A/N: Oh, that's just great! Now I've got the problem of having three Merlins in the same chapter.

Wait. What am I saying? How can three Merlins ever be a problem? :D

This next block of three chapters are dedicated to Excalibur Maiden who asked for this AGES ago in return for her wonderful 'Born Of The Dragon' drawing and has been very, very patient with me ever since. xxx

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Chapter Ten: An Unrivalled Relationship

Camelot #1. Two years after Series 4

Merlin had been struggling to find much free time lately and had really wanted to spend a day following the other Camelot – now certain enough of his skill to attempt to alter the time he was going to view away from the standard five or ten years. He eventually resorted to more subterfuge, using a relatively mild cold as an excuse to take a day off sick.

In the past he doubted he would ever get away with missing time off work, but today he solved the problem by making sure that Gwen saw him when he was particularly hoarse and sniffily. The queen had taken one look at her friend and practically ordered him to bed, despite his half-hearted protests.

"But, Arthur won't ..." he started, pausing as she held up a hand with a cheeky grin that still took him by surprise, even though he had often seen it on the other Gwen's face and quite regularly on this Queen since her wedding too.

"Arthur will … trust me," she replied. Although he did worry that the smirk looked suspiciously like Morgana's too.

"What are you going to say?" he asked nervously.

"That you don't need to know, Merlin," she replied. "Let's just say that I'm aware of a number of different ways to persuade my husband to see my point of view in certain matters. Now, you go off to bed and get better. Leave Arthur to me."

So, with most of the day free – just allowing for a few things he'd promised to do for Gaius - Merlin decided that he was ready to go back to the time after he left the other Camelot and follow what had happened shortly after the curse had been lifted.

However, despite all his experience and careful planning, it seemed that he had still managed to get his dates wrong. He was quite sure it was this week two years ago when Dragoon had sent him back home, but he must have been a few days out.

He very quickly learnt of his mistake when he turned up in Gaius' chambers and came face to face with himself … twice.

Camelot #2

"I thought you couldn't wait to get back home?" Gaius was asking one of the young warlocks currently standing in the physician's chambers.

It took the watching Merlin a surprisingly long time to notice the difference. He'd never had to figure it out when he was actually here, and the fact that he only ever saw his reflection in the mirror, made it even harder to tell the two apart at first.

"Yes, of course," the slightly broader warlock replied with a frown.

There wasn't much in it; even this version of himself seemed skinnier than he was now but, the more he looked at the pair, the more obvious the subtle differences were. "Never mind," said Emrys. "You get off first, Merlin and I'll sneak out in the opposite direction."

"Don't forget to wear your Band when you're on your own," the slimmer man teased.

Yes, the more he looked, the more obvious the differences were. Merlin did not put on weight or muscle easily as a rule and so it had taken a while before the relatively regular meals in Camelot had started to compensate for the years growing up in a village where starvation was never far away. Arthur may have been trying to build him up for the last few years, but it seemed that it was only recently that he'd really started to fill out - his old shirts now starting to feel surprisingly tight on him. These observations all reminded him again of Dragoon's comment about 'the right time'. It seemed that each year that passed really did place its mark on him - physically as well as emotionally.

"Yes, thank you, Squirt, I haven't forgotten," Emrys responded to the younger man's earlier comment about the Band.

"Prat!" Merlin replied.

"Boys, please," Gaius scolded gently.

As the pair went their separate ways, the watching warlock decided that he would keep an eye on the younger Merlin, seeing as he already knew what had happened to the older one. So, he followed the boy as he attended Arthur and pretended to be Emrys; quite certain that the young man was exaggerating certain characteristics far too much to be convincing. Despite that thought, no-one seemed suspicious about the act that day – all convinced that this was Emrys – no doubt due to the fact that he was confidently sporting Morgana's Night Servant Bands.

It was to be an especially strange and emotional vision, seeing this young man playing the part of Emrys - who was himself partially invented - and interacting with everyone he'd met in that world; the stable boys who had the cheek to enquire about Morgana (and Merlin was impressed at how the young man had handled that situation), through to his first meeting with Freya back in Gaius' chambers, which had him reeling with feelings of jealousy, and later still his encounter with Morgana against a stone wall which left him rather more amused than envious.

Merlin pulled himself out of the vision several times that day, both to take a physical and emotional break and to check up on Gaius and help the old man out where required. Interestingly, he didn't once feel the need to compensate for his earlier mistake, curious enough to follow this particular time line even though he knew where it was going. It was time to grow up, he decided, time to show how strong he could be. He knew that his emotions could get the better of him sometimes and the trait did him no favours. Perhaps these visions would help him to learn to control them better. Perhaps viewing certain more emotional situations in this other world would be therapeutic somehow and help him to heal from the grief and traumas that he had never fully addressed at home.

So, he soon found himself in the Great Hall, watching the meeting with Uther where Arthur announced that Gwen was expecting his baby, and shook his head at his own folly for not realising how much of his duty as a Night Servant to Morgana had been about getting her with child in the first place.

He now remembered her casual comments about 'only being after one thing' which he hadn't understood at the time. How naïve. Oh well, at least that made him feel a little better about the situation. This wasn't his world where leaving an unmarried woman with child was frowned upon, as had happened to his own mother. The Purge that had stripped this world of its magic and its fertility, had lead to the heightened sexual emotions and, ultimately the Night Servant tradition in order to increase the odds of having a baby. Morgana had even continued to speak that way after he'd told her he was leaving. She knew Emrys would not be around and yet had still hoped to have a baby by him.

It made him feel a little better, but not very much.

It was great to see Morgana at her very best again, however. Very much like the girl he'd fallen for all those years ago back in his own world – although even she had never been quite as cheeky as this version. Especially when she discovered that there were actually two young men going by the name of Emrys that day.

"Oh, and, Merlin?" Morgana called out just as the young man reached the door and he turned around with another small bow. "If I see you wearing my Band again without permission, I shall consider it as services owed."

"My lady?"

"If you are advertising yourself as my Night Servant, I expect you to be performing all of the relevant duties."

The warlock laughed so hard at the shocked look on his counterpart's face that he accidentally broke the vision and then had to try to explain to a worried Gaius what all the commotion was about.

Camelot #1

He took the opportunity to take a break for some food before settling back down with the crystal. Gaius gave him a suspicious look and Merlin suspected that he wasn't acting anywhere near as ill as he should be for someone who had taken the day off sick. Alright so this was a bad cold he was suffering from, but perhaps not as terrible as it sounded and Merlin again contemplated the fact that he may be becoming just a little too wrapped up in the other Camelot – a little too obsessed about watching these lives unfold in front of him, even if he did have very mixed feelings about what he was likely to be viewing tonight.

He rarely had to direct the visions nowadays. Usually he just focused on the crystal, with one hand lazily touching the old neckerchief and only thinking about the time he may want to add or take from the set five years. Other than that he did not consciously direct the vision, although he had to admit that he was not surprised to find himself in the servants' quarters when he emerged; a young Merlin standing nervously outside a door clutching one of Gaius' vials as if his very life depended on it.

They both waited; the young man's fist constantly lifting towards the door to knock before lowering again, whilst the observer started to become increasingly impatient.

"Oh, just get on with it will you, Merlin," he snapped at his alternative self.

Camelot #2

"Come in," Freya called out and the door opened slowly to reveal a pale Merlin, his eyes rather wide.

"Hello," she said with a gentle smile. "How are you?"

"F-fine," he stammered, holding his arm out. "I've brought you the potion that Gaius said … well, for the pain … ah ..."

"Thank you." Her voice was laced with amusement as she walked forward to take it off him.

"How's your hand?" he asked then.

"It's alright," she replied holding it up to show the bandage, "but it is beginning to hurt again now so I'm pleased that you brought me the potion."

"Yes, of course." Merlin handed her the vial and watched her as she drunk it and pulled a face at the taste.

"Sorry," he apologised, although it was hardly his fault that Gaius' concoctions always tasted so bad.

"That's alright, I have some wine here that will take the taste away. Would you like some?"

"Oh, I wouldn't want to impose … I mean ..."

"Merlin, please join me for a drink?" she asked, and there was no way he could deny those beautiful brown eyes when she looked at him like that.

"T-thank you." He looked around the sparsely decorated room and hesitated, noticing that there was only one chair and wondering where to sit. Freya smiled as she handed him his drink, picking her own in her good hand and then sitting down on the bed.

"Come and sit by me," she said gently tapping the covers next to her, and Merlin did as he was asked, talking a large, nervous swallow of his drink and trying to find some courage from somewhere.

He knew why she'd invited him here, of course, and he certainly wasn't going to object to the idea. He'd grown up in this world of the Curse, understood it far more than Emrys did, and had started to suffer it's strong effects almost as soon as he had arrived in Camelot. So, he knew why he was here and what he was supposed to do, but that didn't mean he wasn't nervous, all the same.

"Tell me about yourself, Merlin," Freya asked after a long, awkward pause and from then on he started to relax as he told her about the tiny farming village he had grown up in before listening to the story of her youth – all worries about what that night might lead too, temporarily forgotten.

"My grandparents on both side of the family were druids," Freya explained, "and some of my relations practised magic as was the custom. I understand that many in my family were very talented and could do quite advanced stuff, but they stayed with their own kind - in little camps and communities - and my parents and older brother were all born there."

"Why did they not live in the main towns?" Merlin asked.

"I believe they were persecuted a little. Magic was not widely accepted – especially here in Camelot – and then, I suppose, it was a matter of their religion which is not widely accepted; the worship of the old gods - of the triple goddess and her ways; of the caves and the trees and the lakes and the ancient woodland shrines." She sighed, her gaze now distant and mournful.

"It is so sad that has all gone now," Merlin mused.

"Oh, some Druids still live in the ancient forests and practice the old ways, even if they cannot quite do so in the same way without magic," Freya said with a sign. "When the Purge came upon our clan, my grandparents decided to stay put but many younger people, my parents included, started to move out – no longer worried about persecution for any magic they may have had."

"So, you came to Camelot?"

"No, not at first. We grew up in a small village, one that had always been friendly to the druids and had often sought their help. They were happy to have my parents and their friends; young, fit adults are always welcome in such communities as you know." Merlin nodded his agreement. "It was a beautiful place, next to a lake surrounded by the tallest mountains. In the winter the storms whipped up the water into waves and you thought they were going to crash down and take away all the houses." She smiled gently, remembering. "But in the summer; wild flowers and light. It was like heaven and I had a lovely childhood there, although few others of my age to play with – not that I knew why for quite a while."

"You were born after the Purge?" he asked.

"Yes. You?"

"Just one year after," Merlin replied with a nod. Freya took his empty glass over to the side and raised the bottle silently asking him if he wanted more. He shook his head. "That's enough for me, thank you. I'm not really used to alcohol yet."

She smiled and returned to her place next to him on the bed, sitting very much closer than she had before, Merlin noticed. She moved her non bandaged hand towards him, resting it gently on his and he took it instinctively, before looking down surprised at how small and warm it felt in his hand. He moved his eyes up to meet hers and his heart started to beat faster.

"They say that those that had a talent for magic are more likely to have children," she said with a shy smile. "With so much ability in my family I often wonder if I might have been able to use it if the Purge had not happened."

"Really? I hadn't heard that," Merlin said thoughtfully, "All I'd heard was that those born further away from Camelot have a greater chance. It would certainly explain both our births – although I'm not aware that my mother had any skill in magic."

"What about your father?"

"I never knew him and Mother doesn't like to talk about it." He frowned. "I am related to Gaius on my mother's side though and he certainly used to practice."

"So, perhaps you might have been able to?" Freya asked and Merlin looked up, surprised, having forgotten that she did not know – could not know - that he actually did have magic and that the Purge was perhaps not quite so absolute as everyone here thought.

"So, we were both born outside of Camelot with a magical heritage?" she continued, giving him a shy smile.

"Oh ..." Merlin felt his cheeks colour as he belatedly realised what she was implying. Up until now he had assumed they were talking about why they had been miracle babies. He had not made the connection that, if the rumours were correct, together they would have a much greater chance of having a child themselves. In Camelot such subjects were often talked about openly but Merlin had only arrived a few days ago and, as such, wasn't that comfortable in having this type of conversation with a pretty girl he'd only just met.

"I would apologise, Merlin, but you know why I asked you here tonight," Freya continued.

"Yes and I'm … I'm glad to be here," he managed.

"Good." She squeezed his hand and he instinctively looked at her again, his eyes growing wide as she smiled at him. Slowly, gently, he leant forward and kissed her, his eyes stinging with unexpected tears as he struggled with the powerful emotions he was now feeling.

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9/11/12