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Merlin fic: Arthur Remembers First (1/?)
Title: Arthur Remembers First (Reincarnation! Modern AU fic) (1/?)
Author: dk323
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Girl!Merlin/Arthur, Morgana/Gwen (implied)
Warning: Character death
Disclaimer: The show Merlin is property of the BBC. No money being made.
Summary: This time, Merlin is Morgana’s younger college-aged sister, Becca. She always knew she was different when she could do magic as easily as breathing.
Becca didn’t remember Arthur, but then one day Morgana gets into a car accident and is subsequently laid up in the hospital. With a push from Morgana, she reluctantly visits a patient named Arthur. But is it already too late?
A/N: This is my first Modern AU for Merlin. Hope you like it. Comments are appreciated. :-)
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3
~ * ~
“Sometimes, I wonder about you, Morgana,” Becca said with a sigh.
She sat down in the bedside chair and glared disapprovingly at her older sister.
Morgana turned her head in her direction, looking ever the picture of calm as she surveyed her sister.
Then Morgana looked past her head, seeing the floating blue and gold ball doing figure eights in midair behind Becca.
She smiled knowingly. “I see you’re doing your Merlin trick.”
Becca groaned at that oft-made comment. Her sister liked to call her a modern Merlin to tease her, but there was always something about how she said it that gave Becca pause. Sometimes she wasn’t completely sure that Morgana was exactly teasing her – that there was, in fact, a shred of truth in her remark.
She shook her head at her bed-ridden sister. “You always say that. I can’t believe you – I don’t care what the police said, I know you. You were speeding! And you probably would have gotten away with it if there hadn’t been a drunk driver!”
“Becca, it’s nothing. Listen to me, I’ll be okay. Guess what I found out though—”
Her sister shook her head vehemently. “No, no. Damnit, you would think after mum and dad died, you’d be more responsible! You’re the older one!”
“We’re not like other people, Becca. You shouldn’t get so hung up over this. I’ve always been a fast healer. Like magic,” Morgana said – saying out loud what Becca knew full well – and snapping her fingers for effect.
The floating ball zoomed around the room and formed the words, “Bite me” in glittering gold before they faded away.
“Anyway, I was talking to one of Gwen’s nurse friends and she told me about this patient--”
“Uh, Morgana – isn’t that confidential information? How did you get her to tell you?”
“I was very persuasive. The patient’s name is Arthur and – well, it wasn’t too hard to get her to talk. She sounded rather heartbroken about the lot Arthur has been given. She needed someone to talk to – she’d just checked up on him before she came to see me. She said things aren’t going too well.”
Becca looked thoughtfully at her sister. “Why are telling me all this, Morgana? I don’t even know him. And if this is just because of my Arthurian thing, lots of people are named Arthur. And anyway, they’re just legends… right?” The look on Morgana’s face made her reconsider her words.
If she was honest with herself, Becca wasn’t even sure that they were just legends, myths after all. Sometimes, honest to god, she felt that the whole thing was real. Sometimes she had these dreams where she was pounding desperately at a locked door, trying so hard to get it open, but the door wouldn’t give.
Words, phrases, names chased after one another in her mind – Camelot, Arthur, Merlin, Destiny, “…didn’t know you were so keen to die for me”, “Are you ever going to change, Merlin?” “No, you’d get bored”, “…but you must learn to listen as well as you fight”, “you’re a prat”, “…my friend” --
She tried to make sense of them, make sense of why she was dreaming all of this…why it all felt like she was remembering another life, like a reincarnation; but she didn’t believe in that. That wasn’t possible, it was crazy…but then again, she wasn’t a normal person after all with her magical abilities…
And she remembered hearing voices on the other side. She wasn’t sure what to make of them, but there was a familiarity in them. Like at one point in the past she knew the voices well, but now there were only indecipherable, fuzzy memories that she could barely understand – they were just out of reach.
Now that she thought about it, the last dream she had was just the other night. She had pressed herself against the door, trying her best to catch as much of the conversation on the other side as she could. Even then, Becca couldn’t figure out what exactly the two voices were discussing.
“What would you have me do?” A male voice questioned, a hint of hopelessness apparent in his tone.
“The next time – no listen, Arthur. It will have to be like this. I’m sorry,” another male voice spoke with earnestness lacing his words. Becca always felt an intimate familiarity with this particular voice, though she was never sure why.
“ ‘I’m sorry’? That’s all you’re going to say? This won’t work! It never has.”
“Please don’t hate me.”
And those were the last words Becca had heard before a slamming sound of something hitting a hard surface ended the conversation. She had woken up, the slamming sound ringing in her ears.
Morgana looked carefully at her, an intense gaze holding Becca in place.
“This is important. I really think you should go see him. He’s in the Terminal Ward--” She wrote down the room number on a piece of paper and handed it to Becca.
She looked at the paper in her hand. “Morgana—the Terminal Ward? Are you sure you want me to do this? I don’t feel right about --”
“No, you have to go see him. There really isn’t much time left and I’m sorry that it’s come to this, but it’s now or never,” she said forcefully in a voice that Becca knew well. It was her “don’t argue with me, do as I say” tone of voice. Becca gave in, granting her a small nod to show she would do as she requested. “Make sure you’re not noticed,” Morgana finished.
As if Becca hadn’t perfected that spell. She had a tendency to do magic at the most inconvenient of times and since an early age, Morgana had made sure that she knew how to do a “notice-me-not” spell effectively. Now at the age of twenty, she could magick herself to be unnoticed with relative ease.
“All right, Morgana. I’ll be back,” Becca said.
She made to leave, opening the door; but then she heard Morgana say something in a soft voice. It sounded like, “I’m sorry.”
“Morgana? Did you say something?”
Her older sister looked up at her, twisting the sheets covering her. “No, I didn’t. I’ll see you later,” she said quickly.
Becca left the room, a thread of nervous anticipation troubling her. She wasn’t certain why, but she just had a good feeling that this patient was the missing piece of a puzzle that Becca had always wanted to complete. And now, she had her chance.
~ * ~
“You’ve finally decided to grace me with your presence, have you?”
These were the first words Becca heard from the blonde man, looking about the same age as her but rather pale – one of the few signs she observed that gave any indication that he was sick.
Becca closed the door with a soft click. She wasn’t sure how to respond to his unexpected words. As far as she knew, he had no idea who she was.
“Sorry? I don’t know who you are,” she said slowly, feeling very awkward. The man had a brief pained look in his eyes before it went away as quickly as it appeared. Becca went on, wanting to explain herself before he decided to kick her out. “It’s just my sister – she told me I should visit you. I’m not sure why though. Um...your name is Arthur, right?”
Arthur nodded. “You’re Merlin. And you’re a girl. Strangely, I think it agrees with you.”
“My name is Becca. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Arthur smiled indulgently at her. “Well, I expected as much. Merlin as a girl’s name would sound rather odd. But still, you look like – it’s getting easier and easier to see past the changes.”
“I’m really sorry. I don’t mean to sound rude or anything, but I’m really confused. I’m not Merlin – he’s not real. It’s all just a story. My sister, Morgana, she calls me Merlin sometimes, but it’s just harmless teasing…”
“I’m not surprised considering that ball floating by you. You do that often?”
Becca spluttered, shocked. “You’re not supposed to see that! I cast an invisibility spell – no one has seen through it before!”
He sighed and beckoned her to him. Against her better judgment, she walked toward his bed and then stood by it, feeling out of place.
She looked at him expectantly.
“Give me your hand,” he asked.
Becca held out her right hand and Arthur grasped it, a ghost of a smile touching his lips as he looked at her hand. “Merlin was thinking of painting his nails black. His wish finally came true. Your wish, I mean, but if you don’t think you’re him--”
“But wait – Merlin is a man, why would he even consider using nail polish?”
Arthur winked at her. “The normal rules never seem to apply to Merlin,” He continued to observe her in a manner that both excited and worried her. His blue eyes were bright and piercing and Becca wasn’t too sure she could look away from his perceptive gaze. “You should sit down,” he directed her, finally letting go of her hand.
She sat down in the chair by his bed. “If I may ask, what are you in here for?”
Arthur looked like he didn’t want to tell her, but then he seemed to come to a decision and he said, “Excessive radiation, that’s what the doctors say. In truth, they really don’t have a clue. That’s not what I have.”
“What do you have then?” she asked gently. She wasn’t sure if he would even tell her.
“Are you – am I being punished? Is that what this is? You don’t know how hard it is--” Arthur said, a desperate note in his voice. He began muttering incoherently under his breath.
“Arthur?” She prompted him softly, touching his shoulder to gain his attention.
Then, all of a sudden, he looked straight at her, his piercing gaze almost alarming in its intensity.
“I’m in here because of an unhealthy overexposure to magic. There is no cure,” he informed her, a carefully blank expression on his face.
Becca stared at him in disbelief. She thrived on magic, she lived magic, she was magic – the last place she should be is with him. The thought that she could be making his illness even worse hurt her, a pain she felt deep inside of her. And she wasn’t sure why she felt like this – for a man she had just met for the first time. Maybe, there was truth in his words?
“I – I really shouldn’t be here. I don’t think I’m helping the situation. I’m sorry--”
And she stood up and quickly backed away from him until she reached the door and turned the knob –
“No! Please, you have to stay. You can’t go,” Arthur called to her, pleading with her.
Becca’s eyes flashed gold and a voice that didn’t sound like her own spoke back. “This time, Arthur, we must stay away from each other.”
“Merlin – please, I’m – you have to understand!” Arthur said in a rush.
But Becca had left the room.
“Morgana remembers,” Arthur said more to himself than anyone else. Despite that thought giving him some measure of hope, he knew he was running out of time.
And who knew how long it would take until he was reborn again?
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I wonder why Arthur seems to think his problem is caused by overexposure to magic.
That will be addressed in the next chapter. :-)
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Thanks for reading. :-)
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Yay for Morgana, being in the know, pushing their destinies together again. Poor Arthur. I hope that Becca comes around to believing Arthur and Morgana.
I'm glad Arthur was able to realize his dream of seeing Merlin in black nail polish, even if he was a girl at the time.