[fanfic] Remembering Again (For the First Time) Prologue (Merlin/Arthur, Charles/Erik)
Title: Remembering Again (For the First Time) Prologue
Rating: PG, for this chapter
Word Count: 1724
Warnings: Mostly fluff I suppose. Mention of wartime violence. Temporary major character death, sort of.
Summary:
(Merlin) For once in their lifetimes, Merlin and Arthur believed they would live a life unburdened with hardship or responsibility. And then the North Korean Missile Crisis happened, and suddenly, the world-or at least its governments-are awakened to the presence of mutants. With the threat of another Holocaust in the distance, Merlin and Arthur will have to team up with the world’s leading mutants to once again protect the world they live in.
(XMFC) A year after the Accident, Charles was just beginning to construct a new life for himself and the boys when word comes that the United Nations are seriously considering what to be done about the mutant “threat.” Caught between preventing mutant registration and stopping Erik’s intentions of human genocide and plagued with unsettling dream-memories, he finds help in two people he would never have expected.Notes: So someone on Tumblr brought up a desire to see a Merlin/XMFC crossover, and the notion nagged and nagged at me, until suddenly I had at least five pages of planning and notes. Couple that with this awesome reincarnation!AU Charles/Erik fanvid, and suddenly, the crossover idea became Serious Business. What even.
The time frame of XMFC has been shifted into modern times. Therefore, instead of the "divorce" happening in 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis, it happens in 2010 in a fictional confrontation similar to the CMC between N.Korea/Russia and S.Korea/US. (More explanation on this at the end.)
The chapters will alternate in perspective between Merlin, Arthur, Charles and Erik. The prologue specifically focuses on Merlin and Arthur, on how they’ve spent this lifetime living so far as well as their outside perspective on what’s been happening on the mutant front.
Beta'd by the_beanster. Thanks to TerresDeBrume and Fuchsia for letting me know that this crossover wasn't a crazy idea.
Without further ado, I hope you enjoy!
00. Merlin and Arthur
For once in their history of reincarnations, it wasn’t difficult at all for them to find each other.
They met in the fall of 1990, when Arthur saved Merlin from a bully two years their senior.
“Honestly, Merlin, I can’t leave you alone for one second, can I?” Arthur-now called Andrew-said without thinking, looking down at the tiny black-haired boy sprawled at his feet.
They sucked in a breath and froze at the same time, staring at each other with wide eyes.
Merlin finds him on the battlefield. There’s the sound of gunfire and explosions in the distance, but the battle has already moved on from this particular patch of land. Arthur is dying, bleeding out slowly from the bullet holes in his gut and leg. Merlin is a field doctor, but his medical knowledge won’t do Arthur any good, and even magic has its limits.
Arthur briefly wonders if this is Destiny’s way of retribution for opting to continue fighting alongside his men rather than move up into a higher position of power, where he would have had a bigger influence on the war. But his mind is hazy and black around the edges, and he can’t really think straight any longer. Instead he focuses on the familiar (always, always familiar) man kneeling in the mud beside him.
“Oh god, Arthur,” Merlin chokes out, hands clinging to the lapels of Arthur’s mud-stained, blood-soaked uniform. He’s crying, tears cutting trails through the dirt smeared across his cheeks.
“Merlin.” Arthur reaches out to touch his face. Merlin grabs hold of his wrist, pressing his cheek to Arthur’s palm.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Arthur. I should have found you sooner.”
“Don’t be,” Arthur tells him. It’s too late now, too late to regret or rail at Destiny for being unfair. At least, Merlin is there in his last moments, like he always is. “We’ll find each other sooner next time. Promise.”
“A-all right.”
Arthur’s last memory before dying is of Merlin’s lips pressed to his own, tasting gunpowder, dirt, blood and that distinct tang of pure Merlin.
They blinked. In seconds, they’re scrambling for each other-or rather, Arthur was tackling Merlin back to the ground in a fierce embrace. Merlin hugged him back with equal intensity, and for several minutes, they simply clung to each other.
They were still in the middle of the playground though, so eventually they pulled apart and sat crammed together on one end of a bench. They stared at each other, each trying to decide what to say first. It doesn’t get easier with every time they’re reborn.
“I’d kiss you, but we’re kind of…young,” Merlin finally remarked with a half-smile.
Arthur let out a bark of laughter and rested his forehead against Merlin’s.
“I know. It can wait,” he said, closing his eyes and just breathing Merlin in. Even reborn, Merlin still had that faint smell that made him uniquely Merlin.
“I’m Miles, by the way. Miles Emmett,” Merlin said after a moment.
Arthur smiled, his eyes still closed. “Andrew Carrow.”
- - - - -
They were inseparable from that day onwards, spending every minute they could together-Merlin often sneaking to Arthur’s house at night through magical means. With some wheedling, Arthur and Merlin got their parents to send them to the same schools, and for the first time in all their reincarnations, they grew up together, learning what each other was like as a child, carefree and exceedingly young.
- - - - -
Merlin enjoyed seeing Arthur as a child, unburdened with the responsibilities of adulthood, let alone nobility. Arthur’s smile-his genuine smile-had always been boyish and bright, but nothing compared to the smiles and laughter that now lit up his face and sent giddiness through Merlin at the sight of them.
Arthur, predictably, took enjoyment in teasing Merlin about his much-too-large ears and his even-more-ungainly limbs. But mostly, he liked getting into mischief and adventures with Merlin by his side (as it should always be).
While finding each other as children meant they couldn’t really do more than hug without feeling a bit like pedophiles, he wouldn’t give it up for the world. Because finding each other meant being together again.
- - - - -
It surprised no one when they came out together as a couple near the end of sixth form. They went on to the same schools for both undergraduate and postgraduate studies, though Merlin studied history (no point in wasting all the knowledge they’d gained over their lifetimes) while Arthur studied finance and marketing. When they graduated in the spring of 2010, Merlin pursued a teaching career, because teaching was certainly not something new to him, and Arthur started a business consulting firm, not wanting to work under another.
- - - - -
In November 2010, only days after the G-20 summit in South Korea, a South Korean ship was attacked, killing all 120 of its crew. The response was almost immediate, with South Korean and American ships lining up against North Korean and Russian ones. Being out on the open sea, news of the confrontation travelled mostly by internet, several soldiers’ cell phones furtively capturing the stand-off and relaying it to the rest of the world. Everyone was holding their breath, fearing the dawn of nuclear warfare.
And then, as suddenly as the confrontation started, it ended, with all the ships retreating to where they’d come from. On the internet, there was a flood of reports from soldiers involved in the conflict, talking of men who could lift entire submarines and call up tornadoes and of children who could fly and shoot laser beams. The reports were swiftly taken down, but not before they were duplicated, and the world erupted into a frenzy. The public didn’t know for sure what’s happened, and news stations went wild over the accounts and blurry footage leaked onto the web of what was now being called the North Korean Missile Crisis. “It’s just a hoax,” most said, chalking up the videos of missiles suspended-frozen-in the air and other impossible phenomenon to special effects and government conspiracy.
The governments revealed nothing to public, saying that the nations involved in the incident had decided to settle the conflict in civilized discourse rather than battle. They denied the authenticity of the reports and footage spread online but said nothing on the topic of super-humans.
But Arthur’s father was on the United Nations Security Council, and after a number of “surprise” visits and pointed conversations, Arthur and Merlin eventually wore him down, and Mr. Carrow swore them into confidentiality.
He told them that all reports of super-powered humans-mutants-playing a role in the Crisis were true. He told them that an unmarked submarine attacked the South Korean ship and that a jet appeared from nowhere with a man who could drag the submarine straight out of the water and into the air. There was a battle the two military forces could barely follow, between the mutants from the submarine and the ones from the jet. And when their forces fired their missiles at the mutants, the missiles were turned back at them, before several heart-stopping moments later detonating in the air or falling into the sea. No one knew what happened to the mutants afterwards.
Mr. Carrow told them that the world’s governments were now trying to decide what to do, how to deal with the “mutant threat,” as he and many others called it. Arthur’s father wanted the mutants to be found and registered, for their identities to be disclosed to the entire world.
All Merlin and Arthur could think of (with horror) were the massacres of sorcerers and of Jews, gypsies, and gays.
- - - - -
“So I guess we’re supposed to help in this whole mutant situation?” Merlin asked later, setting two mugs of hot chocolate on the coffee table as Arthur switched on the television.
“Probably,” Arthur answered with a shrug. To all the world, he would seem indifferent to the notion, but Merlin knew that Arthur was probably already considering what Destiny expected them to do. How would they get the powerless humans to accept the mutants among them? How would they prevent a second Holocaust, another senseless genocide? Merlin had been thinking about it too, but it was too early, the issue too new, for any certainty. They hadn't even met a real mutant yet.
“To think for once I thought we would be able to live a normal life,” Merlin remarked, plopping down on the couch and leaning against Arthur’s side.
Arthur snorted. “And since when have we ever lived a normal life?”
“I know, I know, but it’d have been nice, you know, for once,” Merlin said, pressing his face into Arthur’s shoulder.
Arthur dragged his fingers through Merlin’s hair, grinning when Merlin pushed back against his hand.
“Yeah, it would have been. We’ll just have to make the most of it while we can,” Arthur said.
“When do we not?” Merlin replied.
Arthur smiled and nudged him with a shoulder before they settled against each other to watch a movie.
- - - - -
One day in late June, Merlin and Arthur were watching the television in their living room, waiting for news to come in from across the pond. They looked at each other when the announcement was made-New York had just legalized gay marriage.
“Well…” Arthur said with raised eyebrows. “I know we were planning on civil partnership...”
“But we’ll be in New York by the end of the next month,” Merlin remarked with a smile, knowing where this conversation was heading. He was more pleased than ever that he’d accepted the invitation to teach from Columbia University. And even if civil partnership in the UK had almost the same rights and responsibilities as marriage did, there was still the “almost.” After all, marriage was still marriage.
“So…”
They grinned at each other, but didn’t speak at first, simply savoring (not for the first time) that they were living in a time when society didn’t look down on their love-at least not as much as before.
“So,” Arthur eventually said again, “yes?”
“Yes.”
Merlin launched himself across the sofa and into Arthur’s arms. They laughed out of simple joy and clung to each other tightly. Neither of them paid any attention when the television blinked off at the unconscious bidding of Merlin’s magic, too caught up in kissing each other breathless.
- - - - -
Chapter one
“North Korean Missile Crisis” - I took inspiration for this accident from the ROSK Cheonan sinking, during which the ROSK Cheonan, a S.Korean Navy ship was torpedoed and sunk on March 2, 2010 near the island of Baengnyeong. The culprit of the attack is still unknown, though N.Korea has been blamed for the sinking. The uncertainties behind this led me to choose this incident as the Cuban Missile Crisis for the story, though the sinking did not garner the same response the CMC did. However, the US and the S.Korean navies were holding warfare exercises nearby, which was convenient for me to stage a standoff similar to US vs Russia standoff. I pushed the incident back to late October because South Korea was in the middle of preparations for the G-20 Summit around then, so there was a bigger world focus in that region then.
Rating: PG, for this chapter
Word Count: 1724
Warnings: Mostly fluff I suppose. Mention of wartime violence. Temporary major character death, sort of.
Summary:
(Merlin) For once in their lifetimes, Merlin and Arthur believed they would live a life unburdened with hardship or responsibility. And then the North Korean Missile Crisis happened, and suddenly, the world-or at least its governments-are awakened to the presence of mutants. With the threat of another Holocaust in the distance, Merlin and Arthur will have to team up with the world’s leading mutants to once again protect the world they live in.
(XMFC) A year after the Accident, Charles was just beginning to construct a new life for himself and the boys when word comes that the United Nations are seriously considering what to be done about the mutant “threat.” Caught between preventing mutant registration and stopping Erik’s intentions of human genocide and plagued with unsettling dream-memories, he finds help in two people he would never have expected.Notes: So someone on Tumblr brought up a desire to see a Merlin/XMFC crossover, and the notion nagged and nagged at me, until suddenly I had at least five pages of planning and notes. Couple that with this awesome reincarnation!AU Charles/Erik fanvid, and suddenly, the crossover idea became Serious Business. What even.
The time frame of XMFC has been shifted into modern times. Therefore, instead of the "divorce" happening in 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis, it happens in 2010 in a fictional confrontation similar to the CMC between N.Korea/Russia and S.Korea/US. (More explanation on this at the end.)
The chapters will alternate in perspective between Merlin, Arthur, Charles and Erik. The prologue specifically focuses on Merlin and Arthur, on how they’ve spent this lifetime living so far as well as their outside perspective on what’s been happening on the mutant front.
Beta'd by the_beanster. Thanks to TerresDeBrume and Fuchsia for letting me know that this crossover wasn't a crazy idea.
Without further ado, I hope you enjoy!
00. Merlin and Arthur
For once in their history of reincarnations, it wasn’t difficult at all for them to find each other.
They met in the fall of 1990, when Arthur saved Merlin from a bully two years their senior.
“Honestly, Merlin, I can’t leave you alone for one second, can I?” Arthur-now called Andrew-said without thinking, looking down at the tiny black-haired boy sprawled at his feet.
They sucked in a breath and froze at the same time, staring at each other with wide eyes.
Merlin finds him on the battlefield. There’s the sound of gunfire and explosions in the distance, but the battle has already moved on from this particular patch of land. Arthur is dying, bleeding out slowly from the bullet holes in his gut and leg. Merlin is a field doctor, but his medical knowledge won’t do Arthur any good, and even magic has its limits.
Arthur briefly wonders if this is Destiny’s way of retribution for opting to continue fighting alongside his men rather than move up into a higher position of power, where he would have had a bigger influence on the war. But his mind is hazy and black around the edges, and he can’t really think straight any longer. Instead he focuses on the familiar (always, always familiar) man kneeling in the mud beside him.
“Oh god, Arthur,” Merlin chokes out, hands clinging to the lapels of Arthur’s mud-stained, blood-soaked uniform. He’s crying, tears cutting trails through the dirt smeared across his cheeks.
“Merlin.” Arthur reaches out to touch his face. Merlin grabs hold of his wrist, pressing his cheek to Arthur’s palm.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Arthur. I should have found you sooner.”
“Don’t be,” Arthur tells him. It’s too late now, too late to regret or rail at Destiny for being unfair. At least, Merlin is there in his last moments, like he always is. “We’ll find each other sooner next time. Promise.”
“A-all right.”
Arthur’s last memory before dying is of Merlin’s lips pressed to his own, tasting gunpowder, dirt, blood and that distinct tang of pure Merlin.
They blinked. In seconds, they’re scrambling for each other-or rather, Arthur was tackling Merlin back to the ground in a fierce embrace. Merlin hugged him back with equal intensity, and for several minutes, they simply clung to each other.
They were still in the middle of the playground though, so eventually they pulled apart and sat crammed together on one end of a bench. They stared at each other, each trying to decide what to say first. It doesn’t get easier with every time they’re reborn.
“I’d kiss you, but we’re kind of…young,” Merlin finally remarked with a half-smile.
Arthur let out a bark of laughter and rested his forehead against Merlin’s.
“I know. It can wait,” he said, closing his eyes and just breathing Merlin in. Even reborn, Merlin still had that faint smell that made him uniquely Merlin.
“I’m Miles, by the way. Miles Emmett,” Merlin said after a moment.
Arthur smiled, his eyes still closed. “Andrew Carrow.”
- - - - -
They were inseparable from that day onwards, spending every minute they could together-Merlin often sneaking to Arthur’s house at night through magical means. With some wheedling, Arthur and Merlin got their parents to send them to the same schools, and for the first time in all their reincarnations, they grew up together, learning what each other was like as a child, carefree and exceedingly young.
- - - - -
Merlin enjoyed seeing Arthur as a child, unburdened with the responsibilities of adulthood, let alone nobility. Arthur’s smile-his genuine smile-had always been boyish and bright, but nothing compared to the smiles and laughter that now lit up his face and sent giddiness through Merlin at the sight of them.
Arthur, predictably, took enjoyment in teasing Merlin about his much-too-large ears and his even-more-ungainly limbs. But mostly, he liked getting into mischief and adventures with Merlin by his side (as it should always be).
While finding each other as children meant they couldn’t really do more than hug without feeling a bit like pedophiles, he wouldn’t give it up for the world. Because finding each other meant being together again.
- - - - -
It surprised no one when they came out together as a couple near the end of sixth form. They went on to the same schools for both undergraduate and postgraduate studies, though Merlin studied history (no point in wasting all the knowledge they’d gained over their lifetimes) while Arthur studied finance and marketing. When they graduated in the spring of 2010, Merlin pursued a teaching career, because teaching was certainly not something new to him, and Arthur started a business consulting firm, not wanting to work under another.
- - - - -
In November 2010, only days after the G-20 summit in South Korea, a South Korean ship was attacked, killing all 120 of its crew. The response was almost immediate, with South Korean and American ships lining up against North Korean and Russian ones. Being out on the open sea, news of the confrontation travelled mostly by internet, several soldiers’ cell phones furtively capturing the stand-off and relaying it to the rest of the world. Everyone was holding their breath, fearing the dawn of nuclear warfare.
And then, as suddenly as the confrontation started, it ended, with all the ships retreating to where they’d come from. On the internet, there was a flood of reports from soldiers involved in the conflict, talking of men who could lift entire submarines and call up tornadoes and of children who could fly and shoot laser beams. The reports were swiftly taken down, but not before they were duplicated, and the world erupted into a frenzy. The public didn’t know for sure what’s happened, and news stations went wild over the accounts and blurry footage leaked onto the web of what was now being called the North Korean Missile Crisis. “It’s just a hoax,” most said, chalking up the videos of missiles suspended-frozen-in the air and other impossible phenomenon to special effects and government conspiracy.
The governments revealed nothing to public, saying that the nations involved in the incident had decided to settle the conflict in civilized discourse rather than battle. They denied the authenticity of the reports and footage spread online but said nothing on the topic of super-humans.
But Arthur’s father was on the United Nations Security Council, and after a number of “surprise” visits and pointed conversations, Arthur and Merlin eventually wore him down, and Mr. Carrow swore them into confidentiality.
He told them that all reports of super-powered humans-mutants-playing a role in the Crisis were true. He told them that an unmarked submarine attacked the South Korean ship and that a jet appeared from nowhere with a man who could drag the submarine straight out of the water and into the air. There was a battle the two military forces could barely follow, between the mutants from the submarine and the ones from the jet. And when their forces fired their missiles at the mutants, the missiles were turned back at them, before several heart-stopping moments later detonating in the air or falling into the sea. No one knew what happened to the mutants afterwards.
Mr. Carrow told them that the world’s governments were now trying to decide what to do, how to deal with the “mutant threat,” as he and many others called it. Arthur’s father wanted the mutants to be found and registered, for their identities to be disclosed to the entire world.
All Merlin and Arthur could think of (with horror) were the massacres of sorcerers and of Jews, gypsies, and gays.
- - - - -
“So I guess we’re supposed to help in this whole mutant situation?” Merlin asked later, setting two mugs of hot chocolate on the coffee table as Arthur switched on the television.
“Probably,” Arthur answered with a shrug. To all the world, he would seem indifferent to the notion, but Merlin knew that Arthur was probably already considering what Destiny expected them to do. How would they get the powerless humans to accept the mutants among them? How would they prevent a second Holocaust, another senseless genocide? Merlin had been thinking about it too, but it was too early, the issue too new, for any certainty. They hadn't even met a real mutant yet.
“To think for once I thought we would be able to live a normal life,” Merlin remarked, plopping down on the couch and leaning against Arthur’s side.
Arthur snorted. “And since when have we ever lived a normal life?”
“I know, I know, but it’d have been nice, you know, for once,” Merlin said, pressing his face into Arthur’s shoulder.
Arthur dragged his fingers through Merlin’s hair, grinning when Merlin pushed back against his hand.
“Yeah, it would have been. We’ll just have to make the most of it while we can,” Arthur said.
“When do we not?” Merlin replied.
Arthur smiled and nudged him with a shoulder before they settled against each other to watch a movie.
- - - - -
One day in late June, Merlin and Arthur were watching the television in their living room, waiting for news to come in from across the pond. They looked at each other when the announcement was made-New York had just legalized gay marriage.
“Well…” Arthur said with raised eyebrows. “I know we were planning on civil partnership...”
“But we’ll be in New York by the end of the next month,” Merlin remarked with a smile, knowing where this conversation was heading. He was more pleased than ever that he’d accepted the invitation to teach from Columbia University. And even if civil partnership in the UK had almost the same rights and responsibilities as marriage did, there was still the “almost.” After all, marriage was still marriage.
“So…”
They grinned at each other, but didn’t speak at first, simply savoring (not for the first time) that they were living in a time when society didn’t look down on their love-at least not as much as before.
“So,” Arthur eventually said again, “yes?”
“Yes.”
Merlin launched himself across the sofa and into Arthur’s arms. They laughed out of simple joy and clung to each other tightly. Neither of them paid any attention when the television blinked off at the unconscious bidding of Merlin’s magic, too caught up in kissing each other breathless.
- - - - -
Chapter one
“North Korean Missile Crisis” - I took inspiration for this accident from the ROSK Cheonan sinking, during which the ROSK Cheonan, a S.Korean Navy ship was torpedoed and sunk on March 2, 2010 near the island of Baengnyeong. The culprit of the attack is still unknown, though N.Korea has been blamed for the sinking. The uncertainties behind this led me to choose this incident as the Cuban Missile Crisis for the story, though the sinking did not garner the same response the CMC did. However, the US and the S.Korean navies were holding warfare exercises nearby, which was convenient for me to stage a standoff similar to US vs Russia standoff. I pushed the incident back to late October because South Korea was in the middle of preparations for the G-20 Summit around then, so there was a bigger world focus in that region then.