A/N: I don't own Merlin. That was the luck of the BBC.
So to make up for that lousy last chapter (I'm admitting it, it was bad) I already had this this chapter written and ready to go, so you guys get two in one day – this one is double the length of the last. I really enjoyed writing this chapter, ranting Gwaine is fun.
Gwaine was the first to leap to his feet when he saw the king, his eyes silently asking the question 'Merlin?' but Arthur cast his eyes to the floor, landing with a grunt when he was shoved back into his cell.
"Are you ok?" Leon was the first to asking, assessing the king for any injuries. Gwaine eyed Arthur uneasily, his breath caught in his throat where a lump was forming. If Merlin was… gone then Arthur would've told him by now, right?
"Did you see him?" Arthur seemed fine, Gwaine could clearly see that, and right now he needed answers to more pressing matters, like the state of his best friend. "My best friend is upstairs alone with a maniac, the ones who should be rescuing him are locked down here in cells and I have not had a drink in two days, so forgive me if I'm not in the best of moods." Gwaine curled his fists and took a breath. "Now you tell me what the hell they are doing to him." Gwaine was never the most patient of men, even less so now.
"Sorcerer." Arthur croaked, his voice failing him. What else could he tell them?
"What?" Chorused the entire round table.
"Merlin is a sorcerer." Arthur huffed through gritted teeth. He couldn't believe he had to say those words out loud, they sounded even sillier as they hung in the air than they had done in his head.
"No." Gwaine breathed, running his hand through his tangled locks. He didn't seem the least bit surprised at the revelation, wearing an expression of panic instead of the hurt, betrayal and anger that Arthur wore.
"He doesn't matter anymore." Those words hurt the most to say, but Arthur didn't know if he could ever stomach laying eyes on his ex-friend ever again, the thought of his duty to punish and execute those with magic, execute Merlin, revolted him to the core. Perhaps when they finally got out Arthur would banish him, send him back to Ealdor where he would become Cenred's problem. Or perhaps Drin would just kill Merlin and make everything easier. Arthur felt disgusted with himself for even entertaining such a thought.
"How the hell can you say that, you heartless bastard!" Gwaine looked ready to push the cell bars apart with his bare hands and kill Arthur, not caring that threatening the King was considered treason. There was no way he'd stand for Arthur abandoning Merlin, especially not now, when the boy needed them most.
"Gwaine, that's enough." Snapped Leon, keen to uphold propriety even in a situation as dire as theirs, but the dark haired knight wasn't nearly done yet.
"All Merlin has ever done is be loyal to you, saved you and put every thought of happiness for himself aside, all for you!" Gwaine implored the king, but he was having a job of erasing the poison Uther had seeped into Arthur's mind for years.
"Loyal to me? He's lied to me for years, and probably conspired behind my back to overthrow me! You call that loyalty?" Arthur couldn't hide the betrayal laden thickly in his voice, still in shock that the person closest to him had hurt him so deeply. He shouldn't be surprised, after Morgana, that magic could corrupt even the best of people.
"Does that honestly sound like Merlin to you? When has that boy ever asked for recognition in anything he's ever done? He's never asked for even a thank you after all the shit you put him through on a daily basis! He's been your servant for so long, you can't really believe he's been playing you all this time?" Gwaine stared incredulously, and had this been any other situation he'd have been rolling on the floor in tears at the thought of Merlin trying to overthrow Arthur, the very notion ridiculous.
"Gwaine… he's a sorcerer! How can we trust anything he's said or done? He's probably enchanted the lot of us." Arthur attempted to reason with his knight, but that was the final red rag to the already worked up bull.
"Enchanted? You're an even bigger idiot than I originally thought, don't you dare say that!" Gwaine gripped hard on his cell bars, almost roaring now. He didn't care how insubordinate he sounded, he was not going to let a comment like that slide.
"Gwaine, show some respect!" Leon futilely was still trying to reel Gwaine back in, but the knight was far too gone now.
"Listen to him, he's gone insane!" Gwaine flung his arms out in frustration. "Do any of you actually think Merlin – you know Merlin, our friend, that dark haired boy about this tall – could hurt anybody, let alone his precious king?" There was a deafening silence for a beat before Gwaine continued. "Do you really care for him that little that you'd so easily cast him aside?" He glared at Arthur.
"Leave it, Gwaine." Arthur closed his eyes, still trying to make sense of the very muddled situation in his very muddled head, but Gwaine simply ignored the king.
"Let me ask you, what did Merlin do when he revealed his magic? Did he try to kill you?" Gwaine was seething, determined to change the king's mind if it was the last thing he did.
"He stopped a sword from running me through. It doesn't change anything though." Arthur muttered weakly, Gwaine even more infuriated now.
"Doesn't change any- can you even hear yourself right now? Merlin saved your life with magic! Or would you rather he just saved you the old fashioned way and jumped in front of the sword?"
"Did you know?" Arthur growled at Gwaine, his own temper rising at the thought that one of his knights could've known about Merlin and not him, no matter how close they were. He refused outright to answer Gwaine's question, because the thought of Merlin dying – actually dying for Arthur – felt so wrong in his head. Gwaine nodded, fixating on the wall behind Arthur, unable to look at him anymore.
"Since we met. That tavern brawl, remember? Merlin threw plates at a man attacking me. Not with his hands." Arthur let out a low growl and shook his head. He'd known Gwaine for years, how long had his servant been hiding magic from him? Had he had it before coming to Camelot? "I never told him I knew though, I didn't want to endanger him in any way, and besides, I knew he'd tell me when it was right." Gwaine smiled sadly, before scowling at Arthur once more. "So now it's your turn princess. Tell me what are they doing to my friend?" He couldn't believe how idiotic Arthur was sometimes. Gwaine truly believed that the king didn't deserve the unwavering friendship of someone as good as Merlin.
Arthur sighed and leant his head against the wall, welcoming the cold chill. Despite the hurt lingering inside, the memory of a broken Merlin was still making him nauseous.
"Torturing him. He wants Merlin to help him do something, attack Camelot probably. Neither of them seem to be giving in. He said Merlin had been rude to him," a humourless chuckle, "Merlin has a pretty bad wound somewhere on his back, I couldn't see it but it was bleeding… a lot." Arthur lowered his voice. He couldn't understand why he still felt so guilty that his heart was tearing itself apart, and Gwaine growling in frustration didn't help matters.
"He's going to die up there, alone and broken." He ran his hand through his dark locks, working himself up into a panic. "He's going to die and it's all your fault!" He pointed an accusatory finger at Arthur.
"He won't die." Arthur said quietly, not quite believing the words himself.
"And you know this how? Because he's Merlin? Arthur, he has no resistance training, training of any kind actually, yet you drag him out, patrol after patrol, no weapons, no way to defend himself and just assume that he'll be OK!" Gwaine snarled. "He needs us Arthur, he's alone, he's hurt and he needs us. Never mind he has magic, he's Merlin." Gwaine simply shook his head, his glazed over eyes hazily focussing on a spot on the wall next to Arthur. "He doesn't deserve you."
Hopefully this makes up for chapter 5. Chapter 7 shouldn't be too long, it's about half written at the moment, I won't go AWOL on you again I promise.