Here you go, and yes, I did procrastinate, sorry. But I hope to get the next chapter up soon since it's one I've been longing to write for a while now. I'm offcially at 80 reviews and that makes me quite happy so thank you to all of you.

Previously: "Of course we're going to get out of here, Arthur. Don't be such a pessimist."

"Merlin?"

Arthur stared as Merlin slowly lifted up his head. His eyes were bloodshot and lines of pain were written all over his face.

"Yes, Arthur, it's me. What, did you think I was dead? You know that it's going to be h-harder than that to get rid of me."

Pain seemed to seep from his very words. His voice was halting and stilted, and every couples of words he would make a small gasping sound. And yet it was Merlin because only he could make jokes after being flogged so severely.

"Merlin! How are you feeling?" Arthur inwardly cursed himself; well, if there was ever a stupid question then you just asked it.

Merlin smiled tightly. "I can say without a doubt that this is more painful than having a nail in my head, although; come to think of it, if I truly had a nail in my head than I wouldn't be alive, which would mean that I wouldn't be in any pain." He was babbling slightly; something that Arthur had noticed that he did either when trying to avoid a certain subject, or when he was dealing with a lot of pain. In this case he wouldn't be surprised if it was both.

Suddenly he placed his feet beneath him and stood up, and in the process he moved his back. A scream was torn from his lips, but it was not the same as the other ones that Arthur had heard come from the small boy.

This scream was hoarse and all around much quieter than the last ones. And it didn't have the same pure and raw agony in it that had shaken Arthur so. But despite all that it was still a horrible scream, which is why Arthur flinched at the sound; he wasn't sure he'd ever be able to hear a scream again, especially from Merlin, without having the same reaction. However, Merlin seemed not to notice Arthur's response to his pain, and little wonder, considering how much he must be suffering.

When Merlin finished the usually quick process of standing up he relaxed in his chains and a few of the lines of pain on his face lessened.

"Why did you do that?" Arthur asked, and then berated himself immediately afterwards; the boy didn't need to be questioned, he needed to be comforted. The only problem was that Arthur sucked at comforting.

Merlin looked tiredly at Arthur, yet he seemed more than eager for a reason to talk about anything. "I don't need the added pressure on my arms, they're already sore, and the position I was in pulled at the muscles in my back. It feels much better to stand up." His words were clipped, as if he was focusing all his energy on not screaming rather than talking.

"Oh," was all that Arthur could say. There was an awkward pause as both of them tried to stuff down unwanted emotions or feelings.

"Look, Merlin, I want to say that I'm…I'm sorry. It's my fault that we're here and it's my fault that you—that this has happened to you."

Merlin stared rather stupidly through half closed eyes at Arthur, as if he couldn't believe what he had heard.

"Arthur," he said slowly, as if talking to a tiny child, or maybe it was just because of the pain; a theory that was only supported by his gasping stutters. "You are not to b-blame for this. I told you that I-I didn't blame you, so you mus-mustn't blame yourself either. The only person to blame is Arcturus, only him."

"What, are you two talking about me?" A shrill and far too childish to be real, voice said.

Both boys once more turned their heads in horror to the psychopath who the voice belonged to. Arthur's horror soon turned to anger, while Merlin's turned into resignation; he knew what was coming and had accepted it.

"You sick, twisted bas—"Arthur began but was interrupted by Arcturus.

"I'd love for us to trade meaningless insults for a while like you and your servant do, but I'm rather on a tight schedule. I have a certain manservant to break." He turned to face Merlin who was glaring defiantly at him. "What about it, mmm, Merlin? Are you willing to tell me what I want to know?" He paused, as if thinking, for a moment.

"I know! I can't expect something for nothing, I have to promise you something first. How about this: you tell me something, anything of Camelot's defenses, anything useful at all and I will give you some food and water. You must be very thirsty after all of that screaming. I will even use my magic, limited though it may be, to heal up your back and relieve the pain. And I promise not to hurt you as long as you cooperate. How does that sound?"

Merlin glared at Arcturus for a moment and then croaked out one, pain-filled word. "No."

He sighed as if he was truly regretful of what he was about to do. "Very well, then. But remember, you brought this on yourself." He raised his hand and pointed the palm at Merlin. Arthur wasn't sure what the man was doing until it was far too late.

"Clæmnes ac ne sceaðennes." Arcturus said and his eyes flashed that eerie shade of gold.

Merlin's back arched forward and his body strained against the chains that were holding him as another hoarse scream issued from him. He writhed and struggled as if trying to get away from some unbearable torment and his voice, which had already been abused as much as the rest of him; strained itself to its limits as the screaming continued.

Forgetting all about his previous conclusion that nothing he did could help the innocent young lad, Arthur once more began yelling and cursing, and even begging again just so that Arcturus would allow the inhuman torture to stop. But it was only after several far too long minutes that he released his spell.

Merlin gasped for breath and sagged in his bonds, his chest heaving and pain in his eyes.

"Please," Arthur begged without thinking twice about it. "Leave Merlin alone. I'll tell you what you want to know, just leave him alone."

Merlin's head shot up and his eyes met Arthur's and the prince could see fear in them. But he knew that it wasn't fear for himself, no, Arthur well remembered his conversation with Gaius; the boy was afraid for Camelot.

"Arthur, no!" he said.

Arcturus merely looked from servant to master and chuckled. "While I am impressed with your loyalty to one another, especially your resistance to pain, Merlin, I had expected you to faint on the fifth stroke, but much to my delight you lasted much longer than that.

"So, while it's all very touching I'm afraid I'm going to have to decline your offer, Arthur. See, I want Merlin to tell me himself. I am just so impressed with him that I shall never have any peace of mind until I break him. Everyone breaks, even him."

"But you're going to kill him before that happens, look at him!" Arthur pleaded.

"I myself came to the same conclusion, so no need to fear, Artie, the spell I'm using doesn't cause any damage, only unbearable pain."

Arthur was really getting desperate by now. "Please, if you have to torture anyone then torture me, Merlin doesn't deserve this."

"Well, I don't need to torture you, Artie, because you have already broken." He gave Arthur a moment for that thought to sink in. "And as for Merlin not deserving this; did the hundreds of innocents that your father slaughtered deserve it? Face it, young prince; there is nothing in this world that is fair."

And with that he turned back to Merlin, who was looking far too content for what was about to happen to him. Arcturus seemed to think so too as he stretched out his hand and said the same words that as last time.

Merlin's body reacted immediately to the spell just as it had before. But Arthur could tell from his hoarse screams that soon, no matter how much pain he was in he wouldn't be able to voice it.

Arcturus continued casting the torture spell on Merlin and each time he did he held them for longer. He kept on given Merlin a chance to "end it all" but the boy simply wouldn't. But each time he was released from the throes of pain he looked that much worse.

After the fifth torture spell had been released Merlin once more sagged in his chains, but this time the defiance was gone from him. Then again, so was everything else. His eyes were unfocused and seemed to travel all around the room with no purpose. His face was pain filled, but other than that it was blank. The boy didn't look aware of anything anymore, and Arthur was beginning to fear that the torture had broken his mind.

When Arcturus asked him if he would tell him what he wanted to know and Merlin didn't reply, the sorcerer looked at Arthur.

"Maybe this will end up killing him after all."

Throughout each and every torture session Merlin could feel his grasp on his magic slipping more and more; and that scared him greatly. He had no idea of what would happen if he lost control of it, he had no idea of who he could hurt.

The torturing spell that the man used wasn't supposed to cause any damage, but it was. Merlin could feel his twisted and foul magic colliding with his own, and, just like with Nimueh, it felt like a poison. His magic was taking a beating, and due to him constantly pushing it back it wasn't fighting off the poisonous magic like it should. Normally his magic would first attack the origin of the threat and then focus on what was inside him, but right now it couldn't do that.

Merlin could feel his magic slipping and his body slipping since in his current state it just couldn't take much more abuse. Soon he knew he would die, or at least go into a coma if he couldn't find some reprieve and extract the evil magic. But he doubted he would get that.

In fact, he nearly did go into a coma and only just managed to pull himself out.

He looked very blearily at his surroundings; Arthur was staring at him with fear and concern written all over his face. While Arcturus just oozed a sadistic pleasure. Merlin realized that he couldn't remember when the last spell had been cut off, I must've blacked out or something, he thought dimly.

His back was screaming in pain from all the thrashing around that he had been doing and his magic pulsed and ached and throbbed. And even though he felt the pain there was a thin wall of numbness separating him from it. As if his tired mind could no longer comprehend it. And in fact, when he had seen the looks on the faces of the only other people in the room it had taken him a full minute to register them. His mind was sluggish, but still didn't stop it from reacting quickly to the next thing that it heard.

Merlin saw Arcturus lean in close and start whispering something to him, and he thought that his ears weren't working properly since the voice sounded distorted.

"You seem not to care about your own life or happiness, Merlin. What you have gone through would make almost anyone break by now. So, since physical torture seems to have no effect on you I have decided to torture your heart instead. You're unfailingly loyal to the prince, so I wonder how you're going to react when I do this."

Merlin mind registered the last bit with perfect clarity and he watched in horror as Arcturus picked up a club and walked over to Arthur. After giving his victim one last sneering grin he turned and bashed Arthur on the head with the club. Arthur went limp in his chains.

Merlin could feel it, his abused body, his tormented and tired mind, his angry and powerful and indignant magic; he could feel them all breaking. And for once Merlin didn't care.

His magic tore out of him, which elicited one final scream from Merlin since his frail body couldn't handle the strength of it. The pain reached an all-time high, much of his magic left him, and darkness covered his vision, and then everything was black.

Don't kill me, I said that I'll update soon with any luck and I meant it. This is the end of the Merlin whump, though, there will be the aftermath of the whump which is almost just as good. I have to go now so I'll see you later.