And here we go again. Hope these are okay. Like I said, I'm out of practice. By like 5 years…

Thanks for reading!

Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin or Bones.

Dr. Brennan stared at the group of strange people on the platform. She was still trying to process what had just been said by the boy in front of her. To say she didn't know what was happening was an understatement.

A temple. A witch. A king. Knights. Eyes. Stone. Magic. The words from the story swirled around in her head as she tried to make sense of all the nonsense. None of it made sense. Magic isn't real. None of what was said could be real. She pondered over what could possibly be happening as Hodgins began to speak, and then Booth.

"You know the really famous magic guy," she heard Booth say. She was drawn out of her thoughts to wait for a response from the strange group. Laughter is not what she expected.

Arthur couldn't help himself. Despite the grief for his knights and the confusing situation, the absurdity of what was just stated in what was meant to be such a serious situation was like hearing the funniest bar joke in his life. Merlin with magic. Merlin! Of all people!

The king continued to laugh, as the Jeffersonian gang shared confused glances. What was so funny?

"I'm sorry, but… Merlin," Arthur exclaimed his laughter dying down. "Merlin and magic. That has to be the most absurd thing I've heard today!"

Hodgins and Booth shared a look and a frown before Hodgins opened his mouth to speak again, "My mistake, it's just that the legends say that a man named Merlin was your advisor, and that he was a sorcerer."

Merlin, upon hearing and seeing that Arthur did not believe what was being said, visibly relaxed, though the hurt from the huge amount of denial did leave his ego feeling sore. It wasn't that ridiculous…

"Legends?" Merlin turned to see Leon step forward with a puzzled look on his face. "What legends?"

"Oh boy," Hodgins eyes widened and he looked like he wasn't ready for that question. "How do I put this… well you see, if what you've said is true, which I totally can get behind, by the way, you are a long way from Camelot."

"How far?" Gwaine asked.

"Uhh, well I'm not sure exactly where Camelot was, but I know miles wise you are three thousand miles away at least," Hodgins said, pausing for a second before adding, "There's a whole ocean between you and where it was."

There was a pregnant pause as the group stared at the man, taking in this information before Arthur spoke.

"What do mean where it was? What has happened to my kingdom?"

"How do I put this." Hodgins looked down at the ground, his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water as he was at a loss for words, something that rarely happened to him. "If-if you are who you say you are, a-and if what you said was true then, you are- uh- you are-"

Hodgins was cut off by Booth, "You are two thousand years in the future."

There was a second of silence, pale faces and eyebrow raises before Merlin spoke what everyone was thinking.

"What?"

Hodgins, sending Booth a small glare, sighed, "Well, technically it's a thousand and five hundred years in the future. But yeah, you are in the future."

"How!" Arthur shouted. Anger and confusion were in his voice. He didn't understand. A thousand and five hundred years in the future! How could that possibly be! Who did this? How did this happen? What happened to Camelot and the people at home? This must be some sort of treachery, a trick from Morgana or some other sorcerer. It's not possible!

Booth and Hodgins took a step back from the angry man. At a loss for words. Cam took a step forward, clasping her hands in front of her, wearing a smile that looked eerily like her 'I'm in charge' smile, and spoke softly. "We don't know how you ended up in the stones, or how you even survived for so long. The slabs were brought here from where they were originally found, and we were told to investigate them. When we opened them up you woke up and that is all we know. Honestly, we had no clue who you were or where you came from."

Arthur stared at her, holding onto each word that escaped her mouth. When she had finished, he looked towards his knights and queen who looked to be just as perplexed by their situation as he was. He then turned towards his manservant sitting on the slab in front of him. The raven-haired man looked to be deep in thought. "Merlin?"

Merlin was replaying the memory of what went on in the temple in his head. There was the fight. The eyes. Then stillness. The priestess. She had mentioned stones and talked of sleep. She had said that once he woke up so would everyone else. When she was talking about sleep, did she mean being put into the slabs? Was being removed from the stone like waking up? He was brought back to reality after hearing Arthur call his name.

"Uh?" Merlin looked up at the blonde man.

"What are you thinking?" Arthur asked. Merlin looked at him, then the knights and Gwen, then at the strangers and then back to Arthur.

"The priestess said she would let us start the battle over by putting us to sleep, and when we awoke the battle could start over," he watched as his king's eyes widened with realization. "I think the priestess put us in the stone to bring us here."

Arthur stared at the stone Merlin was sitting on before speaking again, "So it was magic that did this to us."

Merlin felt a slight twinge of hurt from the acidity in Arthur's words when regarding magic. Before he could say anything else though, Dr. Brennan interjected.

"No," she said bluntly. Everyone, past and future residents, stared at her. She seemed angry. "Magic didn't do this. There must be another explanation. One backed up by science and reason!"

She walked down the opposite stairs and hurriedly ran into her office. The knights moving out of her way, watching with surprised looks on their faces as she passed and disappeared.

Everything seemed so surreal. Nothing made sense. This can't be real. But it was. The death of those two men. The grief of the woman. The stones. It was real. However impossible it may be, it was real. Fine, this is real, but magic is not. She could accept that these people were from the past and alive. She could even accept that this was King Arthur. But one thing she refused to accept was that some mystical force existed.

There must be a logical reason for this. She sat at her desk and logged onto her computer. And I'm going to find it.

See you in the next chapter!