Disclaimer: I own nothing, not the show or any of the songs mentioned.

Bit of a different thing going on here. Kind of a series of unrelated one shots based of lyrics to different songs. *shrugs* I was challenged. I said yes. End of story. But it's a great way of trying some new styles, so feedback is always greatly appreciated!

This first one is to the Donny Osmond version of the song I know the Truth.

Enjoy!

Arthur could hear the sounds of the people gathering in the square outside his window, but made no move to stand up and shut it. Why should he shut it? It wasn't his job. It was Merlin's. And there lie the very problem.

Sitting slouched in his chair, his fingers interlocked and propping his chin up, the Crown Prince of Camelot was lost in thoughts. It wouldn't have been so bad if the thoughts weren't plaguing him so, something only intensified by the sounds of the restless crowds outside.

How had it come to this? How had he come to this? Fallen so far, shutting his eyes to anything that he didn't want to accept. He knew in the back of his mind he had always known. How could he have not? The times he should have died, all those miraculous escapes, all the things he couldn't escape. It should have been his time a long time ago, only something was interfering with fate. Altering it and changing it so a destiny Arthur knew nothing about could have been fulfilled. He had looked away every time there was something he didn't understand, something that every rational fibre of his being had denied should have happened. But he had simply ignored it.

What was he supposed to have thought? That he did just have some guardian angel watching over him like he had once commented to his father? He had indeed had someone watching over him for all of this time. It just came from the most unlikely source he could have thought of. He should have died the second day they had met. A quick dagger whilst he had been asleep thanks to Mary Collins. His time should have been then, end of story, age over.

But that had not been the case. It might have been easier. The truth was so much harder to get his head around. Shock was still crashing through him even now, numbing his mind. It was why he was to be found slouched in his chair now rather than out in the square with the rest of his people, being among them and showing his support in the only way he could. How could he face them though? He knew the truth had shocked them as much as it had him, but the cruel mockery of the betrayal would not have stabbed them in the same way as it had penetrated him.

For that was the other thing he could feel once he had made it passed the mind-numbing shock that the truth had to offer. The truth was mocking him. Every way he thought about it, it was there, mocking. How did he not notice? There was no way he should have survived some of the things he had. All the ailments without a cure, quests without a chance of succeeding, and yet, each and every time, he had walked away from it. He should have known! That was what made it so mocking. He was supposed to be the future King, and yet had clearly missed something that had been under his nose for the whole time. What would the people think of him now? How would they be prepared to follow him into battle, allow him to lead them, when he had kept his eyes shut to the truth for all of these years?

In a true Arthur way, the prince had pretended he didn't care. Brushed off the betrayal like it had never happened, reverting himself back to the arrogant prince he had once been. Part of him blamed that on the shock, the raw truth confronting him and making all other thoughts completely void. But what hurt the most was that he still wanted his servant back. He still wanted it to be that cheery face that grumbled about waking him up in the mornings. He still wanted himself to have to curse non-stop when they went hunting about how noisy he was being, how he couldn't do any of his chores right. He would do anything to still have him here. But there was nothing there now. What could there be? Everything they had ever done, ever meant to each other was gone in that split second.

Yet people still expected Arthur to be able to go on with his life. They would expect him to move on from this event, to push it from his mind and chalk it down to experience, nothing more. That was one thing Arthur knew he would never be able to do. ate, with its twisted sense of irony, Fate had decided that now was his time to go. For what chance did he have now? He had felt like his very soul had been crushed when he had found out the one person he had ever considered to be a true friend had actually been lying to him the whole time? His time had truly come to an end.

Of course, he tried to blame it on everything other than his own failure to see the truth. Maybe if he had paid more attention, noticed more, he would have been able to force his mind into speaking up. Instead, he had just stood there, letting the cold hard facts of the matter wash over him. He had a destiny, that was the last thing his servant had said to him. So was it just a cruel twist in his fate that he should feel as if he was being destroyed at the same time? No attack from either within or outside the castle walls had ever dealt him a blow this destroying.

For through the shock and mockery that was the truth, the same truth he had been hiding from for so long, Arthur had come to realise something else. As the crowds below began to get restless and his father's voice could be heard announcing the sentence he was passing on the latest sorcerer, Arthur leapt from his seat. Already the drum beat was sounding out, and as Arthur ran to the window, a black spiral of smoke shot into the air as the pyre was lit.

He had accepted the truth. But he had accepted it too late.

Too late for Merlin, anyway.

Well, hopefully they aren't all going to be that dark - we shall just see what the next song is. Let me know what you thought?