A/N: I'M BACK! And I'm so sorry if I worried/scared anyone with the lack of presence online :'( Things went from calming to completely crazy shortly after I posted on tumblr my plans to return Mid-September. My sister moved out, my dad got a pneumonia, I quit my job, got a new job, started Master's courses online, began a tiny candle 'company' for supplemental income, got a tutoring position, and it's just been insane.

But I am back now! There will be a few changes to when I'll post my normal stories as well as this one, there's more in the ending A/N but I also have a more detailed schedule on tumblr about it too.

I want to say again how sorry I am that this took so long, but I am officially back and ready to go, and I hope you all enjoy this chapter!

~8~

Code Name: Nimueh

Maria was quite certain that it was NOT in her job description as Arthur's secretary to be assisting her uncle in his medical practice at Camelot. Nor, she was sure, was it in Merlin's either, but there they both were, standing on either side of a body lying on a bed in their uncle's office as they waited for an ambulance. It was a young boy, his face pocked from acne, his hair short and curly, a pair of very large glasses resting on the small table beside him. He was one of the younger employees, new, starting off at the lower rungs of the company by helping in their post room, sorting the different letters and such to be taken to different areas of the company.

What was startling about him was that he was quite deathly pale, the blue of his veins starting to look more prominent, almost rising a bit from his skin, with a film growing across his eyes.

He had been found early that morning by one of the caretakers, the young boy almost seeming to have slept at the company for the night, till he'd realized the boy was ill and carried him right to Gus. The timing had been in their favor, Gus has just been arriving, the company just starting to fill with the bright and early workers, lucky as it was that no one had truly seen the boy or known he was ill, it would have caused panic. It had been unlucky for Merlin and Maria though that they had arrived with their uncle this time and been pulled into the entire mess to start with. Though, again, it had been lucky that they had been there too, Gwen had just arrived to set up some files for Morgan, a small bundle of flowers in her hand, something she used to give Morgan's office a lighter feel, and nearly seen the body had the two of them not blocked her sight of it.

Maria had gotten a free little baby's breath stem out of it, quickly tucking it behind her ear before following her brother off with their Uncle.

"What could it be?" Merlin frowned as he looked at the boy struggling to breathe, sweat starting to form on his forehead.

"I can't be sure till I've done a more thorough examination," Gus shook his head, though he looked deeply troubled.

"You are a terrible liar, Uncle," Maria pointed out, "You have a guess, at the very least, what it could be. Don't you?"

"It's not the plague is it?" Merlin shifted uncomfortably at that, "Like that Black Death thing?"

"If it was, I think his veins would be black," Maria remarked, her brother was a bit of a germaphobe, not in the sense that he would sanitize everything but more that he hated the idea of being ill. She was honestly surprised he'd lasted so long in the room with the boy given that. Though she could guess it was their uncle that had reassured him he would be alright, their uncle wouldn't risk being around such a body without a protective facial mask if he thought it was contagious.

"Not funny, Mia," Merlin grumbled.

"Nothing like that, no," Gus murmured, leaning over to peer closer at the body, moving to the boy's elbow to take a blood sample to examine once the ambulance he had called for the boy arrived and took him to Albion Hospital for more extensive treatment and likely quarantine, "I have never seen something like this, but…"

"But?" Merlin shook his head as the man cut himself off.

Gus sighed and leaned back, turning to face his niece and nephew, "I should not be telling you this," he gave them a pointed look, warning them not to DARE breathe a word of this to anyone else, "But Pendragon Security deals in more than just protective details and…"

"Biological warfare," both Merlin and Maria cut in, startling their Uncle.

"Really, Uncle, did you truly think I wouldn't look into the company at length before I started here?" Merlin smirked, he'd done a hack before he officially started as Arthur's assistant. He knew practically every area that Pendragon Security had ventured into, from their weapons to training to even the chemical and biological aspects they were researching and developing.

"We know they have a, um, 'secure' branch of the company dedicated to working with poisons and viruses," Maria nodded.

"How did you…" Gus shook his head, frowning as he closed his eyes, he should have known, "Never mind, don't say another word," he glanced up at the security cameras, hoping that nothing had been picked up that was too incriminating. It wasn't well known that Pendragon Security had ventured down that road, it was more a rumor than anything, but still, no one outside a select few in the company knew just how far into researching the company had gone.

"You think this might be something they were working on?" Merlin continued.

"I can't be certain," Gus reasoned, "I have access to that research as the medical director here, but I can't recall seeing anything like this in them. At least not in recent years. It DOES seem familiar though..."

"But…it IS some sort of bio-warfare?" Maria frowned at that, "Cos if it is and it's from here…how did it get out?"

Before Gus could answer, there was a banging on the door, Arthur's voice shouting through it for the two of them.

Maria huffed and strode over to it, opening it just enough to speak to Arthur but not let him see into the room, "What?" she demanded.

Arthur narrowed his eyes at her tone, "You're late, the BOTH of you," he glanced up at Merlin.

"We're HERE, aren't we?" Maria shook her head, "We're in the building, we're working, how are we late?"

"You're not at your sta…has someone given you flowers?"

Maria blinked at the 180 Arthur had done, likely about to reprimand them for not being in his office at their stations, to fixating on the little blossoms behind her ear. The ridiculousness of it all made her roll her eyes, "Yes, someone has. A very lovely someone, kind, considerate, polite, quite something, we're going to lunch later."

Arthur's eyes widened at that, absolutely refusing to allow the anger and irrational jealousy to rise in him, because he WASN'T feeling that, not at all, he had a girlfriend, Maria could have lunch and spend it with whoever she wanted, she could get flowers from whoever she wanted…even if those flowers were a sorry excuse for the name and any woman should be given more than that to prove they were appreciated and…

He shook his head at that, opening his mouth to respond, but not seeming able to formulate one, closing his mouth and opening it over and over.

"She's having lunch with Gwen," Merlin called, taking pity on the man, "Gwen gave her the flower."

Arthur nearly punched himself for falling for that. Maria hadn't said it was a man that gave her the flower, and really, Gwen was ALWAYS bringing in flowers to brighten up Morgan's office, it should have clicked in his head. But it hadn't. For some reason unknown to him. Perhaps he was still a little hung over from that night at the pub a few days ago…

"Just tell Gus that my father requires him in his office," was all Arthur said before he turned and stalked off.

Maria shook her head at him and turned back to her uncle, shutting the door, "Mr. Pendragon requires you in his office, Uncle, in case you didn't hear," she narrowed her eyes when she saw him appearing to be chuckling and shaking his head, "What?"

"Nothing," he replied, "It's just, in all my time here, I've never seen Arthur appear jealous before."

"Jealous? Of what?"

"Oh, Mia…" Merlin laughed at her.

"What?" she crossed her arms, "I don't get it," but both men remained silent, "Fine, don't tell me then. Come on Merlin, we have 'work' to do."

Merlin just kept laughing as he followed his sister out of the room, till she elbowed him in the stomach for it down the hall.

~8~

Gwen blinked as she heard a change in the noise of Morgan's office, to look up from where she was jotting down a list of tasks for the day, to see that Morgan, who had been diligently typing away on her computer, has stopped. She almost called out to ask what was wrong, when she caught sight of just what was very much right.

Morgan was looking out the door of her office, a large section of it and a portion of the wall to the left and right of it was glass, giving her a clear view of the hallway. There was a smile on her face that told Gwen exactly who Morgan had caught sight of, who was about to pass by before she actually saw him.

Merlin, laughing with his sister, as they headed for Arthur's office.

It never failed to amuse her, how Morgan, the most focused and dedicated woman she knew, could grow just a little more distracted when Merlin was around. She'd known Morgan almost her whole life, and she'd never seen the woman give the attention she did Merlin to anyone else. She was smitten, Morgan was SO smitten, she knew it. But both of them seemed to be a little more shy around the other than normal, they'd never admit it or act on it and it just made her all the more determined to both tease her friend and help her out.

"You look happy," she remarked, glancing back down at her task list and continuing it, hiding her smile at how Morgan had jumped at her voice.

"What?" Morgan looked over at her, clearing her throat and looking for all the world like she was hoping she wasn't blushing, "I mean, yes, I am, the flowers are lovely Gwen, thank you."

Gwen almost sighed at how Morgan was purposefully ignoring the point in her remark, but gave her friend a pass this time in picking up with the flowers, "I thought they would cheer you up," she glanced at Morgan again, "I know you've been having trouble sleeping lately."

If the bags that were under Morgan's eyes whenever she arrived to find the woman trying to use coverup on them was anything to go by that is.

"Well they did," Morgan smiled.

Gwen raised an eyebrow at the sight of it, she knew there was an even bigger, brighter, more genuine smile that the woman could give, but that particular one seemed reserved for one man recently. And really, Morgan had given her FAR too tempting an in to pass up this time, so she carefully waited till the woman moved to take a sip of the chamomile tea resting on her desk to add, "Not as much as Merlin does though, I guess?"

And then tried her level best not to die of laughter when Morgan choked on her tea and glared at her, her face burning red for the remark.

~8~

Merlin was quite sure that he and his sister had ended up visiting a hospital more times now that they worked at Camelot than they ever had in their time growing up. He and Maria stood outside a hospital room during their lunch break, waiting for their uncle to get out of his protective suit to speak to them. As it turned out, the reason Mr. Pendragon had needed their uncle so urgently, was that his own assistant had collapsed in his office, of the very same thing that the young post boy had, pale skin, blue veins, cloudy eyes. Both men had been taking to Albion Hospital, though only one remained in the quarantine room they were standing outside of. The post boy had died in transit to the hospital, but Mr. Pendragon's assistant was still alive so far, but he appeared to truly be struggling to hold on.

From what they knew, from what their uncle had quickly told them about the situation when they arrived, was that it did appear to be a plague of sorts, but how it was spreading he didn't know. He had had to report to Mr. Pendragon about the first case, about how quickly the virus had manifested. He had kept one thing quiet though. He had researched the symptoms and searched through Pendragon Security for anything that they might have worked on that was similar to the case presented, because it made sense that something INSIDE Camelot had to be tainted for two employees to fall victim to it and no one outside the company. He had found something, from decades ago though, old research kept in an archived file about just such a virus. It had been initially tested, created by crossing some obscure remnants of three different plagues, but had been halted as the researchers hadn't felt confident they could create an antidote back then.

Somehow, someone had hacked into the system and discovered the virus, had managed to replicate it and plant it in Camelot.

He hadn't breathed a word of that suspicion to Mr. Pendragon, but the man had seemed to come to the same conclusion regardless. He'd begun raging about spies and hackers and breaches in security and ranting about punishment. He had heightened security, was ordering a full sweep of the company as well as for the researchers in the testing labs to be brought in to run tests on the post room as well as his office, and many other areas of the company to try and locate the source of the infection before more people fell victim to it.

The only good thing that had come from that was Arthur was in charge of it all, he was to be dedicated to this breach in security first and foremost, which meant cancelling all his meetings and other duties for as long as necessary, making their jobs rather pointless at the moment. So they had decided to see their uncle at the hospital and offer their help if they could.

"Uncle?" Maria called as Gus managed to step out of the sanitizing station between the quarantine room and the hallway, "Are you alright?"

Gus just shook his head, "This is getting worse," he told them quietly, glancing into the room, "Before you arrived, two more employees were brought in."

"All with the same symptoms?" Merlin frowned, earning a nod from Gus. He sighed, "Why would someone do this?" he muttered, "I mean, what do they get out of it, hacking the system just to hurt people?"

"Maybe they just want to destroy Camelot's reputation?" Maria shrugged, not liking the idea of going about it that way, "Think about it, if the place that meant to be the most secure and make other homes safe, can be hacked into and poisoned, then they aren't really secure or safe at all."

"And kill innocent people in the process."

"Have the Doctors been able to find a cure?" Maria turned to her uncle. It was protocol, she'd assume, that the files with the virus components be given to the hospital, and copies sent to the labs, to try and create an antivirus.

"Not as of yet," Gus sighed, rubbing his forehead, "There is nothing more that can be done but to wait and hope."

"There might be something WE can do," Merlin glanced around before lowering his voice, "Uncle, if we hack…"

"No," Gus cut him off, a firm note in his voice, "This all started because someone hacked into Pendragon Security, they'll be watching even more closely for anyone trying the same. With the investigations going on, everyone will be suspects, this is NOT the time to be hacking into anything," he glanced behind him and back to his family, "And if I were you, I would clean out the records on your laptops as well."

Maria sighed as he turned and strode away to speak to another set of Doctors. Her uncle was a hacker, way back in the day, when computers first came out, but he'd fallen out of interest with it, or so he claimed. They tended to think it was because he'd given it up when he started at Pendragon Security, not wanting to risk himself in carrying on his hobby. He must have been very rusty because, if he wasn't, he would have known that the first rule was to always make sure the evidence of your hack was off your computer. Both of them had systems in place that, just turning off their computers triggered a failsafe that made it appear their systems were wiped and left with just the basic and boring files everyone would have. At a glance that is. If Arthur ever tried to look at their laptops, he'd find files of videos of people being pranked on Merlin's laptop and kittens on her files. They doubted he'd bother to consider them hackers, especially with their abysmal luck just getting the computers at work to stay on long enough to get anything done. He'd take one look at their files and wave the rest off, never knowing that, behind the smokescreen was all their programs and hacks and encryptions.

"We could help though," Merlin sighed, looking to his sister, knowing she would understand.

"I know," she agreed, "Just one hack into the system, find the file that started all this, and then trace any prior access to that back to the original hacker and we'd have this all sorted out. They wouldn't be stupid enough to create a virus like this if they couldn't be sure they would be safe from it. They HAVE to have a cure already made."

"I know," Merlin nodded, looking up and down the hall, "Come on, if nothing's changed by tomorrow, we'll see what we can do."

~8~

Good news and bad news always seemed to arrive together, Merlin thought, as he sat in Gus's flat with his sister, the two of them on their laptops, just staring at the screens. They had gotten some good news earlier that morning, the doctors had managed to find out how the virus was spreading. Someone had contaminated the water in Camelot's building. The post boy and Mr. Pendragon's assistant had both drunk the water. The boy had been the last to leave for the day while Mr. Pendragon's assistant had been the first to arrive, both had used the water fountains in the building. Which explained why many other people of varying positions had also come down with the virus. The higher ups in the company hardly ever used the facility's cafeteria, eating out instead, while some of the lower workers, those that didn't bag their lunch, ate there so it wasn't the food. The water, though, was something everyone shared, even those that used bottled water would, at times, stop for a quick sip.

It wasn't news that a cure had been found, but it was a way to have the systems replaced, the water filtered, and the fountains closed down so no one else would fall ill.

Of course, as the good news came, the worst news followed from Gwen herself. Her father, who worked in the prototypes division, helping to build the practice weapons and even the real weapons, had fallen ill as well. They had seen her as they had been leaving the hospital only hours ago, the girl in tears as her father was wheeled in on a stretcher, knowing that, within 24 hours, he would be dead. She had seen Gus and begged for him to do something, to use his medical knowledge to find some cure, but he couldn't. Morgan had arrived shortly after, holding her friend as she sobbed for her father, the only family she had left after her mother passed and her brother moved away.

Merlin clenched his hands into fists at the reminder of Gwen's tear-streaked face, and looked at his sister, "Ready?"

She glanced at him, nodding, "Ready."

And, with that, the two of them quickly got to work, hacking into Pendragon Security one more time.

It was a two part plan, really. Maria was set to focus on finding the file about the virus, breaking through the numerous levels of encryption and security that was bound to be all over it, in order to find any evidence of the hack that started it all. She had always been better at breaking into the systems, especially the ones she wasn't familiar with, she liked the challenge of being able to fight her way in. Merlin, on the other hand, was better at tracking and tracing, even more so at building his own firewalls and hack-prevention software to keep their computers safe. Once she found the file, it would be his job to trace it back to the original computer that had gotten to the virus.

Once they found out what the other computer was, it would be Maria's job, once more, to hack into it, to find the file with the antidote to the virus, and Merlin's to extract it before sending the information to the doctors.

And when they did that, well, they supposed it was a three-part plan really. Once they were sure they'd gotten the antidote, they were going to destroy the hacker's computer and files, make sure that they couldn't hack into Pendragon Security again for quite some time.

They just had to be very careful, very very careful, because Gus was right, the security HAD been heightened and the computer experts at Camelot would be waiting and watching for anyone attempting to get in.

It was a good thing they'd spent their lives working on their skills, no one had caught them yet.

~8~

Maria just barely managed to stifle a yawn as she and Merlin blearily made their way into Camelot the next morning. It had been…a long night, to put it lightly. It had taken them forever to get through Camelot's security without triggering alarms and then trace the first hack to someone's computer and get the antidote from it as well. It had been very frustrating as well because, once they were in the other computer, it was made all too clear that the hacker was skilled. They were hoping to find personal information about them, anything they could to track them down and report them to the authorities, but they should have expected to find nothing. There was nothing on their own laptops that could be traced to them either, hackers made sure to cover their tracks.

They HAD managed to find two things though. The hacker in question, while they hadn't discovered their real name (or they didn't think it was a real name), seemed to go by a codename 'Nimueh.' They also found the file they were looking for designated 'Afanc,' containing both the original virus plans and the antivirus. It was an odd word, but it made sense. No one would ever title an incriminating document as 'Virus for Pendragon Security.'

They'd hacked into the hospital's systems soon after, sending them the cure to the virus, and went back to wipe out Nimueh's computer. If it had happened to them, they would be beyond furious to have all their work just destroyed…but then again THEY had never used their skills to kill people like this Nimueh person was. They deserved it.

Still, it had taken the majority of the night and they were completely knackered, but they still had work. Now that they knew where the source of the virus had come from, Arthur's focus could relax from the search for contamination. And, with them sending the antivirus to the hospital as well as destroying Nimueh's chances of repeating this, the whole thing would be wrapped up fairly soon, Arthur would be back to nitpicking them and wanting them to do their duties.

"Oh!" Maria half-yawned, half-gasped as they nearly walked into a beaming Gwen, quite a change from the girl they had seen last night.

"Gwen!" Merlin smiled, "How's your dad? Doing any better?"

Gwen just beamed at them, answering their questions before she said a word, "It was a miracle!" she breathed, "The doctors found a cure! It's just incredible!"

Merlin and Maria shared a pleased, and a little bit of a smug, grin at that, one that didn't escape Gwen's notice, before they faced her again, "So he's looking better then?" Maria continued, "No more blue veins?"

"No more than normal," Gwen eyed them.

"Great," Merlin cheered, the two of them heading off.

"You know," Gwen called out, making them stop, "You don't seem all that surprised."

"Oh, we are," Maria nodded, "It's…it's a miracle."

Gwen nearly snorted at how Maria had wiggled her fingers and moved her hands in a circle at the word 'miracle,' as though it gave extra effect, "But how did you know he was doing better?" she had to ask, having noticed at addition to Merlin's question.

"Because you were happy?" Merlin tried to excuse.

"It's really weird because I haven't told anyone, butyou know," Gwen commented, eyeing them, "How could you know?"

"We're psychic," Maria made the wiggling finger gesture again, making Gwen laugh.

"Yeah, right," Gwen shook her head, "You two are so weird," she added, "But, um, in a good way. A very good way. Not like, weird as in…"

"We get it," Merlin chuckled.

Gwen smiled, "Thank you, though," she added, shrugging when they gave her a questioning look, "For asking. For noticing that I was happy."

"You're our friend," Maria reasoned, smiling at the thought of that, of having another friend, "Of course we noticed."

"And, unless you'd like to notice us walking out the door, fired," Merlin cut in, "We need to be off before Arthur starts to hunt us down."

Gwen laughed at that but waved them on, Morgan was far more lenient with her and when she arrived, especially after the night she had, than Arthur would be.

~8~

For as happy as everyone had been that morning, with Gwen's father recovering, with the search for contamination called off, the water replaced, and a cure in the hospitals for those that were still alive, that was how upset and angry they became when, just after a very happy and celebratory lunch with Gwen, the very girl in question was stopped by security just inside the entrance of Camelot, and dragged off to confinement, a rather grim Arthur following them along as Morgan rushed to find out what happened.

"I warned you," a voice hissed at them, seeming to take great care to be quiet as they looked to see their uncle approaching them, "I should have known," he muttered.

"We couldn't just sit there and let her father die," Maria whispered right back.

"And sending the cure to the monitor of Tom's room kept Gwen from taking his place?"

Merlin frowned at that, "I sent the cure to the nurse's station," he shook his head, he hadn't sent the anonymous, untraceable copy of the cure to Gwen's father's room, but to the station outside it, he was SURE of it.

"Well that was where it appeared, interfering with the support systems and setting off alarms," Gus told them, "And when the doctors arrived and saw the cure on display, when it WORKED, what else was Pendragon Security supposed to think but that Gwen did it? That HER father was the one to be given the cure? They think she CAUSED the virus now!"

"But she didn't!" Maria nearly shouted, only the crowd gathering to see what the commotion with Gwen was about keeping her quiet.

"And how are you going to prove that?" Gus countered, disappointment shining in his eyes.

Merlin quickly scanned the halls before turning to his sister, "Cover for me," he ordered before rushing out of the building.

She could only hope he didn't make it worse.

~8~

Merlin and Maria sat at her desk in Arthur's office, the man out with Morgan to plead Gwen's case to Mr. Pendragon, though they doubted it would work. Arthur and Morgan were convinced Gwen was innocent, as she was, but they knew how the CEO was, he would only think that Gwen was a hacker, a spy, that had gotten into his company and tried to kill his employees, tarnish his company's name, and then, in an accident of her father being harmed, try to send out the cure anonymously. She was being held in confinement still as Mr. Pendragon attempted to phone some of his contacts to deal with her. For as much as Pendragon Security tried to help others uphold the law, Mr. Pendragon, with all the people he had met in his life and 'helped' had come up with quite a list of people that could make Gwen's life miserable if she wasn't persecuted to the fullest extent of the law for what they thought she'd done.

The two of them were using their time as best they could to see to it that Gwen was found innocent. Everything was in place to do that, they just needed Arthur here, and that could take a while. So, while they waited, they knew there was at least one other person that they needed to speak to first.

Gwen.

Maria looked at her brother, "You're sure about this?"

He nodded, "I thought Gwen was your friend," he reminded her, frowning at her hesitation to go through with their plan.

"She is, but…I've only just met her," she argued lightly, "You know her better. Will she keep this a secret?"

Merlin let out a breath, honestly not sure. He wanted to believe Gwen would, but he also knew she'd grown up around the Pendragons, that she was obligated as an employee to report what they were about to tell her, that she had a right to do it as Morgan's friend as well…but he hoped that the person he knew Gwen to be would be stronger than that.

"I hope so," he murmured before hitting a button on the keypad…several times till it actually worked and the screen flickered, showing them Gwen sitting in a small white room, fiddling with her hands and picking at her nails, looking down at the ground.

The containment rooms of Camelot were cell-like rooms, white, with a monitor in the wall to act as a contact to the prisoner as well as a small webcam to provide security footage for others in the company. There were guards at the end of the hall, stationed just outside the row of cells. They had hacked into the life-feed, able to see Gwen in real time, while also having recorded her for a half hour beforehand, feeding that through as a loop so those watching in the security rooms wouldn't notice them talking to her, luckily Gwen had hardly moved since she'd been there so it wouldn't be a noticeable loop.

Maria took a breath and typed in a small command, getting into the video feed as well, making the logo of Pendragon Security that was revolving around the monitor in Gwen's cell disappear and their faces to appear.

"Gwen?" she called.

Gwen's head snapped up, her eyes widening as she saw Merlin and Maria staring at her through the monitor, "What…" she whispered, shaking her head as she stood, walking closer, "I don't…how…"

"We're sorry," Merlin spoke quickly, "It's our fault Gwen, all of it."

"Well, not ALL of it," Maria defended as Gwen looked more and more confused, "WE didn't hack into the company and set off a plague."

"But we did hack in to get the cure," Merlin sighed, flinching when Gwen gasped at the admission.

"You…" Gwen's voice was muffled as her hands had flown to her mouth, staring at them wide-eyed, "You hacked…" she closed her eyes, shaking her head, "You're hackers?" she breathed, forcing herself to look at them.

"We…dabble," Maria shrugged with a grimace.

Gwen seemed to glance to the side, as though expecting the guards to rush to her cell, "You're safe," Merlin reassured her, "I mean, we um, we took care of the feeds, they're on loop, no one will ever know we spoke."

Gwen looked back at them, seeming to be eyeing them carefully, "You hacked into Pendragon Security…"

"And the uh, the person who hacked in originally," Maria nodded, "We needed to find the antivirus and stop them doing this again."

"We couldn't let your father, or any of the others, die when we knew we could help," Merlin insisted.

"You hacked in…to save my dad?" Gwen swallowed hard at that, tears in her eyes now.

"We did," Maria confirmed, "We're sorry you ended up there, Gwen, we didn't mean to."

"It was my fault," Merlin hung his head, "I was trying to send the cure to the nurse's station, it was a rookie mistake, I never should have made it."

"But it had taken us hours," Maria defended her brother, "We were tired and he just…sent to your dad first, that's why everyone thought it was you."

"It never should have happened like that Gwen, you have to believe me," Merlin looked at her, "We've been hacking into things since we were little kids, it just came easy to us, never anything to hurt anyone, never ever."

"We really didn't mean this to happen to you, we're so sorry and…"

"Thank you," Gwen cut them off, smiling at them through her tears, "You saved my dad. You risked yourselves to save him, to help him. You're...amazing. And you've done nothing wrong."

"But Gwen," Merlin started, but just couldn't finish.

So Maria did, "You're going to pay for our crimes."

"It wasn't a crime," Gwen insisted, "You saved someone's life, more than one. You gave me my dad back. So please, please don't ever regret that. Even if it means I'm fired or…or locked up, I don't regret what you did either and…"

"That is NOT going to happen," Maria promised.

Merlin tried to offer her a smile, "Trust us, just once more, trust us."

Gwen smiled, "Of course I do."

Maria and Merlin both let out a sigh of relief at that, glancing up quickly when they heard Morgan shouting in the hallway, some rather colorful words aimed at a particular Pendragon, and quickly looked back at Gwen, "We need to go," Maria warned.

"But we'll get you out soon," Merlin swore, hitting a button to cut the feed and restore the original security measures just as Arthur walked in…

The exact same time that the computer decided to die and reboot as well, just their luck.

Arthur did not seem to be in a rather good mood, which was truly good for them, the angrier he was at his father, the more he disagreed, the more likely it was he believed Gwen was innocent, and they could use that to nudge him towards the 'evidence' that she was.

It hadn't taken Merlin long at all to get back to their flat, get into their records, and manage to lay a trail from the antivirus sent to the hospital back to the original computer that had hacked into Camelot. It was a very advanced and sophisticated hack that had been used, he honestly hadn't faulted Pendragon Security for not noticing it when they first investigated and trying to trace the hack. It was clever and subtle and it would take a prodigy in hacking to be able to find it, which he was if he did say so himself. By now the other person would have realized they'd been hacked and wiped and dispose of their laptop somewhere. If it was ever found, what little remained on it, serial numbers and other things, would likely prove that Gwen had not been the hacker at all. He may or may not have put some failsafes into the trail as well, making it look like it was a calculated effort to bounce the antivirus off a few other locations till it was purposefully sent to Tom's room at the hospital.

He had done his best to make it look like Gwen had been framed, which she essentially (accidently) had been. Now they just had to spark that theory in Arthur and he would run with the evidence Merlin had created and believe it fully by the time it was all found.

"Arthur!" Maria called, jumping in her seat to make it look like he'd surprised them.

"Not go well with the boss?" Merlin tried to quip, but Arthur sent him a glare.

"He refuses to listen that Gwen is innocent," Arthur huffed, "The man can be so infuriating!"

"NO," Maria dragged out the word, as though she sounded mockingly in disbelief that Mr. Pendragon, father of the clotpole Arthur Pendragon, could be infuriating, "Is he?"

Arthur seemed to catch on to that and glared at her as well, "He won't listen to reason," he continued, "He refuses to look at the evidence…"

"Is there evidence?" Merlin leapt at the chance.

"What?" Arthur turned to him.

"IS there evidence?" Maria repeated.

"Don't tell me you both believe Gwen…"

"No!" Maria rolled her eyes, "We're just saying, your dad seems the sort to pay attention to evidence over testimony, if you had evidence, he'd HAVE to listen and believe you, but he doesn't. So what evidence did you show him?"

Arthur was silent.

"You don't have any, do you?" Merlin deadpanned, Arthur just looked away, "Ok, well then we just have to find some."

Arthur snorted, "And HOW are we to do that, Merlin?" he scoffed, "You two can barely get a computer to turn on for you, I doubt you could find evidence of a master hacker in our systems."

Oh the irony.

But the siblings kept their expressions neutral, "WE might not," Maria agreed, lying through her teeth, "But you DO have computer experts here, yeah? They might find something if we can think of where to look."

"I doubt we'd find somewhere to look that they haven't thought of yet," Arthur remarked.

"What about the hospital?" Merlin suggested, continuing when Arthur gave him an odd look, "The experts are for the company, to keep an eye on our files, right? But this person sent that antivirus to the hospital, so why not have them look there first? Maybe they could track it from there and see where it came from!"

Arthur blinked at that, "That…is not an entirely terrible idea."

"So you're admitting your men, the best men, haven't thought of that then?" Maria teased.

Arthur rolled his eyes, "But what if it traces back to Gwen's computers?"

"If they're as good of experts as you think, wouldn't they be able to see if someone sent it through Gwen's computer?" Maria argued.

Merlin pointed at her and nodded, "What if she's being framed?" he added, putting the idea more firmly in Arthur's head, "I mean, she IS Morgan's assistant, her father was infected, maybe whoever sent the virus in the first place thought it was a good opportunity to stir up trouble."

"More trouble than infecting half our employees?" Arthur scoffed at the notion that one single employee being implicated would cause all that much unrest.

"If Gwen was accused and removed, Morgan would need another assistant," Maria pointed out, "Who's to say the hacker wouldn't jump at the chance to be IN Camelot? And, for that matter, if she was accused and later proven innocent, it creates trust issues in the company, that she was even accused or believed to be guilty in the first place."

Arthur seemed to be considering that.

"And even if it originated from Gwen's computer," Merlin added one last point, "It still could have been from an email or a pop up she opened that triggered it," Arthur seemed to look surprised at that knowledge, "I mean, they warn about that sort of thing on the news all the time."

Arthur nodded at that, "They do…and it does seem a likely event," he hummed, thoughtful, before glancing at them, "Hold my calls and meetings for the day," he ordered, striding out.

"Where are you going?" Merlin called.

"To meet with your Computer Division," he responded, leaving the room and never even noticing the two grinning siblings behind him as they high-fived their success.

~8~

Once the evidence was collected by the Computers Division, clearly showing that Gwen's computers had been hacked into and purposefully too by someone named 'Nimueh,' Mr. Pendragon had no other choice but to release Gwen and call off the charges against her, much to her relief as well as everyone else's. Something like Gwen being charged could have set off a witch hunt in the company, if Morgan's very own assistant could turn on the company like that, Mr. Pendragon would have had a field day rooting through the rest of them, launching investigations and other sweeps of the company that no one wanted.

Merlin and Maria stood beside Morgan as they watched Gwen hugging her father, now on the mend and out of hospital, able to pick his daughter up from confinement himself, smiles on all of their faces.

Gwen half ran to them, hugging the siblings tightly as she cheered, "Thank you!" to them, giving Morgan her own thanks too as she knew the woman would have argued on her behalf too. Luckily her thanks didn't seem strange or suspicious for why she was thanking THEM, Morgan had told her, the moment they'd come down to release her, that Merlin and Maria had convinced Arthur to have the Computers Division sweep her computer and that it ended up leading to a trace and a hack and evidence of her innocence.

The smile she gave them let them know clearly that their secret of what they'd really done was safe with her.

It was…nice, they mused as they watched Gwen speak with Morgan and her father, to be appreciated like that, the gratitude in both Gwen and Tom, and even Morgan's eyes, was touching and warming to them. It wasn't often they were able to be honest about what they could do or how they could use it to help.

Maybe one day, when there wasn't so much paranoia about cyber-crimes or such a negative connotation to hacking, they could be honest with more people, be appreciated for their skills.

Till then, well, they would just have to content themselves with the knowledge that they had done good with their skills, lives were saved, and a friend was happy.

~8~

An angry screech filled the air as a woman slammed her hands, curled into fists, on top of a laptop resting on a table, her long brown hair following the motion to fly past her shoulders and rest before her. Her blue eyes narrowed as she looked across her darkened room at a small corkboard of chemicals and equations, solutions and measurements, the Pendragon Security logo tacked onto it and held in place with a blood red pin. Her laptop was useless now, completely wiped, with a single message left for her before it died completely.

'With love, the Wizard and the Witch.'

She was livid.

"Oh you will pay for this," she spat before grabbing her laptop and throwing it to the side, not even blinking as it slammed against the wall and fell to pieces.

A/N: Again, I am so sorry that I wasn't able to get online and posting :( Things really were crazy and I've only gotten back last week. I should warn though that, for the next few months (likely just till the end of April) I'll be posting this story every other week. That should be when I finish my tutoring position and I'll have more time to focus on editing and writing and can put more up ;)

As for this chapter, with the story being set more in the modern world, where magic has been replaced with technology, I didn't really see the Afanc working here as an actual and physical monster for Arthur to face down with a torch. But I wanted to still incorporate it. It made it a little harder to work out an ending for the chapter, it was a catalyst for proving Gwen's innocence, but I feel like I tweaked it just enough where it was still able to happen without needing to go too off story with some sort of monster living in the sewers beneath Camelot lol :)

I hope you like the little code names that Merlin and Maria picked for themselves. I just feel like, growing up insisting he's called 'Merlin' would mean that he'd know about the wizard-Merlin and it would just fit, and what is parallel to a wizard for women but a witch? ;) I can say code names will become very important when we get to the Druids and the other 'magical' clans };)

Some notes on reviews...

I'm glad you're enjoying Maria so far :) It's definitely challenging to try and get their personalities to fit with a modern version of themselves, but I'm trying to manage as best I can so I'm really glad it's working so far :) I really am happy you're liking the story, I hope you enjoy the rest of it too :)

We'll be seeing her take a sort of part-time/as-needed job there. I feel like Merlin and Maria, in this story, will be struggling with wages similar to how they didn't make much as servants in the original story, so she's going to be taking on a second job to help with that ;) Killian will be around much more as a result, yup, and I can say that he has a connection to Pendragon Security and a reason to want to see them taken down too, which will be partially justified and partially not, we'll have to wait and see what it is though }:) Nimueh is a hacker, but there'll be more to her and her backstory as the tale goes on ;) As for Uther, I actually plan for his real name to never be revealed, similarly to how he was an imposing and intimidating king, the fact that everyone now has to call him 'Mr. Pendragon' adds to that here, it's sort of more intimidating when no one can call you by your first name ;) Oh Gaius/Gus will increase yup, we'll see some of his old-fashioned hacking skills coming into play also ;) He may even know Mr. Garren as well }:) I'm glad you liked the story so far :)

Lol, I love that picture, I'm glad you feel that way! :D

We'll get to meet Arthur's girlfriend very soon ;)

I'm definitely going to continue the story, no worries ;) Life and family got crazy for a while, but things have calmed down and I'm back to posting, not quite as quickly as before, but slow and steady wins the race right? ;)

Oh we'll be getting much more Mergana as the story goes ;)

Everything's ok, I'm sorry I worried you! Lots of things happened around when I planned to return to updating, but it's all been sorted now ;)

Lol, Maria could definitely learn a lot from Black Widow :)