Chapter 3: The Tournament and the Truth

Disclaimer: See Chapter One.

"You need to tell him." Olivia told me as we waited in line to pay for our lunches.

I rolled my eyes. "Until the end of Spring Semester, not gonna happen. So can we move on?"

"Move on from what?" a male voice we knew well asked as its owner joined us in line.

"Lys' crush on her professor." Live answered as she got her change.

"It's not a crush!" I protested as I paid and then led the way to a table. "It is an all-powerful and consuming lust for him and an almost insatiable need to be around him. There is a difference you know."

"Sounds like it's lo…" our male companion began.

I glared at him over my glasses, having not felt up to putting my contacts in that morning. "Gavin, so help me, if you finish that sentence, I will challenge you to a sparring session and kill you in such a way that it looks like an accident."

"Yes Alys." Gavin replied meekly.

Gavin Xavier Smith was my other best friend. He was tall, broad, and handsome. He was also bisexual, but hopelessly in love with Olivia, and she with him.

I despaired of them ever realizing the other loved them and getting together.

His green eyes sparkled.

"All right Liv, give me the low down about this guy. We gotta make sure he's worthy of our little Alys," he stated.

I rolled my eyes, got out my laptop, and went to the page I found myself visiting more and more. "Here, look at his credentials and a short bio. And I'll have you know that my mother said 'oh damn shwing' when she saw his picture."

Gavin and Olivia crowded together to look.

"Go Mom, but she was wrong. Oh FUCKING shwing! I'd do him. No wonder you have an unholy lust for him, especially with his qualifications. Why don't you tell him?" Gavin asked.

I sighed. "He is my teacher. As long as he is, I can't. It will be completely unprofessional. I will not have my honor and integrity questioned."

"You know how the Penn family is, Gav. They're obsessed with King Arthur and the lot, and they are so proud of Lys for being the first to deal just with the stories. She doesn't want them to doubt her." Liv told him.

Gavin patted my hand. "After the end of the year, I will personally see to it that you can tell him. Especially since he is everything you want in a mate."

"Whatever, Let's discuss something else, like how we're going to play this weekend."

Liv looked around. "The Grand Champions, the creators of Dark Legends are participating this year."

"I've looked up some clips of their battles. They are going to be our biggest challenge to overcome this year." Gavin stole one of my fries.

I rolled my eyes and stole a cheese stick of his. "How many?"

"Six, a full team. I know in regular game play the three of us have brought down twice as many, but this will be more difficult." He took a sip of his Coke. "They know all the ins and outs of a battle."

"So do we. What are their classes/" I dipped a chicken nugget in honey.

"Four Round Table Knights, a Druid Swordfighter, and the Great Warlock himself. He's never been defeated and his stats are positively outrageous. He'll be the one we have to watch out for."

Liv looked at me. "How do you want to handle it?"

"Usual way." I replied.

"What's the usual way?" Merlin's voice asked from behind me.

I grinned and turned to look at him. "Sorry, that's classified information. Our Dark Legends playbook gets told to no one."

"Lys is too careful to let such things be known." Gavin told him. He looked at his watch. "We've got ten minutes to finish lunch if we want to get a practice session in after we get the supplies we need."

I grabbed my apple, the only thing left on my tray. "I'm ready to go."

Liv nodded and we stood up to leave.

"I'll see you on Monday Dr. Emrys." I told him.

"We're not in class, Alys." he teased.

I laughed. "So we're not. See you Monday anyway Merlin."

As we walked away, I could have sworn I heard him say that he'd see me before then.

-SPACE-

Kyle Lewis grinned as Liv, Gav, and I walked up to the door to the room the computers were set up in. "If it isn't our local Champions, The Avalonites. Ready to play?"

We grinned and replied in a well practiced unison. "Always."

He told us where our computers were and let us pass.

The three of us were in our comfiest clothes, which consisted of loose black cargo pants with lots of pockets filled with baggies of granola clusters, dried fruits, and hard candies, the T-shirts from our senior year of high school, and hoodies.

Our T-shirts were gray with navy writing that said Avalon Private School for the Gifted, Home of the Knights. Our school was affectionately called Avalon High by everyone, hence why we were The Avalonites. I wore my black hoodie from my years fencing, Olivia wore her navy one that had Lady of the Lake on the back from her days on the Avalon High Swim Team, and Gavin wore the brown zip-up hoodie I'd gotten for him one year that read Court Physician on the back.

I sat down in the middle chair as always and they bookended me.

Once all the teams were there, the tournament began.

We blazed through the before lunch battles with ease, and no one approached us during lunch since to do so would be bad. We were in the 'Zone' and could get rather testy if disturbed.

As dinner came around, fewer and fewer teams were on the path to victory until it was just us and the Grand Champions.

There were actually a few news people covering the last battle, which was to take place between The Avalonites and The Inner Circle.

"Remember, leave the Warlock to me." I reminded them as the countdown started.

"You're the Round Table Knight, Lys." Gavin told me. "I'll handle that Druid Swordfighter and some of the Knights."

"And I've got Gav's back." Olivia stated as the fight began.

Gavin was a High Priest, our magic wielder who was good at healing and long range attacks. And Olivia was one of the few lucky players with an otherworldly character, meaning she could do all that Gavin could and fight as good as a Round Table Knight. Unfortunately for them, neither could beat me in a battle, even if they fought as a team.

The Warlock instantly met me in battle as the Knights and Druid tried to take out Gavin and Olivia.

At first it looked like we were going to lose, but things changed quickly.

"Gawain, Lancelot, Galahad." I stated, naming off three of our battle plans.

Instantly, the Druid and two Knights fell. Unfortunately the Druid's last spell took out Gavin.

Liv battled the last two Knights, felling one of them.

My battle with the Warlock hit a bit of a snag.

"Liv, I hate to ask since it's a last resort, but Lady of the Lake me." I requested.

"No problem Lys." She did a spell that left her open to attack.

The last Knight killed her after she finished, but she was able to kill him at the same time.

My character's sword glowed brightly and slashed through the spell that would have killed me.

I took a deep breath. "Time for Hamlett." I quickly hit the buttons that would send my character into a fight-to-the-death rage and closed my eyes.

Gasps were heard from all over and then everything went deathly quiet.

"Is the battle over?" I asked in a whisper, eyes still closed.

"Yeah." Olivia breathed back.

I opened one eye to look at the computer screen and then opened both. I blinked a couple times, not really believing what I saw.

My character stood tall and victorious in the middle of the battlefield.

"We won? We won?" I asked.

The three of us looked at each other, and in the next second, were jumping up and down in a group hug as we chanted 'We won!' over and over.

I pulled away, threw my head back, and laughed joyously. I stopped and looked at Gavin and Olivia. "We won." I stated in a small voice before I burst into tears.

Through them I saw Olivia grab Gavin and kiss him. He then grabbed her when they separated and started making out with her. They drew me into their circle while they kept snogging and I buried my wet face in Gavin's free shoulder.

Chaos erupted around us as people cheered and congratulated us.

Kyle had to use his air horn to get everyone's attention. He wore the biggest grin ever. "It seems we now have new Grand Champions, The Avalonites, a three man team composed of Gavin smith, Olivia Williamson, and their team captain Alys Penn. I think our old Grand Champions would like to present the prize to our new winners."

The crowd parted and six people made their way towards us.

I grinned and wiped away some tears with my hoodie sleeve. "I hope this won't affect my grade in your class, Merlin."

He laughed from his position next to Lance and the woman from my dreams. "Of course not Alys."

Another man I had seen in my dreams, usually the ones I ended up dying in, stepped up with a wooden box.

Merlin grinned as he opened it and took out what looked like a very old crown. "I've waited for this day for an extremely long time." He gently and carefully set it on my head.

Strangely enough, it was a perfect fit.

I smiled.

He grinned before giving me a deep bow. "All hail our great ruler, Alys Penn of Camelot!"

Cheers and clapping exploded around us as the woman handed Gavin and Olivia the usual gift cards for use in the game.

Merlin straightened, took my hands, and leaned close. "You are Arthur," he stated in my ear before kissing my cheek and stepping away.

At the time, the sentence meant very little to me. But in the times to come, it and its speaker seemed to be the only stable things in my life.

-SPACE-

A couple of months had passed since the tournament. Things had gone on pretty much as normal and Thanksgiving was creeping up.

In Merlin's class we'd moved on past family members and some minor characters and were starting on the King himself. We would be studying him until Christmas Break and during the first couple weeks of Spring Semester.

It was the day before Thanksgiving Break, and Gavin and Olivia sat on Olivia and I's couch making out as I sat in the armchair, surrounded by books as I filled out the paper Merlin had assigned to judge how much the class knew about Arthur so he knew what he could skip.

The three of us were going to leave for home early the next morning, but we needed one evening to ourselves so we could prepare for the chaos that was to come, especially me.

"You're taking the crown home with you, aren't you Lys?" Gavin asked when he and Olivia came up for air.

I looked up from scribbling down another fact. "Of course. Tristan saw us win when he signed onto that game site he likes. They posted a video of the battle and my 'crowning' as he called it. He called me and demanded that he be able to see it. I said I'd bring it with me to Thanksgiving dinner so my family won't bug me to see it." I reached up to touch it where it sat on my head.

For some strange reason, I had taken to wearing it on the weekends and when I was home for the day. It felt wrong to be without it, as if I were missing a part of me.

Olivia didn't allow Gavin to draw her back into a long kiss. "Are you going to be all right Lys? I mean, you know, sleeping?"

"You still having the dreams?" Gavin asked.

I sighed. "Yeah. It's every night now, and not just scenes of the past. The people are starting to get worried because they thought 'Arthur' would have come to them by now. All except Him. He keeps telling them that 'our ruler will come to us when it's time.' But I think He's worried a little too."

"It's not stress or anything, do you think?" Olivia asked Gavin.

He shook his head. "No. Alys has been having these dreams since she was really little, and she's actually the least stressed person I've ever met. I'd be tempted to say she's been playing too much Dark Legends if it wasn't for the fact that she's majorly cut back on how much she plays as it is."

I shrugged. "Well I dunno what's wrong with me, but I should be just fine, Liv. Don't you worry. And Pawpaw is coming. He'll mix me up something to help me sleep if I need it."

She agreed and went back to snogging Gavin.

-SPACE-

The house was full of people and the smell of roasting turkey and ham made mouths water. My father's parents and his brother and sister and their spouses were there with their children and my mother's adoptive parents, both full-blooded Native Americans, were there as well, which meant that the four guest rooms were filled and pallets for the kids were made in the basement family room.

The kids had been handed over to me so I could keep them from getting underfoot until the next day's dinner as soon as they got there.

I kept them entertained by setting up a battle between the Forces of Darkness and the Knights of the Round Table and telling the younger ones stories besides playing outside and dueling.

There were six Penn grandchildren including myself: Tristan, Isolde, and Lucan whom were my Uncle Gawain's children with his wife Anna, and Viviane and Joseph whom were the children of my Aunt Laudine and her husband Mark.

I was the oldest at twenty-three, followed by seventeen year old Tristan, thirteen year old Lucan, ten year old Viviane, nine year old Joseph, and six year old Isolde.

They all insisted on seeing the crown and hearing how I won it, aunts uncles, and grandparents too.

By the time bedtime rolled around, I was more than ready for it. So was Monty and we were out like lights when we hit the mattress.

-SPACE-

The priest stood before where I knelt, holding the crown that Merlin had crafted once all of Albion had been united.

"I, Arthur Pendragon, swear on all that I hold dear to protect and do what's right for my kingdom for as long as God wills it." I swore solemnly.

The priest placed the crown on my head and stepped back. "Rise Arthur Pendragon, and take your throne."

I stood and face the crowd.

"All hail King Arthur, Ruler of Camelot and all of Albion. Long live the king!" the priest declared.

The crowd echoed it loudly and began to cheer.

As I turned to take a seat in my throne, I caught sight of myself in one of the mirrors hanging around the room, Merlin's reflection standing by my throne.

-SPACE-

I sat up in bed, tossed the covers back while putting on my glasses, grabbed the crown, and sped down the stairs. I grabbed a well thumbed book from my dad's bookshelf and opened it right to the page about the crown Arthur wore as King of a united Albion.

When Arthur united all of Albion and brought peace to it, Merlin crafted him a crown using his magic. It was a plain gold crown that would never lose its shine, but it could only be worn by the true king of Albion. Which meant that only Arthur could wear it or things would go seriously wrong, and it explained why when Mordred crowned himself king, his reign was extremely short.

I kept looking between the sketch in the book and the crown I held in my hand.

They were exactly the same.

My half-asleep parents shuffled into the room.

"Alys, honey, it's the middle of the night. Is something wrong?" Mom asked.

I looked up at them in shock. "He gave Arthur's crown."

Dad rubbed the sleep from his eyes with the heels of his palms. "What?"

I turned the book around so they could see the image, dimly noting that the author of the book was M. Emrys. "Merlin gave me Arthur's crown. The crown Merlin created when Arthur united Albion, and made it to where only Arthur can wear it. I have it."

Mom and Dad shared a look before making me sit down across from them as they sat on the couch.

"There's a very good reason why you have it. You are Arthur returned. You are his reincarnation." Mom told me.

"I can't be. I'm just Alys Penn." I replied.

Dad shook his head. "No you're not. You're not 'just' anything. When you were three, we went to the Faire and watched the jousting. You had demanded to be dressed like me instead of wearing a dress like your mother, and you kept telling us what the loser had done wrong. It caught the attention of one of the fortune tellers. She took one look at you and asked us if you had dreams about battles and a past that seemed impossible. After you told her about your dreams, she led us back to her tent, closed it, and did a past life search. Real magic was done that day, and we found out you were Arthur. We tried to raise you as best we could, trying not to let you know about your great destiny." He smiled. "You're going to change the world, Alys."

I jumped to my feet, shaking my head. "No. I'm not Arthur. I can't be. I'm just Alys Morgan Penn. There's no way I can change the world."

Mom looked at me beseechingly. "But you can Alys, because you're destined to."

I dashed from the living room, grabbed my keys from the hall table, and got into my car, crown still in hand. I had no idea where I was going, but the road leading to the place I's called home for pretty much my whole life quickly stretched out behind me.

My car came to a stop outside the middle house of a street of huge and isolated houses on the far edge of Esterton.

I flew up the long walk barefoot, having not grabbed any shoes before I had left my parents' house.

The front door was unlocked and a fire blazed in the living room fireplace.

Merlin stood from his seat in an armchair as I came to a halt in the doorway.

We stared at each other in silence for a couple minutes.

I broke the silence first. "You gave me Arthur's crown, the one Merlin made when Arthur united Albion and only Arthur can wear. You gave me his crown, and my parents seem to think it's because I am the reincarnation of Arthur. A fortune teller looked at my past lives when I was three and said I was once Arthur Pendragon. Apparently my parents think I'm supposed to change the world, that I'm going to change the world."

"What do you think?" he asked softly.

"What do I think? What do I think? I think there's been some huge mistake. I can't be Arthur. It's impossible!" I exclaimed loudly.

He smiled. "It's not impossible. Arthur always went to Merlin when he needed help with something. You came to me, Alys, because you want help."

"I'm not Arthur! Sure, I've had dreams about things I could never have seen or been a part of. But that does not make me Arthur!" I replied, my voice rising in volume.

He kept smiling as he replied quietly, "You have a gift with a sword and other weapons of old. You never had to take a riding lesson in your life or be told how to do it and led around on a lead because you already knew how to ride a horse. And people tend to listen to you without question. You take the hardest part in group problems or the role of leader when there is trouble without being asked. The crown fits you Alys Penn. You are the Ruler of Albion."

"Not possible." I returned.

A/N: The scene in the last chapter with Alys calling Lance Lancelot wasn't actually her remembering him. It was more her teasing him in return for his 'Your Majesty' remark. And as for what she remembers, it is more the stressful things she remembers most, but there are other little scenes she remembers. And as for Alys remembering a scene between her and Merlin and being a prat... *grin* Just stay tuned.