A chapter with a LOT of angst. Have fun with this. Thanks again for all the support, I really appreciate it! Please review if you can. I do not own Merlin. :)

Merlin slowly opened his eyes and stared at the sky through the trees. He was saddened to see that it was a lot harder to see the stars now. He hadn't noticed that before. The sky was darker than it should have been, there should have been many more stars and constellations, but Merlin noticed significant gaps. He wanted the stars to come back. Slowly he drew a breath and then blew in the direction of the stars, his eyes glowing brilliant gold as he exhaled silver stars. They flew up to the dark night sky and created a small constellation that made him smile. It was the crest of Camelot.

After feeling as though he'd woken up sufficiently, he turned over to wake Arthur. He sat up and put a hand on his shoulder, shaking him slightly. "Arthur," he whispered, "We have to get up." Arthur just groaned and swatted his hand away weakly.

"Arthur, it's important." Arthur cracked open an eye to look at him and then complained,

"It's the middle of the night, we'll get back tomorrow, let me sleep." He rolled over and ignored Merlin's persistent attempts to wake him up. Merlin finally got so frustrated that he grabbed his friend by the front of his shirt, pulled him up to look him in the eye and growled,

"I think Freya's in trouble. You need to come now, or I'm leaving you behind. Now get up you lazy ass." He didn't really mean it, he'd make Arthur come some way or another, but he knew it was a better way to make Arthur come willingly. Arthur's eyes widened at Merlin's words and he sat up, rubbing his eyes.

"You should've just said so, I know you care about Freya," he mumbled like a child caught in wrongdoing. They dressed quickly and Merlin gathered everything up with his magic, not caring what Arthur thought about it. Generally, he tried not to use magic around Arthur since it was still slightly new to him and never ceased to surprise and slightly terrify him, but Merlin was upset with him for not listening to him. He wasn't quite sure why, since Arthur was an independent and rebellious soul and didn't like to listen to Merlin unless he had a good reason to. To be fair to Arthur, though, he had been listening quite a bit more since he'd come out of Avalon.

Arthur took Merlin's silence as annoyance or anger and decided to try and break it. He hated it when he was mad at Merlin or vice versa, in this case. They rode very quickly and it made matters worse that Merlin had suggested summoning Aithusa and Arthur firmly told him 'No'. Arthur rode to catch up with Merlin and rode alongside him.

"Merlin." No answer. "Don't ignore me. You know I hate it. I never know what you're thinking and that bugs me."

"Well, God forbid I annoy you, Princess," Merlin snapped sardonically. Arthur raised an eyebrow. Gwaine used to call him 'Princess' and he couldn't say it was a nickname he was particularly fond of. He decided to fight fire with fire.

"Aw, you think I'm a Princess? How kind."

"I was talking to the horse."

"So what does that make me?"

"The back of the horse."

"That's not very nice."

"I'm not feeling very nice. I don't know what's wrong with Freya and thanks to you, we might never find out!"

"Merlin, I am very uncomfortable on the dragon."

"Dragons aren't meant to be comfortable."

"That's not what I meant. I mean she kind of wants to kill me and stretch my intestines out until they wrap around the planet and then pluck out my eyeballs and use them as berries for her pancakes made of my flesh." There was a moment of silence before Arthur heard a small chuckle come out of Merlin.

"That's a pretty accurate summary of her thoughts towards you."

"How do you know that?"

Merlin smirked, "After you told her about Morgana, she gave me a lovely insight into her mind as to how exactly she plans to kill you when she gets the chance. It wasn't pretty and I'd say your description is pretty close to that." Arthur blanched slightly.

"What do you mean 'when'?"

"I dunno. I'm in a pretty bad mood." Merlin glanced at Arthur's expression and snorted, "Oh please, I was kidding. Come on, Arthur, you know me."

"Do I?" Arthur joked, wiggling his eyebrows.

"Did I neglect to inform you that you're an ass, Arthur Pendragon?"

"No, Merlin. No you did not," Arthur chortled.

The playful banter continued mostly through the night as they rode back into town. They reached it at about the crack of dawn and Merlin quickly returned the horses with a note because the owner wasn't awake yet. They were still fairly far from the lake of Avalon, so Merlin grabbed Arthur by the arm and pulled him on to a bus that took them very close to the lake.

While they were on the bus, Merlin glanced at Arthur to make sure he was alright and almost laughed when he saw his face. They'd mostly walked around town, not using any type of new transportation that Arthur wasn't used to. This restricted them to walking and riding horses. So when he looked at Arthur's face, he saw a man who looked like a deer in the headlights. He was breathing very quickly and his eyes were wide and darting around to look out the windows.

"Merlin," he whispered, his voice tense, "What the hell...why is it vibrating? It's a giant carriage and there's so much room, but there's no horse. It's going so fast. Is it magic?" Merlin patted him on the shoulder and said simply,

"Later. Let's take care of Freya first." He thought for a minute and when they were almost there, he turned to him again and said quickly, "And for the record, it's not magic. I'm still special here." He smiled and winked at him before grabbing him by the arm again to pull him off the bus.

((()))

"Never again," Arthur said, his voice shaking and his eyes still wide and scared, "Never ever again." Merlin looked at him with little sympathy,

"Sorry, friend, if you're going to live in this time period then you're going to have to learn to like the bus unless you want to walk out of your shoes."

"I didn't want to be here, remember?" Arthur mumbled.

"Ah yes," Merlin said, being slightly sassy, "Neither did I and yet here we are. Stuck. So get over it." Arthur scowled at him, but Merlin didn't care. They reached the edge of the lake and Merlin glanced around before whispering,

"Partis ceeyeta asquiea." The water didn't seem to change, but Merlin grabbed Arthur by the sleeve and thrust him in front of him. Arthur stumbled at first, but found himself standing on top of the water.

"What did you-?"

"Arthur, run, go. I'm right behind you. We need to get to Freya." Arthur turned around and started jogging towards the island in the center of the lake. Merlin pushed him from behind to make him go faster and then ran around and passed him. Arthur scowled again and ran faster to catch up with him.

They arrived a few minutes later at the lake, both panting heavily.

"How big is that...bloody lake….Merlin?" Arthur demanded to know between gasps. Merlin didn't answer, but was very tempted to say a very clever but inappropriate answer.

Merlin knelt by the lakeside, whispering incantations to summon Freya. She didn't appear immediately and this greatly worried him. Arthur squatted next to him, reaching down to twirl his own finger in the water, when he touched the water and withdrew it immediately, holding his hand.

"Merlin, look at the water," he hissed, "Look where I touched it." He was holding his finger as if it was injured, but didn't seem to notice it otherwise. Where he had touched the surface, the water turned gold and the gold rippled away from the central point. Merlin's eyes widened.

"That's not supposed to happen…" he said quietly. Arthur gave a tut and replied,

'Yeah, that's why I showed you. What does that mean?" Merlin frowned in thought.

"I don't...I don't know….I mean, I have a vague idea of what it could be, but nothing for certain…" Arthur smacked him backside the head lightly. Merlin gave him a resentful look.

"What is your 'vague idea', Merlin, it might be important. Besides, it burned my finger. I'd rather it didn't incinerate me when we try to cross again."

"Don't rush me, I'm thinking. It might be and probably is related to Freya's disappearance," he snapped, "You're being a prat, knock it off." That shut Arthur up for about two minutes before he started to bug him again. Merlin shut out the suggestions Arthur was throwing at him. He was just trying to help, but he didn't know much at all about magic. Merlin did and he had lived for a thousand years longer. He had seen many things.

The only thing this could compare to was a memory from not too long after the fall of Camelot. A druid girl was mourning the death of her younger sister. She had been killed running away from the barbarians who overrun the kingdom after Gwen died, shot in the back of the head. Merlin kept in the shadows, not wanting to be found. He did not want to get into druid affairs again, not after what happened with Mordred. He watched silently as the girl's cries quieted to whimpers and they were kneeling by the same lake they were at now. The younger sister was not yet dead, but seconds from it and when her eyes fluttered closed and she started to fade, the older girl holding her whispered a nearly inaudible incantation and her sister's eyes fluttered open again. It only gained her about five more minutes, but her hand slipped, skimming the top of the water, and as her pointer finger brushed it, gold sparks flew from the water where her finger had touched it. She let out a small gasp before she fell back into death's grasp again. Merlin had been greatly saddened by this, but the golden sparks were never clear to him. He had never seen it before or since, until just now. But Arthur wasn't dying, right?

Upon this thought, Merlin's gaze snapped to Arthur's. "You're not dying, right? You feel okay?" Arthur looked surprised and answered, upon giving him a confused look,

"Not that I'm aware…" Merlin frowned. That wasn't good enough. He had to make sure.

"Arthur, come here."

"No, Merlin, what? Why?" Merlin grabbed Arthur's temples with the tips of his fingers like he had back in Camelot, but instead of looking for his memories and desires of Camelot, he looked for any sign that Arthur was unwell. Arthur shuddered as Merlin searched, figurative fingers picking through and looking for any health flaws. He finished, satisfied that he was healthy, physically at least. When he finished and opened his eyes, he saw that both of them had had their eyes closed and in the absence of sight, had pressed their foreheads together and Arthur's hands were gripping Merlin's wrists as his fingers were pressed against Arthur's temples.

Merlin opened his eyes first and saw how close they were and slowly pulled his head back. Arthur looked concentrated like he had in Camelot. He slowly released Arthur's temples and asked slowly, "Arthur...what are you doing?" Arthur slowly opened his eyes and looked up at Merlin and released his grip on Merlin's wrists.

"Nothing, I thought you were...looking for...what were you looking for?"

Merlin cocked an eyebrow. "Why? Something you're trying to hide?" Arthur looked embarrassed.

"No. I mean...probably some old memories with...Guinevere…" he mumbled a lame response. Merlin was not convinced.

"Arthur, I really have no interest in seeing that. That is definitely not what I was looking for."

Arthur nodded, trying to regain his composure and pride. "Of course not, I didn't think...erm…" Merlin smirked at him, still curious as to what Arthur was trying to hide. He elbowed Arthur hard but playfully.

"Don't worry about it!" His humor quickly faded when Arthur yelped when Merlin shoved him. Arthur pulled in a hand to his chest and glared at Merlin. Arthur was cradling a red throbbing hand.

"Merlin!" he shouted. Merlin winced before apologizing and looking at the water again. Now there was a lot more gold, from Arthur's full hand being submerged in the water. It appeared that when he'd shoved him, Arthur had put a hand out to catch his fall and thrust it into the water instead. Merlin whispered a quick incantation and put a hand above the golden pieces of water. He made movements with his hands like he was rolling something into a ball and the water obeyed, becoming a golden orb, suspended between his two hands.

"Look," he whispered quietly. Arthur glanced over after pouting over his hand and his eyes widened.

"I'm going to pretend this isn't surprising to me because honestly, I don't know how on earth by this point I can still be surprised." Merlin looked at him sideways and shushed him. Arthur frowned and poked him, telling him not to shush him or so help him he would-

"Arthur. Shut up. I'm thinking." Arthur snorted and mumbled,

"Don't hurt yourself." Merlin rolled his eyes. All these years and he still felt the need to be sarcastic when it was important.

"Freya?" Merlin whispered, ignoring Arthur behind him, and not knowing what else to do. "Freya, are you there?" He heard a tiny squeak come from the orb and his face brightened when Freya's shimmering face appeared in the golden water. She looked frightened and confused, as she had when she tried to contact him for help.

"Merlin? I don't know where I am," she whispered, looking around. Arthur seemed a tad surprised at Freya's appearance, never having laid eyes on the Bastet girl before.

"She's quite pretty, Merlin," he comented. Merlin gritted his teeth and elbowed him,

"Not now, Arthur, seriously!"

"Sorry." Freya ignored Arthur at first, but then she looked at him again and commented slyly and a tad bitterly,

"So this is the one, yes?" Merlin wanted to cross his arms, but he didn't want to drop the orb and lose Freya again.

"Yes. Surprising, isn't it?"

"Quite."

"Hey! I thought this was important, Merlin," Arthur interrupted.

"It is. Freya, what happened?"

"I don't….I don't really know to be honest," she glanced around again, as if looking for something or someone. She leaned in and whispered to Merlin and Arthur, like someone might hear, "I think I'm not alone here. I've been alone in this lake for years. Save for the Shi, but I never talk to them. And I don't interact with the dead unless it's a dire emergency. But no being can enter the lake without my permission. It repels them. That's why no one comes near here most of the time; their subconscious warns them away. This is a sacred place, Merlin." He took all this in for a minute before replying quietly,

"So why are you not alone?" She shook her head fearfully. She had no idea what happened.

"I've been moved here to this kind of water for some reason and this is the only place I am visible to others, like you, and there is someone else doing this to me. I don't know who, but they must be very powerful." Merlin bit his lip.

"I don't know anyone powerful enough to control this entire lake, let alone the spirits in it except for me and possibly….well, possibly Morgana. But she's dead! This can't be her, it has to be someone else, and I'm certainly not doing it!"

Freya now looked more frightened and a bit….guilty, almost. When she spoke again it was barely audible.

"Yes, but wasn't Arthur supposed to be dead until Albion needed him to save it again?" Merlin glanced back at Arthur, taking in his appearance quickly before turning back to Freya.

"Well, yeah, but maybe destiny decided to cut him a break or something-"

"It doesn't work like that, Merlin. You know more than most anyone that bringing someone back from the dead is powerful and dangerous and it can have repercussions you may not have foreseen. He brought himself back, if I was to be quite honest, his spirit was pretty dormant after he died, but after you started coming out to the island recently, I think he sensed your presence and wanted to be with you." She glanced at Arthur momentarily before continuing, "And that, if I'm not mistaken, hurried along the prophecy faster than it wanted to be hurried. You probably just changed the course of the future, Arthur Pendragon." She glared at him for a minute, not speaking any longer, giving Merlin a chance to reply.

"So...what does that mean, then? If Arthur's woken early, which is a rare thing within itself, does that mean that Albion is in danger now?" Merlin was struggling to understand what this could mean. Could Arthur have accidentally caused a huge danger to Albion because of him?

Freya nodded. "It said he would rise a second time when Albion needed him most. Unfortunately, I'm afraid that means now. So I don't know who's doing this, but I have a hunch." Merlin nodded for her to go on, and behind him Arthur looked mortified. "You know the rule about bringing someone back, yes? By bringing someone back from the dead, you must give a life back. I don't know who the spirits may have taken, unless you know, but Arthur's rising, I think, has caused a bit more of a stir. So when I say I'm not alone, I think I'm surrounded by-"

"Spirits," finished Merlin, "Spirits of Camelot? Or evil spirits? Or both?" Freya shook her head for the fifth time.

"I don't know, Merlin, or I would tell you. I would not be surprised if it was evil spirits, like Morgana or Mordred-"

"Mordred was not evil," Arthur interrupted, "He was misled and blinded by revenge." Merlin looked at him in disbelief.

"How can you say that? He killed you!" Merlin cried in disbelief. Arthur's gaze was steady and sure,

"He was angry with me."

"I get angry with you and I haven't tried to kill you! At least not yet…" Merlin replied with annoyance and hurt in his tone. Why was Arthur defending him?

"I was wrong to kill that girl he was so fond of and-"

"Arthur, she tried to kill you and you gave her a second chance."

"I knew it was hurting him."

"Arthur!-"

"Boys!" Freya raised her voice. She suddenly looked scared again, as if she might have woken a beast. For all Merlin knew, she could have. They both looked at her, glowering at each other for a moment more before Merlin turned his attention back to her. "You can't fight now," she sounded scared again, her voice light but also passionate, "You're our only hope for finding out what this is and if you can put aside your stupid disagreements over someone who shouldn't matter anymore, we might live through this. All. Of. Us." She spoke clearly, looking at both of them until they flushed red with guilt.

They mumbled their apologies and she sounded satisfied when she informed them, "As I was saying before, I really do believe this could have awoken ancient spirits that we would not like to see again. I don't know how to stop it. Hence, Arthur is the one in the prophecy meant to save Albion a second time." Merlin glanced sideways at Arthur, who was staring at Freya, his face a look of concentration.

"But how on earth…?"

"I don't know!" she yelped, looking as though she was about to pull her own hair out, "I told you I don't know! I don't!"

"Freya, calm down," Merlin said warily. Freya was not easily upset by much. Arthur tended to put her on edge quite a bit, though, so maybe that was it. "Are you alone now?"

"Probably not."

"So they can hear what we're saying?"

"I don't know who 'they' are, but I suppose."

"So what are they going to do about it?" That silenced Freya for a good minute.

"That is an excellent question, Merlin," she answered finally, her voice so light you would think that if she raised it the slightest bit, the world would end. They got their answer soon enough.

Freya vanished.

"Freya!" Merlin cried out, "Freya, no! Come back!" He shook the orb before letting it shatter to pieces by accidentally dropping it. He jumped to his feet and looked at Arthur frantically.

"We need her, Arthur! We need her back! Touch the water!" Arthur looked taken aback. Merlin would never ask him to injure himself on purpose unless it was life or death. This was scaring him slightly. He approached his friend slowly and grabbed his arm so he didn't do anything spontaneously stupid.

"Merlin, calm down. We'll find her. Freya will be okay, I pr-" Merlin turned on him, wild eyed. He looked down at Arthur's hand on his arm and yelled,

"You promise what? You can promise me personally that she is perfectly okay? What if Morgana's down there and she heard everything? What if Mordred is? Or your father? Or someone else we don't want coming back from the dead?" Arthur's expression turned to hurt. His father may have been wrong about many things (many, many things), but he was still his dad and he loved him.

"Merlin, you don't know what you're sa-"

"I DON'T KNOW WHAT? Arthur Pendragon, let go right now! I don't want to hurt you and she needs to come back! I need her to come back! You're the reason she's gone!" Arthur's grip on Merlin's arm just tightened as he replied patiently,

"You don't mean that. I know you don't mean that. The Merlin I know wouldn't-"

"I am no longer the Merlin you know! I am not yours! I've changed, Arthur! It's time for you to realize that!" Merlin put a finger to Arthur's hand holding him and where the tip of Merlin's finger touched Arthur's hand, it felt like a white-hot iron rod.

"Merlin!" Arthur yelled, jumping back. He then rushed his friend, grabbing him around the neck with both arms from behind and wrestling him to the ground. Arthur was laying on his back below Merlin, who's legs were flailing in the air and his back was rested against Arthur's chest. Merlin struggled hard and Arthur tried to wrap his legs around Merlin's so that he couldn't flail his legs anymore.

"Can't you see what you're doing? Stop it, Merlin, stop! STOP!" Merlin did not stop and instead released magic as he yelled, causing himself to fly out of Arthur's grip and Arthur to fly backwards and nearly hit his head on a rock too hard to spare him. Arthur's vision went blurry when his head hit the ground hard and he tried to stand up. His legs would not obey him and Merlin's back was to him. His hands were up towards the sky. He started shouting incantations at the top of his lungs. What was he doing?

Arthur's fear heightened when the sky turned dark and the lake started swirling and waves lapped at the shore of the island, threatening to pull Arthur off the island. Every time water hit him, it burned his skin like acid and Arthur tried not to cry out in agony as the waves relentlessly attacked him. What the hell was Merlin doing? Arthur crawled towards the center of the island, desperate to escape the rain and waves that were dissolving his skin and he made his way towards Merlin. When he reached him, on the verge of passing out, Arthur cried out, "Merlin, stop! It hurts, Merlin! Merlin, you're hurting me!" He punctuated each word to make sure Merlin could hear those last four words. When Merlin glanced down at him, he thought he saw his eyes were just black holes, nothing in them but darkness. This soon disappeared as his expression changed from one of rage and hatred to one of guilt and dreadful concern.

He seemed to recognize what he was doing and lowered his hands quickly, no longer spouting the incantations, and he looked at his own hands. They were shaking. He looked at Arthur and back to himself and said shakily, "No...what….what have I done?" Arthur fainted, his legs buckling and his limbs just failing him. Merlin caught him quickly, trying to shelter him from the rain he had created that burned Arthur like acid. His friend was definitely still alive, but Merlin feared much longer in the rain and he would be dead. He cried out for the wind and the rain and the lake to stop and stand still and after a few more minutes of mockery, it did. Guilty tears rolled down his face as he called Arthur's name. He couldn't lose him again, not after losing him once and not at his own hand. It would kill him, surely.

"Why?" he cried out in agony after the rain stopped. Arthur was okay, after Merlin had quickly spouted some healing spells to calm the burns, but he was still unconscious. "Why have you chosen us? You could have chosen anyone else! Why me? I don't want to….I can't do this anymore! Can't you see it's killing us? You can't make me!" he shouted at the sky. The sky did not answer save for a rumbling noise that went with the receding thunder. He held Arthur close to him, waiting for something, anything to happen. He had lost Freya already, and he did not want to lose Arthur. His eyes were slightly teary so his vision was blurred, but he glanced over to his side where he heard a small splash. He shook his head quickly to clear his vision and was in utter disbelief at what he saw. So he had been successful in doing what he had been trying to do during his crazed rant. It was almost like he had been possessed. In his right mind, he would never have attempted to do this, knowing what great unbalance it caused.

He had raised someone from the dead. Someone very important to him and someone he thought was gone forever now.

Freya stood in front of him, her dress dripping wet, as was her black curly hair. And she looked absolutely furious. She saw Arthur and reprimanded harshly,

"Oh, Merlin!"