470Summary: Morgana will kill Arthur unless Emrys reveals himself. So he does.
Author Note: This is my first Merlin fanfic, and my first fanfic at all for a very long time! I know there's a lot of reveal fics out there, but I hope this one is a little different. Any and all comments welcome!
I've never edited a story after I've posted it before, so I don't know if it comes up again, but I've only fixed a couple of grammar errors (thank you zechirator!) and fixed the formatting.
Disclaimer: Not mine
It had been a perfectly good day for Camelot's king. He was woken up by his idiotic manservant, almost on time, which he then used as a pleasant excuse to throw a goblet or two at him; had breakfast with his beautiful wife and then sat through a blessedly short meeting with his awfully dull scribe. Now somehow that perfectly fine day had gone horribly wrong and Arthur found himself held hostage in his own throne room, by his own sister, who was threatening him with his own sword. Needless to say, he was not happy.
His mood wasn't improved by the knowledge that his bravest and most trusted knights, capable of defending Camelot from all manner of threats (certainly capable of rescuing him from this predicament), were currently sitting on the floor, totally incapable of doing anything at all, while Morgana held a sword to his neck. Perfect. The party on the floor also included an anxious Guinevere, a troubled Gaius, and Merlin, who seemed to be displaying an interesting mix of defiance and nervousness.
His analysis of their situation over, Arthur returned to the matter at hand.
"What do you want Morgana?" he questioned, before wondering why he even bothered to ask.
"What I've always wanted!" she returned with a snarl, "Your death, so I can take my rightful place on the throne of Camelot."
In the corner of his eye, he saw Merlin dramatically roll his eyes as he replied. "You haven't had much luck with that so far have you?"
"And do you know why?" Morgana almost screeched, "Emrys! You persecute those with magic, all the while letting such a powerful sorcerer stand and defend you!"
This gave him a start. Of course, he'd heard Morgana mention this Emrys last time she'd taken over his throne room, but it was one of the things that had slipped to the back of his mind, behind wedding plans and restoring Camelot again.
"I've no idea what you're talking about Morgana, who is this Emrys?"
She eyed him warily, as if trying to gauge if he was genuinely in the dark. "We'll find out soon enough." She turned to the others in the room, "Emrys! You have thwarted all my attempts to kill Arthur, but no longer! Reveal yourself to me now, or I will kill Arthur where he stands!"
There was a pregnant pause as the occupants of the room looked around anxiously.
"So be it!" Morgana proclaimed triumphantly, as she drew the sword back to strike... then stopped suddenly as a voice cried out.
"Stop! I am Emrys!"
It had been an utterly horrible day for Camelot's secret magical protector. He'd woken up annoyingly early, thanks to a loud citizen calling for Gaius, then arrived earlier than usual to wake Arthur, resulting in him having to dodge a pillow, a goblet, and finally a shoe before he'd got the king up. And then he'd been sent to muck out the stables for waking his master up early for once. Honestly, Arthur was never happy.
Now a bad day had turned decidedly worse for the arrival of Morgana, who'd appeared in the throne room, disarmed the knights and had Arthur held at the point of his own sword before most of the room had time to blink.
Merlin was currently sitting on the floor with Gwen, Gaius, and the finest knights of Camelot, his mind whirring with the possibilities of just how he could get them all out of this one, without anyone realising it was him. Of course, everything would be fine if he could just distract Morgana for a second – enough for Arthur to reclaim his sword and the knights to act. Unfortunately the throne room was not the best location. If only there was a handy tree branch to drop. It would probably be pretty obvious that sorcery was at work if Morgana managed to slip over while standing still, or dropped an inexplicably burning hot sword, or the window blasted in from a freak gust of wind on this fine summer's day.
Merlin listened carefully as Morgana and Arthur talked, hoping to find some way out of this. He rolled his eyes in despair as his clotpole of a King stupidly angered a powerful sorceress holding a sword to his neck. Arthur really was a prat!
Then of course, Morgana had to react by bringing up Emrys again and calling upon him to reveal himself. Oh dear. This was really not good.
The silence was deafening. Gaius was watching him and Merlin felt mildly ill. What was he going to do? Surely he had no choice. He had to reveal himself. Morgana wasn't bluffing – why would she be? All she really wanted was Arthur dead, finding Emrys was just a necessary distraction because he kept stopping her. It certainly wasn't one of the many scenarios he'd imagined, how on Earth would everyone react in this situation?
As Morgana drew back the sword, Merlin drew in a deep breath, stood and said in a voice that he hoped belied his fear.
"Stop! I am Emrys!"
Silence again. Everyone stared at Merlin with a mixture of shock, confusion and incredulity in varying degrees. Morgana herself seemed to be struck speechless, Arthur's face was wide-eyed and frustratingly blank, while Gaius was favouring him with a look usually reserved for when he had just done something monumentally stupid, which, on reflection, he probably had. Maybe he should've just smashed in that window.
Then, just about the last thing he would've imagined happened.
Gwaine stood up and said in a voice full of wounded pride, "No, I'm Emrys!"
Merlin just gaped back, before Percival also rose. "No, I am Emrys." he stated solemnly, looking Morgana straight in the eye.
Leon cried, sounding insulted, "Don't be ridiculous, I'm Emrys!", as Arthur began to display signs of suppressed laughter and Morgana's face flushed with anger.
Merlin started to protest weakly, "Wait, I really-"
"I think we all know that I am the only one who could possibly be Emrys." Gaius interrupted, shooting him a look.
"But-"
"Thank you all for protecting me, but I must reveal that I am Emrys!" Gwen declared, sending a haughty look at an increasingly furious Morgana.
"You can't be Emrys, because I'm Emrys!" Elyan announced.
"ENOUGH!" Morgana screamed, throwing her hands up, "I'll kill you all!" And with that, she shot a ray of bluish flames towards the group.
After all that, he'd almost got out of this with his secret intact, but instead, he stepped forward and shouted "Scildan!"
The fire fizzled out harmlessly on the invisible shield extended in front of his raised hand, which he then thrust forward, knocking Morgana to the ground.
There was a pause as the others turned to him with looks of total disbelief, before Gwaine exclaimed "Wait! You mean you really ARE Emrys?"
Thanks for reading! Constructive criticism welcome :-)