I gave you an order. What was it?
Prepare the horses.
Do it.
(grunting, laughing)
(thuds)
You are a soldier, Aurelius.
Leave the politics to me.
This is an order. Give up the boy.
Without the emperor, there is no Rome.
Then you will run like a dog until they hunt you down.
Commander.
- Get the boy. - The boy!
Get the boy!
Stop, comrades! We're all Romans!
Uhn!
(screaming)
(groans)
Rrrah!
Vatrenus.
You don't understand, Aurelius.
I had to do it.
Aurelius, my friend, if you ever loved me...
For friendship.
Uhh...
(coughs)
Uhn!
Now that the Eastern Empire has gone over to the Goths,
we have no refuge in Constantinople.
Or here.
Or in Germania.
Where do we go, then?
The Ninth Legion is in Britannia.
It's the only way left to us, north, to find them.
This is not your fight.
You 're free to go.
Go?
Where should I go?
I have broken my sacred oath,
killed my commander.
I'm like you.
I have no country now.
My road is your road.
Commander, where we go is not your decision to make.
Caesar?
We go north, to Britannia.
AMBROSINUS: Beyond that peak is Gaul.
By the next full moon, we'll be in sight of Britannia.
(sea bird squawking)
My beloved Britannia!
BATIATUS: Nobody alive, Commander.
There are horses here.
After all these years, it's still happening.
Who could have done this?
Only one man.
His name is Vortgyn.
ROMULUS: What is this place?
DEMETRIUS: Hadrian's Wall, the last fortress of the Empire.
AMBROSINUS: A monument to Roman law and order.
The Ninth Legion.
We've found them.
Look.
The dragon.
They were here once.
So where are the Ninth, old man?
This is your country.
What has happened here?
This is where the Empire ends, Demetrius.
There's nothing left but this wall.
We came all this way for a legion of ghosts.
Should've made our stand in Rome.
It would have been hopeless.
He must know.
Ah, he's fought hopeless battles before.
And you have stood by him.
Any time, anywhere.
(birds flap as if disturbed)
DEMETRIUS: They look like farmers.
KUSTENNIN: Who are you?
I'm Aurelianus Antonius of the Nova Invicta.
These are my men.
I'm Kustennin.
These are mine.
I'm looking for the Ninth Legion of the Roman Army.
Why do you come so far for them?
Rome has fallen.
What happened here?
The Dragon Legion is no more.
They were more than 1,000 strong. Who could have defeated them?
Kustennin, where are my countrymen?
Commander, I am Flavius Constantinus Marcellus,
general of the Ninth Legion.
Rome abandoned us.
Some men left to fight in Gaul.
Those with families stayed here.
Now you see we live like Celts.
We have a whole new generation.
AURELIUS: We saw villages destroyed, people slaughtered.
KUSTENNIN: Vortgyn, King of Anglia.
He's taken the southern kingdoms, and now he wants to rule all Britannia.
He's left us in peace so far. We are no threat to him.
And he knows we are no ordinary farmers. Come.
We bring greetings to Lord Vortgyn, conqueror of the Anglian people,
rightful ruler of Britannia.
There is a boy.
A boy?
He carries a sword. The sword carries a prophecy...
"One edge to defend: one to defeat.
In Britannia was I forged to fit the hand of..."
"...he who is destined to rule."
You, uh, know of this.
You say a boy has it?
Where is this boy?
Here, in Britannia.
Oh!
I've waited all my life for this.
Lord Vortgyn, the sword belongs...
To the hand of he who is destined to rule!
This... is the hand.
Then I take the boy and the man who travels with him.
This man...
Tell me about the man.
He is the boy's teacher.
Acts like a priest.
He is not Roman, maybe from Gaul or here, in Britannia.
He has a scar here in the shape of a sword.
Like this?
The same.
When I have the sword...
I will make you a gift of the boy.
And the man?
(sighs tremulously)
The man is mine.
This blade was forged from a flaming stone
that fell to Earth from the stars.
Who has ever seen such a thing in the dark of the sky at night?
Then you will know, and you will know,
and you will know,
that what I tell you is true.
The stone of fire that fell to Earth
cooled in the ice of a mountain and turned to iron.
There it was found by a master blacksmith, a Calybian.
He hammered the metal in his furnace for three days and three nights,
hammering in the white heat with no stop,
no, not so much as to eat or drink.
The cutting edge he tempered in the blood of a lion,
and see here... he carved the pentangle,
a symbol of faith and truth,
so whoever held this sword
would have faith and know that it would serve
one cause, and one cause only.
The truth.
AURELIUS: Would you take up arms again?
For the emperor?
We swore a sacred oath to defend our emperor to the death,
but to go against the Goth...
It would take a miracle.
(giggling)
It's so simple for them.
They like each other, and they're not afraid to show it.
How do you see me, Aurelius?
You 're a fine warrior.
You let your guard drop occasionally, you 're...
careless, sometimes.
Show me.
Is that all you see me as, a warrior?
You 're a handsome woman in your way.
(clanks)
Such passion, Commander.
You must have broken many hearts.
You 're getting slow.
Must be age.
You know, your attacks are a little too predictable.
So, where am I open?
There.
Not bad.
(sheathes sword)
ROMULUS: Do you know this place?
AMBROSINUS: Once, yes, I knew it well.
This was a sanctuary for those whose lives
were dedicated to the secret of the sword.
Did you live here, Ambrosinus?
Here I was given this,
by Vortgyn.
Aah!
Where is it?!
He wanted the pøwer øf the swørd før himself...
(screams)
...but the secret cøuld ønly be given tø a righteøus man.
That møment. sø løng agø.
marked the path øf bøth øur lives førever after.
ROMULUS: The pentangle.
It's the same as on the sword.
Remember the prophecy?
"In Britannia was I forged...
to fit the hand of he who was destined to rule."
I left Britannia in search of the sword: I found you.
I knew then that what was written must come to pass.
But I'm Caesar without an empire.
How can I fulfill the prophecy?
Have I taught you nothing?
Prophecy is an act of faith,
and we are the keepers of the faith.
What do you think, Aurelius?
Would you bury your sword for this,
to have a home, keep cattle, grow fat?
When it's over.
Maybe then.
I'm cold.
(swans honking)
(goats bleating)
(eerie cry)
(birds flying away)
(cry continues)
Well, little one.
I want you to...
go back to your people.
Carry a message for me.
You have a friend who comes from a distant land.
They must give him up.
Look.
(screams)
KUSTENNIN: Ygraine?
The blacksmith's family.
This is Vortgyn at work.
- Oh, please, don't make them kill me! - No, no, no.
- They'll kill me. - Shush, child.
- They won't kill you. - Yes, they will. They'll kill us all.
(pants hysterically) Unless we give them...
Him.
(sobbing)
Romulus?
Lovely Romulus.
The boy. He is the one.
He is Romulus Augustus Caesar.
Why us, Aurelius?
Why did you come to us?
I lost my wife and two sons today...
and I want revenge...
but the bitter truth is if we stand against Vortgyn,
many more will die,
perhaps all of us and our families.
That's not revenge: that's suicide.
The boy should go,
- and those who came with him. - VILLAGER: It's not our fight.
(murmuring)
VILLAGER 2: That's true, suicidal.
Let us hear Aurelius.
I will speak for him.
Everything you have been told is true.
I am Caesar.
We came asking for your loyalty, but Rome has not been loyal to you.
Now, if it is the right path and if it will save more lives,
then I will surrender to Vortgyn.
Whatever is decided here will be my destiny.
What are we doing? This is our emperor!
One day will decide this, one final battle.
At dawn I leave for the fort with my men to fight and defend from there.
Those of you who will stand with us, we welcome you as brothers.
Those who will not, we leave you also as brothers.
I salute you all.
Hail, Caesar.
ALL: Hail, Caesar.
You kept your armor, after all these years.
Ten years of farming gives you something worth fighting for.
Twenty as a legionary... teaches you to be ready for the day.
Good man.
It was made for my brother.
Doesn't he need it?
He's grown since then.
If we all die tomorrow, Ambrosinus...
what happens to the prophecy?
Now is the test of our faith, and we are the keepers of the faith.
We keep the flame alive.
What happens after is not ours to know.
(chatter)
(coughing)
(neighs)
If we don't live to see tomorrow...
Nothing will ever part us.
ROMULUS: Commander.
A boy once took your sword.
What if he now offered you his in exchange?
I would use it well...
and salute the Caesar to whom it belongs.
You are Caesar...
wherever you are.
Always remember.
My friends.
We've all seen many mornings like this one.
Together we've watched the sun rise
and not known if that day would be our last.
Some comrades I've seen scarcely out of boyhood,
trembling before their first battle.
It was a cold morning, Commander.
That it was, Demetrius.
And you men of the Ninth Legion,
all of us,
together we have fought all our lives
for the empire that our ancestors created
and together we have watched that empire crumble to dust.
But with its fall we have lost two friends...
and I can tell you that in the darkest moments,
I came to believe that there was nothing left to fight for,
but I've been shown through the wisdom of others
that there is one more battle to be waged
against tyranny and the slaughter of innocents.
Let us defend to the last breath this island of Britannia
against those who would tear out its heart and soul.
And then those who come after us will remember
that there was such a thing as a Roman soldier
with a Roman sword and a Roman heart!
Hail, Caesar!
ALL: Hail, Caesar!
AURELIUS: Demetrius!
Commander!
MAN: Secure the gates!
(horses whinny)
(army rumbles forward)
How many?
AURELIUS: A thousand, maybe more.
Not as many as I thought.
You two man the walls. Tertius, command the archers.
MAN: They're out front! Man battery! Light pitches!
Archers!
Attack!
(yelling)
Aim!
Shoot!
Vortgyn, I give you...
Fire!
Aim!
Shoot!
Sorcerer.
They have the sorcerer!
Clear!
VORTG YN: That is no sorcerer.
That is the keeper of the sword.
Aah!
Stay close to me.
The gate won't hold. Watch out!
Uhn!
- Aaah! - Demetrius!
Whoa!
Uhn!
(roaring)
Yah!
Bring me Caesar's sword!
Uhn!
Ow!
Uhh!
No!
I thought... I thought I had...
Too many, old friend. We don't have a chance.
(footsteps rumbling)
They're coming.
The Ninth.
Aah!
To the last breath.
Archers, make wall!
MIRA: Romulus?
Romulus!
(groaning)
After all you 've done to my country...
my Britannia, burn in hell!
(screams)
AMBROSINUS: Behold!
The tyrant, Vortgyn...
He's dead!
Retreat! Fall back!
Romulus!
(horse whinnies)
(slices, groans)
That's for my mother.
(slices, groans)
And my father.
Aurelius?
Aurelius, stay.
Stay close.
You fought like a dragon.
And you fought like the son of a dragon.
(groans)
You once swore to defend me.
Mm, to the last breath.
Have I discharged you from that oath?
Then live, Aurelius Antonius.
And all of you, the last of my legions...
we won a great victory today.
And now I say...
no more blood.
No more war!
(sword whooshes)
(wind whistling)
And that was how the last of the Romans found a home, here in Britannia,
and how, after years of turmoil, they brought peace to the land.
What happened to the commander, Aurelius?
Oh, he lived.
He took the warrior maiden Mira for his wife.
And Romulus, the boy?
They raised him as their own son.
He grew to be a wise ruler.
He took a Celtic name,
"son of a dragon."
Pendragon.
That's my father.
And you remember the little girl, Ygraine?
He married her.
My mother?
And Ambrosinus took back his real name.
Merlin.
You?
Merlin... it's just a story.
You made it up. It's a legend.
Arthur, Arthur, Arthur.
Have I ever lied to you?
Every day.
Hmm.
That's it.
That's where the lost legion made their stand.
Great legends were made here.
With you as the hero.
Of course.
We need heroes, don't we?
(cawing)