-Thirty-One -

Control

Lancelot swung his sword at Arthur's head, but the king brought his own sword up to block the blow. His blue eyes were wide, pleading. "Please, Lancelot," he said. "This isn't you. You have to fight her."

Lancelot was trying but Nimueh's magic was too strong. He swung again. Arthur blocked this blow as well but did not fight back. He would only defend himself as Lancelot beat him back.

"What if I come willingly?" Arthur shouted at Nimueh above the clanking of swords. "I promise not to fight, and you spare Lancelot and my father."

Nimueh seemed to consider this. Lancelot stopped fighting Arthur abruptly, his sword paused in the air mid-strike. "But you will try to stop me eventually."

"I'll try, but right now I'll come with you."

"Very well." Nimueh tugged on Lancelot and he tripped backwards. He sheathed the sword, but he could still not move of his own accord. "Get your father in the car. Lancelot, you're driving. And Arthur, leave your sword." Arthur obediently dropped his sword and Nimueh moved to pick it up.

Arthur turned to pull Uther to his feet. The old king looked frightened, and Lancelot saw the care Arthur put into helping him into the car. Nimueh got into the passenger side while Lancelot got behind the wheel, undoing his belt so that his sword would not hinder him. Nimueh took that too. She pressed her nails against the GPS system and their destination lit up on the screen.

"Morgana has succeeded in opening the caves," she said. "Now we go to her."

"She won't join you," Lancelot said. His tongue was still free, and he took the chance to use it against Nimueh. "She doesn't want to be like you."

"She'll realize that I'm only doing this to preserve our people. Someone has to do it."

"Is Morgause in on this too?" he asked.

"Morgause has grown soft. All she wants is her sister back. She has lost all ambition to achieve the goals of our people," Nimueh said bitterly.

"Or she's just realized what she did before was wrong."

Nimueh laughed softly. "Always so noble." She reached a hand forward and touched her fingers to Lancelot's chin. He didn't take his eyes off the road. "It will be the death of you. Again."

Lancelot clenched his jaw but did not speak. Let Nimueh think she had won. She was a long way from victory still. Lancelot would fight her every step of the way whether he was under her control or not.

Nimueh sighed. "That's the problem with you, with all of you. You're so noble that you don't know when to make sacrifices. You'd sacrifice yourself to save your kingdom but would you sacrifice your enemies to save your people?"

"It's not the same," Arthur said from the backseat. "We're talking…"

"Billions," Lancelot volunteered.

"Billions of lives just to save a few. In Camelot we worked so hard to see that those with magic and those without lived peacefully together. It did take time but it happened. You just didn't live to see it."

"That was then. You've just woken up. You don't know what this world is like, how cruel it can be."

"I've seen cruelty," Arthur told her. "Perhaps not in this lifetime, but I know what it is to fear something and to persecute people for it. The solution isn't killing the people whose views don't align with yours. You don't have the right to make that kind of decision."

"Do you know how the last dragon died?" Nimueh asked. "She was shot down by people who feared her. She died the last of her kind and now there are none left. I can't let that happen again."

"What about White Castle and Ealdor?" Lancelot asked. "Aren't they a safe haven for people with magic?"

"You think the people want to live confined to the boundaries of their tiny cities? You think outsiders won't invade them? Find us out?" She shook her head. "You're naïve. You don't understand so stop telling me I'm wrong."

"You're right," Arthur told her. "I don't understand. I haven't had to live with that fear. But I don't want to see people with magic die either. We're not fighting for a different cause, just fighting differently. I won't let anyone die."

"But you're not a king here," Nimueh reminded him. "You're just an ordinary boy who doesn't fit in. No one will listen to you."

"Maybe not but that doesn't mean I stop trying. It doesn't mean I give up."

"You will. In the end when your friends start to die. You'll see that I was right all along, that there is no place for us here unless we make one for ourselves."

Arthur was silent in the backseat, but Lancelot could see the frustration written on his face in the rearview mirror. Lancelot felt equally frustrated. He kept driving though, unable to do anything else under Nimueh's control. He felt a constant pressure on his brain and wished he could shove it away. He hoped that the Knights of the Roundtable were aware of what was happening. He had no way of contacting them and Nimueh probably knew all about them if she'd been inside Lancelot's head.

He hated the very idea of that. He didn't even know what had been him and what had been her in the last few days. His thoughts flitted to Morgana. They'd earned each other's trust in the last few days. Had that been real or had that just been part of Nimueh's plan? What about the feelings that had been stirring inside of him ever since he'd started spending time with her? Had those been a lie? What reason would Nimueh have for making him feel something for Morgana? He hadn't even realized he'd felt anything until they'd had to part ways. It had been so long since he'd felt something other than death and regret. He admired Morgana's passion, her determination to overcome the person she had become in her past life. He felt a strong desire to protect that passion. He couldn't imagine if it were ever snuffed out. He needed her strength because right now he felt weak. He needed a reason to keep fighting. For now all he could do was drive.

It felt repetitive and his muscles cramped in protest after being stuck in a car for so long. As the GPS guided them ever closer to the Crystal Caves, he started thinking of ways to overcome Nimueh's power over him. She'd lied to Morgana when Morgana had asked if Nimueh could break the magic holding Lancelot a slave. What she'd meant when she'd said she couldn't break it was that she wouldn't. What else had she said? 'You cannot just break it like a chain. It's something you must overcome. How, I cannot say, but if you really do have good intentions of helping Morgana, then that's a start.'

Had there been some truth in her words after all? Could he break the spell himself? His thoughts were cut short as the GPS beeped at him. They had reached their destination. He stopped the car abruptly to avoid the rubble strewn across the ground. The entrance to the caves leered out at them, a dark hole in the side of the rock face. There was something terrifying about the caves. Lancelot knew he didn't belong here. He didn't have magic like the others. At least Arthur was with him though he wished the king were far away from Nimueh. Uther had been silent the entire drive looking quite defeated. Lancelot felt a small stab of sympathy for him. Uther had locked himself away in a castle only to be manipulated by magic, tricked by Nimueh again. No wonder he had such a poor opinion of magic. Lancelot had been manipulated time and time again by magic, but he knew it wasn't magic itself but the people who used it that were either good or evil. Merlin used it for good; Nimueh chose to use it for evil. But it was also a matter of perspective. Nimueh was just trying to preserve her own kind. She had good intentions but killing everyone without magic wasn't the way to achieve this.

"Get out," Nimueh commanded. Lancelot cut the engine and Arthur got out of the backseat, helping his father. Nimueh moved toward the caves like a moth drawn to light. Lancelot's eyes fell to the swords sitting on the passenger side of the car. Arthur followed his gaze, but the next moment the car doors locked with a resounding click. Nimueh was looking at them. "Try anything and I drop him," she said, nodding to Uther. "At this point he's just extra weight."

Arthur tightened his grip on his father's arm but didn't speak. He and Lancelot exchanged a glance before following Nimueh into the cave's entrance. Despite not having magic of his own, Lancelot could sense the energy within the caves. It was a sort of static buzz that set his ears ringing. It was pitch dark inside the caves as they left the light of the world outside behind. Nimueh summoned up a light and led them on past tunnels and caverns. She seemed to know just where she was going. They went on for what seemed like hours with nothing but the sound of their own echoing footsteps and the drip, drip, dripping of water. Then there was another sound.

A scream split the air, and Lancelot and Arthur spun around, trying to find the source. "Never mind that," Nimueh said sharply.

"Who was that?" Ryll? Morgana? Someone was in danger. Lancelot took a step toward the right, where the sound had come from. Another tunnel branched off here, and he thought he could see a spot of light somewhere up ahead. Before he could take another step though, something tugged him back. He turned to see Nimueh looking at him.

"Where do you think you're going?" she asked.

"Someone needs help." He heard another cry, and this time he recognized the voice. "It's Morgana. Morgana!" He shouted her name and it echoed around the caverns.

"Lancelot?" her answer came. She was just beyond, but Lancelot still couldn't move. "Please help me." The words were softer now, choked out.

"It's a trick," Nimueh said. "Come." She tugged on him again like a dog on a leash. He focused every bit of strength he had on the invisible chain that wouldn't let him move. He thought of Morgana, thought of her in danger, thought of her needing his help. He moved one foot. It was a battle of wills now, and his was stronger. He knew it even before the spell snapped in two. Lancelot looked back at Arthur who said, "Run," and took off running. The wall next to him exploded as Nimueh fought to get him back, but Lancelot was free. Nimueh no longer had power over him and he was going to save Morgana. Their pasts no longer mattered. It was the here and now, and he was in control. His thoughts were his own he realized suddenly. Nimueh was not in his head making him doubt himself. The protectiveness he'd felt toward Morgana was still there, the feelings that had taken him by surprise were there too. They were his own though, not some manipulation, not some illusion. He ran and ran until he found himself in a dead end lined with the legendary crystals. He kept his eyes averted knowing that they reflected the future. He looked around for Morgana, but the cavern was empty. There was nowhere else her voice could have been coming from.

"Morgana?" Only his own voice answered him in echoes.

Movement in the corner of his eyes caught his attention and he turned to find himself facing a particularly tall crystal. He didn't mean to look, but it was impossible not to. It was polished like a mirror but what he saw reflected was not the caves nor his own reflection. He was staring into a forest. Pinpricks of light wavered between the trees, and he realized they were torches. There were people streaming through the forest. Dogs ran at their heels. A dark figure was darting through the trees ahead of them like a fox fleeing a hunt. As the figure drew closer, Lancelot saw familiar dark hair framing a pale face. Morgana looked straight at him and opened her mouth to cry out for help. He couldn't hear her this time as if he was behind a thick plate of glass, only able to watch. She ran straight up to him, pressing her hands flat upon the surface of the stone. He reached out and placed his hands on hers but all he could feel was the cool stone of the crystal. He couldn't help her. He was useless. He searched around for something to break the crystal, settling on a chunk of stone. He motioned for Morgana to stand back and started beating the stone upon the crystal. It didn't so much as scratch it. Morgana's eyes widened as she looked behind her. The torchlight was getting closer.

"I'll get Merlin!" he told her. She seemed to understand or maybe she could hear him. She nodded. "I'll be back. I promise!" He turned and ran back the way he'd come, his heart pounding in his ears. Merlin would know what to do. Merlin would save her. The only problem was he had no idea where Merlin was. There was only one person who did. If giving up his own freedom meant that Morgana would be safe then there was no question of what he would do. Lancelot took a deep breath and went in search of Nimueh.