A/N: First of all it is my duty as an Australian to thank Tom Hoper for making the long trip here to attend Supanova in Brisbane and Adelaide. There was a gorgeous little interview of him on tv where he asked all the fans to come and meet him. Then he said 'I'll even give you a hug - if you want one!"
Lots of magic in this chapter. As usual the spells are taken from Merlin Wiki or are my attempts at translating Old English words into modern English using an online translator.
Merlin readied himself for the assault he knew was coming and despite the life threatening danger, he felt more than ready to face whatever his nemesis threw at him.
With her dark hair trailing wildly about the pale moon of her face and her eyes filled with hatred, Morgana glared at Merlin and the two knights half hidden behind him for a few seconds before snarling out her first incantation.
"Ætslide bencpel!" She shouted arrogantly, directing her narrowed gaze to the side.
Merlin swivelled to his left as a boulder the size of a small cow was propelled straight toward Gwaine and Percival, followed almost immediately by another one from directly behind them. Time seem to stop as he weighed up what was going to happen and although he feared his friends' reaction to knowing he had lied to them for so long, Merlin knew he had no choice but to act.
Throwing up his right arm and holding his palm outward toward the oncoming boulder he sounded out a spell.
"Forbærne! Ácwele!" As his eyes turned a molten gold colour, a fireball blasted into the rock and reduced it to smithereens. He then rapidly turned his arm a further 90 degrees to the right, repeating the same treatment for the second boulder.
The dust filling the air around the trio caused them all to cough repeatedly. It was not thick enough to protect Merlin from the fearful stares of Gwaine and Percival though.
"I'm sorry." Cough. "Please don't hate me." Cough. He stammered desperately.
"Not exactly the helpless servant he had us all believing, is he?" Morgana asked spitefully, preventing any further explanations. "What about this then Merlin!"
As she spoke, Merlin saw the green of her eyes change to gold and without seeming to incanting any words of the Old Religion, a pack of slavering wolves came creeping out of the hazy depths of the forest. The alpha male gave a short howl before he led the pack toward their prey. The six wolves spread apart, circling ominously, eyeing off their targets and slavering ferociously. As the last of the dust finally settled to the earth, Merlin, Gwaine and Percival recoiled in terror as the eerie red light emanating from the creatures eyes suddenly became visible.
"Bloody hell!" Percival swore. Both he and Gwaine felt sickeningly vulnerable without their swords and even though Percival had the biggest muscles in Camelot, they weren't much of a match for wolves - and they weren't just mortal wolves either. The beasts before them were clearly creations of magic and Merlin heard Morgana's creepy shouts of encouragement in the background as he, Gwaine and Percival backed into a small circle.
"Merlin!" Gwaine shaky voice began. "We'll discuss the whole 'I'm a sorcerer' thing later but right now, for the love of Camelot, please use whatever power you've got!"
Merlin glanced sideways at his friend, receiving a small grin of encouragement. The delight he felt at Gwaine's positive reaction spurred him on and with a quick nod of agreement he set about his task.
"Forp fleoge!" The Warlock shouted, directing a strong wave of magic outwards from where he stood. The resultant blast was visible as a sort of golden shimmering in the air and as it slammed into the gathering pack of wolves it hurtled each of them through the air violently. One beast impacted brutally with a tree then fell to the ground in a broken heap, another hit the ground with an ear piercing howl, rolled then limped off feebly into the forest, yet another hit the ground right at Morgana's feet then propelled both her and itself into the trunk of a large oak tree as it skidded along the ground.
"Run!" Merlin urged Percival and Gwaine when he saw the opening provided by Morgana's abeyance. The two knights took off up the incline at the point furtherest possible from the witch but when Percival realised Merlin was not following, he grabbed Gwaine's arm and the two turned back.
"Merlin, come on!" he beckoned.
Merlin had turned to face his friends and although his eyes were wide and scared, his entire posture conveyed a rock strong resolve to stay and see the fight through to its conclusion
"No." Merlin shook his head, "You two go on. I have to ..." he glanced back at the fallen Morgana before facing Gwaine again, "I have to do what I should have done a long time ago."
Percival was all ready to go and drag Merlin away; he'd sling him over his shoulder if he had to but when Gwaine started speaking he held himself back.
"Are you sure?" Gwaine asked, brow furrowed in anxiety.
"Yeah. It's better if I do this alone." Merlin urged, eager to get them out of harms' way. "Please, get out of here. Find Arthur!"
Gwaine searched his friend's eyes for evidence that Merlin truly meant what he said; refusing to be fobbed off by platitudes, no matter how well meaning. If Merlin needed him he'd stay and help whatever the risk to himself. The committed and confident gaze that was returned must have been enough to convince him however and after a few seconds Gwaine acknowledged Merlin's decision with a sigh and a nod.
"Come on Percy, we better do what the sorcerer says. Merlin can look after himself. Can't you mate?"
Percival's gaze moved from Gwaine to Merlin. He was still unconvinced and his disconcerted expression spoke volumes.
"Arthur needs you more than I do." Merlin added upon noticing the large knights' indecision. Thinking back, Merlin had survived numerous situations before where by all rights he shouldn't have, so perhaps he was being overly worrisome. What's more, the young man clearly wished to deal with Morgana on his own and he had to admit, the skinny servant was better equipped for that task than either of them.
Finally Percival relented and the two headed off into the forest.
Arthur pulled himself free of Agraviane's dead weight but managed only a few steps before he slumped to the ground, flinging his sword out to his side. He stared back at what he'd done trying to contain his nausea.
He'd killed men before obviously and sometimes there'd been a lot more blood and gore than this, but never before had he dispatched a close relative.
He looked down at his hands and noticing the blood upon them, wiped it off as best he could using leaf litter. There was blood on his chainmail too but he could do nothing about that for the moment. In amongst all the turmoil he found himself thinking about how Merlin would have quite a cleaning job when they got back to Camelot. The image of something so 'normal' as a griping Merlin soothed Arthur's frail nerves markedly.
When his legs had stopped trembling enough to stand again, Arthur dragged himself upright and it was at this time that the searching knights came upon him.
"Sire!" Sir Boris called as he emerged from a copse of trees, taking in the scene before him.
Arthur wiped his face with the back of a hand and did his best to summon his Kingly dignity.
"Have your men transport," Arthur swallowed, "the traitor's body back to Camelot."
"Yes Sire."
"Have you come across Merlin yet?" Arthur enquired.
"Your man servant Sire? No, we thought he'd be with you." Boris answered casually.
"Well. I wasn't expecting that." Gwaine mumbled mostly to himself as he and Percival fled.
Percival looked at his friend with raised eyebrows, "Do you think anybody knows, apart from us I mean?"
Gwaine furrowed his brow in thought before replying. "Gaius maybe. Definitely not Arthur."
"No." Percival concurred thinking about all the occasions he'd heard his King speak unfavourably about magic users.
"How he's managed to keep a secret like that for so long I cannot imagine." Gwaine exclaimed. "I always thought he had hidden talents, but ... Nothing like this," he finished with a snort of astonishment.
Percival shook his head, still reeling with the discovery. He supposed this was the time when they were meant to condemn Merlin for being evil but no matter how hard he tried, Percival could not imagine the compassionate, innocent youth as having any motive other than to assist and support Arthur.
He remembered back to the first time Lancelot had spoken to him about Merlin. They had just received word from him that Camelot was under attack and Lancelot had dropped everything to go to his friend's aid. Percival recalled the faraway look in Lancelot's eye when he described how brave and self sacrificing Merlin was; how he was Arthur's most effective protector. Until now, he could never quite pin point what he was going on about.
Since then he'd witnessed with his own eyes Merlin risk his neck to save Arthur on several occasions. Never did it occur to him that the guy had magic though!
Gwaine too could not get the amazing discovery out of his mind. Before he came to Camelot he had no set ideas about magic. Since arriving in Camelot he'd only seen it used to hurt people and wreak havoc so had, understandably, become inclined to agree with the wide held negative opinion. Gwaine stopped and looked upward, as though suddenly seeing things in a new light. Merlin was in no way, shape or form anything approaching evil - even if he was a sorcerer.
Of course that did not undo the fact that Merlin must have been doing some serious evading and/or concealing of the truth for the past god knows how long and although he knew it was petty, Gwaine was hurt by his friend's inability or unwillingness to confide I'm him.
Morgana sat up wincing and rubbing at the back of her head where she's slammed into the tree. By the time she'd regained her faculties and memory of what brought her to that state, Merlin was standing right beside, pinning her in place with his forthright glare.
"You!" She sneered murderously at him. "How dare you!"
Merlin was clenching his fists in an effort to stay in control of the magic he could feel writhing and surging in his veins. All the cruelty and horror the witch had tormented Arthur, Gwen, Gaius, the knights and anyone else he loved, fuelled his feelings as he stared down at her. There was a quality within Merlin that would always be dominant over his emotions of rage and hatred however; his compassion. Unknowingly, he mirrored Arthur's intentions to Agravaine as he gave Morgana one last chance to submit.
"Morgana, I implore you to leave Camelot; to leave Arthur at peace. You claim to fight for justice and equality for all magic users but you've caused as much heart ache to the innocent of this land as Uther ever did. Let Arthur be the King he was meant to be. Let him lead Camelot into a new age of understanding and equality!"
Morgana peered at him darkly, rising shakily to her feet as he spoke, then burst into reams of cackling laughter.
"That's probably the most pathetic speech I've ever heard!" She snarled, ceasing her laughter for a second. "My brother," she curled the word around her mouth hatefully, "My brother does not deserve to be King. And I will not let you or anyone else stand in my way!"
A shadow seemed to pass across Merlin's face as he took in her words. The decision of how to act had been taken out of his hands and as much as he loathed using his powers to injure and extinguish life that was exactly what he had to do.
"Tócínan moldweg forsweolgan helrŷnege!" Merlin shouted hoarsely, his eyes glowing ominously as he chanted.
Morgana was taken off guard with the sheer strength unleashed by Merlin's spell and, still somewhat shaken, she grabbed for the tree beside her as the ground began to rumble and shake. Branches fell from the trees and boulders were sent tumbling as the magnitude of the tremor increased and a bone deep roaring sound filled the air. Merlin backed away from the immediate area, enchanting another spell to increase the scale of the earthquake directly around Morgana so she could not escape.
As the very ground tried to tear itself apart Morgana was wrenched away from the tree trunk she clung too and thrown to the ground. She began to enchant her own spell but the upheaval going on all around her threw her concentration off; the incessant convulsions and tremors blotting out everything else in her reality. Suddenly the forces became too much for Mother Nature and a crevice appeared in the forest floor some 5 metres away from where the witch lay. Merlin watched on from a safe distance as the split in the ground widened, heading straight in Morgana's direction. Up till now he'd supposed that Morgana's demise would feel like some sort of victory but in reality he felt no euphoria at all. It gave him no pleasure to see the fear on her face and the knowledge that he was the cause of this destruction sickened him to his stomach.
"I'm sorry Morgana." He whispered as the gaping maw in the earth reached for her.
Morgana screamed as she felt the earth give way beneath her and although she desperately scrabbled for a handhold, the soft earth provided no firm purchase and she felt herself falling.
Merlin swallowed thickly as he watched her demise, a film of tears blurring his vision. He saw the ground come together again as the earthquake finally quelled and as the forest floor resettled there was no sign left of Morgana remaining.
Merlin dropped to his knees in exhaustion and shock. All his memories of how she used to be flashed across his mind.; an angry Morgana bravely confronting Uther and letting him know how cruel he was, Morgana taunting Arthur to stand up and do what he felt in his heart was right, her protection of the Druid boy, the risk she took when helping him and the residents of Ealdor fight off Kanen's bandits, how she'd given up her own food to give to the poor during the famine.
Merlin held his head in his hands as a tangle of emotions overwhelmed him and as everything spun away from him, he tried to focus on the one thing that was paramount in his existence; Arthur's safety. Every action and every decision he made was based on that idiom and even though all he felt at the moment was bone crushing despair, he knew what he had done was right. His future and Camelot's future depended on Arthur's safety and as his tears ebbed and he managed to get control of himself again, Merlin's conviction that his struggles were worthwhile and that the future would be its own reward, reasserted themselves.
Meanwhile, as Merlin was caught up in his own thoughts, a narrow beam of bluish white light silently burst from the earth where Morgana had been swallowed and flashed upward into the air before it vanished from view into the forest canopy...
A/N: Much like Merlin I thought i would really get satisfaction from 'doing in' Morgana. Actually it felt a bit sad and kind of wrong - a lot like some of the stuff happening in Season 5 come to think of it!
There will be more of Gwaine and Percy's views regarding Merlin's big secret in the next chapter but i think there needed to be some sort of immediate decision made by them in this chapter.
The spell Merlin used to start the earthquake was a very bad translation of 'open the earth and swallow the witch' or similiar.
What happened with Morgana in the last paragraph is up to the reader's interpretation.