The group of knights made their way closer to the castle. They managed to avoid the patrols that were in the forest, their next hurdle would be to sneak past the castle guards atop the castle walls. Arthur motioned them all to move as the guards changed shifts. They quickly made their way into the castle and towards the stairwell.

"Good luck." Arthur whispered to Lancelot and Kagome. They needed to head upstairs towards the cup and the bell, while Arthur was heading downstairs towards the dungeons.

They were all tense. If they failed then any hope for Camelot will be lost. They slowly made their way down the many hallways, hiding behind the pillars whenever they saw the guards walk past. Both Kagome and Merlin stopped suddenly at a large power they were sensing.

"I can sense the Cup's power." Merlin explained to Lancelot when he turned to face him. "This way." Merlin moved towards the direction he felt the cup, pausing when a lone guard entered the room. Lancelot blocked the initial attack and Merlin block the next, before slicing the man causing him to explode.

"What is that?" Lancelot asked staring at the sword in Merlin's hands. It was a finely crafted blade, but it did not look to be anything other than a sword.

"It was forged in a dragon's breath." Merlin told him, like that was going to answer his question.

Noticing his puzzled stare, Kagome took pity on the man. "It is a sword than can kill the undead." She said as she passed the man, following the path that Merlin took. Lancelot decided not to question anymore and followed his two companions.

Merlin stopped along the wall, looking over the edge just enough to see the room lined with guards. Lancelot too looked over, noticing the room full of guards. "What do we do now?" He asked the young wizard. Merlin merely shook his head unsure.

Kagome shook her head as she drew her sword. "Men, never knowing what to do." The two men looked back only to watch as she passed them and entered the room full of guards. The guards all drew their swords and the first two started to attack her. Quickly ducking, she dodged the attack and swept her foot underneath the men causing them to fall. She stood up stabbing a man in the chest with a glowing pink sword. The man on the ground screamed before exploding into pink dust.

Merlin and Lancelot looked at each other in shock then back to the scene before them. They noticed the light glow on Kagome's sword as she started blocking the attacks from the guards. "Hello! A little help here!" Kagome said trying to defend herself. She could feel the shock in their auras, but unless they wanted a dead woman on their hands, they needed to snap out of it.

Noticing the situation the woman was in the two men nodded before charging into the room. They started to push through the group of guards, moving towards the door. Lancelot kicked in the door before ushering the two immortal killing people into the room. Merlin waited until Lancelot was in the room before slamming the wooden door shut and locking it so the guards remaining could not enter.

Both men breathed sighs of relief. Kagome, however, knew that they were not alone. "Guy, we are not done yet." Kagome spoke causing the men to look towards the center of the room. Surrounding the Cup of Life, were at least six men that were quickly drawing their swords.

Lancelot and Kagome charged the group, Merlin staying behind to kill the men they pushed his way. He was not foolish enough to charge into a horde of enemies. He may be able to take one down, but he would never be able to take on more than one at a time.

Lancelot turned slicing a guard only to pull back when pain erupted in his back. Swinging around he tried to fight off the guard, but the wound on his back was making it difficult. Seeing her friend in danger Kagome quickly killed the man she was fighting and sent a blast of purifying energy towards the man attacking Lancelot. As soon as the light hit him screamed out in pain and exploded into pink ash.

The room was now empty. Merlin ran towards the cup, but was stopped when Morgause entered the room, blasting him to the side. "I have a feeling I won't be seeing you again." Morgause told Merlin as he laid on the ground trying to catch his breath.

"Wanna bet." Kagome said grabbing the blonde's hair and yanking it. Morgause screamed, yanking her hair out of the grasp of the woman and turning to face her. "So, you are Kagome?" Morgause asked. Gaius entered the room watching as the two women circled each other.

"Gaius, help Lancelot." Merlin rasped out trying to recover from the pain of hitting the wall.

Kagome and Morgause circled each other, before Morgause flashed her hand out, hoping to send the woman into the wall. Kagome dodge rolled out of the way of the magical blast and jumped up swinging her sword at the woman, catching her in the face just next to her right eye. Morgause screamed in pain as she clutched her bleeding eye.

Merlin noticing that Morgause was distracted, sent a wave of magic, pushing her into one of the pillars and knocking her unconscious. "Merlin, the cup!" Gaius told him pressing a cloth into Lancelot's back to stop the bleeding.

Merlin stood up on shaky feet and picked up Excaliber. Swinging the sword he knock the cup from its pedestal, spilling the blood inside all over the walls. Kagome reached for the cup. Drops of blood remained in the cup, clinging to its walls. They needed to remove the power from the cup to end all the madness. Kagome concentrated on removing the energy and transferring it to the one place it would be safe, inside of her body.

Morgana entered the room and noticed the lack of guards. She was going to tell her the good news, Arthur was in the castle. However, turning towards the room that the cup was stored, she noticed her sister lying on the ground.

"No!" She shouted running up and kneeling before her sister's limp form. Morgana pulled her into her lap, trying desperately to wake her. "No! Sister!"

"It's over, Morgana." Merlin said. He almost felt sorry for her, but the women brought this upon themselves. They had decided to attack Camelot and killed many who lived within it.

Morgana looked up to glare at Merlin. "No, you're wrong. This has just begun!" Morgana looks down at her sister once more. "No. NOOOOO!" Morgana's eyes flash yellow with her magic use and all the windows shatter. The room starts to quake and the ceiling starts to fall on top of the people inside. Merlin grabbed Gaius, while Kagome grabbed Lancelot, they ran out of the room, barely making it out before the whole ceiling fell.

"Uhhh." Lancelot moaned clutching his arm. His back hurt and he was unable to move without crippling pain.

"We need to get him to my chambers, I may still have some herbs there that we can use." Gaius said looking at the man. His wound was deep and would need stitches, he would be lucky if he could ever carry a sword again.

"No need, Gaius." Kagome said as she sheathed her sword. She walled up towards the man and knelt down to look at the wound. It was bad, but she had seen worse. "This might tingle." Kagome warned him as her hand glowed gently over the wound. Slowly the wound started to stitch itself back together.

"There." Kagome said proudly, while standing up.

Lancelot reached back to feel his wound, only to feel skin. Rotating his arm, he noticed that there was no longer any pain, it was as if the wound was never there. "How?"

Merlin smirked. Kagome was truly something. "Kagome has the power to heal wounds." He stated proudly. The though occurred to him. She had been able to kill the dark soldiers. "Kagome, how were you able to kill the guards?"

Everyone glanced at her, waiting for her to speak. "When they became undead they entered into an unholy arrangement. I am a priestess with the power to purify the unholy." She explained. You would think they would learn not to underestimate her. She was full of many different secrets.

"So, you can use magic, as well?" Lancelot asked finally understanding everything.

"Yep!" Kagome said with a smile. He was finally catching on.

Lancelot looked back towards the door of the now collapsed room. "Do you think they are alive?" he hoped that would be the end to the two evil witches, but he had a feeling that it was no the case.

"I have a feeling we will be seeing both of them again." Gaius said sadly. Evil such as Morgana's and Morgause's did not die easily. Suddenly remembering something Gaius turned to face Merlin.

"Merlin, please tell me you still have the cup!" Gaius pleaded with him. They had just managed to end the destruction the two witches caused with the blasted thing, but if they still had the cup it would be all for nothing.

"No, it was still on the floor when we ran from the room." Merlin said his face taking on the same horrified look that Gaius had. "Gaius it is still in the room with Morgana in Morgause."

Kagome started to laugh. Honestly, destroying the cup was one of the reasons she tagged along. All the men looked at her as if she grew a second head. "While you boys were busy talking to the witch, I was able to remove the power from the cup and transfer it into something safer." Kagome told them.

Gaius could not believe what he heard. There was no end to the miracles that this young witch could perform. "What did you transfer it into, Kagome?" Merlin asked, relieved that the power was safe.

"Into me!" Kagome told them. Once again the all three jaws dropped. This woman now had the most powerful source known to man inside her small body. "Do not look at me like that. It is not the first time I have absorbed a powerful artifact." Kagome huffed out.

Really, they had no faith in her.

Kagome watched as Merlin continued to glance out the window onto the now busy city street. It had been several hours since they had restored order to the castle. Gaius had insisted on doing a full physical, stating that, that much power was not good for the body. She knew she could hold a lot of power. Her body was built for it and her soul was too big for any item to consume.

"Where is everyone?" Kagome asked as she walked up to him. The castle was quiet, too quiet to be housing several unruly Knights of the Round Table.

"They went to go get Gwen." Merlin said, turning to face her. "How was your check up?" Part of him did not want to know. Gaius had Kagome lay down with the rest of the injured. He had seen how she interacted with the knights. They all respected her, having heard of her heroic swordsmanship from both Arthur and Lancelot. She would be getting many suitors now, being a woman of age and prestige. He was still a simple manservant.

Kagome huffed in irritation. "Annoying! Gaius ran about every test known to man." He had drawn blood, he tested her refluxes, he even used magic to test her.

"He is just worried you did something that could have caused you harm." Merlin explained. Truthfully, he wanted her on bed rest until they were sure she was fine, but saying that would probably only irritate the woman. "I can understand how he feels."

Kagome turned to look at Merlin, reaching up she pulled his face to look at hers. "What the matter Merlin?"

"Our lives are completely different now." Merlin told her. Arthur would now have to take his place as king, since Uther was not mentally stable to return to the throne. He had never seen the man so devastated.

"How so?" Something was bothering him and he was not opening up to her. Usually he would tell her everything.

"Arthur wants you to help train the knights, so you will be busy with them and" Merlin said spitting out the word knights with a bit more jealousy than he would like. "and I will still be mucking out the stables."

Kagome could not help the smile that crossed her face. She could feel Merlin's jealousy. So… he was worried she would find herself a suitor and marry. Pulling him down, Kagome pressed her lips against his. It was a short innocent kiss, but Merlin felt the Kagome had for him and it overwhelmed him that she could love him this much.

"We are partners remember. We know each other's secrets. We…" Kagome did not get to finish as Merlin pulled her head forwards to press their lip together. Merlin wanted to show Kagome just how much she meant to him. He put his all his passion and love behind the kiss. He wrapped his arms around the woman and pulled her to his chest. One hand weaved its way into her hair to tilt her head slightly.

He lightly bit Kagome's bottom lip causing her to gasp, giving him the opportunity to plunge his tongue into her mouth. Their two tongues battled for dominance, until Kagome finally submitted relaxing into the kiss and enjoying the sensations the young warlock was invoking in her body. Time seemed to stop as the two lovers kissed. The only reason the kiss ended was because they both needed breath.

"Wow." Kagome whispered trying to catch her breath. She gazed into his eyes as her forehead rested against his.

Merlin smiled at the dazed look in her eyes. He was happy he could invoke such and emotion in the young witch. "I love you, Kagome. I want you to promise me that no matter what happen in our future, we will always have each other."

Kagome could hardly breathe. Someone actually loved her for herself and not for anyone else. At that moment, Kagome knew that Midoriko had been right. She belonged here.

"I love you too, Merlin." Kagome told him softly. "I promise that no matter what, I will stay by your side." Merlin kissed her once again putting all the joy he felt into it, before picking up and twirling her. He never felt so amazing in all his life, he felt appreciated something he was starting to believe would never happen.

"Let's go say hello to Gwen." Merlin told her. Grabbing her hand in his, he lead her down the corridor. They had a lot to rebuild, but as long as they were together, they could face any challenge.


Author's note: I have not reviewed the rest of the remaining chapters since I wrote them last summer. I will try to go back through the story and fix up any mistakes.