Over the next few months the disappearances of magic users seemed to be getting worse and Arthur tried to talk Gaius in to getting Merlin to move into his house, at least that way he would be about most of the time to keep an eye on them. Merlin was spending more and more time there anyway. But Merlin wanted to sleep at his grandfather's telling Arthur "We are all that is left of our family now and it isn't that faraway"

Arthur's work with the police meant he was privy to information and it worried him. He told Morgana "The police are setting up a special task force to look at it. The trouble is it will be poorly funded and if it wasn't for William Baynard the chief constable there wouldn't be even that. Leon is heading up the group but he only has Gwaine, Percy, Lance and Elyan so they will have their work cut out." Arthur paused "I want you to promise to be careful and don't go out alone. I don't want to restrict you, I am not Uther, but I do worry about you"

Morgana looked at her brother and smiled "Don't worry I know why you are worried and I promise I will be careful."

Gradually Merlin and by attachment Gaius became almost like family to Arthur and Morgana. Morgana was coming on leaps and bounds as her magic came back and she recovered from the years of forced medication. Arthur knew that Uther was fully aware of Morgana's new life but he never contacted either of them, and they also didn't contact their father. That didn't mean they didn't know what he was doing. Uther was becoming more powerful and gaining support for his views on magic users. He had recently been on television saying he hoped a new drug that could remove permanently any trace of magic from a person, this 'freeing' them of the evil curse they had. As Morgana watched her father she couldn't believe what he was saying and in anger threw a heavy vase at the television breaking the screen.

"Oh! I'm so sorry Arthur I didn't mean to but that man makes me so angry" Morgana looked at Arthur tears in her eyes "How could he believe such drivel. Does he really believe I am evil?"

"I don't know what he thinks Morgana, what I do know is that what he and the others are preaching is causing so many problems. The numbers of sorcerers disappearing is rising all the time. Some are found but not many." Arthur told his sister.

The following weekend when the group gathered Morgana asked the police among them "Why can't you find out who's responsible?"

Leon looked up at her his face sad "Morgana I wish we could, we cover the whole of the south of England and by the time the reports get to us the people have been missing for hours or days. In fact in most cases their families can't even report them for forty eight hours as they are adult. We are playing catch up. Most magic users are solitary, not trusting anyone." He turned to Merlin "Are there any groups you know that are offering support? Like you are with Morgana?" he asked

"No not many. When I was in London we tried to do something like that. I can sense if someone has magic but not everyone can. It seemed there were people out there who set up groups with the sole purpose of identifying magic users who weren't taking the drugs. They would pretend to offer support then once identified they disappeared. So now no one wants to trust anyone else." Merlin said. "It's getting bad out there, why do you think so many parents are drugging their children? At least that way they don't disappear. I think that's how Will disappeared, someone saw him with me. That's why I left London." Merlin's expression turned to that of guilt.

Leon looked at the young warlock "It wasn't your fault he went missing Merlin. It was the fault of who ever took him. We will keep looking for him"

Merlin's body slumped into himself. Arthur put his hand on Merlin's shoulder as a sign of support. Merlin looked up and in a broken voice said "He's dead, I know he is. We had a connection. Will didn't have magic but we had been friends all our lives. I could always feel him on the day he disappeared I felt a feeling of pain then nothing"

This was one of several conversations Merlin would have with the police team as they tried to understand more about what was happening and what it was like to live as a magic user. They all found themselves getting closer to Merlin as began to see him as a younger brother as well as a good friend. Lance and Gwaine got particularly close to him. The team remained frustrated at the progress they were making, so far they had found none of the magic users and the country as a whole was becoming more and more hostile to them. There was even talk of closing down the group and moving the men to other investigations.

It was after a couple more months, and in the early hours of one morning when Morgana woke up screaming and Arthur had a job to calm her down. Eventually she calmed enough to tell her brother that she had had a vision. "I saw Merlin he was being surrounded by masked men then someone shot him. He fell to the floor in agony" she looked at her brother Arthur we have to save him, we have to stop this happening"

The revelation shook Arthur. Morgana had had several visions and although they had been minor they had all come true. Even down to Arthur being involved in a minor accident in his car. "I will ring Gaius first thing and tell him not to let Merlin walk here in the morning I will collect him myself. There is nothing we can do now Morgana" he hesitated before asking "It was outside? And was it light?"

Morgana nodded "Yes it was in a park of some sort and it was in broad daylight. The people around did nothing to help!"

"I promise I will phone in a couple of hours it will still be dark then, but it's only four am Morgana." Arthur said reasonably "Gaius is up at six I'll ring him then."

Arthur comforted his sister and gradually the distraught woman fell asleep. The event worried Arthur and he couldn't help but wonder if having this foresight was a good thing, but then again he wouldn't want his sister to be drugged all the time. Merlin was helping Morgana control her visions and it was allowing her to ignore or blank out the unimportant ones.

At six the next morning Arthur rang Gaius "Sorry to ring you so early but I will pick up Merlin today. Morgana had a vision last night and she is worried about Merlin."

Gaius paused before relying and when he did there was a trace of concern in his voice. "Merlin has already gone Arthur, one of his friends rang him late last night and he left to see him about ten minutes ago, then he was coming to you. What did Morgana see?"

Arthur ignored the question and demanded "Is he going near a park?"

"Well yes, he will go across Regal Park it cuts of a large part of his journey" Then more concerned demanded "Arthur wants the matter?"

"Try to contact him, Morgana had a vision he may be in danger" Arthur said in a hushed tone. "I will head there now"

Arthur quickly got dressed and leaving a message on the table left and drove to the park. He got out of the car and looked around he could see no sign of Merlin. Entering the park he quickly walked up the pathway he thought Merlin would have taken, he couldn't have got far it was a good ten minutes' walk from Gaius's to even get this far. Getting out his phone as he walked he rang Gaius the old man answered immediately "Arthur he's not answering!"

"I'm at the park now, where was he headed?" Arthur demanded. It was now light and although there was one or two early risers about he couldn't see Merlin on the path ahead.

"I don't know but I will keep trying and call you if I hear anything" Gaius sounded worried.

As Arthur searched he rang Leon, his police friend. "Leon, we think Merlin's gone missing. Morgana had a vision and we can't find him, can you get your boys out?"

Despite spending the next few hours looking they could find no trace of Merlin, nor could they find anyone who admitted to seeing him.

The Merlin had left his grandfather's and was making his way to meet Daegal, who had rang him the night before worried about his sister and wanting advice. Merlin had met Daegal a few weeks previously and he seemed a nice lad. Although he didn't have magic Merlin realised he was a druid when he had seen the tattooed mark on his arm. It gave him a link with Merlin, Daegal had also said his parents had a small amount of magic and Merlin was hoping to meet them, as he knew so few other magic users. The sun was already up despite the early hour and Merlin spotted his friend near some trees, he was pacing as if worried. Merlin shouted out and waved. Daegal stopped pacing and waited for Merlin to join him.

"Thank you for coming Merlin, look I'm sorry to bother you but my sister is scared she thinks she has magic, she is sixteen, normally I would have told Mum or Dad but they aren't at home can you reassure her?"

Merlin smiled "Of course where is she?"

Daegal pointed to the trees "She wanted to wait back there until I'd spoken to you" with that he started to walk back into the small clump of trees.