Once again they were left alone for the day, pacing and planning escape routes but lacking the means to escape their room. When night fell however, they waited for Morgana or another guard to come and take one of them to be tortured or interrogated but nobody showed.
As the moon began to rise Merlin perked up, ears tilted toward their barred window with interest.
"I can hear yelling..." he muttered, "Outside. Fighting too."
Now that he mentioned it so could Arthur. It was becoming louder and louder, coming from the courtyard of the castle, and according to Merlin, the tunnels beneath as well. Merlin's warriors and no doubt half of Balinor's, had come for them.
Merlin induced his inner eye, it was difficult to fade through walls but soon he could see it, there was an all out fight beginning in the courtyard.
"The cavalry has arrived!" he reported back to the room of friends he could no longer see and he searched through the crowd, "I don't see Morgana, her forces are loosing though."
"We need to get out there." Arthur growled, "We need to fight!"
"Hey! Let us out! We're in here! Hey!" Gwaine began to yell at he top of his lungs, banging on the heavy door every few words to try and alert somebody to their presence. Merlin went back to fiddle with his magic cuffs, of course they would not yield, just as they hadn't all the other times he had tried.
Finally there were muffled voices on the other side of the door and with a click of the lock it swung open to reveal Will and several other vampires all sporting a red Camelot crest on their tunics.
"Will!"
"Sire!"
The two vampires smiled at one another.
"Here, we've found your weapons a few rooms down," one of the others informed them, handing them all back their swords and knives, "Here, let me get those off, sire."
Merlin held out his hands and soon the cuffs were laying on the ground, Merlin flexed his muscles gratefully, no doubt relaxing as his magic was freed once more.
"We need to get going, the battle is fierce." Will continued, "They have more in numbers than we thought below the castle."
"Numbers don't win a battle." Percival pointed out.
"No, but I bet they help." Gwaine muttered.
"Come on!"
The group raced down the stairs, Arthur slicing his silver sword through at least four of Morgana's fighters before they'd even reached the courtyard which was in the midst of a full blow battle. It was not a pretty sight and finally Arthur began to see why Merlin had not wanted him and his knights to involve themselves int he conflict.
Vampires didn't fight with weapons, instead they were clawing at one another, using their teeth to rip out throats and stabbing their elongated nails into one another. It was a mess of blood and yells. Once in a while Arthur thought he glanced the occasional silver dagger but it was too much of a mess to understand, the ground was a mess of pale bodies and bright blood. If this went on my longer they were going to destroy themselves.
"We have to do something." Will muttered.
"Leave it to me." Merlin replied darkly.
Then he took a deep breath and let it out with an echoing yell that seemed to drown out even the loudest parts of the battle. A shockwave of blue energy flew out of Merlin's skin, passing harmlessly through all of his own fighters but blasting all of Morgana's warriors across the courtyard.
Perhaps a third of them got to their feet but by then Merlin's fighters were on them, retraining them and gathering them up before going to look at those who were yet to move and look for signs of life.
Merlin swayed on his feet slightly, Arthur quickly caught him and steadied him.
"Are you okay?"
"Fine, that spells just a tad difficult, got to know who you want hit and who you don't." Merlin replied, "Just got dizzy for a second there, I'm fine."
"I don't see Morgana." Elyan spoke up, "I don't think she's here..."
"We've got to find her!" Merlin exclaimed, "We can't let her get away."
He was right, now the the courtyard was under control it was time to start looking for the brains behind this entire operation. Arthur ran back up into the crumbling old castle with Merlin and his men not far behind, they searched the halls in turn but found nothing, the king began to despair, perhaps she was already gone.
"Arthur look out!"
He felt somebody grasp his collar and pull him to the side, Leon. Just as a ball of fire went soaring past where his head had been moments ago. They all turned to see Morgana standing by the open archway of the hall they were currently in, she was fuming with rage.
"Give up." Arthur ordered, "Your forces are gone, you have no choice. Give up."
"Oh what are you going to do to me? Kill me?" She teased with a manic laugh, "You can;t do that and you can't contain me!"
"Wanna bet?" Merlin glowered, holding up his magical suppressant cuffs. Arthur drew his sword, as did all his men and gave her a daring look. She glanced at them all with a look of fury, she knew she couldn't win.
With a scream of frustration she summoned water from the damp surrounding bricks and froze it into several very sharp shards of ice and flung them at the group only to have Merlin melt them before they could reach.
"It's over." Merlin told her in monotone, "All over."
"In that case." She muttered, but loud enough for them to hear, "I'm taking you down with me."
Suddenly she was summoning another icicle, long as a sword and the group tensed but instead of flying forward at them the sharp shard turned on Morgana herself and with a smirk she plunged the thing right into her own chest. There was a sickening crack of bone and a visceral spray of blood and then she was on the ground, instantly dead.
There was a sharp, choked intake of breath at his side and Arthur's eyes flew to Merlin. The vampire was wide eyed but his eyes weren't quite focused on anything. His lungs seemed to stop working, he gasped and choked but it seemed like very little air was actually making it into his chest. One hand fisted into the material of his shirt, just above the heart.
If one twin dies so does the other, such is the curse of the twins.
"Merlin!"
The king caught his friend as he took a few stumbling steps backwards and began to fall, lowering him to the ground, almost in a panic. The vampire was trembling and gasping for breath, Arthur wasn't even sure if Merlin could see him, he wasn't reacting.
The others ran forwards to check Morgana was really dead, leaving the king and his friend on their own, not that either of them noticed or cared.
"Hey, calm down, you'll be fine." Arthur insisted, "Just keep breathing okay?'
"C-can't." Merlin choked with a whimper, continuing to shake and struggle for air.
"Hey, you're the most powerful magic user I've ever met, if anybody can beat this curse it's you."
Arthur began to panic as he watched Merlin's pupils shrink to pin pricks in the sea of blue.
"Fight." He implored quietly, tightening his grip around his friend, "Come on, you can't die..."
Merlin stopped shaking and began to still, he wasn't breathing anymore...
"No!"
And with that the vampires eyes slipped closed.
-oOo-
It had all happened so quickly, there had been an awful tightening in his chest, as if his ribs had shrunk and constricted his insides. Suddenly he couldn't seem to breath, his heart couldn't beat and a terrible pain was spreading through his entire being.
He didn't quite register that he had fallen until he heard Arthur talking to him, telling him to fight, to survive this stupid curse but it was hard. It was as if he was suddenly consciously aware of everything his body needed to do to keep itself going, he had to make himself breathe and make his heart beat but he just didn't know how.
He was scared, terrified actually. He didn't want to die.
The black spots were dancing in his vision and the whole world seemed to fade away.
'No...no I'm not going to die here...'
'I refuse...'
PLESE READ! I have the rest of this story planned out to the last detail so I know exactly how it is going to end. Will Merlin live? You will just have to wait and see... ;)
Yeah I stole that Numbers don't win a battle part from Narnia :P I just thought it would suit the situation.