Author's Note: Hi. Please review, let me know what you think. By the way, I have no clue how long this thing is going to be, it could be really long, or it could end next chapter (and wouldn't that be exciting!). I know that I have really not been having a lot of action, but I will try to incorporate some into this chapter. I do not own Merlin which is all out depressing, but if I did own Merlin, I would definitely marry Gwaine. Anyways, hope you enjoy!

As Merlin sat in history class watching Gwaine and Percival pass notes behind Mr. Agravaine de Bois' back, Merlin was seriously regretting his decision to start school back up again. He really didn't need to relearn all of history. And science? Please, he had actually helped with some of the discoveries. Today was only the second week of school and Merlin was starting to think that if it continued this way, he would prefer mucking the stables over this. But it was worth it. It was worth it to see his friends again even if they didn't know who he was. He was slowly remaking his friendships (it helped that he knew most everything about them).

He had apologized for being so rude to Morgana and Mordred that first day. They had immediately said it was okay and tried to get on his good side, which hurt more than anything. Others had asked him why he had been so mean, but he just shrugged and turned back to his work. And he was working all the time. It was ridiculous! Even Arthur hadn't given him this much to complain about. Mind you, he was normally done with homework within ten minutes where it took everyone an hour, but still!

At Camelot High, he had started to tutor other kids. It had always made him happy to help people in any way that he could. And besides, he had one hundreds in every class. Well, every class except home ic, where he somehow managed to have a low B. Arthur always made fun of him for that, and one day, he even went so far as to say that he would be an awful servant. Merlin's head had whipped up and Arthur had just looked confused as if he had no idea why he said that.

Merlin knew then that their memories could be restored. He wasn't exactly sure if that would be a good thing, but that would come later. Now he just had to find out how to trigger the memories. He had figured out that the whole group had to be there for it to happen. He also figured out that it had to be a parallel from their past life (for example, he had been walking down the stairs with his laundry and had fallen the last few steps and for some reason, they had all been standing there. In Camelot, Merlin had done that a lot.)

Merlin was startled from his musings when Agravaine came and hit his desk with his teacher stick and said sharply, "Merlin!" The warlock's head whipped up and he stuttered, "Y-yes, sir?" He had to physically force himself not to say 'sire'. The nightmares had been getting worse and it was really disconcerting to see yourself kill someone and then see that selfsame person the very next day hitting your desk. Not that many people had that experience.

Agravaine sighed as if that was the answer he expected and he smiled his sickly sweet smile. Merlin was trying really hard to forget past prejudices, but it was difficult. Agravaine was talking, "Merlin, is it too difficult for you to pay attention?" Merlin frowned at him, "I don't need to pay attention, though." Agravaine raised an eyebrow and looked to the class, "Oh really?" Merlin sighed. Agravaine was making it especially difficult to not hate him. Morgause was actually quite a nice lady, but this one. "No, sir, I don't." Merlin answered.

Agravaine turned his smile back onto Merlin, but this time there was a glint of evil intent in it, "Fine. Who was the battle of Trafalgar between?"

"It was between the French and the British."

"Good. Now who was the first lord of the British at that time, and what happened to him?"

"It was First Lord Nelson and he died in battle, sir."

"Alright. Who won the battle?"

Merlin sighed, he really didn't want to go through this, he had been there at the time, fighting for the British and it wasn't the best of wars, "The British won."

Agravaine looked like he was about ready to leap over desks and strangle Merlin, but he quickly composed himself and said, "Well then, why don't you write me an essay all about the battle of Trafalgar? I expect it to be typed and turned at the beginning of class on Monday. Understand?" Merlin nodded distractedly. He really wasn't sure what it was about teachers at this school. They all seemed determined to make Merlin write essays due the next school day about vague topics and with no other pointers as to what to do. It was kind of frustrating. While Mr. de Bois continued talking, Merlin started writing his essay. He would type it up when he got home.

Arthur sat down to lunch in between Gwen and Leon. Everyone was here except for Merlin, Gwaine, and Percival, who were in the lunch lines even then. They sat down and Merlin ruffled Mordred admittedly luscious hair as he passed. Arthur swore that one day Mordred would snap and tackle Merlin when he did that.

"You'll never guess what just happened in history with Mr. de Bois today." Gwaine started right away. Elyan sighed, "What just happened in history with Mr. de Bois today?" Gwaine grinned a grin that could only be described as maniacal and said, "I swear that he was about to leap over desks and chairs and shove children out of the way to kill Merlin today. I have never seen him lose his temper before and it was hilarious." Percival grinned and everyone looked at Merlin who was dutifully writing something.

"Merlin. What did you do and what are you doing?" Arthur demanded to know. Merlin looked up, then looked back down at what he was writing, "Oh, this is the essay that Mr. de Bois decided he wanted me to write. Not my fault that I know more than he does about the subject." Merlin's voice got quieter as he started to mumble about how this really isn't necessary to learn about and they should learn more about peace instead of bloody wars where no one really won because they all died and some such.

They had all heard variations of this speech multiple times in the two weeks that they'd known him. However good he was at kicking butt, he hated violence and would avoid it at all costs. Arthur was surprised that he knew Merlin that well. They all did. Like Gwen had said in the stairwell of Merlin's apartment building, it seemed as if they'd known him forever. There were people in the town that they lived in who would do anything to become a part of the elite group known as Arthur's friends. Some had been trying for years. So it surprised (and really angered some) everybody when they accepted him so readily.

Arthur broke Merlin's peace rant by saying, "So, my good idiot-," as he had taken to calling Merlin, "-we're planning on getting together at my place tonight to watch a movie marathon. We'll have popcorn and the girls and Gwaine will gossip-," he studiously ignored Gwaine's protests while Merlin grinned, "-and we'll probably pull an all-nighter. We were planning on heading right over to my place and just diving in. What do you think?"

Merlin said yes before amending that by saying, "Well, I'll come later in the night. I can't just not talk to Freya. So, I'll talk to her for a while and then I'll come over. Is that okay?" He asked it almost timidly. Gwen was positively beaming at Merlin so Arthur figured that he better agree since Gwen did. Merlin sighed with relief and he went back to writing his essay.

Gwen gushed at him, "Oh Merlin! You and Freya are so romantic! I mean, when was the last time you went a day without talking to her?" Merlin answered distractedly, "Since I set up our communications system, never." He had explained the basin off as some piece of new technology his late uncle had showed him how to make. It wasn't that far off since Gaius had been the one to show him how to contact Freya and Gaius had been like an uncle to Merlin. Gwen, oblivious, just beamed at him again, Morgana doing so as well.

Merlin set off towards home after waving at Arthur and crew as they got into the car and drove to Arthur and Morgana's place. When Merlin was done talking with Freya, he would just walk over, or maybe he would practice his teleportation and land nearby. Merlin had a bad habit of doing that when he was running late. Merlin shook his head and went back to his former train of thought. He knew where all the knights' houses were because he had been to all of them, multiple times.

It had hurt to see Gaius and know that the old man had no clue who he was other than what Gwen and Elyan had told him. It hurt to see other people as his wards and not Merlin. He had been terrified when he first met Uther, although, according to the others, he had done well with not showing it. Mordred's parents were still alive and really quite nice. Gwaine still lived with his pretty rich mom and dad. Percival still had his little brother and parents. It was good to find out that so many of them didn't lose their parents this time round. He wondered if it would make a difference.

Merlin said hi to the people who passed him on his way up to his apartment, occasionally stopping to have a short conversation with them. Everyone in the building knew Merlin. That's just the kind of person he was. He reached his door and was about to open it when he had the strangest feeling that something was wrong. He frowned and looked the door over, his face paling when he realized that the slip of paper had fallen to the ground.

He kept a small piece of paper in between his door and doorframe that only he really knew about so if someone had come into his apartment, he would know right away. He had been so distracted that he almost forgot to check.

Calling up his magic from where it rested, he pulled down the handle of the door and pushed it open a crack. Then he whipped the door the rest of the way open, closing it quickly behind him lest any passersby be caught in the crossfire. The lights turned on with a flash of gold in his eyes and he gasped at what he saw. It looked as if something had tried to literally rip apart his entire room. Although none of the magical artifacts or books that he had collected over the years were taken (they were hidden in a section of the wall that could be removed only by the strongest of magic and it was nearly impossible to detect), the rest of his books had been torn to shreds and then chewed on.

His sofa was cleanly ripped in half and the rest had dirty tears all across it. The TV had been smashed onto the ground and shattered. His desk was tipped over with his laptop in several pieces in different corners of the room. And then he saw what else they did. Something that made his blood run cold and his eyes flare a deep golden. Freya's basin was broken. Not only broken, but shattered into so many pieces that Merlin wasn't sure that he would even be able to put it back together again. He would make a new one of course, but that would take hours to do and it meant that this weekend he would have to go shopping to replenish some of his magical herbs and that meant cross country teleportation, which was not fun.

Merlin shook his head idly before moving silently and slowly into the kitchen. For all that he had learned in the last twenty five thousand years, and for all the training he had undergone, he still fell over. A lot. The kitchen was just as ransacked as the living room. Even the refrigerator had been upended. That was just plain rude. He stealthily left the room and stuck his head into the bathroom, watching as many doors as he could in the meantime.

He then entered the guest bedroom, which, other than being in slight disarray, wasn't nearly as damaged as the other rooms. Last, he entered his bedroom. He wasn't sure he recognized it anymore. It looked like a whirlwind had gone through, then it had been set on fire, then it rained, then someone ransacked it and set another whirlwind through it for good measure. This was not good. Merlin put up a silencing spell on the apartment so no one would here the strange noises of room being put back together again.

Moments after putting the spell in place, whatever it was that did this made itself known. It was a manticore. Great. Merlin loved manticores. And if there was a manticore, it was a safe bet that Nimueh was somehow involved. After being reborn a couple years back, Nimueh Blessed had developed some sort of attachment to that particular kind of creature. And she developed a deep seated hatred for Merlin. Well, technically for Emrys, but whatever.

The beast screeched at him, making Merlin very glad that he had put that silencing spell in place, although that's probably how the creature knew when to attack. Merlin frowned at it and summoned a ball of fire. He tossed it lazily and thought about the creature before him. He knew that the only way to destroy one of these things was to destroy the box while it was in the physical world. He also knew that the box had to be within the same room as the manticore. That meant that the box was somewhere in his bedroom.

The manticore shrieked at him again, warning him just in time to swat the creature from the air as it plunged its poisonous tail at him. Merlin stumbled backwards, searching the room again and again for Nimueh's magic before starting to sweep the room for any foreign magic. There was nothing aside from the manticore that continued to attack, relentless in its onslaught. No matter how many times Merlin swiped it back or bashed it, it continued to get up and he was starting to get annoyed. He was Emrys. He was like a king, no, a god to the druids and he couldn't even find a stupid box.

Then he stepped on it. It broke. Merlin really was quite depressed that he found it that way. He was also quite depressed that he hadn't thought to use his eyes to look for it. Whoever did this to him knew him better than anyone should.

There was only one tiny problem left. The bloody manticore still wasn't dead. Merlin reached blindly behind him and pulled out something, a sword. He swept it outward and caught the manticore on its neck. Luckily, it dissolved so he didn't have to worry about cleaning it up. He let out a shaky breath until he saw the sword in his hand and his breath hitched again. He dropped the sword and swore. That most definitely was not his sword. That was Clarent, the sword used to kill Arthur in the final battle at Camlaan. Now Merlin was truly worried. Who could possibly know enough about him to do this?

Who would know to destroy Freya's basin, or that he would only use his magic to search? Who would know that he would assume the creature came from Nimueh? And especially, who would know about Clarent? The only people he had told about any of these things were dead. Was it some new foe to face?

Merlin suddenly remembered Freya again and he ran back into the room, swearing as he went. His eyes continued to flare a golden hue and his room corrected itself as he found another crystal bowl. He started to carve the runes on the side with an iron poker, pausing only when he remembered that he was supposed to be going over to Arthur's tonight. Dang. He called his phone over to him where he sat and he speed dialed Arthur's number.

Arthur answered after a few rings, "Hello? Merlin?"

"Yeah, it's me. Look, I'm sorry, but I don't think I'll be able to make it tonight. Something came up, and it's going to take a couple of hours."

"Oh." Arthur sounded slightly off put which lightened Merlin's heart before he continued, "That's alright. You know, though, that if you wanted to come after those couple of hours is up, you could still come over. Like I said, it's going to be an all-nighter thing and it really doesn't matter when you pop in."

Merlin grinned even though he knew Arthur couldn't see him, "Alright, I'll keep that in mind. I'll probably see you later tonight then."

Merlin could practically see Arthur scowl as he said, "Merlin! You make it sound as if we're going on a date or something."

"We're not?"

Arthur growled at him and cut the connection. Merlin grinned again and used his magic to move the phone back over to its normal position next to the key bowl.

After an hour and a half of painstaking care to remake the basin, he was finally finished. He huffed out a breath and lifted up that water that had stained the carpet dark gray and he moved it to the basin.

Immediately, Freya's concerned face filled the bowl, "Merlin! I've been so worried! What happened?" Merlin rubbed his eyes tiredly and told her what had happened earlier that evening. She gasped and covered her mouth saying, "I'll do my best to find out about this Merlin. If it's a shade of someone dead, I'll find out if anyone's missing. Also, I'll ask the plants and the animals to keep a look out." Merlin smiled at her again and he hand slowly moved from her mouth to rest in her lap.

"Again, what would I do without you Freya?" She laughed and said, "I love you so much." Then she launched into a story of her day, Merlin quickly filling her in with his day before he said his goodbye and set up some extra strong wards. He teleported to a relatively quiet stretch of park that was near Arthur's house. He walked to door and was soon admitted by the butler, George. Merlin thanked him and headed up the stairs to Arthur's room, the source of many shouts and a lot of laughter.

Merlin stopped just inside the door and watched his friends sadly. He wondered if they would get it right this time. He also wondered if he would finally be able to grow old and die. For a second, his sadness and the enormity of his task weighed down on him and he felt that he was about to crumble. But he wouldn't. He had suffered far too much to be a victim ever again.

Arthur would admit that despite being at his house for several hours now, they had yet to get through a single movie. They kept stopping it to tell stories that would lead to more stories and more stories and so on. It was a blast all the same, but not quite according to plan. Then Merlin had called and he'd had to shout at the others to be quiet. He told them what Merlin told them and they started to speculate about what he could possibly be doing. It seemed as if Merlin could come to other people's houses whenever he felt like it. He had never said no before.

The speculation stopped when Lance had said, "Why don't you lot just ask him when he gets here? You're good enough at pestering to get him to tell you whatever you want." They had nodded seriously and went back to the movie for a whole ten minutes before they got distracted again.

When another lull in the conversation finally came, a voice came out of nowhere and startled them all, "I really don't know if it counts as watching a movie when you talk the entire time and are laughing so loud that you can't hear the door bell ring." Lance grinned at him, "Merlin! We've been wondering where you were." Gwaine, who was already drunk on soda and copious amounts of ice cream crawled across the floor to Merlin and grabbed his ankle, causing him to flinch. Gwaine didn't notice, but instead, he started his interrogation, "Merlin! My friend! What on earth were you doing that you missed all this?"

Merlin laughed and answered, "I was fighting a manticore. And could you please unlatch yourself from my ankle? I wasn't planning on telling you since it really wasn't relevant before, but I'm a tad bit haphephobic." Gwaine pouted but did as he told, "Since I know you and I know that you're stubborn about certain things, I know that I won't get any more out of you about what you were doing, but it hurts that you won't tell us." Merlin laughed again and said, "I did tell you the truth. You just don't believe me."

Lance was mouthing a word to Percival, who shrugged in response. Arthur watched as Lance looked up and mouthed the word again, this time to himself. Arthur sighed and asked, "Earth to geek boy Lance, what's going on in that head of yours?" Lance seemed to shake himself out of the thought process and said, "Huh? Oh, I was trying to figure out what haphephobia was the fear of, but I don't know." Merlin sighed as he placed himself between Gwen and Morgana, with Mordred in front of him on the ground, "You lot are all heathens, do you know that? Haphephobia is the fear of being touched. Obviously I don't have it that bad, but when someone does something like grab my ankle, or like give me a brotherly punch, or a hug, or something like that, it scares me and my heart starts to pump faster and all that dramatic stuff."

Gwaine looked properly abashed and he said, "Oh, sorry mate," but Merlin just waved it off saying that he hadn't known.

Merlin really hadn't wanted to tell them about the haphephobia because that would eventually lead to questions, if not questions that very moment, but Gwaine had made it necessary by grabbing his ankle. The feeling of a strong hand wrapped around his ankle had made him flinch and start to hyperventilate as he remembered a particularly bad day in Bulgaria that involved an assassin and a lake. But that was neither here nor there and he had movies to watch.

Well, correction, he had a movie to sometimes watch, but mostly listen as his friends told stories and threw things at each other. He stayed quiet most of the time and was aware of Arthur's eyes boring holes into his back, but he didn't care.

For the moment, he didn't have to worry about the person who knew so much about him. He didn't have to worry about his destiny and how he was going to reveal his magic. All that mattered at that particular point in time was that he was surrounded by friends and he was having the time of his life.