Disclaimer: I love Merlin, but that doesn't mean I own it. Pure fan love here.
Story: After managing to save both King Cenred and King Uther, both held captive in Camelot's walls, Merlin must set out with them to retrieve Excalibur. But with her magic bound and not able to do much but parlor tricks and healing spells, Merlin fears she will be useless and unable to save Camelot in time. Hoping to also find a way to fix her magic, her focus is narrowed and unable to see the wolves besides her.
Set as an AU genderbending fic.
Spoilers: Yes, especially for S3.12 and S3.13, "The Coming of Arthur".
Warnings: Age disparity, cursing and violence for now…hm, just in case since I'm usually writing it, bit of crazy humor, perverted humor, morbid or sarcastic humor, and maybe some sexual situations…
Pairings: Cenred/Merlin, Uther/Merlin

A Tale of Two Kings
Chapter One: A Heroine Instead of a Hero

"Run, Merlin, run."

"Retrieve the sword, Merlin."

"It is the only way!"

"I'm sorry. I worry about him. Is he…okay?"

She didn't know how things ended up this way.

What she did remember was that she'd been sneaking around the castle, trying to escape after failing to find King Uther, and ended up running into two imprisoned kings. They were awake, of course, and demanding she free them. Merlin had been torn between doing so or trying to convince them that they were better off if she left for "reinforcements" when she realized the chains were magical and needed magic to unlock them.

Arthur had been lost and depressed after having to leave behind his father, after Morgana had taken over Camelot with her sister Morgause. A group of them had managed to escape and hide out in a cave, and she'd only decided to sneak back to the castle to try to either free Uther or find out about his conditions in order to report back to Arthur and hopefully cheer him up.

She'd just had no luck, right up until she decided to leave –and run into King Uther and King Cenred both chained up in a room she'd hid in from a few mercenaries.

"Free me," Uther scowled, though a hint of pain from Morgana's betrayal still lingered in his voice and eyes.

She bit her lip, glancing around. She was there to free him if she could…

"There are no keys," Cenred drawled. "These are magical locks. If Morgause, or some other magic-user, doesn't unlock them, then we're stuck. The serving girl is useless."

Which made Merlin bristle as she "pretended" to examine the locks. She'd already irritably begun to quietly incant when Uther said, "She's surprisingly capable and resourceful –"

In her surprise at his unexpected compliments, she'd looked to them as she finished, revealing the fading gold of her eyes. The chains were unlocked.

"You used magic!" Cenred said pleased, just as Uther's countenance darkened and he lurched forward the second the chains released him. He rammed into her and was about to throttle her neck after they'd hit the floor, when Cenred pulled him off of her hastily.

"Don't be a fool, Uther. She's our way out of here," he said in annoyance.

Uther glared at both of them but stayed away. Merlin winced, feeling the impact of hitting the floor so hard. A hand was held out to her and she looked up to see Cenred was holding it out. She reluctantly accepted it and grabbed hold, being pulled up by her former enemy.

"Where next?" he asked her while Uther stayed silent. His burning glare reminded her he was still there and wouldn't let her forget.

"This way," she muttered, leading the way to where the servants' passages were. She felt anxious at being so close to these two very dangerous men, who now knew she had magic. That wasn't including the fact one was a magic-hating king, while the other was a former enemy who had just been working alongside an enemy sorceress. Leading them around, she hesitated at a split in directions.

"What's wrong?" Cenred asked, seeing as Uther continued to keep silent.

Merlin frowned. "There's an…errand I must do," she remembered Kilgarrah's words. "Arthur and the others are in that direction, just all the way into the woods and nearby in a cave. I'll be going this way." She pointed right. "Go to meet Arthur. I'll be back after I've retrieved what I'm supposed to." She told them and left them without another word.

She had to leave not just the castle, but Camelot itself. "'Retrieve the sword, Merlin,'" she grumbled to herself. "Easier said than done."

Still, soon enough she had reached the end and found herself peeking out, around a door and to the courtyard.

"Anything?"

"No…" she mumbled, confused at the lack of guards. Then she registered the question and whirled around.

There behind her were the two kings.

"What are you two doing here?!" she hissed.

"Following you," Uther finally spoke, still glaring angrily at her. "What is so important you leave us and my son behind?"

Merlin's mouth opened, but she couldn't say anything. How was she going to explain that she was going to go travel out of Camelot, find a lake where she tossed a special sword in, and was going to go retrieve it so they could defeat the undead army?

"I'm going to go get a magic sword?" she said weakly, sounding more like she was saying a question than an answer.

The two men gave her dubious looks and she realized she sounded absurd.

But Kilgharrah told her to get the damn sword, so she was going to get the stupid sword back.

Squaring her shoulders and glaring at them, she pursed her lips and shook her head.

"I'm going to go get a specific sword that was made by magic," she told them defiantly. "It is the only thing that can kill anything, be it mortal or magical, living or undead. You two are going to go meet up with Arthur and make plans on taking back the castle."

Cenred laughed derisively. "Whether or not what you say is true –some sort of magical sword like that wouldn't be unheard of –it doesn't matter. One, I was not Camelot's ally in the first place nor am I just going to listen to a serving girl, no matter how pretty."

"Fine! I don't care," she glared at the dark-haired man. "I did my kind deed of the day and you're free." She turned to Uther, who stared back stoically. She shuffled awkwardly in place. "Sire, please meet with your son."

"No," he said shortly, catching her off guard.

"What?"

"I said no," he repeated with a growl, but didn't elaborate.

Her head was spinning all over the place and she didn't know what to make of this predicament she found herself in.

Damn it, she should've never snuck back into the castle in the first place.

She'd made it with those two across the courtyard before there were any problems. The shouts at seeing them alerted more to their location, and suddenly Merlin was sprinting as fast as she could to get out of the citadel. But she had two followers who'd been imprisoned and weren't exactly in the best of shape, and she couldn't exactly just leave them behind. For one, the two of them had suddenly been released and getting caught and brought back would mean that they would be in for punishment from Morgause and Morgana. And further, given that they'd been released and that the chains had been magically locked, it would raise questions and Merlin could be outed.

Panicked and just a bit freaking out, she did her best to keep track of them and make sure they were just behind her.

"O-over here!" Merlin pointed over to an alley. "Duck in here!"

She went into the alley and a few more seconds passed before she was joined by Uther and Cenred. They took a moment to catch their breaths.

"We have to go into the lower city and then find a way out and past Camelot's walls," she was tempted to leave them once they reached the woods, but they wouldn't know the way to Arthur and would just get caught. Having gone this way around instead of the direction she'd pointed out to them inside the castle meant they'd never make it without getting found.

She took one last deep breath before she looked to them. "Let's go."

Honestly, this was horrible. How'd she get stuck with them and in this situation? Again, they knew she had magic too.

The three of them went slowly, keeping to whatever cover they had. It was incredibly frustrating because of how slow they had to go, and Merlin was much more used to being able to sneak in and out of places when she was alone. She cast a minor illusion to help keep them out of sight but didn't chance something bigger because she didn't know if she could be detected using magic.

When the walls were in sight, she sighed in relief.

"Past the walls, where do we go?" Uther asked, his voice still short and impatient with her.

"We'll have to get as far away from here," she said. "We'll make way to a village and take shelter, probably change your clothes."

Uther grunted, looking unhappy and still watching her with narrowed eyes.

"Will we need to do away with everything?" Cenred asked, looking unhappy as well.

Merlin bit her lip. "Probably. Is there going to be a problem?"

Cenred waved her off, glancing at Uther. "No, no problem. It's just a change of clothing and we have nothing else on us after all, right Uther?"

Uther's lips curled into a sneer.

Merlin eyed the two kings, before she started to lead the way again. Nervous but hopeful, she made it past the walls first –only to scream as a line drawn into the ground surrounding the wall glowed and her body tensed and jerked around in pain, lightning dancing up and down her body as symbols started to appear on her skin. When it was over, she collapsed onto the ground, breathless and her body still twitching in pain.

She passed out right as the other two reached her.

"What happened?" Uther demanded of the other king as they quickly picked her up and dashed away into the nearest cover, worried about being caught after that.

Cenred glanced down at the girl he held. He shrugged briefly. "If I were to guess, some sort of magical binding. Morgause tended to frequently bind the magical powers of sorcerers she'd captured. That looked like a variation of the one she uses, though a little crueller it seemed. We'll have to make do with her passed out. I'll carry her first."

Uther scowled, but didn't protest. The two of them silently continued their journey.

"I'm surprised you didn't go to your son," Cenred said blithely, eying him from the corner of his eyes.

Uther gave him a disgruntled look. "Arthur can take care of himself and has things handled on his end, I'm sure."

Cenred laughed mockingly. "If you're that certain. So what, she can't take care of herself? Worried about the witch?"

"No," Uther said immediately, disgust coloring his tone and face. "I don't trust her and have no idea what she's up to. Of course I'm going to follow her to make sure she's up to no good."

Cenred snorted, watching Uther with an idle smirk. "I believe you," he said, but Uther doubted it.

"Let's just make it to a village or town," Uther gritted his teeth.

Cenred tossed him one more taunting look.

Merlin moaned as she shifted on her back, before she realized that she was in fact on a bed. The past events rushed into her head and she remembered that she had been traveling with the two kings. Eyes shooting wide open, she looked around and noticed only Cenred in the room. Uther was nowhere around.

"Awake now, are you?" he said, watching her blankly.

She swallowed, feeling herself tense.

"Something wrong?" he asked, but there was something off in his tone and the way he was watching her.

It made her inwardly balk and want to dash out of that room.

The feeling intensified as he sauntered over to her and she uncomfortably sat up. To that, he strode quicker towards her and pushed her back down, causing her to panic and try to call up her magic. To her horror, she barely felt it stirring within.

"As I thought," he drawled. "Something back there caused your magic to be bound."

No. No, no! That can't be true.

Merlin tried even harder to call it up, but it felt sluggish and wouldn't move to instinct. She tried a spell instead, but she went through a plethora of them before realizing only minor ones worked. And all the while, Cenred had her pushed down onto the bed, merely watching her in dark amusement.

"Get off me!" she screamed at him, trying not to let her tears fall.

He sneered at her, instead shifting to push her down while he moved over her struggling form.

"Pretty temptress, just like Morgause," he angrily said, a thumb brushing against her lips. "Such soft lips."

"Get. Off. Of her," Uther's voice was deadly and the two of them turned towards the door, having not heard it open.

Cenred laughed. "Oh? Why? You might've been right after all, Uther! Magic is despicable and all users of it are untrustworthy. Just ready to backstab you. I thought you'd be one of the first to hurt her, now that she's practically helpless without her magic."

She could see Uther's jaw clenching and unclenching several times, his normally light green eyes darkened by anger.

"I-I'm not Morgause," she gasped out, tears finally falling from her eyes.

"Remove yourself from this room right now," Uther demanded, hand moving to the sword by his side that they just now noticed. Sometime in the midst of all this, he must've found a sword to use while he'd been outside of the room.

Cenred eyed him and it warily, before slowly getting up and off of her. He pressed his lips into a thin line before his own furious look stole over his face and he glared over at her and then at Uther, before storming out of the room.

Merlin sat up quickly, rubbing her face with her arm roughly. She didn't even notice Uther had come closer until feeling the bed shift at his weight settling on it. Looking at him guardedly but not wanting to show her fear, she waited for him to talk. At the moment, his jaw was clenching again and he was glaring at the door, not looking at her.

"For the duration of this…journey, you will not have any problems with myself. Or him. Until Camelot has been reclaimed, you are…under my protection."

He kept glaring at the door before he finally looked to her, his angry glare softening to a more neutral look at her shaking and scared form.

"You will not be harmed while under my watch," he said softly, continuing to surprise her. "I promise."

Then he stood up and left the room without a backward glance. She exhaled softly before burying her face into her hands.

What had she gotten herself into?

Started 2/13/18 – Completed 2/16/18

A/n: So I really, really miss the Merlin fandom. And after having read a few that I enjoyed, I'm trying to dive back in by finishing the first chapter of an old idea of mine. I hope you guys enjoyed this and I will try to work on my other Merlin stories as well!

Quick Points:

1. Pairing(s): Yes, this will have both Cenred/Merlin and Uther/Merlin, leading up to Cenred/Merlin/Uther (with no slash). Merlin's going to have her hands full (not that she doesn't already).

2. Pro-Uther: I love Uther (Come at me, bro) and there needs to be more pro-Uther fics. I also love Anthony Head and Giles. Enough said XD Uther's character had (and had potential) to have so much depth and showed traits of being wonderfully multi-dimensional before the writers decided to hell with that. I still resent and am bitter over this.

3. Cenred: I've never actually watched his character in action, but I was intrigued by him and hence his part in this story when I came up with it years ago. When looking over this story idea, I curious looked on the Merlin wikia on him again, and to my amusement and delight, I found out the actor who played him was Tom Ellis. Who plays Lucifer, a character and show I adore right now. It transfer over to how I now am exceending eager about Cenred and writing something about him, and to now approaching this story and deciding to start it. Yup, weird mind.

4. Season 3: Never saw it actually. I didn't even finish season 2 (shrugs). I'm slowly marathoning Merlin on Netflix though, so eventually I will. That said, I came up with this story and the summary loooong before knowing anything of season 3, and to my amusement when deciding where to place this story after finally going to work on it, there was a perfect spot and episode jut ready for me to use. I stumbled on "The Coming of Arthur" on the wikia and laughed, since Excalibur, Cenred, etc. was all perfectly fit for my story idea. Go figure. Coincidences and good luck, eh?