Chapter Seventeen

Disclaimer: I do not own Merlin.

"What took me so long?!" The aged face of Emrys twisted into a scowl, blue eyes flashing as he shouted, "Better to ask where have I been! All over the blasted world, that's where! Because does anyone think of the consequences of their actions when they rise from the damned dead? No! Of course not! Why would they? Just destroy modern civilization and bring back the old order! Let dark magic run rampant! It'll be wonderful! Everything will turn out just great! Except no one thinks of the thrice damned nuclear reactors! Who's going to make sure those don't melt down when all the employees die of the plague? Me, that's who!"

The warlock whirled and began to stomp back and forth, still snarling. "And then there's all the falling space debris, and the trigger-happy remnants of world superpowers, and all those other evil magic-users jumping on the power bandwagon and all the legendary figures coming back to life all around the world...and don't get me started on the impostors ! Have you ever tried to have a civilized conversation with someone who's convinced he's Genghis Khan? Well, I have, and it's harder than reasoning with a zombie! Oh, didn't I mention? Some reincarnated necromancer-turned-gamer-and-back-again over in America thought it'd be a marvelous idea to create flesh-eating zombies and let them overrun the Atlantic seaboard! Nobody has dragon-forged swords over there, let me tell you!"

He spun around to face Arthur again. "And to top it off, I get back just in time to find you...you...you clotpole trying to get yourself killed. Again . How on earth have you survived this bloody long without me in the middle of an apocalypse ; that's what I want to know!"

Panting, he subsided into silence, and Arthur, trying to avoid "Dragoon's" most ferocious gaze, looked towards to Aithusa for help. The white dragon, who had grown from the size of a very large wyvern to roughly the size of a house since Arthur had last seen her, looked unperturbed by the display. Gwaine, already standing by his old friend's side and dwarfed by her foreleg alone, looked like he was trying not to laugh. Well, that's nice to see again.

By the time he faced Merlin again, the warlock was pacing once more, muttering about, "impertinent sorceresses" and "fickle weather patterns" and "royal idiots." He looks a little weird in blue jeans and a modern wool coat...Shouldn't he be in robes or something? "Um, Merlin…?"

"Shh!" Merlin stopped in his tracks and glared at Arthur again. "I see you at least had the sense to fetch the damned sword. I sensed that from Indonesia."

Indonesia? Okay..."Uh, yes. We made a bit of a quest…"

"A quest? We?"

"Well, me, Leon, Gwaine, Percival, Lancelot, a couple others...Gwen and Elyan were needed here and stayed behind; Gaius, too, but it was a lot like the old days…"

Abruptly, Merlin's scowl disappeared, replaced by wide-eyed disbelief. He sounded much, much younger than he looked when he asked, "Gaius is...alive?"

Arthur blinked. "Yes, yes he is. I think he's the oldest of any of us to return…"

For a second, Merlin's face crumpled. "I thought Gwen and the knights, surely...but not…" He shook himself. "Where is he? Where is everyone?"

"One's right here," Aithusa rumbled, giving Gwaine a nudge that nearly toppled him. "His sister is just over there with the others, along with Sirs Leon, Lancelot, Elyan, and Percival. Greetings, old friends; it has been a long time!"

Arthur looked to his soldiers to find that most of them, terrified, had moved many meters back from the docks, dragging several of the wounded with them. The exceptions, of course, were those who had been alive in Camelot; they responded to Aithusa's greeting in kind.

Somehow, that cleared Arthur's head enough for him to remember that there had just been a skirmish, and those usually required cleanup. "It is wonderful to see you again, Aithusa, but we have injured people here and…"

"Understood." Snaking her head towards the crowd of alarmed Anglesey soldiers, Aithusa opened her mouth and breathed what appeared to be a fine mist over them. After a stunned pause, several amazed exclamations began to erupt from several people.

The dragon pulled back and let out a satisfied sigh. "There. Some still need medical attention, but I can promise that none of them will die from their injuries this day."

She was right. In fact, the battle had resulted in no casualties, only a few very close calls. Those were swiftly transported to the clinic by their uninjured companions, where Arthur witnessed the only reunion Merlin seemed to be able to focus on at present; everyone else had to settle for a general hello and a sarcastic comment each on the way.

The instant Merlin saw Gaius shouting instructions at the other medical staff, his age literally melted away, leaving him physically almost as young as he had the day he arrived in Camelot. "Gaiu s!"

The physician turned towards Merlin's voice, his face registering first shock, then pure joy. "Merlin!"

Arthur felt tears in his own eyes as the most powerful sorcerer in to ever walk the earth all but ran, sobbing, into his old mentor's welcoming arms.

High above, Aithusa, who had offered to scout around the island for signs of Morgause, soared through a clear, bright sky.

Everything will be okay now. Merlin's back.

After his initial breakdown, the warlock pulled himself together split the rest of the day between helping out at the medical center and doing much better with reunions.

Each knight got a tight embrace and a demand that they explain their return to the land of the living. "I'll be honest; I hardly imagined that the reincarnation of Camelot's heroes would go quite like this!"

Lancelot got an extra hug, presumably for the horrid circumstances of his "final" death, and when Merlin found out about Cleva...Arthur ended up being the one to tell him...Gwaine got an extra one, too.

Gwen came running when she heard about Merlin's return, and within seconds of their first hug, they were laughing and chatting about how weird the world had become and how Arthur still had no self-preservation instincts. She also wanted assurance the Llacheu had died a peaceful death, something Arthur had been too afraid to ask about, and both the king and queen felt much better upon hearing that their son had died quietly in his sleep. "He was always a hothead," Gwen said with a sad smile. "I was always worried that he'd get himself killed in some battle or other."

Naturally, the council of Angelsey had concerns when it came to the "mysterious magic man and his giant dragon." Arthur did his best to put them at ease, aided by the many Anglesey soldiers who came forward to assure their leaders that Merlin and Aithusa had saved all their lives. It worked, at least for the moment.

So that night, after securing the settlement as best as they could, most of the reincarnated from both Camelot and Bernicia were able to gather for a late dinner at Arthur and Gwen's cottage, where they did far less eating than they did talking.

There certainly was much to talk about.

Upon seeing Morgause, Merlin had guessed something of the situation and was not surprised when Arthur revealed Morgana and Mordred's presence in Anglesey. The warlock said, "I blame myself in part for the paths they both went down. I'm wary still...I can't say much in the past thousand years has improved my opinion of a human's ability to change...but if you are willing to give them a chance, Arthur, so am I."

Arthur pointed out that he'd actually just fought a skirmish over that very subject, and Merlin seemed to revert to Dragoon for a minute. "That's right, you did. Idiot."

He told them of Camelot's downfall under Llacheu's useless son, and of the centuries of turmoil and change he'd witnessed. They told him of the experiences that had led them to Anglesey, and especially of the quest for Excalibur.

"Freya wants you to visit her, when you get the chance," Arthur told Merlin with a grin. "Been neglecting your girlfriend, have you?"

"Shut up, clotpole. And don't give me that look; you're technically not a king anymore and can't tell me off!"

And finally, finally, they got the answer to the biggest question of all: What had caused the apocalypse itself?

"I've sensed things, put others together, and the answer is clear," Merlin said heavily. "A number of reincarnated sorcerers...and perhaps a few entirely new ones as well...upon regaining their magical talents and memories, banded together and decided to bring back the 'good old days' of the Old Religion. Only, they've chosen, for various reasons, to ignore the most important part of such magic."

"Which is?" Lancelot prompted when Merlin fell silent.

Her head just outside the open living room window, Aithusa stated, "Balance."

"Exactly," Merlin said. "I'm not certain how, at least not yet, but they found every hidden magic spell and object they could and awakened the sleeping magical essence of the Earth itself. As you saw, it did not respond well to their meddling."

"What's their plan now?" Leon asked.

"They all have their own priorities, I expect." Merlin snorted. "Mostly, like any fool, they want power over what's left of the world. I doubt they are closely united at this point, but we shall see. I have not had the chance to identify them all yet."

"I have some ideas," Gaius said, "if it could be anyone from our era who is returned."

"I'm just glad we may have Morgana on our side this time," Gwen said. "But what about the rest of the world?"

Waving his hand languidly, Merlin replied, "There are other heroes handling their own villains. I say they'll manage until I hear otherwise. We have our own monsters to fight."

It was nearly dawn when everyone disbanded to get an hour or two of rest. Arthur followed Merlin, who intended to spend the day "running an errand" with Aithusa, out of the cottage. "You'll be back soon?"

"Of course! Can't leave you alone just when I've found you, can I?" Merlin grinned at him. "You really missed me, didn't you, prat?" Then, sobering, he added, "I know I missed you."

"Yeah." Arthur pulled him into a long hug. "I missed you, too, my friend."

When they pulled apart, Merlin scoffed and rubbed his eyes, grumbling, "I thought I'd gotten less soft over the years, damn it."

Laughing softly, Arthur met his best friend's striking blue eyes and said, "You know, we've realized for a while that there might be a war coming. But I couldn't imagine fighting it without you."

"Well, why would you?" It was Merlin's turn to laugh. "You wouldn't stand a chance!"