A/N: Sorry for the slight delay in the uploading of this chapter. Thanks to everyone who's read and particular thanks to MissScorp for your lovely long review.

Chapter 7

All three of them jumped when Cas suddenly materialised before them. Dean leaped up from his spot on the couch and barged over to the angel, a murderous look on his face.

"The hell took you so long, Cas?" he demanded. "We were getting worried about you, man."

"I'm sorry Dean. There was this woman-"

"A woman? One of the Men of Letters?"

"No. She called herself Freya, the Lady of the Lake."

"Human?"

Cas hesitated. "I don't know. She appeared human but she sounded more like a Reaper from what she told me."

"What's a Reaper doing here? I mean, aside from the obvious, you know, reaping."

"She's not a Reaper."

"What? I'm sorry, could you make any less sense? Carry on like this and I might be in danger of actually understanding you."

"I don't know what she is," Cas explained. "She told me that she was the only one of her kind."

Dean sighed wearily, his patience wearing thin. "Dammit. I told you that this would only confuse us more than before. Did you get anything useful?"

A look of hurt crossed Cas's face at the frustrated tone, but he knew that Dean didn't mean it. "I think so. She told me that the world is in great danger and we have to stop something before it destroys everything."

"Can't the world stay safe for five minutes without some new bastard threatening to blow it up?" Dean groaned.

"That's not all. According to Freya, we won't be alone. She said that we would have help, but not who from. We have to go back to the Lake at sunset."

"So we're relying on the word of some mystery woman who may or may not want to kill us and a couple of strangers that we've never met before to help us save the world?" Dean summed up. Cas inclined his head in assent. "Awesome."

Sam had been watching the conversation flit back and forth in silence, his brow furrowed in confusion. Clearly something was going on that Dean had neglected to tell him about. "Guys? What's going on?"

Both men, apparently lost in their thoughts, started and turned to face Sam and Mary. Cas smiled and reached out to clasp Sam's shoulder. The gesture, whilst awkward, made Sam grin; he had missed the angel and his odd little quirks.

"Sam," Cas said. "It's good to see you again."

"Yeah, you too. Thanks for fixing me up, Cas. But seriously, what're you talking about?"

"Something strange is going on here. We don't know what yet but we're hoping to find out more when we go back to meet these other people."

"Woah," Dean interjected, holding out his hands in protest. "You telling me you're actually buying this crap?"

Cas shot him a glare. "I'm telling you, Dean, this woman was being honest. She had no ill intentions towards me or anyone else."

Dean glared back. The pair of them stood like that for some time, before Mary cleared her throat awkwardly.

"Well, we'd better start getting ready," she said, pointing out of the window. The sun was already quite low in the sky and it was painted with streaks of red and gold. Dean cursed and scrambled to grab his gun.

"Alright, Cas, I'm trusting you on this one. I just hope you're right," he said, heading to the door. Sam and Mary made to follow him, but his held up a hand. "It would be best if just me and Cas took this one."

"What?" Sam protested. "Dean-"

"You just got off from being tortured, Sam," Dean all but yelled. "And I can't drag Mom into this too."

Sam opened his mouth to argue further but Mary beat him to it. "Too late. What, do you expect me to just sit here whilst you run off somewhere? I'm not made of glass, Dean."

Dean looked down at the floor. "I can't lose you, not again."

"You won't," Mary assured him, reaching up to stroke his face. "I grew up a hunter, remember? I can handle myself out there."

"And Cas fixed me," Sam added. "I'm fine to hunt, and you know I've done more on worse."

Dean sighed in frustration. He wanted to argue against them, but he knew they had a point. Besides, when had he ever been able to stop Sam from doing what he wanted? He had a feeling his mom would be exactly the same. "Fine," he ground out. "But if things go south, we get out, deal?"

Sam rolled his eyes and nodded. Mary followed suit and Dean turned to Cas. "Can you take us there? It'll be quicker that way."

The angel nodded. "Join hands," he instructed. Once they had all done so, Cas closed his eyes and concentrated on the spot he had met Freya earlier. With a flutter of wings, they were gone.

Merlin watched the ripples of the water as it flowed around his feet. He wasn't entirely sure what compelled him to stand in the Lake, only that it had felt right to do so at the time. He jumped as he heard a loud crack coming from the trees behind him and almost went to investigate but, at that same moment, the water started churning and bubbling around him and a large whirlpool formed at it's centre. A ringing sound filled the area and Merlin clapped his hands to his ears in a vain attempt to block it out, but it was as loud as ever. Suddenly, a column of white light exploded from the centre of the Lake, forcing him to squeeze his eyes shut as it began to burn his eyelids. The ringing intensified and it hurt and this wasn't how it was supposed to go, Arthur was supposed to meet him here, everything was supposed to get better. It was a mercy when he finally passed out.

It was dark when he woke, lying drenched and shivering on the riverbank. He blearily opened his eyes and, when his eyesight finally adjusted, jumped at the sight of a dark figure bending over him. A lock of blond hair glinted white in the moonlight and Merlin shot upright in relief as he recognised the man before him.

"Arthur!" he cried, almost smacking his friend in the nose with his sudden movement. He scrambled to his feet and tried to pull Arthur into a hug but he brushed off Merlin's hands and stepped back, a scowl marring his features.

"Get off me, Merlin. What the hell is going on?"

Merlin's brow furrowed in confusion. "Arthur... What's the last thing you remember?"

"Camlann. Mordred stabbed me and then I woke up in a forest. You..." Arthur's eyes blew wide. "You have magic," he gasped.

"I've only used it for good, Arthur, I promise," Merlin pleaded desperately, determined not to repeat the argument that had almost estranged him from the young king forever. "Look!" He held out his hand and whispered "ácolitus." A bright light flared in his palm and hovered in mid-air, illuminating the scene below it. Merlin looked over at Arthur; his eyes were narrowed and brows pinched, but he seemed more confused than angry.

"I know," Arthur replied uncertainly. "I remember pain and then nothing, until I woke up in the water with you next to me."

"You died, Arthur. It's been over 1000 years since then."

"What on earth are you talking about?"

Merlin opened his mouth to explain but the sound of a gun being cocked behind them stopped him short.

"Hands in the air."

Mary crouched in the bushes surrounding the lake. Sam and Dean were next to her and Castiel was invisible somewhere. A bright white light had flared up minutes before and Mary had felt both the boys stiffen beside her. They had had a hurried conversation, of which she had only managed to catch the words 'Cage' and 'Lucifer', but none of it had sounded any good. The young man - although he wasn't more than a boy really - in the water was knocked unconscious and Dean had been all for charging down there and catching him unawares but it hadn't felt right to Mary so she had insisted they stay. Sure enough, another figure appeared after the light had died and started dragging the other to the riverbank and was now trying to rouse him. It was too dark to see much of either of them but the awake one seemed to be wearing what Mary swore was some sort of armour from the way it glinted in the moonlight.

Eventually the young man came round and almost knocked the other one flying as he tackled him in a hug. Mary was glad she had stopped Dean from killing him; what sort of monsters behaved like that? The two were having a hurried conversation that Mary couldn't hear and then the dark-haired one's eyes flashed gold and a light flared up from the palm of his hand. All of Mary's fears returned in full force at the sight and she could tell that it had affected Sam and Dean too. She crawled over to them, a lump forming in her throat.

"Did his eyes just-" she whispered.

"Yeah," Dean confirmed. "I don't get why or how but it looks like our old friend's come back to haunt us."

"I thought you killed him?"

"Apparently not dead enough. Well Cas, looks like you were wrong about this one."

Castiel appeared in the shadows next to them, making them all jump. His brows were furrowed in confusion and he looked distinctly uncomfortable. "I don't understand. I was so sure-"

"Well, happens to the best of us," Dean cut in. He clapped the angel on the shoulder. "Hey, man, if I had a dollar for every time a woman lied to me I'd..."

Mary frowned at her son as his voice faded out. He looked down at his feet in embarrassment and cleared his throat. "Anyway, all in favour of ganking these suckers?"

Something about this whole business still didn't seem right to Mary, and it was clear Castiel felt the same way, but she reluctantly agreed and they headed quietly down the bank, Dean taking the lead and Sam bringing up the rear. Mary spotted Dean sliding his gun out of the waistband of his jeans and prayed to God that they were right about this

"Hands in the air," Dean demanded. He almost faltered as they turned round to face him; the boy had a look of abject terror and innocence in his eyes, but Dean remembered those same eyes flashing gold just a few moments ago and steadied his grip. "What do you want with us, you sick bastard?"

"I don't-"

"Save it. We know who you are. I don't know how or why you crawled back from wherever you've been these past years but I'm warning you now: I will kill you again, and this time I'll finish the job."

Dean had the satisfaction of seeing him step back in horror, but his companion pushed in front of him. The light from the floating orb sparked off his strange armour and he was brandishing a ridiculously long sword, which Dean had to admit was kind of impressive.

"If anyone's killing my manservant, it's me. Retreat now and I might go a little easy on you."

Dean scoffed. "Right. Sorry pal, not gonna-"

"Dean," Cas interrupted, shoving to the front of the group. "This boy isn't Azazel, or any kind of demon for that matter. I believe they are here to help us."

"Azazel?" The dark haired man questioned. "I don't know anyone by that name. I'm Merlin."

A/N: Yay, they've finally met! How were the interactions? I wanted to make this scene longer but that damn word count was creeping up on me. I've gone over as it is. Oh well. Please tell me your thoughts and I'll update soon. Bye!