Merlin Headcanons

Avengers: Vacation

Sources for this include frequent references to data I found by using the MCU and Marvel comic books wikias.

. . . . .

"Really?" Merlin demanded. "Really? The first time I come to America in a hundred years, and there's an alien invasion! Really?"

Not for the first time, Merlin wondered what, exactly, he'd done to make the universe hate him so much. The fact that the universe had a little more life in it than previously thought didn't change that question.

Now giant metal centipede things were flying overhead, the streets were quickly becoming as much of a battleground as the skies, and he'd just spilled his coffee. It had been six dollars. He hadn't even gotten to taste it.

Although judging by the amount of screaming that was probably the least of the city's problems at the moment, he couldn't help staring at his cup mournfully for a second. Screams were hardly anything new. By now he had over a millennium of them bouncing around in his head. He'd heard them, stopped them, occasionally caused them, or on increasingly rare occasions, created them himself. Screams were common. Vacations where he could forget just for one moment who he was and what on earth he was doing still breathing and just pretend to be normal and smile at that nice girl and drink his coffee were not.

A blond haired blued eyed man - Merlin hated that combination, it always made his heart do stupid things in his chest as he turned to look, just to be sure - had jumped over the railing and was helping the other people in the cafe get out. He was wearing a spangly suit that might have been funny under other circumstances, and he looked vaguely familiar.

Hold up. Hand't he seen him in World War II?

Maybe. It was hard to say. As bad as it was scanning crowds normally, scanning crowds of soldiers during a World War in which England was getting bombed nightly was worse. He had been so sure . . . He'd felt sick when the war ended and there was still no Arthur. Sick because he'd have to wait even longer. Sick because if this hadn't been Albion's greatest need, than just how bad would things be when it was?

The aliens had definite potential for adding new nightmares in response to that question.

Merlin helped a woman around some rubble and guided her across the street, mind still occupied with the variables. What should he do? Just start blasting the centipedes? But they'd have to come down somewhere. What if they crushed someone?

Then he felt it and didn't understand how he hadn't before. Magic. Green pulsing magic tugging at strands of a blue power great enough to impress even him.

So the space stone was here. And so, he was surprised to realize was the mind stone.

Three of the Infinity Stones in one place. This should be interesting.

He dug hooks into the largest concentration of the green magic and disappeared in a gust of magic and wind.

. . . . .

He was in an apartment building of some sort, high in the air. One of those towers that were everywhere in this city then. The green one - Loki, he should have known - was there, as was a man he vaguely remembered glimpsing on the cover of various publications at newsstands before. It was Stark, wasn't it? The first name started with a T. Timothy? Tucker? No, Tony. That was it. Probably short for Anthony, come to think of it.

Merlin read the news frequently, but he tended to scan more for disasters than celebrity gossip. If Stark wasn't going to bring about Albion's time of greatest need, than Merlin didn't want to hear about it.

Loki, on the other hand, he'd met before, briefly, from the shadows. The other man was unlikely to recognize him.

Both men looked utterly surprised to see him.

Merlin glared at Loki. "Was this really one hundred percent necessary?" He stalked forward, waving his hands around. "I was supposed to be on vacation. I'm starting to think I should stop taking vacations in the interest of doing my part to further world peace. I mean, the time before this that I went on vacation, I ended up smack dab in the middle of a revolution, and then there was that time with the hurricane and the zombies, and the time before that there was the whole bubonic plague incident." He paused thoughtfully. "You know, maybe I should start taking vacations to London. Big ones that I'm really looking forward to. Think that might work?" he asked hopefully.

The two men were still staring at him. Loki raised his scepter.

Merlin raised a hand and blasted him back into the wall.

Loki sprang up, the scepter still glowing. "You shall not best me with your petty tricks, mortal."

Merlin raised an eyebrow. "There's much wrong with that sentence, I don't even know where to start." He shoved both hands forward, creating a vise of air that slowly started squeezing Loki into an ever smaller space. Loki struggled free and lunged forward, tapping the scepter on his chest.

Two infinity stones hit.

The mind stone.

And the time stone.

The time stone was a bright, golden color. The same color as Merlin's eyes when he used magic, funnily enough. Merlin, who didn't age properly.

The Old Religion had really pulled out all the stops when it was creating Emrys. And what better way to ensure his power than to embed him with a power created by the Cosmic Entities?

The scepter hit gold and bounced off at the same time that Merlin threw his mind at Loki's.

Loki had been through a lot. He really had.

But he had been designed for a long life with all that that entails. Merlin, for all his power, had needed a human mind, with all its strengths and frailties. Merlin had been given a long life, but not the mindset equipped to handle one.

Loki felt he had been dealt a bad hand.

Merlin snorted and told him to stop whining.

Loki was, in the words of Tony Stark, crazier than a bag full of cats.

Merlin was . . . Merlin was very, very lonely.

And his mind was far stronger than Loki's.

Loki collapsed weeping to the floor. Merlin turned to a gaping Tony. "He shoudn't give you any more trouble," he said tiredly. "I'll go . . . " he waved a hand at the general chaos still outside, "do something about that, I suppose." He glared at the pathetic huddle on the floor, but the effect was somewhat ruined by his yawn. "If he had to lead an alien invasion, why couldn't he have at least done it in Albion? Even the prat would have woken up for this, no matter how much he likes his sleep."

For once, Tony Stark had absolutely nothing to say.