The Golden Age Universe
All for Love - Chapter 8
~Fran Gipani
Disclaimer - I don't own Merlin, or the characters...I'm just borrowing them and adding a couple of awesome OC's
AN - I am so sorry about the wait for this chapter, I have had so much going on but now I'm on holiday with the fam so I have a little more time/motivation to write. So here's the long overdue chapter, I hope you enjoy and thanks for reading!
Brooke watched as Morgana rode towards the place where she'd broken the veil into the void, she seemed happy. Brooke watched as the woman laughed, a cruel laugh which left a shiver running down her spine. The witch stopped and for a moment it felt like Morgana had seen her. With a gasp Brooke ducked behind one of the large boulders which surrounded the area. She waited, and when no curse was shot in her direction she raised her head to see something which made Brooke's blood run cold. Morgana hadn't seen her at all, Morgana's expression of recognition had been caused by the pale skinned, dark haired, blue eyed warlock walking towards the clearing.
Merlin.
~afl~
"With child?" Merlin managed to stutter before a wide grin spread over his face. He honestly couldn't believe it, thoughts ran through his head, they hadn't been trying, nor had he expected- "Are you sure?" He couldn't help asking, his bright blue eyes searching.
"Of course I'm sure," Lilida replied with a laugh, "there's nothing to worry about at all!"
Merlin breathed a sigh of relief, now turning to Arthur, the blond pulled Merlin up into a hug. By now the whole hall of people had turned their heads to face the small group in front of the top table. Those nearer the front had completely turned in their seats, the two elderly women nearest the group began to clap, the couple next to them exchanged glances before following suit, the soon the whole hall was applauding, all with wide smiles on their faces. Then as Arthur and Merlin broke apart, a loud, pained scream rang through the hall, and there was no doubt of where it came from. It echoed of the castles old stone walls, cutting off the applause to leave an eerie silence in it's wake.
All attention turned to Brooke. Her back was arched slightly and her fingers scratched at the tiles beneath her. The worst though we're her eyes, Brooke's lids had suddenly snapped open to reveal her usually green eyes to be a cloudy, murky gold. As if her body was reacting to something, something the others couldn't see, what ever it was though it wasn't good. Them all off a sudden she relaxed, her eyes closed again, her breathing though stayed relatively rapid.
Merlin was by Brooke's side within seconds, his his hand found hers, the other lightly slapping the blondes cheek. "Brooke? Brooke!" Merlin called out worryingly, panic flooded his face as there was no response. Merlin was shaking as he tried to lift her now still body into his arms. Merlin looked helplessly up at Arthur, but Percival was already onto it. The strong knight lifted the girl into his muscled arms and giving Merlin a worried smile he strode out of the room, heading towards Gaius' chambers.
Still shaking, Merlin turned to Arthur and the hall of people, "I'm sorry but I'm going to have to take my leave, I really am so sorry for the disturbance and I hope you a have a really good night." He attempted a smile which didn't quite reach his eyes before turning to Arthur and the rest of the royals. "I really wish I could stay, but I'm sorry Aurthur I..."
"Think nothing of it Merlin, go!" He nodded, offering his friend a small smile, "I'll see you tomorrow okay!"
~afl~
Brooke daren't move, she watched helplessly as cruel smile lit up Morgana's eyes when she saw the Warlock walking towards her. "Well well well," she murmured, a smirk crossing her lips, "fancy seeing you here Merlin. I didn't think you' d show."
"I would've thought you'd know me better Morgana, all those times I saved Arthur, all the times I put my life on the line to save Camelot, you didn't think I'd come now? To save Camelot again, to save my family?"
"No you misunderstand me, I knew you'd want to come, but there was no way your friends would let you do so, and definitely not alone. Yet here you are."
"Here I am," Merlin replied, to Brooke his voice sounded monotonous, like he was bored with Morgana's schemes. "Why not let this go Morgana, you have my power, you could kill me with a mere thought, you could have done it when you took my magic in the first place. Why haven't you?"
"I like to play with my food." She smirked.
Merlin stayed silent, and with his back to her, there was no way for Brooke to see what Merlin was thinking. She tried calling out with her mind but there was no connection. Blind panic filled her as she watched Merlin take a step towards the witch. Brooke tried calling out to him but it was like she wasn't even there.
"Like you said Merlin, I have all your power, I can do what ever I like with it. I'm surprised you haven't used it to it's full potential." Morgana seemed to pause, she stared Merlin down, "Wait, you don't even know how far you could take it."
"I do, Morgana, plus I know enough to know not to use it." Merlin growled. "You have no idea what you are getting yourself into."
Morgana smirked, "oh yes I do." she said before beginning to whisper in a language Brooke couldn't understand. Moments later a horizontal whirlpool of silverly light spread out behind Morgana, it let out a strange whirring, like the quite groan of old machinery. "I finally mastered time travel, and I am sending you back to the night when you arrived. You will die saving Arthur's life for the first and last time. Leaving me to do to what I was destined to do from the beginning."
"If I do this you'll leave the others alone?"
"Of course not," she smirked, "but I'll kill you anyway, so what's the difference? I just wanted to see if it worked on small scale."
"Okay, I can do that."
"Merlin no! MERLIN!" Brooke yelled, "MERLIN STOP!" She screamed and screamed until her throat was hoarse. Tears ran down her cheeks as Merlin walked through the sheen of swirling light.
That was when Brooke regained consciousness, just for a moment, a scream was wrenched from her lips, she felt her magic trying to push the pain away but there was nothing there. As she heard Merlin's voice a small smile graced her lips before she blacked out all together.
~afl~
Merlin paced next to the bed in their room where Brooke lay, every few moments he would glance worriedly over at his wife's still body. She was fine though, Gaius had said something about Brooke being tired, mixed with the pregnancy and her magic being seemingly absent but Merlin, though he had taken it all in, he had filed the information under 'problems to sort later'. His main priority was for Brooke to wake, then after that he needed to decide whether to say anything about the child. Brooke didn't need something else to worry about, and he could easily make sure that she didn't fine out. Once Brooke found out she'd be annoyed that he had kept it from her, but Merlin decided to cross that bridge when he came to it.
Taking a deep breathe he decided that he was no help to her pacing the room and that he'd be better off in bed where he could at least try to sleep to. So with that he slipped under the sheets and edged over slightly to put his arms around Brooke's sleeping form, pulling her closer. She mumbled in her sleep, something along the lines of 'don't go'. "I won't sweetie, I'm not going anywhere." he whispered trying not to wake her, even though she was just sleep talking he liked to reply, Merlin could never tell whether it was a normal dream rather than one of her Sight Dreams. If it was the latter, there was no telling what she could hear from the outside world. With that Merlin closed his eyes, in the hopes that sleep would finally come.