Titan of the Hunt

by vPxForerunner x

During the final days of the second Giant war, Percy loses the one he loves and his purpose for living. So he asks the gods for a task to challenge him and give him a new purpose. Unfortunately for him a man hating goddess and friends are going to be gaining a new Guardian. Post MOA. Pertemis

115. Interlude – A Dragons Journey

All rights belong to Rick Riordan.

The following chapter is a little different to the rest of the story in that unlike every chapter before it is written entirely in a third person perspective. Likewise it is by far the longest chapter in this story by over 12,000 words and covers a relatively long time period by this stories usual standards. However I chose to publish the whole thing in one go rather than break it down into pieces as it would break the flow of the main story to keep cutting to and from the main story and back to this short one.

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Interlude – A Dragons Journey

It was with great difficulty that the girl opened her eyes and slowly surveyed the scenes of carnage around her. The once familiar ornately decorated room had been utterly devastated by its sole occupant. Pieces of furniture that had resided in here in some cases for millennia or more had been smashed to pieces or scorched to ash by dragon fire.

Using one still three clawed hand she scratched at the floor until she was finally able to achieve purchase and painfully pull her torso upright. Once she had done so it was easier to see what had become of her surroundings and her own body from the new position.

The fact that she was naked was unsurprising to her, there was little hope that any piece of apparel could survive her transformation into her bestial form, magic or not the silver garments had been. Yet even so she let out a low growl as she regarded the abomination that she currently resembled.

From the knees down her legs were still those of a black dragon, moving up her thighs and torso things became more human albeit isolated patches of scales were still present in places. Likewise, her left arm had mostly returned to normal whilst the right was still almost completely dragon-like up to the shoulder.

It was her back however that bothered her the most as a single tattered black wing spread out beside her on the floor to her left-hand side throwing her off balance as its twin was long gone at some point in her unconscious state.

After a few tentative flexes failed to produce results it became clear to the girl that the limb was just dead weight as the muscles and sinews of her transformed state were no longer present.

Not willing to put up with the useless appendage longer than necessary the girl slowly reached her right arm over her shoulder and grasped its base between her claws. The sharp edges cutting into flesh even before she started to pull despite the crimson liquid painting her bare back and arm. Nor too did her own screams of pain stop her before she felt the resistance suddenly give way.

Collapsing forward afterwards she looked down at the crimson coated scaled limb with morbid fascination her tongue almost naturally stretching out towards it without a second thought.

"Really daughter I take my eyes off you for a few minutes and I come back to find you mutilating yourself." A serious voice said down to her as she instinctively growled and tried to back up away from the goddess only to trip over her own tail, the appendage still being present and proportionately longer than the rest of her body.

Even so with the distance she had put between herself and the other figure she could at least see the entire person. Who was instead more focused for a second on looking at the severed stump of her discarded wing, than on the girl herself.

Despite the fact that the girl knew exactly who and what Hecate was. The primal side of her still caused her to be wary of the older woman who seemed to sate her curiosity after a few seconds, as the discarded limb disappeared into light to be examined at a later date.

"Come now if I was going to hurt you, I would not have brought you back home, besides what would I have to gain out of killing you other than inconveniencing myself by having to give birth to you... Again." The goddess added with a reluctant sigh as she summoned a simple three-legged wooden stool to sit on.

The girl seemed to consider the words for a few seconds before deciding that what her mother said was likely truthful. She had voiced disdain for the act on a number of occasions when she had been suddenly forced pregnant by the girls own foolish 'curse'.

Sitting on her backside the girl pulled her legs up to chest even as her tail naturally curled around in front of her despite not consciously figuring out how to control that purposefully.

"Well at least this solves the mystery of what would happen to you if you managed to survive using that form." The goddess said idly whilst the girl simply looked over her own knees, yellow serpentine eyes regarding her mother warily.

"Of course, the first issue is who am I speaking to exactly, the Hunter or the Queen?" Hecate asked curiously as the girl spent several seconds opening her mouth but only succeeding in showing her mother an impressive collection of pointed teeth and releasing a small puff of smoke.

"Well, I guess it stands to reason that given your current state, some of your internal systems are still mixed and matched between the two. So how about this, hold up one finger if you are Morgan Le Fay or two fingers if you are Morganna?" Hecate instructed slowly only to frown as the girl held up three claws after a few seconds of thought.

The truth was that the girl did not know the answer to the question herself. She had the memories of two lives in her head. Whilst the Hunter side of her knew of her previous incarnations having been told details by others as she grew up and reading her own notes, she had never had such vivid flashes of memory as would suddenly flash in front of her eyes for but a second.

Was she still the raven haired cerulean eyed Hunter of Artemis or was she golden eyed blond queen who had schemed to overthrow her own sibling?

"Well then I guess we will have to wait and see for a bit longer either way then daughter. Should you require anything then knock on the door and someone will answer." The goddess said rising to her feet as behind her a section of the wall changed into a steel barred door that would not have been out of place in a jail.

"Oh, and if you could try to avoid killing each other it would be greatly appreciated." Hecate said as a cryptic afterthought before disappearing into green flames. Slowly the girl crawled her way to the stool her mother had vacated before raising herself onto the seat. Her tail wrapping around her feet as she closed her eyes and began to think.

Now some might have thought the goddess was acting coldly to her own daughter, but the girl understood that was simply how the former Titaness was with everyone. Even as her first daughter she had never received what could be called special treatment from Hecate, instead she was simply treated as her most successful pupil… and her greatest disappointment.

Something that was not undeserved given her past history. She had been a natural prodigy in all fields of magic, not only of the Hellenistic and Roman kinds but also rapidly learning the druidic arts and that of the invading Saxon forces that had plagued the nation of Britannia. Her draconic nature on her father's side gifting her with huge abundances of natural stamina and power to boost her magical capabilities even further.

She should have been Camelot's trump card; instead, she had been its greatest adversary. Her own rivalry with her siblings had caused its downfall; both the younger king that she felt had stolen her rightful throne and her complicated relationship with their court magus.

Still, what had happened fifteen hundred years ago was not something that the present her could change. Unlike with the gods own petty squabbles where such conflicts could last centuries as all parties were otherwise immortal. In her case almost everyone had been killed in the conflict that ravaged the fledgling kingdom, even she herself had not seen in the end of the war.

And for what? What had been accomplished by the end of it? She had achieved nothing but her own death, that of her children on both sides of the war as some had sided with her whilst others had been loyal knights to their King until the very end. The King had been slain at Camlann but in the doing so she had sacrificed her last and greatest child to achieve it.

All that was left was a vulnerable crumbling kingdom that had swiftly been conquered by the same invaders the King had fought for so long to keep at bay. Her first reincarnation had only been a toddler at that point and as a result been forced to grow up in that world by Hecate as recompense for her previous actions. She had grown up unaware of her own part in the world she had created until several decades had passed when she had begun to recollect her previous memories promptly gone insane and been killed again by local villages who thought that she was an insane witch (which ironically was true).

Time and time again the process had repeated as she came of age and parts of Morgan began to resurface in her conscious compelling her actions towards her inevitable death, sometimes causing her to kindle her dragon's heritages rage forcing many a renowned dragon slayer or passing god to end her rampage.

Hecate's hope had been that by entrusting Morganna to Artemis and her achieving semi-immortality like that of the other hunters. She would not age and mature and hopefully prevent Morgan's influence from surfacing.

But she had clearly changed her stance on that action by allowing her to suddenly undergo full dragonification in front of everyone before her original selves' influence had taken affect. And she had been right on some level because her daughter had never been able to return from the dragon form once she had achieved it.

Sure, it had taken a long period of time change back in contrast to the initial transformation. She was not aware of exactly how long it had been whilst she had been unconscious but judging by the painfully slow changes that were taking place on her body when she occasionally opened her eyes. She estimated that it must have been days if not a week or more since the War Game. However, the one good thing about being part dragon was that the ability to shut down on a mental level, to shift into a state of meditation that only needed to pay attention to outside interruptions.

---

"Well, isn't this a lovely surprise to see you again." A voice called out playfully from the other side of the door. The girl had not even let him finish before she had leaped across the room, a clawed arm reaching through the bars in a desperate attempt to grab the accursed mage and throttle the life out of him.

However, despite her intentions he remained just outside of reach as her claws scratched just outside range of his throat as he continually grinned at her.

"MERLINNNNN!" The girl screamed angrily spit being thrown from her mouth as she spoke for the first time in days.

"Glad to see you haven't forgotten me, my beautiful sister." The Incubus mage said jovially despite the enraged girl trying to tear his throat out. But then again, he had never taken anything truly serious. Something that had been both a boon and a detriment over the centuries.

Despite being her older sibling by almost thirty years, he had never actually aged past looking in his late twenties. Whilst most mortal stories had him as some wizened old grand wizard figure, they could not be further from the truth. The truth was apart from the almost bleached white mane of hair trailing over his shoulders and halfway down his back, to most women he was referred to as inhumanly handsome and had bewitched many girls and woman with his beauty, single or married it mattered not to him. The girl trying to kill him was no exception to that list.

However, the look on his face soon changed as the figure of two's shared 'mother' appeared behind him and swiftly applied a blow to the top of his head with an extinguished torch causing him to hold his skull and whine.

Despite dropping down and forward he did not get any closer to the girl who remained oblivious of the woman's arrival and realising that he would not get into range of her claws decided to try another tact.

It was only because of Hecate grabbing his collar that the Magus of Flowers was not skewered by the point of her tail as it pierced through the wall to the left of the doorway and shot towards his temple from the side.

"Kiiillll Youuuu." The girl hissed both limbs flailing still on his side.

With a click of Hecate's fingers Merlin was swallowed by green flames and almost immediately the girl calmed down significantly as she slowly pulled her arm and tail back to her side. Her head pressed against the bars as she desperately looked about hoping to spot him.

"Leave it to Merlin to drag you out of your shell." Hecate said with a sigh noticing the glint returned into the girls slotted golden eyes when she said his name. No matter what happened it was clear that she had a naturally instinct when it came to him.

"Where is he?" The girl demanded focusing on her mother at last.

"Back in Avalon, so calm down already." Hecate told her firmly as she opened the door, stepping out of the way as the girl scrambled into the hall as she looked around trying to find the magus before falling onto her knees once she confirmed he was missing.

Avalon was the strange pocket dimension the wizard had discovered in his studies of the druidic arts of the ancient British Isles where time did not flow in any rational manner. It was unknown however what had caused its creation, whether it was some by-product or proto version of Chronos's Lotus project or whether it was some other divinity. Perhaps one day Percy could discover what had caused it, but that was for another time.

"What is happening to me?" The girl said breaking down as tears began to fall down her face.

Slowly the goddess nervously placed a hand on the back of the girl's bald head, the hair not yet returning beyond a few patches of short follicles. Despite being a mother to more children since Morgan she had never really understood what it meant to act like a mother. Like most of the gods she had simply sent the children to their mortal parent occasionally bothering to claim them if they showed promise.

Morganna was the only exception to this because her own father was long since dead and her unique and dangerous nature compelled the goddess to keep a closer eye on her. The issue was the work she put into the girl was often wasted when she inevitably went insane and died putting her back at square one.

"Do you remember what I asked you before about whom you really are, can you answer it now?"

"Morgan-na… Pen-dragon." Morganna stuttered after a short period of thought as she looked up at her mother. Hecate was seemingly taken by surprise before stepping forward and laughing as she embraced her newly rechristened daughter. It was only a small step but it was one she had chosen herself. Hecate had realised on her previous incarnations that calling her Morgan only increased the speed at which she lost her sanity, however the longer name did not seem to affect her wellbeing so much. Still her adoption of her father's title was a new development, especially as the other person who used it she hated with every fibre of her being.

Perhaps there was hope that one day she could break the cycle of madness she had created for herself. As for her irrational hatred for Trivia's son well that was actually quite rational all things considered. The history of the pair was a convoluted mess of teacher-student-rival interspersed with an extremely unhealthy dose of incest, topped off with the fact he had been the one to slay her in the first place.

"Come on then daughter, you still need to rest before you do anything too strenuous." Hecate said pulling Morganna to her feet and leading her back inside the room. A bed being summoned amongst the devastation as they entered.

Slowly they managed to get the girl onto the mattress except for the last few feet of scaly tail which stubbornly refused to stay on the bed.

"Mother… Did we win?" Morganna asked curiously remembering the situation which had started this whole affair as Hecate began to walk away.

"Yes, Artemis's Lieutenant was able to obtain the Roman's flag, but you will be able to ask them the details when you meet them again." Hecate said smiling with satisfaction as she watched the girl do the same.

Finally, she caused the magical lamps in the room into a bare ember before closing the door. The girl smiling as sleep consumed her.

---

"I think she still doesn't like me?" Merlin teased appearing out of a cloud of petals as the goddess walked into her personal studio. A green fire roared under an empty tripod as specimen jars populated the shelves around the room filled with strange creatures and parts thereof.

"I wonder why that could be. Would it be because you and her father schemed to take away her birth-right? Or the fact you used her infatuation with you as her teacher before tossing her aside once you had your way with her."

"Hey I did not know she was my sister at that point. I would like to point out that your Roman aspect conceived me as a male, and you were certainly not Uther so I had no idea you were one and the same." Hecate and by extension Trivia had certainly stopped changing forms a lot after that debacle.

To find out that she got the woman pregnant had been a surprise in and of itself, all because she had ended up drinking some of a cache of Bachus's vintage wine and the situation getting out of hand. It was certainly an embarrassing way to lose her Virgin goddess status even if it would be another thirty years until she lost it as a woman.

"As if that would have stopped you, you are an Incubus; you are defined by your lust for the opposite sex."

"Hey Morgan was more than happy to use her body to get what she wanted; I was not the only sibling she slept with. Though I was probably the only one she did not have a child with and she certainly knew the king was her sibling before she did so." Merlin complained childishly as his 'mother' glared at him.

"Be that as it may, you were the one who first used and exploited her innocence setting a bad example. In doing so you destroyed everything you were planning for the future. If those two had worked together Uther's dream of a united nation of Britannia able to resist invasion would have come to fruition. Two siblings harnessing both the power of the gods and divine dragons. Instead, you turned one into a heartless manipulator defined by jealousy and an emotionless king who sacrificed everything for the greater good, never understanding those they sought to rule. In the span of two generations, you created a country that could have led a renaissance in the time after Rome's fall; instead, it would collapse into disarray for another five centuries until someone else invaded." Hecate lectured growing in size until she towered over the mage bending down and poking him in the chest.

"Don't you think I know that? Fifteen centuries I have had to carry that failure. The only chance I got to try and make up for it was with Charlemagne but even as successful as he was, it was only ever a pale imitation of what could have been. Once again it barely lasted more than a single generation and so I gave up, what was I to do? It was clear that my dream of a United Kingdom of mortals under a single selfless leader was never going to happen. What would follow but The Crusades, The Hundred Year war, it would go on and on. Man killing man for no real reason based on beliefs. So, I exiled myself to Avalon deciding not to get involved in their affairs ever again." Merlin argued back turning away not wanting to look the goddess in the face.

After all he knew he was a failure, he had always known that since he first had a vision of Camlann years before it actually occurred. Rather than try and prevent it coming to pass, he had just decided to pack his belongings and leave without word. Leaving his prize pupils to head to their inevitable death.

"And yet when you found out that Morgan had possibly returned you came here of your own free will? So, what do you really want?"

"I don't know, but I feel that it has something to do with the king's return."

"The king died; you know this. Lord Hades confirmed that they chose to be reincarnated, their memories cleansed along with their soul." The goddess stated firmly rolling her eyes. It was something she had heard many times and she still believed it was an utterly farfetched dream of his.

"I know that but once I had a premonition of seeing the two of them together smiling. If the slaughter of Camlann could come to be truth then why could that vision also not one day come to pass?" The normally jovial mage retorted sadly turning around, his face filled with anguish.

"I think this may be one of the few times you are actually being honest with me. Besides thanks to a certain young Titan the rules do seem to be getting torn up at record speed. So, who knows what could come to pass? But still if that is what you want then you will first have to work with the girl who just tried to tear your throat out. Thanks for volunteering." Hecate told him nonchalantly shrinking back down to normal size as she then walked out of the room leaving the magus with a pale expression.

---

Fortunately for him it would be another two days before Morganna would wake back up again, and even then, it would be another day before she was able to walk about again as she found herself with now one human foot whilst one remained that of a dragon causing her to be lopsided as the draconic leg remained several inches longer.

The girl herself however did not seem to be too bothered by this as she seemed to alternate being lost in her own thoughts and memories whilst idly playing with her tail that seemed to stubbornly not change back at all. If anything, it had simply become refined into a more natural proportion to the rest of her body. Starting out around six inches in diameter at the base of her back before tapering to an almost sharpened point ten feet behind her almost twice her actual height.

By the time ten days had passed since the war game all that remained was that one hand retained its clawed fingers, the serpent's eyes and the tail that had since become like a fifth dextrous limb for the girl to manipulate as she now chose to do at every opportunity.

Since waking up she had occasionally been visited by a few of her mother's homunculus servants, who would bring her food and other supplies like clothing or the occasional book to keep her amused. When she wasn't impaling an effigy of a certain magus created out of debris she had found in the room with her tail. The plain faced beings would simply materialise into the room with whatever they were carrying before leaving once they had picked up any empty platters that were abandoned on the floor.

Morganna didn't batter an eyelid at them; after all even in her current lifetime she had grown up with them in this very same room. They were basic magical constructs that though appearing human lacked any form of soul and personality. They simply followed instructions in the most efficient way and then waited for more.

There was after all only one Homunculus who had been any different… and they had died on the lance of their own 'father' whilst fatally wounding the king themselves.

Perhaps that was her biggest mistake in the past, if she raised Mordred as a normal child rather than implanting her own child's foetus inside an artificial body; things may have turned out differently. But in her haste to seek retribution she had decided to rush.

After all her first four children had grown up and gone on to serve the king as faithful knights. However rather than betray them they had become beguiled by their dream and would serve them until death. Only Agravain would have a second thought about aiding his mother and that lasted only as long as the inadvertent consequences of his actions resulted in the death of Gareth and Gaheris as well as his own. Even her eldest Gawain would later die as a direct result of that one decision to help Morgan in her schemes.

Perhaps if it was not for that cursed Knight of the Lake then things could have been different but nevertheless, he was not the king's greatest champion for nothing.

If not for her own siblings Lancelot would have been top of the list beings she hated most, albeit he was the only one who she had ever been able to get any form of retaliation against.

Setting aside her thoughts for the moment she began to devour the latest meal that had been brought to her a short while before. Tearing into the simple meal of steak and fries with fingers and claws; still sharpened teeth easily cutting through the meat.

It was only too late that she noticed the unusual taint to the meat as she felt her arms fall to her side, her tail likewise not responding as she futilely struggled to move. Even the muscles in her mouth and throat were paralysed preventing her from uttering an incantation to remove the effect herself.

As a result, all she could do was sit there angrily as she waited for which of the two possible culprits would show up.

Sure, enough after another five minutes she witnessed the sight of her former teacher and lover being tossed into the room by the collar by a not too gentle eight-foot-tall goddess. Who then followed him in and shut the door before it disappeared back into a solid wall.

At the sight of the caped figure Morganna began to growl angrily, not able to do anything further for the time being. In response to the feral noises coming out of his sister, Merlin seemed quite desperate to hide behind the figure of Hecate who was having none of it as she held him by the back of the neck in front of her.

"Right then children, time we had an intervention…" The goddess began opening up a series of rather one-sided conversations that would last the next four hours. For the most part it consisted of Hecate lecturing the pair of them on their combined mistakes, a still paralysed Morgana raging against Merlin, her father and just about everyone else in Camelot's court up to and including her own children.

Once in a while the mage would get a chance to defend himself against the two women, but for the most part he was forced just to take the abuse that was being hurled his way. Then again, he had had so many centuries to prepare for this moment and was in no way innocent in any way for what had happened. His slaying of Morgan in the first place was probably the only brave thing he had done in his life, and that was only because she as a rage filled dragon had inadvertently found him whilst searching for Lancelot. Otherwise, he had always been a coward, he had a vision of what would come to pass and chose to run away rather than do anything to prevent it.

Of course, Morganna herself soon found herself under the ire of her mother who tore into her about her own failures. Her failure as both a ruler in her small kingdom of Orkney which she ruled with her husband Lot, and to their children who died as a result of her blood feud.

By the time she was finished both her own and her aspects firstborn children found themselves almost united in trying to defend themselves futilely against the maternal onslaught. By the time she was finished she had threatened to drop her daughter in the Lethe the next time the girl was forced to reincarnate unless the cause of her death was due to extremely selfless circumstances. Likewise, Merlin would find himself barricaded inside Avalon by every magical barrier the goddess could create sealing him in forever, with no way to view out of it and more importantly no way for him to visit any girls that took his fancy. For a being whose primary motivation was the affection of the opposite sex that was arguably the greater threat than any inevitable insanity caused by the isolation.

As a result, even when the paralysis inevitably wore off Morganna remained firmly planted on her backside even with the wizard inside easy impalement range. Both identities that resided in her were firmly against the idea of being swept clean by those milky white waters. The older Morgan would be too prideful to allow any such action be taken and the younger Morganna was actually quite enjoying the simple life of a Hunter, surrounded by friends that actually did not discriminate against her for what she had done. Sure, getting slashed and stabbed was not so great but she could heal from those minor wounds if she focused out the pain.

Of course, by the time Hecate revealed Merlin's dream that was so very nearly all forgotten in an instant. It was one thing to forgive the Incubus for what he had done. But the King? Even if the entire concept wasn't so completely hypothetical as to be impossibility, she would have none of it.

That wound ran far too deep in her to be forgotten, it was one of the things that defined who she was even now.

"Never, never do I want to see Art-, the King ever again. If I do, I will flail the flesh from their body, I will tear them limb from limb, I will-." Morganna began to hiss angrily before being cut off as the goddess banged her on the head with her bronze torch. So vehemently against her half-sibling that she was outright unable to even say or hear the name without correcting herself or cutting off the person saying it. She had even tried to cut off Hecate before realising that she was talking about Artemis instead showing how completely irrational she had become over the matter.

It was clear to the other two that though she had clearly made great strides in reconciling her identities, the older one had clearly won that mental debate and would not be swayed anytime soon.

"That is quite enough of that for the time being. For the time being Morganna you are to stay in here until I decide otherwise." Hecate said rising to her feet as the girl rubbed her head with her human hand. The threads of hair that were starting to regrow at an unnatural rate were likewise just as conflicted as the girl in question. Predominantly they remained black but here and there blond patches were present providing interesting highlights.

"What and wait until you poison my next meal when you want to have another chat?" The girl retorted angrily shooting her mother an accusing stare who seemed unfazed by her intense gaze. There was little of course Morganna could do against Hecate in her human form, Hecate was the goddess of magic and as such could shut down all magic in her local area if she so chose. She would have to transform to make any effective threat and she had yet to completely recover from the last time. Besides with the threat of the Lethe hanging over her she was forced to bite her tongue. Her own relative powerlessness infuriated her, of the three people in this room she was easily the weakest in her current state.

Even the cowardly Merlin was more than capable of defeating her in a magical duel, after all he taught her in the first place. And unlike her he had retained the last millennia's worth of knowledge, she was forced to reset back to one every few decades and start anew. However, there was one thing that she had greater capacity to learn than either of them.

"That girl Clarisse from the game is she ok?" Morganna asked curiously as Hecate eyed her suspiciously. That she was asking about anyone else that was not related to the Hunt or her own legend was a surprise.

"A little burnt, beaten and scratched up but otherwise yes, they made her the Triumvir of the Greeks afterwards." Hecate answered.

"Against her protests I might add, especially as everyone got to see her half-naked after you scored a home-run on her." Merlin added cheerfully piping up as if suddenly remembering the sight of the naked girl before looking away as the two women glared at him.

"What, I was just saying... Besides she is not my type far too much muscle and nowhere near attractive enough for me. Anyway, this is not about me." He defended childishly.

"I would point out in a relationship already, but when did that ever stop you…" Hecate said glaring before shaking her head knowing it was ultimately futile. If he and Lancelot had respected that principle then Camelot would have been a lot more stable in the first place. Though, at least her son had the brains not to sleep with the Queen… unlike the knight.

"I like her; it takes a lot of courage to do what she did. Especially in this day and age if your name is not Percy Jackson." Morganna said turning the attention back to herself as her tail slammed onto the floor loudly.

"Some would say he doesn't have courage though, just a lot of good luck and stupi…"

"Merlin, Shut Up!" Morganna snapped angrily her clawed hand rising from her lap before she took a breath and put it back.

"Despite everything with Artemis, Percy is worth a thousand of you; he defies the impossible and changes fate for the better. You had that opportunity and you ran away like the coward you are. The battle against my uncle Vortigern you were nowhere to be seen, even when the king needed you. The only brave thing you have ever done is kill me, and you only managed that because I was so insane, I was little more than a beast at that point. Besides you are welcome to try and seduce his wife. Because I would look forward to sweeping up the chunks of you, that will litter the area and tossing them in a trash can. Because if you come anywhere near me again or any of the other Hunters then even hiding in Avalon will not protect you." She threatened seriously as the Incubus visibly gulped.

Even if the three of them were unaware with the whole Harmony situation happening back with the Hunt. It was of course widely known that those who tried anything with the group rarely got away with it. Merlin as the progenitorial Incubus was only immortal in the same way as any other divine creature such as the original Pegasus, if left alone he could live forever. However, if he was killed, he would not be able to return.

"Anyway, my point is for someone to challenge a full-sized and intelligent dragon with nothing more than a mass-produced electric stick, takes a sense of bravery that I have not seen since the knights of old. I want to reward her for it." She explained as even her mother seemed taken back by the younger girls seeming sincerity and generosity.

"And however exactly do you want to do that?" Hecate asked nervously as the girl's eyes fixated on Merlin.

"Oh if only someone knew where the Crypt of the Round Table was hidden." She said baring several pointed teeth as she smiled wickedly at her elder sibling.

"No, No, No, Absolutely not. I am not allowing you to raid their tomb just to fulfil one of your flights of fancy." The outraged mage complained.

"Merlin you mistake my words. You know how to access the hidden entrance to the crypt; I do however know where abouts it is located. If need be I will rip apart that entire hillside until I get in there." Morgana threatened holding up her human hand as the skin began to blacken and scale over before their eyes as the nails began to transform back into claws.

It required a significant amount of focus but the girl had begun to understand how the transformation worked over the last few days. Pain was obviously the best stimulus and once it began the pain caused by the transformation itself would continue the process, but determination and focus were enough to allow control of such minor changes. Even now the memory of the pain as her legs twisted so the knee articulated the opposite way was enough to make her wince momentarily. Luckily for her she had still been unconscious when it transformed back.

"Besides if I am lucky, I will crush the guardian with debris as I do so." She laughed sinisterly as she considered the prospect despite knowing it was unlikely.

"You know about…"

"Merlin… Do not take me for an idiot. Someone like the Knight of the Lake does not just disappear from the annals of history. Did you not think that at some point I would go looking for him or at least his resting place so I could either kill him or desecrate it? So, to find out he had been cursed to guard the mausoleum for eternity was quite the amusement and I decided it was worse than whatever I could do to him. To be interned underground with his victims; both directly and those that died as a result of his treachery." Morganna said cutting off her sibling who was swiftly turning pale realising the girl knew everything.

Whilst it was true that she only retained her knowledge of her current and original incarnations. That was not to say there was no passage of information between those in-between. After all the vast majority of them had grown up and been trained in this very room by her mother. Sometimes her mother would pass information on herself though she tried to avoid referring to the 'failures' she inevitably would slip up here and there when similar circumstances repeated.

Then there was collection of hand scribed notes that had filled the shelves of the room were it not for the injured dragons rage obliterating them all. Scholars would have mourned their loss but the girl cared little. She had already memorised them as had all of her predecessors adding their own notes as information was confirmed. Though their destruction was regrettable if the goddesses plan was successful, they would no longer be required at all in the future.

"What is the matter brother? Seems that you are having trouble considering all of this? It was the quite the stroke of luck that the sixth encountered a descendant of Bedivere's who told her everything to spare his life. Luckily, she had enough sense to note down her findings before the rapid onset of madness struck her as a result. Mother who did kill me that time?" She suddenly asked curiously turning to the goddess.

"Ironically it was Artemis." Hecate said with a faint smile after a moment's thought.

If Morganna was expected to react negatively to that announcement she did not show it. It was to be expected that she would have run afoul of the Hunt at some point over the last forty-six incarnations. Nor did she hold any negative thoughts as a result; once the madness took a hold that version of her was basically a write off when it came to rational thought and sentience. She was little more than a beast with an immortal soul. The perfect target for a goddess of the Hunt.

"So, brother what will the answer be?" She asked the defeated Incubus who stood there ash white only able to weakly nod his head.

"I however have one condition for you. The King's arms must remain where they lie, taking them will affect the foundations of the Mist." Hecate told her firmly. It was commonly believed that Hecate was the one who created the mist and controlled it to prevent the mortals from seeing the supernatural.

However only the second point was actually correct, what was correct was that she had merely expanded upon one of the effects of one of the king's arsenal. For the most part the royal armaments of Britannia were not of Greco-Roman origin being forged by the long-illusive Celtic gods and other druidic groups long before Caesar ever stepped foot on the beaches of Britannia. Uther and later the king were merely the first to consolidate all of these weapons in one place, whether through conquest or being gifted by the client kings beneath them.

The glowing dagger Carnwennan had the ability to hide the wielder from all sensory detection. With it one could theoretically act as the ultimate assassin as it was likely even someone like Artemis or Percy would ever be able to detect them despite whatever extra senses they had. Even Hades Helm of Darkness was not as thorough however at true concealment; the downside was that the wielder also lost all of their own senses in doing so. It required one to know exactly where they were going to need to go to make a strike. If mastered however you could simply walk through any defence imaginable, make a kill and then leave without anyone being the wiser. Even the victim would be none the aware until the blade was sheathed when they suddenly found their throats cut open or heart stabbed through.

Of course, as a King who fought on the front lines, they rarely ever chose to use it. They being more reliant on the Holy Sword or Lance. Merely keeping it with the rest of the Royal Arms in Camelot's vault for the most part.

There it would be stolen by Mordred during their ill-fated rebellion. It was at this point that Hecate had obtained it from her 'grandchild' and began to experiment with the blade's properties. Eventually she was able to expand upon hiding effect to govern almost the entire supernatural world as its wielder. With the mortals being the unwitting 'victims'. Of course, hiding that much was going to dilute its potent effect to merely concealing the nature of the 'hidden' side.

However, by using the other similar divine natured arms in the king's possession they were able to assist in maintaining the illusion, acting as a crude form of magical battery to maintain the spell. Of course, at some point the spell would fail but she estimated that it would be fine for at least another two millennia.

However, with the condition that Morganna was not allowed these specific weapons Merlin appeared to begin breathing normally.

"Very well that is fine by me; there are only a few specific ones I am after. I take it Failnaught disappeared with Tristan into the ocean?" She agreed readily before asking and receiving a nod in affirmation from Merlin.

"You are a Hunter what could you possibly require that bow for?" Hecate asked curiously, though having a bow where it was impossible to miss seemed logical. Having the blessing of Artemis made it almost a moot point.

"Oh, it is not for me, I just wanted to see if Percy's bad luck with bows would manage to break the enchantment." The girl said laughing sincerely as the other two smiled. The fact that Percy had managed to hit Artemis several months before had not taken long to get out from Apollo until all of Olympus had become aware of the incident.

"It would not surprise me with that young man… Very well, you may both leave in two days." The goddess proclaimed before walking heading to the door which had magically reappeared.

For a second this left the two former lovers in the same room on their own, with nothing between them.

However, Morganna knowing that she was getting what she wanted anyway didn't move a muscle as the Magus hurriedly scampered after the goddess.

Out the corner of her eye she spotted that the door remained open even as their footsteps faded away down the corridor towards her mother's study. As a result, she guessed that she had passed whatever unspoken test her mother had set out for her with regards to controlling her emotions.

Still, she was quite content to carry on sitting here in the comfort of her own personal lair. Her dragon heritage would compel her to try and take valuable items to make her own. But in this palace, she knew it was pointless to try and obtain anything. Unlike other gods Hecate did not waste her time with trinkets and valuable items that served no purpose. Only items that enhanced her craft were kept here and much of that would take a long period of time to decipher whatever use it served.

Before when she acted as her mother's apprentice this might have interested her, but she served a different goddess now. Artemis may have been irrational at times, especially over the last few months in particular. But even so she was a far better motherly figure to her and the other hunters than Hecate had ever been to her. She would never simply treat the girl as a prized test experiment until she grew bored of it and tossed her away to her inevitable demise in the mortal world time after time.

Besides she missed her fellow Hunters, likewise with the goddess they had their own particular dysfunctionalities a plenty but they could all be called loosely something that she had long considered a forsaken term. Family.

Even the sometimes-annoying Titan Lord showed more care to her in particular than her own real father had ever done. Uther had after all made no efforts to show he was happy that she had been born a girl and that he desired a son, eventually resulting in the King. Still Percy may be biological older than her current body by a few years but she was long older now mentally. It was somewhat ironic that she could actually give the two immortals advice on dealing with their own children when the time came despite now being an eternal virgin at least in the physical sense. Though how much she conveys of her experience with her own children who were only a legacy of Hecate with two full-fledged divine beings was up for debate.

Despite the gods own seeming willingness to sleep with whatever mortals that took their fancy and the demigods that came as a result. Actual children between the gods themselves was now exceedingly rare, it had been at least three hundred years since the last new natural divinity was born. Whereas back in the days of Greece, it was rare a decade could pass without a few of them popping out at least.

As a result, it was no surprise that news of Artemis and Percy's engagement and her pregnancy had passed around the mountain as fast as it had. Over the centuries the gods had become stagnant in the way they acted, this as a result had brought upon two near apocalyptic wars that threatened the world's balance which had only truly been prevented by the newly fledged Titan Lord. Sure, he could be a little chaotic to be around but his every action created positive change even if he did not realise it at the time.

Even the girl knew that her current state of balance was likely a result of spending time around him too much. Not that she was going to complain if the end result was looking as positive as it currently was.

Still as she closed her serpentine eyes, she found herself smiling sinisterly as she considered her long awaited reunion with the other foolish child of Poseidon she had been forced to deal with in her lives.

---

Sure, enough two days later the siblings stepped out of the magic glyph that had transported them to the English countryside just outside of the small town on Glastonbury. However, the two tourists were not interested in the town's annual music concert but instead on the small hill that loomed over the town and the small ruined tower that sat atop it.

If those revellers that visited for that event knew what lay beneath their feet, they may have been a bit more respectful of the area.

Still the sight of two people climbing the long path up to the tower was not an uncommon one as it had long been falsely proclaimed as the entrance to Avalon itself. Something that Morganna could confirm was not here as its sole occupant had avidly denied that connotation though its other myth of the King's burial place was indeed quite correct.

Even so on a cold mid-January morning the two travellers had past several other hikers and joggers by the time they reached the summit. If any of them had taken note of the unusual pair beyond a few polite greetings they had failed to show it. Despite the fact that the male was wearing long flowing robes and the girl had a ten-foot-long tail trailing on the ground behind as well as her unusual yellow eyes.

Of course, being this close to Carnwennan itself meant that the mist was extremely strong here and to the mortals the pair appeared as nothing more than any other pair of hikers, the girl's tail being simply a large back pack over her silver-coloured parka.

Even so the two of them simply walked around the roofless tower once they reached the summit, the white-haired man leading the girl down the opposing slope from which they had ascended into a small patch of woodland that covered this side of the hill.

Eventually a nervous Merlin stopped before a large oak tree that appeared to have grown out of the side of a boulder. Summoning an elaborate ash staff to hand he politely knocked on the tree's trunk with its head before standing back as an elderly dryad slowly materialised out of the timber, slowly she regarded the two of them through narrow eyes.

"What do you want?" The old woman shouted unexpectedly causing both of the visitors to flinch at the unexpected demand.

"Quercus, it is me Merlin." The wizard proclaimed proudly only for the green skinned woman to frown before pulling a set of large framed glasses out of her brown tunic.

"What do you want you miserable excuse for a man? When I was young and pretty you visited all the time. Once I got old you were nowhere to be seen." The old nymph complained poking the Incubus in the chest with a long bony finger causing the girl behind him to laugh at his situation.

"And who is this young hussy you have brought with you; your latest squeeze is she? Well then let me tell you something dear, this one is not worth your time." She said turning to Morganna who suddenly not sure whether to be offended or agree with the Dryad. The fact that she had been Merlin's lover long before the nymph made it even more of a strange situation.

"I like her; she has your character down to a tee." Morganna commented smiling.

"Yeah, well I don't like you; you smell of fire and death." The nymph complained grabbing her nose and turning away from her, though still catching sight of the girl sniffing herself under her collar out of her peripheral vision.

"So, what do you want you no good court jester?"

"Court Mage."

"I know what I said you fool."

"We need to get inside." Merlin told her planting his staff in the ground.

"And I need a hillside that gets more sunlight, but life is full of disappointment. Much like your bedroom performances." The dryad declared bitterly as the wizard's mouth dropped open. Behind him the girl's tail slammed into the ground repeatedly as the girl broke out into hysterical laughter.

"Laugh all you want dear; I am not moving. Especially not for him." After a few more seconds the girl stopped laughing and took a deep breath.

"If you refuse to move, I will simply do it by force. Look at me; do you really think you can stop something like me? Is it worth your life?" Morganna threatened walking towards the older nymph who was forced to look upwards at the taller dragonoid girl. A small puff of smoke escaping her mouth as they looked each other in the eyes.

"So that is how it is, you are your grandfather's daughter." The older woman complained before backing down.

"Then again maybe someone will stick a mountain on your head like they did him." She remarked before becoming one with her tree again as the ancient timber began to move aside revealing a narrow-hewn tunnel beyond.

"So that is the great Royal Oak Queen herself, I thought she would be taller." Morganna commented only to narrowly avoid being hit by a barrage of acorns from above.

"Do that again and I will rip you out of the soil and drop you in the ocean." Morganna threatened angrily after she took one final acorn to the forehead. All around the pair of them every other tree had suddenly stopped swaying in the wind as if watching them.

"Please don't offend the forest anymore, remember you are supposed to serve Artemis now. Quercus herself might not be a threat to you but she has roots that reach far and wide." Merlin pleaded dragging the girl by the arm into the darkness.

---

Over the next fifteen minutes the pair of them continued to descend a long slow narrow spiral staircase far deeper than the mountain that lay above them. Merlin in the lead, so as to avoid stepping on her tail. The only light provided by Merlin's staff, not that the girl required it. Her own eyes were suitable enough in the darkness to make out all but the most minor details.

What was most interesting is that the tunnel had clearly hewn out of the rock by hand, as evidenced by chisel and pick marks marred the walls and ceiling. Indicating this had been done over a very long time matching up with what she had been told all those centuries before.

Eventually however the tunnel simply ended in a rough dead end with no hints on it. Like someone had simply decided to stop digging at this point and abandon the project.

Merlin however walked up to the tunnels end before began pacing backwards along the tunnel before turning to his left on the fifteenth and placing his hand on the wall which slid down into the ground.

"Hurry it will seal itself again after a while. " He told her before stepping through as she hurriedly followed narrowly pulling her tail through as the whole section of wall shot up into the recess in the ceiling.

The new tunnel they were in was significantly larger than the last one wide enough for at least ten people to travel through in a line abreast. It was also lit by glowing mushrooms and creeping ivy growing on the walls.

"How long did they spend building this all." Morganna asked curiously as they continued to walk.

"Four generations, Bedivere himself would only live long enough to see that last tunnel almost complete. However, his descendants would continue it through to completion." He explained.

Even with the shorter lifespan of people during the dark ages of the times, that was still over a century worth of effort for a small group of people. In contrast the seven wonders had taken far less time to construct albeit by a greater number of people. All-in single-minded devotion to a long dead king that they could never have hoped to meet.

That thought alone was enough to make her sneer in annoyance. Her own subjects had held little loyalty to her or her husband often declaring that they would rather be living in the larger kingdom on the mainland. This combined with her own children deciding to serve outside her own court had not done her sanity much good in the long run.

Eventually however the tunnel descended down another flight of thirty or so stairs before terminating in a large closed doorway. The door itself was emblazoned with the image of a large round table with thirteen unique swords pointing towards the centre, the top sword however had the image of a crown above it.

"Are you still sure about this?" Merlin asked curiously noticing that Morganna had paused to look at the sight.

"If I want to move forward in this life, I have to overcome my past…" She said slowly getting quieter.

Taking this as affirmation Merlin position his staff at the centre of the converging swords resulting in light pulsing out from the tip and across the doorway. For a few seconds nothing happened until one by one the swords began to slide out from their position on the table and into recesses in the surrounding door frame. Finally, the door began to split down the middle through the crown and its representation of Excalibur and the table as a whole before opening outwards forcing Merlin to take several steps back out of the way. The door itself was close to three feet thick of solid granite inlaid with a multitude of glyphs and runes for sealing and strengthening on the inside.

Between the depth underground, the hidden nature of the entrance and this fortified entrance it was clear that the builders had taken every precaution to stop any form of entry.

All that remained was the final defence.

For one that was unprepared and not looking for a living threat in the tomb, it would be easy to miss the armoured sentinel covered in dust and mistake it for one of the many statues that filled the room behind it.

However, what set it apart was that unlike those figures this single knight sat in a stone carved seat directly in the path with an unsheathed sword upon it lap.

Of course, anyone familiar with the round would recognise that blade regardless of the passage of time. As for someone of dragonic heritage it sent shivers down her spine to see it knowing what it could and had done to her lesser distant bestial cousins.

Arondight – The Dragon Slayer

Even so for a short period of time no one moved as Morganna stood still unsure of what to do about the treacherous knight blocking the path, Merlin stood aside with bated breath and the Knight of the Lake gave away no hints that he was even alive beneath his armoured helm.

However, it stood to reason that his eyes were watching the pair of them through the slits in his blue-plumed helmet. His sitting position giving him a complete view of the entrance, and the two intruders beyond.

It was Merlin however who broke the standoff by taking steps back towards the doorway, the moment however that his sandaled foot crossed the threshold the dust covered knight finally began to move as his gauntlet took a hold of the blackened sword on his lap before slowly rising to his feet. A large volume of dust falling off the tall figure as he straightened out to his full height of a few inches over six feet easily towering over the shorter girl and even the mage fell significantly smaller than the bulky armoured demigod in front of them.

Unlike the other British knights who were for the most part completely human with the exception of her own children, the French one before them was indeed a child of Poseidon and the Naiad Nimue. Whilst it should have normally resulted in the birth of another Naiad or other Nymph instead it had resulted in the anomaly before them. Whilst not unique by any measure as the children of the divines and lesser species came in many different shapes and sizes. It was uncommon for one to be born with none of the defects that usually come with such hybrids. He was not confined to reside near his birth place; his mother's blessing placing his own 'source' as within his own body not tied to her own lake.

This effectively enabled the knight to act as if he was fighting immersed in water like other children of Poseidon at all times. Combined with enchanted armour and the deadly blade he held in his right hand. It was no wonder he was only second to the King in terms of renown and prowess.

However, that was all for naught Morganna realised as she watched the armoured figure teeter forwards and backwards before crashing to the floor in front of Merlin. His horsehair plumed helm tumbling down the hallway only to land at Morganna's feet revealing the truth.

Time had not been kind to the heralded knight of legend.

Unlike other true or semi-immortals Lancelot had not escaped the passage of time in his isolation. His curse may have prolonged his life indefinitely but it had not preserved his body in anything but a mockery of his prime.

It was hard to believe that the shrivelled old man in front of her was the same one who had killed two of her children with his bare hands.

This was what she had worried about?

"A cursed old fool who can barely stand up. After all this time this is what my revenge is reduced to?" Morganna hissed biting her lip as she stomped forward at last towards the knight who was trying to lift himself up.

Grabbing the decaying cloak, she pulled him backwards so that he was resting on his backside looking up at her. Where once a handsome face had resided now only shallow sunken skin remained where it was not concealed beneath long grey hair. She had seen unearthed corpses that had more signs of life than this mockery before her. Even so the defiant look remained in his eyes, unchanged over the millennia of internment.

"Lady Morgan, you are looking… Young." The old knight said at last raspingly.

"And you like a corpse." She growled back in annoyance. The truth was she did not know what to do with the pathetic sight in front of her. She had expected some climatic fight or tense stand-off where Merlin would convince him to let them pass. What she got was armoured emaciated fool who could not even stand let alone battle.

"Last I heard you were a corpse." The knight chuckled to himself as the girl continued to pace about randomly.

"Shut up or I will kill you!" She shouted back as her nails cut into her palms.

"What is stopping you then? I killed them all didn't I? Agravain was impaled on my spear, Gaheris thrashed about as I choked the life out of him, Gawain fell before this very sword cleaved from shoulder to hip and finally Gareth I…" He told her before going quiet at the last name.

"Say it! Tell me what you did! Now is not the time to be having regrets." Morganna shouted angrily her tail striking Lancelot in the chest knocking him back.

"I… I crushed her skull. Like it was nought but a cabbage with but nothing apart from my own two hands." He said his voice tinged with sadness. After all, the young female knight had been his own squire for many years until shortly before that fateful day. She had not wanted to be there for the Queen's execution and as such was neither armoured nor armed when her former mentor struck her down as she tried to pull him off her brother.

"And what did your actions achieve for you in the long run, to warrant such actions? Your precious lover, the Queen realised what a fool she had been and left you as well. Your reckless actions resulted in the death of your beloved King, the destruction of their kingdom and the loss of everything you held dear. Even your own child disowned everything about you. For so long I have wanted to make you pay for your transgressions against my family and me, to tear you limb from limb with tooth and claw." The angry girl declared through gritted pointy teeth her hands transforming back into those of the beast as she grabbed the treacherous knight by the collar pulling him towards her.

"Then do it! We all know everything you said is true, so what is stopping you?" The frail wretch demanded through narrowed eyes only to grunt as the girl dropped him heavily back to the floor, her clawed hands brushing though her hair before she began to laugh.

"Morganna!" Merlin interrupted at last only for the girl to ignore him, however when we attempted to close the distance, he suddenly found his way cut off by the point of her tail shooting towards him warningly.

"What is stopping me? Why nothing of course. But the fact is I do not need to kill you to see you suffer, you do that to yourself with every breathing moment. Why else would you want me to kill you? Here you have sat for the last millennia as living monument to your own failure, surrounded by the corpses and legacy of those that died as a result of your actions and betrayals. Forever denied to be truly judged for your actions in the Underworld. Any chance you had for Elysium was thrown away when you betrayed your precious King's trust, which only leaves Asphodel and Punishment and I think we both know which one you would be heading for." Morganna said mocking the demigod.

"The same place you would eventually end up." Lancelot spat back stubbornly only to receive a tooth smile in response.

"I have died forty-five times and never stepped foot anywhere near the ferrymen. Even now I am immortal and can never grow old nor become ill. I have learnt what loyalty to my mistress and my peers is in my current life far more than you ever seemed to do. So, I am afraid I will not be seeing you again. Besides you will not be leaving here either, at least not by my hand. Not when I can happily leave you in a prison of your own choosing, one far more painful on your soul than whatever Alecto and her sisters could plan for you." She said smugly as his wrinkled face twisted in outrage knowing that he was not going to be given his release by the young girl in silver.

"Merlin…" He said almost pleading after turning to the robed figure behind her.

"I am sorry but you know that we both failed in our duties, not until the King's return shall our curse be lifted and we shall be judged for our transgressions." The mage said shaking his head as he looked away from the bedraggled figure on the ground.

"The. King. Is. Dead! Gone. Not coming back. They chose to be reborn hundreds of years ago, washed clean by the waters of the Lethe. Stop hoping for the impossible." Morganna said angrily stomping up to her older sibling for bringing up the subject in the first place.

"If you are so adamant, then why are you so angry little witch?" Lancelot mocked seemingly realising the girls berserk button hoping to provoke her into lashing out and finishing him.

Sure, enough Morganna froze dead in her tracks before doing an about turn and stomping back towards him, only pausing to pick up the sword on the floor. Despite the weight of the blade, the uneasy nauseous feeling the anti-dragon properties the weapon held, and the knowledge that her own child had been slain by this same weapon, she held it easily with one hand as she held the point to his armoured chest. The tip scratching into his blackened armour; that which had once shone resplendently white in front of its fellow counterparts. Now it lay blackened and corrupted by the cold realm of death it was now forced to reside in. Arondight just one small final thrust away from the knight's heart.

"Know this Knight of Betrayal; I will not kill you no matter what you say. However, there is nothing stopping me dismembering you right here and now. Leaving nothing but an emaciated head and torso on the floor to await your fabled reckoning. Though I will leave you face down so you can beg at the feet of whoever enters this place next. You will be able to do nothing but explain your own sad situation and the failures that led you to this place. Maybe I will even blind you so that even IF the King somehow returned you will not ever be able to gaze upon their brilliance." She told him before stepping past him and heading into the tomb leaving the Incubus and Son of Poseidon behind her.

The only sound that followed was that of a corrupted holy sword clattering to the floor once she had tossed it aside.

Slowly without any discussion Merlin decided to help the bedraggled knight back to his seat. His half-sister clearly wanted to be alone for the time being and he was more than willing to give it to her for fear of being the next victim of those claws. Besides the least he could do was make the knight presentable for the King's eventual return and his final judgement.

Morganna herself wasted no time in making her way through the next gallery flanked by statues of ancient soldiers; the sides of the walls had been carved out and, in each recess, lay a simple wooden coffin. These unadorned sarcophagi were likely that of several generations of the tomb's builders. Those that had given their lives so… senselessly. To build a monument to a fleeting dream. Even counting her father's reign, the Kingdom of Britannia would only last around forty years and yet these fools had toiled for a century to build a crypt.

Who they were beyond that she did not know or indeed care.

Instead, she was more focused on the large atrium beyond another set of heavy stone doors carved with the Round Table motif; however, this one was left wide open allowing her to proceed through without needing to wait for her foolish sibling.

The room beyond was a circular chamber fifty meters in diameter lit only by magical torches lining the outside ring. At the centre of it lay the dust covered and desiccated timbers of the original Round Table itself. Around it in concentric circles lay the ornately carved sarcophagi of the knights themselves. Where possible holding the remains of the knight engraved upon the tomb, though there were some where the body was unrecoverable as was the case with Tristan where they were lost at sea.

Likewise, with below their names lay their most prominent weapon or a reproduction thereof.

Most of these simple steel weapons had long since rusted where they lay or been destroyed even before being brought here but here and there lay those of a more supernatural origin. Still shining in the relative darkness of the chamber.

None more so than the long silver blade laying on a coffin on the innermost ring, Excalibur Galatine. Its presence alone easily telling her the final resting place of her oldest child, Gawain.

Making her way through the outer rows, she began to read those names inscribed on the inner ring. Like the table at which they were laid out as if to space thirteen coffins, however only nine were present and one of those lay open as if still awaiting its occupant who still sat an eternal vigil by the entrance. The other missing three were those of the King them self, Mordred and Sir Galahad.

The last of which had actually been made the minor god of Chivalry and Valour before fading at the beginning of the twentieth century when the rules of war had been firmly chucked out of the window. Even so the perfect knight as he was known had still outlived the vast majority of his fellow deified mortals, not bad for a bastard legacy child of a good nothing son of Poseidon. Truth is told she held no bad feeling for the young knight despite his parentage, some of her previous incarnations had even met him after he became a god and suffered no irrational desire to murder him.

He was simply put just a nice person who had been unable to survive in an unkind modern world.

At long last though she arrived at the four sarcophagi that stood next to one another. From left to right reading Gawain, Gaheris, Gareth and lastly Agravain. The older two knights flanking their younger siblings. As she had seen when she entered, Gawain's was topped by the unbreakable Sword of the Sun Excalibur Galatine, the sister sword of both the King's own Excalibur and Lancelot's Arondight. Gaheris a more modest steel longsword, still wrapped in its sheath as it had been upon his death. Gareth a long cavalry lance minus the wooden handle which had decayed and fallen to the ground, the girl being more used to fighting from horseback due to her small stature compared to her brothers. Finally, Agravain instead had a shield and set of wax tablets atop his own. Unlike his siblings he did not often fight battles instead managing the bureaucracy of the kingdom rather than fighting on the front lines.

Whilst she had in no way been a good mother to her children, especially the last one not found here. Her main focus was always on trying to achieve rule over the greater kingdom of Britannia once her own father had died and left that cursed sword in the stone. Her rage at that moment and the futility of her own efforts to draw it had caused even her own husband to remove the older two children for fear of their own safety until she had calmed down several months later.

Even so the unexpected arrival of her bastard half-sibling and them drawing Caliburn had not changed much other than give a target to vent her anger at. For many years this was through subterfuge but when the king began to recruit individuals into what would become the Round Table Knights, she had actually started to play nice with the young king. After all, if the reckless king was to be killed in combat then naturally the reign would have to come back to her as the only remaining child of Uther or if that failed as a result of her gender, her eldest son Gawain would become monarch. Whilst he was an exceptional combatant and leader of men, when it came to politics, he was utterly useless unable to read the room, therefore she would have easily been able to rule through him. Of course, she was unaware at that point the king was functionally indestructible as a result of Excalibur's sheath.

Just to reinforce the notion she had allowed her other children to join the king's knights, just in case something should happen to Gawain. For a while she was quite happy with this arrangement, taking pride in what they accomplished and the people they became. Unfortunately, this period of relative tranquility was short lived once she found about the king's ability to heal any wound, no matter how severe. By that point the four children were deeply enamoured with their new lord and less sure with following instructions from their mother.

However even at the end, she was still their mother and they had all died as a result of her actions. She could blame the king; she could blame that foolish old wretch of a knight back there for the deed itself. But it was her actions that started the ball rolling that would lead to total collapse. Her refusal to accept defeat in her claim for the throne, which would lead to the death of tens of thousands including most of those in this room.

It was one thing to know what your actions had wrought in a past life, it was still quite another to be confronted by those actions when they are put right in front of you.

Placing a clawed hand on Gareth's coffin finally made her realise the monster that she had been and could be. Hades the young squire had even been called Beaumains or beautiful hands by Lancelot when he first began teaching her, questioning why she wanted to be a knight in the first place with such beauty.

It was at this moment whilst she was looking at the scaled appendage that she noticed the drop of moisture fall onto the back of her hand before another joined it a few seconds. Stepping back, she raised a clawed finger to her face only to realise that she was actually crying.

This sudden realisation finally being the straw that broke the camel's back as she dropped to her knees and finally allowed her anguish out…

---

Fifteen minutes later a cautious Merlin would look inside the room before deciding against entering on spotting the grieving girl curled up at the feet of her children's final resting place.

It was not unexpected that a being that was defined by sexual desire like him had sired a decent number of children over the Millenia, most of which had been other lesser Incubus's. In fact, as the only fertile and immortal member of the race as their progenitor the species would begin and likely end with him. But he had never attempted to keep an eye on his own offspring, their fates mattered little to him as they were an unplanned side effect of his own desire at a given point in time. However, he understood that his arrival would probably tip the mourning girl over the edge, so instead he simply stood outside on the other side of the door frame until she was done.

It would be almost an hour later before she pulled herself off the floor, two human hands sweeping her hair back out of her blotchy irritated face where it had become plastered to her face. Stepping back she leant against the ruined table as she steadily calmed herself by taking deep breathes.

Two minutes later the incubus decided that the situation seemed calm enough to enter, passing around the outside of the room before coming closer as to keep the considerable bulk of the table between him and the girl's erratically swinging tail.

"I guess it would be in poor timing to ask if you are Ok." He asked nervously as the girl slowly turned to face him. Her face was still flushed red and blotchy from her crying.

"I was just thinking about how much of my former life I wasted on a petty pursuit of additional power. I was already a Queen with everything I could have ever wanted, four strong independent capable children more than capable of making any mother proud. Yet I threw it all away on a misguided grudge against someone who did little personally to earn my ire. It was not the King's fault they inherited my perceived birth right that after all was down to you and my father."

"We saw that deep within you the blood of the dragons was too strong, you had inherited to much of their coldness and cunning to those you would perceive as lower than you. You had little care for the farmer in the fields, the shopkeepers, those who served your every need. To you they were little more than animals fulfilling their place in the food chain servicing the needs of an apex predator, your father had seen your uncle Vortigern tread down a similar path culminating in him becoming as you eventually did, a blackened beast of destruction."

"What did you think would happen to a child born of the twin natures of dragons and gods. The two most notoriously self-indulgent groups to ever exist. That I would devote my life to serve those below me as the king did? They were just as much of a failure as I was at managing the general population. Tristan tried to warn them but their own sense of nobility clouded their vision. Appeasing the masses would only get you so far or create a welfare state where everyone expects a handout despite doing nothing."

"Be that as it may the King gave up everything for the country."

"And in doing so left everyone disappointed, why else would their judgment have only been a two out three in the underworld. Minos knew that the chaos that occurred was just as much the Kings own fault as it was the rest of us actors on the stage. We were all just actors dancing to the tune the Fates had decreed for all of us, there are so very few that are successfully able to break free of those shackles that bind us." Morganna said sombrely turning away back to the four coffins in front of her.

"Whether they are shackles hidden as love, duty, honour or kinship. They are still just pretty words to describe a lifetime of service. I owed them so much more credit than I ever game them in life. It was only when I learned of their deaths that I ever really noticed how much I actually cared for them, and that realisation destroyed me. From that point onwards I allowed my pain and anger control me, everything else became irrelevant."

"You know I never did inquire about the fate of their souls? To find out if my actions could possibly have caused them an eternity of monotony or worse punishment. Was it cowardice to ask whether they would be judged for my numerous and terrible sins?"

"I am sure they…" Merlin began only to be cut off as she raised an arm towards him.

"Regardless there is one thing I did however know all this time. They deserved better than me… Now come on there are still two more ghosts of my past I must confront before we are done here." She said before walking past all four sarcophagi allowing her left hand to brush across the lids surface.

As she did so she whispered under breath adding extra glyphs and seals to the masonry to protect and seal them against any attempt to disturb the remains within. However when she came to Gawain's last she paused briefly as she added a few more extensive runes to his giving clear instructions for anyone who should try to defile the eternal slumber of the chambers occupants.

"I am sorry to say that once again I am forcing you to look after your siblings in my stead. Should anyone try to mess with them again, you show them the might of the Knight of the Sun." She told the coffin and for a second it was possible that Galatine lit up a little more brightly for a split second as if to affirm her words. However that could also just have been the imagination of a wishful thinking madwoman.

She could have taken Galatine of course, but it belonged here with its wielder. Gawain had earned that sword, besides it would be terrible irony if she, who swore to serve the goddess of the moon decided to carry the Sword of the Sun. It might go giving Apollo ideas or worse… singing.

Regardless the girl found her burden slightly less overbearing as she headed towards the final chamber at the back of the room. Readying herself for a final showdown with her storied past.

There were of course three bodies missing from this sad loathsome story. The King, Their Queen and the Knight of Treachery who could have been so much more.

The final simple doorway was easily pushed open; the light generated by the rooms contents illuminating the room behind her as she slowly entered, Merlin only a few steps behind.

It was impossible to miss the large sarcophagi directly in front of the doorway when you entered. Whether it was the several tonne granite lion atop it looking back at your or the royal paraphernalia that rested against or on top of the carved granite.

It was all just so… wasteful.

The contents of this room if wielded correctly could have destroyed any invading army well into the industrial era. Instead some genius had sealed them away down here whilst the country had gone to the wolves above.

"Well then here we are, what a happy family reunion this is, all that is missing is father to mess it all up at the last moment." Morganna quipped to herself as she stared at the sealed stone sarcophagi, even from here she could see the runes and glyphs carved into the stone, preventing damage from being done to it. The large statue above deterring anyone from being able to move the lid to access the contents. She was even willing to bet that carved into it somewhere was the activation mark of one of Daedalus's Automatons

Why anyone would want to waste something she would not understand. An old skeleton clad in a rusted suit of armour was all they were likely to find. Besides all of the real treasure lay right in front of her, what must have been most of the contents of the royal treasury left at the kingdoms destruction must have been moved here.

However none of that interested her at the moment. Instead she looked from the grand tomb in front of her to a much more modest one to her left; the only difference to the simple ones next door was the addition of a small gold crown located in the centre. That alone dictating the final resting place of Queen Guinevere, though she had eventually died in a convent trying to atone for her betrayal. Someone had clearly spirited away her remains afterwards to be interred down here.

Of course Morganna was not one who could fault the other queen for using her body to get what she wanted. She had done so on multiple occasions in her struggle for power behind her husband's back. The final result of that resided in the sealed chamber to her right she assumed.

"Who chose to bury Mordred away from the other knights?" She asked Merlin curiously stepping towards the sealed doorway.

"Bedivere, Lancelot wanted to leave her where she fell for the scavengers to feast upon her flesh. However despite everything even in death there was no denying that she was the King's child, the similarities were to uncanny even when compared to your other children." The mage explained causing the young witch to almost stomp back out of the room and run the fool through before remembering that was what he wanted. Still she wasn't sure whether to be grateful for the loyal one-armed knight having a cooler head in the face of the sudden loss of his king.

"So you knew then that she was a girl all this time?"

"I am an Incubus; I am intoxicated by the opposite sex. I had no issue with Mordred as a knight any more than I did Gareth though she certainly hid it a lot better than I could give her credit for. Instead my issue was that she was so 'unnatural'. What you did however was perverse, morally reprehensible and a transgression against life itself." He said narrowing his eyes as she looked at him without emotion.

"I never claimed to act human in the first place; Mordred was simply a mean to an end that had the same flaw as both her parents. The sin of being born a woman in a man's world." She revealed at last catching Merlin by surprise.

"Did you really think I would not be able to find out that that your precious King was a girl all this time? Sure she was physically frozen in a body not much younger than my own current form from the moment she drew the sword in the stone. Her prepubescent body not yet showing any of the characteristics associated with a grown woman. Instead you garbed her up in armour, capes and furs all the time in the hope that no one noticed. What would have happened if the truth had got out there that you had deceived the population for the better part of fifteen years? Or even more hilarious actually just started to age again, that would have been hilarious to watch you suddenly try and explain why she had grown breasts."

"Artoria knew the risks as did I, however it was something we were able to manage. Besides if the kingdom was stable and flourishing what care would the people have if the truth did eventually get out." Merlin defended actually using the king's real name even as the other girl growled at the word.

"Then why waste everyone's time with the debacle with that sham wedding in the first place? Instead you forced a nineteen year old sexually frustrated girl into a relationship with another girl stuck in the body of a fourteen year old eternally and thought it was going to end well."

"It provided the people with stability if they thought the king would one day have an heir."

"It provided a damn powder keg you imbecile, even without my actions someone was going to get hurt when this all came to light. Even in the best case scenario the people would have thought that the king was a useless cuckold who lost his queen to his chief knight. You should have just left Arto- the king alone, she was clearly dedicated to the people significantly more than her own comfort in the first place. Why else would people have so fanatically built this place for her in the first place?" She lambasted holding her hands above her head before spreading them out to articulate her point.

"Then you could have done the sensible thing and simply adopted a child as a fake heir or done the most logical thing and just designated Gawain as intermediary heir for the time being. The king's nephew, beloved by the people, faithful knight, etc. It would have been an easy pitch for the masses to believe instead you went with the sham marriage and paid the cost when Lancelot took one too many lessons on marriage counselling from you. For someone who has the gift of foresight, you are a bloody idiot at times. Now get over here and open this damned door." She said with contempt her tail pointing at the sealed chamber beside her as she stood with folded arms.

"Oh and don't even make me go into how Mordred was conceived, Dick Wizard." She hissed angrily causing the Incubus to stare at her open mouthed as she once again jabbed her tail in the direction of the door. Knowing he was not likely to win this argument he hung his head low as he followed her instructions and placed his staff again on the door, before a flash of light spread out across the masonry and it began to open.

She did not even wait for the door to finish opening before brushing past him and into the sealed chamber. Uttering a short incantation as she walked, a black barrier formed across the open doorway blocking the mage from following. Sure he could probably break through given a little time, he had taught her the spell after all. But it was more of a symbolic gesture for him to stay away and not get involved.

It was quite clear that whoever had excavated this particular chamber had not wanted to put too much effort into the construction. The walls were left rough and pitted, with chisel and pick marks being present throughout compared to the smooth finish throughout the rest of the site. The coffin itself was little better, being only dry timber resting on a rough-hewn slab in the centre.

It was quite clear that Bedivere's descendants had only this much purely out of some obligation to the long dead by this point knight.

Slowly she placed a hand on the timber lid before walking a full circuit of the small tomb before coming back to where she had started.

Reaching to the centre of the sarcophagi she pulled the crimson and silver blade from the its resting bracket before placing it reverentially against the wall behind her. She would come back to that later on.

Instead she focused back on the coffin itself before sliding her fingers under the top sheet of wood and attempting to lift the inch thick sheet piece of timber free only to discover it had been thoroughly nailed down.

She briefly considered using the sword as a crowbar before deciding that was criminal misuse of the blade and instead decided to simply brute force her way inside. She was a child of dragons and gods after all and she would not be impeded so easily.

Using her tail she drove the tip through the base of the coffin before forcing the lid at that end up a few inches. Now with somewhere to place her fingers she used her abundant reserves of mana to increase the strength in her arms as she began to pull the two pieces of wood away from one another.

Finally with one last tug the remaining nails gave way and the lid was tossed against the opposite side wall, the coffins occupant exposed for the first time in over a millennia.

Unlike her sibling's remains, Mordred still looked as she had when she had been killed by the king on the field of Camlann. This was not the result of some form of magical spell to preserve her body but as a result of her having an unnatural body in the first place, being a creation of magic and not that of a biological being.

The body was that of a homunculus after all, the strange thing was that Morganna had created it as a male originally to avoid the whole misogyny issue with regards to the kingship. Instead however the foetus had caused it to transform into that of a girl much to her frustration at the time.

Still the girl had thrown herself into the fray with an almost savage delight, making a name for herself as a capable fighter and being made a knight in record time. Only exceeded by the time it took her to bring the kingdom to it collapse.

The perpetually armoured figure was a mystery to her fellow knights. She did not eat or stay with any of them; she never removed her armour around others, all they knew was that in combat she was only exceeded by the King and Chief Knight and that difference diminished by the day. They exceeded her in skill and finesse with the blade; however she was more than capable of making up the difference with raw overwhelming power and aggression.

Even her lineage was unknown; though Morgan introduced Mordred to the court as an exceptional young recruit she never told them that she was her child. So even her siblings were not aware of their shared mother, as for her father well… that one was a given that no one was aware of who that was at that point in time.

The only time she would ever remove that helmet infront of someone would be when she confronted her own 'father' who swiftly renounced any connection between them, setting the knight off light a powder keg that would destroy everything.

But that was all beside the point and in the long distant past.

The body still had an almost living skin tone to it, which if one was to look past the gaping round hole, several inches in diameter through the torso they would think she was still sleeping. It was probably this fact that made someone nail the coffin down in the first place, just in case she did suddenly reanimate.

It was theoretically possible to repair a damaged homunculus but it would not have been the same person in this case. The mortal soul that had inhabited the body was long gone even before the final blow was dealt on her father. The result of a final failsafe she had created in the body to kill to try and kill the king however possible until the body was completely destroyed.

Being run through by Rhongomyniad may have killed the soul, but that instruction created within the body was enough for one final swing of the crimson blade behind her. Enough to create a fatal wound that would leave the king dead by sundown.

"My child… you deserved better than me." She whispered softly running her hand down the cheekbone of the dead girl. It was somewhat ironic that although biologically speaking Mordred was in her late teens albeit she lacked most of the feminine traits brought on by puberty, she was technically speaking little more than a five year old in terms of actual living experience. And yet she still appeared older than both her actual parents, albeit Morgan Le Fay was well into her forties when she was conceived and Artoria was mentally twenty-five.

"If I had been honest maybe events would have turned out differently, perhaps the king may have accepted you? You could have become the ruler your grandfather truly wished for, able to use the gifts inherited from your father and me to lead the people. I am sorry…" Morganna said trailing off as she held the blond girls hand.

Unlike the king she had never managed to find out what became of her soul upon her death, or which of the great fields of the Underworld she had been consigned to for eternity. Whether she had consigned her own child to suffer in Punishment, in lieu of her own soul which had yet still evaded reckoning.

However as she stood there for the next ten minutes, her lips kept moving as she rapidly chanted out a long list of spells and incantations. Over time it could be seen that damage inflicted on the girl's body was being repaired slowly as flesh, sinew, muscle and bone was repaired, replaced and stitched back together by the multitude of spells being directed into the body.

She could not bring the knight back to life, but she could at least allow her to reside as she did in her prime rather than in defeat as she had for so long.

At long last however she finished her incantation, now the girls flesh was unmarked and covered over with freshly restored white, silver and crimson armour. Brushing a few stray hairs over the girl's ears she leaned forward and gently kissed the girl on the forehead. Her final action was to place two bronze drachmas over the girl's eyes, just in case she had got stuck waiting for the ferryman all this time.

"If you see them, tell your brothers and sister that I am sorry, for everything…" She told her sombrely before picking up the lid of the coffin and gently setting it back in place. Adding a number of hexes and curses to it for good measure as she did to stop any would be grave-robber if they ever made it in here.

Her last port of call was to change the enchantment on the door itself, from now on it would only respond to her own touch and not that idiot half-brother of hers. Thankfully the sigils for the door controls were in simple terms an 'unlocked state' when the door was open, allowing her to swiftly rewrite the instructions buried within. Curiously the door was only enchanted to open at the behest of Merlin, Hecate and the King showing that they really doubled down on their belief that they would be back one day. There was little point in trying to remove Hecate but scrubbing the other two made her feel slightly better even if for only petty reasons.

At long last she decided she was done here, picked Clarent up from where she had left it and headed for the exit. The black wall dispersing as she passed through it even as the door began to close immediately.

Merlin however took one look at the heavy greatsword in her hands and swiftly got distracted from noticing if she had done anything else.

"You intent to give Clarisse Clarent?"

"Whilst that is a catchy irony, no I will be keeping this for myself. It is not one of the king's treasures or at least not anymore so therefore mother did not say I could not, besides I think we can both agree it needs an opportunity to atone for its many sins." Morganna explained using one hand to draw a circle in the air before plunging the blade into the glyph she had drawn that swallowed the blade as it was pushed in. Pulling her hand back the sword was now gone, stored in the gap between the worlds of mortals and magic.

There was after all little point in her bearing it now, unlike Merlin she had never bothered to learn swordplay and so would be useless in a real fight with it currently. However she did know a certain Titan Lord that was quite good with the blade, providing she could keep it out of his kleptomaniac hands of course.

"So what are you going to give her then?" Merlin asked dropping the subject of Clarent for the time being guessing he was not going to get any real answers from the girl who was now looking upon the array of treasures by the king's tomb. The real treasures that she was forbidden from taking were of course the true Excalibur, not the reforged version of Caliburn that Perseus had recently secretly acquired. The Lance Rhongomyniad itself with which the king had killed Mordred and before that their mad uncle Vortigern who had too fallen into the clutches of his dragon blood. The golden shield Pridwen (not to be confused with the ship Prydwen) and the last of the great swords of Britannia Secace the black acquired from the collection of Vortigern after his defeat but never accepting a true owner before the fall. Both the King and Lancelot had tried to use the blade and whilst powerful it never felt comfortable for either, who instead opted to use their own personal blades.

Carnwennan was obviously present but hidden from view, the daggers affect being active at all times now.

Despite knowing that she could not take it, Morganna felt a sensation in her chest that compelled her to head towards the most famous sword in history and myth. Climbing over golden objects and other valuable items she reached out to touch the blue hilt of the golden glowing blade.

Behind her she ignored the warning that Merlin shouted as grasped the lacquered grip. Like a blast of lightening she felt a connection shoot through her arm to her chest before she was blown across the room against the far wall, her head striking the rock hard enough to shatter her skull leaving a trail of blood as she slumped to the floor unconscious.

---

She had no idea how much time it was before she regained consciousness. However when she did she found that Merlin had sat her up against wall in a seated position with him sitting across from her legs folded as if studying her.

"I would ask why did you ignore my warnings and touch the sword but I guess the answer is rather self-explanatory seeing as the life threatening injuries you experienced healed in seconds including your broken neck. Suddenly so much makes sense about your situation and why you cannot die." He said unemotionally as if waiting for her to respond and interrupt him; however she decided to keep quiet prompting him to continue.

"That mother never realised you had absorbed Avalon into yourself all this time is quite a feat. It explains why it is always so damned hard to kill you and that you heal quicker than usual. Of course it is not as thorough as it should be though, like it was a few minutes ago. The sheath recognises that you are similar enough to Artoria as a half-sibling to work on you at a reduced rate as compared to his true wielder. However when you touched Excalibur it re-established connection with its partner and went into overdrive healing fatal injuries in seconds as it used to do."

"What do you want a medal for working it out?" Morganna said stubbornly looking away from older sibling even as she sat in the shadow of the tomb of her younger.

"No I just find it hard to believe that no one ever figured it out after all this time. A relic as powerful as Avalon does not just disappear from the records. It will invariably appear with someone, but it never did. But that was because it was no longer a physical item was it? Of course people would look at you as a suspect in its theft and disappearance. But that you did not physically possess it followed by your own apparent death would have put that suspicion aside."

"Thanks for that by the way." Morganna hissed angrily suddenly having flashbacks of a swirling maelstrom of magic, lightning and fire stripping the scales and flesh from her dragon bones.

"But how do you keep being reborn is what I don't understand?"

"The sheath is one with every fibre of my being, however in the case of my total body destruction it seeks out the one small trace of me that remains left behind in mother. From there it forces that small cluster of cells to start to regenerate into a new being. Obviously if it was working properly it would recreate me as I was at the moment I was destroyed but it hasn't so I am forced to keep reliving my childhood again and again. If mother was not an immortal it would not be possible but as it stands she is and so I always return from square one. So no this would not have worked for dear Arto-ria." She finished through gritted teeth staring at the large stone lion.

"But nor would Mordred have been able to fatally wound her in the first place."

"So what, she would have ruled her kingdom eternally as a nigh-indestructible, immortal crossdresser king, outliving generations of subjects and lesser knights. I think I saved her a lot of trouble in the long run. Hard to believe I acquired it as a result of her being so damned careless, one of Agravain's men found it whilst acting as a courier with a message to me. I was more than happy to relieve him of it, before having him executed of course. Last thing I needed was him telling anyone about it. The rest is well history of course brother." Morganna said with a shrug rising to her feet.

"Are you trying to say what happened was the better scenario?"

"Well she became known as the islands greatest legend, we all went down in the annals of history and eventually the kingdom that grew out of the ashes of our own ruled the largest empire the world has ever seen. It may not have been the best scenario for those forced to live it at the time but it wasn't a bad course of actions in the long run." She explained before once again climbing over the pile of treasure to the largest blade in the collection.

Clarent, Galatine and Arondight were all large greatsword type weapons meant to be used without a shield. Excalibur itself and Secace towed the line between longsword and bastard sword being useable with one or two hands or with a shield. The blade in front of her could quite easily be used as a shield by someone her size.

That was of course if they could lift the polished bronze blade. After all it was not a blade for mortal use but rather that of a god. Until a disagreement between the blades creator and its original recipient resulted in it being tossed away in anger, eventually finding its way to the isolated northern frontier kingdom.

Marmyadose – The Blade of War

A weapon designed for the sole intent of causing destruction on a large scale. At least in the hands of a divine being as it was intended. It was no coincidence that for all of his bravado Ares lacked the firepower to deal with multiple or larger threats. The reason was that this large sword would have been given to him were it not for his affair with Aphrodite causing Hephaestus to curse it to never be wieldable by him.

Even in the hands of a mortal it was more than capable of rending the earth, splitting a castles walls or bisecting an ignorant lesser dragon that happened to take offence at the army of mortals marching through its perceived domain. Unaware of the dragon in human form at the head of that formation.

Using both hands she was able to barely able lift the massive blade off its podium and shuffle a few steps before letting it drop on its flat where it slid to the base of the treasure pile. Jumping down after it she surfed the last few feet on the blades flat and in doing so failed to notice the utter look of disgust on Merlin's face at her rough treatment of the room's contents.

Kicking away any other items around the fallen blade she once again created another circle with her finger towards the weapon and it too fell into the gap.

"What…? It is a Greek weapon after all so it suits her, besides her having it will likely piss off her dad, which will make Hephaestus happy. Everybody wins."

"I give up; I don't know if you are insane or just spend too much time around Percy Jackson that he is rubbing off on you."

"Who knows. Let's get outer here, I want to visit my grandfather next." At those words the Wizard almost had a complete mental collapse, knowing she was not talking about the Titan of Destruction but rather on her father's side. A being capable of certainly no smaller amount of annihilation than the deity, most pantheons had a similar story of an extremely powerful being that was sealed away.

The Greeks had the likes of Typhon buried under a volcano and these Islands former gods were no different. Having a vast beast buried beneath the remains of a mountain in Wales.

Even now it still existed on the national flag of that country.

Y Ddraig Goch – The Red Dragon Emperor. The last and greatest western Dragon.

It was at moments like these as he dutifully began drawing the magic teleportation pentagram, that the Incubus questioned why he left Avalon in the first place.

---

Luckily for him though once they arrived inside the buried cavern, Morganna had told him to stay put as she headed off alone inside.

As much as she would have found it amusing to watch the Incubus immolated in flames, his presence alone would probably be enough to provoke the ancient dragon into rage. It was after all his plan that would result in the dragon being confined down here.

Though it was the dragons own two sons that would actually implement it. Luring the great beast inside the mountain with promises of unfathomable riches within. Only to betray their father and seal him inside the cold earth where he remains to this day.

Truth is told she was not quite clear on how Uther and Vortigern had been conceived by the enormous beast and a mortal woman. And frankly she had never wanted to ask for clarification on the matter.

Still it was a tremendous risk in coming here and she did not know why she had the desire to come but nevertheless here she was walking into the dark lair of her ancestor.

Proceeding at a brisk pace she soon found herself at the point where the tunnel widened out into an enormous chamber spanning at least a half mile in all directions. Even with enhanced vision she was still unable to make out much detail in the twilight gloom.

Clicking her fingers she summoned a green flame like that of one of her mother's torches and held it aloft and she very quickly began to regret her decision as the enormous red scaled mass in front of her began to unfurl and extend outwards in all directions. Wings hundreds of feet long stretched out towards the ceiling as a spiked tail extended towards the back of the chamber half a mile away.

For probably the first time in any of her lives, the girl suddenly found herself feeling truely insignificant. Even if she was in her fully transformed state, she would maybe come up to the knee of the great red dragon above her. As it was currently she was smaller than one of his claws.

It was only by fortune that she had not yet been crushed by accident as the dragon finally stretched out its neck and turned its enormous head towards her.

The force of his breathing was almost enough to make her step back; however doing so was something she could not do. To do it would be to show weakness and the great beast would likely kill her there and then as a result.

Steeling her resolve she planted her feet, used her tail as additional support and stared back into the great yellow eyes of the dragon.

"What brings you here whelp?" The enormous serpent demanded mentally. His voice coming out slow and dignified even as he derided her.

"I wish to pay respects to my magnificent grandfather, and atone for my father's crime." She shouted back.

"Indeed, and pray tell how do you plan on doing that?" The dragon responded with a sudden tone of seeming amusement.

"I will work to one day free you of your confines…" She answered unsure only to be interrupted as the ground began to shake as the dragon convulsed seemingly with laughter, its tail slamming into the side of the chamber repeatedly.

"Oh those foolish children of mine, they made themselves out to be some sort of hero I guess at my expense. Sealing me away from the world to protect it? No! I chose this fate myself; there is nothing up there that can keep my interest. I lived for the sole purpose of overcoming Albion and in doing so I robbed myself of my greatest source of amusement. What use is it to be the strongest if there is no one to challenge? Too late I realised that folly, to collect and hoard gold and other precious things what is the point? If there is no one that can take them from you. Procreation is pointless when the children will always turn out so… Insignificant." The inner Morgan in her wanted to scream blue murder at the personal attack; however the calmer Morganna could clearly understand where he was coming from.

"But great ancestor, there are others of power you could have fought. The gods…" She began only to be interrupted by more earth shaking as the dragon again started to laugh.

"Those petty beings are not the same as us dragons. They do not know how to respect true power, why else would that fool Zeus be their king when clearly the god of the Sea is more powerful than him, they give a fool who controls the creation of wine a seat at their highest council despite many being more powerful than him. Lastly they do not know how to fight honourably, if they come up against a being greater than them they band up together to overcome it. I will not be whittled down by insignificant ants; I will await the end of the world here in my isolation."

"Are you saying that you are a coward?" Morganna asked and the great red being froze before slowly extending its head forward until its mouth and nostrils were right in front of her. It could eat or burn her to ash without any chance to react.

"Excuse me whelp?"

"I said are you a coward? You hide down here because you fear being overcome by beings that you see as insignificant." She responded firmly as the dragon pulled its head back and fire coalesced in its mouth before bathing the rock to her right in the torrent. The granite rock rapidly melting into fluid magma.

However it seemed the dragon was not aware of the principle of thermal convection or didn't care as the heat from the blast even though not directed at her was still more than enough to cause her clothes to catch fire and burn as did her outer flesh. The fluid in her eyes boiling and causing them to pop. And yet despite the intense amount of pain she was forced to suffer, she did not move or make a complaint.

Thanks to Avalon the damaged skin was replaced rapidly as she stood there, her vision returning shortly after as her eyes were repaired. Less than a minute later she stood their good as new apart from the charred remains of her clothes leaving her in the nude. Even so she continued to stare down the massive beast with fierce determination.

"You have good resolve and an especially convenient healing ability little one, but my answer remains the same. This is my home and I will not be leaving." The dragon said starting with a tone of amusement. However the fact that she had graduated from being called whelp to 'little one' showed that she had risen somewhat in his esteem. All it had taken her was a large amount of unimaginable pain.

"What could possibly be so important in here that you would refuse to leave? I do not believe that you would isolate yourself down here for such a pathetic reason."

"Will you not let this issue lie?"

"No I will not, I refuse to accept my ancestor is this pathetic."

"So be it." He responded before opening his mouth and snapping his teeth closed over her before she could respond.

Fortunately for her it seemed that the enormous dragon had no intention of eating her but instead was merely saving time and covering a greater distance than she would quickly be able to walk. Not that she really appreciated the offer now that she was surrounded by teeth twice the height of herself.

At last a minute later the great crimson maw opened and roughly deposited the naked girl into a large depression on the cave floor. The rock had been melted into glass however what caught her attention instead was the large snow white egg at the centre.

"I take it that is one of Albions?" She asked walking around the five meter high egg.

"Indeed it was found here by some of your fathers men whilst mining. I decided to guard it as a gesture to my vanquished rival. However the gestation period of a true high dragon is like that of our lifespan extremely long, it is unlikely to hatch for at least another millennia. So for the time being I wait little one."

"What if there was some way to speed up the process, or rather someone?" She inquired curiously thinking of a certain idiot that happened to have dominion of Time itself.

"Did you not hear me earlier? To speed up a task is to remove the hard work associated with a task. It leaves you feeling unachieved in the long run, which is a worse sensation than simply doing the deed in the first place. No I am quite content with my current life, it makes up for the excitement of my youth when I burnt the countryside and forests to ash. Crushed mountains and sunk islands as we duelled for supremacy." The dragon emperor said with a brief spark of arrogance before returning to his former slow self.

"Perhaps one day I will return to the skies and reclaim my throne on the highest peaks of the land with this little one beside me. Perhaps even you or your progeny may witness it, or perhaps instead the youngling inside this egg has already died and I will sleep down here for eternity... But until then I will see where the strings of fate that bind this world will lead me. The world above now belongs to mortal men; there is no place in it for monsters like me except in stories and legend." The dragon lamented laying his great bulk down laying his enormous head down on his fore paws gazing longingly at the white egg.

The truth was the great dragon likely longed for its former enemy's child to succeed him, without the challenge he truly felt empty. Was she not originally the same, she had put and sacrificed everything to defeat her own sibling. But now that she had visited the tomb and been confronted by the consequences of that madness it left her with a feeling of emptiness. Why else had she wanted to retrieve the weapon for Clarisse other than because she wanted to fight her again on a more even footing, the dragon in her wanted the exhilaration of a worthy opponent, first to lock blades of crimson and bronze and then to pit her blade against tooth, scale and claw.

But in the meantime she too like her grandfather had a place she needed to be, a place that she belonged and people that accepted flaws and all.

"Thank you esteemed ancestor, you have given this fledgling much to consider. I will await your return no matter how long it takes." She said bowing reverentially to the massive figure.

"I look forward to seeing how you have grown as well little black one, do not disappoint me. Do not hide from your heritage, embrace it, accept it but do not be overcome with it. And most importantly… Get that damned stupid flower mage out of my cave, his smell is getting into the back of my nostrils and is deeply annoying. I had forgotten how bad it was back then." He growled in mock annoyance causing the girl to laugh earnestly as she turned and ran back to the entrance of the cave in the distance.

Behind her the great dragon took one final look between the shrinking figure and its sole possession and let out a content puff of smoke.

'She is a good egg, maybe now she will finally hatch into her true potential. Maybe then one day we three shall soar through the sky's together.' It thought to itself as it went back into its long slumber.

By the time she had cross the distance back to the cave mouth where Merlin was still waiting her feet had been cut open a dozen times on the sharp volcanic rock and healed just as many. But each time the girl carried on without breaking stride.

Her life had been so full of such little bumps in the road that she had got used to the concept of suffering throughout her existence. It was only now that she felt her steps were lighter than they had ever been. She had confronted her past in all of its aspects, she could finally accept who she really was and she had a clear objective for the future.

She was no longer the Morgan Le Fay of legend, Mother of Knights, Destroyer of Kingdoms.

Now she was Morganna Pendragon, Child of Dragons and Gods, Hunter of Artemis.

Of course whilst she was occupied gathering her thoughts she failed to notice the leering eyes of her half-brother gazing at her naked self.

Come to think of it she did spent a little too much time recently without any clothes on, there must be a spell that she could learn to summon or create a set. She would have to ask her mother at some point. For the meantime however she would have to settle for drawing the crimson and steel blade and threatening the perverted incubus into looking the other direction as he finished the inscription that would take them back to Hecate's palace so she could gather another set of clothes.

The last thing she needed was to head to Camp Half-Blood half naked and carrying an oversized sword. She was technically Welsh by current borders not Scottish even if that was where her northern island Kingdom had lay. So running around naked brandishing weapons of war was not one of her things to do.

---

It was to no one's surprise that the goddess was already in the room waiting for the pair of them to return. She merely cocked an eyebrow at the girl's naked state before glaring towards the Incubus who was desperately trying not to gaze at her nude form. Taking the hint he hurriedly excused himself from the room leaving the two women alone.

"Did everything go as you expected?" Her mother asked her as the girl walked past her and lay on the bed. The fact that she remained unclothed not fazing either of the two now that the Incubus had left.

"The only thing I expected was that cursed knight being significantly more than the wretch he has become." Morganna said holding the inside of her elbow over her eyes as she faced towards the ceiling.

"Gawain's curse sure did have lasting consequences beyond his death." Hecate mused in seeming amusement as the girl suddenly uncovered her eyes and looked at her mother.

"What you surely did not think it was me that cursed that fool? He may have been a complete armoured gorilla on the battlefield but he still had yours and by extension my blood in his veins. Do you not remember keeping the young child around your workshop in his infancy? At that age they are like a sponge absorbing little bits of information here and there. A basic spell for light or a fifteen stanza curse that uses your own body as a sacrifice to inflict a living nightmare on your target. He never had any intention of letting Lancelot leave that duel even if he had fairly won it. A person with nothing to lose is someone you never want to make an enemy of. They will use whatever tools they have at their disposal, no matter how self-destructive or obscure."

"I never knew he had it in him I guess. From a young age he was almost always fascinated by the town guards with their armour and swords. I never thought any of my own studies interested him. I didn't even try with the others as a result."

"Ironically now it is you who wants to bang sticks together and copy his interests." Hecate said with a curious grin as the girl pulled herself up and looked her mother in the eyes.

"Merlin told you?" Morganna asked sharply.

"He was worried about you; the last thing he wanted was for you to make all this emotional progress, just too suddenly get yourself killed by an ancient bitter dragon."

"Avalon or not, beings of exception power could still kill you quicker faster than you can heal. The dragon emperor is one of those beings."

"Grandfather is quite content in his retirement; he does not wish to have to deal with the affairs of mortals or gods. If we stay out of his little underground kingdom then he will stay down there and not cause trouble for us in the world above." Morganna said simply, deciding that mentioning the egg was a sure-fire way of the information leaking out eventually and someone doing something stupid like try and steal it.

"Very well then I shall try and ensure that he is not interrupted, that is the last thing the modern world needs. Even I would struggle to concoct a story to explain the devastation he could cause." The goddess conceded seeming content to drop the subject for the time being.

"Mother about Avalon…"

"Your brother has already told me everything. To say I was quite surprised would be an understatement, though in hindsight it has made a lot of sense."

"Then I want you to know I do not intend to ever return to this room, I intend to live my life to the fullest from now on. I do not want to be burdened by the memories of my other lives failures any more than I want this life to be perceived as a failure by anyone."

"You truly have grown daughter, you could always remain longer and complete an apprenticeship and learn the true intricacies of magic." Hecate said sincerely with a smile even as the girl shook her head in refusal.

"I have already sworn to serve another goddess mother and I intend to keep that oath. Besides if I stayed here I would once again be hiding myself in someone else's shadow. It would only lead to me once again being jealous of my own flesh and blood that I could never hope to match. No, with the Hunt I have people that see me not for my past or my legend they see me as a member of our dysfunctional little family just as they all are. Besides out there I can develop my other heritage far more than I could here in a workshop or reading from a book. Or are you willing to teach me the way of the sword as well?"

"I could teach you how to create one, I can teach you how to enchant one but other telling you which end is the pointy bit, I would honestly not a have a clue." The goddess conceded laughing actually conjuring a plain looking steel sword with nothing but a few strokes of her finger before dispelling it back into mist.

"If my brother, sister and children could do it, then how hard can it be?" Morganna said confidently.

"In that case I will expect Mr. Jackson to not take your training gently. After all injuries will not be a limiting factor for you as will stamina be a non-issue."

"I am willing to accept whatever he throws at me, the issue will be extracting him from Lady Artemis for long enough to start the training."

"Oh I am sure she will start to appreciate him getting a little sweaty after a while. The young Titan is certainly not bad looking anymore by any stretch of the imagination." The former Titaness explained before seemingly getting lost in her own thoughts.

"Mother!" Morganna shouted snapping the day dreaming goddess back out of ministrations.

"Sorry about that. Do you plan on returning today?" Hecate asked blushing changing the subject completely.

"I think I might as well wait until the morning to return to the camp, then the hunters afterwards."

"Good that gives me time to try and find out where they actually are." Hecate said simply causing the girl to raise an eyebrow.

"After the battle Artemis decided that she had had enough and that she was going on vacation. No one can contact her, Percy or the hunters unless they choose to contact them first. Apart from some scary rumours neither has appeared in public for a few weeks at this point."

"Rumours?"

"Something seemingly scared Zeus so badly that he decided to enforce the no contact policy as a punishable offence. Likewise Apollo now actively avoids bringing up his sister in anything but the most respectful terms." Hecate explained.

"Don't get me wrong Artemis can be a scary person, especially since she discovered that shooting from the moon chariot is indeed a legitimate strategy. Likewise, Percy is well Percy Jackson when he actually gets angry people have a justified reason to be terrified. But neither is surely that much of danger that even Zeus would feel too cowered not to object right?" Morganna asked out of concerned curiosity.

"I honestly don't know but I will try and get you a lead by the time you leave. Any other issues then come find me in the study." Hecate said promptly before rising out of her seat and leaving the room. As she left however the steel barred door changed into that of a simple albeit elaborately carved timber that had previously existed here for millennia.

However, before the girl could suddenly remember that she had forgotten to ask for clothes. A pair of Homunculi wearing maid robes appeared holding a large tray of cooked food and a new set of silver hunters clothing. Setting their burden down on the bed they bowed before disappearing into magic circles that appeared at their feet.

Ignoring the clothes for the time being she instead headed towards the food, reaching out to grab a sausage from the plate before pausing and instead taking up the cutlery to the side of the platter.

She was not a beast and as such she would no longer eat like one. However nor was she a queen, worried about how others should perceive any table etiquette about grace. So with all the manners of a toddler she began to wolf the food down her throat savouring the taste of decent cuisine for the first time in several weeks.

In fact this would probably be the nicest meal she would have for a while. If there was one complaint one could have about the group as a whole it was that they were all utterly useless at the art of cooking. The goddess especially so, she could probably turn a pack of instant noodles into a new form of deadly poison if given the opportunity. But the rest of the hunters themselves were equally as bad, especially considering that some of them had more than millennia to practise.

Perhaps it was some form of rebellion against the quote 'the way to a man's heart is through his stomach'. If you have no interest in men then what is the point in learning to cook, make yourself appear as uninteresting to them as possible.

So as all she was likely to be eating was campfire roasted meat with some form of boiled accompaniment interspersed with the occasional greasy takeaway. It was nice to be able to enjoy the finer things in life for a while.

After finishing she got changed into her new clothes, visually wise it was identical to her usual hunters outfit. However, closer inspection revealed a number of hidden sigils and markings buried inside the silvery fibres. Those to repair and clean the garments if stained or damaged and to strengthen the threads in the first place giving the simple appearing clothing a resistance to cutting equal to or greater than that of Kevlar. There were other more elaborate ones that required activation as well but she would investigate those at a later date.

However as appreciative as she was to her mother for the new not to imagine exceedingly valuable garments instead she was instead more focused on the long silver blade that she drew out of the air with her right hand. Its large mass almost causing her to drop it before she grabbed it with both hands and held it in front of her. Even so with both hands on the pommel she was barely able to hold the sword at stomach height.

For someone of her stature of only an inch or two over five feet the sword should simply be two large. That was why the hunters used knives after all as the close range option with one or two exceptions. And even then the swords that Thalia, Reyna and Tania carried were all one handed blades three feet in length or shorter. Clarent by contrast was over four feet from pommel to point and up to six inches wide at the cross-guard. Percy's Maelstrom was equally as long but that blade was far more narrow throughout its length, as a result it weighed half as much as this blade.

Originally a sword of kingship presented to one's heir by a monarch to symbolise passing the reins or giving them regency in the event the older royal was of failing health or as was the case with Artoria given to her by a client king who acknowledged her rank over him. Presenting the blade to the young king as a peace offering, in exchange for keeping his local authority and perhaps more importantly his life. Mordred upon discovering her true heritage had instead seized the blade from the armoury of Camelot and decided it must naturally fall to her during her rebellion.

It would then be kept by the knight until that fateful duel on the field of Camlann when the two mutually killed one another. For the first time in many battles Mordred actually beat the king in the battle of swords but was then immediately unable to defend herself from the sacred lance when the king changed weapon.

However like the last two wielders of the blade she was able to overcome the physical strength requirement of effectively wielding the blade by infusing her muscles with abundant natural energy. To do so long term risked damaged to the muscles, ligaments and her other body parts possibly resulting in organ failure and death as a result. However with Avalon inside her able to repair any damage, she should be able to operate at a much higher level as long as her magical reserves lasted.

Thankfully unlike the concealment spell she had been forced to use in the wargame this was likely of significantly less consumption than that had been to maintain.

Testing out this principle she soon found the weight of the blade seemed to decrease significantly allowing her to lift the sword above her own head height before bringing it back down and attempting to hold it in one hand to her side. Something she could physically accomplish it seemed but was simply not practical for her to wield.

Satisfied with the results she laid the sword on her lap and closed her eyes, tracing the intricate craftsmanship of whichever unknown divine blacksmith had crafted this blade. Like Excalibur and the other sister swords what sacred that had been used to craft the sword was unknown. It was seemingly useable against all targets of both of mortal and mystical heritage but beyond that the blades were a mystery.

Perhaps one day she would find out more, if all things went well she should have a long life to learn all the intricacies of this sword and earn it redemption in the eyes of the world.

When dawn rose the following morning it would find the girl still sitting there with the sword on her lap. A look of calm serenity on her face as she long last slept free of burden.

---

Stepping out of the magic circle, the lone hunter began by walking up the hill towards the large pine tree at summit. However, rather than focus on the tree itself and its connection to her fellow hunter or even the Golden Fleece that hung from its boughs. She was instead more focused on the juvenile copper dragon at its base.

Likewise Peleus eyed her back suspiciously as she approached to within a few meters. If one was to compare their dragon forms she would be larger than him at present though given another century or so he would likely exceed her. Providing of course, that she too didn't continue to grow in that form as well.

However unlike her the dragon was one of the 'dumb' members of her kind. Sure compared to most animals it was extremely intelligent able to follow instructions and make decisions for itself based on those instructions. But unlike her it was not descended from the true dragon emperor but instead a watered down line of lesser dragons. As such as she approached it bowed its head to the ground in submission before its perceived senior.

"Good response, now continue to guard this camp like a good boy." She said smiling before stroking the dragon's brow with her tail before making her way back down the far side of the hill towards the eclectic collection of buildings below.

"The sight of the strange figure of a lone hunter with black and blond hair as well as a tail obviously drew attention from the campers as she walked among them. Some were probably worried that this meant the others were likely not far behind. However the dragon girl simply ignored their stares as she headed towards the ugly barracks like building of Cabin Five and politely knocking on the door.

After about thirty seconds the door was opened by a tall muscular figure wearing half a suit of hoplite armour who looked ready to shout at whoever was interrupting. However on seeing the girl in front of him he instantly paled and leapt back two feet knocking over one of his siblings as he went for a sword that was not on his hip.

"Well that is certainly an interesting way of greeting a visitor." The girl said with amusement looking inside the cabin where apart from enough weapons lining the walls to arm a small militia. The other few occupants of the room were hurriedly trying to react to the visitor's arrival.

"You're the dragon girl, from the war game right?" The young man in front of her stammered out nervously.

"Is it really that hard to tell, what gave it away the eyes or the tail?" Morganna asked rolling her eyes. Behind her she could tell that she was gathering an audience of campers from the other cabins.

"Listen what happened to you was an accident, that spear was supposed to hit the other girl with you." He suddenly cried out apologetically.

"Oh was that you then? Sherman wasn't it right? Like the tank." Morganna suddenly remembered hearing the name thrown about whilst they futilely tried to save her life before her transformation.

"Yeah that's me, wait you mean you are not here for me?" He suddenly asked realising finally that the girl seemed to have no ill intent towards him or indeed anyone else in the cabin.

"No I am looking for Clarisse La Rue, is she here?" She asked politely as the Ares cabin members finally seemed to calm down.

"No she left a little earlier to go to the bathroom." Another figure that could loosely be identified as a girl explained from the back of the room as she placed a spear back on the wall.

"Ok not a problem then I will look there then." She said before simply turning to leave.

"Wait what are you going to do to her." Sherman asked nervously.

"Why would I do anything to her?" She responded in confusion.

"Well she stabbed your eye out, didn't she?"

"And you impaled me on a stick but do you see me trying to tear you apart. As you can see I am not injured anymore, it was a game after all, people sometimes get hurt. Get over it." Morganna told him with finality before leaving him behind and heading towards the girl's restroom. A small but curious entourage following behind her at a perceived safe distance.

Approaching the simple wooden building that housed the girl's lavatory she was surprised to find a son of Hermes outside the door leaning his head inside. It was only when she was a few feet away that he noticed her presence and turned to face her and uttered a shriek of panic as the girl rolled her eyes.

"Does everyone hear think that because I am part dragon that I am suddenly going to go on a rampage and destroy this place or something." She asked angrily looking around her as a number of demigods suddenly decided they had something on their shoes.

"Now why are you hanging around outside a girl's toilet like you are some form of creep?" She said focusing on the camper in front of her who appeared to be around eighteen or nineteen.

"Chrrisssssssss!" A weary and sickly voice shouted from inside the bathroom behind him. Suddenly the son of Hermes stuck between a rock and a hard place.

A number of cogs began to click into place for the girl as she simply walked past the demigod and into the bathroom. Making her way towards the open stall she pushed the door open to reveal the sight of the large daughter of Ares cradling the toilet bowl.

Reaching down she pulled the girls brown hair out of her face and back over her shoulder.

"Urghhh. Thank you… Wait who are you?" The Greek Triumvir asked finally noticing who had entered the stall.

"You stabbed my eye out so I smacked you off the field of Mars." Morganna said simply as the larger girl rose to her feet albeit a little uncertainly.

"Oh so that was you? You are a lot smaller than I remember." She said before spitting out whatever mucus remained in her mouth down the toilet and flushing it away along with whatever was left of her meal from last night.

"And you look a lot less like a relentless berserker." Morganna responded earning a chuckle.

"So I take it this is your first time being pregnant?" Morganna asked as the girl reached for her purple cloak hanging from a peg on the opposite wall. Immediately the girl stopped mid-reach.

"What did you say?" She demanded less angry and more filled with panic.

"The morning sickness you are having, I would recognise it anywhere. I have mothered enough children to recognise the symptoms."

"That was just food poisoning from what I ate last night, a bit of bad chicken probably." Clarisse defended desperately, fooling no one. She knew that what the dragon girl before her said made sense. Her and Chris's actions in the Roman city had been spur of the moment and unplanned and as a result now she would have to deal with the consequences.

"I thought you were a Hunter, how can you have had children?" She asked at last seemingly resigning herself to the truth Morganna had told her.

"Five of them to be precise. As for when it was a different me in a different lifetime. It's complicated…" She responded with a chuckle, how she could easily summarise her entire existence without spending half a day doing so would be an impossibility.

"Let's continue this outside and away from the smell of piss and vomit." Clarisse said gruffly before heading for the doorway.

Upon exiting the building though she soon found out about the small crowd of people that had followed Morganna up here.

"What you expect me to believe that all of you suddenly want to use the bathroom at the same time? Counsellors I expect everyone to be at the pavilion in the next ten minutes for breakfast or it will be all of you running laps of the camp instead of eating it." Clarisse bellowed as suddenly all of the senior campers realised it was their ass on the line and began to grab all of their siblings and lead them back away from the bathroom.

"Not you." She said grabbing the son of Hermes by the collar as he went to follow her instructions.

"Clarisse is everything ok?" The centaur figure of Chiron asked running around the side of the building before spotting the sight of Morganna standing next to her.

"Well met daughter of Hecate and Uther, I was not aware you were visiting today. Is there anything I can do to assist you?" He asked simply, though his face seemed to indicate he was studying her for response before she talked.

"I just thought I would visit and pay Clarisse a visit and thank her for being a worthy opponent in the game. I only recently was able to leave my mother's care again as result of my injuries and condition after it."

"So Artemis will not be joining you then today?"

"I am afraid not, I have not spoken to Lady Artemis since the game, I will be returning to the Hunt after I am done here." She explained and the centaur visibly sighed in relief.

"Very well, if you need anything then don't hesitate to let me or one of the six know."

"Will do." She said with a smile presenting a mouth full of far too many pointy teeth. Taking the hint that she was not intending any harm to the camps senior most demigod he too set off towards the dining pavilion.

"I wouldn't tell McLean that she was on fire." Clarisse grumbled under her breath.

"Let's go somewhere a bit more private; last thing I want is this getting out anytime soon." She added afterwards before heading into woodland after grabbing the other demigod's hand who seemed confused on what he was missing. Morganna instead followed on behind the pair savouring the sensation of being surrounded by trees again rather than walls or stone.

Eventually they would arrive at a large rock formation that would have once been identified on a map as Zeus's fist but the resemblance was now long gone as a consequence of the battle of the Labyrinth.

"Clarisse what is up with you?" Chris asked at last as she leant against one of the large boulders.

"I'm pregnant." She said simply as he froze and simply stood there for a good minute doing nothing but blinking occasionally.

"Do not be going all Jackson on me." She growled in annoyance, it was good to see that Percy infamous 'dumbass-ery' was becoming an accepted part of the camps vocabulary. Even if the truth was that the former camper was genuinely a lot more intelligent than people gave him credit for. He just thought outside the box a lot more than his peers.

"Who, What, How?" He stammered out at last, seemingly mentally broken (again).

"Oh my gods how complicated is it? Who in hades has to explain the birds and the bees after they have had sex?" She complained loudly only for the son of Hermes to faint in front of the pair of them.

"Well this is embarrassing, you are one of the strongest, courageous and bold women I have ever met and your lover is…"

"…A pussy, I am quite aware. He has his charms I assure you but I think we just broke him for a while." Clarisse said with a sigh looking down at the father of her child.

"Well this is certainly not how I saw today happening in the slightest." Morganna said laughing at the absurdity.

"Surely you didn't come out here just to say good fight or something like that."

"Would you laugh if I said that was pretty much exactly the reason I came here today. That and to give you a gift to replace your broken spear." Morganna remarked scratching the back of her head in embarrassment.

"Oh please my father orders them in bulk now; it is just one of those things that naturally happens to me apparently, along with an early pregnancy by the looks of things."

"So you don't want this then?" Morganna asked reaching both hands into a sigil on the ground and slowly pulling out the enormous mass of Marmydose before setting its point on the ground.

Naturally the daughter of Ares became instantly focused on the oversized sword she had summoned. The matter of her own pregnancy swiftly forgotten for the time being before the image of the great polished bronze blade.

"It was made for your father by Hephaestus before the whole affair came to light. My… family acquired it a long time ago and it has been sitting gathering dust for the last fifteen hundred years. So I wanted you to have it. Then one day you and I can have a rematch."

"Wait you are giving me a pseudo symbol of power made for my own father. Because, you want to fight me again? Are you insane? Has hanging around the Seaweed Brain made you lose your mind? Did my spear fry your mental faculties?"

"Are you done yet? No I assure you for the first time in over a thousand years I am indeed quite sane and rational. I need a strong rival to keep me focused and to stop me losing myself to madness. And I chose you, someone who exemplifies the very qualities I both respected and hated about my own siblings."

"And if I decline?"

"Then I will still Marmydose in your care and I will be forced to settle for the Seaweed Brain." Morganna responded with a shrug.

"Doesn't sound like you are going to let me refuse the gift either way. But I am already nineteen years old and apparently pregnant. What use is a perceived rivalry between you who is immortal and me?"

"There isn't in the slightest but purely a mad desire to have a battle with someone worthy. Call it a crazy consequence of my father's bloodline, my mother thinks I am mad as well but the decision is mine."

"You are mad but I will accept your offer simply because without Jackson around here anymore, there is no real challenge in fighting anyone. I have become limited by my opponents, sure I may have lost a lot against him. But it served as motivation to better myself. I believed that last battle was the last chance I ever had to prove myself, so much so that for a time I forgot that it was not real. I saw Chris go down and for a second I thought I had genuinely lost him. After that everything became a haze as I desperately tried to defeat you all."

"Trust me when I say that the knowledge of actually losing the ones you hold closest is a lot worse. That is why this blade can help you to protect them and yourself, because I do not want you to experience the madness that I fell into." Morganna said sombrely passing the handle to the larger girl who too seemed surprised by the weight of the weapon before changing her footing and posture and finding it now more manageable.

Stepping out of the way Morganna watched as the girl lifted the blade above her head before swinging it down vertical. Much to her surprise as she was only practising the motion when it unleashed a narrow wave of destruction that cut clean through the boulder in front of her as well as the entire rock formation behind it. Everything with two hundred feet of the path of the blade had been sundered in two.

So it was little surprise when the panicked girl dropped the blade out of fear and backed away three steps from it, her face ashen white.

"Are you insane? You want to fight me after giving me that thing!" She shrieked in panic.

"Is it hubris to say that wouldn't kill me even if you did split me in two?" Morgana laughed nervously considering the thought of her perceived rival for a second.

"That's even worse! As if the fact you are literally a dragon isn't bad enough you can take fatal blows and walk it off. If we have a fight it sounds like the only one who is in any danger is me. I might as well be fighting Percy, at least he can take an injury if stabbed" Clarisse declared as suddenly Morganna became really interested in the ground at her feet.

What the girl said was the truth after all, she was an immortal almost indestructible abomination capable of inflicting and receiving massive amounts of danger. Sure she was several magnitudes weaker than her grandfather but compared to the average demigod she was as much out of their league as an Olympian.

Even giving Clarisse a weapon like Marmydose did very little to shorten the divide between them if she could shrug off the wounds after a few seconds. The waves of annihilation it created were not enough to completely destroy her in short order. That would require something like Excalibur itself or some other high output magical weapon or spell as Merlin had done the first place.

The destruction inflicted by that single great attack had created the lowland area now known today as the Netherlands. The blast being that size because he knew he only had one shot of carrying it out and that he could not afford to miss. It had taken him eight hours to draw out all the glyphs, perform the incantation and had left himself at death's door. However when he was done the attack had vaporised the insane dragon she had become, whilst reducing the surface level of most of a country to below sea level.

Which had been the final straw in why Hecate had been forced to create the mist and begun to rewrite the history of the region.

"My apologies I got the better of myself, I did not think this through from a logical standpoint of someone who actually could die as a result of my folly." Morganna said sadly turning to leave.

"I didn't say no. I just asked if you are insane." Clarisse shouted after her causing her to stop and turn back to the girl who was again picking up the sword off the ground.

"But you said…"

"Call it a flight of fancy on my part as a result of spending too much time around your boss's boyfriend over the years. Give me five years. When I am done with the Camps, College and this one here has grown up enough." She responded holding her hand over her stomach for a second.

"You do not have to do this."

"Are you trying to back out now like a coward? Do not tease me with a good fight and then chicken out." Like that her words struck a chord with the dragon in her; after all she had used those same words on her grandfather and instantly got a reaction.

"Very well, I look forward to clashing blades with you daughter of Ares." Morganna declared proudly smiling profoundly as her right hand drew Clarent out of its hiding spot. Stabbing it points point into the ground as the other girl look surprised for a few seconds before growing a large smile of her own.

"You know I am starting to think I like this new Hunt, less hiding in bushes like a coward and more loud, proud and in your face. If it had been like this a few years ago I might have joined myself." She responded matching the other girl's stance. Albeit stabbing Marmydose into the ground a lot more gently.

Walking past the two swords simultaneously they met in the middle and held a hand out towards the other before silently shaking hands.

"You know I never introduced myself back during the game. My name is Morganna Pendragon, Daughter of Hecate, Granddaughter of the Red Dragon Emperor, heir of fire and magic, mother of Knights, Hunter of Artemis. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance Clarisse La Rue, Drakon-Slayer, wielder of Marmydose." Morganna announced proudly as she bent forward a little into a bow out of respect before straightening up.

"You know I thought that was what you called it. Because I reckon it will be less than a week before someone around here starts calling it Marmalade." Clarisse said with a sigh as she picked the large bronze blade up and looked at it closer.

"Then you have my position to cut their cabin in half. They will not be laughing then." Morganna responded swinging Clarent up and onto her shoulder.

"Hehe I guess not, though I think that would just be giving myself more paperwork. I am starting to see already why your friend Reyna hated her job as Praetor. At least I don't have to walk around like I have a stick up my ass the whole time though."

"Try being the queen of a country, it doesn't get any better. Just use those around you for support do not try and burden yourself with every issue. Make those lazy entitled bastards in the Six pull their weight."

"Oh they are already crumbling under the new management; Lady Athena is quite the taskmaster for them. It's amazing to watch really, 'Yes M'Lady, Yes Maam, I'm sorrrrry." Clarisse said impersonating the three Greek minor gods in quick succession ending with what was clearly Piper.

"We used to have that seemingly between Percy and Artemis. But turns out it was more of an act…"

"Seeing as he was secretly fucking the boss without no one realising. Yeah funny how that works out in the end." Clarisse said crudely before looking down at her own still unconscious boyfriend with a sigh.

"Anyway if you will excuse me, I have a small personal situation I must deal with if that is ok. I look forward to meeting you again one day." Clarisse said finally laying her new sword down next to Chris before sitting down and pulling his head onto her lap.

Morganna did not wait around long to watch him wake up and panic at the repeated revelation. She was already halfway back to the camp itself, it wouldn't take long after she cleared the tree line that she spotted the figure of the Centaur talking to the tall figure of her mother near the camp hearth whilst a small girl beside them tended to the flames.

Realising her time was likely up she headed towards the group that awaited her.

"I realise it sets a bad precedent to be seemingly favouring one child over the others Lady Hestia but I am busy and must get back."

"It was that awful rational that started the Second Titan War in the first place. You are already here, why is it so hard to acknowledge that the rest of your children have a right to see their mother as well? We understand that Morganna is your first child and her unique nature amongst them earns her some special treatment but it is only likely to cause bitterness towards her by younger siblings." Hestia lectured her mother back who was clearly looking uncomfortable being talked down to by the small girl in front of her.

"Now Lady Hestia that is not required." Chiron tried to interrupt only to be shot a scathing look by his younger sister.

"No Chiron, it was the foolish acts of ignoring our progeny that almost destroyed everything we have worked towards. I have spent too many millennia receiving the hopes and prayers of demigods desperate to be claimed by their parent, only to leave or die disappointed to never hear from them. Others that are lucky do get claimed but never receive any form of acknowledgement for what they have achieved. How hard is it to spend a few minutes with your own children?" Hestia demanded the fire behind her roaring to life as did those in her eyes.

"I have to agree with Hestia mother, you do give myself and Merlin special treatment compared to the rest of your children. How many of the others have you ever invited to your workshop?" Morganna asked adding her two cent to the argument after arriving Clarent still held in her hand.

"Exactly my point." The eldest Olympian remarked nodding her head.

"After everything I have done for you recently daughter." Hecate asked in shock turning towards her.

"Which is exactly why I am telling you to meet my other siblings. If you can help a historical fuck-up like me to accept who I am, then imagine what good you can do for your more 'normal' children by spending time with them."

Looking around between the Olympian and Morganna the goddess's shoulders slumped before she lowered her head in defeat.

"Very well, if you insist." She said dejectedly suddenly sounding like a spoil child as she looked at the floor before raising her head and looking at Morganna.

"Daughter, Lady Hestia will arrange your return to the Hunt. If you require anything further just send me a message." Hecate said simply before being lead to the newly built Hecate cabin by Chiron.

"Thank you for your help with that. She may not say it aloud but she is proud of you and the progress you have made in so short of time." The girl who was a goddess remarked, the fires in her eyes dying down to a calming and warming ember.

"Maybe one day she too will start to open up to others… So you know where the Hunt is then?" Morganna asked curiously.

"It would seem that Artemis has decided to go home for her break from official duties. Despite being off the radar so to speak, I was able to find them by 'tracking' the sacrifices they made to the hearth. Now stand straight dear while I try to connect you to their hearth." The goddess said pulling a smouldering stick out of the fire and beginning to draw some markings on the ground at Morganna's feet. Where she touched with the stick the ground smouldered and burned.

"Home? You mean Olympus right?" Morganna asked confused as Hestia began drawing behind her stepping over her tail as she did so.

"Not quite dear, she appears to have taken your fellow hunters to her birthplace. The island of Delos." She explained as the goddess finished her drawing and stood back.

"At least it will be warmer than this country right?" Morganna joked as she was engulfed in heatless flames.

---

Once the flames cleared she found herself on a semi-arid island. The tiny island had only a landmass of a few square kilometres and little to no vegetation meaning that she had a clear unobstructed view of the ocean in all directions.

The island however was now however basically uninhabited by mortals apart from a few archaelogists and the occasional tourist who took a boat over to visit. So it was easy to spot the small circle of tents a few hundred yards away and the massive golden figure that was contently snoozing in the late afternoon sun.

Walking towards the campsite she began to recognise her fellow hunters as she approached. When she reached within a hundred yards she too was spotted in return as the great cat slowly arched its back rising to her feet before covering the distance to her within only a dozen bounds.

Nemea came to within only a few inches of the girls face, her large teeth whilst certainly imposing were no match for the dragon that gobbled her up the day before. Extending her free hand out she reached out and patted the lioness between the brows causing her to give off a purr of approval prompting her to carry on.

Behind the lioness, the other hunters had run behind and finally made it here as well.

"Sorry it has been a while. Did you miss me?" She asked smiling before being tackled to the ground by the diminutive figure of Marina. The small daughter of Triton had tears in her eyes as she looked up at her, causing the older girl to pat her on the head in an attempt to calm her down.

"You have a tail?" Marina asked suddenly noticing the extra limb that was sticking out from underneath her.

"Yeah, if you let me up I will tell you all about it." Morganna said almost embarrassed as the little girl climbed off her and she pulled herself back to her feet.

Looking around her fellow hunters she saw that they were pretty much the same. As to be expected from a bunch of girls who never aged with one exception.

The black haired girl at the back of the group wearing the diadem looked like she had suddenly and finally hit puberty. And it had hit her hard, judging by the transformation that had taken place.

Thalia had seemingly gone from short spiky hair and the physique of a teenage athletic boy to someone who would not look out of place on a runway. Her luscious hair now trailed past her shoulder blades, she had gained several inches in height. And most notably she now had some serious curves where before she was almost usable as a washboard.

Even that transformation was nothing compared the appearance of another girl she did not recognise and was obviously a new recruit. The fact that when she 'stood' up she was easily eight feet tall was a clear enough indicator of her inhuman nature, however when she focused harder on the sandy blond girl she realised her lower half and the trailing twenty feet of yellowy-brown torso was that of a snake.

"It seems I too may have missed some important things that have happened." Morganna remarked with a smile as she found herself in the midst of a large group hug.

---

Several hundred feet above, the silver and gold wings of two immortals flapped occasionally as they looked down at the scene below.

"Well that is the last lost sheep returned to the fold." Percy commented to the goddess beside him.

"If we are calling a dragon a sheep, then what does that make me?" Harmony responded with amusement smiling as she began to slowly descend ready to greet her missing Hunter. The Titan Lord following a short distance behind his lover.

Their small little group may have been filled with people that could loosely be referred to as a collection of character flaws and problems. They had plenty of people that could be called crazy, irrational and even insane by most psychologists in the world. They were both gentle and yet also incredibly violent when provoked or angered.

Yet all together they formed a family, and now for the first time in several weeks they were whole again.

---

Authors Note: Now as I said in the note at the top of this chapter this was a challenge to myself to write something a little different to what I usually do. After all everyone's favourite couple literally only appears in the last dozen lines of text. This is chapter is about Morganna and her journey into accepting herself and her place in the world.

And Bill Gates almost deleted most of it by crashing my Word Document and taking the middle eight thousand words with it. (Everything between Lancelot and Morganna's return to Hecate) For a week I desperately went rooting around in the lost archives of my laptop in a futile effort to find it. Eventually accepting my utter anger and annoyance of letting this happen again after chapter 62 (Never forget its sacrifice) I began to rewrite the missing text for the next week. Only for Word to magically spit out the lost copy on Friday saying by the way did you want to keep this. Accepting this relative gift of generosity by the gods of Microsoft spurred me on to finish the chapter after blending the two versions together of course.

She has not forgiven the likes of Merlin or Artoria for their part in her madness and hatred. However she has simply chosen to embrace that past as part of her legend as it is. She is no longer Morgan, she is her own person that just happens to have once lived the life of Morgan Le Fay. Lancelot is still thoroughly on the shit list though, it is just better to leave him alive to prolong his suffering.

The staging of this chapter allowed me to add a number of events into the story that simply would not have fitted into the normal story timeline. Especially with regards to Clarisse and her pregnancy. Despite the number of relationships in the stories (At least up to Trials one, where I have personally stopped) it never seems to address any form of consequences of that relationship for demigods. It always seems to end with one or both of the couple dead. You try telling me that up to several hundred hormonal teenagers in a camp are not going to have sex at some point when they know they could die the next time they leave. Clarisse luckily/unluckily was simply the one I chose to make this point seeing as she seemingly was in a stable relationship and not a member of the seven. Likewise confronting a god or goddess on actually meeting their children is a good way to stop them becoming angsty and trying to overthrow Olympus.

However the biggest headache of writing this chapter by far at least in the beginning was trying to blend Greek Myth with Arthurian Legend interspersed with a fair amount of the Fate Series thrown in for good measure. Spoiler alert but SHOI has been out for five years at this point there will be a lot more of that in the future. Before anyone complains that Lancelot doesn't make sense to be a son of Poseidon because of the prophecy. I refer to him as a Demigod for simplicity but technically he is Nymph/God hybrid. The Rise and Fall of Camelot happening in the late fifth and early sixth centuries for anyone interested. As to the nature and location of the Celtic gods at some point I will address that issue along with a number of other mythologies. For now all that is left are their relics and weapons as a lasting legacy. Anyone not familiar with the weapons just google Fate Arondight/Rhongomyniad/Clarent/Galatine etc. As anyone has read SHOI will know Percy/Perseus has a reforged Caliburn not Excalibur.

Y Ddraig Goch is basically their version of Typhon albeit distinctly less angry currently and more than content to sleep away the centuries. Harmony can kill him quite easily through shear overwhelming firepower that she is able to bring to bear blowing clean through his scales. However it would take likely take Percy/Perseus/Artemis and Diana combined to bring him down otherwise. I am not even ashamed to admit that some of his inspiration came from High school DXD. If you look past the fanservice the series is excellent for blending different mythologies together especially the light novels.

As for where it leaves Morganna in the hierarchy of the Hunt. She is personally quite happy being a lower ranked member as she was previously. She knows that she cannot handle power and authority after her old mistakes. However in terms of power she is by far the tankiest member of the Hunt due to Avalon and if she enhances her strength only weaker than Zoe. However she is beaten by a number of other members in more natural hunter aspects like speed, archery, concealment. Likewise though she intends to take up swordsmanship she is still a beginner and would get trounced by someone like Tania, Reyna or Thalia.

As for Thalia's new appearance and the new Lamia girl (Still taking name recommendations by the way) they will be explained in the next few chapters that will bring the storyline back into synchrony with the end of this chapter.

Anyway I hoped you all enjoyed this different chapter of sorts. It was a very long change of pace to write but once I got going it was quite pleasant to do so, with the exception of almost losing a large chunk along the way. Not having to write multiple personalities into a scene for once was almost a godsend, though it is of course a hallmark of this story at this point.

Speaking of which as of this chapter going live we are only a few thousand views short of five million which we should smash through by the time the next chapter is up. So I want to thank all of you for your support over the years especially those that have been here since the beginning. Who have had so much patience for my extremely erratic upload cycle. I never intended for this story to grow this much. Back then I was a depressed twenty-one year old university drop out writing to distract myself from wasting three years of my life and no small amount of money. Now I am only a few months shy of thirty and still writing it. I expected to be done in 200K words or so and yet here we now are at 690K+ and still a long way from being done.

Anyway I am rambling now so please let me know what you think and I will do my best to get back to you. PS. Guests please don't ask questions in reviews, I really want to respond but I cannot and it is infuriating. Please log in so I can do so.