AN - to make a change, this one is actually early! that's because i'm going on holiday tomorrow, and don't know if i'd have time to post it before i went, so you lucky people get it now instead!

so guess what? i wrote the chapter today where the prophecy is fulfilled! haha! and you'll have to wait for it!

also, next week's chapter will be a day or so late, as i'm on holiday in herefordshire (it's near wales)

but for now, enjoy! :D

disclaimer - see ch1

Line - "Exactly how many times have you saved my life?" Arthur asked Merlin.

"At least once every episode!"

"What?"

"Nothing." - Cinnimania (Guest)

Merlin

Noon the next day

It was almost stiflingly hot in the midday sun.

The three of us had put off talking to Leon about what had happened, for now, partly because he would have been in no state to speak about anything that had happened anyway, and partly because the three of us had been locked away in Arthur's tent, planning.

After Gaius had patched up Gwaine's wound, and pronounced me well apart from a small patch of magic exhaustion which was fast receding, the three of us had locked ourselves away from everyone and come up with a plan. Sort of.

Leon had decided that he was going to fight for us, no matter what the other soldiers thought, and quickly convinced us that there was no way anyone was going to tell him otherwise.

Surprisingly enough, Elyan and Percy had been the ones who had approached Leon, not to talk about what had happened, but instead to get in some last minute training. He had been wary of their approach at first, but soon they had almost fallen back into the familiar patterns of the previous training sessions the three of them had done together.

Almost.

And now we were waiting, as Mordred had directed us, for him to show up.

And show up he did.

He appeared before us, but it wasn't just him. With him came his soldiers. Hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of them. I gulped.

"Ah."

Mordred smirked at me. "I'll think you'll find that we outnumber you at least three to one, Emrys." he reverted back to my druid name. "So it might just be better to surrender now and make your defeat less painful.

"Never." the three of us growled, almost as one, to the surprise of those around us. This was something we'd been working on, thinking as one instead of three, partly to try to throw off the enemy slightly, but also because if we could think as one, then we could be a lot more help to each other in battle.

"Very well." he smirked, not at all thrown as we had hoped. "In that case…CHARGE!"

His forces rushed forward, as did ours, and we were quickly surrounded from all sides. That didn't stop us, though.

I was sending great waves of magic out through the soldiers, knocking out first only the weaker sorcerers, but then, as the waves grew stronger, so did the power of the sorcerers I was knocking out, until eventually, it was just a few of the higher level sorcerers and Mordred still standing.

I looked up to see more than half of his army gone, and my spirits lifted. We had a lot more chance of winning now, although I was still outnumbered.

I nodded a thanks to my brothers, who had been protecting me as I worked, and darted into battle myself.

Bits of the battle came and went, until eventually, I found myself standing back to back with Arthur, surrounded by enemies.

We'd been unable to join our minds again after we had split up, as one of the main key components of the spell was proximity.

Now, however, we were free to join, and together, we wove a path of death and destruction through the soldiers, half magic, half swordplay.

Suddenly, a felt a ward come across us, and my magic failed violently, wiping out a row of soldiers in front of me. Arthur looked worried for a minute, before I thought quickly, and swooped and picked up a sword, to his amazement, and began hacking through my enemies as if they were made of butter, instead.

He quickly recovered, and together we became an entity more deadly than any other on the battle field. Although we had moved out of the range of the ward, I continued to use the sword in place of my magic, as I found it reacted quicker and was a lot more deadly if and unexpected enemy were to pop out of no-where.

When all of the soldiers who had decided that it would have been a good idea to surround the two most powerful kings in all Albion had either fled or been killed, Arthur turned to look at me, shocked.

"I didn't know you knew how to use a sword like that!" he exclaimed. I grinned.

"Neither did I." He looked at me, shocked, and slightly amused, too, from the small smile blooming on his face. That was gone, however, as I quickly swooped past him and beheaded another foolish soldier who had thought it , for whatever reason, a good idea to attack the King while his back was turned.

I turned back to Arthur, again, grinning. It faded, slightly, as I realised that I hadn't seen Gwaine in a while, and I raised myself up on tip-toes slightly in order to try and find him.

Arthur was still talking to me, however, as I wasn't paying full attention, I wasn't entirely sure that any answers I gave would make sense. I knew he wouldn't really mind, though.

"Exactly how many times have you saved my life?" Arthur was asking.

"At least once every episode." I told him absentmindedly.

"What?"

"Nothing. What?" I asked. I hadn't really been paying attention to what either of us had been saying, but I could tell my the amused smirk on his face that something I had said hadn't made any sense at all. That smile quickly faded, however, when I asked him "Have you seen Gwaine?" I hadn't been able to spot him in my quick search.

He instantly looked worried, and with a final look at each other, we quickly sprinted away in opposite directions in an attempt to find him.

Half an hour later, although I hadn't managed to find him, I had managed to find trouble, in the form of Leon, Elyan, Percival, and several of my druids, caught in some kind of illusion where they were wasting all of their energy fighting off enemies that didn't actually exist, while other more druids looked on, unable to help as they didn't have the power necessary, including Iseldar.

Upon seeing me, he quickly explained what had happened, and I gave him and a couple of others the task of protecting me as I attempted to undo whatever it was that Mordred had done.

Ten minutes later, I'd found the necessary spell to undo it, but I knew it would take a lot of my energy. Therefore, I sat down against a tree, ignoring the weird looks I was getting, and began chanting softly under my breath, breaking the spell which I was sure Mordred had put them under.

As I finished, a couple of minutes later, slightly exhausted from all the effort I'd had to put into it - it had taken quite a bit more than I'd expected, and it was a good thing I was sitting down, or I'd have fallen over - and I looked up to see the concerned looks from all those surrounding me except for those still protecting me. I shook them off with a small wave of my hand.

"I'll be okay." I told them. "Just give me a minute."

"What happened?" Elyan asked in confusion, as most of the druids disappeared back to the battle, and I waved my thanks to Iseldar, who responded with a quick nod, before joining them.

"You were under an enchantment." I explained to them, still sat against the tree. "The soldiers weren't really there, there were illusions."

"And why are you on the ground?" Leon was still confused.

"The spell took a lot out of me." I told them grimly. "I'll be fine in a minute."

When I felt I had enough energy, I began to stand, and as I wobbled slightly, Leon, who was closest, Grabbed my arm.

"Thanks." I told him once I had my balance, before quickly searching the battlefield again for any sign of my missing brother. I still couldn't spot him.

"Have any of you seen Gwaine at all since the beginning of the battle?" I asked them, and they all shook their heads negative.

"Sorry, Merlin."

"Don't worry about it." I sighed. "I'm just starting to worry about him, is all."

They nodded in understanding. "If we see him, we'll tell him you were looking for him." they promised, as we once more split up and headed out separate ways into battle.

A short while later, while Mordred's attention was fortunately still diverted elsewhere for a while, I finally came across Gwaine wavering slightly near the edge of the battle. Immediately, I darted over to him.

"You okay?" I asked him, eyeing his bandaged cuts critically. He looked at me. "I'll be fine. I'm a Knight of Camelot, I can cope with a little pain." he shook of my concern.

I looked at him. "Gwaine….." he met my gaze firmly, though after a minute, he had to drop it with a sigh.

"Gwaine, what's wrong?" I asked him, really starting to worry now.

He lowered his voice slightly. "Poison, okay? I think Mordred must have poisoned the cuts when he made them."

"What? How strong?" I asked him, worried that he might keel over in a faint at any moment.

"Pretty bad." he told me with a small wince. "I'm barely standing at this point." At this, I grabbed his arm and he leant on me gratefully.

"It's a good thing you had that growth spurt, or I'd have knocked you flat by now." he joked, and I mock-scowled at him, before returning to the more serious matter at hand.

"Will you be able to get to Gaius?" I asked him, gesturing to the medical tent on the other side of the field.

"If you help me." he said, finally admitting just how weak he was, something that scared me more than anything else I'd already seen today. Gwaine never revealed his weaknesses.

"You'll need to put up some kind of a - DUCK!" he yelled, forcing more weight onto me, causing my knees to buckle, and we hit the ground as a series of arrows flew overhead. Not the most graceful landing I've ever made, I'll admit.

"New plan." He told me "I don't think I can get up again."

"Okay." I told him. "If I try to drag you over to those trees, can you help me a bit? Push with your legs or something?"

He nodded grimly, and I'm sure we'd have made quite a sight, the King of Magic attempting to drag the Unexpected Dragonlord behind a clump of trees, him kicking feebly the whole time.

Eventually, though, we managed, and I propped him up against a tree, as I had been earlier. I waved my hand quickly and put a ward around him.

"That'll protect you against minor things like arrows, as well as keep an eye on you for me. Should you come close to…" I gulped slightly "….dying…it'll let my know, and I can come back and save you." I didn't even mention the other option, should I fail. "I'd do it now, except…"

"Except Arthur needs you. It's okay, Merlin, I understand."

"Also, I don't know if I'd be able to." I admitted "I might just mess it up. It'd be better to get you to Gaius, unless it's too late for that."

Our eyes met, and he voiced the one thing I hadn't wanted to think about.

"Better hope this poison doesn't take my soul, eh Merlin?" he asked me, and I shuddered slightly.

"Although," he continued "If it was me, that would mean that it wasn't either of you. And that's infinitely more pleasurable than if it was. So if is the result of the prophecy," he looked up at me "then I'll take it over you two any day."

"Don't say stupid things." I told him gruffly as I stood up, brushing a few small twigs from my clothes. He just smiled up at me.

"Goodbye, Merlin."

I looked down at him for a couple of seconds, before turning round and returning to the battle without a reply.

Because I knew, if it came to it, that I could never let him die.

I knew, that if it came to it, I'd take the poison into my body instead.

AN - oooohhhhh! is this it? is this how the prophecy will be fulfilled? and who will it be?

I KNOW AND YOU DON'T! HAHA! :D

please review! it will make me happy, and when i'm happy i write faster! so review for faster updated :D

-APP