Uther had noticed the same thing. Despite the acidic tone, which could have been construed as sarcasm, Arthur had said it. Uther wasn't sure why, it didn't seem to be something Arthur particularly wanted to acknowledge. He looked up at the town hall, as the phone line died, his mobile giving one brief beep before there was nothing. He had finished what he needed to do and had come to the town hall, but he wasn't sure what he was going to do. The last time he had interrupted Arthur's time with the others, on the training field, it had been carnage, and not because of his bloody nose.
"I have to get into the building, I need to find Arthur," Uther said to Gaius, who stood next to him.
"I can come with you."
"Gaius, I think you are better employed out here," Uther said, looking around at the chaos and not wanting his oldest friend to put himself into danger. Gaius nodded, glancing around himself, and then blinking as he looked back up at the steps. In the last rush of people Percival was a little hard to miss. He was staying close to Guinevere, making sure no one knocked or pushed her as he escorted her out of the building. He had already elbowed one guy in the face as he had shoved her out of the way. After that no one had dared to get in their way. Gwen allowed herself to be pulled clear and then came face to face with Uther.
"Where are the others?"
"Still in there," Percival said.
"What are you doing out here then?" Uther snapped.
"Arthur told me to get Gwen to safety," Percival said. He had obeyed the order, almost automatically. Plus, he liked Gwen, she added chutney to meals in amazing, and rather mysterious ways, and also put extra on sandwiches specially for him, when she left food out. Percival now felt a bit confused. Gwen had been accepted as part of them now, he hadn't thought twice about the order.
Uther frowned, processed the information and then turned to Gaius.
"You should stay and help here, Gwen can assist you. I need to get into the building," Uther said, directing his final comment to Percival, who nodded and followed Uther. They came immediately into contact with one of the policemen patrolling the area.
"Sir, you can't go in there."
"I have three children trapped in there," Uther announced before getting past, with Percival in tow.
Gwen followed Gaius as he ran to help someone with a sliver of glass in her leg.
"I need something to help secure this," Gaius said. Gwen shrugged off her cardigan and handed it to him. Gaius started to put it around the glass sliver.
"Can't you just take it out?" the woman asked. The little boy sat by her side snivelled. Gwen hugged him.
"No, that will increase the bleeding, for now the glass is plugging the wound, we need to wait for an ambulance. Gwen, I need to you find a paramedic, they are probably coming through, can you direct them?"
"I'll find them," Gwen said. "You stay with mum, and hold these for me."
"Will mummy be okay?"
"Yes, Gaius will look after her, you stay here okay?" Gwen said. The little boy nodded and Gwen got up and ran to the edge of the square pushing people out of her way, and rather inclined to employ Percival's method of elbowing them in the face. She managed to restrain herself enough to meet a paramedic who had appeared on the scene.
"There's a woman over there, she's got some glass in her leg, her little boy is with her. It's a serious injury."
"Show me," the paramedic said. Gwen obliged and then followed Gaius as he moved through the causalities.
"He said three children."
"Sorry," Gaius said as he applied a dressing to a head wound. Merlin seemed to have protected most people in the square. The injuries Gaius treated had mostly come from people running away.
"Uther said he had three children."
"Arthur, Morgana and Merlin."
Gwen frowned and Gaius calmly looked up at her. "He might not show it as well as some people expect him to, but he cares about all of them. He adopted Merlin when he was twelve, Morgana when she was five, and there was always Arthur. He was devastated when Igraine ran, when she was pregnant."
"You mean he hadn't even seen Arthur?"
"Never, and he's known for twenty years that he had to find him, and not only tell Arthur that he's his father, but then tell him exactly what he might have to become."
Gwen blinked, that seemed rather enormous.
"Oh," she said.
XxxxxxxxxxxxxX
"I think we can safely say Arthur's the target!" Gwaine yelled. Merlin blasted his power at the gargoyle, which sent it into the nearest wall but nothing beyond that. The wall didn't take it too well, plaster falling apart as it cracked under the blow.
"Well, I did say they were staring!" Arthur yelled diving under a table and rolling out of the way.
The room was now in chaos. They had tried working in a corridor, now they were in an open space and it was quite clear that Arthur had all the gargoyles focus. The others could distract the creatures with fast movement, magic and bullets, but in the end they were turning back to Arthur again and again.
"They are tied to the building, maybe getting you out might help!" Leon yelled.
"Nowhere to go!" Percival yelled running in. "It's chaos in the square. It will just cause more panic!"
"Arthur!" Uther yelled as he followed Percival, who had cleared the path for him.
"What?" Arthur snapped as he got out and ran for the far wall.
"Go left, don't block yourself in!" Uther snapped. "And don't you ever hang up on me again! That is just so rude!"
"Oh sorry, I didn't realise there was an etiquette!"
"At least you're not swearing," Uther said.
"I have been, oh fuck!" Arthur said dodging again as the huge marble statue moved towards him. "Merlin, try again!"
Merlin did. The creature wavered but the stone was too dense, it didn't shatter.
"It's marble, I can't seem to do it!"
"Oh shit!" Arthur said ducking again as the creature advanced. The only advantage he had was that it was slow. Merlin had damaged most of the lighter stone creatures. There was only four to deal with but the main one, that had stood proudly on the top of the town hall for almost a century was a hard one to crack.
"Who is this guy anyway?"
"Most of the gargoyles were donated, this one by the man who built the hall. Cornelius something," Morgana snapped.
"When?" Arthur demanded.
"Well, over a century ago."
"Oh great, they've planned for centuries, we're just winging it," Arthur drawled, then he frowned, crouching lower. His gaze was drawn to the gargoyle's chest as it lumbered towards him. Arthur backed up, keeping crouched down as he assessed the situation.
"Arthur!" Uther yelled, trying to get over the debris to him.
"Not now! Merlin, do it again!"
Arthur stopped moving, looking at the glowing light that was starting to emanate from the creature's chest. Merlin hadn't stopped it, but he had damaged it.
"Lancelot, I need that spare clip," Arthur said calmly, not moving as the stone giant turned to bear down on him. Lancelot gaped but pulled the clip and looked around.
"Now would be good!" Arthur added.
"I'm throwing it over."
Arthur's instincts took over. They had always been fairly good. His punches hit with accuracy and he could always make a fairly good score on a dart board. Over the years he hadn't though much about it, and although he certainly wasn't that good after just one morning with a gun, or an afternoon with a sword, and a few hours to get his head round it; he realised he was probably learning better than most people. And he had always known, the safest route, the best way to dodge, when to grit his teeth and not give them the satisfaction of a sound.
So when Lancelot tossed the clip of bullets over the floor Arthur heard the noise, it came to a stop by his feet and he picked it up, which was when he fired at the statue. He pumped what he could into it and then reloaded and carried on, putting bullets into the crack that had appeared in it's chest, making it wider, working it up towards the beast's neck.
"Merlin, again," he said, getting up, moving over a table, jumping an overturned rack of cards and rolling. He sprawled on the floor and lay still. Merlin lifted his hand, eyes glowing, as Uther rushed to reach his son. Merlin felt the flow of his power and he aimed it at the crack that Arthur had opened up in the beast, seeing the glow of magic from within the structure. Merlin pressed on it, using the damage Arthur made to increase the crack, until there was a snapping sound and the whole thing exploded. All of them ducked, diving for cover as the statue started to splinter. Slivers of blue light started to expose themselves as the statue carried on advancing.
"Any time you like Merlin!"
"I am doing my best Arthur! Shut up and stop distracting me!"
"Merlin! I don't have anything left and…" Arthur shut up and dived as the statue started to split. He fell back, aided by the weight that landed against him, pulling him over. Arthur's eyes rolled in his head as whatever was lingering in the centre of the statue exploded out. Blue light engulfed the room and chunks of marble flew in all directions. As Arthur landed heavily against a table edge, sending a flash of pain up his spine, which for some reason made his teeth ache, the gargoyle's head landed on the floor smashing the floorboards just to his left. The contents of the table flew in all directions as the force of Arthur striking it knocked it over. He fell in a tangle of limbs with whoever had rushed to cover him, and there was a grunt of pain from both of them.
Arthur lay gasping for breath as the action in the room stilled. The remaining gargoyles crashed to the floor. Arthur struggled to get away from the person sprawled on top of him. After a moment they rose up, taking the pressure of Arthur, which relaxed him enough to slowly wriggle away and then sit up, blinking and wiping away something dripping in his eyes.
"Arthur."
The concern in Uther's voice made him pause, and he looked at his hand. It was smeared with blood. Uther gently took his chin and brushed Arthur's hair off his forehead to examine the cut on his brow. Arthur tensed, blinking again to completely focus his vision and he gasped. Uther was using his right arm, but it was painful for him, his shirt was torn and bloodied and glancing about Arthur saw the substantial chunk of marble that had struck him. In comparison Arthur's injury was mild, but from the look on his face, Uther clearly didn't see it like that. He tilted Arthur's head to look into his eyes.
"Arthur?"
"I'm fine, you're hurt worse."
"What the hell did you think you were doing?" Uther said, continuing to examine Arthur and resisting all of Arthur's attempts to look at his damaged shoulder.
"Everyone else all right?" Lancelot asked, glancing around the room. There were general murmurs from the rest of them as they slowly started to drift to Uther and Arthur.
"Dad, I'm fine!" Arthur protested as Uther prodded around the gash. Arthur spoke loudly, his words echoing around the room, one of them again seeming to have great emphasis.
Uther didn't comment, despite the fact the sound of it caused his heart to start pounding. Instead he pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and pressed it to Arthur's wound to control the blood flow. Arthur tried to move and resist the attention but Uther wasn't taking no for an answer. It seemed to him to be the only way to deal with Arthur.
"We had better have Gaius look at you, from the look of that you could be at risk from concussion."
"You need to be treated as well Sir," Leon said as he gingerly peered at Uther's shoulder.
"I'm fine," Uther said, sounding oddly similar to Arthur.
"No you're not," Arthur contradicted as he saw the increasing concern on Leon's face, and feeling the weakness of Uther's grip from the affected arm. Arthur took over the handkerchief, applying the pressure himself, wincing at the pain.
"That attack was risky, to the point of stupid," Uther informed his son. Arthur glared at him.
"So is getting whacked by a big chunk of marble."
Uther smiled, slowly moving and allowing Leon to help him up. Percival carefully did the same for Arthur, trying to minimise the contact since Arthur didn't like it. He felt the usual ripple of tension, but Arthur decided he was coping better with it now. It was quite obvious that none of them had the slightest interest in him, or at least not in the way that made Arthur's senses go on alert. However, as soon as he was sure Arthur was steady Percival released him. Arthur blinked and brought the blood stained handkerchief away from his head, wincing at the red stain that now marred the pristine white material.
"Oh," Arthur said, putting the handkerchief back. Uther frowned.
"Are you all right Arthur?"
"I didn't realise it was bleeding that much. I feel all right though."
"We had better get Gaius to look at him, and perhaps get out of here, I don't think we want to have to answer too many questions about this," Lancelot said.
"How are they going to explain away the gargoyles on the buildings moving?"
"Actually they're grotesques," Percival said.
"What?" Arthur asked, turning his head gingerly to look at him.
"Gargoyles are the ones that drain water from the roof, these don't, they're not gargoyles, not all of them anyway."
Everyone stared at Percival, who shrugged. "I thought everyone knew that."
"Never mind, let's get out of here as discreetly as possible, I want that head wound looked at," Uther said.
"I think yours might need dealing with first," Arthur challenged, and the two Pendragon men stared at each other. The rest of the group watched warily, even when being mutually polite they still seemed to argue. However, all of them jumped at the sudden sound of someone clapping behind them. Uther turned, and Arthur stepped forward. Putting a hand out Uther shielded him, keeping Arthur behind him. The rest of them moved to flanking positions and stared at the newcomer.
He was thin, with sleek dark hair as black as a raven's wing. He stood in the centre of the chaos, a sneering smirk on his face and his hands still connecting to make the sound echo around the room.
"Oh, now isn't that such a lovely family picture."
"Who's this guy?" Arthur asked.
"And where did he come from?" Gwaine added. Arthur frowned, leaning forward.
"Do we know who this is?"
Uther shook his head. "Many of our enemies have lingered in the shadows."
"Funny how they're all appearing now," Arthur said.
The man stopped clapping and simply faced them, smiling at them politely. Then he shrugged and walked a few steps, looking around at the damage they had created. From outside the sounds of sirens were coming louder. The stranger nodded his head sagely as he assessed the damage that they had done to the statues. The other three had crumbled when the marble one had been destroyed.
"How very impressive. You've come on leaps and bound, you cheap little whore."
Arthur blinked at the insult, taking in a sharp breath. His reaction probably wasn't noticed, because in front of him Uther went rigid, giving a low angry growl. The rest of them shifted, and Leon went so far as to take Uther's upper arm, holding him in place. Even Percival shifted a little closer, to help restrain Uther, should it become necessary. Arthur, on the other hand, was entirely accustomed to people insulting him, and had long ago perfected the art of talking back.
"Actually I'm about average market price, but very good value."
The man chuckled again, which made Arthur shiver slightly. He eased his way forward, around Uther.
"So you know who I am, probably who we all are, so who the hell are you?" Arthur demanded.
"Ah, of course, how rude of me. Cornelius Sigan."
"The guy who donated that thing to the town hall."
"A little taste of immortality," Sigan announced with a smile. "I was an old man, the stone helped keep my soul alive. With the magic seeping through, especially with the Once And Future King in attendance, taking form was no problem."
"That is just weird," Arthur said. "What was the point of that?"
"All the signs told me that the Once And Future King was returning. That Arthur would again help Merlin restore the balance of magic. Someone had to watch, and wait for you."
"And then try to kill me?" Arthur said.
Sigan huffed with laughter, spreading his hands out, looking at the mess in the room. "If the magic is to return, why would I wish it controlled. Ask your loyal little friend there, he can feel it, the potential of the magic that rushes through his veins."
Merlin shrugged, shrinking under Sigan's gaze and he turned to look at Arthur.
"Well, kind of."
"If the barrier was destroyed then the balance of the world would fall into chaos, no death, no life, just power. The order of chaos would reign."
Arthur raised his eyebrows. "You should get a fake tan and take up TV Evangelism."
Sigan glared at him, eyes flashing gold as several objects in the room began to shake. Arthur eased back slightly and the other men moved forward to protect him.
"You should watch that filthy little mouth of yours," Sigan snarled. "Put it back to the use it was so very good for, sucking off sad little men in alleyways."
Arthur flinched, he couldn't help himself. He had probably heard it all before, but never with such venom. The others clustered closer to him, which could have increased his tension, but he could sense the air of concern, all of them of the same mind to protect him. Arthur blinked, a frown crossing his face.
"So you knew where I was?"
"Of course."
"In which case, why not just kill me, if you wanted me out of the way?"
"If the cycle is broken, one piece of the puzzle missing, then nothing can happen. The little breaks in the veil are there, as long as the Once And Future King exists. All the pieces were in place. And the fun was watching daddy desperately trying to find you."
Uther's jaw clenched. Sigan looked at him with mock sympathy.
"Of course, we had no trouble keeping track of your son, thanks to a lonely historian, with quite an interest in teenage boys."
Arthur swallowed heavily, tears prickling behind his eyes. "Geoff."
"Yes, Geoffrey Monmouth, he already had a little interest in the legend, with a few hints to go on, he tracked you down and what a pretty little thing you were. He could just not help himself."
"He was collecting information for you."
Sigan gave a slight grimace. "Not quite, I'm just the sentinel. I could sense it all."
"And what were you planning on doing with this information?" Morgana asked. Sigan eyed her carefully, Morgana's face twisted into a sneer as he looked her up and down.
"There was no need to do anything, as long as the shadow remained over the Once And Future King. What use were the rest of you without the other side of the coin."
Arthur frowned at the strange reference, but he glanced at Merlin. Merlin glanced back.
"But we found him," Uther said. "I found my son."
Sigan rocked back on his heels, laughing with delight, sounding slightly psychotic in Arthur's opinion.
"And who do you think gave you those last few hints. Maybe his conscience finally got the better of him, but the man who had been fucking him for years gave you just enough leads to put you on Arthur's trail. Interesting price he paid for it, his pain lasted for hours. I could feel his soul screaming."
Sigan laughed as Arthur winced.
"The curse of your birth I'm afraid, your soul has been tainted."
"What?" Arthur asked. Uther stepped forward.
"His birth has nothing to do with this."
Sigan laughed again, the sound rippled around the room, seeming to take it over, crawling over every corner.
"But it does, how long can you hide it from him Uther. Those little white lies are always the worst, aren't they?"
"What?" Arthur demanded.
"The only way for the Once And Future King to be born is to be given life through magic, and for a life to be created, one must be taken."
Arthur blinked, and then turned to glare at Uther.
"My mother? Does he mean my mother?"
"The law of magic might have, and your father is not exactly unfamiliar with ritual murder."
Uther glared at Sigan, jaw tensing. Arthur stared at him with his eyes widening.
"But he'd never let anything happen to his precious Igraine."
Arthur stared at Uther, Sigan's words penetrating his consciousness but he was staring at his father in horror.
"Still, she proved corruptible in the end. Even your father doesn't know the true reason that she ran, that she planned to give your soul back to the void it came from."
Arthur turned. "What?"
"Unfortunately she was told one lie too many, those little white lies again. And when you were born Igraine found she couldn't do that to her precious little boy. All those years, she wasn't hiding you from Uther, she suffered the corruption you should have. And she could never risk your father finding you, not until the curse played out. I'm not sure it has though, tainted as you are. What use are you, the Once And Future King a cheap piece of street meat."
"Well, I'll tell you one thing I can do," Arthur said calmly, he looked up, eyes icy cold, the smile not reaching them as he regarded Sigan.
"I can count," Arthur informed him as he lifted the gun that was still in his hand.