Let Justice Be Done Ch. 75

"It was always gonna be a one-way trip." Merlin said, looking at Viviane and his mom in the kitchen with a content peaceful look. "When the time travel plan would work, the powers in the know about Time and stuff related to it would react, and make corrections, so stunts like what I did don't happen again."

"But," Raguel spoke. "Why aren't you back in your timeline before this 'correction' happens?" 

Merlin had a melancholic smile as he shook his head. "There is no timeline to go back to. Things don't work on multiverse theory here." He then scratched his chin in thought. "Well, unless you go deep in the Dimensional Gap I guess, but then you'll have to deal with Great Red and he's not nice to people who break the rules on a big scale."

"So it's...just one timeline." Raguel's eyes slowly widened, before he held a conflicted sad look. 

"Yeah," Merlin let out a low chuckle. "And when the correction happens, well..." Merlin gave a look to the kitchen to see his mom busy and not looking toward them, before raising his shirt a bit, causing Raguel to flinch. 

Merlin's torso on one side was a bit see-through, like an image half-way fading. 

"Merlin, you..." Raguel was filled with dread and sorrow, as he saw the boy's state. He reached out with one hand ready to call on his Light and unleash the Chesed Mercy for his friend. 

"Nah," Merlin put his shirt down, and placed his hand on Raguel to gently lower it down. "It doesn't hurt as bad as it looks." He chuckled. "Besides, I'm a being of fantasy and illusions and can use magic based on imagination. I can easily will myself to stay existing till the job is done." He laughed out cheekily, but Raguel could see that he was in pain.

"...Tiferet Heart." Raguel whispered. 

"Wha..." Merlin felt a link of Light form between him and the Archangel, as Light passed through the link. It was a small but steady amount, yet the lingering pain within Merlin was gone. 

"Light is the basis of Creation, at the very least, I will ensure you don't suffer, while I find--" Raguel began to say, but was cut off by Merlin hugging him. 

"Uncle Raguel, bro, thank you." Merlin stepped back, and while their was gratitude in his eyes, there was also a bit of sadness and remembrance in his smile. "But seriously, no. I have already accepted this outcome, and I'm ready to face it. I have been for a long time." 

As he sat down, Raguel couldn't help but notice how old Merlin's eyes were. While Raguel's sight was always strong, recently he had been started to look less and less deeply into people, while getting to know them. Heck, most of the time seeing just things on the surface was enough, to have an in into who a person was. Raguel felt like he might be depending too much on his soul sight, and wanted to train his other people skills. 

"We live in a shounen bullshit universe Merlin." Raguel argued. "There is always a solution, you know?" He said with a shrug yet he didn't feel confident in his words. "If you know what 'shounen' means." 

"I'm 1500 years old, give or take a decade. I know what it means." Merlin nodded with an amused grin. "Raguel," his tone took a serious note again. "Seriously, thanks for the help, but don't push yourself on this topic too much. You don't need to help and fix everyone you meet." Raguel felt the Light from the Tiferet Heart link dwindle to mere drops, and looked at Merlin in alarm. "Sometimes, people need to deal with their own problem. This," he tilted his head, and Raguel understood Merlin meant the amount of Light he was taking through the link. "Is more than enough."

"I just don't want you to be in pain, while I find something to save you." Raguel said, before stopping, realizing the words he just used, and frowned at himself. 

"Let me choose my own suffering, buddy." Merlin said as he held Raguel's shoulder, then let go. "I seriously don't want you to do the whole 'self-sacrifice savior complex' thing again."

"I thought you said I died from old age as a human in your timeline?" Raguel blinked at that. 

"I said you 'died as a human'." Merlin said in a tone that pointed to him not wanting to talk about the topic. "Look, things are different now," he said looking to the side. "I don't know if my knowledge is valid anymore, but do know this." He looked back at Raguel. "It is fine to save people, or even just those you meet that are in trouble, but please know your limits. When you're hurt it hurts the people who love you."

It felt like words Merlin had been wanting to say to the Raguel of his time, but never did. The Archangel was quiet and somber listening to his friend from another timeline. 

"I'm sor--"

"No, none of that." Merlin grinned. "Besides, it makes the wifey feel grumpy too." He gestured with his head, causing Raguel to look to the kitchen.

Raguel saw Viviane look at him in concern. He smiled and shook his head, telling her it was fine, to which Viviane smiled and nodded, before getting back to cooking with Katrina. 

Raguel then frowned as he remembered something. 

"Why did Viviane stay cursed in your timeline?" He asked. 

"Ah that," Merlin nodded. "The curse was sympathetically linked to the caster. Viviane didn't want to ask God to kill one of his own kids, so..."

"I see," Raguel looked down, unsure on how to feel on that situation. What would he have done if he had been in his Father's place? 

"So," Merlin said, derailing Raguel's thoughts before they could go to a dark place. "Upcoming auction should be fun." He smirked. 

"Really?" Raguel smiled, playing along. 

"Oh yeah, you just swaggered in with the Holy Grail, demanded me, and no one had price to match. It was basically gangsta moment." Merlin laughed to himself. 

"I still can't believe how easy it is to get the thing." Raguel shook his head. 

"Yeah, that's what happens when you have too many fairy enchantments in place to get the specific outcome you wanted. You get a convoluted mess like that." Merlin sighed and shook his head. 

"How do we get it back?" Raguel wondered, as the grail would later on be used as a vessel for one of the Longinus Sacred Gears. 

"You get Arthur and the Knightly Roundly Gang," Merlin said. Raguel snorted and grinned. "And go on another heist. We also kill a hag between everything, but that's neither here nor there."

Raguel snorted and laughed out loud, before covering his mouth. He looked to see the two women staring at him from the kitchen. He just shook his head, and Viviane smiled at seeing Raguel in a better mood, as she talked with Katrina, getting her attention again. 

"You said something about 'Ragnarok'?" Raguel asked. 

"Oh that. Yeah, I was trolling don't worry about it." Merlin said, waving his hand dismissively. Raguel raised an eyebrow and Merlin continued. "Yeah, Odin goes to the auction to get some stuff to help him avert Ragnarok, or change the outcomes of it, but the Norse Pantheon had locked themselves so strongly in Fates--which yes, made them unbeatable outside of it, but!--that even Titania couldn't provide a sure fire way to give Odin what he wanted. 

"He got the Cintamani and the Uchide no Kozuchi, but nothing came of it, as I recall." Merlin said. "Then around the 1450s or so, Ragnarok looked like it was about to start when Odin and the rest of the Norse top dogs gathered, came to an agreement about averting the whole thing, got everyone together to break their Fates, and got to live, except with the uncertainty of life and what not." Merlin finished his mini-history lesson. 

"Huh..." Raguel let out a sound at how anti-climatic that whole thing was, but he suppose all's well that ends well. "So nothing to worry about from the auction, huh?"

Merlin looked up in thought. "Yee...aaah, just don't piss off Tiamat while you're there, and don't tease her. More importantly--"

"No, wait, go back to that."

"--I want you to know something Uncle Rags," Raguel stopped at the seriousness in Merlin's voice, even though the boy mage was smiling. "When you meet me, no matter what I say, don't blame yourself, okay?" Raguel raised an eyebrow and tilted his head. "I was a little shit back then, and me getting thrown into that auction was completely my fault."

"What happened?" Raguel asked. 

"I, um, met a Summer Fae, a pixie and thought I was clever and could get one over it. Which I did," Merlin looked to the side with a blush. "Buuut then it got its friends and they chased me around. I could have gotten back to the town here, but wanted to outsmart them by losing them in the Summer Realm, just to prove I could." He rubbed his hair in embarrassment. "Well, I may have proved my point, but I ended up meeting a Summer Fae Lady--Not to be confused with Ladies of the Lake--aaaaand...got outsmarted." He finished his story while looking down to hide his face. 

"Somehow, that's...far more mundane than I thought." Raguel said.  

"Yeeeeah," Merlin replied while smiling, yet feeling a bit of shame. 

The two looked at each other after a bit of silence, and found themselves chuckling at how that story ended. 

Viviane and Katrina called to Raguel and Merlin afterwards, as food was ready. The two families broke bread together, and Raguel made a promise to come visit again, and even check up on Katrina and Merlin every once in a while. 

The Archangel promised himself to bring back Myrddin, so Katrina would be reunited with her son from the present time, and for Merlin to rest with the knowledge that his family was well. 

Raguel decided to ask his Father to see if there was something that could be done to help Merlin, yet he began to wonder if he was depending on his Father and Heaven too much for problems outside of his ability. 

In the end, Raguel vowed to do the best, after all, that was all that was asked of him.