Author's Note: OK, I have prepared myself to lose a lot of friends after this chapter. You guys are not gonna like this. Sorry!
So we finally find out what's gonna happen to Gwaine. *Squirms awkwardly* But we also get some nice POVs *tries for a smile*
But if you still don't completely hate me, please review! Even if you just want to rant about how much you hate me or just let me know if your joining the burn-down-her-house party! Sorry! But please review! x
Disclaimer: I do not own any characters of the BBC's TV programme Merlin (wish I did!) but any added characters and plotlines were completely my genius! All mistakes are also my own.
Chapter Twenty Six
Gone
Gwaine had got fed up of floating. Feeling so weightless had become very tiresome and to be honest, he was starting to feel a little nauseous. All that and those short bursts of pain were enough to make him feel terrible. He had been feeling so weak. He hadn't woken up now for at least two days and he was getting very worried. Surely he would know if he was dead? The attacks of pain had become more frequent and even more agonising.
Suddenly, there came another one, as if thinking about them had triggered it. The ever familiar feeling of having his body burned and the white hot pain that struck through his veins. But this time something was different. Something was very wrong. The pain was yet more intense but it was affecting him all over. Behind his eyes burned and his vision blurred. The whiteness around him began to jump between white and black. Then images flashed before his eyes. Terrible images. First there were images of black shapes moving round in the night. Then there was the plant creature - Slisante and its fearsome jaws snapping open and shut, its knife-sharp teeth ready to sink into him. Next there were the faces of all the people he cared about. Arthur, Lancelot, the rest of the Knights, even Uther, Gwen and Gaius came up. Then there was blood, lots of blood dripping over the people then screams and then they all dropped to the floor, unmoving. And then the most terrible vision of all.
Emrys.
His hood concealed the top half of his face but his curling lips were illuminated in the moon's beam. They were grinning with an evil smirk. Then he reached up and started to pull down his hood. Emrys. The last thing Gwaine ever saw was Emrys' icy, azure eyes turning to a glowing, ethereal gold.
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Gwaine suddenly writhed up. Gaius turned at the sound of Gwaine's strained screams of agony. He hurried forward and lay a hand on his shoulder. He wouldn't stop. His eyes were flickering open and shut. He had never done this before, never this violently. He was breathing heavily in between yells.
"N-no! Arthur, Lancelot! Save them. N-no! Don't…please." This was followed by yet another scream of anguish. Gwaine had yelled odd words before and sometimes unintelligible sentences, but never had he screamed like this before. Never had his words been so clear.
"Gwaine? Gwaine! Can you hear me?" Gaius' yells were drowned. Gwaine's scream continued for what seemed like forever until then he was silent and his body calmed back down again. He lay motionless on the bed staring up with unseeing eyes to the ceiling. He took his final breath and his lips formed his last word.
"Emrys."
His eyes then clouded over. They were misty orbs gazing up to where they could not see. Gaius stared down at him for a moment, completely bemused at what had just happened. When he was finally wrenched back to his senses, he pressed his fingers up to Gwaine's neck. He desperately willed there to be a pulse. He kept his fingers pressed there for long past the time that it should have taken for a pulse to show itself. There was none. No comforting thump beneath his skin came. His heart was beating no more. The Thief had extracted the last fragment of life from him. The spell was complete. Gwaine was dead.
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Arthur watched reluctantly as Gaius passed his hand over Gwaine's unblinking eyes to close them forever. He looked so peaceful yet, so unnatural. His skin was almost transparent, his lips were already taking on a light shade of blue and there was no permanent grin on his face. No, this couldn't be Gwaine. Gwaine was too… annoying to be dead.
"Did he go…peacefully?" Arthur asked timidly, choking back his feelings.
"I would be lying if I said he did," sighed Gaius. Arthur nodded and looked away.
"Look, Arthur, what is done is done. We must now take action. Order the guards to ready the pyre in the courtyard," Uther commanded emotionlessly. Uther waited a moment then, seeing that nothing else was going to happen, nodded his thanks to Gaius and headed toward the door. Arthur also nodded to Gaius and followed his father out of the room. This had set fire to the hate for the Thief that had been building ever since that terrible meeting. Hatred boiled inside him. He would avenge Gwaine. He would make things right. Before he closed the door behind him, he took one last glance at Gwaine's motionless, lifeless body. A small tear trickled down from the corner of Arthur's eye. Goodbye Gwaine.
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Author's Note: Well this is awkward… I may have just made a large number of enemies K
But if you still don't hate me (if there are any of you), please review! And if you haven't chosen that you never want to speak to me again, please review! Let me know what you think, even if it is just full of abuse and insults… Well, urm, thanks for reading and pleeeaaassseee review! x