Lancelot hugged him back, then gently pushed him away."Is his brain still…"
"I stabilized it in the apartment, while you were out in the hall fighting.Between that and the cold storage, he'll be fine for…" Merlin grimaced."For our purposes, grisly as that is, for some time yet now.Getting to him in the first place was the hard part, and we did that.Come on, I need to get this place up and running, set up the equipment, all that bullshit."
"We all need rest," Lancelot said."How many rooms in this place?"
"Four, and three of them have multiple beds.Couches aplenty, many of them pullout, and there's always the good-old fashioned floor, though it won't come to that.More than enough room for everybody."
Back upstairs, Merlin went to get the house running, and Lancelot went to inspect all the rooms.Sure enough, three of the bedrooms had beds enough for four people.The master suite had a bed big enough for like five, which would delight Arthur, Merlin, and Morgan.
Twelve people total, three of them in the master.Dred and Galahad in one room, because nobody wanted to be the wedge between their sexual tension.Guinevere and Elaine in another.Tristan and Iseult…and he'd put Percival with them.That left just him and Gawain in the final room.Which worked fine.If Percival didn't want to room with Tristan and Iseult, he could join them, though if Lancelot was right about the little arrangement amongst those three and the still-missing Bran, Percival would be perfectly happy to room with them.
He sent messages regarding sleep arrangements to everyone via their chips, since Merlin of course at some point had added the missing few to his contacts.Predictably, he got back a bunch of smartassed remarks.Dismissing his screen, he went to his next task: food.
Thankfully, the kitchen was as ridiculously automated as the one back at Merlin's house, so he set the AI to work and poured himself a glass of water.Judging by the sounds, particularly the colorful swearing in at least three languages, Merlin was in the room just beyond the kitchen, marked by a green door that, if the red light over the door handle was any indication, was currently locked.
Lancelot head into the main living space and stretched before sprawling on the couch, staring idly up.The whole second floor was open, with a mezzanine looking down over the lower floor.Probably space up there for additional bedding if they somehow wound up needing it, which he doubted.
Lancelot stretched out on the sofa.After spending days in the game, living so much like his first life but with all the perks of modern life, to be back in the real world was jarring.He'd so easily forgotten about so many mundane things, like central air and boxy houses and automated kitchens.Ugly solar-powered cars that made him feel like he was being driven around in a coffin.The abject poverty he'd lived with as Lance Waters.
He hadn't missed a single bit of it.He'd felt more himself those days spent in the pocket universe than he ever had out here.
Not that it mattered.Given how much he'd had to give just to bring down Kinborough and then help pin Ethelfleda long enough for Arthur to kill, he did not anticipate surviving this final battle.If he could not save Galehaut…
Well, no sense in dwelling on that until the moment actually came.
The front doors slid open, and he immediately turned and grabbed for his sword that wasn't there, but relaxed in the next breath because it was obviously the others.
Arthur came straight to him and hugged him tightly, and after a moment of shock, Lancelot hugged him back.
"It's not your fault, stop being stupid," Arthur said gruffly, low in his ear so the words wouldn't carry."We have done the same a hundred times, for not dissimilar reasons, and nothing ever happened to them.You know she did not have to do what she did.It was her choice, and she would have chosensomebodyif she was determined to torment you that way."
"Shut up," Lancelot muttered, but hugged him again before withdrawing."Everyone made it safely?"
"Yeah," Percival replied, stealing the sofa, "though we only just barely managed to lose our shadows.Sanitized everything three times once we were a few miles outside the city just to be certain there were no bugs anywhere.I don't think any of us is going home ever again.We're in this bug box until further notice.Not sure how the fuck we're all going to get back in the game."
Merlin scoffed from the kitchen, drawing their attention.Arthur went over to him and kissed him hard.Morgan joined them, and for a moment it was clear nothing and no one else existed to the three of them.Lancelot's chest ached, but he shoved it away.At this point, what could he do?He would get Galehaut back, or he'd finish them both.That was all there was to it.
"We have rigs aplenty for everyone," Merlin said."Fifteen in total, the entire inner circle.Obviously we are lacking three members right now, but they've been accounted for."Dred, bring up Kay's body for me.Lancelot, shut up and sit down.Percival, move."
Percival smoothly sat up, then grabbed Lancelot's wrist and yanked him down."So I forgot how utterly badass your serpent form is.I only got to see it once, back then.You didn't even get a chance to use it at Camlann before everything went to shit.Wish I could have seen you chomp that bitch in half."
"She tasted horrible," Lancelot said, though the truth was that he hadn't really noticed.It made Percival laugh, though, which was all he'd wanted.
One by one the others trickled into the living room, sprawling across every stitch of furniture, save for Arthur, who stood in front of the overblown fireplace that was electric by the looks of it.Made sense, smoke from a real fireplace would give the location away.
"We're in the endgame," Arthur said."Thanks to Lancelot, AmpheliseandEthelfleda are dead.Maleagant no longer knows where to find us.He should have grabbed Merlin and the others early on, but as usual, his arrogance was his worst enemy.Our goals now stand at reclaiming our own and killing Kinborough and Maleagant.What comes after that, we don't know yet, but I'm sure it will be equally delightful.Hopefully, thanks to all your efforts, we'll soon know more about what Maleagant is really up to."
Tristan huffed."Hopefully it's not rule the world."
"No, but it is probably taking over a territory or three," Lancelot said."That was what he wanted back then: to take Arthur's kingdom and make it his own.Maybe he would have expanded to the mainland at some point, but I doubt it."
"We'll know soon," Merlin said where he sat in the chair closest to the fire, Morgan perched on the armrest."I managed to download a good bit of information from Ethelfleda as she was dying and even after she died.There's a lot of corruption, but I think I'll be able to extract at least some information.Kay, poor Scrob, is a bit more complicated.But I think I can pull data from what's left of him too, microchip, brain, and all.Medical grade equipment would be better, but we work with what we've got."
"Quick question," Tristan interjected, and at Arthur'sgo aheadeyebrow movement, asked, "What were the odds that the dude she possessed was also somebody right here in the same place we are?They have to be slim right?Like what were the chances that the dude the captain fights and Amphelise kills was basically a neighbor?That's weird, right?"
"Yes," Merlin said pensively."That is weird.Hopefully we get answers to that question, along with the others we have piled up.That won't be for a while yet, though.The various processes will take at least all night to run."
"So everyone take the night off.Keep the noise down," Lancelot said, looking pointedly at Tristan, Iseult, and Percival.
