Thanks for all the reviews. Sorry this chapter is a day late, ffnet and I were having some communication issues, along with having some real life issues myself.
I may not get the next chapter out for a while, even though it is already written, due to the RL situation.
Please review and send some good energy to me and my family if you can. Thanks.
Music played from Merlin's phone suddenly, and he glanced at the caller ID.
Mickey had figured out a way to patch the phones into the alien communication system, without compromising the defensive and protective measures that kept the cave hidden. The old warlock wasn't sure if he was grateful for it or not.
"Are you going to answer that?"
Merlin hit the 'ignore' button and set it off to the side.
Knowing full well who the ringtone was set for, Mickey decided to press the issue. "Is there a reason you're being an arse to your wife?"
Blue eyes lifted and stared at Mickey for a moment, through the dark bangs. After a pause, Merlin sat back in the chair. He was still weak, but something in the energy patterns of the crystals helped, just as it had done centuries before, to give him strength. He'd spent the first day after the others had left, in the chamber outside the Gate room in deep meditation, while Mickey worked through deciphering some of the system controls. The next two had been filled with going through the files and recordings of Moros. Merlin had taken a few moments when they started, to explain to Mickey about the "Ancient Merlin."
The journal Merlin was currently viewing was embedded directly into the computer systems of the Gate Room, unlike the one which had been recovered by SG-1 from Avalon. That one was a separate system completely. It held information regarding the weapon the Alteran was working on, still resided with the Asgard, and supposedly it had been completely drained of power. Merlin wondered if the energy sources from it could be restored, if he brought it to this cave. That was an idea for another day; one which would involve Leon asking his friend, Heimdall, for a favor. So, Merlin pushed it to the back of his mind.
Since deciphering the language months before, Mickey had come a long way in his translations. Although the symbols on the controls were that of the Alteran language, it was close enough to Furling for him to apply what he had learned. This included the realization that there were actual chairs hidden away in the floor that rose up at the push of a button.
Sighing heavily, Merlin tried to formulate his thoughts into an actual explanation of his recent actions. Martha had been through so much, during her travels with the Doctor. She had seen the darkest parts of humanity exploited and twisted by alien beings. He knew she held no prejudice against others, but he still felt uneasy about the recent revelations about himself. For his entire life, he'd thought of himself as human, and that it was his magic that had granted him apparent immortality.
Discovering that he was, in fact, at least part alien, and not really immortal...blew his idea of reality out of the water...and that was just the tip of the iceberg.
He felt like he needed to redefine himself from scratch, and that thought didn't particularly appeal to him, especially in light of the events of the past year. The return of Arthur had been prophesied, but not the others. He wondered even more now about Kilgharrah's words; spoken so long ago. There were so many unanswered questions.
He would have loved to have shared his theories with her, but her frantic hovering from the time he had reawakened had put him off. He was used to having been on his own for most of his life. He had tried to tell her, amidst the nervous fluttering around his hospital room to just needed to give him time. Merlin had been in more pain than he could ever recall, but she didn't, or wouldn't, hear him. It felt like she was smothering him, even though he knew that wasn't her intention.
"It's complicated." He finally told Mickey.
"That's a bullshit answer people give when they don't have a clue themselves." The young man sniggered.
Merlin smirked and quietly agreed, "Perhaps, it is. I have spent so many centuries taking care of myself and those I care for..."
"What? You never had anyone to take care of you? Is that what you're saying?"
Silence fell throughout the room. Mickey could see the thoughts that were normally hidden behind his friend's eyes, playing out.
"Maybe once...a long time ago." Merlin leaned forward on the console, and brushed his hand absently over the various controls. On one side, there was an oval of a gel-like substance that was covered by a thin membrane, just large enough for his palm, and he didn't notice when he touched it. A holographic screen before them came to life. The projection was of a young woman with eyes just like his, and dark brown hair. She was smiling. Merlin stared at it; hypnotized by it.
"Who is that?"
Realizing what he had done, Merlin quickly broke the connection to the device by removing his hand. "No one."
Mickey wasn't fooled. He stared at the warlock impatiently.
"My mother, alright?" Merlin finally relented, "...or, at least my father's memory of her."
Merlin tapped at the various controls, attempting to get back to the recorded journals.
Another image flared to life in front of them. It was the man, or hologram, who had led them into the cave, and then, had reappeared briefly again just before Merlin had passed out.
Snorting in his amusement, Mickey pointed to the new image. "...Looks like you're going to be having a family reunion, whether you like it or not."
"My friend, I hope this somehow finds its way to you. Kilgharrah has been freed of his prison. I don't know how exactly, but I believe my son..." Balinor's voice faltered under the overwhelming emotions. He chuckled and tears of amazement leaked from his eyes. "...I have a son. Oh, and you'll enjoy this...His mother was obviously more fascinated with my stories of you than I realized. She named him Merlin...of all things! I have a son named after one of my greatest friends!"
The miniature figure in the small recording paused again. "There is so much I want to tell him; so much for him to learn about who he is. It seems that scan of my consciousness you convinced me to do years ago, after I fled Ealdor, won't be needed for a 'possible rebirth of my kind.' I will get to tell him myself...Get to teach him..."
The pride in Balinor's voice brought tears to Merlin's eyes. He felt his emotions choking him, but it was a good feeling. He had always hoped his father had been happy to meet him, but their time together had been so limited, that Merlin had questioned if the connection they had shared was real.
"He's barely coming of age for my kind, and I can't tell if he has any of the gifts. I intend to search out and retrieve the last dragon egg, so that young Merlin can try to summon it. There was a man, a few years back, who infiltrated my cave. He stole the piece of the Triskelion that Askanar had given me. I can't believe I was so stupid to leave it in such an obvious place. I fear that if he was able to find me, then he has already located the rest of the pieces, as well. If something has happened to it...Well, I'll teach my son what I can, and if he and Kilgharrah agree, I will pass along my bond to him.
"Would you believe, my son is a servant of Uther's?" Balinor was telling the recorder, suddenly changing the subject. "I sincerely hope Arthur doesn't become like his father. I sense something around the two of them...my son and Arthur...that I can't even put into words. Perhaps, this is the time Kilgharrah spoke of. Even the druids have prophecies that mirror what that old lizard told me. Although, I have no doubt that Kilgharrah helped propagate those stories.
"I am heading to Camelot with them, though I don't know what I shall find there. I can feel Kilgharrah's rage burning inside of me. He was the one who convinced me to accept Uther's offer of peace... I suppose now, he regrets that decision." Balinor sighed softly, his shoulders falling as the memories descended upon him. "...But, if we hadn't, and I hadn't fled afterwards, I wouldn't have met my beautiful Hunith. I suppose she might be old enough for me now. What do you think?" He winked at the recording device.
Merlin couldn't help but smile at the memory that had been shared with him of his mother and Balinor.
"If you get this message, old friend, I need you to find the chalice for me. I plan on getting out of this alive. When I do, I will marry her properly, if she'll still have me. I should have done it years ago."
Shaking off his nostalgia, Balinor forced his smile to return. "I'll be transmitting this to you, as soon as I turn it off. It may be some time before I contact you again, as I have no idea what my son would say to the idea of this technology, when he's used to living in under a king who would view it as 'evil' magic. Hopefully, though, he will learn to accept it, and not think of me as a blithering, old fool, whose brains have rotted away in that cave."
The miniature Balinor disappeared, and an old man's face suddenly appeared. It seemed to be Moros speaking, as if it was the journal again. "That was the last transmission from Balinor. I was elated when I had received it, and I waited for weeks for him to show up. When it was obvious he wasn't coming, I left the cave to find him. Sadly, I only found his grave. I believe his son still lives. Although, I doubt the boy has any idea who or what he is. Rumor has it, however, that the prince somehow slew the dragon upon their return to Camelot."
The old man's eyes crinkled with mirth. "I know for a fact, it is not that easy to outright kill a dragon, nor should it have been so easy to kill a Dragon Lord. I can only assume, that Balinor passed his bond to his son, if the boy had shown any promise, and that...at the time...there was no other option.
"I wish there was some way to bring my friend back, but even if I had access to my cloning equipment, the genetic markers in the Furling DNA have prevented such things in the past...especially with the bonding. I did manage to extract a few viable cells from Balinor's body, near the memory centers of the brain. I am running diagnostics on them now. Perhaps, I can find a way to add those recent memories into the scan of Balinor's consciousness, and somehow manage to get them to his son."
The old man disappeared.
Merlin sat back and stared at the wall. Something among Balinor's words confused him; the thing about the chalice and marrying Hunith. He recalled the other memories he'd experienced of his parents. Balinor had said that marriage to a Dragon Lord was more than just a priest saying a few words.
Arthur and the others should have reached the planet with the library by this time. He hoped the book was still there, and that maybe there was some sort of answer in it. Tapping the console, Merlin decided to move on.
Moros' face reappeared, in another message, recorded over a year later.
"Taliesin has been taken off-line. It saddens me. It felt almost like saying goodbye to him again. He is still in the system, but after the error...Well, I guess even artificially intelligent copies of very old men can be subject to their own eccentricities." He laughed at his own inside joke.
"I did not receive the alert that Balinor's son was near the cave, until well after the fact. I have to admit my surprise when I realized that I had seen the boy before...on the shores of Avalon, through my security system that I use to monitor the Sidhe.
"I keep hoping that I can find out from one of them if there are, in fact, any other dragons left in Celestis...but I digress...
"The first I saw of the boy, he was actually destroying two of the Sidhe who had managed to escape. I don't know how or why... I doubt if they even had a clue, having been born after their people's initial arrival.
"Those Sidhe are quite fascinating. They all have the innate desire to destroy anything that might have to do with the dragons...but, other than that, they appear to have lost any sense of self, or more likely, they have never had it in the first place...and without the Ori to tell them what to do, they have developed their own odd hierarchy and mythology. They have also enlisted the..."
The voice of the recording stopped, and the view of Moros' face was frozen.
Merlin groaned and rubbed his eyes. The amount of times Moros would go off on some sort of lecture in his recordings was nearly unheard of.
"Oh, thank God!" Mickey said in relief. "I thought you had a tendency to ramble on forever, at times. I'm rather glad you don't take after your namesake in that aspect, though."
"Thanks...I think." He was evaluating his young friend out of the corner of his eye. The corner of his mouth crept upwards. If there was one thing the centuries had taught him, it was patience...and how to listen for long periods of time. Moros' droning lectures were nothing compared to some of the others Merlin had listened to, throughout history. At the very least, the topics Moros spoke of were of interest to the old warlock.
Despite Merlin's desire to agree with Mickey, he knew his best bet for figuring things out laid within these journals. However, he could mark the place about the Sidhe and go back to it later if need be. Other aspects, including how Balinor's likeness had come to be in the cave, took center stage in Merlin's mind for the time being.
Skipping ahead a few frames, Merlin finally found a point in the recording that returned to Moros' observations of him. He hit 'play' again, and sat back to listen to how the old alien had found the sword that Merlin had thrown into the lake. The old alien's eyes twinkled with glee, and he hinted about his research on the blade. However, unfortunately for Merlin, Moros did not actually dive into that subject on this recording.
A picture was brought up of a pretty, young maiden. She had dark brown hair, and deep brown eyes. Merlin stared in utter fascination.
"She's cute. Wonder who she is?" The younger man asked with a teasing smile on his face.
"That's...uh..." He cursed silently. For the life of him, he still wasn't able to recall her name. "She was my first love."
"This is Freya." The recording said, as if in answer to Mickey's question. Moros went on to explain how he felt the girl, or at least her likeness, could be used to assist him. If he had his equipment from Atlantis, he could have cloned a body without the magical manipulation she had suffered. She obviously meant something to the boy who had destroyed two of the Sidhe awhile back, and who had somehow come into possession of a blade forged by a dragon. "...There was just something about that boy, even then, before I knew he was Balinor's son."
"After I discovered who he was, I began following him. I wasn't at all surprised to learn that Kilgharrah was still very much alive. I tried to contact the dragon, but without Balinor, the creature wanted nothing to do with me.
Merlin 'fast forwarded' again and finally found the part he was looking for. Moros was, at last, continuing his explanation of why Merlin had first seen Taliesin at the Crystal Cave, and then later, Balinor. It appeared 'Taliesin' had not done exactly what Moros had hoped. While the image of the man, who Merlin now knew was one of the first Dragon Lords on Earth, had indeed guided Merlin to the cave, Taliesin had been programmed to assume that any future generations' arrivals already had a basic understanding of what they were walking into.
After disabling the Taliesin program, and re-configuring the settings of the holographic bandits as a defense measure, Moros had then taken the scans from Balinor, along with the memory cells recovered after Balinor's death, and built a new program in. It was one that would...hopefully...recognize Merlin the next time the boy came to the cave, and help him by doing something other than throwing random images of possible futures, extrapolated through the crystals and instilled into Merlin's mind.
Merlin spent a few more hours going through Moros' recordings. Just as he was about to quit for a while, he came upon one that made him smile, and think of his friends.
Moros had been called back to the cave by his defense program, because the Stargate had been activated. The recording showed the security footage of one of the SGC teams coming into the Gate Room. The playback skipped to a later time, when the SG team was going back through the Gate. A backboard was slung between two of the men. Merlin saw Sir Gwaine strapped to it, and Sir Percival was walking close by, holding white bandages to his shoulder. One of the Marines in the footage was arguing with the larger man, attempting to get the large knight to stay, but at the last possible second, Percival dove through the Gate after them.
"I was distracted and didn't arrive in time to be any assistance. The boy..." He said, referring back to Merlin. "...Had accessed the cave, sometime before this, and the program of Balinor seemed to have done its job. Although, the boy was in too much of a hurry, with battle quickly approaching, to sit around and listen to history lessons.
"After which, I was on Avalon, preparing for King Arthur's arrival. I had hoped to have been able to heal him after the battle, but things were a bit more complicated than I had anticipated..." Moros stopped. He sat back and seemed to come to some sort of conclusion.
"Huh...I wonder if..." The old man in the recording leaned forward and shut off the journaling device.
To Merlin's despair, it was the last message in the files.
"What do you think he meant?"
Merlin shook his head forlornly. "I wish I knew. But, I'll bet whatever he figured out, is on the device that the Asgard have."
The phone began playing the tones again. Merlin sighed and powered it off.
"You know, I can't remember the last time I saw you do your katas and such." Mickey commented.
"That's actually not a bad idea. You know, since Arthur's been around, I have fallen out of practice."
"Yeah, I noticed you haven't been quite the Zen Master you used to be. There were days when Martha would tell me you'd spent hours just doing Tai Chi."
With Arthur's return, it had been difficult for Merlin to meditate like he used to...like he'd been taught to. He worked with the former king, attempting to train him in the use of martial arts. Arthur had picked up the moves easily enough, but the quiet stillness of sitting and finding his center, or even working through the slow, fluid motions of a kata, were lost on the man. When Merlin attempted to do them on his own, he found that he was easily distracted by Arthur's needs and adjustment to the new time period. Without realizing it, Merlin had somehow lost a piece of himself in all the fervor of the knights' return. Snickering, Merlin stood up and stretched, "Perhaps, you're right. Other than Boyd's funeral, I can't recall the last time I even took my Cessna out for a quick flight."
"Well, I wouldn't recommend flying in your condition, but since it's just us here...take some time for yourself, man. You owe it to yourself, I reckon."
Merlin gave a brief nod to his young friend, thanking him for the wisdom, and moved off to the room where he had discovered more of his power before Camlann. The radiant energy of the crystals fed into his need for peace.
He thought about Aithusa. If he concentrated, he could reach out and mentally touch the dragon; proof that the Supergate's connection was still active. If he was able to focus on himself and find his own center once again, then perhaps, he mused, he could send some of that to the dragon; let Aithusa know that he wasn't alone, and that Merlin was planning on coming for him...as soon as he figured out how.
The darker man watched his ancient friend meander off. He waited until he was sure Merlin had begun his routine, before snatching up Merlin's phone. Turning it on, he hit the 'redial' button, and called Martha. He could have used his own phone, he realized, as it began to ring on the other end, but why waste his own minutes, when it was Merlin who was having the issues.
The muscles across his shoulders tightened the moment the beam faded around them. He found his hand fingering the grip of his sword, anticipating an attack. In his peripheral vision, he noticed Leon and Percival doing the same. They waited quietly, eyes scanning the village ahead of them, and the forest behind.
When nothing immediately happened, they finally allowed themselves to breathe. "There's something different about the village." Arthur told his knights. He couldn't place what it was, but the ill feeling sank into his stomach.
Following their king's lead, the three men made their way to the stone walls of the settlement.
"They look like they suffered an attack." Percival observed, "Do you think the Ori...?"
"No," said Leon. He had seen this type of aftermath too many times before. He fingered a darkened mark on one of the walls, explaining to the others what he saw, "...Staff blast...from a Jaffa weapon. Whoever attacked here was Goa'uld."
They made their way through the streets. Men and women in various states of mourning and rebuilding viewed them with suspicion. There was no sign of Governor Meurik, or any of the other elders, as the knights moved toward the library.
"Let us find Merlin's backpack and be gone from here." Arthur said through a hitch in his voice. He wanted to stay and help these people. He could see the accusation in their eyes; that they believed it was the Tau'ri who had brought the suffering upon them. However, he had already seen the destruction the Ori had wrought on others. This was nothing compared to that, and he knew the best way to help the people of this village, and of their planet, was to find the answers to defeating the Ori first.
When they reached the street with the library, Arthur's heart dropped. The building had been torched. The entrance to the secret chamber was laid wide open, and he could tell with just a glance, that anything left inside was either ruined or unimportant. Even so, the three men began sifting through the debris, hoping to find something worthwhile.
"King Arthur?" A girl's voice asked.
Arthur turned around and saw the girl who had assisted them on his previous visit. "Valencia, right?"
She curtsied and nodded, "I know the others don't believe you are the real King, but I do...especially after you defeated the Black Knight."
Smiling, Arthur thanked her and then asked, "What happened here?"
"After you left, another man arrived with an army of men dressed in armor. He said his name was Ba'al..."
Arthur heard Leon inhale sharply. Ignoring his knight for the moment, he motioned for Valencia to continue.
"...and that he was looking for the weapon. The Governor brought him to the library when he was threatened. When Ba'al couldn't find what he was looking for, he ordered his men to attack the village."
He turned back to the rubble of the library. "Damn. I'm sorry for your losses."
The girl gave him a shy smile.
"Merlin's pack was left in here. It must have been destroyed." He told his knights.
"Merlin?" Valencia asked, "I thought your friend's name was Colonel Emrys."
"It is...a long story. But, he is known by both names." He didn't want, nor did he know how, to explain the differences between the Ancient Merlin and his Merlin. Luckily, that didn't seem to matter to the girl.
"Well, then..." She started, a smirk tugging at her lips. "It is a good thing I hid his pack after you all were magically transported away."
The kids were gone. The men were gone. The house was hers, and she no longer had to worry about going to work. It was like a dream come true. She was still in awe of how quickly she had been able to gain full custody, and she had to admit that having a rich relative in the wings was a definite plus on that front.
Other than the occasional realtor stopping by, the only other person who had been to the house was a seventeen-year-old neighbor, who had been looking for some work during Spring Break. Laney hired him and a friend of his to help with the chores, while everyone else was away.
Sighing blissfully, she walked through her clean house, thinking that perhaps she could indulge herself by playing one of the silly online games she had heard others talk about. There was one that had recently cropped up involving candy...and who was she to say 'no' to something involving candy. The doorbell ring caught her off-guard. Laney looked at her watch. She wasn't expecting someone for at least another hour.
The first realtor she had met with seemed to be the best, but when she had called him to offer him the listing, he had explained that due to personal reasons, he was going to be moving soon himself. He then offered for her to work with another man in his brokerage, who would give her the same terms he had presented. Wanting to meet with the new agent first, Laney had set it up for that afternoon.
She made her way to the door, assuming that it was probably the agent arriving ahead of schedule.
Opening the door with a smile, she was greeted by a man who looked more like a CEO of some Fortune 500 company, than a country real estate agent. He was about six feet tall, short dark hair, and a neatly trimmed beard. His suit was definitely not some off-the-rack model from Sears, as it was tailored for a perfect fit on his swimmer-style body. "Hi, you must be the agent Michael recommended."
He smiled, and there was something in his dark eyes that gave Laney the creeps. "Of course! Forgive me for being early. I hope you don't mind." He said pleasantly enough, in an accented voice.
For a moment, Laney debated on telling him to come back at another time, or even not at all. Instead though, she stomped down her misgivings and stepped back to allow him into the house. According to the previous agent, this man was supposedly known for being one of the best realtors in the business. Despite her trepidation, she wanted the house sold, and if it took working with a sleazy high-end car salesman-type to do it, she was willing to put up with a few odd feelings.