AN: Parts of this chapter heavily follow Stargate episode 10.01, but goes AU more so than the previous ones as I start to work on more of a divergence between the two. There are a few lines borrowed from 10.01.

Thanks to my Proofreader Nance, and Flow Reader IcarusLSU.

Thank you Aerist, Nance, Shelle-ma-belle, Feedtheflames, GoldenFishFire, AWanderersHaven, and Fai's Smile for your reviews! Rather surprised you guys didn't see that Orici/Morgana twist coming hehe.

*cackles maniacally* Oh and as a side note, changing up the page breaks, attempting to use the standard ffnet ones this time, to see how it looks.

Laney woke up, a cold sweat beading on her forehead, and checked the time: just before five a.m. She could try to go back to sleep, but she doubted if she would be able to. There was no memory of the dream that had woken her, just a lead balloon in her stomach from the feeling it left her with.

Laying back, she tried to recall the last images. They made no sense to her...Flashes of light...The sound of steel ringing against rock and metal...Nothing concrete.

With a deep sigh, she rolled out of bed, and went to make coffee. She figured a hot shower would do her good, and wash away the remnants of the nightmare.

Even by the time the bus arrived for the boys, at the end of the long, dirt driveway, the gnawing in her gut had barely diminished. She sat in her car long after the yellow bus had turned out of sight, with her hands gripping the wheel.

The past week had been stressful. Her ex's new wife had sent her a text about where she could pick up the boys. The bastard had done it again; decided he didn't want to be a dad. This time, not only to Laney's three boys, but also to the new one on the way with his current wife. A part of her wanted to feel bad for the gal; barely twenty-something, pregnant, and now facing the life of a single mother, too. But, instead, Laney was numb to the girl's plight, especially after leaving the boys with some near-stranger.

The big difference between Laney's previous experience with her ex, and this time...the son of a bitch had decided to completely leave the country.

She had to give him credit for trying. Not long after Gwaine's return, when they had moved to Colorado, her ex had moved to one of the Denver suburbs in an attempt be close enough to have a relationship with the kids. Now, Laney realized that was more due to his new wife's instance that brought that about. He'd probably given the girl some sob story, using the kids to get her into bed in the first place.

He hadn't even paid the child support in the last five months, although Laney made sure not to tell the boys, or her brother, about that development. She had suspected that his departure was only a matter of time.

Toby was in trouble in school, having gotten into a fight a couple of days later over some stupid shit that only teenagers could care about. Meanwhile, neither Greg nor Randy could figure out what they had done to drive their dad away. It didn't matter that it wasn't their fault; the kids weren't able to grasp that concept.

Gwaine was originally only supposed to be gone for a couple of days, off to who knows where with all his buddies. He'd left a message saying that the plans had changed, and he would call her when he got a chance to explain. That was almost a week ago, making his original time for getting off duty, four days overdue.

Leaning her head against the steering wheel between her hands, the sinking feeling only seemed to grow. She glanced at the car radio. It was barely seven-thirty. She would be late to work, if she didn't head out right away.

The last time she had felt this, her baby brother had disappeared for seven years, and she had been left completely in the dark about his fate. They hadn't been on the best of terms when he had left that time. This time was different.

"To hell with it." She said to the car, and backed up the driveway. Laney had already called work from her cell, before walking back in the house to search for another number she knew would be in the house somewhere.

"Hello? Anybody home?"

"Martha!" Gwen exclaimed, coming down the stairs. She embraced the other woman warmly. "I just put Aurie down for his nap, and was planning on having some tea. Would you care to join me?"

"That would be great!" She smiled excitedly. "Are you doing alright, with the men gone?"

"I have to say, it's actually a bit of a relief to have them out of my hair for a while. Don't get me wrong, I love my husband with all my heart, but he's been acting a bit stir-crazy lately, and driving me to utter distraction." She headed towards the sitting room, already set with tea by Harri.

Martha felt a pang of jealousy, that Gwen had seen more of both the men than she had, but she quickly dismissed it.

Merlin had urged her a few months back, to resign from UNIT and spend more time together. Since he no longer worked for them, they had been apart more than together for the first year of their marriage. Although, she wasn't working on the dangerous projects she had been before, Martha was needed to see through the projects she had been working on.

Now, that she finally been able to pass most of them along to others and spend time with him, Merlin was gone...headed off to some alien planet with Gwaine and Arthur. She envied him, remembering her own days of flitting around the universe in a blue Police Box. Some of the memories contained hardship and tragedy, while others were bright and filled with adventure.

Merlin had travelled all over the world, but had been confined to it. Many times, she had wished he could see the wonders outside of the small planet, as she had. She wasn't about to begrudge him the opportunity.

"Did you at least get to see him? He mentioned stopping to visit you on the way to Colorado."

"I did!" Martha said, turning her attention back to the conversation. "We went out for sushi for our anniversary."

"What's sushi?" Gwen asked innocently.

"It's Japanese food...mostly raw fish and rice. I don't think I'd ever laughed so hard, watching your husband try it."

"Oh, I hope he didn't ruin your celebrations by being there. Although, I'm sure it was quite the change from all the times Arthur forced poor Merlin to accompany him and me, on picnics and such. I don't think I can recall a time when Merlin wasn't around in some capacity, as Arthur's servant."

"Afterwards, we took a walk, and I gave Merlin his present."

Gasping in delight, Gwen poured them both some tea. "The car he's been wanting?"

Martha smiled and nodded enthusiastically. "He loved it! The dealer offered to drive Arthur back to the flat, while Merlin and I took it out for a spin. When we finally got back home, I'm sure we must have woken Arthur with our...continued celebrations."

The women giggled together at the unspoken meaning. It was nice to have someone to share these things with. Something both had found themselves lacking in their lifestyles before meeting. Martha had her sister Tish, but the two siblings weren't as close as they had been, when they were children.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Of course!" Gwen responded happily.

"Did something happen? Recently, I mean. Merlin was...well, he seemed a bit off. Distracted."

"Oh?" The former queen steadied herself, and kept her face schooled. "I'm not sure what you mean."

Martha wasn't buying it. "Something did! Gwen, please. He wouldn't talk to me. What happened?"

Gwen sighed and set her cup down on the table next to her. "I don't understand exactly, but when he came back from Colorado last week...he'd changed. Almost as if there was a shadow hanging over him..." She began to explain how he and Arthur had been going through books, and rushing off away from the house together at all hours; how they had come back a few mornings prior, with a heaviness surrounding them that she couldn't explain. Gwen also told Martha about the cryptic conversation regarding a certain number of years, and how Arthur seemed saddened by its meaning. "I...I don't want to allow myself to think about what they might have been discussing."

Martha stared ahead, with a blank expression, processing all the information. "I'm sure it's probably nothing. Right? We just don't have the full context of their discussion." Her tone was more upbeat than she felt.

"Of course!" Gwen passionately agreed.

"Well, I have an idea." Martha forced herself to smile. "I was thinking of heading to London to visit my mum for a few days. It's been a while since I've seen her. How about you and Aurie come with me...see the big city and get out of here for a while?"

"All my life, other than when we were in Colorado, I've never been beyond a few miles from Camelot...even during the time I was exiled." Her voice was timid and wistful. She took a deep breath. "...But, there used to be a lot more people, which I think I am really beginning to miss. I think it's a great idea."

A few hours later, they found themselves ushered into a London flat by Martha's mother, Francine.

Martha saw the international number come up on her phone, listed as Gwaine's home number. She smiled, as she picked it up. "Hey!"

"Hey, Martha." Her friend's voice, on the other end of the line, dashed Martha's desire of hearing her husband.

"Laney?" She clicked her teeth against her tongue in disappointment. "I was hoping my husband had simply lost his phone or something."

"You haven't heard from them either, then?"

"No...I just assumed the boys were having fun after their trip." Her voice lowered to a quieter level and she nodded across the sitting room to her mother, who was playing with Aurie, while Gwen was taking a nap. She pantomimed her intentions to step outside during the phone call.

"What's happened?" She snapped, when she was finally alone. Her heart clenched.

"Nothing. At least, as far as anything I can get answers to. I've had this nagging feeling all day."

"What kind of feeling?"

"It's just a sixth sense. Gwaine is now sure it must be in the blood, or something. He said back in Camelot, Merlin used to have something similar. He figures we may have picked it up."

Martha chuckled. Laney had known full well that she was asking for something more specific, but was having a hard time putting words to it. Instead, she deflected it altogether. "Yeah, Merlin's spoken about it, occasionally."

"I called Carolyn Lam, since Gwaine's been dating her."

"Gwaine and Dr. Lam?" Martha had to chuckle about that.

"Yeah, trust me. I've already given him enough shit over that. There was something in her voice, Martha."

"What did she say?"

"More what she didn't say...which was a whole lot of nothing. She said that as far as she knew, they were all fine. I shouldn't worry, yada-yada, bullshit. She can't tell me anything about what they were doing, but if she heard anything, she'd call me."

"Alright...?"

"She didn't offer to pass on a message or to tell him to call. It was just...weird. There's something going on; something big. I don't want to lose my brother again, but I just know he's in trouble right now."

"Huh..." Martha chewed her bottom lip. "Let me make some phone calls; see if I can figure anything out." She didn't want to let on, that Laney's gut feeling, coupled with Merlin's distraction the last time she had seen him, worried her as well. Perhaps, it wasn't as big as Laney was making it sound, but there were certainly ways Martha could check.

If it was, then surely she would have received a call from UNIT, she thought. Unless, it was something outside of UNIT's scope, and out further into space.

Her first call was to Torchwood. If anyone had a clue or access about something happening out among the stars, it would be Jack.

Her fingers trembled, as she pushed the highlighted 'end call' button on her phone. She heard Gwen and her mother speaking inside the house.

Forcing herself to calm down, she told herself that just because there had been a battle, didn't mean Merlin and the others were anywhere near it. It could have been just coincidence. Whatever was happening, or had happened, had simply delayed their return.

Jack had told her, that he received a message on what he called the "Intergalactic version of Twitter." Some new baddie, as he called it, had decided to try and become the new big dog, and there was a request for any available ships to meet at a set point, far out in the Milky Way. The last update he'd found, wasn't good news.

He had promised to keep her informed, and also told her Mickey was attempting to contact the other guys. Perhaps, they would have more accurate information. She heard Mickey in the background, saying that it was doubtful Leon would risk his ship in some sort of rumble with some outer space bully. Martha had to agree. He didn't seem like the type to get involved.

Without more to go on, Martha had no idea what to tell Laney, or for that matter, Gwen. Both women had been through enough with losing men they cared about, and finding them again. The possibility, no matter how slim, that the guys were somehow involved, was not something Martha wanted either of them to worry about for the moment.

She looked at her phone, thinking about another phone number in her contacts list. Shaking her head, she decided not to make the call just yet. Merlin probably wouldn't have appreciated it if she did. He would have laughed and rolled his eyes if she had brought someone to rescue him; teasing her to no end.

Until she had something more solid to go on, she wouldn't make that call.

She laughed and belched.

The boy next to her giggled insanely. A girl nearby, a few years older, rolled her eyes. Merlin snickered at his beautiful family. He wished Arthur could have been there to see it.

He looked out over the sea from the parapet of the castle. His long coat, almost a robe, was catching on the salted wind. He felt arms wrap around him from behind.

"What do you see, when you look out there?"

He shook his head, unable to describe the feeling he got from watching the swells crashing against the cliffs below the castle. It would all come and go; sometimes with force, rocking the stones of the keep; other times, it was calm and almost out of reach, seemingly leagues away from the base of rising stones.

The children...when they were children...used to play in the tide pools during low tide.

His son was a knight. He chuckled, thinking about his friends, and how they would have teased him if they had lived to see this.

They would soon be traveling across the countryside, to a different cliff-lined shore. The shores of Albion...milky white, and rising from the waters.

Their daughter was going to be married in a castle, near the cliffs of a place called Dover.

Candles burned low. He wiped her brow. Hair, once a beautiful chestnut brown, was now gray. Eyes that once saw him clearly, were clouded over with age. She smiled, and it was still dazzling. "Remember me, Merlin. Don't lose what you are...my love."

"Never."

Suddenly, she was youthful again. A beautiful maiden freshly come to Camelot, and smiling at him. "There's more left to remember." He knew she had never told him those words, but they seemed so natural, as if she had truly spoken them when she was alive.

'What do I need to remember?' The words never left his mouth.

She held out the crystal from the Ancient control device. The one he had fried with his magic. He stared at it, wondering how Mithian came to possess it. "Remember where you came from."

"Ealdor?" He was laying next to her, the golden sunlight of the dawn was lighting her face. Tussled dark hair covered the pillow below her head.

"No, silly. Before that."

He saw an old man, the Ancient Merlin...Moros...puttering around, with a red crystal hanging around his neck. As he moved, Merlin noticed it wasn't the crystal that was red, but something inside of it.

"You are a son of the earth, the sea...the sky. Magic is the fabric of this world, and you were born of that magic. You are magic itself. You cannot lose what you are."{1} His father's voice echoed in the darkness. He tried to reach out his hand, wanting to touch his father. His son was there, reaching not for him, but for his mother.

The vision of Mithan and his children faded into the black abyss. Try as he might, he just couldn't reach them.

He saw pale, green eyes, glowing with malice and laughter. Then, even that dissipated, but it sent a chill through his body that went deeper than the black hole that swirled inside of him.

The dust had begun to settle, but the smell of smoke and fried wiring still clung to the air, refusing to dissipate even after many of the fires had been extinguished; proof that the life support and air purifying systems had been damaged.

Groans of pain and sorrow filled the room that was the makeshift infirmary. Gwaine had seen too much of rooms like this in the past year. He'd been found, just as he had regained consciousness. The wound on his scalp seemed superficial, though he had possibly suffered a mild concussion. It was minor compared to many others. He was thankful for that. Being among the walking wounded...bandaged up and sent on his way...he tried to recover missing people still strewn throughout the remnants of what was once a grand ship.

Passing by one of the few windows still intact after the battle, he could tell they had left the area of the Supergate. He questioned the movements when he arrived back at the infirmary with another wounded man, and was informed that they were currently following the Ori ships. After a few hours passed, the Odyssey finally returned to the scene of the battle.

As the Odyssey neared the area of the Supergate, Gwaine began to see the destruction that had been wrought. He gulped loudly, his mind wondering what had befallen his friends. One of the last communications had been from Dr. Jackson, aboard the Korolev, which meant the Russian vessel had successfully picked up the men left on the planet.

The battle started when Colonel Emerson had ordered the fleet to open fire, and the Ori had retaliated.

Among the debris that floated through space, Gwaine could make out what remained of the Korolev. There wasn't a piece big enough for anyone to have survived in. He found out that a half dozen of the Korolev's crew had managed to beam over, just before the ship was destroyed. Not a single one of them had any information to help Gwaine discover the fate of his friends.

"This is Lieutenant Colonel Carter. Can anybody hear me?"

"Sam...?" Mitchell blinked and began testing the systems. He glanced behind him, but couldn't move enough to see the man in the co-pilot's seat. "Merlin...Yo, Emrys! You alive back there?"

Merlin felt moisture on his cheeks, and the last vestiges of a dream fleeing from his mind. He groaned, trying desperately to cling to a fading images. He couldn't seem to make sense of any of it. People he had known, the crystal, the hologram of Moros...clips and images played through his mind. "The hologram...?"

"What was that?"

"Uh, nothing. Colonel Mitchell, what happened?"

"We must have lost consciousness." Mitchell was running through a few system checks.

Merlin tried to remember what had transpired. He was following Mitchell to the X-302 Bays. The small two-man fighters wouldn't have done much against the massive Ori ships, but he had hoped to have been able to draw their fire away from the others, long enough to be of some assistance. Merlin had followed. They had managed to make it into the cockpit, lifting off the deck just as the larger ship was being consumed by a massive blast.

Craning his neck, Merlin was able the wreckage floating in the eerie light of the Supergate. His heart plummeted. "Arthur..."

"...No idea what happened to him or Jackson. Carter is in a suit, just off the Supergate's event horizon. We have no way to reach her."

"Huh..." He couldn't help but find a sort of morbid fascination with their predicament.

"What's that?"

"Fifteen centuries of life. I've more than checked off everything on my bucket list, and everything else I could have ever imagined happening...being stranded in a fighter in deep space, at war with aliens was not anywhere among them.." He wanted to keep talking. The silence was more than just a lack of noise, it was a palpable feeling of helplessness and desperation.

Mitchell seemed to understand this, as well. "Carter, can you still hear me? What happened to the Ori ships?"

"Yep, I'm still here." Her voice was tinged with the metallic echo of speakers and radio communications. "Not really going anywhere. The Ori ships left about four hours ago."

"Colonel Carter. Colonel Mitchell. This is Colonel Emerson on board the Odyssey. Are you reading us?"

"Good to see you again, Odyssey. Any chance you can beam me aboard?" Carter asked hopefully.

"That's a negative, Colonel Carter. Kvasir is working on repairing our beaming capabilities, but for the moment, you'll have to just sit tight. All of our communication systems were down. We followed the Ori ships from a safe distance with our long-range sensors, until they jumped into hyperspace. We're still working on getting basic functions back to most of the ship."

"Permission to come on board, Sir?" Mitchell asked, using the remaining bit of thrust left in the engines, to begin steering towards the Odyssey.

"Permission granted. Port side docking bay suffered the least amount of damage. You can put her down there." Emerson stated.

Carter's voice trembled a bit. "Not to sound self-absorbed or anything, but I have less than two hours left of life support."

"We understand that, Colonel. Kvasir is doing the best he can."

"Gwaine!" The sound of his name being called was the best thing he could have ever heard.

"Merlin!" A flood of emotion pushed through him. He threw his arms around the best friend he'd ever known.

"Any word on Arthur?" Merlin finally asked, pulling back from the embrace. The Marine shook his head.

Mitchell stood behind him. He squeezed Gwaine's shoulder as they clasped hands. "Good to see you alive."

Colonel Emerson came walking up to the group and greeted them.

Mitchell turned to the commander. "What's the status?"

"The data recorder for the Korolev has been found. We're working on retrieving it now. Teal'c contacted us from one of the Lucian Alliance Motherships, but then there was an altercation and we lost contact. We've been taking on survivors, but at current capacity, we've got about a day or less of life support."

"Anything I can do to help?" Merlin asked.

"Not unless you can somehow teleport Colonel Carter onboard."

Mitchell turned and smiled at Merlin hopefully.

Merlin thought about it. He hadn't had any decent sleep in a few nights, and he didn't count the time unconscious in the fighter craft as restful. His reserves of energy were already being pushed to the limit, for what his body seemed capable of handling lately. Added to that, was his preoccupation of worry for what had befallen Arthur. He closed his eyes and was tempted to say 'no'...but, when he opened them again and looked at the men waiting expectantly. He finally caved, "I can try."

"He's going to what?!" Arthur yelled. His wide eyes shifted from Leon to Percival, to the speaker the voices were coming out of. "He can't do that! Leon, tell them I am ordering Merlin to stop!"

Leon's fists balled. He had already explained to Arthur that the coms were screwed up. They were lucky to be able to hear what was going on at all, and that was only because Leon had a secondary system installed; set up solely to intercept encrypted communication frequencies.

He briefly wondered if he should have left Arthur on the other ship. The one that had exploded, just as he had beamed the royal prat out. "I think Merlin is rubbing off on me." He mumbled, thinking about all the words Merlin used to use when describing Arthur. It had been milliseconds after they had saved Arthur, when Leon's own ship was damaged. While cloaked, the protective force shield was down. They had been hit with a nasty shock wave as one of the nearby Motherships had exploded.

"What?" Percival asked, looking up at Leon.

Forcing a smile, he shook his head. "Nothing."

"That idiot is going to kill himself! Doesn't he know that? Why isn't Gwaine stopping him?" Arthur continued to rant.

Percival was sifting through a drawer of multicolored power crystals, attempting to help Leon replace ones damaged during the battle. "Does Gwaine know about what's been happening, or what you discovered?"

Arthur's mouth shut with a snap. He crossed his arms and turned toward the window in a pout. Of course, he hadn't. He wasn't given a chance to, and if he knew Merlin at all, he knew the warlock wasn't about to admit any real weakness. Stupid ones, like 'his clothes were wet,' or 'he hadn't slept a full eight hours,' then yes, he would complain. But, if someone's life was on the line, such as Colonel Carter's?...Forget about it.

"Can you..." He sputtered and threw up his hands. Stopping to regain his composure, Arthur forced himself to breathe. "Can you beam her here...preferably, before that fool hurts himself?"

Glancing away from the control panel he was working on, Leon nodded, "That is what I am trying to do."

"We're about as close as we're going to get, Colonel Emyrs. You sure you can do this?" The commander of the Odyssey asked.

"No, but..." Merlin looked over to the Asgard alien currently reprogramming the beaming protocols. An attempted test with a sandwich from the galley, a few moments earlier, was now a pool of unrecognisable mush on a stool. "We don't have much of a choice."

"Alright, then. Whenever you're ready."

Merlin studied the readouts in front of him, trying to get his bearings. Back on Earth, he didn't have much trouble using the modern GPS system to find someone if he needed to. Out in space was an entirely different matter. He focused on reaching out for Carter's aura. It seemed so far away. Turning inward, he opened himself up to the web of life and found her. He concentrated on that, but he felt his energy wavering. The darkness of space seemed to mimic the hole inside him. Stars danced in space and behind his eyelids.

A feeling, like a voice, suddenly whispered into his mind. It told him to leave her out there. Faltering, he took a breath and opened his eyes. Merlin recoiled from the chilling, abnormal thoughts. He wasn't sure if it was the darkness eating at him, and taking pleasure in the idea, or if it was his own sense of self-preservation, urging him to reconsider.

"Well?" Mitchell prodded through the communications system.

Merlin held out his hand to indicate he needed the man to have patience. Gwaine relayed the message for him.

"Hate to put a rush on this, but the Lucian Alliance are threatening to fire on us."

Carter's voice broke through the static. "Odyssey, I don't know what you can see from your vantage point, but out here, that Mothership looks pretty damaged. I'd be surprised if she was weapons capable."*

"Anytime you're ready, Colonel Emyrs. We're sitting ducks here, if she's wrong." Emerson's voice informed them.

Merlin shut his eyes again and visualized the web. He wasn't about to let his self-doubt damper his desire to save someone. Something caught his attention, as he reached for Carter's lifeline. Unwillingly, he felt his concentration shift from the woman floating helplessly near the Gate to something beyond her...through the still active Supergate.

Aithusa was on the other side of it.

He touched the dragon's mind...something he hadn't been able to do for centuries...and felt the dragon roar in agony. The pain shot through his soul. He heard his own scream, echoing inside his skull. It was all there...just out of his reach.

"Major Dallon, do we have her?" Emerson's voice begged for an answer.

"That's a negative, Sir." Gwaine choked out, slowly lowering Merlin's body to the deck.

A teeny boy holds his father's hand
Walking down the beach.
The waves crash, the torches lit.
It's hard for him to reach,
But neither wants to be alone.

A grown man holds his father's hand
His father's on a bed.
Nurses come, and doctors too.
It's hard for him to reach,
But neither wants to be alone.

Family falls, just like tears
Breaking doors, over the years
But neither one lets go.

~Abney Park "Neither one lets go"

watch?v=T2vqnf-k-H0

* Stargate: SG-1 borrowed transcript dialogue.

{1} The Diamond of the Day, part 1.

Please take a moment to review! Sorry to leave you on another cliffhanger...wait, no I'm not. :D