A/N: When I read Modern AU's I love it when writers use lines of the show, for some reason it fills me with glee and makes me happy. So be warned, I'll be using some lines from now on. Also lots of history about the Citadel in here… And due to its original length I decided to cut this one in half again because this time it actually made more sense.

And for those faithful reviewers: THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Chapter 5: For The Love Of Home

8 January 1978

Arthur followed the rest of the inhabitants out of the chamber and towards the Main Court. Nothing had been decided in the end. Or at least not something that would solve their problems. Uther had closed the meeting for dinner and planned a next one in a couple of days so everyone could ponder on the matters some more.

As Arthur entered the Main Court the feeling of being home only grew. He loved this place: the fire pit in the middle, the rows of stone benches filled with cushions rising up towards the ceiling like some old amphitheatre on three sides, the vast space at the entrance of the hall where the children played. Now they were also three long tables placed for dinner and it smelled delicious.

"Where's Robbie?" He asked after looking around and spotting every other child but that one.

Rose heard his question and answered, "Brooding upstairs in the watchtower." The woman smiled as she went on, "Sound familiar?"

"Not you as well, Rose." Arthur declared sounding desperate despite the fact that he had a hard time remaining serious. It did sound familiar, but what was everyone's deal with taking a dig at his teenage years?

…

After excusing himself to Leon, June and Nolan who'd been trying to coax the whole story about the missing sword out of him, he made a quick detour to his room for his warm coat and went out. Through the broken windows of the outer buildings he could see that the first stars were already visible in the sky.

He jogged up the steel staircase welded inside the former chimney in order to get warm. Once up there was a whiff of smoke in the air but Arthur dismissed that oddity and addressed the wayward boy. Robbie hadn't hit his growth spurt yet and huddled behind his bent knees the dark-haired youth looked even smaller.

"I heard you've been putting my lessons to good use." Arthur announced his arrival as he went to sit next to Robbie on the floor. The boy was leaning back against the low wall and stubbornly not looking at him. Aside from that last part this was all very familiar. Robbie usually kept him company whenever it was his turn to man the watchtower and had so for years.

"Go away." Robbie muttered clearly. Arthur tried not to smile or sigh and continued, "Morgana has picked up on that though so you might need to tone it down a bit. She's downright scary when she's angry."

"She thought it was funny," argued the boy finally looking back at him.

"I never said she was going to be angry with you." Arthur assented, "She still thinks you're adorable."

Robbie didn't rise to the bait. Instead he kept staring thoughtfully at Arthur who couldn't help but squirm a bit. The boy sighed and stated more than asked, "You're going to leave again, aren't you?"

"Why would you say that?" Arthur was honestly baffled by that remark.

"I just know." Robbie shrugged his shoulders and declared, "I want to come with you."

"You can't and believe me it's not about your age." Arthur began adding the last part quickly before they restarted that argument again. He continued, "During the meeting it was decided nobody's going to go out until we figure out what's going on out there."

Robbie furrowed his brow and raised puzzled, "That's illogical."

"Tell me about it," agreed Arthur wholeheartedly.

"What's going on then?" The boy asked next and without any more coaxing Arthur told him about what had happened. Robbie remained silent and pensive throughout the whole story. Arthur suspected he had known or at least guessed some of it since it involved his brother and sister. However during the retelling of the attack of the giant slimy lizard Robbie suddenly snorted.

"What?" Arthur asked indignantly.

"Sorry," the boy apologised unconvincingly, "It's just a funny image to see you trying to get your sword out. You loved that sword." Robbie explained with mirth and Arthur couldn't help but grin as well. He was glad the boy wasn't freaking out by now, honestly adults give children a lot less credit than they deserve.

"So do you see why I need you to stay here?" Arthur asked becoming serious again, "Whoever's out there, you might scare them off with your fire."

"You know I can't control that," the boy pointed out.

"Robbie?"

"Yes Arthur?"

"What else would you call consistently turning your tests to ash because you don't want to take them?" He asked with a knowing grin.

Robbie's expression suddenly screamed guilty as charged and the boy grumbled, "You figured that out then?"

"Sorry to shatter that illusion." Arthur said unapologetically while tousling the boy's dark hair eliciting an indignant, "Shove off!", from Robbie. The young man went on still grinning after his hand had been slapped away, "I'm also quite sure your grandfather caught on as well. He's just too amused by it to say anything."

"Brilliant," Robbie told him sarcastically.

"So go on then, I'm cold." Arthur urged him on. After Robbie rolled his eyes at him the boy held out his hand and soon a small flame crackled into existence an inch above his palm. It grew until it was the size and shape of a small ball. Soon the top of the watchtower was warming up considerably and belatedly Arthur realised this was where that smell of smoke had come from.

"You've been practising." Arthur concluded impressed.

"I wanted to win our next argument about going out with you." Robbie explained and made a fist so the flames were extinguished, "I can't believe you found an even better argument against it this time."

"Well, if it weren't for the creepy bloody X's I would've probably let you." Arthur admitted honestly still feeling more than a bit awed at the display, "But-"

"Yes, I heard you," interjected Robbie. "It would be a lot easier to stay mad at you if you weren't this reasonable."

"And you sound too reasonable to be a teenager," countered Arthur.

"Tell everyone else, will you?" The boy asked being both exasperated and amused, "They keep comparing me to you. I keep saying I'm not that bad. They answer with a firm 'not yet'. It's annoying."

"Tell me about it." Arthur stated again. They were both quiet for a while looking up at the stars and deep in thought. Arthur was mostly thinking about what he would need for his upcoming journey. A replacement sword for starters. The thing was that there were only a few that had the right fit so to speak. He glanced to his side having no idea what the kid was thinking.

It seemed like only yesterday that a six-year-old Robbie had followed him around everywhere he went as Arthur tried to stop everything from crashing down. It was the beginning of a new year but the winter so far had been particularly harsh and early autumn storms had made scavenging difficult so food was becoming scarce as well. Nolan, June's husband, Uncle Archie and Michael had left the day before to scour for food when all went to hell.

Just like in 1962 nobody knew how the sickness arrived but it had been utterly brutal. His mother and father caught it and so did Alex, Duncan, Agatha, Robert, the four-year-old Peter, Tom, Gwen, Edith, Evy, Alan, the three-year-old Violet, Hazel, Olaf, Vivian, Lewis, Marian, Percy, Henry and Rose. In less than two days every family had been infected and to make matters worse the sickness struck the adults the hardest.

To this day Arthur doesn't know what he would have done if Gaius, Alice and Helen had become sick as well. They had tirelessly cared for the sick. Margaret, Rya and Lilian had helped while trying to keep life as normal as possible and making sure everyone had enough food. But it had been Arthur who had to step up and take control of the Citadel, making tough decisions like quarantining old Geoffrey and June who had been pregnant of Nathan at the time. Or arranging burials…

So as Arthur went from room to room to stop the rest of his peers from panicking and in hindsight giving orders to everyone including Margaret of all people, Robbie followed him. And then boy became sick as well making Arthur fear that every measure he had taking had been for naught. He'd spent hours holding vigilance over his friends and family until a week had passed and the three scavengers had returned with more than enough food to feed the survivors.

It was not a happy return however. Little Peter Scott had been the first to die. Duncan had been so feverish at the time that he hadn't even known so it had been Helen, the boy's mother, Arthur and Leon who buried him. Edith Wood, Evy's mother, Hazel Quinn, Vivian and Owain's mother, Marian Burke, Percy's mother and Henry Green, Gwaine's father had died like Arthur's own mother in that horrible week.

And that hadn't been the end of it because the recovery took some time and by the time February came around everyone was so used to follow Arthur's lead that the realization had scared him. Because nobody seemed to understand that he had failed to protect his family, his home. They spoke of his courage but he couldn't help but feel like a coward.

That had been the start of it. To escape the high expectations he felt he couldn't live up to Arthur had gone on scavenger hunts on his own. And that had culminated, rather dramatically now that he looked back, with him running away for months after a raging fight with his father. Truth to be told the anger he had felt for years had waned but habits are harder to break it seemed.

Arthur sighed and couldn't believe he had honestly been thinking about allowing the boy to accompany him. But looking at Robbie now he did get it why everyone had taking to comparing the two of them. The boy had the same odd determination, Morgana would've called it stubbornness no doubt, that he saw in himself.

"I would appreciate it if you wouldn't tell anyone what I'm planning." Arthur raised after his grumbling stomach had effectively disrupted their companionable silence.

"I won't." Robbie reassured him, "I promise I'll keep everyone safe until you get back."

"Good, now let's head back underground," suggested Arthur as he stood up and held out his hand to help the boy up. "Margaret has made something wonderful no doubt."

"Sean told me we were getting ghost carrots." Robbie commented while letting Arthur pull him to his feet. He grinned, "He said you killed them, but that it was okay because they were sad."

"Brilliant." Arthur echoed Robbie's earlier tone of voice as they descended the steps side by side.

…

"I see you've managed to get my son down."

Arthur looked up at that as he entered the Main Court after dropping of his coat off once more. Alex was sitting on one of the highest tiered seat closest to the door and it was beyond obvious that he had been waiting for Arthur to arrive. The young man followed Alex's gaze and spotted Robbie already sitting in between his brother and Owain. All three of them were chuckling about something. Arthur turned back towards the older man and hopped up the stone steps before taking a seat next to him.

Alex, short for Alexander, Brewer had been seventeen years old with big dreams before that day in June. He had quite a mind and just like his father he would have gone to Cambridge in the autumn. He had wanted to study science, specifically biology in the hope someday to become part of the laboratory where Crick and Watson had made a breakthrough in the structure of DNA. The scientists had just published their discovery in April that year and young Alex had been fascinated.

The earthquake however had shattered many dreams but instead of becoming embittered Alex had made new ones. At his age he felt like an explorer venturing out into the unknown. And as a young boy Arthur had been awed by the man, calling him Uncle Alex with much more fondness than he called his real uncle that. Because honestly, the man was really cool.

It had been Uncle Alex who had taught him the constellations after Arthur had sneaked out to the watchtower when he was seven years old. It had been Uncle Alex that had taken him under his wing when his father deemed him old enough to become a scavenger. It had been time to grow up and to stop dreaming, his father had told him, something that caused a huge argument between Uther and Uncle Alex.

"It was me he was angry with," stated Arthur easily.

"He wasn't angry, just-" The older man started to explain.

"Worried, yeah, I got that too." Arthur interrupted him however and grimaced, "I took the liberty of informing him of what the meeting was all about. I hope I didn't cross any boundaries."

"Robbie would have figured it out within the day. I swear, sometimes it's like he can read minds." Alex joked but Arthur could tell the man was at least partly serious.

"Now how are you really doing? And don't give me that whole nonchalant façade you'd put on for the meeting." Alex ordered much like his father had done hours ago. Like Gaius the man had an eye for spotting something amiss.

"I'll sleep it off." Arthur reassured the man who kept staring at him sceptically before he too, like Gaius, gave a resigned sigh.

Alex gently clasped his shoulder and looked at him sternly, "I expect at least two nights under this roof."

Arthur nodded his acquiesce and after another gently squeeze the older man went back down and left him to his thoughts. Yes, the man truly knew him too well.

He remained seated where he was however because Morgana was clearly headed his way with a plate of steaming food which was as equally suspicious as sweet.

His sister sat down next to him and basically shoved the plate in his hands with a smirk, "Have some food, nobody likes grumpy Arthur."

"Who told you that? Freya, June?" Arthur asked after savouring his first bite. He really, really missed this kind of food out in the wild.

"Neither of them." Morgana gazed down to the middle of the Main Court were Rya and Alice were already surrounded by Mia, Susan, Matthew, Violet, Nathan and Sean trying to convince the women to tell them their favourite stories.

"Nathan?" Arthur's eyes briefly widened with surprise before he glared at his sister and accused, "I knew I detected some of your corruption already."

"You have Robbie." Morgana argued back, "I'm entitled to my own minion."

"Oh, you're going to be a great mother one day." He muttered just loud enough to warrant being slapped on the arm.

"You're insufferable sometimes."

"It's part of my charm." Arthur countered with a smirk taking another bite.

Morgana was unimpressed and asked, "Charmed Gwen lately? I saw you two enter together."

"You're nosy." He pointed out and just continued eating. His disinclination to elaborate clearly frustrated his sister which was exactly why he did it in the first place.

"I just want to return the favour," explained Morgana with a shrug before elaborating, "I talked to Leon while you slept."

"And?" Arthur grinned.

"He wants to do this proper." She complained with a huff, "So he's going to talk to Dad."

"Of course he is, Leon's the very definition of proper."

Morgana rolled her eyes at that but didn't comment knowing he was right of course. Arthur used the newfound silence to continue eating, wondering for the first time if Margaret or Morgana or whoever filled his plate thought he was half-starved considering the staggering amount.

"You know everyone's thinking about Lance."

Morgana had an uncanny talent of timing when to say shocking, out of the blue things like that. For instance just when Arthur took a large bite of Spam and almost choked on the piece of pork.

Lance, yes, of course everyone was thinking about him. Bayard's only son and golden boy stumbled into the settlement three years ago. He'd been separated from the rest of his group, mauled by a hungry wolf and dehydrated. Yet somehow, Arthur knew it had been nothing but pure luck, the man had found his way to the Citadel.

Once the fever broke, thanks to Alice and Gaius' administrations, Arthur actually got along quite well with him. Lance was almost three years older than him being born a year and a few months after the earthquake making him younger that Leon, supposedly, and older than Gwaine and Elyan. At that time Arthur had still felt the loss of Gwaine's friendship sharply. So he and Lance became fast friends during the young man's recovery.

That is until Lance showed interest in Gwen.

"Yes." He mumbled surly.

"And you know Gwen thinks you still see her like a sister or like the annoying little girl that tagged along?" His sister went on clearly aware about why exactly Lance went back to his own settlement after living with them for months even after his recovery.

"Yes, I know Morgana." He grimaced.

"You're an idiot, you know that right?" Morgana concluded harshly.

"She's intimidating." Arthur tried to explain.

Morgana pursed her lips unimpressed, "Sweet Gwen? Really? She wouldn't hurt a fly unless it were verbally or physically attacking someone she cared about. I'm intimidating, Vivian is intimidating."

"Actually, it's Olaf that's intimidating. Have you seen that man's right arm?" Arthur reasoned, "And it doesn't matter, I'm not in love with Vivian."

"You're in love with Gwen?" Morgana repeated surprised. For all her insight she evidently hadn't suspected the depth of his feelings yet and Arthur mentally banged his head to a wall for divulging this much.

"I don't want to talk about it." He stated and took a large bit of food focusing his attention on the fire pit below.

It was burning low now and Rya and Alice had pulled a couple of cushions closer so that they and the children were sitting in a circle around it. Most of the inhabitants had either pulled a chair closer or nicked a cushion as well to listen in because listening to stories was everyone's favourite time of the day.

Alice was just winding up the tale of the day hungry wolves and dogs came to the Citadel and while every child had heard that one before it was still awfully thrilling. Arthur found it especially amusing since 'Morgana and the Wolves' contained the sentence: 'She huffed and puffed and stamped her small feet on the ground but no grown-up believed her.' Morgana didn't mind the story at all, despite that sentence, because as she had smugly explained to him one day, the basic conclusion of the tale was that she was always right.

It also sounded a lot less scary than what truly happened. Arthur remembered the day well. It was the 15th of December 1969 just a month before nearly every child lost a parent. It had ceased storming and because their water supply had diminished to almost nothing many of the inhabitants had been out making the short trek to the nearly frozen river.

Morgana had dreamed two nights already of wolves attacking but nobody thought more of it. They were just nightmares everyone said except Arthur because Morgana swore it was true. So when she asked him to nick some swords and smuggle them outside, he did that without questioning it. In the middle of hauling buckets back to the entrance at least fifteen starved wolves and dogs attacked. On that day Arthur discovered he could wield a sword pretty well.

"So which one do you want to hear next?" Rya asked after Alice finished. Of course everyone, not just the children, had their suggestions.

"Alice in Wonderland." Susan proposed while she raised her hand. She was the only one though, the rest just shouted their preferences which made it sort of hard to hear. Meanwhile Arthur brought his empty plate to the table and sat next to Leon just behind the half circle of eager children.

"The one with the cowardly lion!" Gwaine called from the back.

"The Sword in The Stone!" Matthew shouted suddenly. That was a rare request but after glancing quickly in Arthur's direction Rya went on to hear the other suggestions. It was no secret that Arthur hated that story. It wasn't always the case though, as a boy he had loved hearing about the adventures of his namesake. That changed about the same time as his arguments with his father increased.

"I want to hear more about us." Nathan insisted.

"What do you mean?" The woman asked genuinely interested.

"Like Morgana and the wolves but another one I don't know." The little boy explained.

"Okay, does that sound like a good idea?" Rya agreed receiving only nods in reply, "Well, it's a short story but I don't think one of you have heard about how Leon came to the Citadel." She briefly glanced at her adoptive son who nodded his agreement. It was a nice story the way Rya told it and she was right, Arthur didn't think even Robbie had heard that one before.

"Once upon a time there lived a raven with such vast majestic wings that he could block out the sun if he wanted to." Rya began, "His feathers were black and gleamed beautifully underneath every light whether it came from the sun, the moon or the stars. The raven loved flying around the Earth seeing all the little people and animals mix and mingle together. It made him happy but also sad."

"You see, the raven was the only one of its kind left and every time he circled the Earth he hoped to find another one just like him. But he never did. So he flew on and on until centuries had passed and the world changed so much he could scarcely recognize it. The raven was also a bit scared."

"Why was he scared if he was so big?" Nathan asked puzzled.

"You can be scared even if you're big." Rya explained easily before she continued, "He was afraid that he would be caught and imprisoned in a cage so the raven rarely landed anymore and flew only during the night which turned his feathers even darker. Now one time not so long ago something terrible happened to the Earth. He didn't know what it was because he was just a simple bird but when he flew over he saw that the lights were out everywhere."

"The earthquake." Mia stated knowingly.

"Exactly, but the raven didn't know what that was. He went out during the day and didn't recognize anything anymore. There were mountains where there hadn't been and deep holes where everything had been flat before. The animals were gone and so were the people. Can you guess what the raven did next?"

The children shook their heads while listening enraptured.

"He flew because that was what he did best. He flew across the continents and the oceans, he flew across Europe and he flew across England and that was when he heard it. A soft cry, so quiet that the raven had almost missed it, but he didn't and curiously he landed. It might be a mouse or a robin, he thought. But the raven was wrong, it wasn't a mouse nor a robin but a small baby boy left all alone."

"Now the raven didn't know what to do. He was just a simple bird he told himself and he didn't know how to take care of a human child who lived on the ground instead of in the sky. But there was no one else. Meanwhile the little boy had stopped crying and was smiling at him. Now the raven knew what he had to do but it was difficult. You see, he was still a raven not a man. How can a bird look after a child?"

"So during that night the raven wished on every shooting star. And the stars who had been his companions for many centuries listened and decided to grant the raven his wish. The stars warned him though that it was not without danger, that he could lose a bit of himself along the way. And he could only stay a human for as many days that he had black feathers. The raven agreed and when he woke up in the sunlight he had been turned into a man with pitch-black hair."

"The boy grew and the raven-turned-man cared for the little boy month after month. And for every day that passed some of his black hair turned white. In the beginning the raven-turned-man didn't notice. Living on the Earth was hard and he was so busy looking for food, water and shelter that he even forgot how it felt to fly. But one night the stars warned him."

"They said: look at your white hair, raven friend. You only have a few black ones left. The raven-turned-man was shocked that time had flown by so quickly. He begged the stars to help him because the boy was still so very young, but the stars couldn't do more. So the raven-turned-man walked and walked searching for someone else to take care of the boy before his time was up."

"When he had only one black hair left the raven-turned-man stumbled onto our plain. It was a beautiful spring day and almost everyone was out either working on the fields where we plant our vegetables or making repairs in the sunlight. The raven-turned-man was both sad and happy that he had found the boy other humans just in time. He had felt strange all day, wingless and weaker, while the sleeping boy had felt almost too heavy to carry."

"Now the raven-turned-man knew he had frightened the humans with his sudden appearance but he stared from one person to the other before walking straight to a woman. She had been resting in the sun because she was very pregnant and the baby had been kicking her the whole night." Rya paused with a smile and Mia was the first one who caught on.

"That was you and Elyan was your baby!"

"Correct, but he wasn't born yet. Meanwhile Tom had rushed to my side of course, my knight in shining armour, but I knew there was no danger."

"Did you know it was a magical bird?" Nathan asked completely encompassed with the tale.

"Not yet, but I soon learned." Rya answered and went on, "The raven-turned-man knew he had chosen well when the woman accepted the little sleeping boy gently. He didn't say anything but leaned forward and gave a kiss on the child's forehead to say goodbye. Just then he felt the magic of the stars leaving him and quickly stepped back so that it could take root in the boy as continued protection."

"Then a white blinding light filled our fields and when it diminished the man was gone. Instead there sat a small raven on the ground. But that was not the strangest thing. His feathers were all white not beautiful like the snow but like there was something missing. After a few weak tries the raven managed to fly up. He soared towards the sun never to be seen again. The end."

"He never came back?" Susan pouted.

Rya sadly shook her head, "I think he has to get his black feathers back first. When that happens he'll return of course but that can take a long time."

"Is this really a true story?" Nathan tilted his head sceptically. Now before Rya could answer Robbie crouched down next to the boy and told him, "Of course it is. See, this is how the raven looked like."

Robbie waved his hand before the fire and a small fiery bird suddenly escaped from the middle of the burning logs eliciting louds gasps of wonder as it flew briefly above their heads. It was awfully detailed and of course everyone immediately made a suggestion for the next animal. Robbie conjured one animal after the other knowing that the questions would follow no doubt.

Arthur approved of this rather dramatic way of revealing his control of his gift not only because it was downright impressive. It also proved to be the excellent distraction to talk to Leon undisturbed. His friend was rather transfixed by the display but instead of surprise like everyone else showed, Leon's face was one of confusion.

"Do you ever think of him?" Arthur inquired cautiously.

"The raven-turned-man?" Leon looked at him and sighed before nudging his head in the direction of the fire, "Sometimes. Right now for instance I'm almost positive that I've seen someone shape flames to resemble animals before."

"Only those born after the earthquake have these gifts and even then it's rare. You and me are the perfect example." Arthur reminded him. Neither of them had ever shown any signs of having such talents.

"I know," His friend nodded, "It's probably just a dream that feels like a memory."

Everyone except the youngest ones knew what truly happened. The fairy tale of Rya was just so much better than the reality which was that a crazy old man walked up to the Citadel one day and dropped little Leon off. The whole encounter only lasted mere minutes and Leon's presence was the only reason Tom and Rya were sure that they hadn't dreamed that bizarre moment. The old man had left without saying anything except that the little one's parents were dead. Hence the name Leon as the two-year-old toddler hadn't listened to anything else.

11 January 1978

Arthur lasted two more days before his backpack was packed and ready again. He hauled it onto his shoulders, zipped his old pilot jacket close and for the hundred time checked if the replacement sword was fastened to his belt.

He had informed Leon and Robbie of his plans on the same night. He was also pretty sure Morgana knew. Every time she looked at him her expression became unreadable. So that made this not sneaking out. Although that was exactly what Arthur was doing in these early hours. His dynamo torch lit up the dark corridors as he passed door after door of sleeping friends.

So when he turned the last corner to the hatchway he was surprised that his light fell upon a figure sitting on the steps leading out. The man blocked the soft light of the oil lamp next to him which was why Arthur hadn't spotted him earlier.

"Arthur." Uther greeted as he gazed up at his son wearily. The man was fully-clothed as if he never went to bed that night, not even for a few short hours like Arthur had done.

"Father." He greeted back as if meeting the man here on the steps was an everyday occurrence. Uther didn't say anything else so Arthur heard himself starting to explain his actions, "I talked to Margaret. If we ration our food we can last two months. That's my deadline."

"To do what?" Uther asked.

"Find out what the hell is going on out there." Arthur declared as he waved his arm in a wide arc before pointing at the door to support his statement.

His father sighed deeply, "I was afraid you were going to say that."

"Are you here to stop me?" Arthur inquired not really wanting to shove his father aside if it came to that. He was already calculating the speed he needed to get to the latch though. The older man was slower with his walking stick.

"No." His father stated and the younger man immediately stepped passed him before the man had a chance to change his mind, "But I would rather you go out to find ourselves a better place to live." Uther raised.

Arthur stopped halfway up the steps and turned back around. That was unexpected and a completely radical idea. Immediately he felt himself rebelling against that suggestion, because this was home, but he knew Uther wouldn't say something like that without reason.

"What do you mean?" He asked stumped even retracing his three last steps.

"Food's getting so scarce. We won't last another two years if we remain here." Uther predicted morosely, "You know it to be true. Every time you go out on scavenger hunts the journeys become longer. Scarce resources have always been the main reason for violence. It doesn't matter if it's between us and Bayard or Annis or even a new group making itself known, sooner or later this was always going to happen."

His father sounded so sure but Arthur had a hard time imagining murdering someone else over food especially people he knew. And while he had killed animals out of necessity or in self-defence he had never raised a weapon to another person, training exercises obviously didn't count. Honestly his father's rather harsh vision of the future unbalanced him for so many reasons.

Arthur had opened his mouth to at the very least assure his father that he would look for a promising place when he realized something else, "Hang on, how did you know I was leaving?"

"Let me come with you." Leon stepped into the hallway just then carrying his own rucksack.

Great, Arthur thought sarcastically though if he was honest this didn't surprise him. It did surprise him that he had let his father stall him so effectively.

"No." Arthur decided firmly without needing to even think about it and turned back around. Or tried to but since Leon was obviously not impressed with that simple statement the man had taken to grab his arm. Arthur glared at his friend's hand until Leon released him as he asked, "Why?"

"Because I don't want to risk losing you."

"You risk yourself." Leon countered easily.

"That's different." Arthur dismissed his friend's argument completely while quickly calculating what his chances were of outrunning Leon. He grimaced. The odds weren't as good as with his father.

"How?" Leon demanded as he crossed his arms.

"You are our good luck charm, our rabbit's foot, our curly haired mascot-" He started to sum up.

"Says the bloke who clearly has a guardian angel." Leon interjected.

"But that only works for me. Your luck rubs off on everyone." Arthur pointed out before leaning closer and whispered so that his father couldn't listen in, "I need you to stay here. Morgana leans on you. My father leans on you."

He stepped back again and amiably clasped Leon's shoulder before ordering, "So you stay here, spread that fairy dust or whatever your secret is and I'll go test the boundaries of my so-called guardian angel."

"Be careful." His father suddenly said and Arthur knew in that moment he had won this argument. Leon sighed resigned as he looked down at his feet.

"I will." The young man reassured them both, "I know what I'm doing." And because that was so completely true neither of them protested when Arthur walked up the stairs, opened the latch and stepped out.

…

A pale sun was slowly rising in the east lighting up the stretched out plains left of the Citadel where the cliffs ended. On top of the watchtower two figures held vigilance over the lands. In the distance Leon could hardly distinguish his friend from the background anymore.

"Do you think he'll return?" He asked.

"I have to believe that." Uther barely whispered having already lost sight of his son an half hour ago. He turned back towards the younger man and began matter-of-factly, "Now Leon, we should consider fortifying the Citadel…"

…

Underground Gwen sat up with a start when a horrifying scream echoed through the Citadel. Without thinking she grabbed her torch, ran out in the hallway almost bumping into her half dazed brother who hit his head against the doorway to get out of her way. Not that Gwen noticed any of that. She was solely focused on reaching Morgana's room.

It was just two more doors down and Gwen rushed in without knocking. Her friend was huddled on her bed as close to the walls as humanly possible and had her hands pressed tightly against her eyes and forehead no doubt trying to block out whatever she had Seen.

Gwen ignored the smoke and the pile of burning clothes on one of the chairs with a dismissive glance and crawled on Morgana's bed knowing the first thing she needed to do was to calm the frantic girl down.

"Morgana, listen to me." Gwen urged as she grabbed her friend's hands and forcefully tugged them away. She felt they were wet with tears, "You're all right. You're in your room with me, see?"

Meanwhile Elyan had followed her in and dumped a whole bucket of water on the burning clothes. Gwen briefly looked over her shoulder and saw that Mary was there as well while several people stood in the darkened doorway. This was not the first time Morgana had woken up most of the Citadel. It had been a long time however since her reaction to one of her visions was this extreme.

"Morgana, please open your eyes." She pressed softly as she continued to soothe her friend. Arthur and later Leon had always managed to calm her down quickly so Gwen looked back at the entrance again hoping one of them had arrived by now.

"It's all right. Everything is all right." She kept whispering until Morgana visibly stopped trembling and looked up. She resembled a ghost.

"Gwen?", was her confused question.

"Yes," Gwen breathed relieved and smiled encouragingly, "Are you with me again?"

But Morgana didn't answer her question. Instead she turned away and started to cry silently once more while burying her face against her pulled-up knees.

"I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry…"

Possibly my most ominous ending so far… To compensate, next chapter will be up tomorrow : )