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Glancing from The Faerie Queen to the unconscious form of Arthur Penn, Merlin felt the beginnings of true panic setting in, and hated what she had so easily reduced him to. He’d been thwarting her plans quietly for months, but she must have grown tired of playing the game and decided to change the rules, as this was the first time she had forced him to confront her in the open. Would she recognize him? Did she know the truth already? Does any of that matter, when she could hurt Arthur?
He wasn’t ready. He wasn’t ready to choose between hurting Arthur’s half-sister or letting the blood of innocents taint his hands.
Merlin’s life would have been so much easier if Uther Penn had been able to keep it in his pants.
Before, he’d had no qualms about opposing her - the only people who got hurt in their game then were her thugs, guns for hire, petty magic users following someone who could offer them protection in exchange for services rendered. Merlin had despised the need to harm anyone in order to keep the people of Camelot safe, but this... Arthur would never forgive him. He might understand, but he would always resent Superboy for forcing him to see his half-sister’s traitorous ways and for harming her in any way.
Would that be so bad, really? If Arthur no longer worshiped Superboy, would Merlin Emrys have a chance?
He recoiled at the thought - wasn’t his hope, his dream, that Arthur might come to care for all of him, and not just a part, a half-truth?
“I had hoped you’d be a bit more fun, Superboy. If all you’re going to do is stand there, you may as well surrender. You’re so boring when you’re like this. So human.” Her name should have been The Viper. She was so incredibly sibilant with prey captured and victory in sight.
Her words had one positive side-effect. He found his voice. “We are human. Why should I want to be anything else?”
By now, her beautiful features would be twisted beneath that gold-wreathed sage mask she used to conceal her identity. “You can pretend to be normal, to be weak like they are, Superboy - and maybe you are. After all, you love him. But I know better. We are gods among ants, and I will crush them beneath my heels.”
At least I still know how to love. “You’re the weak one, and I pity you. What made you so bitter? So full of hate?”
“This is your great plan? You’re going to talk to me about my feelings?” She spat the word as if it were poison on her serpent’s tongue.
His eye caught something in the rafters of the warehouse she chose to bring Arthur to after kidnapping him in order to stop his discovering the trail that led the rise in crime within Camelot back to his dear, darling, bastard of a sister. “We could talk about something else. Have you read the latest Better Homes and Gardens? There was this lovely article about using netting,” his eyes flashed gold and the iron-alloyed fishnet fell from where it had been supporting several decorative fish, an homage to the warehouse owner’s fishing prowess, “to keep plants safe from creatures that could get in and try to take what isn’t theirs.” The fishnet wrapped itself around her startled and furious form, and she thrashed and struggled to break free.
After watching her dispassionately to ensure that the little bit of iron in the alloy would be enough to contain her magic, Merlin walked over to the phone hanging on the wall of the warehouse and contacted the local authorities, promising to come down to the Yard to give his report later.
For now, he had a young journalist to return home.
He knelt down by Arthur and pulled him into his arms, ignoring the vitriol the trapped sorceress continued to spew. Leaning his forehead against Arthur’s, he whispered the necessary spell and whisked them away.
How many times now had he placed Arthur Penn gently on the king-sized bed in his flat, and then disappeared to his own? He wasn’t sure anymore. All he knew at this point was that he would keep bringing Arthur home.
Morgana - and he winced at his mind’s unfortunate use of her true name - had been right about one thing.
He loved Arthur, and he knew now that he would do anything to keep him safe.
Even if that meant he would never truly be able to have him.