His breaths sawed harshly through his parted lips as he tried to control his fear. His assistant was lying in his arms, nearly frothing at the mouth after drinking poison so he could prove a point to his father. Said man was currently the only silent one in the room, his face frozen in shock at having been proven wrong. Everyone was in motion, either yelling or panicking.
Arthur shouted to the two guards outside the meeting room they were in, and the two men burst in with tasers drawn, expecting an enemy. One Arthur recognised as Percival, and the other a dark haired, almost shy looking man. The duo took one look at the situation, the two girls panicking in a corner, Uther on a state of shock, and Arthur holding a wreathing Merlin on the ground, and got to work. The dark haired man, who Arthur briefly read his name tag as "Lance A. L.," checked Merlin for a pulse, and seemingly satisfied, gestured for Percival to pick Merlin up. The big man did so easily.
It was then that the lights went out.
Several shrieks were heard throughout the building - most noticeably from Morgana - who went even more pale, if that was possible. Though no one saw this, as the late night and power cut effectively eliminated all sources of light.
Arthur cursed and fumbled for his phone in his pocket. He pulled it out as the air became unexplainably cold. His phone hissed and popped in his hand and he dropped it, shaking out his fingers. He heard several others do the same.
"He needs a hospital, sir." Lance said somewhere to his right. He turned to see Lance illuminated by the faint green glow of a glow stick. It wasn't much, but it gave Arthur a pivot point to find his way to the door.
With much fumbling and stumbling, he found the light switch and flicked it a few times to be certain. Nothing happened, and he lamented the loss of the ability to see.
A faint glow in the dark flowed gently past his ear. He startled, but the small light simply continued forward, illuminating the hallway toward the exit. He glanced behind him at the form of his assistant, still twitching faintly in Percivals arms.
"Follow me." he commanded behind him, and started after the strange light. Something caught his foot on his second step, and he stumbled. His ankle burned, like he had rubbed it against something that scratched him.
"What the hell?" he reeled away from it and caught a glimpse of something hairy and roughly the size of a terrier scuttle along the floor.
"What?" Lance questioned behind him, peering around him into the darkness.
"Spider." Arthur barely had time to squeak before something launched itself out of the darkness at him. With reflexes far faster than he would have expected from himself, he slapped the thing out of the air. Instead of eating the flesh from his face, the creature opened a gash along his palm.
"Run!" he yelled as they took off down the hallways. A giant black mass seemed to swallow the hallway behind them as they ran.
A very long, panicked, and stuffy elevator ride down twenty floors found the group in the lobby. They ran outside, and the second the last of them were out the front door, the lights inside clicked on. The receptionists at the front desk blinked dazedly back out at them.
"Over here!" Arthur shouted. He led them over to a company van, pulling out a ring of keys from his pocket. He easily found the correct key, and silently thanked Merlin for having labeled all his keys. He piled into the driver's seat, and four other doors thumped shut to mirror his own.
He glanced over in surprise to see Gwen in the passenger seat, Morgana in the back, and Percival and Lance in the very back. Lance was thumping Merlin's chest in CPR form. Arthur's heart shot into his throat and he tore out of the parking lot.
Gaius was just about to leave his office when a van screeched to a halt in front of his door. He raised his famous eyebrow at the gaggle of worried people that spilled out of doors, until his eyes landed on his nephew. He sucked in a worried breath and unlocked the door, leading the strangers and Arthur to the closest patient room, then disappeared to gather things he would need.
He flashed back to that morning. He was tidying up his apartment, clearing away breakfast dishes and sweeping the floor when Merlin ripped through the living room from his temporary room, grabbing a piece of toast from the plate Gaius had left him and left, yelling something about being late as he cut himself off halfway through by closing the door behind him.
Gaius shook his head fondly. Ever since Merlin had come to live with him a few years ago, his life had certainly been more interesting. He already felt as close to fatherly as he could for the boy without actually being his father. It was more than he had had at home, living only with his mother, grocery store paycheck to restaurant paycheck.
Hunith had worked two jobs since Merlin was born, providing for herself and her son by using the money to pay bills, and in her spare time did the sewing for most of the people in their apartment building to afford everything else.
Gaius shook his head fondly as he finished cleaning. He entered Merlin's room to at least pick things up so they didn't start to pile higher than they needed to, because lords know he wouldn't do it himself. He paused by Merlin's night stand, a note and a small bottle sitting a little too innocently on the surface.
Gaius picked up the little bottle and note confusedly. The bottle contained a plant he didn't recognize, so he opened the note.
Gaius-Please take this bottle to the clinic with you today. You'll now what it's for later.-Merlin
Gaius frowned but obediently stuck the bottle in his pocket. Better safe than sorry, right?
Gaius snatched up a small towel and the bottle Merlin had left that morning. The only thing that kept his actions from turning jerky and frantic was his years and years of medical practice in this exact kind of situation. He speedily shuffled back to the room that held his nephew and everyone else.
He prayed that this really was the intended use for the bottles contents as he fed the plant to the shaking boy laying on the cot.
"Did it work?" Arthur asked nervously, hovering a foot behind him while he worked. The two women in their group were taking turns wiping Merlin's forehead with the towel Gaius had brought. The two men wearing security uniforms stood uncertainty near the door, trying not to take up space the doctor might need.
Gaius pressed two fingers to a thready pulse.
"I'm not certain yet. We need to give it a few minutes to be sure."
The minutes went by slowly, and Gaius busied himself with attaching various monitors that would make his job easier in the long run.
It was while he fiddled with one of these monitors that the heart monitor flatlined. Gaius gave a small cry as he flung himself to his nephew's side. The dark haired guard was suddenly across from him, starting CPR as Gaius placed an oxygen mask over Merlin's mouth and nose.
"Merlin!" Arthur shouted from the end of the bed. They all crowded around, not in the way of the two but unwilling to leave the skinny, dark haired young man currently laying legally dead in a patient's cot.
"Come on!" the dark haired man shouted. Several tense minutes went by, as they tried to get Merlin's heart to restart.
A steady rhythm of beeps caused them all to sag in relief. Merlin's eyes opened a crack and he murmured in a voice thick and heavy with sleep.
"Gaius? You found the bottle?"
"I did, my boy. Now rest."
Merlin did not need to be told twice.
Merlin woke slowly. He was cognizant enough to recognize the white paneled ceiling and the scratchy blanket and place himself in Gaius's clinic; he was tempted to go back to sleep, knowing he was safe.
Eventually he drew up enough will to get up. Arthur sat asleep in a chair by his bed, Gaius quietly reading in the chair opposite. They shared a glance at Arthur and grinned.
"So I believe you owe me an explanation." Gaius raised an eyebrow disapprovingly at the young man. Merlin had the grace to grin apologetically.
"Sorry, Gaius. I didn't mean to scare you so bad, but this is one of those things I can't tell you." Yet.
Gaius relented with a sigh, easily giving up the topic. "What do you plan to tell Arthur?"
"What do you mean?"
"He's not going to be happy when he wakes. In fact I would guess he'll be very unhappy, so you should prepare yourself." The old man then stood with his book, nodded toward Arthur, and left the room while shaking his head.
Merlin glanced over to see Arthur slowly waking up, shifting around in the uncomfortable looking chair.
"Wakey wakey!" he sung to him, and Arthur opened his eyes to glare at him. His glare suddenly gained a razor edge and he sat up straight.
"Merlin, you idiot! You almost died for a stupid challenge! What were you thinking?"
"I wasn't?" he grinned.
"Of course you weren't!" he exploded, then seemed to lose his momentum and fell into a pout.
"Aw, Arthur, you do care."
Arthur looked him straight in the eyes. "Of course I care. You're my friend."
Merlin was stunned into an uncomfortable silence as Arthur stared hard at him.
"What did you do to your hand?"
"There were these giant spider things after you drank the poison. One of them tried to eat my face so I smacked it out of the air." He frowned at the other man, but didn't make any further comment.
"You got attacked by spiders?"
"Hey, they were huge! Not to mention they caught me by surprise. Giant spiders don't usually leap at my face in an office building, let alone exist."
Merlin hummed in acknowledgement.
"What, you don't believe me?"
"No, I believe you. I'm just curious as to what they actually were."
Arthur frowned. "I figured they were some kind of ghost thing."
Merlin snorted. "They could be a "ghost thing," but the closest thing to that I can think of is poltergeists - since they're the only ones strong enough to have a solid form - taking the shape of something to help them in their mission. But possibly dozens of them all taking the same shape? That's practically unheard of."
"So this is an anomaly inside the anomaly?"
"I'm surprised you know what that word means."
"Shut up Merlin, I'm not the one who's an idiot here."
"That's debatable."
"Merlin, I swear to whatever is holy in this world that I will destroy you with a snap of my fingers."
"Keep telling yourself that and maybe someday it might come true."
(A/N) Hello everyone! Welcome to the last part of this chapter. I am trying to not do parts anymore, which means longer chapters, but probably less updating. I started school and I have a TA period, so I'll hopefully get to write whenever I'm not sorting papers. Anyway, next chapter includes more Lancelot, for you people that love him so much. Remember people, have an awesome day!