Well, it seems that all of you not only like the last couple of chapters that I have posted but you also want me to keep writing, and so I have. It might've been all of your reviews, or maybe the material in this chapter was just easier to write, I don't know, all I know is that I am once again enjoying my own writing. Though, perhaps everything I like you will all hate since I hate everything you guys seem to like. Let's hope not 'cause I really want you guys to like this chapter. There are two bits in this chapter that you have to read moderately quickly otherwise they will seem like crud, so I hope you guys can find those two and read them accordingly.

Wow, I have reached over a hundred reviews, (I know that this was the case last time but I forgot to mention it,) thank you all of you. This is so brillaint. You have no idea how happy I am with this. And I have even more alerts to this story than I have reviews, which means that you all want to continue reading. Thank you so much for all the support, I would not have gotten even remotely this far without it. I hope that you all continue loving it and so I'm going to let you do that now.

And just like that everything came crashing down around Arthur. Merlin was dying. Arthur couldn't hear anything else that Gaius said, because he didn't want to. Unless he told him that Merlin was going to be alright, which he couldn't, then Arthur didn't want to hear. But two words did penetrate the wall of numbness in his mind. Words that he could not reply to because the answer was the reason for all of this. And Arthur, after all he had been through, simply couldn't take it.

Gaius didn't miss the look of total despair that crossed Arthur's face, but he continued talking in the hopes that the idea of being able to help Merlin might pull him out of it. And maybe, just maybe, he could find out who or what had done this to his ward.

He pulled the prince down and had him sit on a stool as he inspected his head. He cleaned away the blood and began to look at the damage, all the while talking to Arthur. But nothing seemed to have an impact on him except one question, but unfortunately the only reaction he gave was to flinch.

"What happened?" The look of blankness and emptiness continued only he seemed to withdraw deeper into himself, as if the question had burned him.

Just then the door to his chambers opened and Morgana stepped through. "Apparently Merlin was tortured by the pathetic excuse for a human that is currently occupying one of the cells." She walked over and pulled Gaius a short ways away from Arthur. "I don't think he's capable of answering any of your questions right now, Gaius. Give him some time and rest. And I don't doubt that some food would do him some good as well.

"I know you want to know exactly what happened so you can help Merlin, but you didn't hear Arthur in the throne room; I think that all of this has had a greater effect on him then we realize. Arthur may be a prat like Merlin says, but with that boy's help he is learning to care for others, and I think that right now he is seeing the consequences of that. Give him time. I don't think that there is much you can do for him at this moment. Later he will need your wisdom and help. Later he can help Merlin."

Gaius looked rather fondly at Morgana. She may be rude and fiery at times, but whenever her help or clarity of thought is needed she always gives out good advice. "You're right, Morgana. Here," he turned behind him and picked up a small bottle he had prepared for her earlier in the day. "To help you sleep, I know you're running out."

She smiled. "Thank you, Gaius." She turned to her maid who was now looking up at her. "Gwen, take care of Merlin; he needs your help far more than I do. I can take care of myself tonight and any other morning or night until Merlin is better." She turned back to Gaius. "Because I know he will get better. I've never known you or Arthur, or even Merlin for that matter, to give up on something important to you."

And then she left; knowing that she had done her part.

Gaius went back over to Arthur. He seemed to be coming out of whatever trance he had been in enough to form a few words.

"Um, I need to go, Gaius, look-look after Merlin." And then he was gone; moving as if in a dream back to his chambers.

Arthur walked without really knowing where he was going. The numbness that had protected him from the world seemed to be incapable to protect him from his own dark thoughts. And in a desperate attempt to rid himself of them he had left the physician's chambers in the hopes that not being near Merlin; the object of all that he was feeling, would alleviate all that was going on in his mind. Unfortunately, as he walked the muddled thoughts and images only seemed to get worse. Without even realizing it he entered his room and sunk down on his bed, clutching his head in his hands as he did so.

Pictures and memories reeled in his head, thoughts soared and random, and the voices of both the people he cared for and those that had hurt them plagued his mind.

"He's lost a lot of blood and I'm doing all I can for that as well, which unfortunately isn't much."

Arthur saw Merlin lying on the ground choking from the poison he had drunk. "Because it is a gift. Everyone does it; everyone dies, it's natural, no…it's a blessing. Death is the ultimate goal."

Merlin, who had done so much for him, who had been really the only one who had properly stood up to him and told him he wouldn't let him bully innocents, who had always put everyone before himself, had been tortured so badly. Arthur didn't understand; why would he do that? Why would he give so much to a master who didn't deserve it?

Merlin looking so pale and thin when he had been poisoned and now when he had been tortured. "You had to get used to not eating sometimes."

Arthur saw all of the parallels. And all of the differences.

"She pretended to be someone in need of help, but she was, in fact, a sorceress." He saw the sorcerer lying on the ground; fooling them both into believing that he was injured and harmless. Well, Merlin knew. He may not have known right away but the boy had known and had told Arthur. But he hadn't listened.

"Because his life's worthless?"

"No, because it's worth less than yours."

His father not even caring that a good person had been harmed, just that his son learned a valuable life lesson.

"Anyway, what I meant by that was…was that if you did practice magic then saving me would be exactly the type of thing you'd do. After all, it would have to be someone like you who'd use magic to save a Pendragon's life."

The look in Merlin's eyes as Arthur had tried to protect him, and had even tried to get himself tortured in his stead. He saw the strange light in the cave, and the mysterious way that the knights had found them.

"I suppose that what I'm trying to say is that…I will always try to be there for you to get you out of any messes."

"That's a promise."

"There's something about you, Merlin. Can't quite put my finger on it."

Arthur saw and heard merlin screaming, and felt the overwhelming need to never hear that sound again. Remembered the cold and dampness of the cell they had been in and wondered on their way back to Camelot why the boy hadn't frozen to death already, especially considering his blood-loss. He remembered looking down at Merlin's wrists and seeing the same white bandages that were on him and how he couldn't believe that the boy had thrashed around in agony; hoping to be free of its grasp, and yet had still not broken.

Ever since he had woken up in the dungeon with Leon standing over him he had refused to really, properly look at his servant because he knew that he couldn't handle it. But now his mind recalled all the images he hadn't allowed himself to think about and unleashed them with full force.

His head ached with the weight of all of the images of Merlin thin, Merlin too weak to stand, pale, bleeding, in pain, unconscious. Arthur had felt his mind fraying at the edges before and now he could feel it unraveling altogether.

"Merlin is going to die."

"You see, it's really all your fault, well, yours and Artie's here." Arthur's fault that this had happened to Merlin.

Those deep lacerations in Merlin's back. The scars from when he had been whipped before. The symbol of the Morteus flower on his chest.

When he had told Merlin of his secret opinions about that light and how good it had felt to share them with the boy; how it hadn't felt right to keep anything from him before. "That's the mark of a true friend."

"Merlin is going to die."

"I told you I would make you scream."

Merlin screaming; his back arching in unbearable pain. His life's blood escaping his body through the many horrible wounds on his back.

Merlin lying on the forest floor unable to stand because he was so exhausted.

The deep circles under Merlin's eyes, the whip flying through the air and landing hard on his small back.

Gaius' voice, "I wish to ask a favor of you….look out for Merlin…he doesn't have much sense of self-preservation… And I believe that it is that same kindness and purity of heart that will get him into trouble…the boy has no thought for himself…"

Arthur's naïve reply, "If I can't protect one measly servant then who can I protect?... I will keep him safe."

Merlin lying on a bed shivering and dying a horrible, painful death from the inside out as a poison destroyed him.

And then Arthur saw it; that moment when Gaius looked at him and told him what he had hoped to never hear again.

"Merlin is going to die."

Unbeknownst to him, a few silent tears escaped Arthur's eyes. His head hurt so much and everything seemed so dark. His body had been through too much; he hadn't slept much, he hadn't eaten in over twenty-four hours, his mental, and physical and emotional limits had long since been reached—much like Merlin's had back in that cell—and Arthur's body finally shut down. He fell back onto his bed and was asleep in an instant. The sleep was a sweet and dreamless one; something that he wouldn't have again for a long while.

And as his body and mind recuperated and prepared itself for the next day, a single thought echoed in the comforting blackness, actually, it was more like a wish.

Merlin, come back.

Though Arthur was getting a well-deserved rest others in the castle weren't so fortunate. Gaius and Gwen stayed up all night tending to Merlin, who with every passing second seemed to be slipping further and further away, and didn't even once think about sleeping.

Uther was troubled by a terrifying thought and for that reason didn't get much rest at all.

The knights, who all in their own ways cared about Merlin—especially Leon—were too busy worrying and praying that their favorite servant that Arthur had had yet would be all right. He just couldn't die; life would be far less cheery without him.

The servants and one particularly motherly cook had heard by now of their friend's rapidly declining health and therefore they all were trying to think of ways that they could help that silly boy; so none of them got much sleep either.

But perhaps the person who had the most disturbing night was someone who would one day become like the very person who had tortured Merlin. Morgana, despite the new and improved potion that Gaius had given her, had a most horrible dream, a dream that scared her as a friend of Merlin's, as a person, and as the king's ward.

In the dream, or vision as it would later be known as, Morgana saw many things. This nightmare was much clearer than her others and much longer.

She saw Merlin lying on a forest floor and he was bleeding with a very distressed Arthur holding him. Then she saw Arthur standing in one of the many castle cells with a beat up and smiling man in front of him. She saw an orb of blue and golden and white light. She saw Merlin convulsing and thrashing around on the patients' bed. She saw a knife floating through the air. She saw Merlin staring up at the sky as a horrible great sound came from his mouth; an in human sound. She saw a pile of gold. She saw a hideous oozing black substance. She saw powerful and menacing storm clouds making their way towards Camelot. She saw a giant dragon land in a clearing and breathe on an unconscious Merlin. She saw a beautiful and dazzling light spread across a battlefield wrought with carnage. She saw a cave made out of black stones which reflected painful and despairing images. And she heard a powerful dragon roar.

She sat up in her bed gasping loudly; clutching her blankets in an effort to latch herself onto this world. When she calmed down a bit she looked out her window, but instead of seeing Camelot she saw all the pictures in her dreams. She knew without even having to think about it that some of the things that she had seen would not come to pass for a long while. So the frightening question was; why did she see them now?

Yeah, I know, no Merlin yet, I am truly sorry for this but I still have some things that I need to get done in this story before we can have some more of him. I seem to be adding more chapters all the time; what up with that?

So yes, some of the things in Morgana's nightmare are from future stories in this 'verse , I thought I would be nice and give you a glimpse of them. Nothing in her dream was from earlier on in the story or show and I did not show you anything from the future of the show. It's all things that I am planning. One of my reviewers has mentioned that there has been some unfair bashing of Uther and I totally agree. Even before that review I was planning on giving you guys a glimpse of his side of things. In fact, we got some of his POV coming up, so look forward to that. See ya later...