Chapter Text
Flashback from S6: Kingdom Come: Judgement Day episode (S6x13) - replayed specifically for Mordred's POV in his final moments; open to free interpretations, more meat and slight alteration/divergence from the actual scene (Merlin holding him until the end instead of Morgana)
In the modern AU, Mordred is currently shifting in bed restlessly, as if a nightmare had plagued him while he's out cold, in a deep sleep. Merlin had been with him for a while now, keeping him company. They have established a familiar bond between them, a line blurring between acquaintances, friends and perhaps something more
Mordred's eyes flew wide open, eyeing his surroundings.
A beach, soldiers from both sides fighting for their lives, the air reeking of freshly spilled blood, and sand polluted by bodies of dead ones piling up.
He found himself in the middle of the battlefield from when he had dragged Merlin along with him, forcing their way through the path by magic. They were both headed towards Arthur and Elaine, the catastrophic blind judge known for swinging her triple-bladed axe.
"Get up. You know what needs to be done. I don't want this any more than you." Mordred's eyes, still teary from before were now burning with unresolved resentment.
"If you don't want this, then why can't we look for a way out?"
"Don't you understand?! There is no way out! We're damned! The Goddess has given us no second chance, just like your precious King gave none to Kara!" Mordred snapped at the warlock, his grip tightening.
Merlin painfully got up under his feet, letting himself be yanked and dragged away.
It pained Merlin to do what he was about to, but deep down he knew that it was the right thing to be done. The very words he should have told him 1,500 years ago.
Exasperated and fed up, Merlin spat out at him.
"Arthur did give Kara a second chance, Mordred! She rejected it!"
Mordred froze on the spot, unable to believe what he just heard coming out of the warlock's mouth. It couldn't be true. Mordred struggled to form a response, still baffled by Merlin's confession.
"What...? You're lying."
"No, for once in my life, I'm telling you the truth. Before her execution, Arthur gave her the choice between freedom and death, and she chose death."
Mordred choked on his own tears, shaken. It was as if there was a pair of invisible hands wrapped tightly around his throat, squeezing the life out of him.
"No. Why would she reject...? But she-she said... She told me..." Mordred's head shook in disbelief.
And that was when the slow realization had dawned upon Mordred. How he had been blinded to the truth the entire time. Blinded by his grief and contempt towards Arthur. Towards Merlin. Simply because he was beguiled by Kara's cunningness. His judgement being swayed away by a moment of weakness which Kara had exploited to stir him up and ultimately led to their destruction.
"She lied to me..." Mordred stammered.
All this time, Mordred was convinced that the King had simply sentenced Kara to death without offering her the chance to redeem herself. He should have known the moment she dared assault Arthur and act like a martyr about it, when their King gave her the first chance to pull back. He just didn't think that she would reject it a second time.
Elaine disarmed Arthur and was preparing to finish him off with her triple-bladed axe, when the King's gazed over her shoulders, causing her to stop. She spinned around, taking note of both Merlin and Mordred's arrival. Arthur's eyes were filled with dread while she paused, anticipating Mordred's next move.
Merlin, who was still being dragged by Mordred under his iron hold captured his look of betrayal while taking in the horrible realization of him being deceived by someone he once held most dear to him. How she had fed him lies in order to fuel his hatred.
"Kara rejected it, Mordred. She chose vengeance over mercy." Merlin voiced out, weakly.
More soldiers stopped in their tracks, spectating as the scene unfolded before their eyes.
Shuddering, Mordred heaved Merlin into the Circle.
"Merlin! Mordred!"
Morgana hurriedly ran towards Elaine only to be thrown back, repelled by the force-field she casted to make sure no one gets in her way.
Elaine readied her axe, raising her hand to shoot a spell at Arthur if he dared attempt to make a move. Arthur was completely trapped by now. And if Elaine were to execute him before the Circle was broken, every single human being in existence too, shall perish along with him.
"Merlin, go! Get out of here!"
Arthur cried out frantically. Merlin, of course, being known for never doing as he was told, ignored his pleas and he was unable to spare a look at his King. Things were already difficult enough as they were.
"Don't you dare jump, Merlin! Don't you dare!"
With Mordred's blade drawn, the druid gradually stepped forward, standing right before Arthur.
"Mordred, please! I'm begging you!"
Morgana attempted to reach out to Mordred in the hopes of having him to change his mind. Mordred's eyes bounced back and forth from Merlin's restlessness, to Arthur's pleading ones and to Elaine who was growing impatient to drive Arthur to his death.
Mordred's breathing intensifies, his grip on the bedsheet tightening as if he's close to ripping it off with so much force exerted out of him.
Merlin, whose still laying in bed next to him groans lowly, sitting up. The raven-haired man's eyes flutters open.
He turns to Mordred, noticing his heavy breathing and how his forehead gets drenched in sweat, how his soft dark brown curls stick on it. Merlin sighs quietly and runs his fingers through Mordred's locks of curls, tracing over the younger man's pale face whose now looking even paler than it usually is.
Is it one of those nightmares again?
He thought to himself, his lips thinning.
"Mordred." Merlin calls his name out gently.
Mordred whimpers, thrashing in bed, his eyes shut tight as Merlin attempts to shake him, to wake him up.
"Mordred, please wake up."
Merlin feels his heart squeezing tightly, seeing Mordred in pain and at the same time being powerless, despite being right by his side. It hurts Merlin seeing him like this. Mordred had gone through so much for his age.
The days he had spend in loneliness and grief, cut off from the world and to be denied the choice to be happy. To be denied to possess the will to live and to act out of his own volition, instead, having to carry out others' bidding for them. To be denied a free man, a person of his own individuality and instead, being raised, moulded to be a killing machine he now is. The only life he's ever known.
Mordred stared down at Arthur who was now at his mercy. He exchanged glances with Merlin as Arthur watched him helplessly.
"I'm ready." Merlin gravely declared.
"Just kill him already!" Elaine screamed at Mordred in a frenzied state, her desire for bloodlust spiking. Knowing she would die either way, she would want nothing more than to satiate her appetite seeing Arthur's life being ripped out of him.
Morgana and Gwen both took each other's hands, terrified by what's about to come.
Mordred drew back his sword and aimed for Arthur's heart, whereas Merlin readied himself to jump in between the druid and the King.
But somehow, Mordred held himself back and halted. He did not strike, and instead his hands shook. The druid trembled violently. He couldn't bring himself to do it. To kill Arthur the second time. Not after the painful truth Merlin had revealed to him. About Kara's misdeeds. About him being misguided and being aware that he was used as a means to an end, simply to befit Elaine's sadistic schemes.
"Fine! I'll do it myself!" Elaine, disgusted by Mordred's incompetency casted her triple-bladed axe aside, wrestled the druid's sword from his grasp. He barely put up a fight, too shaken and unwilling to do her bidding for her.
Elaine proceeded by lunging at Arthur. Merlin instinctively dived forward to lay down his life, in preparation for the worst to come.
"Nooo!" Arthur cried out, not wanting to embrace the inevitable.
Against all odds, Mordred purposely spinned into Elaine's path and took the blow instead. He was impaled by his own former sword by her hand.
Morgana screamed. All others who remained watching were left shocked.
Mordred shuddered as his eyes bore into Elaine's defiantly. Elaine, who was startled to see the druid on the end of the blade, later tore the sword from his chest, tossing his now weakened body aside, causing Mordred to roll across the sand.
"Mordred!" Morgana screamed once more in anguish, filled with dread as to what she just witnessed.
Elaine then turned to Arthur, who was still stunned and speechless by how Mordred had jumped in at the last minute. Elaine tried to seize the opportunity to slash at the King, but her plan ultimately backfired as Merlin casted his magic to thrust her onto her back, and later another spell to forcefully roll her on her stomach, pinning her body down, rendering her immobilized.
The King took up the fallen triple-bladed axe and towered over her. Elaine's eyes in response expanded in sheer terror and shrieked while Arthur plunged the axe, severing her head along the way, as was fitting for any formal execution carried out by a real judge for ones who had committed acts of treason.
And in this case, Elaine's continuous defiance towards what the Goddess' had ordained for her and to follow the whims of her selfish desires, disregarding the consequences from her own actions.
The bloodied axe later dropped, hitting the bloodstained sand and all fell into a long silence.
The sea dragon which assisted them from before flied overhead, its wings flapped and fluttered, kicking up a gust of wind. It later glided out into the body of water and returned from where it hailed, now that it's carried out its task to aid the warlock in his times of need.
With Elaine now pronounced dead, the force-field she drew before had been broken, and Morgana hurried forward, rushing to the druid's side.
"Mordred...!" Morgana cried his name out.
Dropping down to her knees beside him, Morgana turned Mordred's frail body, eliciting a gasp from his mouth and she exercised as much caution as possible, to pull his head into her lap as gently as she could.
Blood seeped through the wound on his pale chest. Morgana shuddered, pressing a hand to his wound whereas Merlin, Arthur, Gwen, the knights and the remaining soldiers all gathered around them watched in awe, bewildered.
"The Circle is broken," Mordred struggled to voice out.
"Shh, Mordred..." Morgana softly replied, trying to comfort him.
Arthur and Merlin speechlessly knelt on either side of the druid. By now, almost every soldier had ceased combat. Instead, they crowded around, confusion on their faces to bear witness for their fallen leaders.
"I... don't understand. Mordred... why?"
"Arthur, promise me something: promise me my people... will never again be persecuted for who they are. Promise me that." Mordred voiced in urgency, strained.
The King stared at the druid, astonished by his request. Arthur gently placed a hand on his shoulder.
"I swear on my life."
Mordred allowed himself to relax, finding great relief in Arthur's consolation. His every breath exuded great effort. The warlock baffledly watched Mordred as he gasped in pain. All the while, Morgana shushed him, cradling him in her arms.
Slowly yet tentatively, the warlock set a steadying hand on the druid's arm. This particular druid, whose life he once saved and later vowed to destroy, given the prophecy of him being the catalyst to Arthur's death.
"Mordred... Why did you take my place? What changed your mind?"
Mordred's eyes found Merlin's as he voiced out, his death catching up with him.
"You changed. Morgana... Arthur too. I... I didn't want to waste my second chance... like Kara."
Mordred attempted to shake his head, his eyes running with freshly shed tears.
"F-Forgive me."
"No, Mordred: forgive me." Arthur choked, fighting the tears running down from his.
Morgana bowed over the druid, shaking her head in denial. Hot tears streamed down her cheeks as she stroked his scarred face. Merlin and Arthur on the other hand looked on, their emotions winding them up.
Gwen, the knights and soldiers in the scene were all just as baffled by the valiant druid's sacrifice, and internally it left them to wonder to themselves whether should they resume the battle or to cease.
Breathing heavily, Morgana gradually raised her head, her eyes scanning the soldiers from both sides of the war. With the fury of a mother whose about to lose a second child, next to Galahad's, she rose, allowing Merlin to take her place to hold Mordred while her anguish was replaced by a burning determination to end the war once and for all.
As she marched towards the center of the circle where all the soldiers have formed, Morgana worded, loudly and passionately on how much blood had been spilled and the loss and grievance resulted from wars.
How it was possible to achieve peace instead of reliving an endless cycle of vengeance and bloodbath. To be free. And that if Arthur possessed the credibility and means to create a just and fair land, to beseech to them to stand by his side, and to allow such a kingdom to come.
Not too far from where Morgana's words echoed across the battlefield, a weak smile curved on the defeated and battered druid's lips.
His eyes fluttered, his breathing faltering as he watched the King who cried for him, and with Merlin holding his body while he's an arm's length from death's mercy, cherishing the final moments he had left.
Mordred's quivering hand extended out to caress Merlin's cheek, a vulnerability he now allowed himself to feel, relief washing away that the eyes which once met him with so much hostility and hatred before had now watered down with unsaid regrets, genuine care and warmth too-perhaps. The what ifs.
What if there was indeed another chance in life for him, and what if in the next life, Merlin would be more accepting towards him. Opening up and letting him in, to be bonded with him. More than just friends or mere acquaintances. More than just beings connected by magic.
The druid exerted a small smile at the King. His eyes later dimly wandered towards Merlin who had been watching him with glossy blue ones, perhaps silently grieving over him. But there wasn't anything to fear. Not anymore. Not when he had finally redeemed himself.
"Thank you."
Mordred offered a warm and most delicate smile at Merlin before fading away completely, his hand falling from the warlock's face.
Merlin stared down at Mordred's now lifeless body, closing his eyes and healed the burn marks he gave him, before silently embracing the body growing cold in his arms.
Mordred's tears continues to flow as his eyes snapped open, his breathing heavy. He shudders, feeling a tightness in his chest.
Not that dream again...
Trembling, he turns his head to find the raven-haired man holding him protectively in his arms.
Merlin's breathing is steady and deep, shifting in the bed next to Mordred, his voice thick with sleep as he gazes onto Mordred with half-lidded eyes.
".. Mer...lin?"
The younger man with anxious pale blue eyes choked, clutching onto Merlin in desperation. Merlin offers him a tired smile and nuzzles into his hair.
"You looked like you were having another one of those nightmares of yours again."
Mordred purses his lips, clutching tighter onto him.
"Don't leave me. Please."
With eyes gazing into Mordred's in sympathy and what appears to be sincere affection towards him, Merlin cradles his trembling body.
"I'm here now. I'm not going anywhere," Merlin whispers reassuringly, his warm breath tickling his ear.
Mordred's lips twitches, and he eventually luls back to sleep after feeling secure enough, settling in Merlin's arms. His scent enveloping him.