Beside Me, Chapter 2.1 - Class V
Apr. 17th, 2011 09:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nyxelestiaStory Title: Beside Me
Chapter: 2.1 - Class V
Rating: R
Summary: X-Men AU: For many downtrodden mutants, rejected throughout a lifetime of unwelcome blood dictating their lives, Camelot Academy is not just a school - it's a home. But something dark is brewing, and Camelot is no longer as safe as it appears.
Word Count: 4200
Characters/Pairings: Arthur/Merlin, Gwen, Lancelot, Morgana, Gwaine
Chapter Warnings/Content: mentions of non-con and prostitution
Beta:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
moiraes
Notes: Sorry for the lateness, especially after having not posted last week! D: But, here it is now. This chapter may have to be posted on alternate Saturdays instead of every Saturday consistently as I study for some upcoming tests, and for that, I am truly sorry. I hope you will bear with me! And in the mean time, here is this week's chapter:
Chapter 2: Cure
Part 1: Class V
Master Post
<< Previous Chapter
~*~
Gaius sighed heavily before he spoke.
“Merlin – do you understand the system of Classes, one through five, for dividing powers?”
“Um, it's logarithmic or something? One is minor mutations which don’t really give you much of a power and five is theoretically limitless power?”
“In crude terms, yes,” Gaius said. “I am a Class II, capable of extensive healing and mutant-level photographic memory. Gwaine is a Class III, for reasons best left to him. Guinevere is a Class II, while Morgana is much rarer Class IV.”
Merlin nodded. He kind of figured all their powers would be roughly around that level.
“What am I?”
“I will cut to the point, Merlin,” Gaius said. “You are a Class V.”
~*~
No!
You are a Class V.
Merlin’s blood ran cold. He could feel the ice slowly spread through his veins, his lungs, his muscles, as that sunk in. He was frozen.
Because…that wasn’t…that’s not…
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “I can’t…there has to be…t-to be some mistake!” he cried out.
Gaius shook his head. “I’m afraid not, my boy. I checked multiple times.”
As Merlin stared in shock, Gaius continued on with his explanation.
“When I had looked into your powers and started into the codes that would allow you to absorb other mutants’ powers, I had assumed there would be a limit of some kind – either on the number of powers you could absorb, or amount of the powers you could utilize. There isn’t one. There are no limits on your DNA, Merlin.”
Here, Gaius paused, seeming to sort through something mentally before continuing.
“I knew your father well, Merlin. And he was well known among mutant research circles. And knowledge of his telekinetic powers, including how much power he had, is also well known. As you said, at the age of six, you were able to move yourself and your friend onto a school roof. I am fairly certain that even as an adult, this was a bit of a task for your father. I believe that over time, your DNA has not only fully encoded the ability, but expanded on it.”
“You’re…you’re saying my power made his power…it grew?!” Merlin yelled out in alarm. How was that even possible?!
Gaius nodded.
“Your powers grew, and your DNA code has no limit to how much power you can absorb – it’s infinitely adaptive. If you meet enough mutants, you could theoretically have every power in existence – and more so, as they expand.”
Merlin shook his head. “That…that’s not…I’m just me. I’m not…”
“This does not have to be a bad thing-”
“What else can it be?!” Merlin cried out, staring in despair. “There aren’t any other known Class Vs left! All the existing ones have blown themselves up-”
“No, Merlin, they haven’t,” Gaius said, sternly. “Movies, television programs, popular books – they all rely on stereotypes, remember that. Yes, many Class Vs often lose control and become their own downfall. However, just as many gain control over their powers and become great assets for mankind and have proven quite helpful towards the human race as a whole.”
“And all of them are dead,” Merlin said. “They were killed!”
Gaius sighed. “All of the older ones, yes. Many mutants were killed in the Gene Riots, Merlin. However, there are likely other Class Vs in existence, even if they do not choose to make themselves publicly known. And even if not, others will eventually be born – it is only a matter of time, now.”
But that didn’t change the fact that for right now, he was the only known Class V in existence.
“This can be a good thing, Merlin, a very good thing,” Gaius said. “You have said as much, that you like to help people. That is exactly what you can do with this kind of power, if you so choose. And, this has no relation to your skill as an artist, Merlin, remember that – that is entirely your own talent.”
Merlin shut his eyes and dropped his head. Right. Like being a Class V didn’t change everything.
“Merlin,” Gaius said sternly. He reached over to touch his shoulder, and Merlin flinched away.
He had seen Merlin’s DNA – didn’t he realize how dangerous going near him was?!
“Take the day off.”
He blinked.
“What?”
“Take the rest of today off, relax, and give yourself time to process things,” Gaius said. “I knew your reaction wouldn’t be the best, but this was a little more than I had anticipated. Spend the rest of the day indulging in your art and maybe finishing some schoolwork later if you feel up to it. But for now, you need to accept this fully. This is not something that will go away by ignoring it. This level of power can be managed – it just has to be approached in a different manner than normal.”
Merlin swallowed. “Approached?”
“In how we study your powers and teach you to control them,” Gaius said.
Merlin looked at Gaius desperately and felt his chest tightening as he did so. “Why me?”
“…you were not ‘picked’ for this, Merlin, it is simply the course of nature-”
“That’s easy for you to say, you’re only a Class II!” Merlin shouted.
There was stunned silence, before he shut his eyes, his body trembling. “I’m sorry, I-”
“It’s quite all right, Merlin,” Gaius said affectionately. Merlin heard him come around to stand behind him, and a moment later, felt a warm hand through the shirt on his shoulder. “We will manage this, I promise you. For now, get some rest. Tomorrow, you will continue with your classes. And eventually, we will form a plan as to how best to deal with your powers – but that can come later.”
Merlin nodded and opened his eyes to stare at the grain of the wood of Gaius’s desk.
Why him?
~*~
“You look terrible,” was what Gwaine greeted him with down in the kitchen.
Merlin just blinked at him, before nodding in agreement and turning towards one of the cupboards amid Gwaine’s usual grumbles about the lack of alcohol on campus.
He was a Class V. He was…Class Vs were abnormal even among mutants. They were too powerful for their own good. They collapsed on themselves, lost control of their powers, and died.
Merlin didn’t want to collapse on himself. He didn’t want to lose control of his powers again.
And he didn’t want to die.
“Merlin?” he heard Gwaine ask. “You alright?”
“I…” Merlin paused, clutching a cupboard door in his hand, tightly. “No.”
He knew he sounded like he had been crying, as that was exactly what he had been doing on the way from Gaius’s office to here.
“That…” Gwaine sighed. “Take a seat, make a snack, and tell me what’s going on.”
Merlin nodded, sitting down and levitating some things from various parts of the kitchen into a sandwich, before splitting it in half between himself and Gwaine, and getting them each a Coke and a bag of crisps to go with it. Gwaine watched, somewhat bemused, especially when Merlin made the sandwich land in his hands instead of on his plate.
“Gaius just told me what he found about my powers,” Merlin said, not touching his food as Gwaine ate. “I’m a Class V!”
There was silence, and at the edge of his vision, he saw Gwaine set down the sandwich.
“That’s…that’s pretty big,” he said.
“Yeah,” Merlin said hoarsely, putting his elbows on the table and resting his head in his hands. “Gaius made me take the day off to deal with it.”
“Well…I can imagine you would need it. This is big stuff to deal with,” Gwaine said, patting Merlin’s shoulder somewhat awkwardly.
“Yeah,” Merlin said again, staring down at his sandwich.
“Are you going to say something besides ‘yeah’ over and over again?” Gwaine asked.
Merlin smiled in spite of himself. “No.”
Gwaine laughed a little, patting Merlin’s shoulder again.
They both looked to their respective sandwiches again.
“Eat,” Gwaine commanded, pushing Merlin’s plate towards him. “You’re too skinny.”
“Why does everyone always say that?” he asked, even as he warily picked up the sandwich.
“Because it’s true,” Gwaine said glibly.
Merlin glared, but bit into the damned thing, and Gwaine grinned. “That’s the spirit!”
Merlin just glared even more, and Gwaine laughed.
But by the time he finished his sandwich, he didn't feel so bad.
~*~
“Mum?”
“Merlin?”
“Mum…”
“Merlin, what’s going on? Your voice-”
“Mum, I…I…”
“What’s wrong, sweetie?”
“…Gaius did some tests on some of my blood to find out more about my DNA…”
“That’s good, isn’t it?”
“…I’m a Class V, Mum.”
“…”
“Mum?”
“Oh, Merlin…”
~*~
Merlin was huddled in a corner of the media room, checked-out laptop resting on the arm of his sofa as he created wallpaper after wallpaper, most of them grungy and depressing. Not his usual type. He didn’t care what it meant.
Just as he was finishing up a ‘moonlit ghetto night’ type wallpaper, Leon popped up in front of him.
“They look nice, even if they are depressing,” Leon said. “And, you’ll be fine. A lot of Class Vs were-”
“Leon!” Merlin hissed, looking around him frantically. The nearest person was three metres away and too focused on her own laptop to have heard them, likely. Hopefully.
“She’s not listening, she reading a e-mail her boyfriend sent her and trying to look for clues that he’s cheating her on,” Leon said, pulling himself onto the sofa to plop by Merlin. “So, do you want to be telepathic?”
Merlin blinked at the nonsequitur. “What?”
“You can absorb powers,” Leon said. “So you can be telepathic. Then you can read my mind, I can read yours, and we can talk to each other and stuff.”
Merlin frowned in confusion, but Leon answered before he’d even formed the question properly in his head. “I can hear other people’s thoughts, but they can’t hear mine. I can project my thoughts into Morgana’s head, and a few other kids with powers that have to do with their minds and brains and stuff, but most of them are boring or mean and it’s really hard and gives me headaches if I do it too long. But if you can just read my mind like I read yours, then neither of us get headaches. And you’re nice. And fun.”
Merlin sighed and quickly brought up the memories of the times he absorbed powers, and Leon winced slightly, before sighing and nodding.
“Well, you wanted to show Gaius, anyway – when you do, just find me…and no, I’m not too young.”
Merlin rolled his eyes.
“And, you need to come with me,” Leon said. “When you’re done.”
Merlin frowned in a second round of confusion. Why?
“You know how when you came here, Gaius mentioned you weren't the only one who, um, prostituted yourself?”
Merlin shut his eyes. Dear god, this kid was ten. He should barely know what sex was.
“I’ve known what sex was all my life. People think about it a lot. I know a lot of things most grown-ups don't think I should about.”
Did this kid ever stop?
“No.”
He really wanted the kid to stop.
“I will, but not yet,” Leon said. “Anyway, I know who the other person is. I don’t think she’d mind talking to you. I already told her someone else in the school did the same thing, just didn’t say who. You guys could use someone to talk to, and you don’t want to talk to Gaius, so maybe you should try each other.”
This kid was creeping him out.
“I do that a lot. Only Morgana never gets creeped out.”
She was creepy, herself.
Leon grinned at that. “I know – isn’t she awesome?”
That was one word for it.
Leon stuck his tongue out at Merlin, before saying, “Well, you’re done with your wallpaper set, anyway! Just post it and come with me.”
Merlin sighed – why the hell was he taking orders from an ten year old, again? – and complied.
“Because you want to meet someone else who shares the one secret you still have that no one else in the school does. Well, one more, anyway…”
Stop it.
“Later.”
~*~
Leon wandered up to the common room decorated predominantly in yellows and blacks – the Hufflepuff lounge. Merlin followed somewhat hesitantly as Leon led him to a pale brunette in the back.
The little boy went right up to the girl and tugged on her sleeve. “Freya! This is the other guy I told you about!”
…Leon was really damn blunt. Merlin wondered if it was just his nature or it came from the mind reading.
“Both,” Leon said to Merlin, as Freya, wide-eyed, set her book aside to slowly look up at him.
“And no one else is around,” Leon added, before promptly walking off. Well, almost, as at the last second, he turned sharply to go sit next to some bloke who appeared to be staring catatonically at a letter in his hands.
Merlin gingerly sat by Freya on the sofa, opposite of her but close enough that they could keep their voices low and still hear each other.
“…this is weird,” Merlin said finally, to which he nodded. He needed to break the ice, somehow. “I…what do we talk about, exactly?” She shrugged. “…are you going to say anything?”
“Sorry,” she mumbled.
Icebreakers were definitely in order.
Merlin sighed, holding out his hand. “Let’s start fresh – I’m Merlin, Merlin Emrys.”
She gingerly held out her hand and shook his. “I’m Freya Bastet. Nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you, too…” Merlin said, then once again found himself at an awkward pause. He sighed. “This is still…”
“…better than talking about what we’ve been through to Gaius?” she offered.
Merlin nodded.
“I guess we can start…with what we’ve been through. Would that usually be how a therapist deals with it?”
She smiled, blushing, in amusement.
“What’s your story?” he asked simply.
“It’s not pleasant,” she said.
“…neither is mine,” he said. And he told her his story. About growing up, about Will, about running away, and his part in what he did.
She told him her story. How she could turn into animals after touching them, how she couldn’t control it in her sleep. How her family rejected her and cast her out upon finding out she was a mutant. How, once on her own, she resorted to selling her body when she could, sometimes turning body parts into different animal parts as an advertising feature, on her own journey to get to Camelot once she heard of it on the streets of Cardiff.
Until came along the man who raped her and tried to kill her, Halig – who she’d accidentally killed out of terror.
It took the work of various women’s protection, sexual assault prevention, and mutant protection groups to fight for her. It was through almost sheer luck she was allowed to come to Camelot and finish her education instead of being shipped off to prison for life for using her mutant power to hurt someone else.
“Oh, Freya,” Merlin said, offering his hands for her to hold onto tightly. “I want to hug you so badly.”
She paused for a moment before reaching into her bag and taking out a large sweatshirt. She slipped it on over her frame, thin enough to rival Merlin’s, and pulled up the hood, tugging the hood-cords tight.
Merlin drew her close to him instantly, the two wrapping themselves around each other tightly.
~*~
“It’s like something right out of Animorphs,” Merlin said of her powers almost half an hour later, after a cathartic hug and even more cathartic conversation.
She smiled, then laughed, like she had forgotten how until then, and it was a beautiful sound.
~*~
Merlin was still a Class V and still had nightmares about Will, his life on the streets, and becoming a mutant power supernova that collapsed on himself and killed him, but by day, he managed to push past it.
Half the school suddenly thought he was dating Freya – despite many of them knowing he was gay – and how they came to this conclusion was beyond him. But it was okay, because neither of them were really interested in dating, anyway.
But a lot of that might have had to do with how protective Merlin was of Freya, now. And how they spent all their time together.
He even offered for them to share a room together – but she vehemently opposed that.
“I still have trouble controlling my power, especially when I’m asleep. I might change into a dangerous animal and hurt you – I asked Gaius to give my room an extra lock on it and a reinforced door for this.”
However, Merlin did move into the room next to hers.
(And sometimes, they would appear before each other’s room and hug each other and cuddle through the night, through nightmares, lots of them, both wearing sweatshirts and layers so they never hurt each other – and it was nice, really nice.)
~*~
There was one severe disadvantage of being in a school full of mutants – he couldn’t touch anyone, skin to skin. And he missed the feeling.
Enough to take Leon up on his offer.
And, when Freya also offered to give him her power, he accepted.
~*~
They learned more about their powers, that week.
When Freya was in the shape of a cat, and Merlin touched her, nothing happened – he didn’t absorb her DNA. After she returned to her human state, Merlin got her power by touching her, which Gaius seemed to find extremely important.
“What difference does it make?” Merlin grumbled as Gaius took all this down.
“It allows me to understand the level of presence of your genetic code depending on the state of your power,” Gaius said carefully.
“It’s for our good, Merlin,” Freya said cheerfully.
Merlin also discovered that touching others while being an animal was okay – because in the infirmary, when Merlin was a mouse, Leon pet him for ten minutes and nothing happened, but the moment Merlin was more human than mouse-
-the kid was ten, but he certainly had one hell of a high pain tolerance.
Merlin watched miserably as Leon lay in his beside Merlin, trembling, as was Merlin, himself, while Gaius tucked them in and fussed over them, letting some monitors do all the work of keeping a scientific eye on them.
“I’m sorry,” Merlin mumbled to him.
No biggie, Leon thought. Merlin nearly jumped as he used this power, but he was supposed to. At least now we can talk in our heads.
“Are you okay?” he asked Freya.
She nodded, smiling at him. “Now I’ll have someone to practice with. And Gaius has more information.”
Merlin nodded, glad at least of that – it hadn’t meant too much to them to learn that Merlin could touch Freya while she was in an animal form and be unaffected, only gaining her power when she was a human, but Gaius seemed to find it important for both their powers.
Leon was just happy trying to have someone to ‘talk’ to.
And Merlin was happy to have two people he could finally touch.
When Freya was able to sit up again, she reached over, and took Merlin’s hand in hers.
With a large sigh, Merlin enjoyed the feeling of skin on skin, something he’d had no experience with at all since coming to Camelot. Emboldened by them being able to touch, Freya climbed into his bed and the two hugged each other, holding onto each other and just enjoying the feeling of another human being.
~*~
Later that week, two people that he could touch became four (with plans for it to be five next week with Morgana).
Gwen and Lance sat on the bed across from Merlin as Gaius once again set up all the monitors on all three of them. Lance occasionally helped by moving things around. Merlin was too jittery, focusing on the weave of his arm warmers and the feeling of suppressing other powers with his own. Hopefully, in the process of touching them, he could suppress the absorbing power itself if he concentrated enough.
“Are you ready, Merlin?” Gaius asked gently, a hand on Merlin’s knee.
Merlin bit his lip and nodded. It had nearly a week since he absorbed Freya and Leon’s powers, but the memories of the pain never completely faded.
Gwen and Lance both held up their hands. They were going to find out whether things changed when absorbing two people’s powers at once, and were hoping that ‘overloading’ him could trigger a self-protection instinct.
Merlin sincerely hoped so.
“Sorry,” Merlin said as he held his hands above theirs.
“You haven’t even touched us yet,” Gwen said, though Merlin could hear the nervousness underneath.
“This is going to hurt,” Merlin said. He pushed down on his powers, all of them, pushed down on everything, and then reached out and grabbed their hands
~*~
Ten minutes later, Gaius sighed as Merlin remained a trembling wreck on his bed, Gwen and Lance holding onto each other comfortingly.
“S-s-sorry,” Merlin mumbled, shutting his eyes in exhaustion.
“It’s all right, Merlin,” Lance said, before reaching out and laying a hand on Merlin’s shoulder. Merlin flinched, but relaxed, when Lance’s fingers directly touched his shoulder. “Look, at least you don’t have to worry about touching us, now, that’s a plus!”
“That’s the spirit, Lance,” Gaius said encouragingly, before looking at Merlin again. “So absorbing more people’s powers at once intensifies the pain. Do they seem to exemplify each other or simply add on to each other?”
“I dunno,” Merlin said, wincing and slowly pushing himself up, still shivering. “It just…hurts more…”
“I’m really sorry,” Gwen said earnestly.
“S’not your fault, s’mine,” Merlin said.
“It’s nobody’s fault,” Gaius said, before they could fall into this kind of pit again. “I’ve seen far too many mutants fall victim to popular culture’s tendency to heap the blame for everything on them, and I’m not going to let that happen here, not on my watch.” He looked between the three teenagers. “It just means we will have to try something different.”
Merlin weakly nodded his head.
“Well, there’s one more bright side,” Gwen said. “Now you can help me with the gardening!”
Gratefully, Merlin smiled.
Gwen and Lance left, as there was minimal pain and it was easy to recover from on their end. Merlin stayed.
“So, no more than one power at a time?” Merlin said, his mood a little lower in the absence of his friends.
“Yes,” Gaius said. “Overloading is likely a bad way to go about it.”
~*~
But now that he had these powers, it was brilliant.
Merlin knew he wasn’t helping dissuade all those rumors about him and Freya, but he couldn’t help it – now that he could touch her, he and Freya clung onto each other all the time. And he cuddled up with Gwen during movie nights, and he and Lancelot mock-wrestled all the time, and Leon hung onto his hand at every opportunity, conversing between their minds.
He was a Class V mutant, with a dark past and foreboding future, but right now, he had his friends, and right now, that was enough for him.
~*~
Arthur took another soft and juicy bite of his steak as he leaned back in his seat, grateful for their private booth as he let his wings relax within the confines of his dinner jacket, just a little.
“You’re making the cure public this weekend, then?”
“I’m announcing it, yes,” Uther said. “It will actually be made available next week, starting Thursday or Friday. Probably Friday, knowing those idiots at the medical warehouses...”
Arthur let himself drift amidst his father’s medical babble, imagining himself without wings. He wouldn’t have to hold them in, clench them just to eat out!
(He almost wished they could have this meal at home, so he could let his wings out, before he remembered if he ate with his father, it didn’t matter where they were, he would have to clench them close to himself.)
“-Morgana-”
Arthur’s head snapped up at the mention of his half-sister’s name.
“What about her?”
“I am thinking of contacting her, maybe after Halloween,” Uther said. “To get her the cure.”
“She won’t want to be cured,” Arthur said. Neither of the Gorlois sisters would.
“She will come around,” Uther said. “Whatever she’s scared of, once she sees the cure is fine, she will forget her fears.”
But she doesn’t fear the cure, Arthur nearly said. She just likes being herself.
He didn’t say that, however much he wanted to. For one, it would mean admitting that he still talked to her, and they’d already had to deal with Uther blocking out the Camelot IP addresses; trying to block out whatever else she was using would be problematic, whatever proxies she may or may not have had at hand.
But more importantly, Father didn’t understand. He didn’t understand the feeling of rightness when using a mutation, how it was like being yourself (how being human wasn’t).
Morgana still held on to ideals of individualism. Arthur knew that being heir to a corporate empire meant he was never going to be himself either way - he could absolutely stand to be cured and be human again, to be Uther’s son again.
In the real world, no one was ever themselves, anyway – so Arthur might as well become something better than himself, however little that was actually saying.
He was more than happy to.
(He was. There wasn't any other option. He was.)
~*~
Next Chapter >>
Master Post
~*~
A/N: Again, I apologize severely for the lateness, and that future parts of this chapter will also be late. D:
Next Chapter, 2.2 - Cure: Now that Merlin's had time to deal with it, being a Class V is...manageable. And as it turns out, getting powers means helping others with theirs, a perk Merlin certainly had never expected, but loved dearly. He could handle being a Class V...but when Pendragon Inc. releases a cure for mutantism, the question becomes, does he want to? He's not sure of himself or the answer, and apparently, neither is Arthur.
Chapter: 2.1 - Class V
Rating: R
Summary: X-Men AU: For many downtrodden mutants, rejected throughout a lifetime of unwelcome blood dictating their lives, Camelot Academy is not just a school - it's a home. But something dark is brewing, and Camelot is no longer as safe as it appears.
Word Count: 4200
Characters/Pairings: Arthur/Merlin, Gwen, Lancelot, Morgana, Gwaine
Chapter Warnings/Content: mentions of non-con and prostitution
Beta:
moiraesNotes: Sorry for the lateness, especially after having not posted last week! D: But, here it is now. This chapter may have to be posted on alternate Saturdays instead of every Saturday consistently as I study for some upcoming tests, and for that, I am truly sorry. I hope you will bear with me! And in the mean time, here is this week's chapter:
Chapter 2: Cure
Part 1: Class V
<< Previous Chapter
~*~
Gaius sighed heavily before he spoke.
“Merlin – do you understand the system of Classes, one through five, for dividing powers?”
“Um, it's logarithmic or something? One is minor mutations which don’t really give you much of a power and five is theoretically limitless power?”
“In crude terms, yes,” Gaius said. “I am a Class II, capable of extensive healing and mutant-level photographic memory. Gwaine is a Class III, for reasons best left to him. Guinevere is a Class II, while Morgana is much rarer Class IV.”
Merlin nodded. He kind of figured all their powers would be roughly around that level.
“What am I?”
“I will cut to the point, Merlin,” Gaius said. “You are a Class V.”
No!
You are a Class V.
Merlin’s blood ran cold. He could feel the ice slowly spread through his veins, his lungs, his muscles, as that sunk in. He was frozen.
Because…that wasn’t…that’s not…
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “I can’t…there has to be…t-to be some mistake!” he cried out.
Gaius shook his head. “I’m afraid not, my boy. I checked multiple times.”
As Merlin stared in shock, Gaius continued on with his explanation.
“When I had looked into your powers and started into the codes that would allow you to absorb other mutants’ powers, I had assumed there would be a limit of some kind – either on the number of powers you could absorb, or amount of the powers you could utilize. There isn’t one. There are no limits on your DNA, Merlin.”
Here, Gaius paused, seeming to sort through something mentally before continuing.
“I knew your father well, Merlin. And he was well known among mutant research circles. And knowledge of his telekinetic powers, including how much power he had, is also well known. As you said, at the age of six, you were able to move yourself and your friend onto a school roof. I am fairly certain that even as an adult, this was a bit of a task for your father. I believe that over time, your DNA has not only fully encoded the ability, but expanded on it.”
“You’re…you’re saying my power made his power…it grew?!” Merlin yelled out in alarm. How was that even possible?!
Gaius nodded.
“Your powers grew, and your DNA code has no limit to how much power you can absorb – it’s infinitely adaptive. If you meet enough mutants, you could theoretically have every power in existence – and more so, as they expand.”
Merlin shook his head. “That…that’s not…I’m just me. I’m not…”
“This does not have to be a bad thing-”
“What else can it be?!” Merlin cried out, staring in despair. “There aren’t any other known Class Vs left! All the existing ones have blown themselves up-”
“No, Merlin, they haven’t,” Gaius said, sternly. “Movies, television programs, popular books – they all rely on stereotypes, remember that. Yes, many Class Vs often lose control and become their own downfall. However, just as many gain control over their powers and become great assets for mankind and have proven quite helpful towards the human race as a whole.”
“And all of them are dead,” Merlin said. “They were killed!”
Gaius sighed. “All of the older ones, yes. Many mutants were killed in the Gene Riots, Merlin. However, there are likely other Class Vs in existence, even if they do not choose to make themselves publicly known. And even if not, others will eventually be born – it is only a matter of time, now.”
But that didn’t change the fact that for right now, he was the only known Class V in existence.
“This can be a good thing, Merlin, a very good thing,” Gaius said. “You have said as much, that you like to help people. That is exactly what you can do with this kind of power, if you so choose. And, this has no relation to your skill as an artist, Merlin, remember that – that is entirely your own talent.”
Merlin shut his eyes and dropped his head. Right. Like being a Class V didn’t change everything.
“Merlin,” Gaius said sternly. He reached over to touch his shoulder, and Merlin flinched away.
He had seen Merlin’s DNA – didn’t he realize how dangerous going near him was?!
“Take the day off.”
He blinked.
“What?”
“Take the rest of today off, relax, and give yourself time to process things,” Gaius said. “I knew your reaction wouldn’t be the best, but this was a little more than I had anticipated. Spend the rest of the day indulging in your art and maybe finishing some schoolwork later if you feel up to it. But for now, you need to accept this fully. This is not something that will go away by ignoring it. This level of power can be managed – it just has to be approached in a different manner than normal.”
Merlin swallowed. “Approached?”
“In how we study your powers and teach you to control them,” Gaius said.
Merlin looked at Gaius desperately and felt his chest tightening as he did so. “Why me?”
“…you were not ‘picked’ for this, Merlin, it is simply the course of nature-”
“That’s easy for you to say, you’re only a Class II!” Merlin shouted.
There was stunned silence, before he shut his eyes, his body trembling. “I’m sorry, I-”
“It’s quite all right, Merlin,” Gaius said affectionately. Merlin heard him come around to stand behind him, and a moment later, felt a warm hand through the shirt on his shoulder. “We will manage this, I promise you. For now, get some rest. Tomorrow, you will continue with your classes. And eventually, we will form a plan as to how best to deal with your powers – but that can come later.”
Merlin nodded and opened his eyes to stare at the grain of the wood of Gaius’s desk.
Why him?
“You look terrible,” was what Gwaine greeted him with down in the kitchen.
Merlin just blinked at him, before nodding in agreement and turning towards one of the cupboards amid Gwaine’s usual grumbles about the lack of alcohol on campus.
He was a Class V. He was…Class Vs were abnormal even among mutants. They were too powerful for their own good. They collapsed on themselves, lost control of their powers, and died.
Merlin didn’t want to collapse on himself. He didn’t want to lose control of his powers again.
And he didn’t want to die.
“Merlin?” he heard Gwaine ask. “You alright?”
“I…” Merlin paused, clutching a cupboard door in his hand, tightly. “No.”
He knew he sounded like he had been crying, as that was exactly what he had been doing on the way from Gaius’s office to here.
“That…” Gwaine sighed. “Take a seat, make a snack, and tell me what’s going on.”
Merlin nodded, sitting down and levitating some things from various parts of the kitchen into a sandwich, before splitting it in half between himself and Gwaine, and getting them each a Coke and a bag of crisps to go with it. Gwaine watched, somewhat bemused, especially when Merlin made the sandwich land in his hands instead of on his plate.
“Gaius just told me what he found about my powers,” Merlin said, not touching his food as Gwaine ate. “I’m a Class V!”
There was silence, and at the edge of his vision, he saw Gwaine set down the sandwich.
“That’s…that’s pretty big,” he said.
“Yeah,” Merlin said hoarsely, putting his elbows on the table and resting his head in his hands. “Gaius made me take the day off to deal with it.”
“Well…I can imagine you would need it. This is big stuff to deal with,” Gwaine said, patting Merlin’s shoulder somewhat awkwardly.
“Yeah,” Merlin said again, staring down at his sandwich.
“Are you going to say something besides ‘yeah’ over and over again?” Gwaine asked.
Merlin smiled in spite of himself. “No.”
Gwaine laughed a little, patting Merlin’s shoulder again.
They both looked to their respective sandwiches again.
“Eat,” Gwaine commanded, pushing Merlin’s plate towards him. “You’re too skinny.”
“Why does everyone always say that?” he asked, even as he warily picked up the sandwich.
“Because it’s true,” Gwaine said glibly.
Merlin glared, but bit into the damned thing, and Gwaine grinned. “That’s the spirit!”
Merlin just glared even more, and Gwaine laughed.
But by the time he finished his sandwich, he didn't feel so bad.
“Mum?”
“Merlin?”
“Mum…”
“Merlin, what’s going on? Your voice-”
“Mum, I…I…”
“What’s wrong, sweetie?”
“…Gaius did some tests on some of my blood to find out more about my DNA…”
“That’s good, isn’t it?”
“…I’m a Class V, Mum.”
“…”
“Mum?”
“Oh, Merlin…”
Merlin was huddled in a corner of the media room, checked-out laptop resting on the arm of his sofa as he created wallpaper after wallpaper, most of them grungy and depressing. Not his usual type. He didn’t care what it meant.
Just as he was finishing up a ‘moonlit ghetto night’ type wallpaper, Leon popped up in front of him.
“They look nice, even if they are depressing,” Leon said. “And, you’ll be fine. A lot of Class Vs were-”
“Leon!” Merlin hissed, looking around him frantically. The nearest person was three metres away and too focused on her own laptop to have heard them, likely. Hopefully.
“She’s not listening, she reading a e-mail her boyfriend sent her and trying to look for clues that he’s cheating her on,” Leon said, pulling himself onto the sofa to plop by Merlin. “So, do you want to be telepathic?”
Merlin blinked at the nonsequitur. “What?”
“You can absorb powers,” Leon said. “So you can be telepathic. Then you can read my mind, I can read yours, and we can talk to each other and stuff.”
Merlin frowned in confusion, but Leon answered before he’d even formed the question properly in his head. “I can hear other people’s thoughts, but they can’t hear mine. I can project my thoughts into Morgana’s head, and a few other kids with powers that have to do with their minds and brains and stuff, but most of them are boring or mean and it’s really hard and gives me headaches if I do it too long. But if you can just read my mind like I read yours, then neither of us get headaches. And you’re nice. And fun.”
Merlin sighed and quickly brought up the memories of the times he absorbed powers, and Leon winced slightly, before sighing and nodding.
“Well, you wanted to show Gaius, anyway – when you do, just find me…and no, I’m not too young.”
Merlin rolled his eyes.
“And, you need to come with me,” Leon said. “When you’re done.”
Merlin frowned in a second round of confusion. Why?
“You know how when you came here, Gaius mentioned you weren't the only one who, um, prostituted yourself?”
Merlin shut his eyes. Dear god, this kid was ten. He should barely know what sex was.
“I’ve known what sex was all my life. People think about it a lot. I know a lot of things most grown-ups don't think I should about.”
Did this kid ever stop?
“No.”
He really wanted the kid to stop.
“I will, but not yet,” Leon said. “Anyway, I know who the other person is. I don’t think she’d mind talking to you. I already told her someone else in the school did the same thing, just didn’t say who. You guys could use someone to talk to, and you don’t want to talk to Gaius, so maybe you should try each other.”
This kid was creeping him out.
“I do that a lot. Only Morgana never gets creeped out.”
She was creepy, herself.
Leon grinned at that. “I know – isn’t she awesome?”
That was one word for it.
Leon stuck his tongue out at Merlin, before saying, “Well, you’re done with your wallpaper set, anyway! Just post it and come with me.”
Merlin sighed – why the hell was he taking orders from an ten year old, again? – and complied.
“Because you want to meet someone else who shares the one secret you still have that no one else in the school does. Well, one more, anyway…”
Stop it.
“Later.”
Leon wandered up to the common room decorated predominantly in yellows and blacks – the Hufflepuff lounge. Merlin followed somewhat hesitantly as Leon led him to a pale brunette in the back.
The little boy went right up to the girl and tugged on her sleeve. “Freya! This is the other guy I told you about!”
…Leon was really damn blunt. Merlin wondered if it was just his nature or it came from the mind reading.
“Both,” Leon said to Merlin, as Freya, wide-eyed, set her book aside to slowly look up at him.
“And no one else is around,” Leon added, before promptly walking off. Well, almost, as at the last second, he turned sharply to go sit next to some bloke who appeared to be staring catatonically at a letter in his hands.
Merlin gingerly sat by Freya on the sofa, opposite of her but close enough that they could keep their voices low and still hear each other.
“…this is weird,” Merlin said finally, to which he nodded. He needed to break the ice, somehow. “I…what do we talk about, exactly?” She shrugged. “…are you going to say anything?”
“Sorry,” she mumbled.
Icebreakers were definitely in order.
Merlin sighed, holding out his hand. “Let’s start fresh – I’m Merlin, Merlin Emrys.”
She gingerly held out her hand and shook his. “I’m Freya Bastet. Nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you, too…” Merlin said, then once again found himself at an awkward pause. He sighed. “This is still…”
“…better than talking about what we’ve been through to Gaius?” she offered.
Merlin nodded.
“I guess we can start…with what we’ve been through. Would that usually be how a therapist deals with it?”
She smiled, blushing, in amusement.
“What’s your story?” he asked simply.
“It’s not pleasant,” she said.
“…neither is mine,” he said. And he told her his story. About growing up, about Will, about running away, and his part in what he did.
She told him her story. How she could turn into animals after touching them, how she couldn’t control it in her sleep. How her family rejected her and cast her out upon finding out she was a mutant. How, once on her own, she resorted to selling her body when she could, sometimes turning body parts into different animal parts as an advertising feature, on her own journey to get to Camelot once she heard of it on the streets of Cardiff.
Until came along the man who raped her and tried to kill her, Halig – who she’d accidentally killed out of terror.
It took the work of various women’s protection, sexual assault prevention, and mutant protection groups to fight for her. It was through almost sheer luck she was allowed to come to Camelot and finish her education instead of being shipped off to prison for life for using her mutant power to hurt someone else.
“Oh, Freya,” Merlin said, offering his hands for her to hold onto tightly. “I want to hug you so badly.”
She paused for a moment before reaching into her bag and taking out a large sweatshirt. She slipped it on over her frame, thin enough to rival Merlin’s, and pulled up the hood, tugging the hood-cords tight.
Merlin drew her close to him instantly, the two wrapping themselves around each other tightly.
“It’s like something right out of Animorphs,” Merlin said of her powers almost half an hour later, after a cathartic hug and even more cathartic conversation.
She smiled, then laughed, like she had forgotten how until then, and it was a beautiful sound.
Merlin was still a Class V and still had nightmares about Will, his life on the streets, and becoming a mutant power supernova that collapsed on himself and killed him, but by day, he managed to push past it.
Half the school suddenly thought he was dating Freya – despite many of them knowing he was gay – and how they came to this conclusion was beyond him. But it was okay, because neither of them were really interested in dating, anyway.
But a lot of that might have had to do with how protective Merlin was of Freya, now. And how they spent all their time together.
He even offered for them to share a room together – but she vehemently opposed that.
“I still have trouble controlling my power, especially when I’m asleep. I might change into a dangerous animal and hurt you – I asked Gaius to give my room an extra lock on it and a reinforced door for this.”
However, Merlin did move into the room next to hers.
(And sometimes, they would appear before each other’s room and hug each other and cuddle through the night, through nightmares, lots of them, both wearing sweatshirts and layers so they never hurt each other – and it was nice, really nice.)
There was one severe disadvantage of being in a school full of mutants – he couldn’t touch anyone, skin to skin. And he missed the feeling.
Enough to take Leon up on his offer.
And, when Freya also offered to give him her power, he accepted.
They learned more about their powers, that week.
When Freya was in the shape of a cat, and Merlin touched her, nothing happened – he didn’t absorb her DNA. After she returned to her human state, Merlin got her power by touching her, which Gaius seemed to find extremely important.
“What difference does it make?” Merlin grumbled as Gaius took all this down.
“It allows me to understand the level of presence of your genetic code depending on the state of your power,” Gaius said carefully.
“It’s for our good, Merlin,” Freya said cheerfully.
Merlin also discovered that touching others while being an animal was okay – because in the infirmary, when Merlin was a mouse, Leon pet him for ten minutes and nothing happened, but the moment Merlin was more human than mouse-
-the kid was ten, but he certainly had one hell of a high pain tolerance.
Merlin watched miserably as Leon lay in his beside Merlin, trembling, as was Merlin, himself, while Gaius tucked them in and fussed over them, letting some monitors do all the work of keeping a scientific eye on them.
“I’m sorry,” Merlin mumbled to him.
No biggie, Leon thought. Merlin nearly jumped as he used this power, but he was supposed to. At least now we can talk in our heads.
“Are you okay?” he asked Freya.
She nodded, smiling at him. “Now I’ll have someone to practice with. And Gaius has more information.”
Merlin nodded, glad at least of that – it hadn’t meant too much to them to learn that Merlin could touch Freya while she was in an animal form and be unaffected, only gaining her power when she was a human, but Gaius seemed to find it important for both their powers.
Leon was just happy trying to have someone to ‘talk’ to.
And Merlin was happy to have two people he could finally touch.
When Freya was able to sit up again, she reached over, and took Merlin’s hand in hers.
With a large sigh, Merlin enjoyed the feeling of skin on skin, something he’d had no experience with at all since coming to Camelot. Emboldened by them being able to touch, Freya climbed into his bed and the two hugged each other, holding onto each other and just enjoying the feeling of another human being.
Later that week, two people that he could touch became four (with plans for it to be five next week with Morgana).
Gwen and Lance sat on the bed across from Merlin as Gaius once again set up all the monitors on all three of them. Lance occasionally helped by moving things around. Merlin was too jittery, focusing on the weave of his arm warmers and the feeling of suppressing other powers with his own. Hopefully, in the process of touching them, he could suppress the absorbing power itself if he concentrated enough.
“Are you ready, Merlin?” Gaius asked gently, a hand on Merlin’s knee.
Merlin bit his lip and nodded. It had nearly a week since he absorbed Freya and Leon’s powers, but the memories of the pain never completely faded.
Gwen and Lance both held up their hands. They were going to find out whether things changed when absorbing two people’s powers at once, and were hoping that ‘overloading’ him could trigger a self-protection instinct.
Merlin sincerely hoped so.
“Sorry,” Merlin said as he held his hands above theirs.
“You haven’t even touched us yet,” Gwen said, though Merlin could hear the nervousness underneath.
“This is going to hurt,” Merlin said. He pushed down on his powers, all of them, pushed down on everything, and then reached out and grabbed their hands
Ten minutes later, Gaius sighed as Merlin remained a trembling wreck on his bed, Gwen and Lance holding onto each other comfortingly.
“S-s-sorry,” Merlin mumbled, shutting his eyes in exhaustion.
“It’s all right, Merlin,” Lance said, before reaching out and laying a hand on Merlin’s shoulder. Merlin flinched, but relaxed, when Lance’s fingers directly touched his shoulder. “Look, at least you don’t have to worry about touching us, now, that’s a plus!”
“That’s the spirit, Lance,” Gaius said encouragingly, before looking at Merlin again. “So absorbing more people’s powers at once intensifies the pain. Do they seem to exemplify each other or simply add on to each other?”
“I dunno,” Merlin said, wincing and slowly pushing himself up, still shivering. “It just…hurts more…”
“I’m really sorry,” Gwen said earnestly.
“S’not your fault, s’mine,” Merlin said.
“It’s nobody’s fault,” Gaius said, before they could fall into this kind of pit again. “I’ve seen far too many mutants fall victim to popular culture’s tendency to heap the blame for everything on them, and I’m not going to let that happen here, not on my watch.” He looked between the three teenagers. “It just means we will have to try something different.”
Merlin weakly nodded his head.
“Well, there’s one more bright side,” Gwen said. “Now you can help me with the gardening!”
Gratefully, Merlin smiled.
Gwen and Lance left, as there was minimal pain and it was easy to recover from on their end. Merlin stayed.
“So, no more than one power at a time?” Merlin said, his mood a little lower in the absence of his friends.
“Yes,” Gaius said. “Overloading is likely a bad way to go about it.”
But now that he had these powers, it was brilliant.
Merlin knew he wasn’t helping dissuade all those rumors about him and Freya, but he couldn’t help it – now that he could touch her, he and Freya clung onto each other all the time. And he cuddled up with Gwen during movie nights, and he and Lancelot mock-wrestled all the time, and Leon hung onto his hand at every opportunity, conversing between their minds.
He was a Class V mutant, with a dark past and foreboding future, but right now, he had his friends, and right now, that was enough for him.
Arthur took another soft and juicy bite of his steak as he leaned back in his seat, grateful for their private booth as he let his wings relax within the confines of his dinner jacket, just a little.
“You’re making the cure public this weekend, then?”
“I’m announcing it, yes,” Uther said. “It will actually be made available next week, starting Thursday or Friday. Probably Friday, knowing those idiots at the medical warehouses...”
Arthur let himself drift amidst his father’s medical babble, imagining himself without wings. He wouldn’t have to hold them in, clench them just to eat out!
(He almost wished they could have this meal at home, so he could let his wings out, before he remembered if he ate with his father, it didn’t matter where they were, he would have to clench them close to himself.)
“-Morgana-”
Arthur’s head snapped up at the mention of his half-sister’s name.
“What about her?”
“I am thinking of contacting her, maybe after Halloween,” Uther said. “To get her the cure.”
“She won’t want to be cured,” Arthur said. Neither of the Gorlois sisters would.
“She will come around,” Uther said. “Whatever she’s scared of, once she sees the cure is fine, she will forget her fears.”
But she doesn’t fear the cure, Arthur nearly said. She just likes being herself.
He didn’t say that, however much he wanted to. For one, it would mean admitting that he still talked to her, and they’d already had to deal with Uther blocking out the Camelot IP addresses; trying to block out whatever else she was using would be problematic, whatever proxies she may or may not have had at hand.
But more importantly, Father didn’t understand. He didn’t understand the feeling of rightness when using a mutation, how it was like being yourself (how being human wasn’t).
Morgana still held on to ideals of individualism. Arthur knew that being heir to a corporate empire meant he was never going to be himself either way - he could absolutely stand to be cured and be human again, to be Uther’s son again.
In the real world, no one was ever themselves, anyway – so Arthur might as well become something better than himself, however little that was actually saying.
He was more than happy to.
(He was. There wasn't any other option. He was.)
Next Chapter >>
Master Post
~*~
A/N: Again, I apologize severely for the lateness, and that future parts of this chapter will also be late. D:
Next Chapter, 2.2 - Cure: Now that Merlin's had time to deal with it, being a Class V is...manageable. And as it turns out, getting powers means helping others with theirs, a perk Merlin certainly had never expected, but loved dearly. He could handle being a Class V...but when Pendragon Inc. releases a cure for mutantism, the question becomes, does he want to? He's not sure of himself or the answer, and apparently, neither is Arthur.
