I hope you're all sitting comfortable. Prepare to meet the Knights...

Helping Hands

'Arthur, get your bloody hand off him.' Gaius grabbed the blonde by the back of his shirt, pulling him off the smaller man with a frown. 'Don't you think we have enough damn problems without you two ripping into each other? Did you get anything done that you were supposed to?'

Arthur scowled, shaking the old man off him, his piercing blue eyes still directed at Merlin. After a moment or so, he turned to his father who still stood in the doorway. 'We couldn't find anything. There is nothing here about prophecies or visions that relate at all to demons.'

'I was relying on you, Arthur.'

'There is nothing here, nothing we could find, anyway.'

Uther frowned, yet remained silent, as if his son did not even deserve a reply. He stepped further into the room, letting the door slam heavily behind him. His face was sullen as he snatched a half-empty beer bottle from the table and took a lengthy swig. The bright daylight streaming from the window emphasised the deep lines on his face, illuminating heavy bags under his eyes that Arthur had never noticed before. Merlin caught the worried glance the blonde gave his father, though he seemed to be the only one in the room. Uther seemed unable to even look at his son, while Gaius already had shaking hands around a large bottle of honey coloured liquor.

'Did you find anything? Either of you? If we didn't, surely you must have found some folklore or myth?'

Uther's glare finally met Arthur's as the younger man spoke, and he felt himself soften slightly as he saw the concern on his son's face. 'We found nothing. Nothing in the books, on the internet, in the archives.'

'There is no connection between Morgana's vision and demonic presence. It just isn't possible. If there was, some hunter somewhere would have encountered it before. Yet there's no research, no notes, no evidence for anything. We need to get back out there and look for some other damn answer.' Gaius sat down slowly, reaching for one of the ancient books. At the feel of the three pairs of eyes on him in the room, he motioned to the other texts on the table. 'I'm not going to do all this damn reading myself, you idiots. Sit. Grab a book.'

'I think I might just…head out for a minute.' Merlin backed towards the door as the two Pendragons sat with the old man. As he heard no word of protest to his leaving, he reached behind him for the handle. 'I'll be right back.'

'I told you to leave the Pendragons, Merlin. They are dangerous.'

He rolled his eyes, pushing the black hair from his face with an exasperated gesture. He may have summoned the Angel, but that did not mean he could cope with another of these discussions. Not after so short a time since he'd last seen him. He'd never summoned the Angel twice in less than a day before, yet he stood before him now, awkward in his dark-suited vessel as a child might be in any formal clothing.

'I can't leave them, Kilgarrah. I don't have anywhere to go now. Not on my own.'

'But I'll be watching over you.'

He couldn't hold back a smile as the Angel said that, yet quickly wiped it from his face as he met Kilgarrah's dark-eyed gaze. 'I'm not having this discussion again, Kilgarrah. I'm not leaving the Pendragons, and I won't believe Morgana is this super villain. So, if you have nothing else of any use, get your ass back to Heaven or something.'

'You summoned me here, Merlin. That normally means you have something to ask me, or some task for me to complete for you. You only need to ask.' Kilgarrah was now looking at the ground, a slightly hurt pout on his face.

'Look, I'm sorry. I need you to tell me what to do though. What's happening to Morgana? Is it demonic?' He saw hesitation pass across the Angel's face and sighed. 'Look, whatever the thing is that's affecting her, if you tell us, we can get it. The Pendragons are hunters, they'll kill it. Then she won't be in any danger, she won't do anything.'

'I want to help you, Merlin, but I can't. Not like this.'

'Can't you do anything? You can't help me, you can't help Morgana. Can you help anyone? Can't you even just tell me if we're right? If this is demonic, we can stop this.' A crunch of car tyres. Merlin turned briefly to see a dented, blue jeep pull up outside Gaius' house, and when he looked back, he was alone once again in the alley. He kicked the wall angrily, ignoring the shooting pain as his toes connected with the rough brick and he stared skywards. 'Damn you, Kilgarrah, damn you.'

Merlin slouched out of the alley, his hands firmly in his pockets before thoughts of the Angel made him punch a wall. At the sight of the jeep, he considered ducking back into the shadow of the alley until he noticed the driver pointing at him anxiously. Before he quite understood what was happening, one of the passengers had leapt from the vehicle, and pinned him face against the wall, their hot breath against his ear.

'What are you doing here, boy? You spying? Has someone asked you to spy here? Are you even human?' He heard something soft, almost like something being pulled from a sheath, and then felt a sharp cut into his arm.

'What the…?'

'No effect from silver. Do you need me to test the Holy Water? Just answer the damn questions.'

'For God's sake, Gwaine, put the boy down.'

He didn't think he'd ever felt so grateful to hear Arthur's voice. Merlin felt the pressure on his arm instantly drop, and he turned, wiping the brick dust from his grazed face furiously. Yet his assailant had gone, and the jeep was now empty. Instead, five men stood lined up outside the door of the house, Arthur stood on the porch looking down at them, almost as if a Captain inspecting his soldiers. After a second or two, he relaxed, and embraced each of them with a loud laugh. Merlin frowned at the open betrayal of the blonde, after he'd just been attacked, presumably by one of these men. At the sound of his approaching footsteps, Arthur turned and gestured to the boy.

'Men, this is Merlin. He's a…friend. He's been travelling with us a while now, him and his friend. We found them in a vamp nest. Merlin, these are my Knights.'

'Your Knights?'

The Pendragon laughed again. 'It's an old joke. I don't know where it came from anymore. They're hunters. My father's called them in to help us, the more of us there are, the better chance we have of finding this son-of-a-bitch demon.'

The men laughed, while Merlin watched them with a still face. They didn't look like hunters. Not how the Pendragons did, anyway. The oldest of them was roughly in his mid-thirties, the youngest had to be younger than Merlin. The others seemed to range between twenty and thirty. They weren't exactly what Merlin would have called impressive. One of them, maybe. He was tall, perhaps a head taller than any of the other men, a shirt ripped to reveal powerful arms and strong shoulders. The other men all stood in t-shirts and sweaters, toned, but nothing compared to the men Merlin would imagine to be hunters.

He must have shown some form of disgust on his face, for one of the men smirked as his eyes passed over him. 'So, you see yourself as some sort of hunter as well then, Merlin? Hunting involves lurking down dark alleys in your mind?'

'You're Gwaine.'

'Yeah, and you need to learn a bit of self-defence, boy.' He spoke harshly, yet a smile remained on his face. In fact, he was nothing compared to the cold nature of Uther about him. Dark hair fell to his shoulders, and dark eyes glittered warmly. He was heavily stubbled, adding an essence of mischief to his look. Merlin felt a half-smile slide over his face, if he was Arthur, he certainly wouldn't trust Morgana anywhere near him. 'Anyway, Arthur, we need to speak to your father.'

Uther sat on the sofa, leaning forward enough to rest his forearms across his thick thighs, his face calm yet clearly focused on everything being said to him by the new hunters. After a moment of two, he held up a hand, silencing the man stood opposite him.

'Dead, you say?'

'I'm so sorry, Uther. We heard it on the radio on the drive here. We might be wrong, we don't know. But with what you said on the phone, and now this, we thought there must be some connection.'

'A young mother, dead in a house fire? Baby gone?' He looked up, meeting the hunter's eyes in an unwavering gaze. 'That right, Leon?'

'That's what we heard. It could be a different woman. Or a different fire. Completely unrelated to Morgana's vision…'

'No. That's too great a coincidence. If I've learnt anything on this job, it's that coincidences like that don't exist. The demon will have gone by now, along with all evidence it was ever there.' He sighed, rubbing his forehead gently. It was hardly the news he'd been wanting. He thought he could rely on these men to help, yet they were already too late. 'Anymore information for us? If not, I'm sorry for dragging you out here, you can go whenever.'

He motioned to them, as if telling them to leave, when the youngest of the men spoke. He was softly spoken, barely more than a boy. Dark, curly hair surrounded his face. Merlin could have laughed at him, that's how unbelievable he appeared as surrounded by the other men. Yet, he was just as serious. 'When you called us, we were on a hunt…'

'And I'm sorry for that.'

'No, we were hunting a demon. Out in Kansas. The demon pool's only small. Maybe if you help us track down this one, it might lead us to the one you were hunting. It might, at least, know what's happening with Morgana. That would be worth something, right?' He looked earnestly at the older hunter. 'Surely, it's worth a try?'

Uther remained silent, his gaze straight ahead. Arthur looked over at the boy, and nodded slowly. 'Kansas, you say? Very well, Mordred. Very well.'