Summary - Arthur's King, magic is restored...and Merlin's dead. When the Council of Magic want to search the dead man's sealed chambers they find more than expected. Everyone's thrown in to chaos when they don't know who to trust or what to believe.

Okay, so here's Fail Safe, the response was good from my WaoC readers so I've decided to post it. I'm NOT stopping WaoC but this idea won't leave and I've worked out the plot so I going to do two stories together, in a twisted way it should speed up my updates, so fingers cross. Oh and I know it's really, really short but it is only the Prelude.

Disclaimer: I don't own 'Merlin'

Screams, so much screaming.

Pain.

He had to continue, they depended on him, they needed him.

So he fought, metal clashing, flesh tearing, bones breaking.

Blood.

So much blood.

And then it stopped, everything just slowed down as he watched the skinny, raven haired man running.

Running.

Stopping.

I'm sorry, Arthur.

Falling.

MERLIN!

Arthur shot upright, drenched in sweat and unable to breathe.

He sat there for a second, shaking as he tried to get air into his lungs and to force his heart to slow, trying to remember where he was. He clenched his eyes shut, the heel of his hands pressing into them.

He couldn't be in the battle field; it was too quiet and far too comfortable. Slowly he dropped his hands and opened his eyes. Through the darkness he could make out his quarters, so it was a dream. For a second Arthur had convinced himself that it wasn't real, but when the truth hit him it broke his heart just that little bit more.

God, he hated hope.

Hope always crushed him, every time he woke, he hoped and hoped but the dreams were always real.

He left the warm entanglement of sheets; he knew his wife was already awake although not moving. Already knowing that there was nothing she could do to comfort him, she would turn back to sleep again soon, she always did.

Arthur headed straight to the window, sitting on the sill and gazing out to the land that he had lost so much for. It had become a habit, and nowadays he was either tending to his duties as king or staring out the window. Most thought he just enjoyed the scenery, others thought he was waiting for something, but even Arthur didn't know why he sat there, but then he didn't know much of anything anymore.

He couldn't even remember the last time he'd had a full night's sleep but he knew it had been years.

He'd been consumed by nightmares and nearly all were about what had happened, the events that had been burnt in to his very eyes. The memory was always there, haunting him. He had tried a sleeping draught at Gwen's insistence but it hadn't worked. He was and will always be a haunted man. So he sat there waiting for the sun to rise, thinking.

Thinking of the skinny man with raven hair and pale skin.

The man who had jumped

The man who had fallen.

His friend.

The idiot who had sacrificed himself for the greater good.

Merlin.

Continue or leave it and just focus solely on WaoC?

Anyway I'm shattered, good night XD

LL x