It occurred to me how very long it takes to read through this fanfic, but you know I salute all of my new fans for managing to stick with it. I suppose it means I must be doing something right! Also I salute all my fans that have stuck with me since the beginning! enjoy!

Artemis hopped down the steps and went to her horse that Col brought forward for her.

"Thanks," she told him.

"What's going on?" Arthur asked approaching them. "I thought I told you that you would be staying here," he told Artemis. She smiled.

"Yeah, but I don't need your permission," she told him. "I'm my own person."

"This is a dangerous quest," he told her. "I don't want you hurt." He put his hand gently on the side of her face. From behind Arthur, Artemis could see Col pretending to gag and choke. She glared, and he stopped.

"I'll be fine," she assured him, "I have Col to watch me." Arthur turned to Col. He raised his hand.

"I did volunteer to be the person to be blamed if something happens to her."

"See," Artemis said pulling herself onto her horse, "you can just blame Col."

"I don't like this," Arthur informed her.

"I know. That's why I find it so fun," she said with a grin. Arthur looked wearily at her before going back to his horse.

"I don't like this," Artemis told Arthur as she hid with the rest of the knights on a cliff looking over a trench like area.

"I know," Arthur said mimicking her earlier. "That's why I find it so fun."

"Haha," she said sarcastically. She waited nervously as Merlin, who was to Artemis's great displeasure bait, ran from the invaders and into the trench. They were trapped.

"On me!" Arthur shouted before he jumped down into the pit and toppled one of the men. The rest of the knights and Artemis followed his lead.

Artemis clapped Merlin on the back with a grin as they walked at Arthur's side after the battle between the invaders. He grinned back.

"Nice job," she told him.

"Not so bad yourself," he told her. She laughed.

"Your Majesty," Agravaine said dragging a prisoner along.

"Ohhh, your majesty," Artemis teased him. He smiled and shook his head.

"Look what we have here," he said.

"He comes with us," Arthur said brushing off the prisoner as nothing, but Artemis froze and tilted her head to the side carefully looking at him. "We'll deal with the prisoners when we get back to Camelot."

"Caerleon," she said. Arthur froze and turned to look at him.

"She is right," Agravaine said grudgingly. He and Artemis did not get along and over the past few months they've made it clear to each other. "Look," Agravaine said ripping off a necklace and handing it to Arthur.

"What is it?" Merlin asked.

"This, Merlin, is the royal crest of Caerleon. Is it not, Your Highness?" Arthur said asking Caerleon.

Artemis walked up to Caerleon and looked down at him. He looked up at her as he was sitting on the ground with his hands and feet bound.

"Caerleon," she said.

"Servant," he replied.

"How could you tell?" she asked.

"Why else would a woman be on the battlefield?" he replied.

"Fair point," she said. "If I'm not mistaken your court's Servant is a Red, so then my question is why did you invade? Knowing them they would advise against this. Most monarchs take what we say to heart."

"Emil is dead," he told her.

"I see," she replied. "Usually, the Servants of the area are informed when a monarch welcomes a new servant into their court. What is the new one's name?"

"Tynan," he replied. Artemis went rigid.

"Of the Black Fraction?" The king nodded.

"Where is he?" she asked sharply.

"You seek him?" Artemis nodded. "If you get me out of this, I'll lead you right to him." Artemis nodded before walking to Arthur who was discussing Caerleon's fate with Agravaine.

This is not the first time he's trespassed on our lands.

"Arthur," Agravaine said in his persuading voice, "your father was a strong king. His enemies feared and respected that strength."

"Are you saying I'm not worthy of that respect?" Arthur questioned. Agravaine was good at backtracking and not faltering even a little. It was unnerving.

"No, sire," he replied, "not at all. There isn't a citizen of Camelot who would not lay down their life for you. But your enemies...to the enemies of Camelot, you are still untested as a king. You must send a clear message that any action against Camelot will be met without mercy."

"Did we not achieve that here today?" Arthur asked him.

"No, sire. Not enough," he told them all the while Artemis wondering what Agravaine would suggest. She hoped it wasn't what she thought. "Not enough to deter the likes of Odin and Bayard and the countless others who covet Camelot's wealth."

"Well, what do you suggest?" Arthur asked

"I suggest," Agravaine said hesitant and attempting to play his cards right. "I suggest that we force him to accept a treaty on our terms. He must withdraw his men from our land, return our territories us. He must surrender Everwick."

"He'd rather die than agree to such terms," Arthur told him.

"Then you are left with no choice," Agravaine said. Artemis ran her hand down his face as Arthur told him that he couldn't kill a man in cold blood.

"Arthur, you must do what you need to do to assert your authority on this land."

"Well, there must be another way," Arthur replied.

"There's no other way," Agravaine attempted to assure him before Artemis butted in.

"Of course there is," she replied stepping in front of the both of them. Agravaine did his best to smile and bare the fact that she was there and going against him. "He can show him mercy."

"These are matters of state," he told her. "This doesn't concern you."

"As a Servant," she informed him, "it more than concerns me. Killing Caerleon will just cause war. Clearly, you've never met or heard of Queen Annis. She's quite a strong, prideful woman. I assure you she will not sit back idly and stand for such a cowardly act."

"If Arthur doesn't show assertiveness now, he will never be respected as King," Agravaine argued.

"This is not the time for violence but mercy," she replied sharply.

"What possible motive could you have for wanting Arthur to show mercy to an invader?" Agravaine asked.

"Besides the fact that I don't want to see Camelot in a war?" she questioned.

"I suspect something else."

"If you must know, Caerleon knows where a wanted killer is," she replied. "I would like to find that man."

"So you would rather have your glory by catching this man than caring about what would become of Camelot," he accused.

"How dare you accuse me of not caring about Camelot," she said dangerously. "I offer this solution above all, because I do care for Camelot. Mercy is the proper choice; it can show strength, and it will show strength. Killing Caerleon will just lead to unwanted consequences."

"It's the only proper demonstration of the fear and respect that the people and their monarchs had for Uther," he said sharply. Their arguing was getting dangerous now as they were in each other's faces.

"Right," she replied dangerously, "because that's exactly what you and the people want: a reincarnation of Uther."

"I have a feeling you don't like me," he told her.

"What you feel for me is mutual," she replied. They glared heatedly at each other. "Mercy is the right path."

"I have to disagree. Attempting to force a-"

"A what? A treaty?" she snapped. "When this land was never the Pendragon's to claim in the first place?"

"Are you saying Arthur shouldn't be King?" he asked trying to turn Arthur on her.

"No," she replied finally backing off. "What is done is done. A generation should try to be better than the last to improve this world. Uther may have been the one who would choose death, but a better one would choose mercy."

"I will," Arthur said interrupting them, "think on both of your suggestions and make my decision tomorrow." They both nodded before they left Arthur alone to think.

The knights, Artemis, and Merlin assembled, and Agravaine presented King Caerleon with the treaty scroll. Artemis stood stiff glaring at Agravaine. It wasn't a pretty look for her, but if looks could kill Agravaine would be dead a hundred times over.

"What is this?" Caerleon asked blatantly ignoring the scroll, so Agravaine handed it to Sir Leon, who opened it. "You expect me to sign this?" he asked disgusted. "To humiliate myself before you?"

"You invaded our kingdom and took what did not belong to you," Agravaine told him.

"And if I do not sign?" Caerleon asked him.

"Then you will pay with your life," he replied simply. Caerleon scoffed.

"And who makes these terms?"

"Arthur Pendragon," Arthur said stepping forward. He seemed quite stoic today. "King of Camelot." Caerleon pushed Leon's arm aside and stepped forward.

"Very well," Caerleon said shoving Percival off. "Then make it quick." He kneeled before him.

"Think what you're doing, Caerleon," Arthur said clearly not wanting to kill him. "This treaty could seal a truce between us. There would be peace. Like there was between your father and mine."

"I am not my father," Caerleon told him. "And you are not Uther. Do you really have the guts to kill me?"

"You leave me no choice," Arthur replied.

"You do not choose anything, boy," he replied back. "It is I who choose to die, and I alone. Now, get on with it." Caerleon bowed his head down to Arthur to give him clear aim at his neck to allow the killing blow.

"So be it," Arthur said. He raised his sword, but Artemis could not allow this. She put herself between the two men forcing Arthur to stop. "Move Artemis," he told her. He was like stone, emotionless.

"Arthur," she told him, "you can't do this. It'll start war. Your people will suffer."

"Move Artemis," he told her ignoring her rebuttal.

"No," she said shaking his head, "not until you see reason."

"Move, or I will banish you." Artemis stared at him coldly before stepping aside.

"He will be at Annis's side," Caerleon told Artemis. She nodded and looked away as Arthur did what he felt he had to.

Artemis didn't talk to him. She was in a fury. Her hands twisted angrily around his reins as they rode in silence back to Camelot. The reins were cutting into her hands as she wrung them around them. Col grabbed her hand to stop her.

"You're going to either give yours a burn or cut of the circulation," he told her. "Stop."

"I can't help it," she muttered ripping her hands from him. She started wringing her hands around the reins again.

"I know you're angry, but self-infliction will not help," he said ripping her hands from the reins again.

"Angry does not begin to describe how I feel," she replied bitterly.

Artemis got off her horse and headed into the castle ignoring the fact that Arthur was calling after her. He followed her into the halls of the castle.

"You can't be angry with me every time I disagree with you!" he shouted at her. Artemis froze.

"I'm not angry," she said sadly. "I'm disappointed." Her words stung him deep. She had always shown him faith and trust, and now she was disappointed. "You did not want to kill him."

"I didn't," he admitted, "but what I want doesn't matter."

"You're king, Arthur," she told him, "and you will never be the king you want to be until you learn that the decisions you make are your own. You shouldn't have killed Caerleon. Not because it was the wrong thing to do. Not because I disagreed with that decision, but because you felt it was the wrong thing to do, but you did it anyway. You were persuaded by Agravaine to overlook your own judgment."

"But he was right," Arthur told her. "My father-"

"It's time you heard the truth, Arthur," she told him finally turning to face him. "Your father was a tyrant. His laws and rules are the result of a man who should have never been king. You want to be like your father? The man that killed hundreds maybe thousands of innocent people? The man that accused your friends and love ones of unspeakable crimes too many times to count? The man that would never let us be? Or maybe you want to be like the man who drove his own daughter to treachery?"

"Do not speak about my father that way," he told her.

"I tell you the truth, Arthur," she told him, "the truth that you turn against. If your father had his way, I would be dead. Merlin would be dead. Gwen would be dead. Gaius would be dead. And you wouldn't have Gwaine or Elyan or Lancelot or Percival. Need I go on?"

"He was a good king," he argued. Artemis shook her head.

"Not in my eyes," she told him, "and if you want to be a king like your father, I want no part of it."

"Artemis," he muttered as she started to walk away. "Please. I won't say I'm sorry, because I'm not, but I just… I'm lost. I don't know how to be king. I'm not ready for this. Please don't turn away from me. I need you beside me." Artemis turned back to him. He looked a bit like a wounded puppy. She ran her fingers through her hair.

"Come here," she told him holding her hand out for him. He walked to her and took her hand in his. She pulled him down to her and kissed him gently. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tight against his chest. "I'm still upset," she muttered to him.

"I know," he muttered kissing the top of her head.

Merlin knocked on Artemis's door. It was 3 days after the incident with Caerleon.

"Enter," Artemis voice said. Merlin stepped in the room to see Artemis sitting with Erus at the table.

"I wasn't aware you had company," Merlin said.

"Arthur doesn't know," she replied. "This is a private meeting that you have interrupted."

"Sorry," he replied.

"No need. You're here for a reason," Artemis replied looking at him.

"You were right. There's an army on the border."

"Annis's I presume," she replied uninterested. Merlin nodded. Erus smiled quite pleased.

"Excellent. Then we shall take such a chance?" she asked writing something down on a piece of parchment.

"It would be the wisest plan of action," Artemis replied.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Erus asked her looking up.

"I need this for me."

"I understand, but the chance of fatality…," Erus muttered. Artemis nodded.

"I've accepted that." Erus nodded and stood.

"Then it's settled," Erus said standing, "when the battle is over that is one it will be proclaimed. I'll see you then." Merlin saw Erus mutter something before she stepped into the fireplace and disappeared in its flames.

"What was that about?" Merlin asked her. Artemis sighed.

"Nothing important," she told him.

"Arthur's angry about it and something else. I'm just not sure what."

"He's king, Merlin," she replied. "He's bound to be more aggressive. Being King isn't easy."

"Neither is being the prat's protection. Do you know how hard it is saving his life without him knowing about my magic? He thinks I'm an idiot."

"Well," she told him with a laugh, "one day he'll look back and realize how many times you saved his life."

"I just want that time to be now," he replied miserably.

"Be patient. It'll happen." Merlin sighed.

"How have you been feeling?" Merlin asked her.

"Uneasy as usual though I'm starting to get used to the lack of sleep I get thanks to Death."

"She's strange," Merlin told her.

"Death?"

"Yes. She just stands at a castle window and stares out as if she's looking for something," he told her. Artemis shrugged.

"She's Death. What were you expecting?" Merlin shrugged.

"I don't know. Not her though," he replied. Artemis nodded. "Will you be there when we have to go against the army?"

"Yes, but… in a different way," she replied. "I have a score to settle." He stared at her and debated asking her what that meant, but decided he would find out soon anyway.

There was a knock on Artemis's door early in the morning as the sun started to rise. Artemis raised an eyebrow wondering who was knocking when she was about to go to sleep.

"Enter," she said. Arthur walked in. "Come to hear me say I told you so?" she questioned, but she meant it in good humor, but Arthur looked like someone had struck him. "I was just kidding. No need to be upset."

"That's not it," he told her gently. "Artemis… please believe me when I say that you've done nothing wrong." Artemis titled her head at him. "And that none of this...has anything to do with you."

"Are you leaving me?" she questioned.

"You have to understand. Things have changed for me. With my father gone, it falls to me to rule this land, and now that I'm king... it's no longer relevant what I may or may not want for myself."

"No I'm afraid I don't understand," she told him.

"My only duty is to the people of this land. I'll be judged by my actions, who I'm seen with."

"You're ashamed to be seen with me?" Artemis snapped angry.

"No," he said shaking his head and having difficulty keeping his composure. "No. But now that I'm king, it's not appropriate for me to be seen with someone like you."

"I'm not appropriate?"

"It seems not," he said mournfully.

"Arthur...," she said standing walking to him, "for the love of Camelot, listen to yourself. You have given so much to be with me, and now it doesn't matter? This doesn't sound like the man I know. You've been talked into this."

"I haven't been talked into anything," Arthur told her. "I'm my own man. I make my own decisions."

"You know what," Artemis said with a sigh holding up her hands in surrender. "Fine. I don't have the time or the patience to deal with this right now. So when you're ready to come back and apologize, I'll be here waiting." Arthur recognized her anger as something she did when she couldn't properly express her sorrow.

"I'm sorry, Artemis," he told her. "It's just the way it has to be." Arthur turned to leave, but Artemis called him back.

"Don't let anyone tell you what to do," she told him. "You said you are your own man. You have a good heart. Be true to it. Only then will you be the king you want to be." Arthur froze for a moment before continuing on. Artemis threw a vase at a wall in anger.

"You're upset," Ava told Artemis as Artemis bounced Kael on her knee.

"Hm," she muttered. Ava stared at her before she changed the subject.

"When are you and Arthur going to have a bunch of brats?" Ava asked jokingly. "You would make a great mother."

"When are you and Everett going to get married?" she teased, but she wasn't quite in the mood for joking.

"Oh, we set a date," she told her.

"Oh?"

"Three months after you and Arthur get married," Ava said with a grin. Artemis frowned. "What?"

"Who knows if Arthur and I will ever get married," she replied.

"But you love him," Ava told her. Artemis sighed before putting Kael down in his crib.

"I'm no simpleton, Ava," she told her. "I'm not appropriate for a king."

"Artemis…," Ava said sympathetically.

"Look at me," she said looking down at her clothes there were not appropriate for any woman: a skirt to short, boots, bare shoulders, dirt on the edge. "I'm not fit to be a queen."

"Just because you don't dress like it doesn't mean that you wouldn't be a great queen. You understand what people need, and you could support Arthur."

"Restriction? Rules? Never being alone? No freedom? Dresses? Feasts? It's not me."

"What happened?" Ava asked her gently. Artemis sighed and threw herself in a chair.

"Arthur… said I was inappropriate," she told her.

"I see," she muttered. "Well, he's wrong, and I'm sure when you give him time… he'll realize that." Artemis sighed.

"We shall see," she replied. "I have to go. Thanks Ava. You cheered me up a bit." Ava nodded as Artemis left.

Artemis strapped her sword to her side. Col watched her.

"What are you doing?" he asked her. She looked up startled.

"You know, Col, some people would find it very rude of you to just watch them get ready. For all I know, you could have been watching me as I dressed."

"Trust me, if I had watched you dressing, you would have known by now," he told her. She raised an eyebrow.

"I'm going to let that go," she told him, "and pretend like you never said anything of the sort." He smiled at her. "Damn red fraction," she told him. He laughed.

"Yeah," he replied laughing. "So what are you doing?"

"Going to the battlefield," she told him. "I have business that needs to be done. Why aren't you with them?"

"Oh, favor to Arthur, watching you," he told her. She nodded before she gestured for him to come to her. He got off the door frame he was leaning on and sauntered to her.

"Do you know how to enchant a fire to port you somewhere?" she asked him.

"Yes. Why?"

"Cause you're going to use it to take us to the meeting place with Erus at the Cave of Telis," she told him dragging him to the fire. He muttered the spell, and they both stepped through. The flames melted the seen around them until they found themselves in front of Erus at the mouth of a cave.

"Col," Erus said coldly.

"Elizabeth," he replied just as cold.

"Enough playing," Artemis said. "Let's go." They walked to the ridge of knights of Camelot stood on watching a single battle fight. Artemis could see Cassandra and Tynan both at Annis's side.

Artemis turned her attention to Arthur who was fighting a rather brutish man. Than man raised the sword as Arthur was on the ground at his mercy. The sword dropped out of the brute's hands into the ground behind him and he froze. Arthur rolled up behind him, grabbed the sword and sliced across brute's back. The giant fell to his knees, and Arthur kicked him down. Arthur was poised to strike. He looked up at his men on the ridge and looked down at his fallen enemy and ran the sword into the ground by the brute's head. Camelot's army bursted out cheering.

"Long live the king! Long live the king! Long live the king! Long live the king! Long live the king!" Artemis walked down the ridge with Erus and Col as Annis and Arthur talked. Annis looked to them. Arthur and Annis walked to them. Cassandra shoved Tynan forward.

"So this is your champion Erus?" Annis asked looking at Artemis.

"Artemis," she told Annis. Annis nodded.

"Tynan, you have committed a wrong against the Servants," Erus said. "It must be paid by those that have been the most wronged. Artemis lost those she considered her family because of you. She lost her teachers, and she died, because you allowed Ambrose to rise. These are the wrongs you committed. If you win this battle, you are free to walk. If you lose, you will be sentenced accordingly. Do you accept these terms?"

"Yes," Tynan replied.

"Good," she replied. "Then let this fight begin." Erus, Annis, and Cassandra stepped away.

"Artemis," Arthur said gently as she stared coldly at Tynan.

"Not now, Arthur," she said bitterly.

"Artemis," he said more sternly. Artemis turned around to snap at him.

"Wha-" He cut her off with a passionate kiss in front of the entire army. The army cheered, and Arthur pulled away.

"Come out of this alive," he told her. She nodded and turned to Tynan, who was ready for her. Artemis unsheathed her sword. The rules of the Servants were clear. No magic in this type of fight though she didn't expect Tynan to follow the rules.

There weapons clashed, and they spoke as they fought.

"Why did you do it?" Artemis asked dodging one of his blows.

"You should know the answer to that," he told her nearly landing a blow on her. "Ambrose stands for what the Black Fraction believes in, that we should rule."

"You were a fool," she told him sharply betting down on him with her sword not letting up, but he could handle it. He took a swipe at her when he had the chance. He managed to swipe across her stomach leaving a slash in her abdomen. She stumbled slightly and held her stomach, but chose to attempt to push back the pain and continue using her full strength as if the wound wasn't there. "He would have said anything to get you on his side," she told him.

"Is she going to come out of this alive?" Arthur asked Cassandra. Cassandra looked up at him.

"Don't worry young Prince," she told him, "your warrior will live but not untouched."

"What do you mean?" he asked watching Artemis dodge a close blow.

"She will be wounded badly," Cassandra said.

"How badly?" Arthur asked in a panic."

"Her right arm will never have full use again after today," she said calmly.

"What?" Arthur shouted at her ready to go throw himself into the fight. Erus held him back.

"You don't want to do that," she told him, "if you interfere both will die instantly as has always been with the Servants. You must stay and hope for the best." Arthur watched in agony.

"I'm a fool?" Tynan asked dodging her well-crafted blow. "Look in the mirror child." He barreled down on her causing her to fall to her knees and hold the actual blade of her sword to hold her ground, but she couldn't take it. He barreled down on her hard and fast and her own sword cut threw her hand causing her to drop it to the ground and for Tynan to drive his sword down cutting muscle and bone between her shoulder and knee. Artemis screamed in agony falling to the ground gripping her shoulder in pain. Tynan turned her over with his foot ready to finish her. Blind pain stopped Artemis from fighting back. "Gwydion used you, Ambrosine," he told her. "He lied to you, and never told you what he should have. Gwydion was going to kill you."

"Lies," she moaned looking up at him as he put his foot on her stomach wound. She screamed in pain. She could her Arthur yelling at her to please get up. She looked over at him in defeat.

"Gwydion never cared for you," he told her. "You," he laughed, "You honestly think he cared? You were and are destined to bring darkness down upon us, and when the time came he was going to drive a sword through you." Something of anger flashed in her and in a flash Artemis knocked out his feet and pulled a dagger from her boot stabbing him multiple times violently. Erus gripped her hand stopping her from stabbing Tynan anymore. She had blood all over her, and she was crying.

"That's enough," she said gently. Artemis dropped the dagger. Arthur helped her up, and she held him and started crying into him rather hard.

"Artemis," he said as he looked at the blood pouring out of her right arm, "you need to be looked at by a physician, love." She clung to him.

"Don't leave me," she whimpered. He nodded gently.

"I won't. I promise." Artemis collapsed in Arthur's arms.