Author's Note: Alrighty, here's the epilogue of this story. Special thanks to a couple of people: thank you mersan123 for all of your super nice reviews, thank you Assassin of Syria for motivating me to get the story done and your really nice reviews, thank you lossofmerlin for reviewing for a ton of the chapters, and thank you to Invenire for being the first person to review! And thank you for all of the people who favorited, followed, and reviewed! So, read, review, and enjoy!

PS: Don't forget to let me know how the story was overall and please let me know if there's anything I can do better on my next story!

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Gwaine was ashamed to admit that he hadn't even noticed Merlin. He had been so caught up in the thrill of freeing the kingdom that concern for his friend hadn't even crossed his mind. Obviously Lancelot had noticed first and had been already running towards the young raven haired man, but Gwaine and Percival only saw his prone body when Arthur had shouted the manservant's name.

Lancelot dived to his knees next to Merlin, not at all concerned about the blood that stained his pants, Arthur freezing behind him, a stricken look staining his face. Gwaine kneeled down next to Lance, barking at Percival, "Get Gaius! Now!" The mountainous man ran towards the hidden door, yelling out for Gaius. Gwaine winced; he hadn't realized that Percival could be that loud.

The usually drunken knight stared in horror while Lance tried to stem the flow of blood from Merlin's side wound without pressing on the younger man's extensive burns until Gaius knelt down next to them, knees popping in protest. Gaius, his old face wrinkled with worry, turned quickly to Gwen, "You know what to get from my chambers. Bring two of the knights and get it quickly. We can't afford to move him now. It will only hurt him worse."

Gwen nodded, dragging Leon and Elyan with her. The other royals meandered around in the background, uncertain of what to do. Mithian seemed honestly concerned, sadness at seeing Merlin like that etched into her face. Gaius instructed Lancelot to keep doing what he was doing and unashamedly commanded Arthur to move out of the way. The King did so, not concerned in the slightest about a subordinate being so rude. Gwaine thought wryly that if this was Uther and it was even Ygraine lying on the ground, he still would have yelled at Gaius.

Finally, finally Gwen, Leon, and Elyan returned with the supplies piled high in their arms and Gaius barked that everyone except Gwen and Lancelot had to get out. It took Percival pulling him away for Gwaine to leave, but he eventually did. He was jealous that it was Lance that was in there helping Merlin and not him, but he figured that it was better that way. If he was being honest with himself, Lancelot was most definitely the better friend out of… well, out of all of them.

After an hour of tense pacing all around (with Arthur more lost in thought than Gwaine had ever thought he'd see the king), the door to the throne room creaked open and Gwen stuck her head out, a great smile lighting up her cherubic face. Arthur stepped forward anxiously, "He's alright?" Gwen was too overcome to correctly answer, smiling broader and nodding quickly. Her eyes started to form tears and she and Arthur embraced.

Gwaine pushed past them, not ready to deal with those two and their hypocritical ways. Yes, he had betrayed Merlin too, but he had helped Merlin and started to reconcile with him, knowing that he had made bad decisions. But them, they had threatened Merlin and said horrible things about him and all of a sudden they were amazingly happy that he had survived and would do fine! It was ridiculous! And Gwaine could feel that they would just turn around and betray him when he was feeling better.

They all filed into the room, taking in the lack of blood on the floor and the fact that Merlin's eyes were open. Gwaine smiled broadly and Merlin grinned his signature grin back. Before anyone could say anything, however, Mordred scrambled into the room. He had a black eye and there was a thin trail of blood coming from his disheveled hair. He spouted quickly, "Agravaine is coming! I couldn't stop him! My magic isn't yet what it used to be and he surprised me before I could do much!"

Everyone, except Merlin of course, were on their feet and turned towards various exits within a moment. Merlin had tried to rise to his feet, but was pushed down by a disproving Lancelot. Nothing moved for a second and nobody dared breathe in case they somehow missed his entrance. After an extremely awkward pause, Elyan laughed shakily and said, "Well, he must have slipped out sometime during the battle. You know how he is."

"Slippery little weasel," Gwaine agreed carefully.

All conversation halted when Arthur stopped in front of Merlin. He lowered himself to the ground so they wouldn't have such a height difference during the conversation. Gwaine watched curiously as Arthur took a deep breath and let it out before saying, "I… made a mistake. I acted too rashly and you paid the price. I realize now at least some of what you have done for this kingdom and for me and… I just wanted to say… I'm sorry. Is there any way you can forgive me?" Gwaine saw Lancelot's minute shifting in stance and his tight clenching of his jaw. He obviously did not approve of this any more than Gwaine did.

Merlin, for his part, simply smiled and said, "I can't forgive you. Not yet anyway. You have done so many terrible things, scarred me forever. You even did things during my time by your side that I convinced myself that I'd forgiven you for, but I really haven't. I don't know if you're going to bring magic back to the land as you were destined to do, or not, but I can't forgive you. I'm not saying that it's entirely your fault. I made mistakes too in what I did." Gwaine itched to correct Merlin. None of this was his fault. This situation was made by the knights and their king and queen, but not Merlin. Never Merlin.

Arthur physically wilted at that, but didn't say anything, just nodded. There was nothing more to say anyway.

AAAAAA

Arthur was surprised that Merlin had decided to stay and clean up. The warlock claimed it was to help clean up the mess he had created in the throne room, but Arthur suspected it had more to do with deciding what he and his friends wanted to do. The King knew that Gwaine, Lancelot, and Percival had wanted to leave with Merlin and never come back. They had wanted to travel the world with him and leave their mark on all of humanity, but Merlin had said no. For one, Gaius would never leave. He had been loyal to Camelot and its physician chambers since he was a young boy and he could never willingly leave it. For another, Merlin had told them that they made an oath to be faithful to Camelot and her King.

He had overheard Gwaine saying that none of them had become a Knight for Arthur or even for Camelot. They had all become a knight for Merlin (well, except for Percival who did it just because Lancelot was doing it) and that they were loyal to him, not to Arthur. Gwaine had made some ridiculous comment about being the Knights of the Druid Court since Merlin was like their king or something. Merlin had just glared at him.

Either way, it was incredibly helpful to have someone with magic helping to clean the debris up. It went a thousand times faster even if Merlin couldn't perform to his full extent due to his healing wounds. Arthur, Gweneviere, Gaius, Mordred, and the Knights had all been introduced to Kilgharrah and Aithusa and a few other Druids and fairies Merlin had become friends with here and there.

Arthur's pride was still stinging from Merlin's rejection of his apology, but Gwen convinced him that Merlin was in the right here. She had tried to apologize to Merlin, but got the same result.

After almost two months of putting the castles back together, catching all of the renegades (except Agravaine, who turned out to be a slippery little weasel indeed), and restoring order to all of the land, Arthur made the official announcement that Magic was to return to Camelot. Messengers soon informed him that the other five kingdoms were doing the same. The blonde haired king relished the feeling that came along with the smile the shone on Merlin's face when he heard the news.

Then, when they were all having dinner together in a private dining room, Arthur put out the idea that had been fermenting in his head for a while, "Merlin."

"Mhm?" Merlin replied loudly, mouth stuffed with food. Arthur rolled his eyes and Merlin grinned.

Then Arthur continued, realizing that he had the attention of the entire table, "Merlin, I want to make you the Court Warlock."

Said warlock's eyes grew wide and he swallowed quickly before allowing his mouth to drop open in shock. He stuttered out, "W-what? You want what?" He didn't allow Arthur to reiterate before he was already saying, "That's amazing! I would be an awesome Court Warlock! Do I get the title of Court Dragonlord too? I could do magic and dragon-y stuff!" His somehow still innocent smile lit up his face again and Arthur inwardly beamed.

On the outside, however, he gave a mock sigh and said, "Merlin. We don't have a Court Dragonlord."

Merlin put a hand over his chest, mock affronted, "Well, until today we didn't have a Court Warlock either. And besides, it should be made a position before it dies out. I mean, I'm the Last Dragonlord and if I don't have any male kids then there won't be any more Dragonlords to assume the position."

Lancelot interjected his logic here, "If there most likely won't be any more Dragonlords, then what's the point of making a position. You'd never be able to fill it out again."

Merlin glared at him and was about to say something before he gasped. Arthur look up, wincing as always at the jagged scar that ran over his eye and the burns that covered a portion of his face. Then he saw what made Merlin gasp. Protruding from his chest was a huge sword. It suddenly twisted and Arthur looked up to see Agravaine standing behind Merlin, continuing to twist the sword. Gwaine stood up and pulled his ever present sword out, cutting Agravaine's head clean off his neck, but it was too late. Merlin crumpled to the floor and was only saved from pushing the sword further into himself by Lancelot catching him.

Arthur didn't even spare his Uncle a passing glance as he ran to Merlin's side, pushing through the people crowding around Merlin's body. He ended up crouching next to Gaius who was trying to treat the wound. Everyone sat in silence as Gaius worked, Merlin face scrunched up in pain.

Eventually Merlin croaked out, "Don't bother, Gaius. It's not going to save me. It's alright." He even smiled at the end.

Arthur cried, "We can't just stop trying Merlin! You can't die. We lost you when I betrayed you and I don't ever want to lose you again!"

Merlin smiled again, this time sadder, "I'm sorry Arthur. I'm sorry I made so many mistakes and I'm sorry that I let destiny fall apart. Most of all, I'm sorry that it took so long for me to forgive, but I want you to know. Before I go, I want you to know that I forgive you. I forgive you Arthur."

And then he was gone, faded away into the other world because of a last desperate attempt from the insane. Merlin died in his friends' arms staring into the faces of people that he loved and people who loved him. With his dying breath he forgave the last person he needed to forgive. He was finally set free, no longer betrayed and broken.