Another day, another chapter.

SPOILERS: If you haven't yet read I Will Never Forget and don't want to be spoiled please read that story first before reading beyond this point. You have been warned.

Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin, only my OCs and this twisted storyline.

Hope you enjoy.

Not Alone Anymore

The top of the stairs seemed so far away. Arthur didn't want to go up and yet he knew he could not go back. Merlin had told him to go through the door. Arthur still could not wrap his mind around the idea that that Merlin was not the same one that had come here with him. He wasn't the same one who had disappeared through the floor when Arthur had failed to get there in time.

But Arthur couldn't just stand at the bottom of the wooden stairs forever, even if he wanted to. There was something about the candlelight that streamed down from the floor above that felt warm and safe, like family. With that feeling in mind, Arthur took the first step up the stairs. It creaked under the weight of his foot. He stopped, waiting for some horror to come slithering down the stairs towards him, but nothing moved on the floor above.

Arthur peeked over the edge of the stairs and into the open space of the attic. There were a few candles lying in the middle of the room. On either side, leaning against the walls were four people wrapped in blankets, two on each side. None of them seemed to notice as Arthur came up into the attic. He looked around at all of their faces. One of them was sleeping. He looked closer.

"Hunith?" But she did not wake as he spoke her name. She looked younger then Arthur had ever seen her. Arthur walked over to her and knelt down. "Hunith, its me, Arthur." Still she did not wake as her chest rose and fell in a constant rhythm of sleep.

"Why can't she hear me?" He looked over to the woman sitting next to Hunith, cradling a bundle in her arms, a child, a boy. The woman had a scarf wrapped around her head so none of her hair could be seen. The shadows in the room started to move and the woman looked up and across the room at the girl and boy. The girl had her eyes closed, but the boy had his hand raised in the air.

The flames of the candles leapt into the air and began to spin around as if to a song that only he could hear. Arthur stumbled back at the sight of the magic as the boy's eyes flashed gold. The flames followed his command as they danced, and the shadows on the wall danced as well.

The girl beside him opened her eyes then and smiled. She raised her hand and some of the flames split in two, now under her control. Her flames and the boy's weaved in and around each other like partners at a dance. Arthur knew that magic was evil and it corrupted. So why was this magic so beautiful?

Arthur stood and backed away towards the stairs, drawing no ones attention. He didn't understand why his footsteps didn't cause them to look up and to wonder who he was. He was so out of place here and yet they didn't notice this stranger.

"Why can't you see me?" He asked aloud. The Merlin he had watched die could see him so why couldn't they? Morgana couldn't see him either. What was going on here? It made Arthur angry and he felt more alone then ever.

Arthur backed into the wall right beside the stairs. He didn't like this feeling. He didn't like feeling so alone. There had always been someone beside him, someone he could be strong for and fight to protect, but now it was just him and he was lost in a world he could not possibly understand. The worst part was that he seemed to be invisible.

"I don't want to be invisible." He put his hands on either side of his head, trying to get a hold of himself. That's when he saw it. The girl had glanced. Her eyes had fallen on him for just a second before she tried to cover it, going back to the floating flames. Her flames had faltered as well.

"Can you see me?" He took a step towards her, but she did not look at him again. "I know you can see me. Please, I'm lost and I don't know where I am. I've lost my friend. I need to find him."

For a moment he started to question whether she had really seen him at all as she continued to move the flames about. Arthur didn't like asking someone with magic for help but he had no other choice. Maybe she hadn't glanced at him and it was just a trick of the light, but then the flames she controlled started to lower and returned to the candles, the boy beside her fidgeted.

She pushed some of her ginger hair out of her face and finally looked up at Arthur. He saw conflict in her eyes but also a hint of understanding. For a moment neither of them spoke.

"You can see me." Arthur breathed.

"I wish I couldn't." She wrapped her blanket further around herself.

"Why?"

"Because you shouldn't be here." She said.

"I don't want to be here." He told her. "I'm lost."

"Aren't we all?" The boy said beside her as his flames too returned to the candles. "So, how'd you get out?"

"Out?" Arthur didn't understand the question.

"Yes, how did you get out of your room?" The boy asked again.

"What room?"

"You don't have a room?" The boy looked confused. He shared a glance with the girl. She shrugged. The boy stood and walked over to Arthur. Arthur backed away.

"I'm not going to hurt you." The boy grabbed his arm, but he dropped it almost as quickly as he had grabbed it. This time it was his turn to take a step back, his eyes wide.

"What is it?" The girl stood.

"He's whole." The boy gasped and the girl behind him stiffened.

"That's not possible." She came to stand with them. "She doesn't take whole ones."

"Are you talking about the Old Mother?" Arthur asked. "She didn't take me. Me and a friend of mine came here to try and save this boy…"

"You walked in of your own accord?" The boy cut him off.

"She must have wanted it that way." The girl rubbed her hands together, nervous. "Nothing happens unless she wants it to."

"I lost the friend I came with." Arthur explained. "I just need to find him and then we'll leave."

"No one leaves." The boy became tense. "She'll never let you go now."

"She can't keep us here forever." Arthur tried.

"She likes forever." The boy's voice was cold. "She's been asleep for so long that she'll take what she can get and never let it go. She'll keep us here, running around and around in the same circles over and over again, making us relive the same moments."

"Each room is a different world." The girl put a hand on her friend's shoulder. "Or at least the shadow of that world."

"I watched my friend die in one of these rooms." Arthur almost couldn't say it. "But he said that he wasn't the friend I knew."

"They're alternate worlds." The girl explained. "There are many ways an event can take place. If evens had gone a different way then a new world is formed, taking a different route. The world could be completely opposite from the one you know."

"What do you mean by shadows of those worlds?" He asked.

"These are recreations of those worlds. Memories, if you will. What you see has already happened." Her eyes grew distant. "She likes to repeat history and watch it over and over again. Your friend could die a hundred times and she would make him keep going."

"Don't say that." Arthur almost shouted. He didn't want to hear that.

"I'm sorry." She bowed her head.

"So what about this world. Who are you?" Arthur changed the subject.

"My name is Aida, and this is Jasper." The girl introduced herself and her friend.

"Who are they?" Arthur gestured to the two women and the child.

"That's Hunith." Aida pointed to the woman sleeping. "And the one next to her is Joone…" Her voice faded as she spoke the woman's name, but she snapped herself out of the daze. "The child in her arms is Merlin."

"Merlin?" Arthur was surprised. That little boy was his friend, but this was another world so they weren't the same, not necessarily.

"Do you know him?" Jasper asked.

"He was the friend I spoke of." Arthur told them.

"Who are you?" Jasper looked like he was trying to place Arthur's face as if he had seen if before.

"I am Arthur Pendragon." He introduced himself.

"Arthur?" Aida looked him up and down. "You've grown."

"Have we met?" Arthur felt like he should know him.

"You were very young." Aida explained. "You wouldn't remember if we were a part of your world. We met you two years after Hunith left us and went back to Ealdor with Merlin."

"Why are you all up in this attic?" Arthur finally asked.

"We're hiding." Jasper said. "Hiding from Uther, your father, because of our magic, which is not evil." He said it as if he was trying to convince Arthur. "Joone was hiding us."

"It's a crime to hide sorcerers." Arthur said on instinct.

"Yes, and she paid for it with her life." Jasper spat.

"But she looks fine." Arthur looked over at the woman holding the child. She looked alive enough.

"You forget. We have run through these memories too many times." Jasper flinched, remembering. "Joone looks okay now but she won't be for long, none of us will."

"They found you." Arthur concluded. "I'm sorry."

"I just wish we didn't have to watch it all over and over again." Aida's voice was quiet.

"Is there any way out of this place?" He asked.

"You have to find the right door." Aida looked up. "Even then you will need the key."

"As if finding the door by itself wasn't hard enough." Jasper sighed.

"Can you show me where it is?" Arthur's hopes rose.

"She will have moved it since then." Aida said. "We shouldn't leave our room anyway. I don't want to go through that again." She took Jasper's hand, holding it tightly.

"So you have left your room before." It was possible.

"And we were punished for it." Jasper's voice was like stone.

"Please, I have to find my friend, my Merlin." Arthur pleaded. "We have to get out of here and back to our world."

"Maybe we should." Aida looked over at Jasper. "They shouldn't be here."

"Remember what happened last time." He told her. "Remember what happened to the others."

"This time is different." Aida said. "There is something different about this Arthur and Merlin. There has to be a reason why she wanted them whole. Wouldn't it feel good to mess up her plans?"

"It would make it worth it." Jasper agreed. He turned back to Arthur. "Okay, we'll help you. We know this place better then you anyway."

"Thank you." Arthur was grateful.

"We better go now before she does something." Jasper pulled Aida towards the stairs and towards the door with Arthur following close behind.

Arthur still had so many questions about this place. Why did these two keep calling him whole? Why could only they see him? What had happened last time they had left their room and what had happened to the others they had mentioned? At least Arthur wasn't alone anymore.

Jasper turned the handle and the three of them stumbled out into the hall. Before the door had led to Camlann. Something had changed. This place felt even more haunted then before.

Thanks for reading and please continue the awesome REVIEWS!

If anyone has any questions that I haven't answered yet or that I might not have noticed please tell me so I can answer them so that this story can make sense.

LightningBolt21: I can't send you a private message so I will say it here. I loved your name suggestions for the rewrite of I Will Never Forget. Thank you so much for your support.

Also thanks to the others who are supporting the rewrite. No updates on that at the moment.

Hope you keep following because we're about to go to a very different part of the Old Mother's home with more familiar faces.

See you next time (which will hopefully be later today or tomorrow).