Disclaimer: I do not own anything, except the plot.

A/N: SO, APPARENTLY, I'M STILL ALIVE.

For my avid readers, I have some good news and bad news by the end of this chapter. For now, maybe give this a try and read :) I'll save my long rantings at the end.

Also, this is not Beta-ed. Is anyone willing to become one? I can be flexible with your time. I am very busy, after all.

So yay, here's the first chapter of Saving Destiny! Enjoy!

Title: Saving Destiny
Author: WickedlyAwesomeMe
Language: English
Form: Multi-Chaptered
Genre: Adventure/Romance
Rating: T
Warning: Violence, cuss words, and innuendos
Pairing: Fem!Merlin/Arthur Pendragon
Summary: Their roles may be reversed, but destiny remains unchanged. Now that destiny is being threatened by an old time foe, it is up to Arthur and Merlin to set things back in order. Modern AU. Female!Merlin. Time Travel and Reincarnation Fic. Arthur Pendragon/Merlin pairing.

Saving Destiny by WickedlyAwesomeMe

Chapter One: Familiarity

"Princess Merlin Ambrosius Emrys, Crown Princess of England."

The huge, oak doors simultaneously opened, and all guests looked as the princess of their land strolled in.

Princess Merlin, aged eighteen, gracefully stepped towards her throne, her chin up, her hands lightly lifting her skirt so as not to let the hems of her dress touch the floor. All eyes were on her, awed and amazed at the gracefulness she exuded. Ahead stood her parents, the great King Balinor and Queen Hunith, awaiting the arrival of their daughter.

Today was a ball in honor of their daughter, who would soon leave the palace to go to the University of Avalon. Merlin had always dreamed of getting a college degree, especially taking up the course History, since she always had a penchant of reading facts about the past. At first, her parents were against it, but with constant persistence from Merlin, they finally succumbed to her wishes.

It was big news for the country, especially because it would be the first time a royal under the House of Emrys would not be homeschooled. Times have been changing, and the media had swarmed over this news like eager bees, reckoning that this might be the start of something new… that maybe the princess, once crowned Queen in the future, would bring something different for their country.

Merlin dreaded the added pressure she placed upon herself, but the anticipation of going to someplace new had overpowered all the pressure given her way. Finally, she could act like a normal teenager and earn her college degree.

"Father, Mother," Merlin murmured, curtsying in front of her parents once she reached the throne. Balinor and Hunith beckoned their daughter to step up beside them. A servant immediately walked towards the royal family, with a tray of glass wines. Each got their own glass and King Balinor stepped forward. The banquet quietened down as all of his subjects looked at him.

"My dear guests, friends, and family, today, we graciously invited you in honor of my daughter," he started. Beside him, Merlin softly smiled while Hunith looped an arm around her daughter's arm. "My princess has grown, gone were the days when she would allow me to tell her bedtime stories of fancy knights and damsels in distress."

A collective chuckle rang across the banquet, and Merlin found herself welling up a little. Despite the stress of her position in this country, she still loved her parents dearly. They were the ones who were beside her on her most trying days.

"Merlin," he addressed, turning slightly around to look at her. "I know you will do good in the University of Avalon. You have always made us proud, and as the future Queen of this kingdom, I know that you will be wonderful."

"Thank you, Father," she sweetly said.

"Thus, my dear people, let us all give a toast for Crown Princess Merlin Ambrosius Emrys!" He raised his goblet and boomed, "Long live the Princess!"

Everybody in the room echoed his words, and truthfully, the effect of this never failed to give Merlin some chills. The fact that people are looking at her, expectant and respectful, all was overwhelming for her. A mixture of feelings pooled in her heart, and all she could do was curtsy, her smile turning wide and beautiful.

King Balinor then gave his cue to his servants, and soon, dinner was brought in.

Many princes and other royals asked for Merlin's permission for a dance, and as princess, she was obliged to agree. That did not mean she was not dead tired from all the twirling and the swaying. Cringing, she could already imagine Madame Margeaux, shrilly telling her to sway like the wind, bend like the flowers.

Merlin finally plopped down on her throne, her feet already killing her. From the amount of people still inside the Banquet Hall, her going away party was still nowhere near finished. At the far end, she could see her mother's disapproving look, knowing how much she slackened her back and maybe a tad opened her knees, and Merlin sheepishly smiled and proceeded to sit primly and properly.

Ever since she was five years old, she already knew that she would one day rule over this whole country. Perhaps, her innocent mind still had no idea how wide her responsibility would be someday, but now that she was eighteen, everything seemed so… suffocating.

Honestly speaking, she loved all the perks she had as a princess. She got to have a huge array of colorful clothes (and lovely scarves!) and was able to buy a library-full of books solely for her in the castle. As princess, she knew she could have everything at her beck and call.

But as princess, she also knew that she had a responsible to fulfill. She was homeschooled since five, and all she learned about were decorum, etiquette, politics, warship, economics and the likes. Her young mind was already open with all kinds of issues the kingdom has, and at times, she grew tired. But really, who would not?

There were times when Merlin would ponder about her current life. She had always believed that she was destined to be something else… to be something more. Being Queen was already one big of a responsibility, but there was something in her heart that always yearned for something different. Every time she retreats to her comforting library, reading adventure stories that people had in her books, she dreamed that she was supposed to have a different adventure solely for her, and not be confined merely as the Crown Princess of England.

She wasn't exactly an atrocious princess, but she wasn't the best either. It would have been okay if she had clumsy tendencies or her ears were a bit too large. It would have been okay if she would choose reading in the library, dreaming, imagining, wishing instead of learning about proper decorum, curtsying, dancing, and socializing. But then again, she was Crown Princess – she was expected to be the best so that once she's queen, people would respect her and be loyal to her.

"Princess Merlin?"

Her thoughts were halted as a handsome Prince stepped into her line of vision. Merlin recognized him as a Prince of a land somewhere in the Arabian lands. Instantly, she placed a smile on her face. One rule Madame Margeaux always drilled into her mind – always smile sweetly.

"May I have this dance?" he asked.

Merlin internally sighed before nodding her head and standing up. She allowed the prince to guide her towards the center of the banquet hall, and started to sway with the music. Her eyes briefly connected with her mother's, and Merlin rolled her eyes. Hunith raised an eyebrow at her behaviour, but Merlin merely shook her head. She knew that look on her mother's face, prying and conniving, and somehow Merlin knew that Hunith was already imaging the two of them as the future King and Queen of England.

'Honestly, mother,' she thought to herself. 'We've barely known each other.'

Call her traditional, or maybe blame her books in her library, but Merlin believed that people only marry because of true love. It gave her some peace when her parents supported her decision to do so.

"Princess Merlin," the prince called, his voice thick with a foreign accent. "Merlin… what a strange name. Why did your parents choose that name for you?"

Merlin shrugged, her smile never faltering. "My mother thinks of it as special, my dear Prince - ?"

"Aladdin," he quickly added.

"As in the one from the fairy tale?" she asked, humor in her eyes.

The prince sheepishly smiled and laughed. "My mother can be very… odd," he said.

Merlin laughed this time. Prince Aladdin seemed a good man.

As the two danced away, Merlin remembered the story of how Hunith chose that name for her. Prince Aladdin wasn't the first one to ask her how she was able to get that name. In fact, Merlin had once asked her mother about it, having been able to read about her name in the stories of old.

"On the day you were conceived, I had a dream," Hunith told her, little Merlin snuggled deep into her arms. "There was an odd man, with a long, white beard, and twinkling blue eyes that held all the knowledge of world. He never spoke of anything, but three words – 'Name her Merlin'."

Thus, she was christened as Merlin, and sometimes, the princess fancied herself into thinking that the special name made her a special person. And it turned out that she actually was.

When she was ten, she had an accident. The car she was riding back home with her nanny and two other servants were hit by a speeding bus, leaving one of her servants dead and the rest of them injured. When the police and other authorities responded, they were able to see a crying Merlin, unblemished but traumatized. Nobody thought of it as strange, except the King and Queen.

The following days, things had been stranger. There were floating plates and spontaneously combusting bushes. Everywhere Merlin went, "accidents" seemed to happen, and her parents finally asked for help from their Council. One suggested that she should be checked by a doctor, one by a priest. But all their suggestions, her parents had already tried, until the Council Head of Finance finally suggested that the princess might possess a strange gift – magic.

The King and Queen had consulted a lot of experts ever since that strange suggestion. It still baffled them, especially since they were already living in the twenty-first century and magic seemed too outdated to be considered. They had let their secretaries research and was able to come up with the whole genealogy of the royal family. Turned out that a few generations back, there were known sorcerers in their family, and Merlin might have been blessed to acquire their family's gift.

Balinor and Hunith explained this to their daughter, whom, having read numerous books even during her youth, fully understood what she possessed. Her parents thought it would be a threat to her life if the world discovered she was magic, and since then, they made her promise and those who already knew, that they would keep her magic a secret.

"Princess Merlin?" Prince Aladdin called, bringing Merlin's thought back into the present. The princess smiled at him sheepishly, having been caught zoning off, and she felt a little apologetic to the prince.

"I'm sorry, I just had a lot of things in mind," she said, prompting the prince to laugh.

"It's quite all right," he said. "I'm sure going away from the castle for a while might be taxing for you." He shook his head in disbelief. "I'm not even sure how you were able to coerce your parents in allowing you to go to a normal university! I've been homeschooled for all my life, and I'm sure my parents will be appalled with just the idea of me going to school."

Merlin smiled, the memory of pleading and crying to her parents still fresh in her mind. "I have my own ways," she said. "And besides, it would be awesome – I, um, mean wonderful to widen my horizons."

Prince Aladdin chuckled at Merlin's obvious slip. Once again, she could hear Madame Margeaux yammering in her ear that princesses do not say 'awesome'.

"I've always wanted to study History," she continued. "And I thought that maybe if I learned from the best about it, I would be able to apply it to my future as a Queen. You know, understand from the past what could be the best and the worst for my kingdom. Thankfully, my parents thought of my reason as, well, reasonable."

The prince nodded. "I understand," he said, as he now stepped back from the princess since the song already stopped. "I bid you farewell and good luck, Princess Merlin. I am glad to know that England will be in good hands in the future."

Merlin's heart swelled in pride. It always made her feel a little giddy when people sincerely told her she would be a great Queen someday, even though she herself doubted about it often.

"Goodbye, Aladdin," she said, looking at him once more. She curtsied in respect and once again went back to her throne, dreadfully waiting for another prince to sweep her back into the dance floor.

All her bags were packed and Merlin took a full minute to just stand inside her vast bedroom, forever imprinting in her mind the look of her bedroom one last time. She would not be back until her term break, and she would greatly miss her comfortable bedroom. She bid her reading nook near her humongous window one last farewell glance, before walking outside the room.

Some of the housemaids immediately helped her with her things, and Merlin smiled at them gratefully. She had grown up a little clumsy, and had caused a little too many accidents in the past, and without her faithful servants, she wouldn't have grown blemish-free today.

They all walked downstairs, her parents and some unfamiliar faces already greeting her below.

Outside was a black car, with two, English flaglets in front, signifying that a royal was inside the car. Merlin always hated this, because she knew that this would attract too much attention. On the bright side, there would be no traffic for them.

"Have you prepared everything you need, Merlin?" King Balinor asked.

"Yes, Father, I am ready," she said, giving both of her parents a curtsy. She looked at both of them, trying not to cry, because oh how she will miss them. Unable to help herself, she threw her arms around her father, hugging him tight. King Balinor chuckled and wrapped his arms around her, patting her back in the processes.

"I will miss you Father," she whispered, pulling away from his hug. She looked at Hunith, who was also trying not to cry, and gave her a hug. "You too, Mother, I promise to be good even when you are not looking."

The Queen laughed, and gave her a daughter a kiss on her forehead. "I know you will be, my daughter."

"Your Highness, it is time to leave."

Merlin pulled herself away from her mother to look at the source of the voice. A group of men, all surprisingly her age, were looking at the royal family.

"Merlin, they will be your bodyguards," King Balinor introduced, sensing her question. "They, too, are enrolled in the University of Avalon, taking up History. Hence, they will be your classmates and at the same time your bodyguards."

The princess raised an eyebrow, already predicting at the eyes these group of young men would attract in the university. Undeniably, they were all handsome.

A pair of footsteps resounded in the vast room as a newcomer hastily arrived. "Forgive me for the delay," he announced. "I had to talk to the Head Security about the final details for the princess' stay in the university."

When Merlin looked at him, she froze.

He was familiar.

Looking at him, with his blond hair slicked back atop his head and his blue eyes... such strange, familiar ones. Merlin wondered if she had seen him somewhere before.

Everything in her felt different. It felt like a huge knot in her heart became untangled and she was… what? Happy?

"Merlin?" King Balinor asked, snapping her off her musings.

Merlin then realized that continuous tears streamed down from her face and she was baffled. The familiar man strangely looked at her, his eyes boring deep into her own set of blue ones, and she wondered if he, too felt the same.

The tears would not stop, and she merely turned around to give her father a hug, to show that her emotions were merely because she was leaving.

"You must be the Head Bodyguard," King Balinor said, still a little distracted from Merlin's sudden emotions.

Merlin peered at him as the blond bowed in respect.

"My name is Arthur Pendragon, your highness," he addressed to Merlin as she turned around to fully look at him once more. "And I will be your Head Bodyguard for the rest of your stay in the university."

At lost of what to do, Merlin curtsied, much to the surprise of the other occupants in the room, and inside, she thought that the gesture towards strange Arthur Pendragon felt familiar.

Again.

"Pleasure," she murmured, her eyes once again boring into his. It might have been her imagination, but Arthur's eyes seemed warmer, and Merlin reckoned that perhaps, her stay in the University of Avalon would be, for lack of a better word, awesome.

A/N: So, good? Bad? Eh? Meh?

I know it is just the start of the story, so things are uneventful. But I promise you lot, it will be an awesome ride.

So, good news, I've already written almost all of the chapters in this story. I only have like 3 or 4 chapters left to write. The reason for this is because I am already in my first year in medicine (yes, apparently I want to become a doctor huhu) and you know, we've only finished one semester and I think I already DIED. So I had to get this plot bunny off my chest for me to be in peace. Rest assured that this story will not be abandoned. AGAIN, CAN SOMEBODY BE MY BETA?! I have not written fictional stuff in a while and I think my vocabulary and grammar are becoming atrocious (English is, by the way, not my first language). Thus, I'm in dire need of help.

The bad news, however, is that this might most likely be my last story. I've left some of my multi-chaptered stories unfinished and I am very, very sorry but I think I will discontinue those. All my files were lost and I've written the chapters beforehand, so of course, I was devastated at first, and now I do not have the heart to continue them. I'M VERY SORRY HUHU. I once was a bright-eyed newbie and I published my first story back in 2008. But now, guys, I've legitimately made my life a living hell by becoming a med student (which is my dream, btw haha) so I now have to keep my priorities straight. Reading was my first love, writing is my next, and they will forever be a part of me. Maybe someday I can write again, I dunno. But for now, I have to focus on my studies to save lives in the future :)

That's it! Please leave a review :) I'd appreciate it. I might update once a week for major editing and this is subject to change if I finally found a beta reader.

With love,
WickedlyAwesomeMe