Note: Trigger warnings due to sensitive topic mentions, see tags.
….
Arthur couldn't help a moment of bitterness as he looked at his right arm in disgust. Morgause had led him to a section of the ruins across from Mystery and clamped a wall shackle around his right wrist, then walked away. Apparently he was so helpless he only needed one chain.
He could make her out in the space in between. There was a great stone slab raised from the ground, like some sort of ornate table. She had laid Excalibur on the slab, grinning down at the sword like a child with a new toy. She'd been staring at it for a solid half hour, and Arthur sat down, the length of the chain allowing him just enough leeway to do so. He didn't dare raise his eyes farther to look at Mystery, he felt the Kitsune's eyes boring into him accusingly.
Morgan LeFay hovered a few feet to the side of the table, attention fixed on her sister, saying nothing.
Finally, Morgause broke the silence. "So. Sister. What say you now? Hundreds of years of living from descendant to descendant, and now perhaps I've found the key to eternal life. Perhaps I don't even need this womb. She sealed herself away from all but his legitimate descendants," she spat the word, "And now she is mine by his own hand."
"She refused even Arthur in his last moments." Morgan reminded her softly. "And neither of us knows why. What makes you think she will give you what she did not give him?"
"Because she is mine!" Morgause wrapped her hand around the hilt, stroking the length of the blade. "And whatever is mine does what I command without question, or suffers for it."
Morgan closed her eyes, letting out a long, deep sigh. Morgause whirled on her, shouting, "Don't give me that! As if I don't have enough power! As if I can't bend her to my will! Excalibur is mine, and she will do my bidding! If I don't have the power now, I will continue to gather it! She will give me her powers and blessings if I have to wrest them from her!"
Morgan did not respond, and Morgause's laughter took on a bitter, shrill pitch. "What, what? No more words? No long lecture? No telling me there's another way, a better path? No telling me, 'Oh Morgause, Arthur didn't know, he couldn't have. Not our precious baby brother, he can do no wrong!'" She swung the sword, and Morgan jerked back, showing the first flash of fear that Arthur had seen. "Of course he didn't know, but he knew what he was asking of me. You know why I was there!" She spat. "I was being obedient! I was being exactly what Father told me, a good wife!"
"King Lot?" Arthur nearly swallowed his tongue as the words slipped out, and Morgause whirled on him, sword pointed perfectly at his throat.
"The worm speaks, he has questions." Her eyes narrowed. "Speak your questions then, worm."
"That night." His eyes fixed on the point of the sword. "King Lot was in the dungeons, right? Why-y were you there?"
A sneer twisted her mouth. "I was there to beg the King for my husband's life. He was no romantic lover, but he was no monster either. Have you any concept of hell, Arthur son of Uther? Hell is being born female in the middle ages, and I landed in a lesser hell than many of my peers. Without him, I would have nothing and be at the mercy of whatever man came to claim Lot's possessions. So what do I do? I come to the King. I come to beg him for just my husband's life and by extension my own. And what am I asked?" The tip of the sword dug into his neck just slightly. "Tell me. What was I asked?"
Arthur backed against the wall, feeling the sharp edge scrape along his throat.
"Say it!" She shrieked at him, the point sinking into his skin. He could feel a trickle of blood drip from the point. "WHAT DID YOU ASK ME?"
Arthur didn't have to be a scholar or historian to piece together her story with the tale Mystery had spun earlier. Quietly, "Sleep with me, and I'll thi-think about it. Something like that?"
Morgause smiled crookedly. "He had more of a silver tongue than that, but that is close enough." The sword dropped from his neck and he wiped the blood away. "So I saved my husband's life. The next day he was released from the dungeons with a warning, and armed guard at our castle doors. Right there." She pointed at the entrance they had come through, and Arthur realized they were standing in the ruins of Morgause's old home.
"He wasn't thinking." Morgause turned on Mystery as the Kitsune strained against his chains. "He was wounded over Guinevere. He never would have-"
"I don't care what he never would have done!" She swung the blade, the tip slicing a perfect line across Mystery's nose. He snarled in pain. "What matters is what he did! He used me and threw me aside, just like father! Just like his father! 'Marry King Lot, girl, or I'll throw you in the ravine myself. I need him as an ally, an it's all you're useful for anyway. Now Arthur, great things for that boy. That boy will make something of our family. That boy is everything!' Don't SPEAK to me of Arthur and his good intentions!" She raged, her face dark.
"Father used you, it is true." Morgan's voice was quiet. "He used all of us daughters the same way. But you have become Father."
"Maybe because Father was right." Morgause breathed heavily. "Children are possessions. They're only there to be used. Every last daughter came from my body, from my womb. Whatever life they had, they owed it all to me!"
"Vivi was n-never you!" Arthur's fist clenched, his eyes burning. "Vivi was nothing like you, and she outs-smarted you."
Morgause turned back to Arthur, slowly, as if she'd forgotten he was there. Morgan LeFay's eyes widened, and she shook her head despairingly at Arthur. But Arthur had decided. Morgan had named Morgause's options to him, and if those were his only three choices, then he would provoke her to kill him as quickly as possible.
"I see." Morgause smiled at him darkly. "The Son of Uther hopes to end his suffering faster. Ever sly this one." She raised a hand, a flaming blue cord shooting from her hand. His shackle unlocked as the cord wrapped around his wrist. She jerked, dragging him forward and binding his wrist to the table. The cord felt like ice, and his nerve started to desert again as she circled the table to approach him.
"What is your worst horror, son of Uther?" She smiled sweetly. "What keeps you up at night, screaming in fear? Perhaps you recoil at the thought of my advances, but that is not what has cracked your soul open."
Arthur averted his eyes, staring at the stone under his legs. He could hear Mystery thrashing again as Morgause gripped his chin in fingers like a vise, the nails digging into his cheek as she raised his head. For the first time he got a close look at her face, and his heart dropped.
Lines were running across her face. Her cheeks sagged slightly where they hadn't before, and veins stood out along her neck and forehead. One or two silver hairs glinted on the blue head of hair.
"The magic costs you," he breathed, staring at her. "Your daughters asked for help… and you aged… and you wanted their bodies sooner. N-now you don't have a daughter…" His eyes narrowed. "Now you don't have a daughter. What are you gonna do when you run through this body before you figure out the s-sword?"
"I won't." Her eyes flashed. "Calling and controlling the ghouls cost me, having them fly me here cost me, but I will conserve my magic until I bend her to my will!" Her eyes lit. "You speak so vehemently of my daughter, as if you care." She knelt in front of him, still gripping his face. "Tell me, what would you have done if I had a daughter of you, and took her?" She grinned madly. "Would that hurt you, son of Uther?"
Arthur reeled. Her changes threw him badly. One moment she acknowledged her inability to bear children, and the next she was back on that. Morgan was right, Morgause had lost it a long time ago. He focused his eyes beyond her, refusing to give her the satisfaction of seeing what-
She yanked his face forward, eyes boring into his, and in her eyes he could see her. Six years old, with pink glasses, holding a teddy bear. Her hair was blue, just like Vivi's, but there were orange undertones he couldn't ignore. He could almost hear her cries as she ran, clutching her teddy bear. "Daddy!" She screamed. "Daddy!"
"NO." He wrenched his face away, spitting at Morgause's smile. "THAT WILL NEVER HAPPEN, DO YOU KNOW WHY?"
Still smiling, Morgause wiped the spittle off her face. "Oh I know why. But gods that was satisfying to watch."
Arthur stared up at her, hurting in places he didn't know he could hurt. It wasn't like he'd never imagined what a kid with Vivi would look like. He'd tried to stop once she'd started going out with Lewis, he'd tried really hard. But the fact that this witch would take something beautiful like that and twist it…
And then her eyes changed, and he saw himself, and he was falling. And he could feel the air rushing past him as he spun head over heels, tumbling into endless blackness. He could see the spikes coming at him again. And somewhere the Spirit was laughing, waiting in the dark as the spike pierced his chest again-
He screamed, cowering against the table, eyes wide and staring at nothing.
"There is your crack, I see. That was a marvelous job, I'm almost jealous." She traced a finger along his chest.
He couldn't do it. He could see it in her eyes. She was going to do this over and over, and worse. The Spirit had thrown him off a cliff for hours, but this one… she would take his deepest, most precious thoughts and twist them against him, maybe for days. He'd have nothing left by the time she was done, and only then would she kill him.
I will die me, not a broken wretch writhing at her feet.
"What do you want?" Mystery howled. "What do you want, I'll serve you, I'll do your filthy work, I'll submit! Just release him!"
"You will do all that anyway." She smiled. "You won't even remember him, but please, watch his suffering first."
Arthur pulled up his courage and looked her dead in the eye. Use her confusion, direct it. Okay Morgan. She got every chance from you, here's one from me, and if she doesn't take it, I don't have to suffer anymore either.
"So, you've got me. Y-you know what I'm afraid of, you know what I h-hate to see. You know I've g-got nothing. I've g-got one thing though. One more thing to say."
"What's that?" She smirked, standing so she towered over him, hand resting casually on her hip as she leaned on the sword. "Begging?"
"I'm s-sorry."
Her expression froze.
"Arthur… King Arthur…" He took a deep breath. He WAS King Arthur to her. "I… screwed up. It was wr-wrong. I was hurting, b-but then I hurt you. S-starting to think I h-hurt more people than the stories say."
Morgause had stopped breathing. This was obviously not what she had expected to hear.
"But l-look at you." He forced himself to look her in the eyes. "R-really look at you. Look what y-you've done, what you've b-become. I've m-moved on from my h-hurts. I had to learn the hard way," he wove his own history in as he spoke, "B-but people f-forgave me, and I d-didn't turn into a monster. You d-destroyed your own f-family. You didn't let them l-live, you're worse than anything I could e-ever be."
In a flash, his body flipped through the air, landing flat on the table. He stared up at the night sky as blue flame criscrossed his body, the icy burn setting in as it bound him there. "It'll n-never get better. You'll b-be like this every l-life you live, even wh-when I'm gone. You'll j-just have nothing left to ch-chase, and it'll be w-worse." He turned his head as she hefted the sword, a sort of peace settling in his chest. "You're r-running out of chances." He could hear massive chains rattling, but there was nothing else he could do for Mystery.
"I don't want your chances, I never asked for your pity!" She hissed, venom dripping from every word. "With you dead, the sword will truly be mine. I am also Arthur's heir now, I created my own line." She pressed the edge of the sword against his neck. "Master of my own fate, and ender of yours. Go to hell, Arthur. Greet our father for me, and tell him how spectacularly you failed." She ripped the sword across his throat with a gleeful grin as a Kitsune's howl of despair split the night.
The edge slid harmlessly over his skin, the edge suddenly blunt and smooth, leaving no mark. She blinked, staring in shock. "I don't understand." She repeated the motion, the edge sliding off his skin again. "I don't understand!" She railed. "You gave the sword to me, she should do what I say, she is mine!"
"The descendant of Arthur gifted you the sword, it is true." Morgause whirled, brandishing the sword. A strange creature hovered in front of her, and Arthur's eyes bulged as he recognized the Lady of the Lake. "But you failed to take something into account, Morgause." The Lady drifted closer as Morgause took a step back. "You failed to ask the descendant of Arthur if the sword first gifted herself to him." Her eyes darkened as she hovered in front of the woman. "And the answer to that, Morgause, is she did not."