that he was okay and she let out a relieved breath. Morgana looked over to her brother to find him screaming at Valiant for his stupidity. The ref called the tackle a foul and now Merlin had free shot at the net. Everything was silent as he positioned himself and pulled his leg back to take the shot-

Suddenly a huge energy ball descended onto the pitch and was heading straight for Merlin. On instinct he jumped out of the way leaving a crater in its place while the stadium erupted in screams and people ran toward the exits. Balls of light shot out everywhere, seeming to have no specific target as they hit random portions of the pitch and the stands. Everyone ran for cover while Merlin ripped off his band and began directing the balls of light upwards. That was when the hooded figured began to appear everywhere and seemed to be the source for the chaos.

The royal guards quickly took action as Morgana surveyed what was going on. Then she felt a tug on her arm as someone tried pulling her away but she shrugged them off, still mesmerized by Merlin's magic.

The same person then grabbed her arm but harder this time and she turned to yell at them when she saw it was her father. He stared at her with pleading eyes, though she could see the searing anger coursing through them as well. This was certainly reinforcing the whole 'magic is bad' thing. She reluctantly nodded and followed her father out of the stadium. They all shuffled into the cars and took off for the palace.

Uther blew open his office doors, storming in with Morgana, Morgause, Elaine, Gwen, Balinor, and Gaius following behind him. Balinor had insisted he talk to the king, much to Morgause and Elaine's protests because Uther was defiantly in an anti-magic mood at the moment, but this was far more serious than their magical feud. And there was a good possibility that Cenred was most likely behind this attack.

Uther's advisors were already waiting for them including one of Uther's favorite, Aeridian. He gave Morgana the creeps ever since she was little. He was also one of the main people that advised Uther into the war with Ireland. Morgana really disliked the man.

"I wanna know WHO WAS RESPONSIBLE!" Uther boomed glaring at Balinor. While it was obvious none of the Irish royal family would ever do something this idiotic, Uther still had to take his frustration out on someone.

"Sire" Aeridian chimed in his slimy toad-like voice "It seems that one of the men part of the attack was captured and had the Irish crest tattooed onto his skin" he said sending an accusatory glare at Balinor.

"This was not my doing Uther, and you know exactly who was" Balinor stated holding his ground but Uther simply ignore his previous comment.

"I knew it was a bad idea to invite you people here" The king snarled "'magic is a disreputable practice. I want you out of my kingdom!" he declared jabbing his finger at Balinor.

"Father please, try and see sense" Morgana pleaded but her father was too far over the edge to listen.

"Morgana, I don't want to hear it" he yelled back.

Just then Merlin and Arthur entered the room.

"YOU" Uther growled at Merlin, looking at him through red eyes. He stomped over to the young man and grabbed him by his shirt collar.

"Father, stop it!" Morgana screamed, and through all the commotion no noticed the gun that was being aimed and the raging king.

Out of the corner of her eye Morgana saw the black piece of metal of being aimed right at her father. Everything was so fast and yet seemed so slow.

"Father!"

All the windows in the room shattered and rained down like sparkling snowflakes. And everyone just stood frozen staring wide eyed at a petrified Morgana.

"No..."