Author's Note: Good news! I'm not going to be working 55 hours a week anymore! Things have slowed down and I get days off. Whole days off! I might finish this story after all!

-Thirty-Six -

Survival

"Let go of Arthur," Morgana said calmly, watching Nimueh. The girl was desperate. Morgana could see it in her piercing blue eyes. "This is between you and me."

"Wrong. This is between all of us!" Nimueh shouted, her voice reverberating around the caves as if she was trying to cow them. "We're all the pieces to a very real game of life and death and the survival of an entire people."

"You don't survive by wiping out another entire people," Morgana said. "That's genocide."

"You speak as if I don't have cause for revenge," Nimueh said coldly. "Did you live your last life with your eyes closed? No, I know you didn't. I know you felt the same thirst as I do now."

"Perhaps," Morgana admitted. "But not now. I see now that it was wrong. My actions only led to more deaths and in the end we only won by peace. In the end all it took was forgiveness."

"Weakness. In the very end you died alone. You chose to leave that world and wait for another. You gave up because you saw you hadn't won after all, that you were still alone. So painfully alone."

It still hurt to remember giving up, but that was a long time ago. "But I'm not alone now. I've found my friends again. I've asked for forgiveness and been lucky enough to receive it. I've found a life, maybe even a future." Her eyes flitted to Lancelot and he smiled encouragingly at her. "Now you are the one who's alone," she said, turning her attention back to Nimueh. "But if you let Arthur go, if you change your mind about killing all the people out there without magic, you won't be alone."

"It's too late for that. If I wanted redemption, I would have already asked for it. This is survival pure and simple."

"There's nothing pure about killing people," Merlin shouted at her from across the lake. Nimueh turned her eyes on him.

"Says the one who killed me." Her words were sharp, meant to hurt.

"I did what I had to," Merlin said, blinking. Morgana could see the pain in his eyes. They'd all taken lives before. They'd all tried to save people only to have someone die.

"You're no different than me though you try to pretend you are," Nimueh told Merlin. "What makes you better than me?"

"I'm not some hero like the story books make me out to be," he told her. "I have blood on my hands just like you, but I don't kill people needlessly. I would never kill an entire group of people just to save my own skin."

"I don't do it for myself. I do it for the people who cower in the shadows, afraid of who they are, afraid to show the world that they are different. You can't look me in the eye and tell me you don't understand that fear."

"My solution wasn't to kill everyone in Camelot who would have seen my magic as evil."

"You're too weak to understand. You're all too weak! I will do what I must." She looked at Morgana. "If you come with me willingly then I'll spare them. Resist, and I'll bring this whole cave down on their heads."

"Last time I looked, you were outnumbered," Morgana said calmly. She didn't feel as confident as she hoped she looked. Nimueh was unhinged. Morgana could see the desperation in her eyes. She was on a mission, and in her head it made total sense to annihilate an entire population just to make a safe haven for those with magic to live.

She could feel the magic thrumming under her skin, coursing through her veins like an adrenaline spike. It was too much power, and she wouldn't be able to hold onto it forever. She needed to find somewhere else for it to reside.

"I don't think you can stop me before I slit his throat," Nimueh said, tightening her grip on Arthur. Morgana saw a spot of scarlet blood appear at his throat.

"Let go of my brother!" she shouted. She seized control of the sword, ripping it from Nimueh's grasp. It flew into her outstretched hand. She felt a jolt of surprise at the surge of power, and Nimueh snarled in frustration. Arthur fell to his knees beside his father, and Nimueh screamed. Her screams were like earthquakes, rocking the caves and cracking the ceiling and walls. Bits of stone and earth fell down, sprinkling the lake with debris.

"We need to get out of here," Morgana heard Byron shout as the caves trembled. Nimueh was out of control now, letting out all her rage. It rocked the ground and the caves began to collapse. Arthur grabbed his father and dragged him away from Nimueh. Byron and Merlin had parted the waters of the lake and Lancelot was helping Ryll across. They joined Morgana on the other side just as large pieces of rock began to hit the lake. The tree behind them was groaning as its roots were battered. Morgana saw its limbs turn black and fall like ashes to the ground until it vanished altogether, washed up by the waves of the roiling lake.

"Let's go!" Byron insisted again. Morgana snapped her attention to the entrance to the cavern. Nimueh was still bringing down the caves, but she was protected by her own magic. She darted past them, striking out as she went. Arthur and Lancelot were thrown back against the cave walls. They scrambled to their feet, Arthur supporting Uther.

"Run!" Merlin shouted. "I'll try to keep the tunnels from collapsing."

Morgana too reached out with her magic and forced the rock walls and ceilings to stay in place until they'd safely passed. She led the way, somehow knowing what twists and turns to take. Daylight dawned up ahead and they surged forward, out of the caves and into the sunny gravel lot outside. Morgana let go once they were all safely out and the caves sunk into the ground, rocks collapsing down to fill the caverns. A dust storm blasted out of the collapsed entrance and then, after a few more minutes of shifting rocks and rubble, the caves fell silent.

No one spoke for a long few minutes as they stood catching their breath. Then, "She's gone." They all looked around at Arthur's words. Nimueh was nowhere to be seen. The cars were still there so she couldn't have gone far but Morgana didn't think they'd find her if they looked. No one made any move to go in pursuit.

"She isn't going to just give up," Ryll said softly. She looked pale and shaken. "She thinks she's doing the right thing."

"We need to head back to White Castle," Arthur said. "That's where Nimueh is sheltering people with magic, right?"

"Morgause is there too," Morgana said. "I don't think she knows exactly what Nimueh is doing, but I'm not sure whose side she'd pick." She felt a stab of sorrow. She wanted to trust that her sister would do the right thing, but these days there were very different ideas of what was the right thing. She felt someone take her hand and looked over to see Ryll standing there.

"You're not alone," she said. "We're your family too."

Morgana smiled. "Thank you."

"What do you think Nimueh's next play is?" Arthur asked.

"She knows she's outnumbered," Lancelot said. "She'll get help."

"The people she's been sheltering," Morgana said. "She'll use them. She's probably been turning them against non-magic people this whole time. I understand that sort of desperation to believe anything someone tells you when you're alone and afraid. When I was still learning to use my magic, I let Morgause influence me. I made bad choices. I was impressionable and they will be too if they're anything like I was. Nimueh is their savior. She can do no wrong in their eyes."

"The Knights will be ready," Lancelot told Arthur. "We'll fight by your side always."

"We have Mordred," Morgana reminded them. "He's always had strong magic."

"What about you?" Merlin asked Morgana. Even though he didn't elaborate, she knew he was asking about the magic that now ran through her veins.

"I'm strong," she told him. "But this magic isn't something I'm supposed to keep. It needs a stronger vessel than a human being."

"What does that mean?" Arthur asked.

"It means I can't hold onto it for long."

"Can you give a little of the magic to each of us?" Ryll asked.

Morgana shook her head. "It doesn't work that way. I don't know how to explain it. It's as if it's calling me to a certain place where it needs to be. But first we need to stop Nimueh. Then I'll follow where it leads me." Merlin was watching her with something behind his eyes like hunger. It disappeared a second later and she wasn't sure if she had imagined it. Her thoughts flitted to Uther's vision of Merlin destroying the world with the magic's full power. If anyone was going to try to destroy the world though, it was Nimueh.

"And we follow you," Lancelot said, breaking Morgana's distracted thoughts. She smiled at him.

"I'm not a leader," she said.

"But you have people willing to follow you," he said. "You've earned our trust and our gratitude."

"We can thank each other later," Arthur said. "Right now I need one of you to drive one of these blasted contraptions back to White Castle so we can stop Nimueh."

They all looked at each other and then filed into the cars, Merlin, Byron, and Ryll in one and Arthur, Uther, Lancelot and Morgana in the other. As Lancelot started the engine and pulled away from the destroyed caves, Morgana felt a familiarity. They were working together to save the world as they'd done before in Camelot when it had been at risk. For the first time since she'd woken up in this world, Morgana felt like she was who she wanted to be and where she needed to be. The magic tugged her in a direction somewhere to the east of where they drove, and Morgana wondered where it was calling her and if there was a place left in this world where it could be safe, where they could be safe. We'll make a place for ourselves, she thought. We'll forge a new life and a new world, but not on the ashes of the old world. Somehow they would stop Nimueh and then Morgana would release the magic. That would be the true test of their survival because if the magic died, Morgana wasn't sure if they'd be able to live without it.