A/N: OMG. This chapter turned out so huge! It wasn't intended at all, I don't know, it just happened! Anyways, here it is, the hugest chapter ever :D

Oh, I also just realized that, with this chapter, we're already halfway through this story, since I planned this to be a twenty chapter fic :)

And my usual thanks to everyone who reviewed/followed/favorited :)

Read and enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin. Do I have to say anything else?

CHAPTER 10: PANICKING ANGEL

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-GUARDIAN ANGEL-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

"Shit!"

Morgause usually wasn't a person who easily got worked up over something. She actually was a calm natured fallen angel, less into hysterical laughter and more into silent treatment. Alright, she was also easily angered and vengeful, but in a calm way. At least from her point of view.

Sometimes though, she had to give in and throw a tantrum. And by that she didn't mean the occasional destruction of buildings or the usual robbing of banks.

What Morgause meant was much more ordinary. She sometimes just had to yell when she was frustrated. And she sure as hell was by now. Alright, maybe she also was a little bit drunk (not that fallen angels actually could get drunk), but that got nothing to do with it.

"Shit, shit, shit! Morgana, where are you, little sister?! Come on, now! Get your damn ass here; I'm sick of looking for ya!" She screamed and kicked a stone in front of her which flew into a car and broke its window. Oh well. At least that car didn't have an annoying alarm sytem.

Morgause was searching for her half-sister for over three hours now (minus the one hour she had spent at a bar) and the frustration was steadily building up in her.

Morgana was dangerous and unpredictable at the moment, full of hatred and immature powers. It also was possible that she transformed into a fallen angel any moment and if that stupid angel boy happened to notice, they all were in some kind of mess.

That's why she and Mordred had agreed to keep an eye on Morgana 24/7 but it was just impossible. While Mordred was out doing shopping, the blonde fallen angel had stayed at home with her sister. They had had a nice talk about why you couldn't just wander around and attack humans with an epee and everything had been fine.

That was, until Morgause had had to go to the bathroom. When she had come back, her sister had already vanished from their flat.

The blonde was currently running through the street their flat was located in, a meanwhile warm beer in her hand. It was a nice clean street, lined with neat gardens full of rhododendron's and rose bushes. The houses were all pretty small with colored garden fences and other cheesy stuff.

Really, it wasn't exactly the area of town where you would suspect two and a half fallen angels to live. Hey, that sounded like a good TV show: Two and a half fallen angels.

Morgause couldn't suppress a childish giggle escaping her lips and instantly scolded her slightly drunken mind.

Anyways, she had already searched the whole town for her sister. Twice.

With little hope of finding her half-sister anytime soon, Morgause sat down on the wayside and sipped at her beer. She couldn't go back to the flat just yet.

Mordred had been pretty pissed when she had told him how Morgana had escaped her grip. He had decided to stay at the flat, in case the dark haired girl would be coming back. He also had said something along the lines of: Don't come back until you found her!

So yeah. That's why she had to keep looking, even though she was sure that Morgana couldn't be found if she really didn't want to. They probably just had to wait until the girl got bored with whatever she was doing and came back to them. How annoying.

With an exaggerated sigh, Morgause got up from where she was sitting and looked the street up and down once again. Still no sign of anyone, let alone her sister. This street was as empty as the brain of an angel.

While balancing on the curbstone with her still high heel wearing feet, the blonde made her way back to their flat. Stupid Mordred couldn't order her around!

When she was just about to open the entrance door of the multi-family house they lived in, she decided to first walk through their garden. She hadn't looked there for her sister because Morgause just couldn't imagine why Morgana would sit in a garden full of rhododendrons. Really, who had given that stupid bush this ridiculous name?! Anyway, there was no way Morgana was in the garden.

But maybe she should just give it a try…?

As the blonde entered the garden, she suddenly saw Mordred standing there; his dark curl's swaying softly in the wind.

"Hey, what are you doing?" The woman asked while walking up to him, careful to not let her heels sink into the grass.

"There's a hole in our garden which wasn't there yesterday." The boy just explained and Morgause noticed that he was staring at the ground with furrowed brows.

"A hole…?" When she stood beside him, the blonde understood what he meant. In the middle of the herbs was a gaping hole where once must have stood some sort of plant. Morgause crossed her arms in front of her chest and emptied her beer. Then she suddenly remembered what was missing from their garden.

"Hasn't the Belladonna plant been standing in that spot?" She asked curiously and pointed at the hole.

"Belladonna?" Came the confused reply from the younger one. Seriously, she had to teach this boy about poisons some day.

"Yeah, it's also called Deadly Nightshade." Morgause explained with a slight frown on her beautiful features. "It can be used for medicaments but in a high dose it's highly poisonous and even deadly."

Mordred started too frown again and pinched the bridge of his nose while he did some thinking.

"Why would she take it? Who would she intend to poison?" He mumbled more to himself then to Morgause while starting to walk up and down in the garden, avoiding stepping onto any of the various plants. Suddenly a loud chuckle gained his attention and his eyes broke from the ground.

"Why, isn't it obvious?" Morgause said with a smirk and a dangerous glint in her cold eyes.

"She is trying to kill Arthur. And this time… I won't stop her."

-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-GUARDIAN ANGEL-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-

"Seriously, how could you have forgotten us?!"

The loud voice of Gwaine echoed through the library, earning him various "Shh!" from the other visitors.

"Are you still going on about that?" Arthur said and looked away, waving his hand dismissively. "I already said sorry."

The brunet just growled in response, clenching his teeth while glaring at the blonde.

Merlin could undersrand his anger. Yesterday, after Arthur's 'battle' with Morgana, they had completely forgotten about the others from the fencing team.

Gwaine was pretty worked up because of this, since he had trained until eight in the evening before Merlin had come running into the gym, telling him how sorry he was, but Arthur had gotten hurt and they had went straight to Gaius and he was so sorry but they had completely forgotten about them.

Of course Gwaine wasn't angry with Merlin; he could never be and it wasn't really the raven haired's fault.

No, it was Arthur who deserved his anger and Gwaine wasn't reluctant to show it.

"To say sorry just isn't always enough" He whispered and turned away from the blond while sticking his nose into a book. He would save that for later, something else was more important now.

They still had a presentation to finish, that's why the three of them were currently sitting in the college's huge library. Merlin had the feeling that they were doing fine and with a bit of luck, they would be able to finish their presentation today.

While Merlin was busy creating the layout on his laptop, Arthur's mind was occupied otherwise.

His thoughts wandered to the mysterious boy in front of him every few seconds and it was absolutely impossible for him to concentrate on anything else.

Just who was Merlin exactly? He seemed to never talk about himself much… Arthur had noticed that Merlin wasn't shy, by no means. He was probably the liveliest person he knew. And yet it seemed like he knew nothing about the younger one at all.

While his steel blue eyes stared into the depth of cerulean ones, he started to wonder if Merlin really existed. His presence was just so absurd. Merlin seemed to always be there when he needed him; he always seemed to do the right things in the right moment.

It also was really rare to see Merlin angry, and if he was, he soon would forgive everyone. He also always wore this stupid bright grin of his, it just wasn't normal.

Arthur felt as if Merlin was some kind of product from his imagination and that he would vanish if he dared to look away from him.

But that was rubbish of course; Arthur never had had an imaginary friend and he surely wouldn't want one now.

But why was Merlin here? It seemed like he had come here for a reason, yet he had never said anything about it

Arthur broke his gaze away from his friend's eyes and started to scribble something on a piece of paper, just to make it look like he was actually doing work. When he looked down at the paper, he was surprised to see what he had written.

Things I know about Merlin:

Arthur stared at the five words for a second, before nodding with determination and starting to write again.

His name is Merlin Emrys.

He's a scholarship student.

He came to the CPC on May 3rd.

He lived in a village in Wales.

He

Arthur stopped in his writing and his eyes narrowed. That was all. Four facts about his (dare he think that) best friend. That was absolutely nothing; you could probably get this information by googling his name!

The blonde sighed in frustration and was just about to crumble the piece of paper, when suddenly other things came to his mind.

He can't swim.

He never pays attention in the lectures or learns anything, yet he says he's got a scholarship.

He's surprised by how big this college is.

He can't have gotten his scholarship by paying father.

He says he doesn't know the city, yet he managed to find me when I was in danger.

He did number 10 twice.

Arthur stopped writing once again, staring at the words. This just got stranger with any second… Maybe Arthur was just being paranoid? No, he was sure there was more to Merlin than the eye could see, he just couldn't quite put his finger on it. Arthur thought for a moment and even more things came to his mind that didn't seem to fit the picture everyone had of Merlin.

When I just had met him, he helped me after my fight. I never got to know what happened to these bulks.

After I was threatened in the bank, he refused to explain me what had happened.

Since I met him, my injuries heal faster.

When I first met him, he had a strange effect on me and I felt something like an electric shock when we shook hands.

He seemed to know me.

Morgana seemed to know him.

My ankle was healed yesterday, but I'm sure it was broken.

Arthur stopped and read his list from the beginning to the end.

It was terrifying and Arthur once again felt like in some kind of novel. Just what had happened to his live?

"I'm finished" Gwaine exclaimed suddenly, startling Arthur. Quickly, without anyone noticing, he tucked the piece of paper away and closed his books.

"Me too" He added and smiled at Gwaine, happy that he wasn't angry right now.

"I've finished the most of my part as well. I'll just put everything together and then our presentation will be complete" Merlin said with a grin and Arthur instantly looked away in the fear that the raven haired could read his thoughts in his eyes. He wasn't surprised if he could.

"I'm going to show you how it looks in the end today at supper." Merlin continued and shut down his laptop, tucking it into his bag.

"Alright, see you later, mate" Gwaine said with a grin and patted Merlin on the shoulder while getting up. "I still haven't forgiven you, princess" The brunet added with a stern look towards the blonde, before turning around and leaving the library.

"I already said sorry!" Arthur screamed after him, but he was ignored.

"I have to go now too." Merlin said with a little smile, his cerulean eyes shining a little. Just what was the guy planning? Arthur shook his head to clear his mind and responded to Merlin's smile with one of his own, even if it was a little forced.

"Alright, see you at supper, I guess…" He mumbled and watched as his friend left him alone with a last, slightly concerned, look over the shoulder.

When he was alone, Arthur sighed and banged his head against the table.

Just how could he look Merlin into the eyes like this? He would always see a huge question mark whenever he looked at the raven haired; that was driving him insane

With a determined look on his face, Arthur stood up and left the library.

He had made a decision. He would reveal Merlin's secret, no matter what.

-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-GUARDIAN ANGEL-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-

Morgana hated itching. It was annoying, especially when it was at some place where you couldn't scratch.

And right now, the whole skin on her back felt as if there were bugs crawling underneath, it was literally driving her insane.

Still a smirk found a way on her lips. Everything was going according to her plan: She had the Belladonna serum and all that was left to do was to enter the college. That should be easy though, since the security wasn't exactly one of the college's strengths.

With a look to the left and a look the right, Morgana made sure that she was alone in the hallway. Even if someone would see her, they would just think of her of one of the other students. The only ones who could be bothersome were Arthur's friends, since they knew her.

But with a bit of luck, Morgana wouldn't even come near them, considering how big this college was.

As she quickly walked down the hallway, she tried her best no to cry out in frustration. Her back was practically killing her, just why did it have to itch so much? And how the hell could anyone live with that?! Those angels must have nerves of steel.

With a grim expression, she rounded a corner and soon found herself in front of Arthur's room. Like predicted, the door was locked.

Now there were two ways to get inside. Pick the lock or break the door.

Morgana settled for the latter.

As she was just about to kick the door with one of her high heel wearing feet, she heard footsteps behind her. Frozen on the spot, she gritted her teeth angrily and turned around. Just who had to disturb her now?

Her eyes widened for a split second as she realized who she was staring it. She broke into yet another smirk at the sight of her father.

Uther was currently standing just mere feet away from her, a confused and utterly irritated look on his face. His arms were crossed in front of his chest and a suitcase was resting at his feet. He wore a dark grey suit, all neat and properly ironed.

"My my, if it isn't my dear daddy" The dark haired girl snarled, hatred lingering underneath a bitter-sweet tone. "It's such a pleasure to meet you"

"Morgana" Uther spat, his cold eyes narrowing. "Leave. At once."

The smirk on her face slowly grew hysteric and a slightly insane and totally dark chuckle escaped her trembling lips. It continued and grew into a maniac laughter, earning a fearful and surprised look from her father.

His daughter had become a total madwoman, Uther realized with resignation. He always had known that she wasn't totally right in her mind, it had only been a matter of time.

"Leave this instant. I won't hesitate to call the security forces." He threatened coldly and averted his eyes from the girl. She was a total eyesore and her laughter was disgusting.

He didn't want to see the face of his daughter- no, this maniac ever again.

Morgana ignored her father's last sentence, but stopped her laughter. Her back was itching even more than before and she felt a strange sensation in her chest.

As if… As if something wanted to break free… As if there was a monster sealed away in her, just waiting for the right time to come out and wreak havoc.

For a split second, Morgana lost her composure and suddenly looked like what she was. A terrified girl.

"W-what am I…?" A soft whisper escaped her lips, before she shook her head and the little display of emotion stopped.

"Anyway. I'm not going to leave just now. I still have some things to do" She just said, her voice as emotionless as a machine.

Uther's face went red with anger, his eyes glaring daggers. "LEAVE NOW!" He yelled, hands slowly balling into fists. "I don't have time to deal with the likes of you now."

"What, am I such a nuisance to you, father?" The girl said while wrapping a strand of her dark hair around her finger, totally ignorant to the older one's rising fury.

"You are not my daughter! You may have been some time ago, but now you're just a maniac! You've become totally insane!" He spat, crossing his arms in front of his chest to stop them from shaking.

Morgana narrowed her eyes, a dangerous glint in them, her whole body trembling.

"Don't you dare say that" She whispered in a low tone yet it echoed loudly through the hallway.

"You are the one who's insane. You are the one who doesn't deserve to call himself a father."

Morgana reached with her arms behind her back and started scratching, not able to endure this torture any longer.

"Arrgh, why does it have to itch so much?! Maybe it will go away when I kill you?!" She screamed, her eyes wide open with despair and her voice shaking ever so slightly.

Uther backed away from the girl, his expression changing into a confused one. What was she doing?

Suddenly, Morgana lunged forward, her arms wide outstretched and her fingers aiming at Uther's throat. She would end this now, then everything would be fine, right?

When Uther was dead, she would find peace, right?

And Arthur had to die. And his friends. And that angel. And Mordred. And Morgause. The teachers. The citizens. The humans.

Everyone.

Wait, what was she thinking? How would killing them all help her in anyway?

Morgana thought about it while she was rushing at Uther.

Then she came to the conclusion that it didn't matter anymore. All that mattered was that she could destroy.

Just what had become of her?

Morgana realized that she actually didn't exists anymore. Morgana was dead. All that was left was an empty shell full of hatred. Morgana also found that she didn't care. About anything.

She couldn't even feel sad about that fact.

Just as she was about to wrap her slender fingers around her 'father's' neck, the man suddenly disappeared.

Giving a noise of confusion, Morgana spun around, just to see the Uther standing a few feet away from her behind an old man wearing a lab coat, who had his arms spread in front of him in a protective gesture.

"What…Who are you?" Morgana demanded, sensing strange waves coming from the man. It felt as if he wasn't human, but she couldn't exactly tell…

"That's none of your concern. I must apologize, but we'll take our leave now." The old man said and suddenly grabbed Uther's arm, dragging him quickly away into the direction of his office.

Leaving the girl behind, Uther suddenly looked at Gaius and a just barely visible smile found its way onto his features.

"Thank you Gaius. I don't know how you always accomplish it, but you've once again rescued me out of a dangerous situation."

When they were far enough away from Morgana, Gaius stopped to catch his breath. "Don't mention it. It's always a pleasure to help you"

The older man responded with a smile of his own and a crooked eyebrow.

"But shouldn't you call the security forces now?"

Uther seemed puzzled for a second, before regaining his impassive expression.

"Yes, certainly." He said with frown as he pulled out his phone…

-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-GUARDIAN ANGEL-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-

Arthur still hadn't manage to find out anything about Merlin, it was starting to get depressing.

He had made a plan as how to gather information on the raven haired, but it hadn't worked out like planned. He knew the two places in this college that kept the student files.

The first was his father's office and the second was in Gaius' filing cabinet, in case something happened to one of the students and they required higher medical treatment.

First Arthur had went to Gaius' room, since he hadn't been too keen on seeing his father. But Gaius hadn't been there and all files had been securely locked away. Arthur didn't know how to pick a lock, so he had just let it be.

In his father's room, he had had a little more luck. His father also wasn't there, but unlike Gaius, Uther had just locked the file away with a password and since he was his son, it didn't take Arthur long to figure it out. It had been the wedding anniversary of his parents.

But when he had skimmed through the files with the letter 'E' he hadn't found a file with the name Emrys. At first Arthur was sure that he had just missed it but after the third look through he was sure that it wasn't there.

Of course it could be that the file had accidently been placed under another letter, but somehow Arthur couldn't make himself believe that.

It was just too much of an accident, right?

So currently, Arthur was walking back to his room again, the deep frown on his face indicating that he was lost in thought

While he was passing a staircase, the blonde heard voices coming from above him. "-leave it like that."

Arthur recognized the warm voice of Gaius and stopped in his tracks to listen to the conversation, despite feeling a little guilty.

"I know. But it's not in my possibilities to go that far." This was his father speaking, but what really surprised Arthur was the uncertainty in his voice. It was something that just never happened.

"But Uther, you know what-"

"No." Uther interrupted Gaius, this time his voice sounding harsher again. "You know how I think about that matter, but you also now I can't do it."

Gaius seemed to sigh and he started to speak more quietly now, almost unable for Arthur to hear.

"You're right. But remember what stood in that letter. Don't forget about them."

Suddenly, footsteps echoed through the hallway and Arthur realized with shock that his father and Gaius were coming down the stairs. Quickly, he rounded a corner and leaned at the wall, trying to order the thoughts in his mind.

He had already completely forgotten about that ominous letter Gaius had sent to his father. But now it somehow seemed to fit in.

He had had to deliver this letter right after he had met Merlin for the first time and it had already back then seemed like this letter was really important. And now there were the missing of Merlin's files.

Could this somehow be connected?

Or was he just connecting dots that didn't really had to do with anything?

Arthur frowned while driving his hand through his blond hair in order to clear his thoughts.

No, this couldn't be as much as a coincidence... Something secret was going on here. Something he wasn't supposed to know about.

Maybe his father had hired a secret bodyguard for him? It would make sense, since Morgana was getting more and more of a threat now. But Merlin wasn't exactly what you would think of as a bodyguard.

With a growl of frustration, Arthur's fist hit the wall, making his knuckles sting a bit.

"Damn it. I'm not getting any closer to solving this…" He pressed out between gritted teeth. "Maybe I should just forget it…"

Arthur started to walk to his room, doubts nagging at his mind.

Could he just forget it? Could he ever look Gaius or Merlin in the eye again? Could he look into the mirror, knowing that he had no clue what was going on and that he was too stupid to figure it out? Maybe Gwen would have known what to do, but their relationship was still unclear, so he couldn't just walk up to her and talk about it…

Lost in thought, Arthur didn't notice that his door wasn't locked when he entered his room.

He just let himself fall onto the bed and buried his face in his soft white pillows. He didn't know what to do… That was unusual and it was making him frustrated…

With a sigh, he reached over to his nightstand and grabbed a glass of water, gulping it down in an instant. Arthur lazily put the glass away again and closed his eyes.

Maybe everything would be clearer after a little nap.

…

…

When the blonde awoke again after just a few minutes of troubled sleep, he felt a little strange. It was unnaturally hot in here, not as hot as it was supposed to be in May. Maybe there was a fire somewhere?

Getting nervous, Arthur suddenly climbed out of bed and almost immediately fell back onto it again. "W-whoa…"

His vision was blurry and the room was constantly shifting before his eyes.

Something was definitely wrong…

But the blonde just couldn't focus on anything, all his mind was proceeding was: Hot. Burning. Fire. Shit.

Again, he tried to get up from where he was half lying on the bed, this time a little slower. He moved his hands to the wall and slowly pulled himself up, leaning against it for support.

He wanted to get out of this burning room as soon as possible but while he stared at the door it seemed to move farther away with every second that passed.

What the hell?

Arthur took a wobbly step forward, not letting go of the secure grip on the wall. It was just getting hotter in his room with every second and it soon was unbearable. Sweat ran down his face like tears and he soon was drenched in it.

After a few minutes of disorientation, Arthur came to the conclusion that his room wasn't burning. It was more like he himself was.

A trembling hand that must be his own, suddenly touched his forehead and immediately flinched away again. High fever. Very high fever.

"Bad…" He mumbled a little unintelligible while trying hard not to fall onto the ground. Eventually, Arthur reached the door of his room, the door handle was just a few inches away from his fingers but it seemed to fly around him in circle always avoiding the grabbing motion of his shaking hand.

"N-no…" Arthur whispered and he suddenly felt himself flying. Or maybe the room was flying around him?

He didn't know, all he knew was that his eyes slowly closed as the flames consumed him…

-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-GUARDIAN ANGEL-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-

Merlin was actually quite proud of himself. He had improved their presentation quite a bit and wondered how Arthur would react to it. When he stood in front of his friend's room, a strange feeling rolled around in his gut.

It screamed danger and Merlin started to get wary. He almost was about to burst into the room, but decided otherwise and rose his hand to knock at the door.

When he got no reaction to his knocking, he knocked again, this time with more force. "Arthur?" He raised his voice, narrowed eyes staring at the door.

He was met with silence and panic started to form a tight knot in his chest. But Merlin shook his head, trying to clear his mind. It could very well be that Arthur simply wasn't in his room. Or maybe he was sleeping.

But of course, it never was simple.

With slightly shaking hands, Merlin opened the door, surprised to not find it locked. Arthur always locked his door whenever he was sleeping or out.

The angel instantly swung the door open, revealing a picture of horror and he felt his wings trashing around, wanting to burst through his back.

In front of him lay Arthur, on the ground. As pale as death, covered in sweat. He was trembling like leaves and every few seconds a groan escaped his shivering lips.

In the fraction of a second, Merlin was at the side of his protégé, the door shut behind them. He gently laid a hand to Arthur's forehead and flinched away by the second he touched. It felt like he was literally on fire. This wasn't good…

"Arthur, wake up!" The raven haired demanded while he shook Arthur, gentle yet unforgiving if the blonde wouldn't follow his order. After a few shakes, his eyes fluttered open, the steel blue color clouded by pain.

"M'lin… Anks…G'night…Rother…'s okay… Meet…ya…'n…ven…" The words left Arthur's lips and a small smile appeared on his pale face. He then sighed in an annoyed manner and closed his eyes, the smile slowly fading away, leaving nothing behind.

Merlin's pseudo cerulean eyes suddenly widened when Arthur went still.

He held his breath, waiting for Arthur to start shaking and groaning again, but the blond stayed still. Deadly still.

Merlin let out a shaking breath, hands trembling and tears threatening to fall. "N-no… T-this can't…"

He slowly laid a hand on Arthur's chest.

Waiting.

Waiting for something that didn't come.

Something so small yet the whole purpose for his existence.

Something that was forever gone.

Suddenly, Merlin couldn't think.

He barely noticed his wings cutting through his shirt, curling around Arthur as if to protect him.

He barely noticed his own voice, screaming and yelling for Arthur to wake up again.

He barely noticed the hot salty tears streaming down his face and dripping onto Arthur's.

He barely noticed his fists beating onto his protégé's chest in an attempt to somehow get his heart to move.

He barely noticed the snapping feeling inside his chest.

He barely noticed how something in him awakened.

All he noticed, was that Arthur was dead.

-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-GUARDIAN ANGEL-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-

A/N: Well, yeah. That's the end of this chapter. But don't worry, everything is going to be all right in the end :D

Since many of you requested it, I'm going to add some Whump!Merlin to this story! Yay :D

Alright then, please leave a review if you want Arthur to not be dead. If you don't care, please leave a review nevertheless :)

Until next time ~

by DarkChain