Hey guys! So, as much as I love this chapter, I'm not 100% on some parts, so I apologize if it's a little... weak in some parts.
Thanks for everyone who reviewed, alerted, favorited, or read last chapter. You guys are amazing!
Thanks for reading, drop me a comment if you can, and I do not own these characters.
See ya!
"Merlin," someone whispered, right in Merlin's ear, startling him from a light, fitful sleep. "Merlin."
"Stop," he croaked bringing his hands up to cover his ears. "Stop it."
"Merlin," the voice whispered a third time.
"Y-you're not r-real," he murmured squeezing his eyes shut. "L-leave me a-alone."
"Merlin," a new voice said, a little louder and clearer, to his immediate left.
His eyes snapped open and he turned to see a familiar face hovering over him. "Freya," he whispered feeling a tear trickle down his cheek. She sat next to him, as real as she had been when he first met her, as real as the others had been.
"Merlin," she said softly, a sad smile on her face. "I am sorry this is happening to you."
"What…?" Why wasn't she accusing him of causing her death? Arthur may have struck the mortal blow, but he still felt a small part of her death had been his fault. Maybe if they had left sooner, if he had told Arthur about his magic, about her, perhaps she'd still be alive. "I'm sorry," he whispered as another tear leaked from the corner of his eye.
"You have nothing to be sorry for," she stated quietly, wiping his tear away with her thumb. She ran her hand down his face, caressing his cheek, and softly said, "I wish I could help you, but I cannot reverse what Amelia did to you."
"Y-you're real?" he whispered. "Y-you n-not a p-part of m-my i-imagination?"
"Yes, I am real," she answered nodding. "I was trying to help you, but I found that I cannot. You need to be the one to kill Amelia, but you must hurry. Arthur has gone after her. He intends to face her with only the help of Gwaine."
"A-Arthur…? G-Gwaine…?" Merlin struggled to sit up, succeeding on his second try. "I need to go…" he glanced at the door, where Gaius was most likely waiting, and then turned his head towards his window. "Will you come with me?" he asked softly, looking back at Freya, but she was already gone.
Taking a stuttering breath, Merlin dragged himself to his feet. The room tilted around him and he reached out, grabbing his bed to keep himself standing. He drew in several deep breaths before letting go and heading towards his window. He needed to help his friends.
Merlin
"Gwaine," Arthur started ducking to avoid a low hanging branch.
"Princess," Gwaine retorted lightly, glancing back at Arthur. There was determination behind his jovial façade, something Arthur respected in the knight. Despite his blase attitude towards most things, Gwaine would do whatever he had to insure the safety of those he cared for.
"Did Merlin…?" Arthur trailed off, shaking his head. This was certainly not the time to ask about Merlin's father. There'd be plenty of time to ask after they had saved his incompetent backside. That is if they saved…
No, they were going to save Merlin. Failing was not an option on Arthur's part. He had thwarted the sidhe the first time, he could do it again. And he'd ask Merlin, himself, about his father. Not go through a second party like Gwaine.
"Did you give any more thought to what that man said?" Arthur asked instead. It still bothered him, about what the nuisance said about losing his protector. For all the times Merlin said he had saved Arthur, the king hadn't actually construed Merlin as his protector. Perhaps he had been wrong.
"We are not losing Merlin," Gwaine stated vehemently, looking straight ahead again.
"I know, but…"
"Even if I have to rip this bitch's head off with my bare hands, we are not losing Merlin," Gwaine interrupted and Arthur knew the subject had been closed. At least, on Gwaine's end. And Arthur agreed. He was willing to do whatever it took to insure Merlin safety, too.
The two men were quiet for a while, but Gwaine, a bit like Merlin, was never one to keep silent for long, and broke it. "I heard you mention Merlin's father…"
"Eavesdropping, Gwaine?" What surprised Arthur the most was he wasn't exactly surprised. The knight merely shrugged his shoulders. With a sigh, the king continued, "He never mentioned him to me."
"He said something about him to me," Gwaine commented nonchalantly, maneuvering his horse around a downed tree. "It was around the time I'd first come to Camelot, remember after that tavern fight. He said his father had been dead a year."
"That was almost five years ago," Arthur murmured unconsciously gripping his horse's reins tighter. Merlin's father died half a decade ago and this was the first time Arthur was hearing about it. Hell, he hadn't even been aware Merlin found his father.
"He never mentioned the man to you?" Gwaine asked curiously, glancing back at the blond.
"Once, in passing, but I was under the assumption the man abandoned his family."
"Not everyone's' fathers abandon them, Arthur," Gwaine stated bitterly, looking forward again. "Besides, when Merlin talked about his father, he sounded proud of him. You could tell he missed him."
Arthur felt something cold and bitter settle in his stomach. He had been Merlin's friend longer than Gwaine had, so why did Merlin feel the need to talk about his father to a virtual stranger when he could have just been talking to Arthur? It made him wonder what else Merlin was hiding from him.
"I'm sure he had his reasons for not telling you," Gwaine said cutting into Arthur's dark thoughts. "Don't go jumping to conclusions until you have all the facts. You might not like the outcome."
Arthur barely had time to contemplate what Gwaine said before the air shifted, the familiar feel of magic settling over Arthur along with the familiarity he still couldn't seem to shake. They had finally reached the mysterious lake.
"I don't see her," Gwaine whispered, his dark eyes darting around the immediate area.
"Keep looking, she can't have…" Arthur's words died in his throat as he and Gwaine were both forced from their horses, landing heavily on the ground a few dozen meters away.
Merlin
Every time Merlin tried to direct his horse one way, his vision would double or blur and he'd forget which way he was going. It didn't help matters that voices kept whispering to him, demanding to know why he killed them, commanding he take his own life, make up for what he had did, avenge their deaths.
He tried ignoring these voices, focusing on the fact that he had to save Gwaine and Arthur. Amelia could have already attacked them; they could already be lost, lying at the bottom of Avalon, dead and forgotten.
No, Merlin thought forcibly. He may not know exactly how much of a head start his friends had, but it couldn't have been more than a half an hour. He still had time, they still had time. He was going to make it in time. He had to make it in time.
Shaking his head to clear it, Merlin directed his horse towards Avalon, willing it to move just a bit faster.
Merlin
Arthur picked himself up, off the ground, holding his aching side. He glanced over at Gwaine, the knight standing next to him, his nose bleeding, more blood rolling down his face from a gash across the side of his head, his sword held tightly in his hand.
"Amelia!" he called, slowly turning in a circle, sliding Excalibur from its sheath. "Amelia! Show yourself!"
"Was that an order, Arthur?" a familiar voice asked and she appeared in front of them, a smirk on her pale face.
"What did you do to Merlin?" Gwaine demanded before Arthur could open his mouth.
"Now, now, let the adults speak, dear knight," Amelia stated clapping her hands. Gwaine clutched at his throat, finding himself unable to speak. "Much, much better." She turned back to Arthur, her smirk more of a grin now, and said, "You're here to help Merlin." It wasn't a question.
"Reverse what you did and I will allow you to live," Arthur said as calmly as possible, trying to be diplomatic when the only thing he really wanted to do was run her through. He held eye contact, showing that he was willing to bargain with her. What he wasn't expecting was for her to cackle, her head tilting back, blue sparks seeming to flash from her fingertips.
"I don't care if you kill me," she said when she calmed down, her dark eyes meeting his blue ones. "Run me through, chop my head off, hang me. I don't care; just as long as your servant goes with me."
"You are aware, if I were to do those things, your spell would be broken and Merlin would be just fine," Arthur pointed out.
"Who said I was going to let you do those things right this second," Amelia retorted and Arthur was sent flying again. Both he and Gwaine hit a nearby tree, colliding into the ground hard enough to knock the air from their lungs, the latter staying down while the former struggled to his feet.
"I just need you out of the way for a few hours and my spell will be complete. Emrys will be dead, and my people can rest knowing we have eliminated our biggest threat."
"Who?" Arthur had never heard the name Emrys, and he definitely never heard it in reference to Merlin. Was there another Amelia had attacked?
"Oh, Arthur, I guess you'll never know all those dirty little secrets your servant has been keeping from you," Amelia said in faux-sympathy. She was the second person to tell Arthur Merlin was keeping things from him, and a wave of betrayal fought to take hold of him, but he forced it down, remembering what Gwaine said about needing all the facts.
He lunged forward, swinging his sword at her. She dove to the side, barely avoiding the blow, rolling to her feet, pulling her own sword from the sheath at her side. She swung at Arthur, but he easily blocked the attack, knocking her sword away from him.
"Impressive sword," she commented as they engaged in battle. "Dragon blade if I'm not mistaken." Arthur grunted, jumping back, narrowly avoiding getting jabbed. "Did your servant give it to you?"
"No," Arthur replied swinging high, his blade nicking her shoulder. She gasped, barely managing to keep hold of her sword, her eyes flashing dangerously. "I pulled it from a stone." There was no way he was telling her that Merlin had indirectly given it to him.
"So the legends were true," she said softly, taking another swing at him.
"What legends?" Arthur asked, easily blocking the swing.
"Well, well, well," she started slowly, ignoring his question "we can expect great things from the once and future king." She attacked a final time, Arthur meeting the attack head on. Surprisingly, her sword glowed an eerie blue and a burst of magic slammed into his chest. It felt like lightening had struck him, sending him backwards into the water.
Arthur's head barely broke the surface before hands immediately grabbed him and started dragging him under.
Merlin
Merlin could tell his horse did not appreciate the magic boost, but the trick worked and the young warlock sensed the magic as he neared Avalon. He left his horse a ways away, leaving the poor thing to catch its breath, and started staggering towards a clump of bushes. He could hear the unmistakable sounds of sword fighting followed by a voice saying, "We can expect great things from the once and future king."
Merlin sped up, bursting through the bushes in time to see Arthur go flying, landing in the lake with a great splash. Merlin watched as Arthur's head broke the surface, and, in stomach sinking horror, as he began struggling, some invisible force dragging him back into the depths of the lake.
The young warlock tried to move forward, but a wave of dizziness rolled through him, bringing him to his hands and knees. He breathed through it, the ground beneath him feeling as if it were swaying back and forth.
"Look at the all mighty Emrys now," Amelia mocked from above him. She kicked out, her foot connecting with his left wrist, and sent Merlin to the ground. "They told me I should fear you, but they were wrong. You are nothing more than a weak, pathetic little boy." She drilled her foot into his left side, flipping him over onto his back, sending a sharp pain through his body. "When you die," she started softly, crouching down near his head, "I'll show the magical community that Emrys was just as mortal as everyone else."
She raised her hand, Merlin feeling the magic crackling in the air. He tried to think of a spell, any spell, to stop her attack, but the voices were getting worse. He just couldn't summon his magic, but before Amelia could cast her spell, a sword burst through her stomach, her words dying in her throat.
"Go to hell," Gwaine hissed yanking his sword from her torso. With a choked cough, Amelia fell into the lake, sinking to the bottom.
Merlin struggled to get to his feet, staggering towards the lake, one arm wrapped protectively around his torso, the voices thankfully gone. He couldn't see Arthur anymore, and a jolt of fear attacked his stomach, but a wave of relief rolled through him as the blond resurfaced, gasping for breath, holding Excalibur tightly in his hand.
"Arthur," Merlin called weakly, his vision blurring. The voices came back full force, seeming almost more demanding than last time. All the warlock would have to do is step forward, submerge himself into the lake, and allow himself to sink to the bottom.
"Merlin," someone screamed his name, bringing him back to reality just as arms wrapped around him and something slammed into his back, followed by blinding pain. "I'm taking you with me," Amelia hissed in his ear just as the two began sinking to the bottom of the lake.