A/N: I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE THINKING. WE'RE NOT GONNA TALK ABOUT IT, OK?

Arthur came to, blinking as his eyes adjusted to the dim light. He winced as he felt a throbbing in his skull at the back of his head, like he had been hit-

He started, and scrambling, looked around him.

He was lying in a cell, in the farthest end of the dungeon. There were two guards outside his cell doors, hooded and dressed all in black; clearly not men of Camelot.

Arthur pulled himself to his feet.

"Who are you?" He demanded, staring the guards down, trying to see their faces under the deep hoods. They remained silent. "Where is my father? My men?"

The guards made no show that they had even heard him, not even shifting their hooded heads once in acknowledgment, they stood, stock still, facing him.

Arthur was beginning to wonder if they were even sentient when he heard footsteps rounding the corner, and he saw the two guards move as one to face the direction of the noise.

Morgause, her disguise as Morgana dropped, approached in the dim light, a mocking smirk on her face. "Do you like my guards, Arthur Pendragon?" She taunted, sauntering over to his cell door. "I think you'll find that they aren't stunning linguists."

"Where's my father, Morgause?"

"I haven't killed him yet if that's what you're worried about." She responded, turning to her guards. They still stood facing the direction Morgause had entered from. She whispered a word under her breath- a spell- Arthur realized, and, with a snap of her fingers they turned back to face Arthur again, just as they had before. "Neither did I kill your little spy, that serving girl you had following me around. But make no mistake-" She added with a mocking smile, "I fully intend to kill each and every one of you."

"Why wait?"

Morgause's smile was replaced with a scowl. "The only way to get rid of you, Arthur Pendragon, for eternity, is to first get rid of Emrys."

Arthur blinked. "Emrys?" he asked.
"You call him Merlin." She said, pausing, she added, "Did you not know he is a warlock? The prophecy?"

"I know he has magic." Arthur retorted.

"But not the prophecy?"

Arthur said nothing. Morgause's smile was back.

"Interesting," She said. "That makes me wonder, just how much your ever-so faithful servant actually trusts you." She sighed, "Either way, I'm counting on him trying to rescue you, and soon. He'll be walking right into a trap." To accent her point she conjured a ball of energy in her hand and threw it at one of the guards. Arthur watched as the magic simply seeped into the cloaked figure, who made no notion that anything at all had happened. Morgause raised her eyebrows as if to say, Ha! I have you now! Before she turned and walked away back from whence she came.

Arthur shook the bars of his cell, knowing it was useless, and not caring. So many things were swirling through his brain; the events of just the past three days had turned almost everything he had known to be true on its head, starting, of course, with Merlin.

Flashback:

"So are you going to turn me in? For sorcery and treason?"

"No, unless you can explain to me everything and every time you used magic." Arthur said. He glanced to the table that stood between them, and the sword on top of it. As soon as the idea of crossing quickly to it, and pointing the weapon at the man he had come to think of as a friend crossed his mind, he immediately felt sick. This was Merlin!

But Merlin was a liar.

But Merlin was still Merlin.

Merlin laughed, a short bitter sound. "Where do I begin?" He said. "I was born with magic, Arthur, my mother says that when I was three days old she found me levitating above my bed I can't explain to you every time I've ever used magic. Hell, I can't explain every time I've used it since I've been in Camelot! If you really want to know, I used it this morning to fold your laundry."

Arthur relaxed. A Merlin using magic to get out of chores sounded like the Merlin that Arthur knew.

"When I heard you talking to Morgana- the real Morgana- she said that it was your destiny to save my life."

Merlin nodded. "I've been saving your life since the week we met." He said. "The windstorm in Ealdor, Nimueh, the Knights of Medhir, the dragon-"

"You killed the dragon?"

"Not exactly. But-" He added quickly, "he won't attack the kingdom again."

Arthur nodded. "And Morgana?"

"She was also born with magic."

"How did you find out? When did you find out?"

"Gaius had suspected for a long time. Her nightmares, they're visions of the future. Then, her magic started to get out of control, she got frightened, and the more frightened she got, the more she lost control." Merlin explained. "Magic has to be used. And it has to be controlled, otherwise, it gets out of hand, like a fire. Your father never understood that."

Arthur sighed. He pulled out a chair and sat down. This was almost too much for him to process. "And it's your destiny to protect me?"

"Yes." He answered, "But that's not why I do it. I told you before; I'm glad to serve you- until the day I die. That was never a lie, Arthur."

Arthur looked up at Merlin. The other man was still standing in the same place he was when he walked into the room, his knees locked, and his shoulders tensed. He was afraid, Arthur realized. This was a man who had defeated a dragon, somehow, had faced countless of beasts and sorcerers hell-bent on destruction and had defeated them all while hiding in plain sight, and he was afraid.

It wasn't fear of what Arthur would do to him, Arthur guessed that Merlin could probably overpower him easily, but rather, Merlin was afraid of what Arthur thought of him and the thought struck him like a bolt of lightning.

"Alright." He said at last. "I believe you."

Merlin sighed in relief. "Thank you, Arthur." He looked like the weight of the world was lifted off of his shoulders.

"Just tell me-" Arthur asked, "When were you planning on tell me? Were you ever planning on telling me?"

Merlin smiled then, a small smile, if not a little sad. "When the time was right." He responded. "I almost told you so many times."

Arthur nodded. He gestured for Merlin to sit across from him. "So. Now what do we do about Morgause?"

End of Flashback

Arthur sat in his cell, trying to figure out his next course of action. Almost every plan he and Merlin had thought of that night had all gone to hell and were now dead ends. Surely, Merlin would know that Morgause was setting a trap for him?

Then again, Merlin probably wouldn't care.

And what about what Morgause had called him? Emrys? And a prophecy? Why did this sorceress seem to know more about his servant than Arthur himself? The thought of Merlin having a complete double life that Arthur knew practically nothing of was a notion he was finding difficult to say the least.

There will be time to ask him all about it later, he told himself. I just need to make sure he doesn't get himself killed.

One Day Before:

Morgause:

Underneath the castle, deeper than dungeons, was a cavern, where, up until a few months ago, the Great Dragon used to be held captive. Morgause knew this, but she also knew that there was something else down there as well.

Morgause stood on the floor of the deep cavern, surrounded by the massive, broken chains that used to hold the dragon captive, pulling out a vial from her pocket, she sprinkled a single drop onto the floor. "ab igne cinis ortum necem." She chanted.

Slowly, a burnt hand broke through the hard surface of the ground.

Morgause smiled.

Uther had made a mistake, dumping the ashes of all the sorcerer's he had murdered into the same place.

The shades she was raising were not capable of thought, or even remembering who they once were, but she didn't need them to. She prefered them this way.

A flicker of movement above her caught her eye. Morgause looked up, just in time to see that serving girl- what was her name? -disappear back down the tunnel.

Morgause sighed, and looked at the shade.

"Get her. Bring her back to me alive."

It looks like she was going to have to start her plan a bit sooner than she had expected.

A/N: SO… Show of hands, who here wants to murder me? Everyone? Cool, yeah. Thought so. That's it, if you're still following this thing. Eight. Years. Later. If so, props to you.

So what's happened in the meantime with you all? Uh… Let's see, for me, at the time of the last chapter I was a freshman in high school… now I'm graduating college in May…Long story short, I think this is me regressing to a simpler time in my life. Also, this has been haunting me, I'm not going to lie.

I'm sorry if there are inconsistencies from now on as I did forget absolutely everything I had ever written in this story so I had to do the painful process of re-reading it to remember. (Which was embarrassing- I'm happy to say my writing has improved in the past MANY years.)

ANYWAYS. I promise the next update won't take as long.