Have a Happy New Year everyone!

Ladyofice- I only really hinted what happened to her there in the second last paragraph of the last chapter. Don't worry it becomes obvious in this chapter if you didn't pick it up. I don't think many people did

Jedimasterawesome- Thanks. The Mergana confrontation is over 2500 words long. I hope it's long enough.

Reia- I planned out my ending to this story before the fifth series of Merlin even came out so it'll be very different. I'm sorry but you'll just have to wait and see if Morgana dies or not.

serenityskywalker- I'm pretty sure that Morgana will pay for it sooner or later.

JuniorWoofles- Thanks. I promise you it wasn't planned!

"Have you lost it completely?" Arthur asked Morgana, bemused. Morgana narrowed her eyes at Arthur in fury. Since the Saxons had locked her up and Morgana had restrained anger, it had built up in her. Now Morgana was ready to unleash it and no one would want to be the person she unleashed it on.

"NO I HAVEN'T!" raged Morgana losing it. "YOU ARE JUST TOO IGNORANT AND NAÏVE TO REALISE IT!" Arthur and Merlin, simultaneously, took a large step back from Morgana to give her plenty room to have her tantrum. Morgana was trembling by the time she had finished shouting, emotionally unsteady. Her fists were clenched so tight that her knuckles had gone white.

"Go home Morgana," Merlin softly commanded. "Go home and calm down." This didn't help calm Morgana down and just made the adrenaline run through her body even more. Morgana was both psychologically and physically exhausted but she still had many things to do. Killing Emrys was right at the top of the list with killing Arthur shortly behind it and then killing Alexander. Cutting out Gwaine's tongue was also on the list too but also was telling everyone that she was suffering from applesia.

"I am calm," Morgana quietly said although she was still fuming inside. Every word she said had anger etched into it and was accented. Anyone could tell that she was not calm but stressed and furious. One look from her just now would make most people flee for their lives in terror.

"But Merlin and magic," laughed Arthur. "You can't be serious." Morgana had never looked more serious in her life though the anger was still running through her and making her look more fanatical by the minute. Merlin pushed Arthur back and took a couple of steps forward closer to Morgana. In the distance they could hear battle cries, screaming and swords but in the woods not even a mouse stirred. Every Saxon in King Gremian's escort had been knocked unconscious. Blood splashed out of some of their mouths and a few of them were, no doubt, dead or mortally wounded. Only Morgana, Merlin and Arthur disturbed the quietness of the forest as the birds and wolves had not yet come to feast on the corpses flesh.

"GET BACK!" Merlin growled to Arthur. Arthur gave him a bemused look and took a step forward.

"I am the king, Merlin. You cannot tell me what to do," Arthur argued. Morgana gave him a mere look of contempt making Arthur take a few wary steps backwards. The priestess had a plan so she telepathically summoned Aithusa.

"Give me back the sword," ordered Merlin. "Or else I will kill you" Excalibur was still dripping with blood in Morgana's hands. Morgana now took the time to properly admire its impeccable balance and beauty. Running her fingers from the pommel to the point of the sword, Morgana's fingers became coated in dirt and blood so she cleaned the sword on the ground. Reading the writing on the sword, Morgana was pretty sure that one side read 'Take me up,' and the other 'Cast me away'. Many a time had Morgana heard of tales with swords forged in a Dragon's breath. One stab by the sword would ensure a person's death; there was no cure. With this sword Morgana was sure she could achieve greatness. It would be essential that the sword did not fall back into Arthur's or Emrys's possession as it would do a great evil.

"Are you going to kill me Emrys?" Morgana spat at him. "Admit it, you wouldn't be able to if you tried to." Merlin held his hand up ready for Morgana's incoming attack. She was almost a different person from the Morgana he had talked to in the wood just a few days ago. The warlock should have known that Morgana was dead serious when she said 'This was just a moment of weakness Emrys. Do not expect this much kindness next time I see you.' Morgana's strong will, stubborness and determination was most likely to be the bane of her.

"Nice haircut," Merlin cheekily retorted changing the subject. Morgana glowered at the warlock making him bite his lip. He suddenly regretted bringing up this again. It was clear what had happened. Either Morgana had tried to cut it with a spell and accidentally cursed it off or King Gremian had done something to it. It was very unevenly cut. The longest strands (there was three) trailed down to just below her shoulders and her shortest strands were just below her eyes. The bulk of her hair was cut somewhere between her chin and the bottom of her ears. It still looked as wild as before but Morgana couldn't stand the length of it. No woman had hair this short cut in this time. It just wasn't right.

"SHUT UP!" Morgana yelled her eyes filling with tears. "IT WASN'T MY CHOICE!" Merlin couldn't believe his eyes. Morgana, the witch, was teary because of a mere hair cut. She had been thwarted continuously, on the brink of death several times, lost her sister and all her allies and hadn't become teary. Instead she was becoming teary at getting most of her hair chopped. Merlin just couldn't believe it. He had had his hair really short for his whole life. It had to be a thing only girls would understand.

"But your a witch," Merlin said testing Morgana's self control. He was foolish to do this as the consequences of Morgana being wound up were severe. "A High Priestess should not be able to be outwitted by the stupid Saxons. Your magic should be more powerful than Gremian's brother's magic. Anyway just magically grow it back."

"I can't," Morgana snarled. "It was cut off with a cursed dagger. It means that I will have to wait for it to naturally grow back." Merlin gave a small nod not feeling sympathetic at all towards Morgana. She was worried about her hair. He was worried about his friends, all of them could be dead. To be honest Merlin knew that Morgana's hair had been getting more wilder recently. He didn't know whether he liked it better than when it was just matted and curly. Of course it had been lovely sleek and silky when she been in Camelot. It had been just the right- Merlin cut of his train of thoughts there. Why did he know so much about Morgana's hair? He could feel himself going a deep shade of magenta.

"Your getting flushed, Emrys," hissed Morgana's calm drawling tone. "There's no need to fear death. True, it's an instinct to try and avoid it. Pain is what you should be worried about. My torture methods are the renown for their beautiful pain. You know what a Nathair is don't you Emrys." Merlin had not ever heard of this creature and looked at Morgana in confusion.

"It isn't a horse neighing for air is it," Merlin chuckled. "Neigh-f-air. You can even hear the horse breathing for air in the middle of it. It's only a pity that none of the horse's are neighing." Arthur only heard this as a distant whisper. He was still trying to figure out what was wrong with Morgana. Merlin a sorcerer. What was the point on fabricating a story which was utterly preposterous. Perhaps Gremian's dungeons had deluded her and made her even more deranged than before. He could never even think of Merlin being a sorcerer though. Merlin was just too stupid. No sorcerer could be that clumsy and troublesome.

"I thought you were meant to be the greatest sorcerer of all time Emrys. What a disappointment you are. You are very uneducated and seem to think you have witty charm. You are just arrogant and coc-"

"Please can we finish the lectures, Morgana," Merlin pleaded. "They get rather illuminating once you've heard them a hundred times. You are always telling me about how you are going to kill me like two seconds later yet you never do." Morgana smirked at Merlin's remark, this time it would be different. He was getting far too cocky and arrogant for her liking. Soon he would be dead.

Morgana's eyes flickered gold as she summoned one of the Saxon's sword belts to her and placed the sword forged in the dragon's breath into it. She then murmured a complex enchantment to ensure that Merlin did not try to use magic to unsheathe the deadly sword. Morgana licked her lips longing for Merlin's blood to be spilt, yet she had a feeling inside her which held her back. The witch wanted him dead, that was inevitable, but she didn't seem to want to kill him. Morgana closed her eyes trying to psych herself up for the moment. This just had to be one of her 'weak' moments where she had just lost all hope. Yet, Morgana felt like she wanted him dead. It was just the mere fact that she couldn't kill him that got in her way. She opened her eyes again and narrowed them. This time Morgana could feel the fire igniting inside her and the untameable lion raging. Merlin could tell, by the ominous gleam in Morgana's eyes, that the lion inside her was going to kill him in a split second. He tumbled down onto the forest floor and narrowly avoided Morgana's spell which hit the chestnut tree behind him. Finding it hard to see, as Merlin stumbled up he tripped over a tree root. This gave him a large disadvantage and before he knew it Morgana was using her to throttle him. Chocking loudly, it felt like a hand was throttling him. There was not any hand though so Merlin assumed it must have just been the air throttling him.

"Hleap on bæc," Merlin gasped. He knocked Morgana off her feet with a great force and before he could continue his next attack he heard Arthur screaming-

"I DON'T BELIEVE THIS!" With his shock, tenseness and tiredness, Arthur fainted on the spot. This gave Morgana time to stumble to her feeble feet to continue the fight against Emrys. The witch made a ball of fire appear in her hand and fired it at Emrys. Merlin stumbled to the right, the ball of fire missing him and setting the large tree behind him on fire. Turning around, Merlin sent Arthur flying back away from the brazen tree. Sooner or later the tree would collapse so it was better to get Arthur too safety hastily. It was fortunate Merlin did too as two seconds later Morgana's eyes flashed gold making the alight tree fall down. Merlin darted away from the falling tree and threw Morgana back yet again. Unluckily, Morgana landed in the pool of scarlet blood seeping out of King Gremian. She was now completely drenched in blood and grime. Blood, stung her eyes and dripped from her lips. Morgana hated the metallic flavour of blood that she could taste, it was revolting. Her eyes were half shut due to them stinging painfully. She made to wipe them with her blood covered hands but was interrupted by Emrys handing her his blue scarf. Hastily, Morgana wiped her eyes to witness Merlin standing over her and unsheathing the magical sword. As Morgana cowered back to the tree, Merlin pointed Excalibur to her heart.

"Look who's won the fight, Morgana," Merlin growled. Morgana flinched and tried to cower back even more although it was not possible as the tree was in the way. "Looks like its your turn to get a lecture now." Morgana's heart was pounding against her ribcage. This could not be about to happen yet it was real and vivid. She should have remembered the Calleach saying 'He is your destiny and he is your doom' more often. Morgana had tried to hide from her destiny. She had tried to deny that destiny wasn't set in the stone. Of course Morgana's destiny had been written since before the dawn of time and she had been naïve to think not enough of it. Morgana knew she should have killed Emrys when she had the chance. It just never seemed to work out right. The priestess was always thwarted by Emrys. She had never been a good loser. Even if it had been a small game with Arthur she had still detested losing it. Morgana must or not changed much since those small games as she was fuming at being thwarted by Emrys yet again.

"Well at least I am not scared of dying," Morgana taunted. "You may be powerful but you are a coward." Merlin placed the tip of Excalibur on Morgana's neck drawing a small bead of her scarlet blood. Tipping her head back, Morgana exposed the whole of her neck to him. It made her feel incredibly vulnerable. "Go on then, Emrys. Kill me."

"You've got a lot of nerve considering I've got a sword forged in the dragon's breath pointing at neck," Merlin said. Morgana didn't react to this immediately as she could feel droplets of her blood trickling out of the small cut. The small cut wasn't enough mortally wound her but she could feel the sword ominously against her neck.

"If I didn't have this much nerve than I would have been dead long ago," Morgana stated. "Everyday I have fight for my very survival. It's not easy." Merlin frowned. He hadn't really thought that Morgana would have to fight for her survival with the power she possessed. Imaging himself in Morgana's position wasn't easy for Merlin. The warlock supposed that Morgana would have to be extremely cautious about she slept. Someone could easily slit her throat in the middle of the night or capture her considering everyone in the whole of Albion was looking for her. Gremian had put a large price over her head and people expected to get a reward from Arthur from imprisoning his dangerous half sister. Poor people would do anything to get their hands on gold even of it meant putting their life on the line. Other people hunted Morgana down just to slaughter her avenging the deaths of people Morgana had indirectly killed. If she became unwell, lost her magic, made a foolish decision then her death was quite a certainty. Today she had made an extremely foolish decision and would pay with her life.

"I blame myself for what you've become," Merlin admitted. "This cannot go on though. You have killed numerous innocent people. This has to stop or I'll make it."

"Get on with then," Morgana whispered dangerously. "You've done it plenty of times before, Emrys." Merlin hands trembled on Excalibur drawing yet more blood from Morgana. The priestess just silkily laughed at him. The greatest warlock ever was afraid of killing her yet he managed to kill anyone else without thought. Perhaps this was what prevented him from killing her. Merlin was thinking too much about it. This and the sheer reason that him and Morgana used to be friends was what made him not want to kill her. It pained him more than he cared to admit it.

"I don't want to, Morgana," protested Merlin. "You leave me no choice." Morgana's breathing rate was increasing and she now felt like her heart was going to explode. The priestess was so terrified that she was beginning to feel faint and nauseous. Her face was incredibly pale but the blood and grime hid the pallidness. Morgana successfully hid her fearfulness from Merlin, she had had enough practise of this. Merlin pulled up Excalibur, not noticing how petrified his victim was, ready to strike Morgana. Morgana tried to advert her gaze from the sword but she couldn't. A few droplets of blood were still on the sword gleaming in the moonlight. The sword was truly captivating. Morgana hated how a weapon with such beauty was going to be the bane. Shutting her eyes, Morgana waited for the sword to plunge through her flesh. She waited for herself to start writhing in pain and burning her throat with her painful shrieks. Morgana was ready to confront her destiny and doom.

...

"WHAT'S HAPPENING?" Percival roared to Elyan. The duo were occupied by striking down Saxons and protecting the inhabitants of Camelot. Percival could tell that something was going wrong, more and more Saxons were climbing up the ladders and ambushing them. At first the soldiers of Camelot had an advantage but now, due to the heavy losses they had sustained, the Saxons were pushing them back. More and more of the Camelot soldiers were being slaughtered every minute.

"ARTHUR AND ALL HIS CAVALRY HAVE VANISHED!" Elyan screamed in response. "WE NEED TO TELL EVERYBODY WHO REMAINED IN CAMELOT TO FLEE THE CITY! WE CANNOT WIN!" Both Elyan and Percival stabbed a few Saxons before turning around and fleeing from the battle to warn the people to leave. Some of the citizens of Camelot had chosen to leave the city before the war but others had remained behind scared that they would run into the murderous Saxons.

Once the two knights had managed to get away from the fighting, Elyan put his hand to his leg and it was instantly covered with blood. Percival, concerned, looked at his friend. Elyan's leg was lacerated and blood was leaking out of it. He tried to not pay attention to it but he knew that the wound was deep as the blood kept on pouring out of him. Percival put arm round his fellow knight and helped him limp inside the castle to the chamber where Gaius was busy helping the wounded. There was a lot of wounded soldiers and many of them were dying as some as they got taken in.

"Gaius," Percival called. The busy physician looked up and ambled to the knights. He immediately saw Elyan's wounded leg "The Saxons have won. Arthur and his cavalry have vanished so you need to flee. Our soldiers outside can perhaps hold the Saxons back for twenty more minutes but if they start routing then you might have less than ten minutes. I need to go and warn everybody else." With this, Percival swiftly sprinted off not giving Gaius or Elyan a chance to get a word in edge wise. Hastily, Gaius began to bandage Elyan's leg.

"Give me something to help with the pain Gaius," Elyan said with great agony. "I've got a plan which could bide you several more minutes."

"It's just a simple pain killer," Gaius explained handing Elyan over a bottle with a musty coloured liquid in it. "Juice from the bark of the willow tree, lungwort, honey and a few other common herbs. It's simple but effective." Elyan gratefully downed the potion in one. It had a rather peculiar taste of liquidated petals and leaves. It was quite disgusting especially the after taste. "Good luck!" Patting the Elyan's back, Gaius began to gather his things up and tend to some of his patients wounds.

Elyan hurriedly jogged (it was more of a hop skip) out of the temporary infirmary. His leg was in agonising pain but he kept on running to the armoury. When Elyan arrived there, he quickly began to rake through Arthur's own weapons and armour. All the weapons and armour had been put to use except from the king's show armour which he often wore in tournaments. He took off all of his own armour and began to put on Arthur's show armour. It was too big on him but Elyan managed to put it all on. He then put on the king's sumptuous helmet and cape. Lastly, Elyan took out Arthur's second favourite sword and placed it in his sheath. For once in his life Elyan felt truly regal. It was all a lie but by doing this he was going to save many lives. Taking in a deep breath, Elyan ran to the stables too see what horse's were there. Only four horses had been left in the stables and all of them were left there for a good reason. One of them was a heavily pregnant mare and rest of the horses were young had not been trained yet. Elyan suspected that only one of the young horses would be able to carry him. He barely expected to be able to control this young colt but tacked it up anyway. The horse seemed to be used to the tack and let Elyan gently slip the bridle on it and do up the girth of the saddle. The knight then soothingly led the colt out to behind the battle deciding to only get on the horse when it was necessary. It only took minutes for the Camelot soldiers to start routing signalling for Elyan to mount the inexperienced horse. The colt didn't seem too uneasy about this either but Elyan was sure that it would change soon. The horse was terrified by the Saxons running towards them and Elyan just managed to keep it on the spot. A few arrows soared past and spooked the horse. The colt reared and Elyan clutched onto it's mane for dear life.

"I am the mighty King Arthur," Elyan roared. "I demand that you show me some respect." For a moment all the Saxons were struck immobile by this news. Then Elyan's colt bolted and all the Saxons ran after him instead of capturing the castle. Keeping low in the saddle, Elyan wrapped his hands round the colt's neck. There was no point on trying to control the horse now. It probably didn't even know what half the commands meant. They were soon soaring around the streets of Camelot that Elyan knew like the back of his hand. The Saxons were still hunting Elyan down, determined to get the reward for killing the 'King of Camelot'. Arrows soared passed Elyan scarcely missing his head.

"Oh great!" Elyan gasped. They were approaching a large market stand which usually held fruit and the colt obviously going try a jump it. The queen's brother held onto the colt even tighter. This was going to be the ultimate test of balance, strength and courage. Elyan managed to balance on the horse when they soared through the air over the fruit stand but the impact of hitting the ground unbalanced him. Now Elyan was hanging off the horse with one foot in it's stirrup and his arms wrapped round the horse's neck. He just had the strength to haul his body back onto the colt's flank. The knight was becoming exhausted and his leg felt like it should be falling off. He doubted he could keep this up for much longer but he didn't need to. Soon one of the Saxon's arrows hit the horse's hock. Although the colt was lame it continued to gallop onwards. Once that arrow had hit its target, more and more kept on coming until seven arrows had hit the colt in total. The exhausted horse then collapsed with Elyan cracking his skull off the stone ground. Hot blood gushed out of his head and Elyan became paler as the blood drained out of him.

"I did it," he murmured to himself as the world began to fade around. As the world faded around him, the pain abated too. On that very minute, Elyan thought of Gwen. Her sister had raised him and taught him well. He was proud to a loyal knight of Camelot until the very end.

...

"Morgana, get up," a voice from somewhere said. Morgana still had her eyes sealed closed waiting for Excalibur to pierce her. Warily she opened her eyes. Her faithful Aithusa was there clutching Excalibur in her mouth and Emrys was stirring several feet away from them. Watching Emrys's every move, Morgana clambered onto Aithusa's scaly back. With this Aithusa spread out her wings and soared into the air with Morgana on her back.

"Let us go to the Saxon fortress and burn it too smithereens," Morgana spat. Aithusa took a turning and soon they were heading for the castle which Morgana associated with pain, fear and torture. She longed to never see it again. She knew that burning it down would be a joy though. It only took the witch and her dragon half an hour reach the fortress. Together they flew around the fortress, Aithusa breathing fire at it and Morgana using her magic to set it alight as well. Soon the whole fortress was in flame and Aithusa landed not too away from it so Morgana could watch it burning in the near distance. Morgana rejoiced as the fortress and Saxons were lost in the flames. She did not regret in the slightest. That place was filled with filth and pain. Morgana even hoped that Gremian's sorcerer brother too.

"Morgana are you all right?" Morgana looked to the left to see Mordred approaching. She had been so immersed in watching the fortress burning down that she hadn't been paying attention to what was going on around her. That was another grave mistake that she had made today and it could have cost Morgana her life.

Slowly Morgana looked down at her filthy hands which were caked in Gremian's dried blood. Her dress was still damp and drenched in his scarlet blood. She was pretty sure that her short had his clotted blood in it too. When Morgana licked her lips she could still taste the metallic flavour of blood. No wonder Mordred was concerned about. Morgana looked like she had been in the wars which was true.

"I'm fine," Morgana assured him. Then she just noticed a man standing behind him. She recognised him although she hadn't seen him in years. "Alvarr?"

"Tell her the truth," Mordred ordered. "There should be no more lies or deceit between the three of us."

"I'm sorry Morgana," Alvarr wept, tears streaming down his face. As he drew closer, Morgana noticed that Alvarr had huge black bags underneath his eyes and had lost a lot of weight. "I am Gremian's half brother. I made you go through everything. I am really sorry but I guessed he was just controlling me. I've never been so sorry for everything."

"NOOOOOO!" Morgana yelled taking a step back from him. "RUN! SAVE YOURSELF AITHUSA!" Morgana had no energy to fight Alvarr although she was desperate to kill him. As Aithusa spread her wings, Morgana began to flee too. She didn't want to be with such company. Mordred had seemingly betrayed her again. She had no clue where she was going so the witch just ran and ran and ran. When Morgana began to tire her eyes drooped until she ran into someone. A rather regal person too.

"WHAT DO YOU WANT!" Morgana roared fading out. She was exhausted and her muscles were feeble. Morgana collapsed again and everything became black.