A/N: Oh wow, I'm so sorry for my late chapter. I've been on holiday but now I'm back I shall definitely be continuing this, so don't think its dead. Thanks to everyone who is sticking with my disgraceful laziness, I want to have all your babies. ALL THE BABIES.

Right, now we've settled that...enjoy!

Merlin had never said goodbye to him before. Even when Arthur had been dying, they'd never said goodbye.

Outside the windows, the storm started to dissipate.

Martin walked slowly back to his flat, the storm vanishing altogether and the sun coming out as he went. His mood wasn't matching the weather. He felt completely bemused, and more confused with each step he took home. If he looked at the situation practically, then he had been kidnapped by a bunch of complete psychos who had somehow tricked him into seeing things that weren't real. That was probably shock. Or brainwashing. Whatever, it could be anything. The point was he should go straight to the police and report what had happened and get them all arrested. The cops could do it, despite Sarah's boast. He had the appearances and names of all of his captors, he even had the address of several of their locations.

And yet…there was nothing he had ever wanted to do less.

Because there was something, something niggling at him. Even if he hadn't seen the impossible, dreamed the impossible, there was still Arthur. And he couldn't quite deceive himself into believing that Arthur was a mere madman. Arthur was…Arthur was…

By the time he had got to his flat, he was so confused and tired that all he wanted to do was go to sleep and forget the entire thing had happened.

He put his key in the door but then it was flung open, and a rather wild looking Morgan stood in the doorway.

They stared at each other for a moment, then she let out a strange little shriek and flung her arms around him. "Martin!" she gasped, and clung to him tighter.

Martin reeled for a moment. "Hey," he said, putting a careful hand on her back. "Woah. What's going on? This isn't the first time I've been gone all night."

Morgan drew back. There was an odd look in her eyes, something entire alien to her usual expression. "I know," she spluttered. "I mean - I - I just - where have you been?"

Martin opened his mouth to tell her everything.

"Nowhere," he said instead.

He shut his mouth again. Morgan stared at him, and for a moment Martin had the oddest feeling, like he was teetering on the edge of a precipice.

He made up his mind and smiled as disarmingly as he could. "I went out with some colleagues after work and had a few too many, that's all. Had to crash round someone's house. Why, were you worrying about me?" He winked at her.

Morgan snorted, drawing away from his properly. "You wish," she said, and stamped back into the flat.

Martin breathed a silent sigh of relief, then wondered why he had.

While Arthur had been 'dead', he hadn't been able to move. He had stood on the shore of the lake and stared out into a moving world but he himself could not move a muscle. It hadn't hurt physically, because he'd felt numb from the head down, but it had hurt emotionally. Because he wanted to move. Sometimes, usually on those rare occasions Merlin came to visit, he had wanted to move so much that he could swear he felt his heart straining with the desperation.

He didn't want to move now. He sat at a table at the HQ and wished suddenly that he was back on the isle, back inside that bubble of nothing, where he couldn't feel. He never wanted to move again. There was nothing to move for.

The others were also clustered around the table, urgently talking about what their next step should be.

"At least we've learnt a lot," Turk was saying as encouragingly as he could. "We've learnt who the Professor thinks he is, and we've learnt that Morgana is alive and has him under her control - "

"And that she's very powerful," Donald put in glumly. "And can tear apart London if she wants to."

Sarah snorted. "Well, if she thinks that's going to stop us trying to get the Prof back, she's got another think coming."

"No, she hasn't," Arthur said aloud.

He blinked. He hadn't meant to speak. Everyone stopped and stared at him.

"What do you mean, Arthur?" Jocelyn asked gently.

Arthur thought about saying nothing, but the bitterness was pouring out of him before he could stop it. "I mean, we're not going to try anymore. You were right in what you said before, Sarah. Martin is not Merlin. Morgana took him and she changed him. Merlin is gone. She won."

His throat tightened painfully; he coughed and looked down at the table.

There was a long silence.

"I can't believe this," Dan said finally. "You can't be giving up!"

"I'm not giving up, I've lost," Arthur gritted out around the lump in his throat. "Don't you understand? I fought and I lost. Merlin is gone and all we can do is let the man left behind live his life in peace."

Dan clenched his jaw. "Some king you are," he snarled. "Giving up at the first sign of trouble. Where's the great king we read of? The king full of hope?"

"Dan - " Jocelyn said quietly.

"No wonder the Professor never spoke of you," Dan snapped. "He hoped we'd never find out what a rubbish king you really are."

"Dan, stop it!" Sarah snapped.

"No, I won't!" Dan shouted. "He's got no idea - no idea at all - about what the Professor did for me! For all of us! He's just rocked up here in his rusty armour, demanding we find the Professor and then getting all dispirited as soon as he realises the Professor isn't the Merlin he remembered. But the Professor saved my life and I'm not going to let him go, never mind who the hell he thinks he is!"

Dan took a quick breath in. Arthur stared at him. "Merlin - saved you?" he said.

Dan rolled his eyes. "Of course he did. With the magic I have, I could have caused any amount of pain. I was alone and I was afraid and no one in the world understood me or cared for me. I could have done anything. I could have got it into my head to rule the world and no one could have stopped me. But then the Professor found me and he taught me. You know what he taught me, he must have taught it to you too. About friendship. And mercy, and humility, and caring for others. He put thought and effort into me and he didn't need to, he had no reason to, but he did. And I am going to do the same for him. Even if he thinks he is Martin Earlton until the end of his days. I'm not just going to let him fade away!"

There was a small silence.

"I was a wreck when the Prof found me," Sarah said finally, quietly. "Drink, drugs, all of that. Because I thought I was a freak. Because there was no one else I could find like me. And then this crusty old man turned up on my doorstep and told me there were others like me, and I will never forget that."

"Same for me," Turk said, and Donald nodded.

"And it wasn't just us," Jocelyn said gently. "He's done this since the day you died. This was what he worked on, what he filled his long life with. There have been legions and legions of Merlin's Magicians, going down through the thousand years you have been absent. Some of them have become big names and done great things. Others have just lived their lives in peace and quiet. But however they lived, they lived with the knowledge that there were others there for them whenever they needed them. As time has gone on, the number of those with magic has diminished, but we still stand strong. Donald mentioned we were like the new knights of the round table, and we are. Merlin passed on your legacy to us. Camelot lives still and it lives in us."

They looked at Arthur. Arthur stared back at them. For once, he had no words to say.

But he could smile again.

Martin had an infuriating evening. He was tired and just wanted to relax, but Morgan was making it impossible. She didn't say anything out of the ordinary, but she kept hovering around him, and a couple of times he looked up from the TV to find her watching him with an intense look on her face, as if she was expecting him to vanish in mid air. He didn't say anything, oddly too worried that she might find something out about where he had been if he did, then promptly confused himself with wondering why he cared if she found out or not.

Eventually, exhausted by his confusion, he gave it up. "I'm off to bed," he said. I'm knackered. Night."

Morgan twitched and threw his bedroom door a worried look, but said nothing except, "Okay, night."

It could have been Martin's imagination, but he was sure he saw her jaw set in determination as he left.

He had another strange dream that night, and yet it was one of the simplest he had ever had as well.

He was in a stone-walled corridor, blank apart from a few blazing braziers, and he was walking down it. After a while, he realised there was a doorway at the other end, and someone was standing in it with their back to him. After a few more steps, he realised it was Arthur, wearing armour and a long red cloak.

He didn't think he had cried out, but Arthur turned anyway and saw Martin walking towards him.

And he smiled and held out his hand, and Martin knew that if he took that proffered hand, he would finally be home.

He hurried his own steps and held out his own hand, reaching for Arthur, and then, just as he was a finger's breadth away, he woke up.

The room was dark, it had to still be late at night. He lay in his bed and stared up at the ceiling, and for a while his head was full of castles and dragons and red cloaks, and he was at peace.

Arthur was dreaming. He was in Camelot, standing in a doorway, and he could hear footsteps behind him. He turned and saw it was Merlin, walking towards him with his beautiful, bright smile on his face, as if he had never been so overjoyed to see Arthur in his life.

Arthur held out his hand to him. Merlin reached out to take it, and then something shook him and he woke suddenly.

Someone was looming down over him. He yelped and rifled under his pillow for his knife automatically.

"Arthur, it's me!" Sarah shouted, and the lights flicked on by themselves.

Arthur froze and tried to calm his racing heart. "What's happened?" he asked.

Sarah's face was smudged with black and sweaty, and her eyes were wide and panicky. "Something awful," she said.

"Morning, Marty!" Morgan's voice trilled when Martin came in for breakfast.

Martin mumbled. He'd never been a fan of Morgan's cheery morning attitude, but at least she sounded like she was in a better mood.

He headed into the kitchen for some cereal and screeched to a halt in the middle of the kitchen in shock. Morgan was standing in there, eating her bowl of cereal, which was not in itself surprising. What was surprising was the long scratch running down her cheek.

"Bloody hell!" Martin said. "What happened to you?"

"Hmm?" Morgan asked. "Oh, I fell over last night. So embarrassing. Scratched my cheek on the bed."

"Jeez," Martin said. He poured himself some of his own cereal and tried not to think about Arthur. "You're a walking danger zone, you are."

Morgan snorted. She seemed very cheerful. "Off to do some modelling," she said. "I'll be back late. Try not to worry about me."

"What, like you did me?" Martin teased.

Morgan stuck her tongue out at him and flicked a cornflake in his direction. "Laters," she said and left.

Martin readied himself for work. Maybe, he thought, if he turned up early they'd let him off for missing work the day before.

He had forgotten his dream entirely.

Martin didn't often read newspapers, so it was really only by chance that he saw the headline on one of them as he passed the newsagents on the way to work.

INFERNO IN SHAFTESBURY AVENUE it said. There was a picture of a very familiar building up in flames under the headline.

Martin froze. He felt like he'd suddenly swallowed ice.

"Oh God no," he said, and grabbed the newspaper.

The blaze was started at a print company shop in Shaftesbury Avenue in the early hours of the morning, he read. Several buildings were damaged in the fire before the fire fighters could tame the blaze and false play is suspected. Nobody has been killed but a young boy who lives near the area is still missing.

Martin suddenly thought of the scratch on Morgan's cheek.

His heart sank inside him.

"She took Dan," Sarah said. It seemed all she was able to say. They had all crowded into Merlin's studio flat where Arthur was staying, looking various degrees of dishevelled. According to Jocelyn, Dan had stayed in central London after they had left and gone home for the night. Jocelyn had been worried, concerned that Morgana might be around and looking for vengeance, but Dan had shrugged off her worry, promising her he would go home soon. He had not.

"She's got Dan," Sarah said. She sipped the tea that Jocelyn had hastily made them all. "Oh my God, she's got Dan."

"Do you think she's killed him?" Turk asked grimly.

"With the power that Dan has?" Donald said. "She'd be a fool to kill him. She could use him."

Arthur curled his hands around his tea. "Surely he wouldn't help her?"

"He probably won't be given a choice," Turk said.

"Oh God," Sarah said, and clung to her teacup.

There was bleak silence, interrupted suddenly by a knock on the flat door that jerked all of them out of their thoughts and spilled more than a few cups of tea.

They stared at one another in horror. "Do you think that's…?" Jocelyn hissed.

"How can it be?" Turk whispered back. "The Professor put his own enchantments on this place, she shouldn't be able to find it at all…"

There was another knock. Arthur put down his cup. "Plus," he said, standing up, "She wouldn't knock."

He crept closer to the door, knife in his hand, feeling less confident than he looked. Sarah seized Jocelyn's hand. Arthur opened the door.

Merlin stood on the other side, eyes wide and glassy. "Hi," he said.