AN: Well, the end is in sight. Not this chapter, because I need to toy with your emotions some more! (2-3 more and an epilogue to follow)

Thank you for all the reviews, favs and followers! 491 reviews on ffnet as of this posting! *squeals in delight* I love you guys!

Thanks to Nance, as always for beta reading and HoC chat for putting up with me, especially Sarajm who has really been a sounding block for the last few chapters.

Gwaine felt his brains rattle in his skull as he was suddenly dropped to the ground. He grasped at his throat, which was finally free of the telekinetic grip of the Doci. Floundering for his rifle, he pushed through the dots that swam through his vision.

He brought up the gun and aimed it where the Prior had been, only to find the space empty.

A hand grabbed Gwaine's arm, and the former Marine came up swinging.

His punch was blocked by Percival's large hand covering his fist.

"Fracking hell, I thought you were in the tower!"

"Well, I knew I couldn't trust you to stay out of trouble on your own."

"Where're Arthur and Merlin?"

"Over there." Percival motioned to the center of the crucible.

Gwaine heaved a sigh, noticing the flames were no longer present.

"Merlin stood up and hit the Prior with his magic. The man disappeared."

"You mean Merlin destroyed him?" The shorter man asked hopefully.

Percival didn't respond. He'd been knocked off of his own feet from weapons fire by the Ori soldiers and hadn't had a clear view of what had transpired. Something in his gut told him the fancy-looking Prior hadn't been so easily defeated.

Gritting against his own discomfort, he pulled Gwaine's arm over his shoulders. "We've got to get out of here."

Dragons began landing in the courtyard, scattering what remained of the Ori followers by laying down their own rings of fire. The battle in the sky continued on, even while the Furlings cast shields over the four men from Earth.

"Where's Leon?" Arthur called out to Percival.

The large man shook his head. He couldn't yet bring himself to vocalize the sacrifice he had witnessed.

Arthur simply nodded his understanding. There would be time enough for details later. "We have to get Merlin out of here."

"No!" Merlin said, with all the strength he could muster.

He was prepared to argue or drag his best friend kicking and screaming, but the look on Merlin's face stopped him.

Merlin's eyes darted from one dragon to another; from the few that had landed around them to others in the sky above. The milky eyes didn't pause. His mouth hung open in awe. In total disbelief, he asked, "There are others?"

Arthur smiled. He took off his jacket and wrapped it around Merlin's bare shoulders. "Yes, there are. Many, many others. At least a whole planet full of them, and I can't wait for you to meet them."

The warlock nodded and licked his cracked lips. Tears began trailing down his face. "I have to get to Aithusa. She's still trapped. She needs to know we're not alone."

Gwaine pushed himself off of Percival. He wobbled, but managed to stay on his feet. "I'll go with you."

"No, Gwaine. You can barely stand," argued Arthur, even though he knew his knight would do whatever it took to help Merlin. They all would.

The sounds of screaming and battle began to move away, and the square was curiously cleared after the dragons had landed.

One of the Furlings slid off the back of his dragon and rushed toward them. "We need to get out of here, now!" He ordered them. "The weapon is broken and we need to fall back."

"What do you mean it's broken?" Gwaine asked sharply.

"One of the arms broke off during the fight. Sebryn says they have tried using whatever they can, but they don't have anything to hold the crystal in place and conduct the necessary power to activate it."

Various looks of defeat crossed their faces, but none was more deflated than Merlin's.

"We'll never get another chance like this. There must be something." Arthur yelled. He wasn't about to admit defeat when victory was just one faulty piece of equipment away. One look at Merlin told him that if they didn't find a way, he would lose his friend for good. "We'll go get Aithusa. It's the least we can do."

Percival's face was pinched in deep contemplation. His mind flashed back to the moments before Leon had disappeared. He had seen Leon dive for the sword, while the fires beyond the gate had roared. While he couldn't be certain, he was sure he had seen the sword glow as it was hit with the electricity from the weapons fire.

"There might be something else."

Turning to Arthur, the large man pointed at the sword. "I think we need to get that up to them. I saw it absorb the energy from a blast before..." He stopped, feeling a choking sensation in his throat. Exhaling loudly, Percival pushed his feelings aside again. "It's the only thing we have that might work."

Arthur looked sceptical, until Merlin croaked out his agreement. "It could work."

The former king didn't question his best friend, though he still didn't understand. He began to draw out the sword, when Merlin's hand on his arm stopped him. "You need to take it to them. Don't let it out of your sight. In the wrong hands, it could be more dangerous than you can imagine, especially if the Ori learn how powerful it is."

Arthur shook his head. He didn't want to leave Merlin's side, even if their idea would work. "I need to get you to Aithusa, and I couldn't find my way up there if I tried."

"I'll show you where it is." Percival offered.

"We'll accompany them to free the drakkon."

Arthur had almost forgotten about the Furling next to them. He shook his head at his own shortcoming. It proved Merlin's point about Arthur's inability to focus on more than one thing. Everything else was pushed to the background to be forgotten. He vowed to take Merlin up on his offer of training his mind as well as his body, once they returned home.

Giving the Furling a nod, he patted Merlin's shoulder and pointed at Gwaine. "If he doesn't come back, you don't come back. Do you hear me?"

Gwaine scoffed and flipped his still relatively short hair out of his eyes. The look on his face told his friends all they needed to know.

Percival smirked and clapped Arthur on the shoulder. They darted off toward the building entrance and the maze of corridors that the large man hoped he could navigate.

"Shall we?" Gwaine asked. He held out his hand to Merlin and smiled when his friend used it to pull himself up off the stones.

Teetering a bit, Gwaine felt a hand on his arm. He turned as the Furling man's eyes glowed and Gwaine felt a warmth creep into his body. Strength returned to his limbs as he recognized the sensation of the healing spell.

The Furlings of this galaxy didn't have quite the level of magic that Merlin had. Gwaine had questioned Sebryn about it, and all she could guess was that it had something to do with the differences in their evolutions.

It made him even more grateful for the spell that had been cast on him. He offered his thanks as they were joined by another man and began to follow Merlin on his quest.

"Here," Merlin directed, pointing down a long set of narrow stairs.

The lights began to change as they descended, becoming the bluish hue of the deeper levels under the city.

Guards stood at various points, or patrolled along the wide corridor. Every twenty feet or so were large, heavily fortified doors.

Many of the doors in the hallway led to various cells within a larger prison complex. Inside of each, there was a control panel and usually an additional guard or two, depending on the prisoners.

Merlin blearily remembered bits and pieces of his few ventures into the place. He informed the others about the shield he knew was being used to keep Aithusa immobile. The cell where the dragon was kept was at least halfway down the long corridor.

Gwaine brought up his gun and began to sight in on one of the guards. Merlin placed his palm over the rifle barrel.

"They're probably already on alert because of everything else that is going on. We don't need them all on us at once."

"What do you suggest, then?" He glanced over at his friend and was surprised to see some of the old twinkle returning.

The gray pallor had begun to fade, as had the blemishes on Merlin's skin.

Calling upon his magic, Merlin drew from some of his oldest tricks.

Gwaine nearly burst out laughing, as guards began leaving their posts to check out various disturbances.

One of the soldiers' trousers dropped as his belt broke. His companion turned his eyes away, pretending not to notice the awkward situation. Another pair heard an odd sound - like that of a mewing kitten, if Gwaine had to describe it - from inside the door they were guarding.

The final pair simply fell asleep at their post. Pulling the snoring bodies out of the way, the Furlings, along with Gwaine and Merlin, prepared to enter the cell where Aithusa was being kept.

Gwaine made a face, as he mentally calculated the dimensions of the door. "How the hell would they have even gotten a dragon in here? I figured that she would have grown since I saw her last."

Nodding, Merlin thought about the last time Gwaine would have seen the dragon. It had to have been at Camlann, as it was after that battle when Gwaine had seemed to disappear. "She has...a lot. I think there was another way; some sort of bay door with blast shielding nearby."

"How many guards are inside the room, do you think?" One of their Furling companions asked.

Merlin closed his eyes and let himself touch Aithusa's mind. "We are coming to get you. Can you see how many guards are inside the room with you?"

He was unprepared for what happened next. Suddenly, he was no longer in the hallway outside of her cell, but instead, looking through the dragon's eyes from the inside. It was oddly disconcerting.

Out-of-body experiences and astral projection were not completely foreign concepts, but neither were they things he had much experience with. He much preferred to stay within his own mind.

"You should have never been born a Dragon Lord." He heard Aithusa tell him, offended that he would dare feel that way when he had been the one to ask for her help.

Gone was the camaraderie they had shared in the face of imminent danger, replaced by the same hostility Aithusa had harbored for centuries. He hadn't meant for his aversion to be taken as a slight against her. "We can deal with that later, Aithusa...once we are free of this wretched place." He felt a deep sadness tearing at his heart. For the first time, he allowed himself to open fully and he shared with her the guilt he carried.

Aithusa's mind recoiled from him, as if stung by the darkness that had plagued him. "I did not realize..."

"Neither of us did. That is what I have been trying to tell you." He sent her the image he had of the dragons flying and fighting in the city above; the people astride their backs working in tandem with the creatures to make a stand against the Ori. "We aren't alone anymore, though. There are others outside...like us. They are here to help us."

"Merlin!" Gwaine's harsh whisper snapped Merlin back into his own mind. "Patrol coming. Any idea what we're facing inside?"

Shaking his head, Merlin tried to bring himself back to the present. Since the first time he had been shown a vision in the Crystal of Neahtid, he'd hated the sensation that inundated him afterwards. The total lack of control as he was pulled into the vision, then coming back to himself in a daze. It always took a few moments for him to steady himself, even under normal circumstances.

He took a deep breath and reached for the calm he knew was inside of him; bringing the image he'd seen through Aithusa's eyes to the forefront. "Five...maybe six...men inside. Two are just inside the door, another at a console and the others are standing around the stasis field holding her."

"Show me." A large Furling man who reminded Merlin of Percival said.

When Merlin looked confused, the other man explained, "Think about that one visual and focus that thought toward us - much the way you would communicate telepathically."

Nodding, Merlin did as he was instructed.

The two Furlings smirked at each other and raised their weapons. Each took a step back from the door, ready to fire once it opened.

"You guys can share information that easily? Shit! Wish we could do that."

Merlin shrugged, "Well, you are my descendant. Maybe we can look into it when we get out of here. It would be quite useful."

"...Especially for the paintball fights." Gwaine kept talking, even as he moved to the control panel next to the door and prepared to open it. "Could you just imagine the look on Harkness' face if we pulled something like that?"

He hit the button and ducked, while the two Furlings raced in and fired their weapons. Merlin ran in after them. Gwaine paused for a brief moment, taking a quick glance down the hall to make sure it was still clear, before following and closing the door behind him.

Percival stopped. He looked up the hallway to the right, and down the other way to his left. His face scrunched as he pondered.

"You got us lost, didn't you?" Arthur smirked and shook his head. He hadn't questioned his friend's guidance, as they made their way through the control room where they had been stopped a few weeks ago. For the first few turns along the labyrinthine corridors, Percival seemed fairly assured of his path.

It quickly became apparent, however, that it wasn't going to be as easy as it had first appeared.

"I'm sorry, Arthur. I..."

"There you are!" Sebryn's voice caught them off-guard. They both spun around behind them to see the Furling princess' head poking out of a doorway they had passed. "Why do men never stop for directions? Come on. I was told you guys were coming up and might have a solution."

She explained the situation while they gratefully followed her back to the room with the weapon.

Arthur and Percival took one look at it and simultaneously cringed. Drawing out the sword, Arthur glanced between it and the Ancient device.

Sebryn held up the blood red stone. She began a detailed explanation filled with technical jargon that went clear over their heads. Seeing their confusion, she held the Sangraal where it would have normally sat, suspended by the four extensions of the apparatus. "Without this arm, the connection isn't complete."

Arthur nodded and gave a sharp chuckle. "To think, it didn't seem like that long ago I was led to a stone that held this sword. Now, this sword gets to hold a stone."

The Furling snorted, "I don't know if that will work."

As she said the words, Arthur had moved forward and positioned the sword, point down, against the machine. A magnetic pull seemed to latch onto the blade, and nearly tore it from his hand.

It took a bit of maneuvering with Percival's assistance to get it positioned. The crossguard of the hilt finally came to rest at the same level of the three remaining arms.

They all jumped back as the device lit up. Everything appeared to be working, and all that was missing was the Sangraal stone to complete it.

She stepped forward with the crystal in her hand, and carefully placed it in the device. It seemed like a lifetime passed as they all watched and held their breaths.

A collective sigh escaped them when the crystal began to glow.

"One last step and we'll be free of the Ori for good." Sebryn appeared hesitant to press the button that would fire the weapon. For millennia, her people had striven to end the war and to free their galaxy from the grip of the Ori. There had only been speculation over the eons as to what that would mean.

Her hand trembled as she reached out...and froze. It was as if she no longer had control of her own body.

An evil masculine laugh from nearby accompanied her sudden inability to move. "You are nought but children playing with toys."

She was flung back against the far wall, and collapsed with a thud.

The Doci eyed the rest of the Furlings. They began shooting at him with a combination of weapons and magic, each blast bouncing harmlessly away.

"When will you realize, it was the Ori who created you? Your will is theirs..."

His rhetoric was disrupted by Arthur's self-assured voice proclaiming over the top of the commotion. "Not any longer."

The former king's hand came down on the activation button. A soft hum began to build in power. The sword started to shake. Arthur grabbed the hilt to hold it in place, and he was struck by the irony once again.

The tremors continued to grow. He felt a burning sensation in his palm as the current swept through the device.

"Believe in yourself..." He could hear Merlin's words echoing in his ears and tightened his grip on the hilt, just as a shockwave encompassed the room.

Five Ori soldiers laid dead. Their bodies were piled against a wall. Gwaine was still watching the door. He thought he had heard running through the hallway beyond, but so far no one had tried to enter.

The room shook violently and dust particles floated down from the ceiling, as cracks began to form over their heads.

Something big had taken place in the tower above them. What it was...none of them could guess.

The Furling men glanced up nervously, trying to get a feel for what had happened. They turned back to the console and continued working with increased vigor.

The shield holding Aithusa was different from other Ori technology they had encountered. It was a hybrid of the systems they knew, and what appeared to be a quasi-mixture of Asgard and Goa'uld. The mess of a system was making it nearly impossible for them to figure out how to turn it off.

Merlin sat on the floor near Aithusa's head. He'd tried to put his hand on her, and pulled back sharply as it was burned by the shield. While she was no longer the skeletal, awkward little dragon, with her skin stretched to its limits over the protruding bone, he could see she wasn't healthy. She was smaller than Kilgharrah had been, as her growth had been stunted from the malnutrition she had suffered in her early years.

The opalescence of her scales after her birth was long gone, replaced by a dull, sickly off-white coloring. He'd known she hadn't looked healthy, when he had called her through the years. To see her now, under the artificial glow of the lights, made Merlin feel sick.

"They aren't going to be able to free me, are they?"

"Of course they are." He said in a comforting tone. "If they can't, I will. I am not leaving you here alone with the Ori."

"The Ori are gone. I can feel it. You can, too."

Merlin nodded. He had felt the shift the moment the weapon had been activated. The pressure in his head had released and his body had been freed of changes. His skin was still healing, and he still felt weak.

"I should have..."

"Should have what?"

"I don't know. Should have done so many things differently?"

"What could you have done? Neither of us saw what we needed. I refused to listen and now you are going to die because of me."

"We won't die. We've survived this madness far too long to die here."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that."

Adria's melodic voice sent a chill down Merlin's spine. He hadn't even thought about her, assuming that she was still in the Milky Way when the device had been activated. Although, there had been no way to know if the loss of the Ori would have affected her.

As Merlin stared at the Orici, however, he could see that something had changed. Power flowed off her in waves as it seemed to gather around her. Unlike when he had faced her before she had converted him, the licking flames did not come from an external source. There was something familiar about it, though he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

"Bloody hell!" Merlin heard Gwaine curse. Weapons fire suddenly erupted above his head as Gwaine opened fire on Adria.

Shots rang out from the Furling energy weapons as they joined in. Although, it wasn't much of a fight. Merlin watched as the bullets and energy pulses disintegrated before they even touched the Orici.

Adria jerked her head up and the three men went flying.

Merlin reached out for Aithusa's strength, but found that it had been cut off from him. For a moment, he worried that the dragon had pulled back upon seeing her former mistress. When he saw how her eyes darted around in fear, he knew it was Adria's doing that had separated them.

Most of his strength had gone into his attack against the Doci, and he had very little left in him to battle Adria. Even so, he gathered what energy he could and brought a spell to his mind.

She smiled, and began stalking toward him. The tremors in the building seemed to intensify.

"Forþ fleoge!" Merlin's hand shot out, casting a spell meant to send Adria flying backwards. Fear filled him when she barely blinked under the assault.

"Pitiful," she scoffed.

His heart was racing, and he didn't dare to turn around to see the fate of the men behind him. He had promised Aithusa that they wouldn't die here, and he'd be damned if he didn't put everything he had into making those words true. Merlin owed it to himself and his dragon.

Quieting his pulse and his mind, he reached out to try and grasp Morgana's consciousness. He was immediately assailed by a blinding flash of pain.

"Stop this, Morgana." He felt his body being lifted off the ground, and a tightening sensation around his throat.

Adria cackled gleefully. "You really think you can reach her? Well, I have news for you. Morgana isn't here anymore. It is just me in here. I know now that I was created from her, because the Ori thought she was a Furling. Too bad the power and the knowledge they had didn't show them the whole truth. Oh, yes. I know all about it now. You see, while I was in your galaxy, I was set up and tricked. Quite ingenious, actually."

Adria began to pace as she told her story. Merlin remained hanging in the air, his toes unable to touch the ground below him. His body was wracked with pain from whatever she was doing to him.

"You see, Vala had undergone the effects of the Galaran memory device. It was her own plan to have her memory altered so that I wouldn't be able to detect the truth. When I went to find my mother and attempted to show her the truth of Origin once again, I was captured by SG-1. Little did they know, Ba'al had his own plans.

"He had the gall to kidnap me from SG-1 and put one of his cloned symbiotes in me. He thought he would be able to control the followers of Origin through me.

Well, that didn't work out so well for him when the Tok'ra and SG-1 arrived. The Ba'al symbiote within me died and poisoned me."

"So, why aren't you dead?" From Leon and Gwaine, Merlin had learned that as a Goa'uld symbiote died within its host, it could choose to release a toxin into the bloodstream and cause a very painful death for the host.

"That's the most amazing thing of all. I did die." She paused and smirked, "At the moment of my death I Ascended. The Ori, in their last breaths, gifted me with all of their knowledge, so that I may continue teaching the people of the universe the path of Origin.

"I learned the truth about you and me...your history with Morgana." Adria turned toward him. She lowered him to the floor, forcing his knees to buckle. "Morgana was a fool to not recognize the power that was within her grasp."

Crushing Merlin into the floor, Adria turned toward Aithusa. "Even among your own kind, you are unique. She could have ruled over your pityful world so easily if she had only known. Her downfall was her emotions. She only wanted vengeance. Even her proclaimed love for you was nothing more than her loneliness reaching out to control something weaker than herself...something she could mold to her whim. She didn't care about you. You had healed her and were willing to follow her blindly."

The room quaked again. Metal and stone ground against each other. Merlin heard coughing behind him. "That isn't true. Morgana may have been insane, but even I knew how much she cared for Aithusa."

"You know nothing."

Aithusa watched and listened, as it was all that she could do while the shield was still active. There was nothing left of her mistress in the Ascended Orici, but she was comforted that despite all they had been through, her Dragon Lord tried to defend her. She tried reaching through, pressing against the invisible mental walls surrounding Merlin to tell him.

Whatever the Orici had previously done to him to cut him off from her, was back stronger than it had been. She feared for Merlin in the face of the newly empowered being who stood in front of them. Just as he had promised to fight for her, she knew she must do the same.

Her eyes darted over to where the three other men were. At least one of them had died on impact. He laid at the bottom of the wall; his neck at an odd angle and his eyes - open, but unseeing - looked out into the room.

The other two were luckier, and had just been knocked unconscious from the blast. She could feel the tower over their heads shift, and after centuries spent in caves, hidden from the world, she knew that the structure wouldn't support itself much longer.

One of the living men coughed again, trying to clear his throat of the debris he'd inhaled. Reaching out, Aithusa found that she could touch his mind. She was surprised to find it felt familiar.

"Are you alive?"

"Nope," came the sarcastic reply.

"Do not speak aloud, or the Orici will know you are awake."

"Who the hell is this?" Gwaine tried to remain still, but he shifted his eyes around searching for the source of the voice.

"I am Aithusa. You must listen carefully. The Orici is blocking my Dragon Lord from me, and I cannot help him. You must get the shield down if we are to survive this."

"...And if I don't?" His question was laced with mistrust for the voice in his head.

"Then, we will all die...buried under this tower or crushed by the Orici."

"Good reason. How do I turn it off? Don't suppose you've seen the outlet it's plugged into or an actual off switch? Maybe a big red button that says: Do Not Push?"

He could sense the equivalent of a blank stare of disbelief coming through his new mental connection.

"Right, then." Wiggling on his back, Gwaine tried to get a better look at the control console. He saw the two Furling men, and felt a pang of regret when he realized that at least one of them would never rise again.

The other, however, was beginning to stir. Through the hazy air that floated in the room, Gwaine began to creep closer to the man and the console. He placed a hand on the man's shoulder carefully.

When the Furling glanced up through bleary pain-filled eyes, Gwaine motioned for him to remain quiet and hold still.

Adria's focus remained on tormenting Merlin. Gwaine was torn between his desire to protect his friend and being oddly thankful that it meant she wasn't looking at him. Quietly, he pulled off a panel under the console. The entire setup of the machine was completely foreign to him and he didn't have a clue how to deactivate it.

Merlin screamed in pain, and Gwaine felt Aithusa cry out silently into his mind. "Hurry!"

"Keep your britches on!"

He had to chuckle at the confusion that filtered through his connection.

"Hey!" He said getting the Furling's attention in a hoarse whisper. "Any ideas how to turn it off? We just need to take it offline, not use it again."

The Furling shook his head. "If we could somehow disrupt the power supply..."

"Where would that be?"

"Inside that panel you pulled off?"

Gwaine rolled his eyes. Glancing around the room, he hastily tried to find something that would help. On the wall closest to Adria, he saw a small panel of flickering lights. His eyes followed the outline of a large door. "Any clue what's behind that?"

"That is where the Ori lived..."

A plan began to form in Gwaine's mind. He carefully maneuvered his way over to the dead Ori soldiers and took two of their energy weapons. He was about to take a page out of the Jack O'Neill playbook. 'If you can't turn it off, blow it up.'

He didn't know if it would work, but there wasn't much choice, and time was running out. He set one of the commandeered weapons to maximum power before stuffing it inside the opened control panel.

Rolling onto his stomach, he crawled over to the Furling and dragged him behind some cover.

"What are you doing?" The man asked, confused and dazed from being attacked by Adria.

Gwaine tipped his head to the side and smiled. He aimed the second weapon he'd taken at the panel and shot the one he had wedged between two power crystals. The room rocked with the explosion, and amongst the flaming debris Aithusa roared.

He took it as a good sign that the shield had been knocked out. "One down."

Adria screamed in rage, and Merlin was suddenly dropped like a rag doll.

She turned toward Gwaine and growled, "It doesn't matter if you free the drakkon. There is nowhere for any of you to go!"

"Well, I figured we'd just head out the door if it's all the same to you."

Gwaine carefully aimed the energy weapon at her.

She cackled and rolled her eyes. "You've lost, Sir Gwaine. How you are all still so blind, is beyond me." Adria started sauntering toward him. Her hips swayed seductively in a manner that resembled Morgana's trademark swagger.

For a moment, Gwaine was plummeted back to his last day in the sixth century. Morgana was taunting him, telling him how he had failed. She had nearly killed him back then. It was only by fluke and a timing coincidence beyond anything science could ever explain that he had been saved.

It felt like everything that had occurred in his life had led up to this moment. From growing up on the ranch to being sent back in time, and then brought back to the future...it all rested on him.

Merlin was struggling, and Aithusa was drawing a deep breath. The milliseconds ticked by. High above him in the tower, he knew for certain that Arthur and the others had been successful. Even without Adria's confirmation of the Ori's defeat, his gut told him that this was the moment they had all been waiting for.

What the Orici didn't realize, until it was too late, was that Gwaine hadn't actually been aiming at her. He activated the weapon and his shot was dead on as he targeted to the bay door control.

Sparks flew as it shorted out.

"Merlin! Open the door!" He called out, hoping that his friend could hear him.

The voice of his friend reached through his semi-conscious state. He could barely feel his limbs and it a few seconds for the words Gwaine had yelled to click. He saw the flaming door mechanism and suddenly it all came back to him.

Aithusa's breath misted over him, and his mind was cleared. The dragon was free and he could see her stretching with a mighty roar, much like when he had released Kilgharrah from Uther's prison. He still couldn't sense her and he realized it was him, not Aithusa, who was being blocked.

Adria had truly Ascended. A tiny part of him had held out hope that even after all the centuries, he could have still...somehow...saved Morgana. He finally understood he never could have. Whatever had been done to taint his bond with Aithusa had been caused long ago by Morgana.

Every last ounce of energy went into one final spell. "Tóspringe!"

The door rose behind Adria, disappearing into the wall above. A vast maw of darkness was all that could be seen behind her. Until this day, it had held the power of the Ori and connected with the one in the uppermost levels of the tower. Now, it held nothing.

In the blink of an eye, he was knocked to the side as Aithusa sped past him. Her fiery breath engulfed Adria and everything else seemed to blur.

Adria screamed as she was blasted into the darkness, and Merlin felt himself screaming when Aithusa followed her.

Gwaine's hands were on him, pulling him back. "We've got to get out of here!"

The roof of the prison began to give way, and despite Merlin's protests, he was carried out of the crumbling tower.

Please leave a comment if you would be so kind, the feedback feeds my muses! I might do something special for the 500th reviewer, provided I can PM whoever that is!