Chapter 21

Merlin was holding it together by a thread. He had more emotions coursing through him at this moment than most people feel in a lifetime and he didn't know what to do with them.

He felt a vision blurring rage most acutely. He looked down at the limp body in his arms and suddenly the sadness came rushing in, but not enough to extinguish the anger he felt since he walked through the door to Morgana's chambers and saw Mordred choking the life out of her. In that moment, he hadn't even stopped to assess. The anger and panic had just manifested itself through him and he'd released it out as a powerful blast of magic. The strike had taken Mordred off guard and slammed him into the wall. Merlin could still see the pained look on Morgana's tear stained face as she closed her eyes with frightening finality. Merlin released another blast but Mordred was prepared this time and blocked it.

Merlin sent blast after blast but Mordred easily blocked them all. "Till next time," Mordred's silent foreboding words matched his eerie smile and with a blink of Merlin's eyes, Mordred was gone. That's when Merlin had rushed to Morgana's side, where he currently found himself.

Merlin shook her in a frantic attempt to wake her, but to no avail. "No!" He shouted at her, "You can't leave now! Not after all the mess we've been through, after everything…this isn't how it ends….it can't be," Merlin grit his teeth but the tears of anger, frustration, and sorrow fell anyway, one after another. He began desperately mumbling healing spells but nothing was working. With each passing moment, he knew he was losing her. He laid a gentle hand on her cheek and pressed his lips to hers. He expected the spark or some magic to ignite, but nothing happened. He kissed her again, more firmly, waiting for her gasp for air to break the silence.

"NOOOOO!" The shout seemed to shake the walls of the chambers and jolted Merlin back to reality. Galoris rushed to Morgana's side with tears that mirrored Merlin's.

"This can't be! This can't be!" He kept repeating to himself while he frantically checked Morgana's wrist for a pulse. Suddenly, Galoris began to dissolve into nothing. Merlin stared at the Morgana's wrist that he had just held but it was if he had ceased to exist. No puff of smoke, no bright light, just erased.

Merlin hugged Morgana's lifeless body once more, with renewed sorrow for their unborn child.

Merlin didn't know how long he stayed like that, crying and holding her. The next thing he remembered was being drug away by the guards. Now as he sat in the corner of the dungeon cell, he hugged his knees still numb from the days events.

Days could have passed and Merlin wouldn't have noticed. At some point he had laid down in the straw, he was vaguely aware that there was someone screaming at him through the bars. He thought it might be Arthur. The only words that stuck were "How could you?" and "kill her".

Now there was another visitor. It sounded like Gwen. He looked up to confirm his suspicion. She was talking but he couldn't truly hear her or maybe he just didn't want to. He laid down again.

He didn't remember going to sleep but he woke up to the guards yanking him out of the cell roughly. They walked him up to the main square where a crowd was gathered. King Uther and Arthur looked down from their balcony.

Merlin's mind began to awake for the first time and he wondered why they were all gathered. His question was answered as they walked him up the steps to the wooden platform. He wriggled his wrists to find them bound. He looked around frantically trying to make sense of it all.

"Merlin, you are hereby sentenced to death for the murdering of the beloved Lady Morgana," Uther's voice rang out into the courtyard. The crowds angered murmuring filled the air. They thought he killed her. He shook his head, of course they did. They walked in to see her dead in his arms with no one else there. Gwen knew that he was her only visitor, or at least thought she knew.

The executioner kicked him in the back of his legs and he fell to his knees, noticing the chopping block for the first time. A guard pushed his head down onto the block and whispered, "Hold still, it'll hurt less."

Merlin glared up at the guard. "Or don't. Either way." The guard grinned as the words traveled noiselessly to Merlin's brain. Time seemed to slow as the sound of the axe rushing through the air toward Merlin's neck drew closer. Merlin clenched his eyes closed and opened them with renewed passion and a golden glow. He shouted as he used all of his magic to redirect the axe toward the guard, and as he felt the particles of the axe react, he put more of everything he had left into it until the axe rung as it lodged itself in the guards chest. Blood splattered across Merlin's cheek. The guard slumped to the ground and Merlin looked down on him.

"That was for Morgana," Merlin said as blood poured out of Mordred's chest where the axe had lodged itself. Mordred smiled one last time with blood stained teeth.

Merlin stood and broke the bounds on his hands with effortless magic. His will to live had just been renewed and he knew his mission now. The executioner tried to apprehend him but he merely flicked his wrist and the large man was sent flying. As he descended the steps, the crowd parted in terror and Uther cried out for the guards to seize him but none would dare try.

As he walked away from the castle, away from Camelot, he swore one thing to himself: That death nor time would keep him away from Morgana and that he would not rest until they were together.

A/N Fin! Completo! The end!

Don't worry, it's also to be continued in Dejavu Again Pt. II (the name is not final). I don't know if ya'll will be mad at me for finishing this way but I feel like that's the beauty of time traveling plots, you never know what's going to happen and nothing is final. But this has been quite the ride for Merlin and Morgana (and me) so I think that this leaves Merlin angry, conflicted, and broken hearted but it also leaves him passionate for the first time about being with Morgana and not realizing what his destiny could be like with her until she was gone.