Chapter 21

A/N: Hello again! Sooo sorry for the long update, I didn't have time during school and I just returned from holidays. Anyway, here's a veeeeeeery long one…sorry, hope you're not bored. Good to be back! Hope you like it! (And remember : don't hate me). Enjoy!

"Hleap on bæc!"

Merlin shouted the spell just in time to stop a sorcerer aiming at Iseldir. The Druid turned around and gave Merlin a nod and a deep look as a thank.

He looked around and saw Arthur engaged in a fierce fight with one of Alined's men. They were standing next to one of the many fires that the fighters had started since the beginning of the battle.

Merlin stared at the fire. His eyes turned gold and, like an arm, a flame extended itself out of the fire and burned Arthur's opponent. Arthur took a quick look around, saw that it was the old man that had saved him, gave him a look meaning he had seen that, and hurried after another fighter.

They had been fighting for almost an hour now. It was impossible to tell who was winning; the advantage kept going from one side to the other. Both armies hade made sure to send their weakest troops on first line; therefore, Merlin hadn't been able to face Morgana. The confusion was such it was very hard to tell where she was; he was surrounded by fires, arrows hissing through the air in every direction, deafening noises of sword against swords, screams, and blinding lights produced by the use of magic. Alator and two of Morgana's sorcerers had started a very fierce fight; occasionally, a lethal magical ray would miss its target and hit someone else.

Merlin did his best to help his friends, in addition to himself, but he couldn't be everywhere; it was hard enough to help Arthur and Iseldir, let alone looking after the knights, and after Gareth and Elaine.

He hadn't been able to keep an eye on the twins; one second he thought they were near him, next second they weren't there anymore and he caught sight of them twenty feet further. Gareth was fighting with his sword and magic; Elaine preferred the use of her bow to sword, but she did well with her magic as well. He had seen enough, though, to understand that they were really powerful.

He had to leave his thoughts when a knight ran at him, his sword held high, but before he could reach him, the man was blasted backwards. Merlin turned around and saw Gareth staring at him, his eyes turning back from gold to brown. The boy was panting, but looked fine. Merlin gave him a quick nod to which Gareth responded by a smile before running out of vision.

Merlin smiled. Perhaps the twins didn't need his help that much after all.

Morgana looked around her, her teeth gritted. She didn't know what had gone wrong, but the Cup of Life wasn't doing its work. Her men were being killed.

She had panicked when she had seen her first man dying. But she had soon had to gain back self-control. No matter what was going on, there was nothing she could do about it right now. Beside, it was not like this had ruined her chances to win: her and Arthur's armies had the same number of warriors; maybe she even slightly outnumbered him. She was furious and scared about the fact that her soldiers weren't immortal, but she had to keep her head cool, or else they would certainly lose. She had to keep going; the victory would be hers.

Jumping out of nowhere, a knight of Camelot aimed at her; she clashed her sword against his and her eyes flashed gold, sending the man fly backwards. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a lance take off the ground and head towards her, as though an invisible hand had picked it up and throw it towards her. She used magic just in time to break the lance in two, but was blasted backwards the next second. She looked up and saw a young man in front of her, with dark hair and a large ring on his finger. She had a strange feeling she had seen him before.

Whoever he was, though, he would soon learn not to try her power.

She held out her hand and shouted "Hleap on baec!" The boy was thrown backwards and landed on the body of a dead soldier. She saw his lips move but couldn't hear his spell; next second, though, she heard a loud roar and turned around to see that a large flame had started to move as though brought to life. And it was aiming for her.

She lifted her arms in an attempt to protect herself. She felt a wave of heat and energy hit her brutally and was almost sent flying by the force of it. She rolled on the ground, quickly got on her feet, reached out her hand and aimed for the boy.

She thought she saw, for the smallest second, a glint of fear in the boy's eyes, the kind only death could bring in a man's eyes. But before she could savour the terror that glimpsed in his eyes, her eyes flashed gold and she spoke the words that ended his life.

He fell on his side and didn't move anymore.

Panting, she walked towards him and turned the body around. She thought she recognized a boy who had entered a tournament, many years ago. Her eyes fell on the ring on his finger. It bore the mark of the Old Religion. She kneeled beside him, took it off his finger and examined it.

"Pity you had to die", she whispered with a smirk to the lifeless face that stared at her. "With such a ring in your possession, you must've been a very powerful sorcerer. And now you won't even be around to join me when I win this war."

She threw the ring on his body.

"If only you had killed Uther when you last came to Camelot", she sighed. "That would've saved me a lot of trouble."

"Morgana!"

She jumped on her feet and her magic flew out of instinct out of her. Within seconds, the knight of Camelot who was about to strike her down was sent backwards and landed on the body of a horse.

She smiled to the boy who had warned her.

"Mordred", she said. "How are we doing?"

"Our men are falling", he said. "Why?"

Her face darkened. "I don't know why either. But let us not forget that we still have a more powerful army than Arthur. We have a hundred sorcerers; he barely has a handful of them."

Mordred didn't look reassured.

"The Cup of Life was the best advantage we had", he muttered. "With mortal men-"

"We can still win", she cut him. "The Cup of Life wasn't our only advantage. Arthur stands no chance. And even if he did, I would do everything in my power to ensure he dies. That should be enough."

Before Mordred could argue, she asked: "Does he know about your allegiance yet?"

"No, he doesn't. I haven't been around him since the beginning of the battle. I killed a few of his men, but I thought it more important to fight my way to you. That way he'll see where my real loyalties lie."

Morgana's small smirk went back on her lips.

"Then let us not fool him any longer", she said.

Side by side, they headed forward, making their way towards where they thought Arthur was, slaying or magically throwing backwards anyone who dare stand in their way.

The battle was becoming impossible for Merlin. He simply kept on casting more and more spells, in every direction, to protect himself and anyone he could tell wasn't an enemy. And it was getting harder to tell. With magic he could keep the fire away from him, but the smoke would irritate his eyes and make him cough, and the second he would spend covering his face with his sleeve could be the one fatal to him. He started using less spells and letting his magic flow out of instinct rather than speak the spell. He had narrowly escaped death at least three times by now, and on top of everything he had to keep an eye on Arthur.

His friend acted on the battlefield like the fierce, lethal warrior he was deep inside. He could slay three men in a row with just one move of his sword. Merlin did his best to keep Arthur in his field of vision, and to protect him from the magical attacks. Fortunately he wasn't on his own: sorcerers from their side, sometimes Gareth and Elaine, helped protect Arthur from magical foes.

"Merlin!"

He turned around to see the twins running at him. They looked like they had just narrowly escaped from a fire, which was likely.

"Are you all right?" Merlin asked.

"So far, so good", Elaine said. "Except one thing. Have you seen Mordred?"

Merlin shook his head and looked towards the enemy.

"Not yet. He hasn't come anywhere near Arthur, and if he tries, I won't let him."

Gareth and Elaine quickly glanced at each other.

"Merlin", Gareth said, "you have to kill him. We can't let him live."

"I know", Merlin said without looking at the boy.

"Merlin", Elaine insisted. "If Mordred doesn't die, if he survives the battle, Gareth and I will have come back here for nothing. If he lives, that means he will kill Arthur, because that's his destiny and he'll do it at every cost. And if Arthur dies, there won't be any future for us to go back to. Please, understand."

"I do understand" , Merlin cut her sharply, gazing straight at her blue eyes. "Believe me. I do."

This seemed to sober up the twins for a few seconds. They even lowered their eyes as if Merlin had grounded them. In fact, Merlin had noticed that he sometimes had a strange authority on them, almost like an elder brother or a father. But he pushed that thought aside. If –if- they survived the battle, he would have plenty of time to ask the twins about the exact relationship they had with him in the future.

"Why don't we go and try to find Mordred and Morgana?" Gareth suggested. "That way we kill them before they have time to kill you and Arthur, and we do what we came here for so you don't have to. Everybody's happy."

Merlin was about to say something when they felt a sudden heat around them. Elaine shouted just in time : "Adwæscan fyr!" and a huge ball of fire that was aiming at them vapored in mid-air. Merlin was the first to see the sorcerer that had shot it at them and raised his hand towards him. "Acwelan!"

His eyes turned gold, and next second the man was dead.

"Look", he said to the twins, "we don't have much time. Try and find Morgana and Mordred, and kill them."

Gareth and Elaine nodded. They looked determined. They looked ready to go, but suddenly stopped, turned around and walked back to him.

Merlin looked at them, puzzled.

"What's the matter?"

"Merlin", Elaine began to say.

"What?"

"If…if we don't make it…"

"We just want you to know that…"

Gareth didn't have time to finish his sentence : he and Elaine were thrown backwards and landed on a pile of bodies. Gareth was the first one to spot who had done this. It was a woman. He shouted "Acwelan!", his eyes turned gold and the woman collapsed on the ground.

"Are you all right?" Merlin asked as the twins got on their feet.

"Yes", Elaine said. "Just-uh-just be careful, all right?"

Merlin nodded. "You too."

"Don't worry", Gareth tried to smile. "We have one job, we're not going to mess it up."

Merlin took one last look at them. Right now they looked more alike than ever, with the same determination shining in their eyes, the same move of the lips, somewhere between a smile and lips tight with angst. But more than everything they looked ready.

"Good luck", he said.

With one last smile, the twins ran forward.

"Morgana!"

Morgana turned around to see who had called her. It was a tall, bald man who was holding a stick. She smiled.

"Well, Alator", she said. "It's been a long time since you betrayed me."

"My allegiance is to Emrys", he said between his clenched teeth.

"I noticed that", she smirked. "And you are about to pay for it."

Alator pointed his stick in her direction. "Fyr gegeopan ond cwellan!"

Morgana let out a scream before she could stop herself : what looked like a wave of fire was suddenly detaching itself from a nearby fire and formed a tower around her. It was like being in a fire tornado –a tornado that was closing in on her.

The heat was burning her skin. Her eyes widened. She wasn't going to die like this. She wouldn't allow it.

The fire was almost on her now. She took a deep breath and shouted "Bereofan!".

Her eyes turned gold, and the fire around her litterally exploded, throwing fire balls in every direction. She herself was thrown aside by the shock, but she quickly got up to see Alator still standing. Not for long.

Morgana's eyes caught a sword that lay forgotten. They flashed gold as she whispered : "Sweord fleogan ond acwellan!"

The sword rose up in mid-air, and flew with a sharp noise straight towards Alator who only had time to watch the blade sticking in his chest, right where the heart was.

With a satisfied smirk, Morgana watched as Alator's eyes widened and he collapsed on the ground, the sword still in his heart. "Revenge is sweet", she whispered.

She got on her feet to see Alvarr running towards her.

"How are we doing, Alvarr?" she asked.

"Why is the Cup of Life not doing its job?" he asked before she could even finish the sentence. "Have you been misleading us, Morgana?"

He was no longer soft, trusting, charismatic. He was now a man who was losing power and didn't like it.

"Obviously something has gone wrong", Morgana replied. "But that doesn't mean we can't win. Nor that we won't."

"I am not sure", Alvarr said angrily. "Is Arthur dead yet? Where's Mordred?"

"I don't know if Arthur's dead or not, but I think you'd be wise not to underestimate Mordred", she said sharply. "He knows his destiny, he won't rest until he's achieved it. And you would be wise not to underestimate me, too. Because I want Arthur dead as well."

"The victory was supposed to be ours before we even started the battle", Alvarr said, his voice growing less and less calm. "This is why we all trusted you, Morgana. To lead us to victory."

"So is this the only reason you were trusting me? Because you thought the power was on my side?" she asked through gritted teeth. "Didn't you care about bringing back magic to the kingdom? About Arthur's death?"

"If I wanted Arthur dead, I could have done it long ago", Alvarr said, grabbing Morgana's arm. "I followed you because I thought you were the leader we sorcerers needed to win. Now I find out I was wrong all along."

"Let go of me, now", Morgana said. "Do you really think you can overpower me?"

"Maybe", Alvarr replied.

Morgana's eyes flashed gold ; Alvarr released her arm and was thrown several feet backwards.

"We're in the middle of a war and I am not afraid of starting another one with you", she said. "So is this what you were planning all along? To have me lead you to victory, then overthrow me and take my place? Sorry to thwart your plans, Alvarr."

She turned around and was about to leave when something very strong seemed to hit her in the back. The shock sent her flying onwards and she landed hardly on the ground. She didn't need to look very far to see who had done this. It was Alvarr.

And when she got on her feet, she saw him, his arm still up in her direction. This time he had gone too far. She had no need for a traitor, for a sorcerer who wouldn't obey her, even a powerful one.

Her eyes turned gold as she shouted "Gefyllan!"

Alvarr fell on his knees, both hands clutching his throat. It was a death rather unpleansant to watch. The sorcerer's eyes widened, his mouth opened, and a death rattle escaped his lips as he gasped for air, but he eventually fell on the ground as life deserted him.

Smirking in satisfaction, Morgana did not take time to enjoy the sight of the dead traitor. She had better things to do. She trusted Mordred to finish off Arthur, but she still had Emrys to deal with. And she knew no one else would kill him if she didn't. The Cailleach had told her that long ago : he was her destiny. She was destined to kill him. Without its best protection, Camelot was hers.

But there was more. Now that she knew who Emrys really was, she wanted nothing more than to confront him, to confront the man behind the mask. She wanted to look at him, look at the eyes she hated. In fact she loathed everything about him. She was asking for nothing more than to hurt him. And see his pain.

"There she is!"

Elaine jumped when she heard her brother shouting. The two of them had engaged in a fierce fight with three of Morgana's sorcerers, and she had just managed to finish the last one. She turned around and looked at where Gareth was pointing. And it was Morgana indeed. Her hair was tangled but apart from a cut on the arm, she seemed fine.

Not for long.

Elaine pulled out an arrow and made to aim at the witch, but before she could shoot, she heard the hissing noise of an arrow flying towards her and had to jump on the ground to avoid it. She landed quite hard on something hot and viscous. She looked down and to fight the urge to vomit when she realized it was the large and open wound of a dead soldier, and the thick liquid was blood. She hurriedly wiped off the dark red stains on her right arm and on her chin. By the time she got up, she saw her brother running in Morgana's direction.

"Gareth!"

An bad feeling crept up in Elaine's chest, like something holding her heart and squeezing it tight. She did what she could to calm down; it was natural to be worried, but her brother was a powerful warlock and a very good fighter. Plus, he was just as determined as she was to kill Morgana. She didn't have time to worry about it : she had to try and find Mordred. This time, all the hate, all the anger she felt for Mordred felt like a new strength boiling up in her blood. She would find him, and she would kill him. The man that had killed her father would not live any longer.

Running through the battlefield, jumping above dead bodies and trying to avoid arrows, Gareth could think of only one thing: I have the bad part.

The moment he had spotted Morgana, he hadn't hesitated : it was time something got rid of her. Somebody had to do the job. Gareth had never known Morgana until recently, when Mordred had brought her back to life : so he only knew her through the stories he had heard about her, mainly from Merlin, Arthur and Gwen. But as he grew up, he had come to understand that nobody really hated her. Merlin felt guilty for her turning against them; Arthur and Gwen felt sad for losing someone who had been a great friend, almost a sister in Arthur's case. But everybody had known Morgana before she turned into an enemy. Gareth hadn't, which made it much easier for him. For him, Morgana was just Mordred's ally, and their enemy ; an enemy who had participated in killing his father and most of the people he cared about.

Yes, he thought, it made it much easier to kill her.

Gareth took a deep breath and jumped in front of Morgana. He had been intending to cast a mortal blow, but her sword stopped his just in time. She smiled when she saw him.

"Well, well, well", she smirked, "if it isn't Gareth! Still around, are you?"

"You won't get rid of me that easy", he said.

The two of them started to move slowly, like they were walking on a circle. Morgana rose her sword.

"You should get out of my way while you still can", she said, her smile on. "Not that I'd mind killing you, of course, it's just that I have better things to do right now."

"Just give me a little of your time", Gareth replied.

Without adding anything, he attacked.

Morgana blocked the blow; the swords clashed with a deafening noise. The witch immediately tried another attack, which Gareth managed to avoid. He aimed at her arm, but she stopped the blade with such force he almost stumbled.

It didn't take him long to realize that Morgana was a very fierce and efficient adversary. He had been trained in swordfight practically since birth, but they were strictly on the same level. He was beginning to wonder if he was really match for her, but he cast this thought aside –he couldn't lose. He would do what they had come for. He was going to save the future. Many lives were depending on him right now, on whether he would kill Morgana or not.

He remembered something Arthur had told him once, a long time ago. "In a fight, a warrior can think of only one thing apart from the fight, and it's the reason he fights. He has no past and no future : his world resumes to his opponent, the reason he fights him, and what he can or can't do to win." Right now, panting, holding his sword so tight his knuckles were white, he thought he understood what Arthur meant. The only thing that mattered right now was to kill Morgana and end all this.

Morgana was tougher than him, but she, too, was showing signs of weakness. However, they both put all their energy in their fight. Morgana's face was pale, her eyes widened, her teeth gritted. Gareth thought he probably didn't look better, except he tended to screw his eyes up in pain. Again and again, their swords kept hitting each other, clashing and hissing ; Gareth wasn't very aware of the rest of the battlefield anymore. What mattered now was Morgana's sword aiming to his leg. He blocked, and made for a blow at the length of the head. She blocked the sword, leaving her torso unprotected. Gareth took advantage of it.

There was a slash, Morgana screamed in pain, and Gareth jumped backwards to avoid her sword. He glanced at the bloodstained tip of his blade. He hadn't wounded her very deeply, but it was a beginning.

Out of breath, Morgana was staring angrily at him. "So is this how you want to play?" she whispered. "Fine."

She took a few steps backwards. Gareth, panting as well, was on his guard.

Morgana took a deep breath, then reached her left hand towards the ground and muttered : "Eorþe geopenian ond abysgian feorr se fiond!"

Gareth looked anxiously in every direction as a loud rumbling echoed through the plains of Camlann, and with a deafening thunder noise, the ground began to tremble before cracking open under his feet.

Many people screamed in fear ; Gareth himself couldn't help gasping out of terror as he stumbled and fell straight in a newly formed creack in the ground. Fortunately he managed not to let go of his sword and stuck it in the ground, but the ground and stones were gaving away beneath his feet. He was now hanging above a dark opening below the ground, the only thing preventing him from falling being his sweaty hand around the hilt of his sword, which he doubted was enough.

He looked desperately around him ; horses and men were crumbling into the crack. There wasn't anything to hold on to ; if he didn't find a solution very quickly, he was going to fall along with the human waves that toppled over the edge on each side of him. Think, Gareth! This became even more urgent when he realized that slowly, very slowly, the lips of the crack were closing in. Come on, think!

The next second, he heard what sounded like an explosion ; something had just been set on fire a few inches ahead of him. A high, lethal fire started to grow.

With the energy of despair, as the sword began to slip away under his sweaty fingers, Gareth shouted : "Fyr beran me ond ahreddan me!"

The moment he let go of the sword, what looked like a huge fire arm detached itself from the fire. It was very impressive : the fire was moving like water, diving in the crack, enrolling itself around Gareth –who had to protect his face from the heat- and lifting him up, safe in a giant fire ball. Gareth had never experienced this before : floating mid-air, surrounded by a roaring fire which, in addition to the crack of the ground closing up, prevented him from seeing or hearing anything.

The fire suddenly disappeared, and Gareth fell from ten feet and landed hard on the ground. He remained there for a couple of seconds, panting, covered in sweat, aching all over, but alive.

Just as he enjoyed the last, getting on his feet, he heard a hissing noise closing on him. Through the smoke, he only had time to see the flying sword before it hit him right in the middle of the chest.

Elaine had been struggling for ten minutes with a fierce sorcerer. The struggle had let her out of forces and exhausted, but she finally managed to send him flying backwards. As she closed in to him in order to finish him off, the sorcerer shouted : "Weorþan, deað fyr!"

There was a burst and a massive, roaring fire appeared out of nowhere. Elaine jumped backwards to avoid a flame twice her size. She didn't dare think of how much energy the spell would require : not much sorcerers had the power to create an element simply out of magic.

She took a look around her. Somebody had opened a crack in the ground, and many had fallen inside. She had managed to survive ; now the crack was slowly closing itself. She had to run to avoid another flame and cover her eyes with her sleeve : the smoke irritated her eyes.

After blinking several times, she caught sight of Iseldir, whose silhouette emerged from the smoke. They hurried towards each other.

"Have you seen Mordred?" she asked –or rather, shouted so that he could hear her above the crack of the ground and the fire.

"No, I don't know where he is", Iseldir said. "Emrys should be able to deal with him. He doesn't leave Arthur."

"What about my brother?" Elaine asked.

"He's over there, fighting Morgana." Iseldir pointed somewhere behind her.

She turned around. Her brother was lying on the ground just in front of the edge of the crack. She saw him getting on his feet…

…and taking the flying sword straight in the chest.

Elaine didn't feel her lips moving ; in fact she didn't even have time to think about moving her lips. The single word just went out of it, out of reflex ; she didn't need to think about shouting, but she screamed so loud she felt all the battlefield could have heard.

"GARETH!"

For a second she wasn't even able to realize what had just happened. It was too brutal, too sudden. One second she was doing fine, her brother was alive, and now…

Elaine tightened her grip around her sword and started to run. She thought she heard Iseldir's voice, but it was very far away. All that mattered was to reduce the distance between her and her brother. The whole world around her, the screams, the noises, the fires, the swords, seemed to mix into a blurr as she ran faster and faster to reach him. The only sound she heard was her own panting breath.

Finally, she reached her brother and fell on her knees next to him.

Gareth was lying on his back, the sword stuck still in the middle of his torso, an already large blood stain growing bigger and bigger around it.

Elaine's eyes widened. Her heads were shaking as she tried to pull her brother towards her and managed to lift his head on her knees. The words were coming out of her mouth very fast.

"No. No, no, no, no, no…Gareth? Gareth, can you hear me?"

Gareth wasn't dead, but the color seemed to drain from his face. His brown eyes looked up at his sister. His lips moved, but no clear word came out of it.

"Gareth? Gareth, listen to me. Stay with me, stay with me." Her dirty hands were shaking harder than ever as she placed them on her brother's face. "Gareth, you're gonna be all right, y-you're not-you're not going to die-"

Elaine's eyes filled with burning tears. She felt her lips trembling as well, and bit them, almost to the blood, to stop them, but it was pointless.

Gareth's lips moved again, letting out a whisper.

"Elaine…"

"I'm right here", she stuttered, her fingers stroking her twin brother's hair and cheeks. "Don't die, p-please d-don't die-don't die…"

She didn't dare to take the sword out of the wound –she knew it would make it worse.

"Come on, Gareth –Please come on…don't leave me…"

Gareth's face was white. He coughed. Elaine had the feeling she was going mad. She didn't know what to do. She placed a shaking hand on the wound and managed to say between her sobs: "Yahæle".

Her eyes flashed gold, but nothing happened.

"You're gonna be all right", she said speaking very fast. "I'm –I'm going to heal you."

"Elaine", Gareth managed to say. His voice was barely audible, but Elaine's face was one inch away from his. "It's…pointless." He coughed again.

"It's gonna be all right", Elaine said, and it was harder to speak –it felt as if her throat was closed. "You're not going to die."

She was ready to try the magic again, but her brother just stared at her and managed to whisper "Elaine…"

She took his face between her hands. "Gareth. Gareth, look at me. Look at me. Don't go. Come on, you're not going to die, you're –you're-"

But her words were drown in sobs as the tears blinded her. "Please! I can't lose you, I can't do this without you, I – I…"

Something came out of Gareth's lips.

"What?"

She stared at her brother's brown eyes, and her lips twisting into what could have been a smile.

"I…told you…to save it…" he coughed "for later."

His head fell backwards.

This wasn't possible. The world couldn't keep going. How could the battle carry on, how could she still breathe, when her brother was dead? Through a blur of painful tears, Elaine held Gareth's face in her hands and rested her front head against his. The noises of the battle came from somewhere very far away : she only heard her own panting breath, her sobs an sniffing, and what could have been what was left of Gareth's breath. Elaine would have wanted to stay there and cry, cry until the end of time…but it was the end of time. She had lost her father, she had lost her friends, and now she had lost her brother as well. Did the world still exist after that? Did anything matter anymore?

She felt a hand on her shoulder, and somehow Iseldir's voice made its way to her: "Let him go, Elaine."

Elaine's throat was burning. She put her arms around her brother's neck and sobbed, her tears landing on Gareth's face.

Something was moving next to her. But she didn't care. She didn't care about anything anymore. Then she heard a mocking voice.

"One down, one to go."

Morgana.

All of a sudden, all of Elaine's grief, all her anger, all her pain, all her hate, seemed to come back to her in a new energy. For some reason she knew. Morgana had killed her brother.

She killed Gareth. I'll kill her.

Elaine's head lifted, her arms still holding Gareth, and through her wet eyes, she saw Morgana standing above her, a mug smirk on her face.

Elaine didn't now why, but to see Morgana in front of her suddenly made her realize that the rest of the world wasn't dead. The battle wasn't over. Only one thing one.

Her brother's life.

The reality of it was like a knife in her heart.

Gareth was dead.

Because of Morgana.

Gareth was dead.

Everything that had been boiling in Elaine's blood, all she had felt, everything that was tearing her apart from the inside, suddenly found a way out of her body.

Her magic.

She let her magic burst out of her, life the first lightning during a thundering storm, or the first huge wave of a tempest.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

In this one scream, her magic exploded. Morgana was blasted backwards, with a strength Elaine had never been able to put in a spell before. The witch was sent flying so far, Elaine didn't see where she landed. She could have gone and see, but she just didn't have the strength to and remained there, crying on her brother's body, the pain crushing her heart and squeezing her throat, with just one word occasionally escaping her lips: Gareth.

Modred was walking through the battlefield, magically pushing aside anyone who would stand on his way. He had one thing to do : find Arthur. Nothing else mattered.

He finally found him.

"Arthur!"

Arthur heard him and walked towards him. "Mordred! Are you all right?"

Mordred didn't answer and tried to slash Arthur in the arm.

The king blocked just in time.

"Mordred, what are you–"

Mordred tried another attack. Arthur stopped this one too, looking bewildered. They exchanged a few more blows, then Mordred backed up a few steps.

Arthur no longer looked astonished. He looked resigned.

"How long have you betrayed me?" he asked.

Mordred laughed.

"When have I betrayed you? For that I should have been loyal to you. I never was."

"The traitor", Arthur said. "It was you all along, wasn't it?"

"I don't want to brag", Mordred smiled. "But I like to think of what I did as a useful action rather than treason."

"Why are you on Morgana's side?" Arthur asked.

Mordred's eyes darkened. "Do you really need to ask? What made you think I would have sided with you? You, Arthur Pendragon, who have persecuted and killed my kind so many times."

Arthur didn't reply to that. Mordred hurried forward and their swords crashed. Immediately, the druid boy made another blow. Arthur managed to avoid it, turned around…

…and stick his sword into Mordred's belly.

Mordred's eyes widened. The hand holding his sword opened, and he fell on his knees.

Arthur looked down at him. Another treason. How far would that go? How many of his qlles would turn into foes? Was it all going to end with this battle? Was killing still the only way to be safe? He had saved Mordred when the druid was a boy. And now, the druid boy thought of him as his worst enemy.

Mordred's face was screwed in pain. Arthur took one last look at him, then made to walk away when a hand grabbed his wrist.

It was Mordred.

His face was sweaty and pale, his teeth gritted, but he managed to say : "Arthur."

"What?" Arthur said.

Mordred pulled him. Arthur kneeled down on his level.

"Arthur…"

"What?"

Next thing he knew, he felt an excruciating pain in his stomach. Looking down, his eyes fell on the sword Mordred had just stuck in it.

The boy's lips whispered in his ear.

"Just...fulfilling…my…destiny."

Mordred's hand let go of Arthur's wrist, and the two warriors collapsed on the ground.

Review? Please? Tell me what you think? I'm not sure if I did well with this one or not, so…feedback?