Just a quick note before you read this please: I live in Canada and thus not all episodes have premiered yet! The only reason I know even this much about her predicament is because I found a couple episodes online, but I've only seen up to episode eight. I'm sorry if any information in here does not match with facts from the show, but I've done the best I can with what I've seen. I hope you enjoy this one-shot!

Merlin and its characters do not belong to me and I make no claim to them.

You think you know what true darkness feels like. When you are an innocent child you may think it is when you hide under your covers because you are afraid of the monsters said to live under your bed. As you grow up you come to think a moonless night spent hiding in a deserted cave after the fire has died down defines the limits of the sheer blackness a creature can handle. You would be frighteningly wrong.

True darkness is a terror that crawls into your mind at a pace quick enough to take hold yet slow enough to prolong your agony for as long as possibly. It slithers through every lonely and forgotten corner of your brain, violently striking your most sensitive nerves, and just when you think you've gotten a break, just when dare to hope that some miniscule form of relief may be offered, it grasps you in its iron hold and pulls you deeper than ever in a bottomless pit of torture.

Aithusa.

There is not a doubt in my mind that she is the only reason I fight this darkness anymore. In the first few weeks of our confinement the thoughts of my brother lingered in my mind when I wasn't trying to comfort her. I still thought of the glory that awaited me when Sarrum's attention slipped and I could break us free. Freedom... such an unreachable goal it seems, after all this time. I have been counting each and every day in my head since he threw us in here, to the best of my ability. Seven-hundred twenty-six days. Only four days shy of two full years if my calculations are correct. Far too long for any living creature to live in confinement, but for a dragon...

I feel one of her deformed wings brush my leg and I open my eyes, shocking myself as I always do when the darkness remains, although this is different. With closed eyes one would only expect an absence of light. Even after two years of waking up in this pit the pitch black still retains its hold on me. Were it not for my dear Aithusa I would have made an escape ages ago, or even killed myself had freedom been impossible. But I could never leave her. After all we've been through together, after being captured and tortured and thrown into the darkness, I could never abandon her.

Her screams still haunt me, every moment my mind begins to slip into unconsciousness. With my bracelet taken there is nothing to stop the horror from continuing into my dreams as it has developed a liking to do every time. She does not scream down here, although she does wail and sometimes I cannot calm her down. She'll cry for hours on end and all I can think of is how much pain she was subjected to.

"Aithusa!" I screeched, watching helplessly as Sarrum's men beat her and stabbed her with their daggers, never stopping, Sarrum himself standing next to me while I kneel on the ground, telling me if I so much as try to break his men's hold on me that they'll kill her, and she won't stop screaming, and how can any creature endure that much pain, and he's just standing there laughing, and I can't take it anymore-

"No!" I shout aloud, startling myself with the sound of my own voice that has grown weak with little use and very little water. I hear Aithusa stir, my guilt for waking her overshadowed by my gratefulness to have a companion. I feel her body shift ever so slightly so that her tail is encircling me and her head is resting on my lap. With my hands shackled above my head I cannot reach down to comfort her, and so I settle for humming softly, my eyes drifting close once again as fatigue overtakes me and my mind drifts into yet another accursed nightmare...

"Not so powerful now, are you my lady?"

I'm kneeling before him on the polished stone floor of the throne room, hands shackled in front of me, the tight chain that was crudely fastened around my neck rubbing my skin raw, but I'm not complaining. I can't complain. For her sake, I can't make him angry. I've already seen what happens when he grows angry with me.

"The time has come to decide what to do with you, Morgana Pendragon." Sarrum's voice holds nothing but sick pleasure, no doubt from seeing me at my weakest and knowing there is nothing I can do about it. "Any preferences?"

"Let my dragon go and you can do with me what you please," I hiss through my clenched teeth, using all of my willpower to keep my magic under control when I'd like to rip his head off and-

"Right, right, of course, let the beast go... so you can turn around and kill us when she is safe, is that it?"

Of course that's it. As long as they have her I am powerless, and Sarrum is no fool. I didn't expect him to be. I say nothing to his reply, waiting for him kill me or throw me in a dungeon or anything.

"You would do best not to ignore me witch," he growls, causing the man holding the chain around my neck to yank on it harder than necessary and forcing my eyes up to the man responsible for her suffering...

"I have nothing more to say to you Sarrum," I tell him plainly. He raises an eyebrow and beckons towards one of his guards standing by.

"Retrieve the beast," he orders, and at once my head snaps up, my eyes wide and terrified for her.

"No!" I cry with as much force as I dare to allow in my voice. The man pulls on my chain again, causing me this time to lose my balance and nearly fall flat on the ground, my bound hands only barely managing to keep me upright as I catch myself. Sarrum looks down to me and his laugh breaks out again, grating in my ears for a few eternal seconds before his face turns dark and he reaches down, grasping the chain and forcing me roughly to my feet. His eyes only inches from mine I can see his twisted amusement behind the dangerous glare he gives me.

"Oh, I know just what to do with you," he sneers, shoving me back and smiling cruelly as two guards drag me out of the throne room, down the stairs, into the courtyard and halting before a daunting pit in the ground as dark as death itself-

It is Aithusa that wakes me from this haunting flashback, her massive head nudging against my own to bring me back into the present. I don't know what caused her to wake me, but chances are I was restless in my sleep, and when I am restless anyone listening can hear me. I allow a smile to appear briefly on my dried, cracking lips, going unseen in the darkness. She continues to press her head against my cheek and I lean into her touch, cherishing the mere fact that she is still alive, that she is still with me, that at least we are with each other.

"Please do not worry," I whisper softly, closing my eyes to a more comfortable blackness and resting against her. "We will find a way to get out of here, I promise. I promise that I will take care of you, no matter what happens to us in the future. Once we escape, no one will ever hurt you again."

I hear her whine softly and feel her rough forehead on my chin, replying to me in the only way she knows how. The two of us go silent after this small exchange, and while she falls back into an uncomfortable sleep after a few minutes, I stay alert, listening past her breathing, trying to hear something through the grate covering the entrance, and the only exit, to this pit. I am met with no sounds, but this does not deter me. I intend to keep my promise. When the time is right, I intend to break us both out of this hell and reassure her that she will be under my protection. After all, what holds me prisoner is not my chains, nor even Sarrum. It is the darkness, which will never fully control me as long as Aithusa is with me. As long as she is here, I cannot be beaten. As long as she is here, I still have faith that freedom can and will find us.

As long as she is here, I know I am not alone, and that we will be free.