AN: This might be one of the last few chapters. I think this story is coming to a close. Who knows? I might write a sequel one day. No promises for now, though. I hope you like this latest installment! As usual, it hasn't been proofread yet.

DICLAIMER: None of this is mine. These characters and themes belong to their respective owners. Despite wishing upon a star, that does not include me.

4 Hours

Four hours after Morgana and I had left Aithusa, the three of us sat around the dinner table. Nobody spoke a word to the others. Arthur, whom he had picked up on our way back into town, leaned back in his chair, arms crossed, staring me down. Morgana sat forward with her elbows on the table, hands crossed under her chin as she gazed blankly out the window. I, myself, was pouring through books, old tomes of the dragons that I had gathered over the ages. I had been through them all a million and one times, trying to figure out how to help Aithusa speak, but she had done it all on her own. How? I needed to know.

Morgana and Arthur, on the same page for the first time in a millennium, were trying to decipher the dragon's enigmatic message. Every few minutes, I would hear one of them mutter something about it under their breath before falling silent again.

Eventually, I gave up and slammed my book shut. "This is useless. There are absolutely zero clues as to how she learned to talk in these old things."

"Merlin," Arthur reprimanded. "Isn't there something else more important to be focusing on, at the moment?"

"As much as I hate to admit it, Arthur has a point." Morgana said with a frown. "Who is 'he'? Why and how is he returned and from what?"

"More pressingly, who does he want us to find?" Arthur injected.

I looked at Morgana, keeping my gaze level. "You don't think the 'her' could be Morgause, do you?"

My favorite sorceress shook her head. "There's no way. She's dead. I… you… we killed her. She's dead. More than just dead, even. There's no way."

I laughed humorlessly. "You and Arthur used to be dead, as well. Yet, here you sit. And I think it's safe to assume 'he' has come back from the dead as well."

There was another moment of silence. I knew we all had people in mind, people who we wanted to have come back. Despite the fact that Morgana was no longer evil — not that she was ever evil, just driven and practicing dark magic — I knew she wanted her sister back. I would, too, if I had a sister. Arthur would never stop wanting to see Gwen again. She may have died a thousand years before, but to him it had only been a few weeks since he'd seen her. He hadn't had the time I had to accept that she was gone. I, for one, hoped that 'he' was my father. It was the only thing that I could think would explain Aithusa's sudden and inexplicable eloquence.

The frustrating part was that the dragon had refused to give us any clues. She claimed that I had to figure it out for myself. She wouldn't even tell us how she had learned to speak after being mute her whole life.

"Merlin…"

My name in the back of my mind. Every few minutes. I knew the voice. I would never be able to forget that voice. But I refused to acknowledge it. I had a feeling that I knew what it meant, and it wasn't that it wouldn't make me happy if I was right. But I wanted so badly for it not to be true, because I wanted something else so much more.

I couldn't stand sitting still in the flat any longer. "That's it." I stated out loud. "I'm going for a walk. Don't kill each other while I'm gone." I picked up my wool coat and headed for the door.

Morgana followed me. "Do you want me to come with you?" she asked. Her tone was sweet, but there was a worried edge to it.

I took a deep breath and turned to face her. "Not this time. I need some space to think."

She smiled comfortingly, but I could see her concern in the way her brow was fixed. I realized suddenly that I was scaring her. She was worried about losing me. I'd promised her that Arthur and my destiny wouldn't come between us again, yet there I was, walking out on her, leaving her behind – even if just for a short while – when she was just as confused and desperate as I was.

I sighed, and I could see in her eyes that saw the apology in mine. I knew I was forgiven, but I knew her well enough to know that if I stepped out that door it would drive a wedge between us that, for all my efforts, I may never be able to repair. I'd turned my back on her once, so very many ages before this day. Doing so again, with fully knowledge of the consequences, would be an unpardonable offense, and I would lose her for the second and final time. If I knew one thing through my millennia of experience, it was that I couldn't stand to lose her. On the night of her concert, I had discovered something, finally made sense of those words that we didn't say because we didn't understand them, and those three words that I had scarcely said to myself since I discovered them had turned my 1000 years of perspective upside-down. Destiny or not, I stayed with Morgana.

So, I changed my mind. I pulled her coat off the hanger and wrapped it around her shoulders. "Come on. I want to show you something."

Her smile as I led her out the door reminded me of why I did everything that I did from that first new day. The look on her face was so satisfying that I almost didn't mind the smug, 'don't act like I don't know what's really going on here' smirk that Arthur gave me as I pulled Morgana under my arm out the door.

We walked down the street, huddled together against the cold of the night. People passed us on the sidewalk as we went, and I could feel my favorite sorceress bristle at my side as they did.

"It's strange," she hissed to me below her breath. "Our world has turned on its head and these people don't even believe in the forces responsible for it. I take it back, strange isn't a strong enough word. It's downright offensive."

I rubber her shoulder empathetically. "I know. You get used to it."

"I don't know how I could. They look at me like I'm normal, like I'm one of them."

"They don't know any better. Neither did you, when you were growing up the second time, before you discovered your powers again." Then something occurred to me, and I stopped us. After making sure none of the mortals were looking at us, I placed my hand over her heart and muttered a spell, then did the same to myself. "There. You're invisible. Now they can't look at you. Only I can, and I know you. I know who you are, what you're capable of, and I know how special you are." More importantly, I know how special you are to me. I didn't have the guts to speak my last thoughts aloud. Tonight wasn't the night for that.

Morgana rolled her eyes, and I knew how childish of a solution this was, but it lightened her mood and that was all that mattered. She linked her fingers through mine and looked up at me, her eyes warm and trusting, a look I had only seen her give me. "Didn't you say you wanted to show me something?"

I laughed. I had almost forgotten. "Right, that. Well, since we didn't get to finish your birthday celebrations, I thought I'd show you something… special."

With that cryptic explanation, I took her hand and ran. We raced each other through the circles of light cast by the street lamps. She chased me down to the Tube and we laughed as our fellow Londoners tried in vain to figure out who had pushed them on their way through the crowd. After some time, we wound up in Trafalgar Square, and that's where we stopped.

I led a confused Morgana to the fountain and waved my hand slowly over the water. The walls of the water feature began to glow with a spectrum of color, incredibly bright at first, but fading in the next second. Within a moment, small, vertical lines became visible. They glowed with a number of colors in a steady pattern: blue, red, yellow, green, repeat. They were invisible to the mortal eye, but Morgana and I were more than that. Of all the people in the square, only we could see its brilliance, just as we were the only ones who saw the brilliant truth of magic any more.

Eyes wide, Morgana stood on the low wall around the water and traced the lines with her fingertips. "There are hundreds of them. What are they?"

I sat on the wall at her feet and gazed unseeingly at the glowing marks. "A calendar, I suppose. It was my way of tracking the passing time. I started it back in the 1800's when it was built." I reached out a finger to point at the lines. "Every one of those represents a birthday. The blue ones are Arthur's, yours are green, mine are red, and the yellow ones are Gwen's." I dropped my hand to rest on my knee.

Morgana stepped down to sit by me. Our knees touched, but she didn't take her eyes off the wall. "You came here every year?"

"Every year, four times a year, for more than 2 centuries."

Her eyes met mine. Ethereal green. "Why did you come for my birthday, though? After everything I'd done to you? After everything you'd done to me? Why would my birthday still matter to you?"

I sighed and cupped her face with my hand. "Morgana, everything that you did was my fault. It was always my fault. Everything that's happened, everything that's gone wrong, all of it was because I didn't help you. I wanted to, I almost did, but all that matters is that I didn't. I know you blamed me for what you became, and I know I still do. I'll never forgive myself for the wrongs I have done you." I chuckled darkly. "Just imagine what our lives could have been if I'd been honest with you right from the start. If you'd known what was happening to you, if you knew what I really was… You always mattered, and you always will."

The look in her eyes silenced me. It was the look she gave me when we were both thinking the same thing, the thing that we didn't or couldn't say. Because we both knew what our lives would have been like. It would have been like they were then, sitting on the side of that fountain. We would have trusted each other, we would have relied on each other, we would have kept each other's secret, and I would have loved her. We wouldn't have our fouled up past, and we wouldn't worry about our future. My destiny – inexplicably and undeniably linked to Arthur's – never would have come between us because she could have shared in my faith in The Once and Future King.

"Don't leave me," she whispered. "The rest of it doesn't matter if you're here with me. My life makes sense when you're here. I'm happy, I'm sane, I'm okay." The words spilled out, tumbling in place of the words she didn't have yet. It was a stream of confusion and hurt and longing. She paused and took a breath to organize her thoughts. The next few sentences came out slower, more controlled. "I can forgive you for the past. In fact, I don't blame you anymore. My actions were my own. Just… I can't survive that again, being on my own. Being without you. So please don't leave me. Don't let me go."

I raised my other hand to cradle her face in my palms. I forgot, for a moment, the events of the day. I knew only that that day was about her, and about how much I wanted her to feel how important she was to me, and how much I loved her. "Never again. Not for the rest of eternity. Not if you ask me to or shove me out the door. Nothing will pull me away, and I will hold on to you as though my life depends on it." I leaned in and pressed my lips against hers. "Because I really think it does."

I felt her smile, and her arms wound around my neck, deepening the kiss.

There were no more words that night. We didn't need them. I knew what they were. I couldn't be sure she did. I was certain, though, that it didn't matter. Whatever we said, whatever we did, the two of us would always know. With that knowledge, we would never be without each other again, even if we weren't always together. That was a greater power to me than any magic I possessed. Sorcery was a constant presence, but also a burden, a pain, and a torment. Love, however, while it could leave you, would always be something worth the fight, worth waking up in the morning for. With Morgana, my life was no longer the purgatory it had been for so many ages. It was Elysium.

A scream. A pounding on my chest.

I bolted awake. Morgana was clawing at my shirt, kicking at the sheets, writhing in terror. My heart froze, horrified.

I gripped her shoulders. "Morgana! Morgana, wake up! It's just a dream!" I knew better, though. Her dreams had returned to her at last, something that I had hoped would never happen. My mind strayed to the enchanted bracelet that Morgause had given her when they had started the first time. I had recovered it shortly after the war, although it was still tucked away with the rest of Camelot's treasures. If I'd been thinking realistically, I would have brought it with me to the flat when I'd moved in, just in case. I'd hoped so much that I wouldn't need it, though, that I'd neglected to keep it on hand. Who knew how many more nights Morgana would have to wait until I could get my hands on it. Hopefully, she would berate me for my selfishness when she woke.

Arthur charged into our room, swinging Excalibur in his pants. "What's wrong?" he demanded.

"Morgana's dreams have started again." I moaned, pained, and pulled my favorite sorceress into my arms as she sobbed. The look of dread on Arthur's face mirrored what I was feeling in my gut. He lowered his sword.

After a moment, Morgana's cries begame quieter. "Merlin?" she whimpered, clutching my shirt.

"I'm here." I whispered in her ear, rocking us slowly. I knew better than to tell her it was okay, that she was safe. "I'm right here. I'm not going anywhere."

"I… I s-…" Her voice caught.

"Take a deep breath. What did you see?"

She choked back another sob, the force of it wracking her body. I wrapped the sheets around her. After a moment, she managed to speak. "I saw Her. The Her Aithusa mentioned." I froze. I could sense Arthur tense up across the room. When Morgana looked up, her eyes were dull, resigned. She looked around until she locked her gaze with the king's. Her voice came clear this time.

"She's back. You were right, she's back. It's Gwen. Your queen has returned."