Poor unconscious Gwaine. Here's Chapter seven.


Morgana waltzed in the next morning, an unconscious Gwaine behind her.

"Gwaine." Merlin muttered.

"WHAT DO YOU DO?" Arthur yelled.

"Well, dear brother, I thought it was obvious. I gave him the correct price of being loyal to you. Now it will be Merlin's turn."

"No." Arthur said, moving to try to protect Merlin, his chains hindering him.

"Why ever not? There's nothing you can do to stop me. Maybe I'll give Merlin the choice. What do you think, Merlin? Should I take Arthur instead?"

Merlin said nothing.

"Come on, Merlin. I'm waiting for your answer."

"Why does it matter that Merlin answers?" Arthur asked.

"Because Arthur, you two are extremely close, more close than you realize, and I want to hear what Merlin says right now."

Morgana looked at Merlin, an evil smirk across her face.

Merlin still did not respond.

"Fine, I will just take both of you, then you can both see the other person suffer. Seize them!" She yelled.

Merlin and Arthur were released from the wall and dragged out the door by four guards, two for each prisoner. They went down the hall to the torture room. They were thrown in.

"Put Arthur there, and Merlin in the center."

Arthur was taken to the wall directly in front of Merlin and Merlin was hung in the center of the room facing Morgana and Arthur.

Morgana strode around Merlin regally as if he were something she could buy. "So Merlin, she asked, "Why is it that you are so loyal to Arthur? Oh wait, I already knew the answer to that question."

Morgana turned on Arthur.

"Arthur, what are your feelings towards magic? And be careful how you answer, it might affect Merlin's punishment for better or worse."

Arthur seemed taken aback at the question in general. It was rather random coming from Morgana. She too had been raised in Uther's household, and was raised to fear magic.

"Magic is pure evil." Arthur said, "Everyone I know with it becomes evil, Morgause, for one, and now you."

Morgana just smiled at Arthur and turned towards Merlin.

Merlin hung his head in defeat. This answer had proven to him that Arthur was not ready to know. There had been one flicker of faith that Arthur might be ready but that was proven wrong.

Morgana waltzed up to Merlin. "Oh, so he doesn't know does he, Merlin."

"What don't I know?" Arthur yelled. He was tired of everyone keeping secrets from him.

Morgana grabbed Merlin's face, nails chafing his skin. "I'm going to tell him, Merlin. And there is nothing you can do to stop me." Morgana said, savoring the look of fear Merlin gave her.

"On second thought, maybe I'll keep it to myself a little longer. Let my dear brother stew over this for a couple days."

Morgana walked a little distance away from Merlin and enchanted something. Merlin screamed and rived in pain. Arthur yelled "STOP!" but it was no use. Morgana just kept right on punishing Merlin.

"Arth..ur" Merlin stuttered out.

"Please Morgana, stop. He doesn't deserve this." Arthur pleaded with the witch.

"No Arthur, I have given Merlin the correct punishment for breaking the law. He has been breaking this law ever since he came into Camelot."

"Nonsense, Merlin is the most law conforming person I have ever met."

"Then you two obviously do not know each other as well as you think you do." Morgana continued her charm, resulting in more screams from Merlin.

"Arth..ur... ..for..giv...me." Merlin stuttered out with the last of his strength. He had been crying Arthur could see now, and the tears fell to the floor as Merlin hung unconscious.

"No." Arthur whispered. "Did you kill him?"

"Wow, there is a lot of care there, no I did not. There is still so much more that I want to do with him. Take them back to the cells." Morgana ordered.

Merlin and Arthur were thrown back into the cell and chained, Merlin still unconscious. The guards then left, leaving the prisoners to themselves.

"Merlin, mate. Come on..." Gwaine said to Merlin.

"It won't work, Gwaine." Arthur said.

"What happened in there?"

"I don't actually know..."

"Arthur, you were in there."

"Yeah, but Morgana keeps saying things about a secret Merlin has. She knows about the secret and Merlin seems to know that Morgana knows too."

"Maybe that's what Merlin is scared about." Gwaine suggested.

"Maybe, but nonetheless, Merlin and I have known each other for a long time now. Shouldn't Merlin trust me?" Arthur asked.

"He does trust you Arthur. Maybe he is keeping it from you for a reason."

"I don't want him to keep it from me. I want to help."

Just then, Merlin stirred, startling the both of them.

"It just seems that this is really big, Morgana seems really angry about it. And Merlin asked me right before he passed out if I would forgive him. Morgana said something about Merlin breaking a law, but which law and how could I have not known?"

"I think we will find out soon enough, let's all get some sleep." Gwaine said.


There's Chapter seven. Did you all likey? I am currently working on a sequel companion fic to this one. Anyway, please review. I really love them.