It wasn't long before they were plunged into darkness so deep that Henry could no longer see Arthur's face. Only the small ember glow of the Dragon's fire blade, burning against the Cursed Darkness, darkness so heavy it could be felt.
Demons moved, close then far, close then far. They lashed out. Henry would swing blindly to stop their claws, sometimes barely catching them in time.
He was so terrified that his mind was like fireworks, explosions of pure terror that zapped through his whole body.
His terror was so intense as to riddle his mind where he nearly forgot a man had come to protect him. Henry could hear his voice softly edging him through the dark, as the man in turn struck demons, who passed into smoke upon death.
"It's a dance of sorts. Count. Move with them, and count like so. 1,2,3,. Think of the numbers, mm? You have to keep your head."
Even his voice began to crack a little. Henry could now hear that he was frightened too, but somehow, even in his immense terror, he was holding it together for both of them. That was the only ripple of confidence that reached Henry in his horror. For a long time, it kept him going.
But the night never seemed to end. They were becoming exhausted, as claws and feet reached for them. Henry would knock them away before they could cut into them, blindly slashing in a counting motion, turning to face the hands of the clock he started to see in the flashes of terror inside his head. He heard Arthur vaguely reminding him to be steady, but the two of them were completely running out of steam.
A flash of blue sparks rolled through that impossible night. Like a glass blade, almost invisible, it cut through the ranks.
"Henry?!" Emma's voice carried through the smothering darkness.
"Mom?!" Henry called back, feeling her come close. He couldn't see her, but he could feel her.
"It's okay, kid...It's okay...We're here...We're not gonna let these things hurt you.." Emma's voice vibrated in her terror. She gasped in tiny breaths.
"The time is coming, my Apprentice. Listen for the wind..." Merlin could feel in his powers that Emma's moment was close.
"The what?" Emma's voice cracked. The others began to circle around.
"The wind...you will feel the force of power rush into your soul. You'll hear it and you'll know. It's alright, young one, you will know when it's time. Believe me, you will know..."Merlin's voice was the calmest of all. The others began to feel calmer now themselves.
They all were swimming blind in the darkness, but none of them were alone.
"David?" Snow called, somehow feeling him approach.
"Yeah,...I'm here. Is Henry okay? I heard him calling for me..." David's voice was bouncy, trying to be in control and protect his family.
"I'm here!" Henry chirped.
"Henry!" Regina called.
"Mom!" Henry drew to his mother.
"It's alright, Henry. Mom's here, she's not going to let anything get you." Regina took a fighting stance, pulling Henry close.
"Stay beside me. I'll...I'll protect you..."Emma gasped, calling out to Killian.
"I'm flattered, love, but it is I who shall protect you." Killian replied.
In that darkness, among the voices of strangers, Merlin might have felt himself alone. He was surprisingly calm, compared to his counterparts out in the darkness, as if he had been born to do this.
He might have been fine by himself, but as he felt the family he'd been in the company of coming together once again, the gravitational force of the coin at his throat pulled him to someone. To this Arthur Pendragon that he knew in his bones must be somewhere close by in the darkness, because Henry was with him.
His ears were buzzing. Merlin was actually more frightened by the prospect of meeting this Arthur Pendragon, and getting to the bottom of why he could feel the coin at his throat pulling him to his life force. He knew that he knew him, but somehow he could not recall it or put pictures of him together in his head. He felt vague and far away as if he truly was only just a fairy tale.
Merlin felt his breath leapfrog in his throat as he anticipated meeting this man and learning the truth.
Someone drew near him in the dark, standing shoulder to shoulder with him. Then, he spoke, and Merlin felt his soul wash with immense calm.
"Can you tell their number?" he said.
"No, they cloak their numbers by making many shades of themselves..." Merlin replied. The man beside him was calming down himself.
"What must we do to defeat them?" by now, the man's voice had settled completely. It was as if his fear had evaporated.
"Stay beside me. We will take them wave by wave. If the blade you wield is magic, I can pass flame to it, and you can bat it about as if it were a ball of yarn..." Merlin smirked at the thought of toasting the awful demons.
"That will kill mass hordes of them at once?" the man squared up, as if taking the bat in a game of baseball. Merlin nodded.
"It will, indeed. And when the moment is right, the Savior will send them back to Hell." Merlin felt his hands lick up with flame. He had gotten eager for battle when he felt the man draw near to him.
Merlin got chills suddenly, excited to be slaying demons. Something about standing back to back in the middle of a battle with this man, even though he couldn't see him and didn't know him, felt familiar and right. Like it was the most natural thing in the world for him to be doing right now.
Merlin and his companion battered the flame about, knocking magic fire around in controlled spheres of powers that flew like cannon charge through tens of demons at a time. More and more came, and the more they killed the more they multiplied. The woods were almost overrun, and the terror of the others, which had before seemed as great as it could be, was starting to spike again, rapidly getting worse and worse, until they were rendered speechless.
Merlin, however, felt utterly peaceful with the man by his side. The darkness was so great and the confusion before had been so great that it hadn't dawned on him who this was. Not yet.
Suddenly, the wind began to howl. Merlin smiled, and closed his eyes.
"Em-Emrys?!" Emma called. Merlin could tell by the unsteady shake in her voice. She knew.
"Let it flow through you, Emma...The magic comes from within you. Be water, and you will find your way..."Merlin closed his eyes.
The wind howled and suddenly, Emma let go. Of the fear, of the need to fight and struggle. She put her hands out and suddenly, she was glowing. A white light sparked in her hands. She gasped, as her fear gave way to a little baby step stumbling uncertainty. Then, the uncertainty became a soft giggle as her light began to grow.
Suddenly, she was floating like a star above them, blazing so bright that the impossible darkness was pushed back in a ring around them. They could see the demons falling to their knees, quivering and crying, as afraid of the Light as they were of their darkness.
"Go back!" Emma shouted. Her light rolled over them like waves of the ocean. All at once, with a despairing wail, the demons went up in a puff of smoke.
Emma floated gently down from the sky into Hook's waiting arms.
For a moment, they all stood in awe staring ahead at her. The day had come, soft as snowfall. A hush, a pause, as if the waiting World was not sure how it should carry on. Then, a bird's song twittered into the silence, and the earth breathed. The dew fell in the place of the waves of light and the sun blazed through.
"She's...Okay...She's going to be okay..."David gasped all of a sudden, relieved when Emma opened her eyes and breathed. Hook was so overjoyed that he kissed her.
As the family gathered around each other, checking each other to make sure they were okay, Merlin turned to the man that had been there with him in the dark.
The morning sun fell on him. He was a tall, blond fellow with keen blue eyes, and a soft magic ether glow. A golden half-coin like the one at Merlin's throat hung at his throat.
Merlin realized all at once that this man was staring at him in absolute awe of him. Awe, and astonishment. Merlin realized late, that he recognized him.
"Merlin?" the man whispered at last.
The others turned to look. What happened next would live in their memories for the rest of their lives.
"Merlin...you are here...? But...I thought?" Arthur put a hand out, gingerly reaching for Merlin as if he wasn't sure whether or not he was real.
Merlin had frozen. His eyes burst into golden flame and he froze like that, still as stone. They watched as he stood entranced at the sight of Arthur. He fell forward, and Arthur caught him, mortified that he had fainted.
For Merlin, it wasn't until Arthur said his name that he truly knew who he was. He had known in his head all of the facts about the books he'd read and he'd known the vague fairy tale things he remembered about his familiar shape.
Yet, when he had said his name, all at once, as if a thousand oceans had run to the shoreline, Merlin remembered.
Merlin remembered life after life by his side. How he had fought for his Destiny, over and over and over again, forced to repeat it thousands upon thousands of times. Because in the end of every Legend, no matter what Merlin did, Arthur always died in some way at the battle of Camlann with the Saxon army. Arthur's destiny had been to die there, defeating the Saxons and bringing peace to Albion. Merlin's destiny had been to build the kingdom to come, and over and over again, his efforts led to that outcome, peace but not victory.
But, as memories came together, it wasn't just his duty as a servant, or as the Guardian of Destiny that Merlin remembered. In one mighty rush, Merlin's mind had colored back in the pictures of a universe of Life. Billions of shared lifetimes flashed before his eyes in a moment, as Merlin recalled in laughter, banter, in screaming fights and quiet tears, that Arthur Pendragon had indeed been more than a fairy tale. He had been more than just a random king that the bumbling servant Emrys protected. He had been his dearest friend, so very alive that even the happiest memory of him hurt like Hell to recall.
This was the Once and Future King, who had been the once and future other half of Merlin's soul. This was Arthur, who had died over and over again for 25 ages, or 25 million years. The first time, it had been for him. Merlin recalled all at once, overwhelmed, that the first time, which set all the other times in motion, Arthur had died for him and to save his people.
Merlin didn't know that he had passed out cold as all these images flooded his exhausted mind. Arthur, who still did not remember clearly all that had happened, anxiously scooped his unconscious friend up. Then he, with Henry's family following, carried Merlin back to Granny's.
Not sure what else to do, Arthur laid Merlin on the bed in his room, to be checked over by Regina with her magic spells. Unhelpful to this purpose, Arthur and the others went downstairs with the others to discuss all that had happened, and all that must happen next.
Merlin would lay there unconscious for almost three days. Arthur would sit beside him, sleeping in the chair by the window to let him rest, deeply troubled that he had passed out cold at the mere sight of him. He racked his brain for hours and hours trying to recall something about his death, to no avail.