Disclaimer: BBC Merlin and the Marvel Universe do not belong to me in any way. I only own fictional planets and the shirt on my back - though one or more of those may be variable

XEL~RANQTA

Xe`Taql'ou Confederation
 Siminian Galaxy
 Earth-199333

Cerulean blue eyes gazed out the floor-to-ceiling window of the skyscraper, a kaleidoscope of neon city lights reflecting perfectly on lonely blue irises.

Stretching as far into the horizon as the naked human eye could see, towers of glistening metallic alloys effortlessly intertwined with thriving organic matter, branching up towards the sky in pillars of absolute structural and genetic engineering genius. Unevenly cut stained-glass shards winded around the living buildings, stretching from ground to cupola and forming a menagerie of wondrous pictures and ancient legends straight out of Xe`Raqwa mythology. The brilliant purple, light green, azure, and scarlet hues of planetary sunset reflected off the crystalline shards in thousands of angles, turning the capital city into a prismatic motley of ever-changing color and illumination as the sun sank down over the horizon. Hovercraft and shuttlecraft leisurely flitted about the city airspace, elegantly weaving between the towers like a swarm of metallic fireflies, identifying golden tail-lights blinking slowly in the long cast shadows of approaching nightfall.

A dash of neon purple from an outside shuttle advert caught on clear cyan blue as Merlin flicked his gaze down and took a sip from the slightly bitter orange café drink he'd ordered. The warlock sighed, content with his purchase and the gorgeous view he was afforded from his solitary perch by one of the 'café's' various large windows. Merlin used the term 'café' quite loosely to describe the establishment, considering the fact that live carnivorous ungulates were a specialty on the menu and the place also offered hair/fur cuts along with scale-polishes.

The warlock absentmindedly glanced around the rest of the establishment, taking in the distinctly Xe`Raqwa architecture that valued unique metallic sculpture along with the interspersion of organic life in all things. Waiters and waitresses of all species bustled about the 'café', intermittently delivering food and beverages while politely laughing at customers' jokes. Silent mechanical hoverdrones worked vigorously to scrub the tables and clear up discarded food, occasionally performing showy aerial dances when unoccupied and topping off drinks with extreme flourish when sentient employees were too busy to do so themselves.

A group of Xe`Raqwa university students flooded the bar area of the café, either cheerfully celebrating the end of finals season or drowning their sorrow at their results. In the singular corner of the room, a pair of courting purple-gray A'askavarii were seated at a booth, cupping their smoking beverages between two tentacled paws, gesticulating their speech with another two and utilising their remaining pair to feel each other up under the table.

A loud boom of merry laughter rang out from a long pink Talo! game table lining one of the walls, crowded with a motley of species from as many different planets as galaxies. The similarly uniformed crowd collectively moved and shifted with the carefully measured gait of people working to adjust to sudden higher g-forces. Perhaps a recently docked import crew? Merlin's mind supplied. A sudden flurry of shimmering purple holographic sparks shot off into the air, indicating a perfect Talo! dice roll to the delight of a toothily smirking Hujah crewmember.

On the third floor of the establishment, a particularly nasty pincer fight had broken out between a group of Arthrosians. Merlin only noticed the commotion when a spindly leg was dangerously dangled over the edge of the railing overlooking the lower floors. The warlock noted that the employees had casually decided to ignore the commonplace brawl. At least, until the intraspecies fight started causing property damage.

Merlin took in the foreign chaos, feeling completely at peace.

It was a rare sensation for the immortal warlock, but Merlin could genuinely embrace it there. Because even over the span of a thousand years: things out in space hadn't really changed. Sure, power had switched hands, wars were started and ended, and various technological advancements were made - but yet, the main layout of the universe still remained the same. Although its incredible vastness and technology were a major shock when the warlock was first exposed to it a millennia ago, the universe itself was dependable in a way. Despite its infinity, it was constant. It was reliable.

Even after all this time, the Nova Empire still stood strong and at odds with the Kree - just as Merlin had always known them to be. The warlock could practically guarantee that there would always be thriving Ravagers pillaging their way throughout the cosmos, slipping around politics and law-enforcement fickler than salmon through a stream. Merlin could count on the colonialistic conquering expansion of the Shi'ar Empire, its monarchy so vastly foreign to the one he once cherished but not to those which came after. Merlin could always rely on the Nine Realms to continue to hold their self-imposed isolation, cloaking Terra and his destiny in comfortable obscurity.

Merlin appreciated that - the consistency. When Earth became too much, the warlock always found that he could escape to the comforting embrace of the stars. It was his safe haven, the one place where he never had to hide. It was the one home where he never had to fear being run out and reviled simply because of the facts of his birth. His time in space was the only time when he hadn't had to constantly worry about making mistakes - tiny inadvertent slips in his web of lies - and having his secrets dangerously and destructively outed. In the cosmos his elongated lifespan wasn't even abnormal; he didn't have to watch the ones he loved constantly drop like flies along with the march of time. Out in space, Emrys could almost feel normal. Out in the strange, infinite, alien diversity of the cosmos, Merlin could blend in.

Because after all, in galaxies filled with Interdimensional Beings, Celestials, Eternals, Elders and Watchers, one 1500 year old immortal Terran incarnation of magic really was barely worth a mention.

Merlin didn't even have to bother with trying to hide his magic and Dragonlord heritage. He didn't have to pretend to be younger and dumber than he actually was just to fit in. It was freeing. In space - being from a practically unknown species - no one judged him in the ways that he was used to. No one held him to the same restrictive, preordained standards. Merlin could be whomever he wanted - whatever he wanted - and no one would stop him. No one would even want to stop him. The warlock could travel wherever he wished, could freely learn about magic and the cosmos forever, without restriction nor rules. There was so much for him to do and for him to see, that even after a thousand years of exploring it, the warlock had still barely scratched the surface of what was out there.

Merlin's current and latest dalliance into the cosmos, however, wasn't for leisure. For once, he actually had a purpose with his excursion. Over the centuries, the warlock had mastered the art of disappearing on Earth and hiding in plain sight. Merlin had made sure to never stay in one location for longer than fifteen years without using an aging spell before he moved on, far enough that he wouldn't be recognized. Merlin only ever let himself return to the same place after half a century or so had passed. By then, either no one would remember him - or if they did, he could just easily pretend to be one of his own descendants.

It was awkward, and Merlin despised the castle of lies he so easily built with each move made and each identity assumed. But the truth was worse. It had more consequences than the lies for himself, and for the people around him. The truth never really was an option - he knew that now. And after all, Merlin had been lying about what he was for as long as he could remember. Old habits die hard.

However, with the invention of the internet and primitive facial-recognition software Merlin knew that his time-tested strategy needed some new renovations. In his time journeying throughout the universe, the warlock had mastered a couple of spells that helped him to avoid detection from certain entities by wiping all traces of himself from databases and computer systems. However, the workings used to fool inter-galactic quantum qutrit systems didn't quite work with the binary computers on Earth.

Shame, really.

He'd been planning on putting it off for a bit longer, using a slow-aging spell to stay on Earth and live through the period of rapid technological advancement that marked the twenty-first century. However, when a group of highly trained operatives dressed in advanced tactical gear tried to kidnap the warlock outside of the center for Doctors Without Borders in the Congo where he was working, he knew that it was time to go.

Merlin figured that with the way things were progressing, it was better to go sooner - when the world was in relative peace - than later - when he might risk missing something vital again.

So - in a routine that he was well accustomed to - the warlock wrapped things up, made an excuse about a family emergency requiring him to move to his colleagues, asked Aithusa to send him a message if he needed to return for whatever reason, and wind-slipped directly to Xandar.

After being deposited by a sweeping gust of wind in a nondescript side-alley off of the main Deyla marketplace, the warlock's first thoughts on where to begin his research on what would be considered "ancient" and "primitive" computational systems to the rest of the galaxy brought him to Nova University. Throughout the years, Merlin had gotten multiple degrees at the galactically renowned university, and had even taught as a professor in the Magi-Neurological Systems Department for about a decade or two. Even though it had been over a thousand years since Merlin had first set foot on the planet, and about 800 since he applied for a Xandarian visa, he still had living connections there. Not many, but enough to always feel welcome and safe.

Despite that fact though, Merlin did not have any current friends in the Exo-History Department. However, by calling upon a couple owed favours with some of his other acquaintances and a good bit of polite needling, the ex-servant managed to gain full access to the University Library's historical archives.

Surprisingly, it had only taken the equivalent of a couple of months for the warlock to comb through all of the recorded spells pertaining to early binary computer systems, and compile them into a working that would do the job of deleting his presence from Earth's internet quite nicely. Merlin had even found a way to 'scry' for any additional offline or hard-copy records of his existence so that he could find and destroy them.

Really, it was almost too easy.

Afterwards, Merlin figured that since he was already on Xandar and ahead of schedule, he might as well catch up on the newest advancements in the fields he'd previously studied - and maybe learn a couple of new things while he was at it.

Most of the time the warlock would master disciplines in the old-fashioned and painstaking way - since learning took up a rather large and distracting chunk of his endless time - but on this occasion, Merlin decided to use his magic to aid him. Utilising speed-reading and enhanced memory spells, the warlock was able to renew his Exo-Organic Emergency Medicine license, and get a new degree in both Valtorr Language Studies and Quantum-Molecular and Cellular Developmental Extraplanar Pathways in just under four years.

He was planning on going back to Earth right after he defended his thesis, but then, when he was perusing some of the shiftier markets on Xandar (he wasn't really afraid anything that could go wrong when he had free reign of his magic, and a distinct inability to die), he'd caught rumors of a distinct ancient artifact going for sale in certain discrete markets. Merlin knew that it was probably just that - a rumor (or real, but made by something else entirely like Dwarves for example) - but he couldn't let it go.

For some reason, his gut was telling him not to.

So, the warlock kept an ear open and subtly enquired about the item and the mysterious anonymous collector that owned it. Unsurprisingly, he learned next to nothing. Even with a good amount of bribing, coercing, and deliberately threatening displays of magic, all he'd managed to exact were whispers - metaphorical smoke in the wind. Just when Merlin was about to abandon the whole goose chase and go back to Terra, he'd caught hearsay of other more concerning artifacts going for auction along with the original that had peaked his initial interest.

After much painstakingly slow investigation that spanned multiple galaxies and involved the occasional destroyed moon, the warlock's quest was successful (oh, how he couldn't wait to see Aithusa's reaction!). However, Merlin had spent far more time away from Earth than originally planned.

And that was how the warlock currently found himself. In a café on Xel~Ranqta, trying to overcome the anxiety that he always experienced when returning to Earth after an extended trip to space. Giving up the liberating freedom of the cosmos was by far not as easy as embracing it. It was always difficult for him to force himself back into the mold of Terra - hiding, lying, and limiting himself just so that he could fit into a world that was so similar, yet so completely foreign to the one he was born into.

The warlock looked out the window once more, appreciatively. The capital of Xel~Ranqta truly made for a stunning sight. The genetically engineered buildings hybridized beautifully with their supporting, winding metal skeletons and picturesque stained glass windows. Despite the calming warm colored light bathing the city and the leisurely slow motion of the people and craft outside, the air carried a faint undercurrent of energy to it - indicative of the vibrant nightlife that would pack the winding pedestrian streets in scant few hours. 'The City Never Sleeps at Night' described the capital aptly, with the Xe'Raqwa believing celebration and hedonism to be just as important in life as work ethic and success - thus taking no half-measures in the pursuit of either.

However, for now at least, the ancient warlock chose to enjoy the languid tranquility of the sunset, absorbing the ephemeral sight of vivid colors and long shadows cast upon the city. Merlin took a sip of his drink and sighed contentedly, lips twitching up into a small smile. He'd originally gotten the beverage purely out of the fact that it was highly caffeinated, but had found that it actually had a surprisingly pleasant aftertaste - reminiscent of summer wine grapes and a hint of mango. It paired nicely with the light sea-foam topping the drink also came with. The only downside to the whole thing was the purple baubles that he might've called Boba - if they didn't have miniature tentacles and teeth.

Merlin was using a green wooden stirring stick to try and bat away the rather aggressive diamond-shaped creatures so that he could take a sip without getting bitten when he suddenly felt it .

The warlock abruptly froze, stick hanging still.

A Boba promptly took the opportunity to bite it in half. Merlin wasn't paying attention to it though because in that moment, a small but noticeable shockwave had emanated throughout the fabric of the universe. The sparking cosmic ripples tingled at the edges of his senses, beckoning his magic towards the epicenter like an inter-galactic siren.

The warlock could physically feel the shift in the balance it caused. Most would not have sensed it, but to a creature like him, it was like a slap to the face - as blatantly obvious as when Morgana had torn open the veil. He didn't even have to think about it. Merlin immediately knew what it meant.

Someone had collected three of the infinity stones.

It was unmistakable, with the way the three happily reunited stones sang an ethereal trilling song that reverberated throughout the cosmos.

Merlin would be lying if he said he wasn't concerned. One or two stones together was an accident. Something that naturally occurred. He'd felt it happen numerous times over the centuries.

Despite the immediate destructive power of the stones, someone using one of them really wasn't worrying in the grand scheme of the universe. Countless people had sought the stones for their own goals over the millennia, but few were able to hold onto them for long. Like all things in the universe, the stones demanded a price. Few were willing to pay that price. Or even survive paying it.

But this... three stones wasn't an accident. It was a pattern.

A deliberate, somewhat frightening pattern.

And - to top it all off - Merlin could feel the protections on a fourth stone - the time stone - fall into place and ring out. Centuries ago, when Kilgharrah had introduced him to the Ancient One (he didn't even think that it was possible for someone who could be even more cryptic than the bloody dragon to exist, but there she was), he'd gotten roped into placing some of his own enchantments on the Eye of Agamotto. Naively, the warlock had placed a magical alarm on the ancient relic which would alert him if someone tried to tamper with the container of the time stone, or involuntarily take it from the Sorcerer Supreme.

Merlin had come to regret that decision rather quickly.

Because somehow, in the millennia since he magicked the thrice-damned eye, it seemed that literally everyone and their mother had tried to snatch the sodding stone at some point.

And then - to top it all off - Every. Single. Time. that he'd faithfully responded to the magical SOS his enchantments sounded, it turned out to be a false alarm.

Or that it was triggered by an 'experiment'.

Or that his help was not actually needed.

Or that the whole thing was completely over by the time that he'd dropped everything and gotten there.

One time, one of the apprentices even panicked at his sudden wind-swept appearance and promptly sent him out of a sparkling circle of masochism to fall from fifty meters onto a frozen glacier in the middle of the arctic circle.

Eventually, Merlin just started ignoring the thing, and decided to trust the Ancient One and the Order of Masters of the Mystic Arts that she headed with the stone's protection.

But now, now that someone was deliberately and successfully collecting the stones, the warlock was worried. Scratch that, he was really worried. If they already had half of the stones and might be working on acquiring the time stone - which was the most powerful of the six if used correctly - he doubted that they'd have any problems acquiring the rest. With the power of the universe in their hands, they could bring destruction on a scale hitherto undreamed of.

Merlin knew what that kind of power meant. He understood better than anyone exactly what it meant to have to have pure, unmeasurably destructive power; to posses the ability to sweep up seas, ravage landscapes, curse generations of people, and uncontestably conquer whatever he laid he laid his eyes upon without even having to lift a single finger. The warlock lived through that power, releasing more magic in one sigh than even some of the most powerful sorcerers could ever hope to gain over a lifetime.

Oh yes, Emrys knewwhat power meant. He felt its burden down to his very bones.

But Merlin also knew that despite his great power and all his good intentions - he could never bring about significant positive change. Destiny ensured that. No matter how much he may have wished to, every single time that the warlock had tried to use his power to truly help over the centuries, destiny always - always - painfully and irrevocably held him back in some way. If he tried to change the way things were meant to be or attempted to turn his back on his destiny, it only led to more pain, suffering, and death for the people he cared about.

Once Merlin realized that he only made things worse by trying to help, the warlock gave up on trying to change the world. Over the centuries, Merlin had resigned himself towards helping only in small ways, evanescently flitting throughout the world as a healer and touching individual lives by applying his hard-earned wisdom, skills, and advice. It wasn't the most enjoyable nor ideal situation, but it had worked so far and it would just have to continue to work until the prophecy could be fulfilled and he could move on.

But this time, this gathering of the stones was different. If Merlin didn't interfere, the consequences could be disastrous for everyone - in the literal sense of the word. Because in this instance, it wasn't just the Earth at stake. It wasn't just his destiny, or his friends, or the druids, or even Arthur in danger.

This time, the fate of the entire universe was hanging on the edge of the chopping block, and Emrys's decision sat just at the tipping point of that delicate balance.

Merlin suddenly found his decisions holding more weight than they had ever held before. It was odd, he noticed detachedly, how a person's entire reality could shift in the matter of a couple moments. The warlock fidgeted uncomfortably in his seat.

Merlin knew that he wanted to help. He knew that he needed to help, with the warlock being one of the few lifeforms powerful enough to make a difference and actually willing to try to do so... but should he help?

By trying to help, he might just make the entire situation worse - as he almost always did. Merlin knew from experience that by trying to prevent Albion's darkest hour, he could just as easily bring it about himself. Perhaps it was better to do nothing. Perhaps it was wiser to just let the universe sort itself out, as it usually did in the end. After all, the universe had a balance and despite what travesties may occur, that balance always restored itself.

As if following his thoughts, a small cosmic ripple warningly rang out from the stones, the almost electric shock making the warlock flinch.

What to do? To interfere or not to interfere?

Merlin glanced out the window once more and sighed, painfully conflicted. The versicolored glass towers outside no longer held the same calming abstract beauty to the warlock, his peaceful lense of the world shattered by the maelstrom in his mind. He found his sight drawn instead to the anonymous crowds of people on the streets, lively going about their business as ever; as if their reality didn't just radically transform, and their fragile, oblivious lives were now hanging in the balance of his decisions. The once vivid undercurrent of the city's festive pedestrian energy had suddenly deserted him, leaving only a state of hyper-anxiety behind.

How could he possibly decide between the two? To follow what he knew was the right thing to do, or to heed the facts of destiny that had been beaten into him time and time again throughout his immortal life? How could he singularly make that choice,when so much - so many lives - were at stake?

Merlin tore his gaze away from the people to look above the urban skyline, hazily focusing on the incandescent sunset whose dwindling warm-colored vestiges illuminated the land. The deep carmine light bathing the old city had rapidly lost its innocent nectarine appeal in the darkening sky, shifting through the warlock's mind's eye into something far more foreboding and far too familiar.

Merlin sharply inhaled. His will solidified.

Decision made (perhaps the only one he could ever truly make) the warlock was swept away in a swift gust of wind, leaving behind a half empty glass crowded with brawling alien Boba.

Destiny could go screw itself.

-oOo-