Basically title, except Merlin and the group of knights (Arthur included) are caught. They go to torture Merlin, and the person sees the many scars. Along with the knights.

How they got themselves into these situations, Merlin didn't know. He swore one day he would be able to avoid them, but today was not that day. In fact, that day wouldn't come for a matter of years.

At the moment they were all tied up in a bandit camp. Getting out seemed unlikely at this point because they'd taken away weapons, had large groups of guards and were quite prepared for them to try to get away.

So the only option at the moment was to wait.

"Nice weather we're having!" Gwaine mentioned.

Arthur dramatically sighed. "Gwaine there's no windows."

"Well, a few people told me that a good way to rid yourself of conversationless silence was to speak of the weather. So far it worked."

"Who told you that, and why would you apply it now when we're in a tent?" Merlin asked.

Gwaine opened his mouth to put the blame on someone else, but was interrupted by a tall man entering.

"I demand you let us go," Arthur spoke angrily.

The man smirked, crossed his ams and leaned on one leg. "Why would I?"

"Because this one," Arthur nudged his head toward Gwaine, "will drive you insane, and if you know what's best for you, you will let us go."

The man snorted. "I can deal with annoying people."

"Do you have any apples?" Gwaine asked from the other side of the tent.

"No."

"What about an ale?"

"No."

Now Gwaine was pouting. "This isn't making me like you. I feel like you don't have many friends."

The guy felt the need to defend himself, but he was interrupted. "Actually-"

"Why I feel bad for you mister strange, scary dude I don't know. The ladies must be terrified of you, and you must never get any action."

Gwaine was honestly their best weapon when they were captured. He could talk their ears off and then more. Multiple times people had let them go because Gwaine was so annoying.

"That's a lie! Ladies lov-"

"Surrreee," Gwaine continued. "You must really hate your mother and your father. They gave you the ugly."

At this point the bald dude in front of them had enough and smacked him. Luckily Gwaine had a high pain tolerance. Also he couldn't feel much because he was still fairly drunk.

"Well that just proved me right. I touched a nerve didn't I? People in your home village call you ugly a lot as a child?"

Smack!

"That must've hurt your feelings."

"SHUT UP!" The dude angrily shouted.

"I'd give you a hug if I could. For what it's worth, I truly believe you're a sweetheart that's been forced into hiding."

At this point the man left crying.

"Wow, what was that? A high score? It usually takes me longer to make them cry," Gwaine mentioned casually.

Leon spoke up, "a minute and thirteen seconds. Your old high score was a minute and twenty eight seconds."

Later a different person came in. "How did you make Runicorn cry? He's the toughest person I've ever met! Tell me!" He demanded.

"He's the toughest person you've ever met? Wow, your life must've been sad."

There they went again.

........

It took a while for them to realize Gwaine wasn't going to stop anytime soon. Gwaine had made a good twenty cry by now. It was usually at this point that they let them go, or got creative.

A muscular lady with her dark hair braided back came in. In her hands were whips, knives and other cruel devices.

"Ooooooh, she's kinky!" Gwaine called.

The lady didn't respond. She looked around the room and found her target.

Merlin.

Stalking over, she walked like a predator. With every step closer, she looked more smug then before. That smirk she wore was quite annoying.

"Gregovitch! Get in here!" She called with a thick accent.

Gwaine spoke up again trying to get the attention on himself. "A threesome? This should be interesting!" The lady paid him no mind.

Once Gregovitch was in, they untied Merlin and used a device to make him stand. This device was made of metal, and had chains attached to keep the person standing and attached. They hooked Merlin in and clicked everything shut. Each knight watched every move so they knew how to get him back out.

Once Merlin was strapped in, Gregovitch left. That left the lady, Merlin and the knights.

Slowly the women sauntered closer to his face. When she was close enough, she leaned into him putting her hands around his neck. Merlin was shocked. What was she doing? He got his answer moments later when his neckkerchief was yanked off.

Then this crazy women pulled out the knife that she had temporarily put in her pocket. She lifted this to his chin. All the knights had stopped breathing. They were helplessly watching. Then she brought the knife down to his neck before pressing in lightly causing a trickle of blood. Her hand pulled away from the skin slightly and went down. There was a tearing of cloth as she easily sliced through it.

"My name is Margaret," she spoke with her thick accent. "Whats yours?"

"Will telling you stop any of this?" Merlin asked as if he was simply asking Arthur if he had to clean the stables again.

"No, but it will make it worse if you don't."

"I'm still not telling you."

Smack! The sharp sound wrung through the air. Then she pulled back to the clothing she was attempting to get off.

Then it came off leaving Merlin's chest bare.

What the knights saw caused them all to gasp. They had been preparing themselves for Merlin being tortured. Not seeing effects of past torture.

There were numerous burns, scars, and marks from many other things. Before the knights got a real look, Margaret moved forward with a knife.

"So more people know you're the weakest and most vulnerable of your group."

Angrily, Gwaine shouted, "leave him alone! Take me instead!"

"And apparently you're also a favouite in the group," she continued. "So they don't know about all these." Her finger traced a newer one causing him to flinch. Then she pushed into it before shouting, "answer me boy!"

"No! They don't know!" Then when she pulled away from that painful scar, "but now they definitely do."

"Cheeky. I see why they like you."

Gwaine didn't like where this was going. "You were neglected as a child and-"

"Oh hush you babbling baffoon. Every annoying word you say will leave a mark on your friend. Like this one." Slicing Merlin's side with a smirk on her face, she shut Gwaine up. That hadn't happened before. How were they going to get out now?

Merlin barely flinched, despite having a long cut on his side. It wasn't deep. He'd had worse and this barely hurt compared to the injuries he'd sustained.

"Whats this?" She asked curiously. "A serket sting? On a live person? Oh my, you've truly been through a lot. It would be a shame to put you through more." Then she made another slid on Merlin's chest.

"I want to know Camelot's secrets. You are knights from there, so you will tell me," Margaret drawled on casually. "Or else this one will pay."

There was silence. If they were honest, they would choose their friend over Camelot, even though they'd taken an oath to protect Camelot. This oath was the thing keeping them silent.

Smack! She slapped Merlin with great force. Then Margaret began to grab more torture tools.

"Stop!" Arthur shouted. He couldn't bare to see Merlin hurt. And the amount of scars he had... lots of them were fresh too.

"Are you going to give me information?" Her thick accent was incredibly annoying.

"Fine! Yes! Just don't hurt Merlin!" Arthur shouted.

"Merlin? You mean the prince's servant?" Her voice was sharp and demanding.

"No!" Merlin shouted. " I'm not Merlin! It's a nickname!"

She brought the knife back to Merlin's chest. "Are you or are you not Merlin, the prince's servant?"

Simultaneously Arthur shouted "yes!" and Mewlin shouted "no!"

"Don't you remember the plan?" Arthur asked seriously.

They hadn't had a plan.

"Don't you remember? You're Merlin?" After another blank look Arthur continued, "Well there goes that plan."

"What plan?" Margaret demanded.

Then Merlin caught on. "Oooooh the plan."

"Yes. That one Merlin."

"Right. The planny plan."

"Yes. The plan plan," Arthur comfirmed.

"What plan?" Margaret all but shouted.

"A party plan," Merli replied sarcastically. "What, do you think we'd just tell you?"

She pushed the knife closer to Merlin's neck threateningly.

Arthur spoke up, "we are going to be in so much trouble, but I'll tell."

This caused Margaret to pull back. Now her attention was on Arthur. A bloodied knife in hand, and her standing above them with a look of anger was quite terrifying.

"We were supposed to pretend one of us was Merlin and one of us was Arthur to distract you." Now Arthur looked down guilty as if he'd spilled a secret and was caught doing it.

"What? Why were you distracting us?"

Arthur looked down guilty while he thought of what he was going to say next. Luckily Gwaine knew that look and decided to join in.

"Oh you meant the plan about distracting them from the sneak attack?"

There was a look of shock on Magaret's face before she hastily pulled Merlin down and retied ths ropes around his wrists and she bolted out screaming.

Margaret had done his ropes well, but no one else knew that. So Merlin turned around so no one could see his eyes and used magic to free himself. He then proceeded to free the knights. When he was finished he went to his ripped clothing.

The shirt Merlin had been wearing earlier was ripped beyond repair, so he left it. His neckkerchief on the otherhand was perfectly intact. Swiftly he grabbed that before running after the knights.

........

With the bandits busy preparing for a nonexistent attack, they weren't watching for escaping prisoners. So getting out was rather easy. They were out in no time. They had escaped yet again.

For a while they ran. Once they were far enough away, they found a spot that would hide them and sat huffing.

When Leon caught his breath he asked, "Merlin, are you alright?"

"Oh yeah, I'm fine. They weren't very deep."

"I don't mean that. You have more scars than all of us combined. Are you mentally okay? I know these often come with awful memories."

For a moment Merlin just sat there shocked. He'd always known Leon was wise, but his wisdom always came at unexpected times.

"I'm fine."

"Alright. But don't think we're not talking about this later!" Arthur muttered darkly.

That they did. Arthur found a lot of new things about Merlin. Things he had never heard before. His appreciation for his friend deepened. Along with his suspicions. Merlin could hide secrets quite well if he wanted to. Most of the times people would let things he did go by because... Well because it was Merlin. Merlin was a question Arthur had never been aske before, and he was determined to find the answer.

.