"What's your plan then?" The voice asked three or four times, Merlin wasn't counting. Well, he knew it was three times, but he was more focused on the people standing infront of him. They each brandished a weapon but Merlin knew that they all could use magic too. There was no easy way to defeat them.

"If they captured me then I will be taken to the dungeon and be closer to Arthur, however chances are that they will have found a way to stop me from using magic and so I won't be able to escape. So I have to stay out of a cell, which means either escaping these people or stopping them. There are too many to stop, but I'm also surrounded so escaping will be difficult." Merlin thought as he looked at the shine off of the weapons. He was also listening to the voice, who was chuckling as he sounded like he was moving. He was going to Arthur.

There was no other way.

Merlin closed his eyes and mumbled a spell. Suddenly the area around him exploded into flames throwing the people back. They started mumbling counter spells and spells to catch Merlin, but he had already teleported further down the coridoor. He kept on doing this, being followed by some of the guards, "They don't all know how to do it. They are just a random group of people who have become his guard. I can do this."

There were five people behind him. Merlin eventually stopped and held his hand back towards them. They were thrown back into the air and landed on the stone floor. They quickly got up and started to chant an incantation. The ground around Merlin started to shake and he fell to the floor. Then the ground started to shift and tried to encase him in stone. Merlin didn't let that happen, his eyes glowed as the stone forming above him exploded. He jumped up onto his feet and brought his hands together. As he did rock flew out of the wall and hit the guards, hitting two of them in the head causing them to fall unconscious.

The remaining three then started to mutter individual spells. A ball of flame flew towards Merlin, which he managed to dodge by ducking behind a pillar. But at that point the weapons of each of the five were aiming towards him from the other side of the pillar. Merlin held his hand towards them, stopping them from flying towards him. His eyes glowed as they changed direction and flew towards the guards who dodged them.

While they dodged Merlin jumped out from the pillar and threw his hand out again, causing them to fly backwards again. Two of them managed to repel the force, but one was caught unprepared and flew back into the wall and promptly stopped moving. The remaining two thrust their hands back towards Merlin and this time he was flying through the air. But as he did he whispered another incantation and fire engulfed the remaining two.

Merlin crashed onto the ground and let out a shout of pain. He looked at his arm, which was screaming in agony, and knew it was broken. He couldn't do anything about it right now. He started to teleport through the hallways trying to find the dungeons.

He didn't know where to look, he just kept on teleporting through the stone structure. After three minutes he reached a stairway that was heading down, which he presumed would lead to the dungeon. He slowly edged in and looked out. There were four guards standing infront of an iron barred door. Four guards to get rid of.

Merlin didn't have any supplies on him, so he would have to do this with what he had available. He looked and saw a set of barrels stacked up next to the group of guards. "Sometimes people make it too easy." He thought to himself as his eyes glowed and the barrels tumbled towards the guard knocking them over. As they fell over Merlin ran in and held his hand towards them. Being unprepared due to the barrels, Merlin had used a simple sleeping spell and had caused them all to fall asleep.

Merlin held his hand towards the cell door and his eyes glowed, but the door would not unlock. It was what he expected, some sort of magic warding for the dungeon, "Guess I'll have to do it the traditional way." He looked around and found the guard with the keys and then opened the door sighing. The traditional way was a bit boring. He liked it when the lock exploded off of the wall...not that he had done it before in Ealdor. Nope.

He opened the door to the cells and started to run down looking for Arthur.

And then he saw him.

He was in a state. His blonde hair was now a mixture of blonde and red where blood had matted from a cut on his head. He was mucky and his clothes were torn and worse he looked mucky. Arthur was normally full of life, and kindness and light, but this man looked broken. Merlin could see that he was broken.

But then Arthur looked up, and it was like everything sad that had happened, everything terrible that could happen soon, came untrue in an instant. Arthur's face let out a small smile, one full of compassion and love. His eyes shone like an ocean and the fatigue, the broken man seemed to fizzle away as his hope was restored.

"You took your time Merlin," Arthur chuckled tiredly.

"Always complaining! Can't you just be happy for a moment!" Merlin snapped as he wandered over.

"Let me out and then I'll show you how happy I can be," Arthur grinned as Merlin fumbled with the keys trying to find the right one, "Merlin. Just let me do it."

Merlin sighed as he handed the keys over, "In my defense. I'm down an arm at the moment! It's pretty hard to find a key with one arm."

"Yeah, yeah. Make excuses," Arthur smirked as he found the key and opened the door. He then stumbled towards Merlin, but held his hand towards him to tell him not to help him, "Good. Well thank you Merlin." The words sounded awkward out of his mouth. Arthur brushed himself down a little, "So, can you teleport us out of here?"

Merlin shook his head, "I think they've done something to the dungeon to stop magic from being used."

"Of cause," Arthur muttered, "Well, let's get out of the dungeon then."

The two started to walk out. They got out of the cells but then saw a man in thick, heavy black armour, that looked like obsidian. He stood tall like everything was beneath him, and emanated a feeling that this was the absolute truth, so true that everything else had to be wrong. Looking at him made Merlin feel cold. He knew exactly who this was.

"So you've decided to come and talk to me in person?" Merlin asked, causing the other three to look puzzled.

"I did tell you I was going to come and kill Arthur if the guards found you. So I'm going to do just that," The man in the armour said, in a way that Merlin knew he was smirking just like he had known all the times before. The man drew a large sword out and held it ready. "Time to have some fun."

"Merlin, get us out of here!" Arthur shouted as the man seemed to rush through the air towards them. Merlin's eyes glowed as he reached out to Arthur, but he then started to fly through the air, feeling pain explode from his face. The man rammed his sword through the air and down towards Arthur, who quickly grabbed a piece of wood from a barrel and used it to block the sword. As he did the sword started to glow red and set fire to the wood. The sword started to cut through the wood like butter, so Arthur abandoned it and dived out of the way.

He tried to reach for something else and managed to find a candle stick. He slammed it against the man, but he knew that it was not going to have any effect against the man's armour. He looked over to Merlin and shouted over, "Merlin! Do it now!"

Merlin eased himself up, but his ears were ringing and he had to hold himself up against the wall. His arm hurt, his head hurt, and he couldn't see straight. He couldn't focus. They were going to die. He knew that. They were going to die.

"We can't die. Not here. Not now." Merlin thought, as he lurched towards Arthur. Arthur caught him and held him up as the Magic King stood over them, seeming to glow through his armour. He held his hands up and an explosion spread from it.

"Merlin!" Arthur shouted. His voice echoed around his head. Merlin couldn't think straight. Everything was hurting.

Everything seemed to slow down around him as the explosion blew towards them, "Is this what dying feels like?" He thought. He had heard of experiences close to when a person died. Experiences like this. He couldn't think. Everything was happening all at once. It was all so quick, even though it was going so slow. He hurt. He hurt all over.

Arthur was holding him up, but he seemed to be fighting. Even in slow motion. He was fighting. Even though it looked like they were about to die; he was still fighting. He believed that they would live.

He believed in him.

Maybe. Merlin didn't know. He was in pain. He couldn't think.

But there was one thing that was certain. Arthur wouldn't be able to stop the force flying towards them, but Merlin might.

Merlin's eyes glowed and everything sped up again. He was forcing back the explosion. The Magic King seemed to be putting more force in, but Merlin wasn't holding back. The explosion was being forced back. There was more force, but it still wasn't moving. Arthur was staring at him Merlin wasn't looking, he was trying to just focus on what he was doing and ignore everything else.

The force was building up and building up, both sides feeling like they were ramming against each other like two armies clashing on the field of war.

It was then too much. There was an explosion of force from the middle throwing all three of them through the air and against the wall. Arthur hit first and managed to cushion the impact for Merlin. He was winded, but managed to splutter out, "Get us out of here!"

Merlin's eyes glowed and they were gone.