Yes I know I said I'd have this up before New Year but you all probably know by now that I am rubbish at sticking to deadlines. Anyway Happy New Year to you all and thanks to everyone who is reading. Enjoy. x

Chapter 25

Darkness, heat, pain. It was everywhere, surrounding him, consuming him. What felt like fire seemed to be flooding through his veins. Every nerve ending in his body was screaming at him. Every touch, every movement sent new waves of pain flooding through him. He tried to lessen the pain, adjusting and readjusting his position. But nothing seemed to work.

All he wanted to do was to cry out, to scream for the pain to stop, but he couldn't get his voice to work. All that seemed to come out was muttered nonsense. Not that he thought anyone would be able to hear him if he could scream. He was trapped in the darkness all alone, waiting for the pain to stop. He could feel the life ebbing out of himself and knew that it wouldn't be long now.

At least they were safe. That one thought had been the only thing that had kept him sane in the darkness. At least he had done his job one last time. He could feel the fear in the back of his mind trying to take over. What if they weren't safe? What if he had failed? And who were they? But he had to concentrate on the positive, knowing that they must be important, otherwise he knew the darkness would win.

He found that it was getting harder to move and all he could do now was shift slightly as he tried to relieve the pain. But even that wasn't giving him the slightest relief. The fire in his veins seemed to be getting hotter, burning him from the inside out. Although he was trying to fight he felt his energy draining out of him and the part of him that wanted to give in to the darkness was growing.

Suddenly he felt something cool on his forehead. It took him a moment but he soon realised that it was a hand pushing his hair back. Hope exploded in his chest as he realised that he wasn't alone, wherever he was. He tried to call out, to explain that he needed help, but he couldn't make his voice work at all.

Instead he strained his ears and managed to make out voices. But he felt like someone had stuffed cloth in his ears and he couldn't make out what they were saying. There was more than one person though, that he was sure of, maybe they could find a way to get him out of the darkness. Though the hope that had flared earlier was slowly ebbing away. He didn't have much time; it wasn't likely that they would be able to help him.

However all thoughts were driven from his mind as he felt his head being tipped back and something poured into his mouth. His first instinct was to fight it and he felt tension flood through him as his body tried to reject the intrusion. However he didn't have enough energy to cough it out and felt it slowly trickle down his throat.

But as it did he felt it cool the area it passed across, relieving the burning pain. Eagerly he swallowed the liquid, feeling the coldness spread from his throat throughout his body. It replaced the fire in his veins, filling his body with the cool relief. He sighed internally as he felt cool, almost cold, for the first time he could remember. He strained to hear the voices again but they seemed to have stopped. He frowned, or would have done if he had actually been able to move, and realised that they must have left him.

But then his arm was being grabbed roughly and pulled in front of him. He felt the cool hands groping at his wrist as if they were searching for something. He heard the voices again, sounding more panicked this time. And the cool hands were swiftly replaced with rougher ones that repeated the same searching motion. He briefly felt that he should probably try to help them find what they were looking for but he couldn't dredge up the energy to really care. Instead he focused on the hands that had now moved to his chest. He decided that they felt older than the first pair, more worn and wrinkled. However his attention was drawn away from those hands as the first hand slipped into his.

Then the movement stopped and the voices quietened again. He wondered if they had all left but the hand was still in his so he was satisfied that someone was still with him, even though he didn't know who it was. He felt weightless and another thought crossed his mind; maybe he was dead. That could be why everything felt so strange, this could be what being dead felt like. It wasn't unpleasant he decided, just a bit uncomfortable. He could feel the feeling returning to parts of his body but he still couldn't summon the energy to move any of them.

A sound reached his ears and he strained, trying to work out what it was. It didn't take long for him to realise that it was someone crying. That in itself felt weird to him. If he was dead then why could he hear crying? He tried to move his fingers to squeeze the hand in his to reassure them. Maybe they were afraid because they thought they were alone. However he couldn't make his fingers work to show them otherwise.

Instead he tried to open his eyes to see who was there. But that proved to be more difficult than he thought. They seemed too heavy and he really wanted to give in, to keep them shut and just let go. However another sob strengthened his focus and he tried, once again, to pull them open.

This time he had more success and he dragged his eyes open slightly. Instantly he was hit by a burning light. He screwed his eyes tight shut again, waiting for the spots to disappear from his vision. Once they had he tried again, blinking rapidly to try and clear his vision. It was still blurred however he managed to make out a figure bent over him. He couldn't make out a face as the figure seemed to be bent forward, it's dark hair covering its face.

"Am I dead?"

It was only after he had spoken the question that had popped into his head that he realised he had control of his voice again, albeit very croaky. The figure above him lifted its head to reveal a woman's face. His vision was still blurred but he was met with a pair of startling green eyes that he felt sure he should recognise but couldn't place.

"Merlin?"

He blinked again, trying to bring the woman into focus. Her voice sounded so familiar but he still couldn't place it. And the name she had spoken rang bells in the back of his mind, was it his?

All contemplation was put out of his head as the woman bent down and crashed her lips into his forcefully. He could feel the urgency behind the kiss and closed his eyes, melting into it. Suddenly something seemed to explode inside his head and memories started to flood back. His life flashed in front of his eyelids, images rushing past in a whirl of colour and light.

Ealdor, his mother, Will, Camelot, Gaius, Arthur, Gwen, Morgana, Isabelle.

Isabelle! Recognition flooded through him as the kiss ended and he realised who the woman was. She was looking down at him in concern but new images had arrived, jostling for attention as they pressed in on him.

Magic, light, the sword in the stone, the dragon, the druids, Emrys.

Merlin stared around him at the familiar faces he could now place. Arthur was stood on his left with one arm round Morgana who appeared to have been crying into the blonde's shirt. He smiled tentatively at the prince who smiled back broadly.

"It's good to see you awake." Arthur said uncomfortably, not keen on expressing his feelings, "Finally I'll have someone to finish doing my chores, your replacement was even worse than you are."

The words, which could have seemed heartless to anyone else, made Merlin smile as Arthur's face gave away the relief he was feeling. Also Merlin had a sneaking suspicion that Arthur had left for the druids the moment he had fallen ill and so hadn't exactly had a chance to find a replacement.

Morgana cuffed Arthur round the back of the head before turning to smile warmly at Merlin.

"You had us worried there for a moment, we thought you were dead."

"You can't get rid of me that easily." Merlin said with a smirk.

He heard Morgana laugh at that but his attention had been drawn to the woman who was perched on the edge of his bed. She looked like she expected this to be a dream she was about to wake up from and he squeezed the hand that was still in his.

"I thought you were dead." She whispered quietly, echoing Morgana's words.

"It's thanks to you that I'm not." He replied with a smile.

Merlin vaguely registered Arthur protesting that he had been there as well and Morgana hushing him but his focus was on Isabelle. She smiled at him brightly, tears still glistening in her eyes. Merlin tried to sit up however he was still weak and his body wasn't obeying him properly. He half wished for the cold weightlessness he had just left, at least there he couldn't feel the ache in every bone of his body. But the warm feeling that had replaced the cold was much more comforting and he felt relieved that they had brought the antidote back in time.

Isabelle put one hand on his chest, preventing him from sitting up. Merlin considered protesting but didn't think he had the energy to so he collapsed back onto the bed.

"You need to rest." She said.

"You sound like Gaius." Merlin replied with a teasing smile.

He glanced at the elderly physician who was stood just behind Isabelle and looking as in shock as she was. However the eye contact seemed to bring him back to the present and he smiled fondly at Merlin. Picking up a cup from the table behind him, Gaius moved forward and handed it to the young warlock.

"Here drink this; it will help you regain your strength." Gaius said as Merlin inspected the unappealing looking liquid, "I'm glad you're okay my boy."

Merlin looked back up at the elderly man and felt a stab of guilt as he saw how much more harrowed Gaius looked than he had before Merlin had been poisoned. But the genuine joy and relief on his face made Merlin smile at him fondly.

He turned back to the cup Gaius had given him and downed it in one go, grimacing at the foul taste. Instantly he felt his eyelids growing heavy and the weariness in his body increasing. Panicking he tried to fight it, wanting to stay awake.

"Relax Merlin." Gaius said soothingly, "It's a sleeping potion, you need to rest to regain your strength."

"I don't want to sleep." Merlin tried to say but the words came out more slurred than he'd intended.

"It's okay Merlin." Isabelle reassured him.

Merlin clutched at her hand fearfully as he felt the darkness engulfing him again.

"I don't want you to go."

"I'm not going anywhere."

Were the last words Merlin heard before he surrendered to the darkness.

Originally this is where I was going to finish things (well there is an epilogue to come but this was going to be the last chapter before that) but many of you have said that you wanted to see Arthur having a talk with Merlin, Isabelle and Morgana about magic and so on so I'd really like to know if people still wanted to read that or would rather I left it here and just went onto the epilogue. I don't mind either way so please tell me what you think in a review or a PM or something. Thanks.