A/N: Arrrgh! This is so annoying – when I had almost finished writing this chapter my computer went crazy and said the file was corrupted so I had to rewrite from scratch again! Sorry for the wait but to make up for it, I'll have the next chapter up in double quick time! In this chapter 'The lady of the lake' didn't happen Hope that you enjoy – remember to review please!

Previously

"Wait!" Alexa shouted "Wait." She said quieter, already regretting her decision "I'll do it."

"Clever girl" replied Morgana "You'll learn to know that it is best to not go against me Angauna. You will bring him to my newly acquired abode by tomorrow night and do the deed there. Don't worry, you'll know where to go when you need to and don't even think about doing anything sneaky – I am a seer, remember?" she smirked

"How do I know that you will remove the curse afterwards? I don't trust you.." Morgana's eyes narrowed.

"I am a woman of my word; it may surprise you to know. Just because I no longer have anyone to be loyal to does not mean that I have no sense of loyalty."

"You betrayed everyone close to you all of those years ago, I don't believe you!" Morgana fixed her a glare that would make any man back down but Alexa stayed strong.

"Fine, to prove that I am sincere in what I will do I will freeze most of the curse... But – your little Prince friend will stay ill. Nobody else will get sick or die – well, apart from the Prince of Camelot. I'm sure you wouldn't want my young nephew's blood on your hands now, would you?" She smirked again; oh how Alexa was really beginning to hate that smirk "Don't do as I say and I'll make sure that every non-magic man, woman and child will die because of you. However if you do, I will remove it from the vessel" she added.

"What vessel?"

"Now where would be all of the fun if I told you?"

"But-"

"I'll be waiting Angauna."

#~MERLIN~#

Morning seemed to come too early for everybody that day, including the most powerful warlock of all time. Merlin groggily awoke from his slumber in the library and forced himself up from the surprising comfortable table into a sitting position before remembering why he was there in the first place. Inwardly he groaned, the sickness. The illness that had been mercilessly striking down people from all around the kingdom, it would only take a few more days to force Camelot to its knees. It was like nothing he, or any of the authors that had written the books he was looking at it seemed, had ever seen before and nothing would stop it – not even his magic. And now the Prince was ill; another large blow. Kay's nursemaid, Jennet, had rushed to find him the day before when he had started to show symptoms and soon had become bedridden but there was nothing that he could do. It broke his heart to watch the usually lively and active child so weak and sickly and to watch his friends cry by his bedside.

Well, all except Arthur.

He just stood watching from the doorway and although pain and sorrow was shown in his face, but something was wrong. He seemed distant and didn't speak, didn't cry and, after their argument the day before, had not spoken a word to him. If anything, he looked angry – but angry at what? Morgana, who everyone suspected caused the disease? Himself, for what he said yesterday? But none of them seemed to really fit properly – he usually became unemotional and expressionless at the mention of Morgana and Merlin doubted that he could really be that angry at him for what he said so – who? He shook all of these thoughts away because there were more pressing matters now like checking up on the Prince. None of the books seemed to be of any help after hours of research into the night so he replaced them back on the shelves and headed out towards the royal chambers.

Upon arriving at the boy's room he found Gwen and Ade asleep around the bed with no sign of Arthur at all. Jennet was carefully placing a cool cloth on his forehead in an attempt to subdue the fever although if this was indeed the same illness, it would have little effect.

"I thought it best not to wake them, it has been a long night for everyone." Jennet told him as he approached Kay and Merlin nodded in agreement. Kay was much the same as he was yesterday but his breathing had become a bit shallower meaning that with the progression of the other symptoms also, he only had a day or two to live. He found it difficult to look at the boy because of the pain that it would cause him – although they had never been very close he had grown fond of the boy and had all the makings of a great King – if a little supercilious and overbearing at times. He would not stand and watch his friends grieve such a loss – he needed to find a cure.

#~MERLIN~#

Alexa had stayed awake for the rest of the night after returning to her room. Morgana's visit had just made everything so complicated and she couldn't comprehend what she had just gotten herself into. She had just agreed to kill Merlin. After telling herself for years that she was never going to become a murderer, she now had to do it by that night or be the cause of the Prince's death. Ade had become her best friend over the time she had been here and she couldn't stand to watch her grieve so like she had last night. But what would she do if she found out that she had killed Merlin in. If the deed itself wasn't enough, seeing the contempt and hatred in her eyes would surely break her completely. Then she realised something – this was what Merlin had gone through when Arthur didn't know. The years before he revealed his magic Merlin must have gone through the same thing, imagining what it would be like for someone who was so close to you, to hate you in an instant. To think of the worst and how it would be when it happened. But Merlin had a choice when and how to reveal himself and his magic. She didn't. She forced herself to stop thinking about what could happen and instead decided to just let it happen when it happens and stop speculating. She pushed open the door to the main chambers and was greeted by a shocking sight. Standing in front of her was the King of Camelot Arthur Pendragon himself.

"I- I don't think that Merlin is here, sire, if you wished to find him" she stuttered in surprise

"No Alexandra," she was shocked by the use of her full name, nobody ever usually used it "I came to see you. Now, I had a conversation with Merlin yesterday – you know Merlin, the kind hearted man who took you in when you first arrived here in my Kingdom? Well, the funny thing is that he was under the impression that it was your destiny to kill him" There was no humour in his voice at all "He doesn't believe that you would ever be capable of doing such a thing but that is what I thought about an old friend of mine. You have probably heard of Morgana – I never believed that she would betray me because I was too blinded by emotion to see who she really was. I am not going to let Merlin make that mistake. The only reason why you are not banished at least is because Merlin would never forgive me because of an attachment he has to you but I swear, one wrong move and I will not be responsible for my actions. My son is dying right now and somehow it is because of you. I saw the guilty look on your face yesterday and I've dealt with traitorous little witches like you in the past – but why would Morgana suddenly choose to strike now, after so many years? Something must have changed – something like you. You have probably been working together to bring down Camelot for months but I will not let this happen. Cure my son or enjoy the last day you will ever see." And with that he stormed out of the room, leaving Alexa sobbing on the floor.

He was right, she thought. The truth of the words had cut through her like knives and she realised just what she had done. But now, she was left with an impossible choice.

#~MERLIN~#

After leaving Kay with his family, Merlin headed back to his chambers for a final burst of inspiration. Maybe there was something that he missed? Something that was so obvious that it was easily overlooked? He doubted it but he was desperate now. Thankfully, there were no new cases as of yet and everyone who was already ill seemed to have just stopped deteriorating – everyone apart from Kay. He just continued to go downhill as the seconds went by whilst everyone else seemed to have stopped – something wasn't right but he didn't have time to find out what.

He opened the door and stepped through into the room and was unsurprised to find Alexa missing again. The past couple of days she had seemed distant and kept herself to herself and so he didn't think much of it. He grabbed his oldest magic book, the one Gaius had given him on that very first day, and began reading. There had to be a vessel, he had discovered, for such a widespread disease but it could be anything and it was well masked by Morgana whatever it was because he couldn't detect it no matter how hard he tried to. It would be useless to try and actually find Morgana herself, she could be weeks away, but he had tried everything he possibly could. If only Gaius were there to help him and tell him what he should do, maybe he could stop her before she destroyed everything.

"Merlin," a small voice from the antechamber said. He looked up to see Alexa standing there, watching with a solemn expression. "How's Kay?" she asked.

"Not good, not good at all...I'm sorry" he responded, she sighed deeply before looking up to meet his eyes, she seemed to take a moment to ready herself for something

"I can help..." she began.

"No, it's too far now and there is no cure, he's going – we can't do anything more..."

"No, no I mean there is something that you haven't tried yet. When I was... um... with the druids... there was this herb? It was magical with healing properties and I don't think that you've ever heard of it before."

"Do you think that it would be able to help? What is it called?" his eyes lit up in hope.

"Well, yes – yes it would. And it is called..." she looked around for possible inspiration "Bottle... flame... Yes, it's called Bottle Flame - because... it glows in the dark?

"I've never heard of it."

"That's because it works so well the druids kept it secret."

"Why didn't you say anything before? Where can we get it?"

"I only just remembered and we'd have to pick it from the forest but it's quite far away so we'd need horses to get there in time, I could show you…"

"We need to leave immediately then, I'll go and get the horses," He rushed out of the room so quickly he did not see the guilty look on her face as she buried her face in her hands.

They rode out of the citadel with great speed on the back of two of the fastest horses in the Kingdom and soon found themselves in the thick depths of the forest just as the sun began to set above the hills. The deep oranges and reds filtered between the branches of the trees above to create what would have been a scene of extreme beauty had both of the riders not been preoccupied in their own thoughts. At first Alexa didn't know what Morgana meant about knowing where to go when she needed to but soon the horse began to go on its own and so all she needed to do was to pretend that she knew where she was going. Neither had said much during the journey but after around an hour Merlin had begun to question whether this was just a wild goose chase. They didn't seem to be going anywhere in particular and he had never travelled across this area before and had begun to get a bit edgy when the light began to leave. Soon a strange castle could be seen in the distance and if Merlin didn't know better, he'd say that they were heading right for it and he still hadn't seen any of the glow in the dark 'bottle flame'.

"Are you sure this is the right way?" he asked.

"I'm so sorry," she replied and then there was only darkness.

#~MERLIN~#

After Arthur had left Alexa, he had returned to be with his son. Merlin had said that he only had a day or two left and he wanted to spend as much time as possible with him although the reality of the situation hadn't quite sunk in yet. His children were his pride and joy and to watch something like an illness strike down his son who should die fighting and in battle created such pain when he had not been able to say goodbye whilst he was conscious. Gwen had not left either but what really made his heart break was watching Ade. She was just staring into the distance at the window with tear stained cheeks, she was losing her twin – herself. She had been silent for days when they had first found out and now it seemed that it had all been too much for her to cope with. He walked over to stand behind her and put a hand on her shoulder but she didn't seem to notice and just kept looking at nothing in particular. He looked out as well just in time to see two riders leave the courtyard, one of which was Merlin and the other was Alexa. His heart rate quickened as anger took its place – he had warned her that he would not be responsible for his actions – what was she doing? Why would he be leaving at this time of night? What was she going to do to Merlin?

Ten minutes later, three more riders set off into the night.

When Merlin awoke he found himself in an unfamiliar place. The walls were old and partially ruined but the room he was in was very large and looked very similar to the throne room of the palace in Camelot although it was bigger with a balcony. As the blurriness in his eyes slowly left he noticed the two figures stood above him, two women to be precise – one was definitely Alexa and the other was Morgana.

"Oh look, the traitor is awake." Morgana said. Alexa was looking away with sadness and guilt clearly visible on her face.

"What do you want Morgana?" he demanded when he finally gained the ability to speak again

"Oh, I don't want anything, I'm here to watch what little Angauna here is going to do for me," she said sweetly, her tongue dripping with malice.

"Alexa? What..." he asked confused but was cut off by Morgana

"I'll leave you two to have a little catch up time whilst I go and get a better view" she smiled wickedly and disappeared through a side door.

"Alexa what are you doing? Why are we here? What happened?" he practically shouted.

"I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry! I didn't mean to but then she said she'd kill everyone if I didn't!"

"Didn't what...?"

"If I didn't kill you..." she whispered, looking down at the floor.

"What?"

"I-I..." she began but just hung her head in shame.

"Right, explanation later – we have to go now!" he said hastily attempting to get up off the floor and failing.

"NO!" she shouted, taking Merlin totally by surprise.

"What are you doing? This is Morgana we are talking about!"

"I know, but I can't let you leave... I have to do this" she replied. "You can't leave anyway, the spell I put on you that knocked you out means that you won't be able to walk or move properly for a couple of hours..." Merlin sank back to the floor in shock and betrayal, his mind trying to comprehend what had just happened.

"Did I miss much?" Morgana asked from the balcony, smirking "You can do it in your own time, but if possible make it as slow as possible – I want him to suffer..." She sat back into an extravagant throne that would put Camelot's to shame.

Alexa turned back away from Morgana to face Merlin so that her back was to her and picked up a jewelled dagger from the floor. She looked Merlin in the eyes before whispering "Ic i ádumbe"

"Ok, now we can talk" she said relieved after letting out a deep breath

"What do you mean?" he spat

"I put up a mute spell, she won't be able to hear us"

"Why would you do that? You're on the same side, Arthur was right." He looked back up at her again with a fierce look of betrayal in his eyes "I TRUSTED YOU! WHY DID YOU DO THIS? DID YOU AND HER CAUSE THIS ILLNESS? PEOPLE HAVE DIED! EVERYTHING THAT YOU HAVE SAID IS A LIE!" he shouted.

"No! I would never-"

"WHAT ARE WE DOING HERE THEN, HM? I REALLY THOUGHT THAT YOU WERE GOOD! WHEN I TOOK YOU IN I THOUGHT THAT WAS DOING THE RIGHT THING BY HELPING SOMEONE WHO NEEDED IT BUT NOW I SEE THAT YOU HAVE JUST BEEN WORKING AGAINST ME THE WHOLE TIME! I LOVED YOU LIKE THE DAUGHTER I NEVER HAD AND WHAT DO YOU DO? GO AND SIDE WITH MORGANA, KIDNAP ME AND YOU ARE NOW GOING TO KILL ME! I NEVER EXPECTED THIS BETRAYAL FROM YOU, EVEN AFTER I FOUND OUT ABOUT THAT PROPHECY! I SHOULD HAVE LISTENED TO KILGHARRAH! WHY DID YOU EVEN COME DO CAMELOT IN THE FIRST PLACE?" he shouted at her, anger, frustration and hurt clear in his face.

"TO FIND MY FATHER!"

"WELL, YOU DIDN'T SEEM TO DO MUCH LOOKING TO ME!"

"THAT'S BECAUSE I HAVE ALREADY FOUND HIM!"

"OH REALLY? GO ON THEN, WHO IS IT?"

"YOU!" she screamed back "You." She sobbed. Merlin's eyes opened in shock and realisation.

Flashback – 14 years ago...

Freya walked across the Druid camp to where Merlin was preparing his horse for leaving and coughed slightly to get his attention.

"Freya! I was just about to come and say goodbye before I leave," he said, with sadness in his eyes as he looked at her.

"Well, I guess I beat you to it then," she said as she smiled at him,

"You could come with me you know – back to Camelot, you don't have to stay..." he murmured pushing a piece of hair behind her ear

"I do and you know it Merlin! Your place is by King Arthur's side without me getting in the way. And besides, my life is here at the Druid camp, I wouldn't want to leave it behind." She replied, eyes glinting with tears as she stared into his magical blue eyes. He had arrived at the camp two months ago by order of the King to try and create a peace treaty with the druids after Uther died and magic became accepted in the kingdom. It was love at first sight for Freya and Merlin but he had a lump at the bottom of his throat as he knew it could not last – he was to leave to go back to Camelot now the treaty had been taken care of, meaning that he had to leave Freya behind.

"I'll never forget you. I love you." He said before giving her a passionate kiss and mounting his horse and riding away into the horizon, not trusting himself to not return if he dared look back...

END FLASHBACK

"I-I... You're my daughter?" he asked, the anger and betrayal being forgotten as he looked at her and wondered why he never saw it before. She had his raven black hair and blue eyes but her mother's face – how could he have missed it? She nodded her head in confirmation

"But I'm not actually going to kill you!"

"Huh?" he asked

"I have a plan... but so far you've been doing a great job at looking hurt so carry on doing it – Morgana can see you but not me. To her, it looks like I'm just saying things to hurt you and this room is so massive she probably thinks that she just can't hear us but I've got to do something soon or she'll get suspicious. Do as I say."

"Ok... so you're not actually going to kill me?"

"No!

"Right, that's fine – just needed to check..."

"On the count of three we both need to suddenly attack Morgana, she won't be able to fight us both if we work together. Close your eyes so it looks like you're expecting the death blow but you need to just collect enough magic for a massive burst to catch her off guard." He nodded in agreement.

"One" She placed both hands on the hilt.

"Two" She raised the dagger above her head.

"Three"

To Morgana, it looked like Alexa was putting salt in the wounds. Merlin was going mad below her which just made her smile to watch what it felt like for him to feel that betrayal. He had closed his eyes waiting for the end.

To Arthur, after tracking them both through the forest with Sir Gwaine and Sir Leon to an abandoned castle, everything pointed to the worst. He flung open the door to see Merlin lying on the floor with his eyes shut and Alexa with a dagger above her head.

Merlin couldn't see because he had closed his eyes.

Alexa never heard because of the mute spell.

Morgana both heard and saw when Arthur Pendragon burst into the hall and screamed Merlin's name.

Then next thing Alexa heard was a scream, before realising that it was her.

The next thing that Merlin saw was his daughter fall to the ground, Excalibur plunged through her chest.