Author's Note: Hi! Sorry it took so long to review. I had a ton of tests and homework and stuff. Please review and all that jazz! I'd be interested to hear who you think the new (or perhaps old) villain/ess is. I'll keep trying to put more action and more BAMF!Merlin in there, but I don't know if I will. Thanks to everyone who reviewed.

Special thanks to ForeverReading1 and CHARLES CHUKU for continuing to review! And special thanks to the guest reviewer who gave out the grammar advice (please let me know if I'm doing it right this time around)!

I still do not own Merlin and (so, so sadly) I probably never will. On a different note, hope you enjoy the story!

Merlin woke up to the sound of someone singing gently to herself. He frowned as his eyes stayed stubbornly closed. Was there any particular reason that someone in his apartment was singing at… three in the morning? What kind of ridiculous time was that? Then it hit him and realized he had read the clock wrong. It wasn't three in the morning… it was three in the afternoon. He had slept until three in the afternoon! He hadn't done that in at least a thousand years. So, wait, who was singing?

Then Merlin bolted upright at he recognized the voice. His eyes flared open and flashed a deep golden. Morgana. She was singing. What was she doing here? She was going to kill Arthur!

That's when Merlin really took a moment to look at his surroundings. He deflated and took in a deep breath as he remembered that he was in Arthur's mansion. He remembered that Morgana isn't evil. Then he remembered that he had some psycho creep that broke into his apartment last night and he inflated a bit more. Merlin cautiously peaked around the room, assuring himself that he hadn't been seen acting like a pansy.

Of course, that's what he thought. Until he turned around and ended up staring right at Lance who was mildly staring at him. Merlin sighed and flopped back onto the mat that he had called his bed last night. No surprise that it was Lance to see him. Lance always did have a knack for being there at the right time. Or the wrong time depending on how you looked at it.

"How much of that did you see?" Merlin spoke wearily. At least he had been facing the other direction when his eyes had turned gold.

He could sense Lance smile as he answered, "I saw you wake up but continue to stay where you were, then you looked at the clock. Then you practically gave yourself whiplash looking at the clock again-," he chuckled to himself, "-and then I saw you tense and shoot into an upright position. You looked around you, seemed to relax, and then tensed again when you saw me. If I may say so myself, I'm a bit confused." The man that Merlin had heard so many compare to a Spanish god turned his black capped head to the side as if contemplating Merlin and trying to gauge whether or not he would answer.

The warlock was about to give some cockamamie excuse when Morgana and Gwen swaggered into the room. Lance gave Gwen a soft smile and Merlin marveled to see that there was no love in it. He had assumed that Lance would have the same feelings. Although, he thought silently, Leon and Morgana had never shown any indication of love towards each other.

Gwen smiled back at Lance and then at Merlin. The two women came and sat cross-legged near the two men. Morgana leaned in conspiratorially, "What say you we give them a wakeup call?" Merlin grinned in spite of himself. He was frankly quite amazed at how easily he had readjusted to a good Morgana and Mordred. People always did say that he saw the light in every situation. Speaking of…

Merlin leaned in as well, "I have just the thing in mind." With that, he got up and walked over to the curtains. Gwen giggled when she realized what Merlin was about to do.

"Up and at 'em!" Merlin all but shouted as he swung the heavy curtains open. A chorus of groans accompanied the statement with the girls and Lance giggling in the back.

Arthur flipped onto his side to avoid the light, "It's too early, Merlin!"

Merlin grinned widely and pulled the blankets from the king's grasp, "Oh, it's never too early, Sire." Here he gave a mock bow, "And besides, it's almost three thirty. I would say that's early enough."

In the background Merlin could here Morgana sitting on Leon, who hadn't reacted in the slightest to the bright light filtering through the room. Lance and Gwen laughed as Gwaine bolted upright, swinging at something that wasn't there. Percival had gotten up reluctantly and shaded his eyes against the sun. Mordred and Elyan were fighting for a blanket that they had somehow ended up sharing.

It was bliss.

Arthur was walking down the hallways to his father's limo waiting out in front of the school. He, Gwaine, Lance, and Percival were going over to his house and working on football maneuvers for the upcoming tryouts.

Gwaine pushed his shoulder into Percival's playfully, causing the mountain of a man to not even move an inch. Gwaine seemed to take that as some sort of challenge and he continuously rammed himself into Percival as they walked down the corridor, Lance laughing and Arthur smirking.

Suddenly a clang of someone being pushed into a locker reverberated from the little hall just ahead of them. By this time of day, most students and teachers were gone. It was the perfect moment to bully someone, if you were into bullying someone of course. Gwaine was already rounding the corner before the others had even looked at each other.

They were all shocked at the sight that met them. There was Tristan de Bois, who was Agravaine's kid, Edwin Muirden, who everyone knew was more than a little bit psychopathic, and Gilli Copper, who was a younger kid who hung out with the 'cool' kids. They were the school's local bullies and they were crowding a figure that the former knights were shocked to realize was Merlin. He was huddled into a ball on the ground, having been the source of the sound of someone being pushed into a locker.

"Hey!" Arthur shouted, drawing the attention of Gilli who grabbed onto Tristan's sleeve and yanked it frantically. Tristan looked like he was going to slap Gilli for interfering, but then he saw Arthur, Lance, Gwaine, and Percival watching him.

He sneered, "Aw, I'm sorry. Did I hurt your precious little boy toy?" Merlin sent him a look that would have withered a field of grass at which Tristan stepped forward menacingly and Merlin cringed.

That more than anything infuriated Arthur, "Step away from him and we can talk this out." He began.

This time it was Edwin who sneered at them, "I didn't know you could talk. I assumed that you had your father's servants do it for you."

Behind all of them, Merlin laughed. Lance looked askance at him and Arthur just glared, "Sorry," Merlin laughed, "I'm so sorry. That was actually a good one though. And kind of true." Merlin mused, his thoughts going far away.

Gwaine openly guffawed at Merlin and even Tristan had turned around to stare at him openmouthed. By this time, Merlin had stood and he assumed a more defensive position, "What?"

"What did you just say?" Arthur moved threateningly toward Merlin, who, for his credit, didn't move at all. He just grinned and repeated what he said.

Arthur looked at Tristan, "You know what? Have a crack at him." Tristan laughed and, terrifyingly enough, Edwin licked his lips. That slightly worried Lance and Percival who turned their openmouthed expressions on Arthur. In his mind, he was really just getting tired of the whole ordeal and his chauffer was waiting outside for them.

He brushed past Tristan and Edwin – Gilli had scrambled to avoid his path – and reached grabbed one of Merlin's ridiculously large ears, pulling him toward the exit. He could feel Tristan and Edwin glaring daggers into his back, but he didn't care. Although he would never admit it, he was just glad that he had gotten Merlin out of there relatively intact. Edwin was notorious for viscously beating his victims.

As they continued to the front of the building, Gwaine laughed, "Dude," he said, addressing Merlin, "You have to get bullied more often. That was awesome."

"I'm glad that you enjoyed it." Merlin grumbled, but his small smile and the slightly pink tinge to the tops of his ears betrayed him.

"Speaking of which," Gwaine continued, "Why did you let them terrorize you? I mean, we all saw you take that full grown mugger down with, like a swipe of your hand, and yet some overweight morons have you cowering on the floor like a nine year old girl."

Merlin's ears turned an even darker shade of pink and his cheeks joined them, "I wasn't cowering like a nine year old girl."

Lance glanced at him sympathetically, "Yeah, you kind of were."

Merlin glared at him before saying, "Thanks. You're a real friend there." He sighed, "I let them beat me up because I don't like to hurt people for any reason. Even if they hurt me, they don't deserve to be hurt, no one does. It's mainly if my friends are being threatened or if someone is trying to take my stuff that I hurt them. I don't like it when someone takes my stuff."

Arthur laughed at this new side of Merlin. In the two weeks and one day that they had known him, he had never seen a sulky Merlin before and he found it hilarious. Then he stopped laughing and settled into deep thought. They had only known Merlin for two weeks and yet, he had been to their houses almost every day and all of their parents had already extended the invitation that he could come over to their houses whenever.

He looked over at this boy who had come into their world and turned all their lives upside down, with all of them only realizing then that upside down was really the right way. Gwaine had grabbed Merlin's head and was giving him a vigorous head rub, ignorant to Merlin's gangly, flailing arms and his vehement protests. Arthur smiled.

Even though he would never admit it to anyone in a thousand years, Merlin had already become his best friend.

Merlin had finally freed himself from Gwaine's grasp and had left to go over to Gwen's house to have a 'romance 101' night with Gwen, Leon, and Morgana present. (He claimed he had been forced, though, it really is impossible to say no to Gwen and Morgana trying to convince you to do something).

Several days later, on Thursday, Gwaine, Lance, and Percival finally convinced Merlin to let them stay the night over at his apartment. The foursome climbed up the stairs to his apartment, Gwaine grumbling the entire time about the 'blood lack of a bloody elevator'. As usual, people stopped and had short conversations with Merlin about their day and he introduced them to the knights.

Merlin really had to stop calling them 'the knights'. He knew that they weren't the same people they had been all those years ago, but it was so hard to not think of them that way.

They finally made it to Merlin's floor and they were walking down it when Merlin frowned. He could feel something off in the air. Again. He held his hand up and turned his head slightly to the side saying, "Wait here." This was to the knights who were looking past him curiously.

Merlin bent down and grabbed the white piece of paper that had fallen from his door. He frowned furiously at the paper, blaming it for the failure of his protection wards. Making sure the knights were still where he had left them, he cracked the door open and saw his living room in complete disarray. Again. He closed the door again and pressed his forehead against it, unsure of how to proceed.

Gwaine had no such quarrels. He barged past Merlin ignoring his strangled yelp as he said loudly, "Come on Merlin. Your room can't be that messy compared to mine. I mean, that would take talent. And really, what boy has a neat room other than geek boy Lance over there." Lance and Percival smiled apologetically at him as they also brushed past him into his home.

The three had gotten several feet in before their brain caught up with the images from their eyes and they stopped dumbstruck. Merlin saw them stare around them in horror, but that was nothing compared to the horror he felt. Since that Friday night, he had been attacked three more times, once by another manticore, then by an afanc, and then by a wyvern. He really did not want his friends to discover magic by being attacked by a mythical creature. That would not be ideal.

He wanted to usher them out, but before he could try, Gwaine let out a shriek that he would no doubt deny later. If there was a later.

"What is that?" Gwaine asked shrilly. Merlin sighed. It was another manticore. He was really starting to suspect that Nimueh was in on this, but no way she was this powerful to get past all his wards and summon the creature. Besides, she didn't know the things she needed to know to set these situations up.

Merlin sighed again, "It's a manticore Gwaine. It'd be a bit helpful if you could look around you for an intact box and without touching it, let me know where it is. Meanwhile, I'll hold it off." From his back pocket, Merlin pulled out his sword. It unfolded when he whipped it out, magically sealing itself into a sword form. He began to hack ineffectually at the creature.

His friends continued to stare in horror until Lance shook his head and started looking for the box. Percival was the next to shake himself from his stupor, followed closely by Gwaine. After several minutes of tense creeping around the room and moving things while trying to not attract the attention of the battling creatures, Percival finally found it.

The quiet man called out, "Merlin! It's over here!" Merlin spared a glance in his direction. The manticore took advantage of his distraction and shot its poisonous tail toward the warlock. At the last second, Merlin turned his head and he bent backward, almost in half. His hands met the ground and he kicked up, sending the monster into the wall closest to the box.

Merlin then used his momentum to flip himself over and turn in the same move, ending up on his feet and running toward the box. He smashed it right before the creature recovered its footing. Merlin then swung his sword and decapitated the manticore, pulverizing it to dust.

"What the heck?!" Gwaine all but shouted, making Merlin glad that he had put a permanent silencing spell on his apartment. Merlin subconsciously refolded his sword and put it back into his pocket.

Merlin coughed slightly and scratched his head, "Well…"

Lance shook his head, "No. Don't even think about it. I think that we deserve the truth for once. What just happened? What was that thing? And how did your sword thing work?"

Merlin coughed again and walked into the kitchen area, coming back with a little kit of some sort and a crystal bowl. He sat down where the shards of Freya's basin were scattered and motioned for them to sit around him. They looked at each other warily and he scowled at them.

"Alright, I'll tell you the truth, but if you, at any point of my monologue, tell me that I'm making this up, or pulling your leg, or am insane, I will hurt you. While we're talking, I'm going to remake this." Merlin pointed an iron rod at the remnants of his communication system. The knights nodded dutifully and Merlin sighed once again before launching into his story:

"Long, long ago there was a kingdom called Camelot. The king of Camelot was named Arthur Pendragon. He was married to Queen Gweneviere and his servant was named Merlin. He had several trusted knights named Gwaine, Leon, Percival, Lancelot, Elyan, and Mordred. Mind you, this is only the bare minimum of the truth, but the full story would take forever to tell. He had a half-sister named Morgana. Morgana was a witch with great powers and a dragon at her disposal. She had gone insane years ago and her only goals in life were: kill Arthur, attain the throne of Camelot, and kill Emrys.

"Due to some mistakes on both Merlin and Arthur's parts, Mordred betrayed his king and joined forces with Morgana. It was once foretold that if they were to become partners, Arthur would fall. Mordred killed Arthur. Morgana had already killed, albeit indirectly, Lance and Elyan. Then she killed Gwaine and captured Percival. Arthur killed Mordred and Merlin killed Morgana. It was also foretold that even though Arthur died, he would be reborn again when Albion, also known as the British Isles, needed him the most.

"That was twenty five thousand years ago. Merlin, also known as Emrys, didn't die like his friends and he stayed alive those twenty five thousand years. This Merlin is me. I am somewhat immortal. I can be killed, but I will not age. I have waited for Arthur to be reborn and he finally has. Thankfully, his knights and his queen were reborn as well. Unfortunately, so were his enemies. That's why the first day I was so hateful towards Morgana and Mordred. They destroyed everything I loved and made me watch.

"However, they currently have not a speck of magic this time around. Hopefully that means that this time will be different. That this time Arthur will unite Albion as is his destiny. By the way, you can't tell anyone this. And I mean anyone. That includes Arthur himself. Anyways, I have magic as well, which was very bad back in Camelot where magic was illegal and punishable by death, but that's another story. Someone, I don't know who yet, has been tearing through my room, either looking for something or just doing it to annoy me. Each time this person, or persons I guess, destroys my house, they leave a monster behind for me to fight.

"I've fought all of these monsters before, but that doesn't mean I have fun with it. Whoever it is that's doing this to me knows more than they should. They know things that I've only ever told certain people and those people are dead. Well, they were dead, but now they're reborn. But they don't remember so it doesn't really matter. Anyways that was a manticore I just fought. They are not nice."

Merlin frowned at the end, thinking about how just un-nice manticores really were. Gwaine, Lance (why is it always Lance who sees these things), and Percival stared at him, flabbergasted.

"So you're saying that magic is real?" Percival pressed hesitantly. Merlin nodded distractedly as an answer, concentrating on imprinting the runes correctly onto the bowl.

"What are you doing?" Lance asked peering at the bowl as Merlin finally finished and spoke the words to activate it, his eyes flashing gold as the water flowed up from the ground and into the bowl again. The former knights stared with open mouths as Freya's face immediately filled the water, once again concern dominating her druid features.

"My love, did they attack again?" Freya asked, oblivious to the others in the room. As usual, Merlin's face lit up at seeing her and a smiled curled his lips.

"Yep. Another manticore. I'm convinced that Nimueh must somehow be involved. Oh, and Gwaine, Lance, and Percival are here. They saw the manticore and demanded answers so I gave them." Merlin answered quickly.

Freya frowned at him, "You just flat out told them about the magic and their history?" Merlin nodded obligingly and she continued, "And they accepted it? Well, that helps. It probably has something to do with the fact that there's no 'death to all those who are magical' law hanging over your heads this time around." Merlin snorted.

Lance shook his head, "Wait, she knows about the magic too? It also sounds like she knows the whole story of 'our history' as she says. Who is she really?"

Merlin and Freya looked at each other and communicated with their eyes before Merlin spoke again, "May I introduce you to the Lady of the Lake. I met her a couple of years after I came to Camelot and we were in love immediately. She… she died and somehow my magic bound her to the lake and made her the guardian of Avalon. She cannot leave the water, but we found this way to communicate not at the lake. She has been my girlfriend for the last twenty five thousand years. We developed this system about five years after Arthur died and have talked to each other every night since then." They smiled at each other again.

"Alright," Gwaine started slowly, "I think that we are going to, and yes I know, the horror, pull an all-nighter on a school night and you should explain a bit more in detail."

And so Merlin, with a little bit of help from Freya, told his story and told them about the predicament he was currently facing. He showed them his magic and he cleaned up his house. They took the situation very well and they promised him their help.

It almost felt like they were back in Camelot plotting again and it was the most bittersweet moment of his life.