AN: Thank you for the reviews! I'm so glad that this is being received so well. Of course I wasn't going to kill Arthur and Merlin, not yet anyway! I always mention this when writing a WIP, I progress very slowly as I like to write in detail and try to pace it out so that it makes sense for the most part. Also it's very difficult to sometimes follow the Merlin story line of which Kingdom is where and who rules what, and more importantly which are the five kingdoms. Because there are more than five kingdoms in Albion, so I'm going to mix it up with my own bits and pieces of the Arthurian legends. Now one of the things that I'm going to just make up is where Nemeth is located since it was not disclosed in the show. The rating for the story will go up eventually, so T readers have been forewarned. As always please review and enjoy!

"The stars, the moon, they have all been blown out
You left me in the dark
No dawn, no day, I'm always in this twilight
In the shadow of your heart"

-Cosmic Love by Florence +The Machine

Chapter 3

Once again it felt like a dream, never a nightmare for her life has become so extravagant that something like fleeing from Camelot because she was the queen and the Lady Morgana now a powerful vengeful witch wanted her dead wasn't as surreal as it would've sounded to her years back. Leaving Camelot because she betrayed the only man she's ever truly loved with a man she thought she could have all those normal things a girl could want, consolation prize was confusing for the reason that she didn't know why she had done what she had, but it still wasn't surreal. It occurred to Guinevere that her life was just as ostentatious as it sounded in her head. Nothing about it was normal, nothing about it was calm and stable like a canal, no it was more of a raging river that desired to be part of a great sea.

She was back in the Darkling woods, the cave that once housed Arthur, Merlin, Gaius, her brother and Gwaine now again a safe heaven for her, and those that managed to escape Camelot with them. She sat by the fire watching the frightened looks on the faces of her people. She supposed they had to escape Morgana almost just as many times as she did, but it was harder for them, for they lived in safe cloud that their sovereign provided for them. They had a period of peace and prosperity. She wondered if she was too happy and for that reason she fell into this unbearable despair. Because for a little while she had put Morgana and the evils of the world out of her mind. Her eyes stung with tears which she refused to spill.

"Gwen..." Percival's quiet voice came behind her, as he rounded the fire and took a seat to her right. She looked at him and her lips tired to twitch into a smile to comfort him, for that's what she did, she comforted when there was no room for such things. Her eyes returning to the flames, watching them dance, and burn the wood to glimmering amber. She remembered when she was a child she burned her arm quite badly, she remembered how she sat sobbing quietly for two days as the feeling of the fire was etched to her skin and mind. She burned, and nothing but a cool balm that Gaius prepared her would calm her, even then she could feel the tingling sensation. She was burning now in an eternal flame, her whole being burning as a tribute for Arthur, paying homage so that his soul would reach the after life safely, and this time nothing would soothe her.

"You must eat something..." Percival's voice broke through her musings. She looked at him as he produced an apple and held it out to her, his lip forming to a gentle smile. How contradictory his appearance was to his nature, just as was Morgana's.

Guinevere smiled at him this time, "you must eat as well, and after you've fought so hard, you deserve that more than I." pushing his out stretched hand back to him with the fruit still in his grasp. It was then that Gwaine casually strolled over and plucked the fruit from Percival's hand and sat down to her left, taking his small dagger out. "Gwaine..."

He looked at her so sternly then, that she almost didn't recognize the man. "You must eat, if you worry about who deserves what, then we shall share, but you will eat," with that he began slicing the fruit to pieces handing her a slice, and then another to Percival. They watched her, she looked from the two men to the fruit that now stained her fingers with it's juice, with it's ripeness. She laughed softly, how lucky she was indeed, maybe too lucky, and too loved and for that reason the gods decided that she needed to give some back. She couldn't help the tears that slipped mutely as she took a bite from the sweet fruit.

"Thank you." Was all she could manage as her lungs constricted, and she pushed the bits of the fruit in her mouth down. Even something as simple of eating was becoming painful to her. She found that her mind was consumed with thoughts of Arthur and then Morgana would come crashing through like a black smoke taking over her thoughts.

"We will make it, Gwen. We've done it before, and we will again." Gwaine tried to reassure her, as Percival gave a nod to confirm the words.

"It's not the same this time," she said softly brushing her knuckles against the tears.

That hung in the air as each took from it what it meant. There was no Arthur, no Merlin, no Elyan, no Leon. Lady Luck had forsaken Camelot and this time it truly seemed hopeless. Guinevere recalled the story of the Kingdom of Troy she found in the library a few years back; who would carry the sword of Camelot? Who would be their Aeneas? Where would they go? She looked around the people who were already trying to put the pieces back together. Gaius working for hours to do what he could with what he had to help the injured. Though the grave truth of the matter being that they would lose a fraction of these people to their injuries, to hunger, to bandits, and the biggest possibility, Morgana. They were destitute, and Guinevere knew that alone would cause trouble amongst kin.

"We must try to make it Caerleon," stated Gwaine. "Queen Annis will consider helping us."

Guinevere looked at him then, "we need more than consideration...I fear maybe it is hopeless," she whispered.

"In life you always have a choice, sometimes it's easier to think that you don't," Gaius said as he joined them by the fire, resting his weary feet, his wise eyes looked at his queen. "I remember a young but wise girl once told me that. Now you have a choice to give up and let Morgana prevail or you can be the queen we all know you to be, that we have seen in you and fight." His eyes twinkling with a fire that spoke volumes of his hidden knowledge.

Gwaine smiled as he handed a slice of the apple to Gaius, then looked at her, "we are knights of Camelot, and you her queen, you've already over come so much, what's a little more?"

She suddenly envied their optimism because she was truly lacking it for the first time in her life. She prided herself for always seeing the good in everyone and everything, even the smallest of hopes was enough for her to create a large opening through which the light of that hopefulness could flow through, but now sitting there she felt the coldness that slowly crept within her. She feared it, yet she welcomed it. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth is how Morgana's war started, though her idea of justice was deeply misguided but now Guinevere found herself thinking that perhaps now was the time to adopt this code, for she deserved compensation for every hurt Morgana has caused her. The darkness spread just a little more within her veins.

Gaius knew he didn't always follow the principles that he preached, but he tried to live by them on most occasions. He found that he failed in guiding as much as he succeed, but this moment he truly feared for the woman sitting across from him now. No longer a girl, but even in her womanly state he always saw the innocence that lingered in her eyes, the brightness that guided out the darkness of doubt from the minds of those close to her, but now those eyes were clouding over. The window to her light was closing, he felt the change in her from the moment the news of Arthur's death had spilled from the mouth of squire.

Percival have always been a man of very few words, mostly because growing up he was always out cast. His size always a mockery for the children of the village he grew up in. His own brothers and sisters opting to keeping their distance. He found that he'd much rather be with the horses and going about this life quietly spared him the ridicule he always felt, they thought him to be a brute with no mind. But in Camelot he found a home, a place where he belonged, and the greatest honor that could be bestowed on a commoner of the likes of him. First Lancelot had shown him true kindness, then Arthur gave him true honor and purpose, he found friends, brothers amongst his fellow knights and Merlin, and another gentle soul in Gwen. He understood early on that Lancelot was taken by the small woman who seemed so big, that his reasons for heeding Merlin's call wasn't all just for it was the honorable thing to do, it was for Gwen just as much as it was for Camelot. Percival found himself wonder how such a small thing had so much power, and yet she knew not how much power she had.

She had power even before she came close to being queen of Camelot, no she ruled the hearts of those closest to her, most importantly she ruled the heart of Arthur. But now he saw that power waning as if her soul knew that it had lost it's true strength, Arthur. When Lancelot had returned from death, something was different about him, to this day he knew that the Lancelot that returned was not the man he knew, but his doubts kept him from voicing it, and the simple fact that he wanted his friend back. He could not believe it when Lancelot the noble would do such a thing to hurt Arthur when the very same man had given his life to make sure that Arthur could return to Guinevere. Once again he did not feel that he had a right to voice things that he did not know of well. He realized too late that Guinevere being as gentle as she was also more prone to hurting than them all, but her magic was that she always lived on, she carried on with nobleness.

"We must take back the soldiers given to King Lot, what's left of them." Started Guinevere, "Percival you shall take the people along with Gaius and journey to Caerleon, provide a safe passage. I fear that maybe Edmund did not reach Caerleon in time. Gwaine and I will meet with King Lot, then we shall request all of our allies for their help in taking back Morgana."

"I promised Arthur I would not leave your side," Percival said eyes strong. "I cannot fail to carry that out."

Guinevere reached over to touch his hand, "I am of no matter now, Camelot and it's people are more important, am but one to these hundreds. You must make sure that they make the journey, get as many of them as you can to safe ground."

"Gwen, I fear that I must decline and stay at your side as well. I am an old man but I still have some magic left in me. I can provide some protection." Gaius said softly but almost cryptically, "and you will need a physician."

She looked into the flames once more before speaking, "I am your queen and you shall do as I ask. Percival will lead the refugees west towards Caerleon, Gwaine and I will go east. Gaius you will be needed, and I have watched you enough to take care of the basic necessities of a physician."

"Gwen..."

"We will take back Camelot, and I will kill Morgana." She said almost to herself rather than the three men. She was consumed, Gaius looked to Gwaine who watched the woman beside him. He was angrier now than he was ever before because Morgana managed to break the one person he truly believed could not be broken.

"As you wish, your highness."

TBC

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