"…It is now my time…My time has now come. Yes…Let yourself free."
Arthur gasps loudly, his hand falling away from Merlin's chest; his other falling away from the blade. He scrambles backwards, his back hitting Gwaine's leg, knocking the knight off balance.
"What the hel—Arthur?!" Gwaine puts his hands on the king's shuddering shoulders, trying to gain his attention.
Arthur slowly lifts his left hand and points at Merlin's chest, the words failing him. His lips tremble and his eyes bulge to unearthly proportions.
…He moved! Merlin's chest, it moved! He felt it!
The king grips onto Gwaine's arm, pulling him closer; despite the man's cursing. He points with all his might at Merlin's chest; his finger shaking with terror and relief beyond measure.
"Moved...!" Arthur rasps, his words cracking severely; a smile breaking through the darkness. He grips onto Gwaine's shoulders, pulling his face to his.
"He moved...!"
Gwaine's eyes widen in alarm but soon a smile replaces the shock; a smile that could rival Arthur's, if that was physically possible as the king's face threatened to split in half.
Gwaine tugs the king forwards with him as he lands sloppily on his knees before Merlin. The other two knights quickly following behind; smiles and looks of disbelief plastered on their grimy faces.
"Merlin…?" Gwaine whispers hoarsely, the words sounding painful; unsure. He gently places a calloused hand against Merlin's pallid cheek.
Merlin's eyes open almost immediately.
All of the men jump back, their hearts almost bursting from their chests.
"Merlin!" Arthur yells triumphantly; throwing himself towards the still immobile figure. He places a bloody hand against the warlock's cheek, attempting to get his eyes to focus on him.
Merlin's face remains stoic, completely devoid of emotion, and his eyes stare up at the ceiling; un-blinking.
Arthur's smile falters the look of horror returning full force; his cobalt blue eyes flickering back and forth from Merlin's glassy blue ones.
The only good thing is that the once white irises are now sapphire again…A color none of the men thought they would ever get to see again.
"What's wrong with him now?" Leon asks curiously, his voice nervous. He kneels next to Arthur as to examine Merlin closer; not to mention protect his king if anything were to…you know, go wrong.
"I don't know…Freya said that this would help him," Arthur half whimpers, his eyes still avoiding the blade jutting out of his friend's chest. Arthur's hand brushes gently against Merlin's right cheek, a gentle gesture he hopes will bring some sort of comfort.
"Either or, I'm getting that out of him now," Gwaine growls and reaches for the blade.
"No…!" Arthur snarls, reaching for his hand.
A pale hand stops him.
All of the men's eyes widen as they stare at it.
It isn't Arthur's.
"M-Merlin?" Gwaine asks limply.
Gold irises stare at them, the gold swirling with un-matched power.
"Wrong," Merlin says playfully, his lips lifting in a Cheshire cat fashion.
"We have to stall her," Lancelot hisses frantically at Elyan, who is crouched next to him behind a crumbling wall, forged from Morgana's destructiveness.
"You've completely lost your mind!" Elyan hisses, tugging on the knight's arm to get his attention. Lancelot hisses out in pain and his arm is immediately dropped, an endless amount of apologies slipping out of his brother's mouth.
"It's alright! Listen! Do you see that door over there—," Lancelot points past Morgana as she halts to sniff the air determinedly once more.
"—the red one?"
Elyan nods his head, his eyes following Morgana as she stalked upon it, her hair swirling even more possessed-like. His eyes widen with realization.
"You don't mean tha—"
"—That, my friend, is where they are. I bet my life upon it," Lancelot says half-jokingly.
"Don't joke about that," Elyan scolds, sending a glare the knight's way.
"What are we going to do…Look at her; she's gone completely off the deep end. She'll sense us, Lance! We don't have a fighting chance! Even with our swords!"
Lancelot sighs through his nose, his eyes following Morgana's chaotic path.
"We can't stall any longer…If we do, there won't be a "fighting chance," don't you understand? It's now or never."
"Okay…," Elyan mumbles under his breath, his hand clenching tighter around his sword.
"What do you suggest then?"
"At this point I don't see any other choice than to—Morgana!" Lancelot yells loudly, jumping rashly from his safe haven.
Morgana stops in her pursuit, her arms twitching with her irritation and fury.
A dark aura like no other slithers its way towards the two men engulfing them in sickness and in shadow.
"—The hell?!" Elyan hisses, pulling Lancelot back down, his brown eyes flickering to the witch's un-moving back before landing on his friend once more.
"Do you have a death wish?!"
"No! Trust me! Trust me and stay here," Lancelot pulls Elyan's arms away from himself and faces Morgana once more; his sword lifting threateningly in front of his bare chest; droplets of sweat coursing their way down his lean torso.
His sword shakes slightly in his fear as he inches further away from Elyan, attempting to appear alone in his valiant attempts.
He will not risk his life as well, this is all him…Him and Morgana.
"You know," Lancelot says surprisingly steady, "your guards are pathetic, they were almost too easy."
Elyan's eyes flicker warily towards Morgana's shuddering figure.
He's barking mad, he has to be.
The knight inches forward, his hand gripping onto his sword but his actions are halted by one quick glare from Lancelot. A look that crossed between "trust me" and "do not move or you'll regret it later."
"Watch that pretty mouth," Morgana sneers demonically, her voice cracking with anger.
Her dark curls swirl untamed above her head like snakes.
Lancelot slowly turns his head towards her once more, Elyan being forgotten as the sinister words pierce through his head like a knife.
"I might just have to remove it permanently," the witch snarls and in the blink of an eye she turns around, her eyes a fiery gold and a fireball engulfing her left hand. She hurls it at the shell-shocked Lancelot, a devilishly pleasured look upon her crimson lips as she watches the knight's face cripple with undeniable terror.
Elyan watches in horror as Lancelot lifts his left arm forwards, bracing for imminent death.
"Lance—!" Elyan yelps frantically but the words are muffled by the roar of the flames.
The raging fire stops, the knight's cursed hand halting it before it reached his flesh.
Elyan lets out a small gasp-like choke, his eyes never leaving the knight's un-charred hand.
Lancelot gasps in awe, the fire feels cool his fingers melt within it completely.
"Impossible," Morgana roars, her eyes flashing a blood red.
The fire glistens in Lancelot's eyes as he tears his attention away from the blaze and back to the shocked witch before him.
"Surprised? So am I!" He cries re-coiling his hand and thrusting the hellfire back at the snarling witch.
The fireball hits Morgana on her left side, an awful howl slipping from her mouth and she coils in on herself.
Elyan's eyes widen even further.
Lancelot doesn't have magic too, right?
The flabbergasted knight watches as the said "magic-user" runs his fingers through his hair, excitement rushing through his body at the release of power; power he shouldn't be capable of possessing.
Elyan's eyes fall upon his brother's left arm, his mouth gaping in further horror.
It's bleeding.
Blood splatters ominously onto the stone floor, Lancelot's face crippling with the sudden acknowledgement. He gently trails his right hand across his arm, his long fingers tracing the dark marks that have begun to appear on his wrist…
Arthur's eyes never leave Merlin's gold ones, the smile yet to fall from the warlock's lips.
Merlin's eyes suddenly glance towards the door, the smile widening enough to the point of cracking.
It's extremely unnerving, the smile. It sets the men's teeth on edge.
"It seems your friends have, shall we say, hmm, successfully distracted Merlin's ex-master, but not for long!" He laughs almost gleefully, his eyes darting back at the shell-shocked Arthur.
His face almost immediately falls and his chin jerks upwards, his eyes narrowing at the broken door, his lips twitching in an unreadable emotion.
"…It also appears that someone has been trying to trick Death! Well I guess I'm in no position to speak about that!" He gestures at the blade, his hand toying with it nonchalantly.
Arthur winces and averts his eyes as fresh blood pools from the undoubtedly fatal wound.
"That hurt you know," Merlin sighs apathetically at Arthur, pulling himself up into a sitting position, his legs crisscrossed in front of him.
"What on earth are you talking about Merlin?" Gwaine huffs irritated and extremely concerned. He has a dagger in his chest for God's sake! Should he even be moving?! Let alone speaking?!
"As I have just said," Merlin glances at Gwaine beneath his eyelashes, his golden eyes striking fear into the very depths of the men's souls.
"Do not make me repeat myself."
The words are threatening, they are powerful beyond measure.
They aren't Merlin's.
"Who…What are you?" Arthur asks, his voice barely a whisper.
The air suddenly begins to spark with life, the men feeling as though the air had been sucked from their very lungs. The walls begin to shake and debris and dust fall from the ancient ceiling. The knights begin to shift unsurely all around Arthur, forming a protective ring around him.
Merlin is glowing; the men almost having to shield their eyes from the brightness.
They watch as Merlin's body begins to float in mid-air, his bloody clothing whirling delicately around him, the dagger still wedged deep within the lithe chest. A slight gush of wind rushes past the king and his men as Merlin's feet touch the stone floor, his piercing gaze eying each of them with amusement and self-pride.
"I, mortal king, am Emrys!" Merlin's lips curl into a boastful grin, his body seeming to grow larger in size and his shadow overpowers the frightened men before him.
"I am Lord of all Druids! I am magic in its purest form! I am power beyond all others! I am the bender and shaper of worlds! And, if I wish, the destroyer! With the lifting of one of my fingers I could have kingdoms bowing at my feet!"
Merlin gestures at the blade, a distant look in his eyes, causing the youthful face to become aged in years. "…I am immortal and endless, only I shall remain when all others fade!"
The knights stare up at Merlin, or Emrys, completely out of words.
"Where's Merlin?!" Gwaine snarls but it falls short as it blends with his fear.
"I am Merlin, as he is me!" Emrys explains highly irritated.
A round of gasps engulf the tiny room, realization sinking in. Arthur's face is completely devoid of emotion. Yes, he knew that Merlin was Emrys, Freya had told him.
…Immortality? The power to destroy…? These, he did not know…Along with a few others.
How lonely Merlin must've felt…How terrified? To live to see friends age and die, only to do it all over again? Torture…Endless torture.
"—Merlin's memory is foggy, knight," Merlin's irritated voice says, waking Arthur from his fruitless thoughts.
"Therefore, so is mine. Your face is familiar but your demeanor is annoying and extremely flamboyant. Do not test me. I am livid! I have been ensnared for far too long and, frankly, I am pissed…!"
Emrys grinds his teeth in frustration and, to the men's horror; a tapestry catches on fire above them, them barely dodging it as it flares upon the floor, writhing until combusting into ashes upon the stone.
"Merlin is in here," Emrys says almost sympathetically, tapping onto the blades hilt where his heart is; "trapped by his own mind. This, mortal king, is your fault!"
"My name is Arthur," the king says stoically, his blue eyes locking onto Emry's gold ones. Confusion filters across his glowing face but before he can say anything he is interrupted by the quietest of them all.
"What does Arthur have to do with Merlin being trapped?" Percival asks warily, his eyes avoiding the warlock's golden ones.
"Well, I suppose the witch is the main cause of it…The bitch! She tortured him for hours, peering into the depths of his mind, finding and toying with his weaknesses. However, Merlin is smart," Emrys boasts a smug smile plastered across Merlin's bloody face.
"He locked me under lock and key, given I wasn't very pleased about it! I despise being caged, you see, Merlin tends to do that a lot…" A look of absolute rage flitters across his face as he stares Arthur down.
"You must be the one he won't stop mentioning, the ramblings are giving me a headache! Even now he calls for you though your name has been lost:"
"'It's dark,' 'Where are you?' 'Help me,' it's all so very annoying! Should I tell him you're not coming? Or should I tell him you are here?" Emrys throws his head back in a fit of laughter at Arthur's and the knight's terrified and lost expressions.
"Do not fret, mortal one, I shall tell him you are well! That's all he really cares for anyways, that alone pisses me off even further. I don't give a damn about you, any of you really. I do however, care for Merlin! He is my vessel and yet you use him for your petty needs!"
"Don't talk about him like that!" Gwaine roars and launches himself at him only to be stopped by Percival who wounds his large arms around him, keeping him in place.
"Smart move," Emrys compliments, earning a scowl from Percival and a growl from Gwaine and Arthur.
"Merlin is not a vessel! He is a human being and deserves respect!" The king snarls at the Merlin-imposter.
"True as that may be Merlin is my vessel, my host, that, I cannot change! I do not like it as much as the rest of you! My powers are muffled and wasted by him! He does not allow me to do as I wish! He pushes me away, detaches himself from me; he leaves me alone."
"It annoys me to no end! He knows this…So, naturally, I do the same to him. He denies my existence…Hides me away as if he were ashamed. I have my own ways to show him my displeasure!" He gestures at the bloody tunic and wipes the blood off his nose with his left arm; his face scrunching up in frustration.
"Y-you mean," Arthur stutters, his cobalt blue eyes turning a dark blue as rage fills his face, "that you did that?"
Emrys cocks his head to the side, a wickedly amused look upon his face.
"If he denies me, I'll deny him, simple as that. It's a rough game we play. I am, nonetheless, extremely interested as to who will win in this never-ending strife."
I'm so ready for a nap. Emrys is hard to write for! In my mind I imagine Merlin's magical side to be a bit mischievous and cocky, a total foil to the timid and compassionate Merlin that we all love. I'd imagine him to be pissed too, easily angered because of Merlin's reluctance to use his magic.
Tell me what you think? :/ I'm a little paranoid on this chapter…
I GAVE LANCELOT A TEMORARY POWER THINGY :D!
It's the arm guys, it's the arm. I couldn't very well kill him off could I? [Yet…*Evil laughter*]
I probably won't be writing for a while…You know, Christmas and all that! I also moved…My life is hectic right now.
I hope you guys have a blessed Christmas with family and friends!
Best wishes always,
Lthien~
