Nimueh appeared in a deserted corridor in the nearly unused east wing and sent a whispered 'Hello' to the traitor they'd trusted, Gaius the hypocrite, the healer who let so many die. She strode toward him her shoes loud on the old stone, echoing further than natural.
Gaius froze. The voice he'd thought gone forever wove through his old mind and he just stood. He moved again after a minute of shock, of rational fear. He walked away from the impromptu infirmary toward where he knew she'd find him. He didn't let the thought of his death scare him because he knew that compared to most people he had lived too long. Too many regrets weighed him and he'd thought that they were more to come but apparently not. He stopped that line of thought because falling into despair wouldn't help and then, then she was there.
"Hello, Gaius. Time we had it out, don't you think? The betrayed and the traitor." She said vindictive joy flooding her pale eyes at the opportunity to finally tell him what he was. "You sent your own friends to their deaths. Gregor, Jaden, We all thought you could protect people but all you did was for people you liked, things that were good for you. Now you're old and I am not. I have power but anything the Old Religion gifted you fled with your actions. I trusted you to temper the storm and you didn't. Now you've lost your almost son. He's watching this, you know. I can feel him. He's in my mind and Morgana's and my son's and Vivienne's and your precious ward, he's laughing. Laughing with us." She exclaimed all the anger and outrage that had boiled for twenty three years spilling out as she stood in front of the old man. Gaius just stood in front of her his face impassive and said "I have many regrets but turning over the corrupted and growing old and saving civilian lives for twenty three years are not among them." A small laugh burst from Nimueh "Liar! I saw it on your face! Those screams, Jaden's tears, little Edwin's anguish, they haunt you. You're haunted by the past, by what you've done in your too long life. Just like me." She said her voice nearly failing her. Her eyes gleamed with unshed tears and anger and so much more."You didn't know...Jaden was with child. She told me before she died and she burnt. That innocent child never to be born because you handed them over!" she said more anger and sadness directed at the old man than there'd ever been for Uther. Gaius couldn't speak; he thought of Jaden's anguished screams, of her eyes fighting through the smoke for him, for her child, the words every sorcerer in the city heard 'My child!'. He'd thought she meant the agonised little boy running through the flames, he'd never considered the idea of a tiny little child floating, waiting for light and getting oblivion. He pulled himself from the thoughts of fire and pain and saw Nimuehs mad looking eyes morph to a terrible gold. He did not cry out as he was flung against a wall. His eyes closed and he saw a little girl screaming on a pyre. Then Gaius the traitor saw no more.
Gwaines body strode through the fight moving as he screamed at it to stop. He saw Lancelot thrown through a building, Percival fighting Nimueh and Gwen stared in horror out of a window. He screamed with no mouth and couldn't stop. He cut down the bar owner and then that thing that had made him move fled. He fell to the floor and felt something different in his head. His eyes were closed but he could see Merlins face smiling, properly smiling then the warm smile changed. It morphed into the one that had plagued his dreams since he had fought his friend and the joy and hope that had sprung in him vanished like a carpet pulled from under him. He heard Emrys talk to him but he didn't know what he was saying. The presence left him but he could still see the glittering black opals in his mind.
Arthur was fighting for his life against Mordred. He'd thought the child to be a good druid, albeit an unnerving one. Now he was jumping out of the way of the flames the smiling boy sent toward him. He saw the blue eyes far too like Merlins flash amber almost lazily and whilst he dodged realized what was bugging him. Mordred wasn't trying to kill him. If that was what he wanted to do he already would be a charred corpse. 'Great imagery, idiot. Do you want to think about that right now?' thought a small part of his brain with an all too familiar voice. However the rest of his brain just replied 'Shut up! Life or Death here!' and carried on with the sideways roll he'd been forced to deploy. Then he just stood still in front of the little boy and waited for the death blow. All he saw was a smile and emotionless blue eyes then he wasn't in the courtyard. He was in the dungeons then the throne room then the lower town. Shocked faces stared at him and went to rescue him but Mordred screamed. Ice settled upon the closest bodies and all the warmth was sucked from around him. Frost formed in the clothes and his eyelashes were covered with snowflakes. He wanted to get to his sword but he couldn't move. Mordred sent a mocking nod toward him and slipped between the ice statues surrounding them.
Emrys and Morgana stood together in the clearing staring at the burning town beneath them. They saw Mordred's ice circle and Nimuehs fire bursts and then the beast who'd betrayed them once too much landed in front of them, his unease obvious on his face. "I came, Emrys, for my vengeance. We leave now." He said all his riddles and cryptic codes stripped bare. "See you there, kin." Emrys replied, mocking the powerless creature. Kilgarrah bowed at the smirking pair and flew off to where he must go. He knew they were going to do something, and knew that nothing would take Emrys off this path. His last kin truly cared for no one except perhaps the witch and even there he wasn't sure. And his uncertainty irked him, because, being unsure, could well be his undoing.
Vivienne drifted in front of the King cowering on the throne. She said nothing, just staring at him. She brought up memories of the dead children, dying friends, her sister into being. They screamed, pleading for him to stop, cursing him, and he shook in his royal splendour, the madman who too often heard truth as treason. Then she felt her daughter and Emrys arrive and she smirked at the wild eyed King. She pulled herself back to her body and entered the destroyed town. Scáths and the possessed fought without noise. Men in Camelot regalia were retreating to the courtyard, fear obvious in there every step, treading over old friends. She looked around, pleased but unsurprised, to see only Camelot casualties. She strode through the advancing Scáths and smiled at the bewildered fighters. To see someone living come from that side could only make the fight harder they reasoned but she had disappeared by the time they'd begun to attack, the darkness she'd summoned had descended and they saw no more.