Disclaimer: I do not own Merlin.


Chapter 17 – The Ages Gone By


"However, there is a reason we have risen again here and now and your husband, and my Lord Mage, seems to be the only one with the answers." Arthur said. Merlin finally released Mithian and approached the man he had been destined to spend several lifetimes waiting on. The two reached out as one and grasped the other's arm in greeting.

"It is good to see you again." Merlin said, looking Arthur in the eyes.

"And you." He returned. The two held the stare for a few moments, trying to convey all within that one meaningful look, before pulling away.

"Merlin." Gwen greeted, tears unabashedly shining in her eyes.

"My Queen." He responded, giving her a short bow and bringing her hand to his lips in a courtly greeting.

"Idiot." She murmured and pulled him into a hug instead. The others greeted Merlin as well before returning to the matter at hand.

"Why have we risen now, Merlin?" Arthur asked.

"I must admit I am not entirely sure." The warlock responded, wrapping an arm around his wife as she returned to his side once more, clearly intending to not leave it anytime soon. "But perhaps we can hold this discussion elsewhere." Merlin pointed behind Arthur when The King shot him a confused look and it was then that they became aware once again that they had a audience.

"Ah. Right you are." Knowing some explanation was needed, Arthur took Gwen's hand and led the way over to the benches where the rest of the team waited.

"Coach." Arthur greeted. "I do apologize but pressing circumstances means we will not be able to finish the game. We wish the rest of the team good luck."

"Uh…" The coach stuttered, unable to find words. "You…you're…what is…"

"Unfortunately we do not have all the answers just yet. But do forgive my manners and allow me to properly introduce myself. I am King Arthur of Camelot and The High King of a united Britain. This is my wife, The High Queen Guinevere, our Lord Mage, Merlin, and his wife Mithian, the Princess of Nemeth, and these are the Knights of the Round Table, Sir Leon and Sir Percival, the First Knights of Britain, along with Sir Lancelot, Sir Gwaine, Sir Bors, Sir Tristain, Sir Galahad, and Sir Dagonet." Silence greeted his introductions, all those within the stands having heard him. Arthur had not once considered not telling the truth as to who they were. Fate and the ancient magic of the Old Religion were at work to have them rise again; he had little doubt that having been awakened now, publically in front of all these people, was a part of fate's plan. "The legends are true for the most part, though there is certainly some fiction in there. We are unsure why we have been reborn in this day and age, but we will find out. However, until such a time I regretfully must withdraw myself and my Knights from the team; undoubtedly there is something sinister at work here and the lives of the people of Britain take precedence over football. I am not even sure when, or if, we will return to school." The coach merely nodded, though it was understandable; it is not every day that you speak with the legendary King Arthur after all. "Merlin!" The King called when the coach's silence continued.

"Yes, Sire?"

"How are we getting wherever we are going?"

"We return to Camelot." He said with a smile. "And I shall transport us there." Merlin raised his hand, along with the staff he still carried, and the group disappeared in puffs of smoke. When Merlin's magic waned once more they found themselves on a hill overlooking a forest. The sight seemed somewhat familiar, if it wasn't for the town off in the distance and the sound of a motorway not far off.

"Where are we?" Arthur asked.

"Camelot." Merlin replied simply as he waved his staff, the cloaking spell he had placed all those years ago finally being lifted.

"It looks good as new…"

"Of course it does. You didn't think I'd let your kingdom fall to ruin or be destroyed did you?" Merlin sounded quite offended, though all could recognize he wasn't genuinely so, but rather teasing Arthur as he once had.

"It's been two thousand years. I just didn't expect it to look as if no time had passed." Arthur defended himself. "Especially given it was in your care." He muttered the last bit, the two easily falling into the routine of banter and bickering of times past. Merlin rolled his eyes and raised his staff once more, transporting the group once again, this time right into the courtyard they were all familiar with, yet had not laid eyes on for two millennia.

"It really does look untouched by time." Gwen said, noticing no grass or weeds poking through the cobblestones, nor any signs of decay.

"You used magic to protect it didn't you?" Mithian asked her husband, still not having let go of his hand even as they made their way towards the main entrance.

"Yes. I cloaked it from prying eyes and every couple hundred years returned to that hill to ensure its structure was still sound. I wanted it ready for when you all returned."

"You didn't remain in Camelot, Merlin?" Galahad asked.

"No. I couldn't." They had arrived at the bottom of the steps and both Arthur and Merlin had stopped, staring down at the place that had seen the end to an era. Gwen reached for Arthur and grasped on to him, knowing this to be the spot she had seen Mordred murder her husband.

"We understand, Merlin." She murmured as they continued on, entering the castle and making their way to the council chamber, taking in every inch of what was once their home as they went. They arrived at the council chamber to find The Round Table as they had left it, all of them moving to take their seats. Arthur sighed as he thought on what usually took place at this point.

"I suppose I shall call this meeting of The Round Table to order." He said. The weight of the situation was felt by all of them as they sat where they had once made decisions that governed the entire kingdom. "Tell us all you know, Merlin."

"I'm afraid I know nothing beyond the obvious." He admitted. "The ancient prophecies said that you would rise again when your kingdom, in this case all of Britain, was in need of you. We know that something has happened, or will shortly happen, to threaten Britain to a point not seen since the war against the Saxons, requiring you to bring about a new Golden Age."

"And you have no idea what it is do you?" Asked Tristan.

"The future is clouded right now, it worries me."

"The future?" Mithian asked. "Last I knew you were not a seer." Merlin smiled and entwined his fingers with hers.

"It has been two thousand years, my dear-"

"Do not remind me of all the time we lost!" She both demanded and begged.

"I have not spent that time idle." He squeezed his wife's hand in what he hoped was a reassuring gesture. "I have honed my magic and have even learned from The Lady of the Lake herself."

"She consented to teach you?" Arthur was surprised. While The Lady had indeed given him Excalibur, they had neither seen nor heard from her in the five years thereafter.

"Yes. After awhile she searched me out, said that she had seen that I would need to be more powerful than I was at that time if I was to fulfill my destiny and help you. The Lady's allegiance has always been with The High King; she helped me so that I may in turn help you."

"And one of those skills she taught you was to see the future?" Gwen wanted to clarify. Merlin shook his head.

"Being a seer isn't something you can just learn, it's a gift that only the most powerful of magical beings possess. When my magic became strong enough, and when I became so in tune with the magic running throughout the Earth, I began to have visions." He explained. "Some, like we had learned, were clear as day. You lot returning and us being reunited was one such vision, there was never any doubt that I would see you all again…it kept me going." He did not let his sorrow at losing both his friends and his family show for too long; he had them back now, that is what mattered. "However, I was never able to see the when, how and why of you being reborn and us reunited. I'm sorry to say I still don't."

"And The Lady? Has she seen anything clearer?" Leon asked. Merlin smiled again though it was a bit ruefully, though why he felt so he wasn't entirely sure.

"It seems one of my destinies has been fulfilled."

"You're more powerful than The Lady." Arthur surmised. "Your destiny as Emrys, the most powerful sorcerer to ever exist, has finally come to pass."

"Yes. At least, the last time I saw The Lady, which was near two centuries ago mind you, she said as much."

"So it would also be pointless to ask if Kilgharrah had seen anything clearer I take it." Percival said. Merlin grew sad once more at the thought of that particular dragon.

"Kilgharrah is dead." He informed them.

"Oh Merlin…" Mithian mumbled sadly, thinking of all those he had lost.

"His death was expected at least. He was nearly three thousand years old as it was when Camelot fell, and even for dragons that is quite old. He passed on a few decades after you lot."

"Dare we ask about the other one?" Bors wondered cautiously, though the thought of Aithusa brought the smile back to Merlin's face.

"Aithusa is alive and well, though she's pretty old now herself. When Kilgharrah passed she became The Great Dragon."

"So it's like a title?" Lancelot was confused.

"Sort of." Merlin thought how best to explain. "Its more like my power as a Dragonlord, except instead of being hereditary its based on level of magic. The Great Dragon is whichever dragon is the most powerful. Like with a Dragonlord's gift it passes on when the current Great Dragon dies."

"I see." Arthur wasn't truly sure if he did, but he decided to just go with it.

"All it means for you is that Aithusa will now be able to speak with you, for the gift to speak with all beings is one belonging to The Great Dragon and The Great Dragon alone." He stopped for a moment before decided to tell them all.
"She isn't the last dragon, however." He admitted much to the shock of the others. "Aithusa and I had time, a lot of time, to go searching the world for other dragons. With my power as a Dragonlord I'm able to…sense them, in a way."

"You found more dragons." It was said in complete awe.

"Well, dragon eggs." He clarified. "Three of them, the last three in the world. It was a several centuries ago when we found them and I called them from their eggs. Two were female, Wilone and Kaerae, and Berthold is male. Aithusa was ecstatic when we found them and she very much took on the role of their mother, still does for a matter of fact…and she also loves their young like a doting grandmother."

"Just how many dragons are we talking here?" Gwaine voiced the question they all had.

"Just five, but that's four more then we thought there were. Wilone and Berthold are mates and about five years ago Wilone successfully laid an egg. It was another male dragon, named Traherne. Aithusa and I are hoping that when he grows he and Kaerae will be mates, or at the very least like each other enough to have an egg. Dragons will never populate the world as they once did, but if we're lucky they'll be a few dozen by the time Aithusa passes on."

"You succeeded." Mithian said happily. Merlin had confided in her his worries about the dragons and them going extinct. As The Last Dragonlord it was his duty to see that didn't happen, and it seemed he had succeeded.

"We're very happy about this Merlin, for you and Aithusa." Said Gwen. "And for dragons in general of course. We look forward to meeting them, and to seeing Aithusa again."

"Indeed." Arthur said before changing the subject. "What do we do now? It's not yet dinner time, far too early to retire, and I'm sure I speak for all of us when I say I don't even want to think about going back to Oxford right now…or anywhere really. No doubt the entire thing will have made it onto Youtube and the news will have picked it up. Don't really fancy answering questions, whether I have them or not."

"Oh we are far from finished here, Arthur." Gwen said. "There's at least two things left to do." She turned to Merlin, her look pleading. "Firstly, I have waited long enough to ask about my children." Merlin's look turned pained and it was answer enough to send Gwen into a fit of tears. The others had forgotten, too wrapped up in what was going on, but Gwen was not allowed to forget. The last time she had been in the body of The High Queen there had been a child growing inside her, one that was conspicuously absent now.

"I…I don't know." The warlock said.

"Well can you find out?" Arthur asked as he tried to comfort Gwen.

"I will search for them, all of them." He directed to Bors, Dagonet, Tristan and Leon, the others in their group with children. "But I can make no promises. When…when you all died, I took your bodies, along with those of your families, Nan, Gaius and my mother to The Isle of the Blessed to be buried. I had hoped that the rampant magic there would protect you until you were needed again. All of you. There is chance that the others were reborn and have either not yet awakened or are trying to find us, but I can't guarantee anything."

"Please let us know if you find anything. Anything at all." Dagonet said, emotion filling his voice. When they had died in the battlefield the Knights had not thought that their families would face the same fate; it was difficult to hear that they had.

"I will." He assured them and they all lapsed into silence for a few moments until Gwen's tears dried.

"What was the other thing you spoke of?" Arthur asked his wife softly.

"Oh…right." She said, straightening out of his grasp before raising her arm and slapping him across the face. Arthur turned with the blow more out of shock than the actual strength of it, for aside from a good-natured head slap when he was being particularly obstinate, Gwen had never raised a hand to him before.

"You complete bastard, Arthur Pendragon!" She almost shouted, any trace of her former sadness having disappeared to be replaced by pure anger.

"What did I do?" It was the wrong thing to say, as Gwen's narrowed eyes informed him.

"The last time I saw you, before watching Mordred stick a sword through you that is, you accused me of having an affair!" She snarled. "With Lancelot no less!" This was not news to anyone at the table, though the events leading up to the Saxon attack had not been forefront of their mind.

"Oh…that…"

"Yes, that!"

"I am sorry, Guinevere, truly I am." He said sincerely enough to stop the rant she no doubt wanted to go on. "I was coming to talk to you, tell you I was wrong, when the alarm sounded. I didn't have a chance."

"How could you even accuse me of something like that? After all our years together, knowing me as you do, how could you even think that I would betray you thus?!"

"Because I saw it! No, let me finish!" He stopped her interrupting. "I did see you and Lancelot together, and I was hurt enough to not think of any other possibility for what I saw. When I calmed down, when Merlin knocked some sense into me, I realized that it couldn't have been you, not really at least."

"So how-"

"Morgana." He spoke the one word answer. "We realized it was magic, making two people look and sound like you and Lancelot with the sole purpose of hurting me. We didn't know who, but Morgana and the Saxons attacking so soon after is just too big a coincidence." Most of Gwen's anger left her when she heard that Morgana's illusions had been the cause. After all, she and every other person in Camelot knew only too well how real Morgana's illusions could be. There had been a time when many lives were lost when people unknowingly trusted a Saxon thinking it was their family or friends.

"I suppose I have to forgive you then…" She said somewhat begrudgingly, not truly ready to let go of her anger, but knowing that if Morgana was involved it wasn't really Arthur's fault, and even being played as he was it only took a couple hours to figure out the truth.

"We'll work on it." He murmured, knowing how she was feeling; real or not he would not soon forget the sight of his wife in another man's arms. "Lancelot." He then addressed the Knight, knowing this involved him just as much.

"Sire." He responded, not sure if he dared look his King in the eye, but deciding to be brave.

"As I said that day, Sir Lancelot, you have my sincerest apologies. I know you would never betray me so, in my anger it just took awhile to remember that."

"It is quite alright, Sire. I am certain I would have reacted similarly had I been in your place."

"But perhaps next time, if there is a next time, though I sincerely hope there won't be, you can stay away from everyone until you've calmed down and remembered we wouldn't betray you, instead of acting irrationally." Merlin suggested.

"Or I'll just search you out, Merlin. You should be well accustomed to my irrationality, as you put it."

"Wouldn't be the first time, Arthur."

"Enough, both of you." Mithian put a stop to their bickering before it could truly begin. She had gotten quite proficient at that after marrying Merlin; both he and Arthur swore that she'd taken lessons from Gwen.

"Right. Well why don't you lot get re-acquainted with the castle, while Mithian and I go get some food." Merlin suggested. The others quickly agreed, none wanting to go out and face the storm they were sure was brewing thanks to social media; no doubt they were 'trending' on the internet by now.

"Merlin, before you go," Gwen stopped the two before they could exit the council chamber. "I just have two more questions. Firstly…how do we become ourselves again? Or rather, our modern day reincarnated selves?"

"Oh, I have no idea." He readily admitted.

"Wonderful." Arthur muttered, not looking forward to the amount of time the armour he wore took to remove.

"Alright, and secondly…there wouldn't be a chance of indoor plumbing would there? Or electricity?"

"I agree with, Her Majesty." Bors spoke up. "I don't think any of us could stomach a stool closet ever again."

"That I think I can help with. Well, partially at least." Merlin raised his staff and cast his magic. A loud groan was heard from all around them but nothing visibly changed. "We now have indoor plumbing." He reported. "I think. If it worked properly your stool closets will have expanded and altered to become real twenty-first century bathrooms."

"And if it didn't work?" Leon couldn't help but ask.

"I'd enter cautiously the first time." He suggested. "Turn taps slowly, that sort of thing. And I'll work on electricity, but it may have to be installed manually by a professional."

"Merlin do you always use that staff now?" Arthur asked, having seen the warlock use it one too many times not to.

"What?" Merlin looked down at the crooked length of wood and shrugged. "Not really. I was just under an aging spell for a long time and my whole body began to ache. I used it as a walking stick."

"So that wasn't just a disguise? That's really what you'll look like as a old man?" The King sniggered.

"Hey, contrary to my youthful looks, I am almost two thousand years old, remember?"

"Yeah but you're immortal. Does it really count?" Lancelot asked.

"When you live for two thousand years, then ask yourself if it counts." Mithian suggested, frowning at the Knight.

"Of course, I apologize, My Lady." He said contritely. "Oh, and I'm sorry for flirting with you."

"What?!" Merlin snapped.

"In my defense I didn't know it was you. As far as I knew you were just another uni girl."

" 'Just another uni girl?' " Merlin demanded, turning to his wife. "What is he talking about?"

"Nothing, darling, just Lancelot being…well Lancelot." She said, taking his arm and pulling him out of the room. "We'll be back with McDonald's or something." She called behind her.

"McDonald's eaten at the legendary Round Table in the supposedly mythical Camelot…" Gwen said with a poorly suppressed smile.

"Hey, we've got indoor plumbing…apparently." Arthur said. "It's the twenty-first century now, we're going to have to acclimatize ourselves to that."

"But how?" Tristan asked. "We're ancient beings, you're an ancient King." He directed to Arthur, the tone quickly turning serious again. "The monarchy has been abolished, save in ceremonial positions, and even if it hadn't Queen Elizabeth II is now the sovereign and more importantly is well loved. How are you supposed to unite the land and lead the people with neither power nor precedent to do so?"

"You've asked just one of the difficult questions we must now find answers to, though none are readily available." Arthur responded. "There will be no easy answer, and the fight ahead of us will be long, difficult, and no doubt bloody. I swore at my coronation as High King to do right by the people of Britain, and that all Britons would be united in one common cause. So long as there is breath in my body, in any life, I shall do all in my power to see that come to pass. But I neither expect nor hold any of you to the oaths you took. You should live your lives, don't throw them away."

"We renewed our oaths freely naught a few hours ago." Percival reminded him. "We are not throwing our lives away, we are fighting for what we believe in, and we will stand by your side all the way."

"Don't even think of looking my way." Gwen said, taking Arthur's hand. "And I would get this out of your system before Merlin returns. He's waited two thousand years to stand by your side as you fulfill your destiny; it won't go over well if you suggest he do otherwise."

"I admit I will not be able to do this alone, and I welcome your help, so long as you know it is not mandated of you." He paused momentarily, looking to each of them in turn. "I have no doubt I will need help from elsewhere as well. I will have to navigate the power and politics of this day and age and it will not be easy."

"We will be meeting with Queen Elizabeth soon won't we?" Dagonet asked, though it was more of a statement.

"Eventually I have no doubt we will. Whether monarchs from different times or not we are still both British monarchs, our goals are the same in that."

"Here's hoping that you're right about that." Bors muttered and no one could disagree with him. The entire game had changed. Not only would they need to learn the new rules but the new players as well, which was easier said than done.

oo00oo00oo

Merlin and Mithian did indeed return with McDonald's, though they took far longer than any of the others thought they should given Merlin's ability to transport them anywhere with a wave of his hand. After eating everyone retired to their old chambers, and when Arthur and Gwen entered theirs The Queen drew up short.

"Sweetheart?" Arthur asked. Gwen didn't respond but instead entered the room and knelt in front of the window; the last place she had seen her children.

"I watched as they died here, Arthur." She muttered brokenly. Knowing exactly whom she was talking about Arthur immediately went to her side and held her as she sobbed, his own tears joining hers. "They killed them, Arthur." She got out between sobs. "Grown men did not hesitate to slaughter our children!"

"I know sweetheart. The Saxons have no honour. Killing women and children, and both at once with a woman with child, is about their skill level, for they could never hope to take us in a fair fight."

"Don't group all the Saxons together, Arthur. Not all of them were so dishonourable."

"No, not all of them were, but the honourable ones were few and far between. The majority of Saxons, however, proved time and time again they held nothing dear but themselves." Gwen could not refute that fact. Although they would never clump an entire population together, most of the Saxons had indeed proved they were dishonourable.

"It is weird," She said when her tears had dried up. "To be back as my former self and not be with child."

"I don't know what to say, Guinevere." Arthur admitted. "I really can't imagine how you're feeling."

"Good. I would never wish this pain on anyone."

"But I would wish it on myself if it meant taking it from you." He replied, looking into her eyes, which filled with warmth at his words. "I'm so sorry, Guinevere. For accusing you of being unfaithful to me, for not being there to protect or our children…"

"You were fighting to protect us, Arthur. Regardless of whether you were in the room or not you fought to protect us, and your kingdom. As for accusing me of an affair…there is a part of me that is so hurt that you could ever even think it possible of me that I don't want to forgive you." Arthur hung his head, a pained expression on his face. Gwen didn't let him hide from her, however, she reached up and raised his head till his eyes met hers once more. "But a larger part of me knows how real Morgana's illusions can seem and I can't imagine the pain you felt at my supposed betrayal. After you left that day I thought on what I would have done had I come across you with another woman, and I realized I would have acted exactly the same way. It didn't take you that long to realize it couldn't have been real, and you were on your way to speak to me when the Saxons attacked. Of course I forgive you Arthur, how could I not?"

"You have always been too good to me, Guinevere."

"I know." She replied with a smile, trying to lighten the mood. Arthur smiled back at his wife and slowly lowered his head towards her, giving her lots of time to pull away. Gwen did no such thing and in fact met him half way, welcoming his kiss. For the first time in two thousand years they were together again and both poured everything they had into that one kiss, both their sorrow for the past, and all their hope for the future, for the second chance they'd been given to grow old together. Pulling away when the need for air became too much, the two looked to each other with a heated stare.

"Take me to bed, Arthur." Gwen murmured. The King needed no further persuasion and stood with his wife in his arms before carrying her to their bed.

oo00oo00oo

A corridor over another couple had been making up for lost time as well. Merlin and Mithian lay fully sated together, Mithian's head resting on her husband's chest with his arm draped around her.

"I love you." The warlock murmured. "I've waited two thousand years to say those words again."

"Have you really?" She could not help but ask. "I know you said there has been no one since me, but…Merlin you were not meant to be a monk, living in seclusion and not knowing love." She raised her head and gave him a look of both sorrow and upset. "We talked about this, Merlin. We knew the time would come when we could no longer be together and I was very clear that I wanted you to be happy! Even if it meant having another woman to replace me I never wanted you to be alone!"

"I know darling." He replied. "And I haven't been alone all this time; out of respect for your wishes I did not purposefully seclude myself." He smiled softly. "But I always knew there would never be another. No one can replace you, Mithian, it is impossible. Even as you were saying you wanted me to move on when the time came I knew I never could."

"You said you haven't been alone all this time. If you knew you wouldn't find another, how have you not been alone?"

"I had Aithusa, and for a little while Kilgharrah as well. Then there's The Lady of the Lake, whom I visited often, and the other dragons when we found them. And I saw the other monarchs of Britain for awhile too, ensured that the transition after Arthur's death went smoothly and that they didn't undo everything Arthur had fought for." Mithian looked quite unimpressed.

"That is not what I meant, Merlin, and you know it."

"Yes, I do know. But I also integrated myself into modern life. No one knew who I really was, but I was a healer in various villages throughout the medieval era," He informed her, giving her a brief history of his life for the past two millennia.
"That was also when Aithusa and I went searching for other dragons. I admit that during that time I did not keep an eye on Britain as I should have. When we returned…a century or so later," He said nonchalantly. "The land had been split. Britain did not really exist any longer, but was then England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. It eventually corrected itself, sort of, when Great Britain was formed in the 18th century, and even further when the United Kingdom came about, but they're certainly still separate countries when they weren't in our time." Mithian listened patiently as Merlin spoke, taking in every little detail. "By the renaissance I was ready to interact with people more and so returned to court life, let me tell you what a mistake that was. After years of war there was such hope for the new, young Henry VIII."

"You were at the court of Henry VIII?" She could not help but ask.

"Oh yes. I created an identity for myself and was quite pleased overall…until Anne Boleyn came to court. She was nice enough, but history had it right that she pursued King Henry ruthlessly, filling his head with promises of a son if he only married her and made her Queen. Things greatly changed since the Golden Age, I don't mind telling you. In our time sons were put above daughters in terms of inheritance, certainly, but no king would tear apart a kingdom to have one when they already had a daughter. I left court shortly after King Henry's injury when everything went even further to hell, though I came back when his daughter Elizabeth became Queen. I met Shakespeare." He added and Mithian could not help but laugh.

"It is strange. Even after having seen so much, and knowing what I do, with the existence of magic, which has apparently been forgotten, being married to The Immortal Mage, everything with the Sword in the Stone, The High King of Britain, The Once and Future King and Queen…the modern day part of me is shocked the most by the fact that you met Queen Elizabeth I and Shakespeare." Merlin could not help but laugh too, for when she put it that way it did sound quite unimpressive compared to everything else. "So what happened then?" Mithian urged him to continue.

"That's when I really began training with The Lady of the Lake. Before that I'd go see her regularly and she'd teach me some stuff, but I practically lived on the Isle of the Blessed for the latter half of the 17th century and all of the 18th century. 19th century I began to go out again,"

"Let me guess, you met Queen Victoria too."

"Actually no. Saw her from a distance a couple of times as she rode passed in her carriage, but never actually met her. I became a bit of a scholar in that time; everything was advancing so fast, things being discovered and invented left, right and centre. Things that even magic can't do became possible, and don't even get me started about the 20th century. Never has our world advanced so quickly before, I could barely keep up. Then the wars started, and they seemed even more pointless than the ones we fought against the Saxons. I banged my head against a wall one too many times when World War I started, and so wanted to do away with Hitler when World War II came about."

"Why didn't you?"

"It's not my place to intervene like that." He said after a moment. "I'm not here to do whatever I want and make the world how I want it to be. Just because I have the power to make things however I want, doesn't mean I should; I'd be no better than the man I wanted to stop if I did that, if I forced people to my will. No, I'm here to help Arthur bring about a new Golden Age, and he will do it right, not just taking out the leader and hoping for the best. Though every time I think about those death camps and the millions of lives I could have saved I regret not doing it, I don't mind telling you. But then I think, would it have really helped anything? There were others poised to take Hitler's place, and for all I know I could have traded one psycho for an even worse one. I know it seems like no one of the time could be worse than Hitler, and maybe that's true, but no one took his place for us to find out." Merlin went silent after that, all these unwelcome thoughts that he'd gone over time and time again returning. Mithian pushed herself up until she hovered over her husband, forcing him to concentrate on her.

"You've lived with a terrible burden, Merlin. I cannot even begin to imagine what having the amount of power you do does to your mind. But know that you do not have to bear that burden alone anymore. I am here now, Merlin. We all are, and we will not let you bear this alone any longer." Mithian brought her lips to his in a gentle kiss before settling down beside him once more. "I love you, Merlin, more than I can say. And now that I have found you again I will not let you go. You're stuck with me, whether you like it or not." Merlin's arm tightened around her.

"I could not think of any fate I would want more."


A/N - As Arthur said, they are going to have to acclimatize to the modern world. They essentially have two people living inside them, all the memories of both lives are there, which can be both a blessing and a curse. We will see more of them adjusting. Indoor plumbing is not the end of it, though I will not be changing Camelot a great deal, it's still an ancient castle, just some things need to change.

And yes, Queen Elizabeth II may show up eventually. With their identities public I don't think there's a chance in hell that Queen Elizabeth wouldn't want to meet the legendary King Arthur, she'd also be concerned with why he's there, how it would affect Britain and its people and all that so they'd have to meet at some point. Just trying to figure out how and if I will actually bring her into the story or if I'll just mention that they met...I find it weird to write about real people who are still living for whatever reason, though dead real people, like Henry VIII, I'm fine with.

Yes Gwen forgave Arthur pretty quickly, I know some of you said she shouldn't, but it's Morgana's illusions and Gwen herself has experienced how real they can be, so even though the situation still angers her, she's not really mad at Arthur anymore, knowing the reason why.

As to Merlin...he's been alive for so long, would have experienced every major historical event (except when hiding from the world) and I wanted to show that he was there for some of it, though certainly didn't experience everything first hand.

Then there's his power and knowing he's the most powerful sorcerer to ever exist, and arguably the most power person in the world, which would play on him a great deal. Seeing the world go to war not once but twice, and knowing that he could basically snap his fingers and end it, and stop millions from dying, would be hard for him because as he said it raises the question of should he use his magic in that way? Would he then be any different than those trying to force their will on others? Yes, most people (if not all) would agree that ending a war peacefully would be a good thing, but Merlin alone would be deciding that and would be using his magic to do what he thought was right, and make things how he thinks they should be, regardless of anyone else's opinion. It also begs the questions of would it really help, or would the repercussions end up being worse? Every action has consequences and there's too much that could go wrong and he doesn't feel it's his place to make things how he wants/thinks they should be, but rather to let the world govern itself instead of becoming some universal dictator simply because he has the power to do so.

The point of that long paragraph is to explain his thinking and stop questions like "why didn't he save those millions of lives if he could?" Unfortunately it's never that simple. I also will not be delving much into this topic, so decided on a long A/N to try and explain everything.