Fear. That was all Ragin felt resonating from the dragon in front of him. It was such a raw, real emotion that it stripped away her anger and malice. Her eye was wide, staring at him in dread. Her breathing was erratic and her body tense. She wanted to jump away, to run, do anything to survive but the spell of her true name trapped her in a cacoon she couldn't escape. The fear in her flooded through their bond. Ragin recognised it. He knew she had felt this fear before, but never had it been directed at him. Never had he been the cause of it.

He closed his eyes, trying to shake off the emotion, trying to force himself to step forward and drive his blade through her skull. She needed to die and he was the only person that was capable. If she wasn't stopped now many more would fall through her magic. She would drive fear into the very heart of Alageasia, if she hadn't already. And the old Akaysha wouldn't want this. He knew his dragon. If she knew what she was to be turned into she would choose death a hundred times over. This would be a kindness. It wasn't like he could turn her back. Tharin's spell was a blur to his mind. While he knew the general intention of the spell the words were lost to him.

Yet as he opened his eyes, looking into the frightened dragon that bowed before his mercy, it was like a wall hit him. Tears ran down his face as he staggered backwards, dropping Fate to the ground. He fell to his knees, bowing his head as he slammed the ground with his fist, again and again.

"Dammit! Dammit! Dammit all!" He cried, his entire body shivering with sorrow.

Akaysha blinked, fully expecting to be dead at that moment. Surprise was her first thought, followed by relief. Ragin didn't have the heart to kill her. The man that had once been a murderer and thief could not even bring himself to slay the one thing that threatened the entire structure of the world. Simply because it would hurt too much. Still, Ragin's choice confused her. She could feel the amount of pain their bond was causing him. If their roles had been reversed, she felt as though she could do it in a heartbeat. But she didn't understand the love he still had for her.

A rustle of armour caused her to look up, her panic spiking again as she noticed a small band of surviving soldiers appear from the ruins of their destroyed city. They hesitated when they saw her, instantly ducking behind the shelter of the ruined buildings, expecting her fire or magic to chase them. But when nothing happened, they looked out again.

Ragin, having noticed them, got to his feet, Fate in his hand. They seemed startled to see him there, but with Akaysha so passive they seemed to grow in confidence.

"You there? Who are you that has managed to stop that monster?" one of the guards called.

Ragin tensed at the use of the word, but seemed to keep himself from reacting, "I'm Ragin."

The soldiers looked at each other in unease. They couldn't help but notice the rider's rather hostile positioning, "What are you going to do with it?"

"She is under a spell," Ragin responded, glancing back at Akaysha, "I'm going to try and break her out of it."

The dragoness snorted in surprise at that, her anger growing as she reached out with her mind, 'I am under no spell. I'm going to destroy you all!"

Her rider flinched again and the soldiers grasped their heads, unable to comprehend the depth of her hate. Ragin reacted instantly, covering her mind with his own, keeping her from mentally attacking the guards. She snarled, magic still twisting uncomfortably through her body, building and building as it tried to get out. But Ragin's order against the wild magic kept her from using it.

"It... She is too dangerous," the soldier called out again, recovering from the mental assault, "She has wiped out nearly the entire population of Gilead! She needs to die!"

Ragin raised his sword, pointing the starlight blade at them, "No one touches her."

Noticing the colour of the blade, the soldier frowned, "You're her rider, aren't you?"

"Yes," Ragin responded, his head hurting as he tried to hold back the tears.

The soldier, seeming to be the leader of their squadron, sighed, shaking his head, "Whatever spell was cast on your dragon... it is too late. Look at what she has done!"

Ragin was silent, though his arm was shaking as he struggled to hold back his welling emotion.

"I'm sorry lad, but that creature killed my family," the captain levelled his sword, "I can't let her live."

He gestured to the soldiers and they began to move forward, prepared to fight past the single man guarding the downed dragon. Akaysha growled, lashing her tail but unable to fight back because of Ragin's order. The rider twisted his sword, studying the men with emotionless eyes. They hesitated a moment. The young red-faced man looked as though he had taken a beaten. His clothes were ripped, dried blood stains covered him from where he had coughed up blood. But there was something about him that made the all rather cautious. He was the rider of the dragon that had destroyed their city after all.

"If you stand in our way, we will kill you as well," the captain said harshly.

"You can try," Ragin replied, eyeing the twelve or so men that faced him, knowing he wouldn't be able to defeat them all in his current condition. Not with his sword anyway.

"If that's how it has to be."

The soldiers rallied, beginning to approach the lone rider, twisting their weapons. They were preparing to rush him and use their numbers to take him down rather than take him one at a time. There was no thought of chivalry, but then again, with their anger and fear of the dragoness Ragin didn't expect it from them. But he still wouldn't allow them too to touch Akaysha. Just as they were about to move Ragin raised his hand, pulling at the swirling energy inside his own dragon in order to cast the spell. He said a single word.

"Dauthi'!"

It was one of the twelve words of death. Akaysha growled in surprise as the wild magic within her seemed to rather eagerly combine its energy with the spell, flooding through her body and into Ragin. The energy reached out from the rider's hand, gripping each of the soldiers in its grasp as it sucked their lifeforce from their body. One by one, the guards dropped to the ground... dead. But the energy didn't stop, cascading through Akaysha and then into Ragin, flooding the rider's body with wild magic.

Ragin gasped, quickly ending the spell, but it was already too late. The energy of wild magic had his body in its grasp, flooding into him as it tried to escape Akaysha, and now pushed at the far weaker boundaries of its new host. Ragin fell to his knees, panting in the effort to contain the overwhelming power that was flooding through him. Thinking quickly, his eyes travelled to the gem at the hilt of Fate. Gripping the sword with both hands he opened the gate of energy again, allowing it to flow into blue starlight gem.

Recovering somewhat, Ragin issued his next order to Akaysha using her true name, "Stop the flow of wild magic."

Akaysha had already been trying to, more for the fact that she didn't want to share her power with anyone else rather than trying to contain it. The only problem was that while her true name forced her to obey any order, it didn't give her the ability to do something she wasn't able to. So, she gripped the ground hard with her claws, tensing her entire body in the effort to pull at the flowing stream of energy. But it was too strong for her. She felt more and more of it breaking through the inner gate that it usually hid behind, like water escaping a cracking damn.

Ragin cried out in agony, continuing to fill the sword with that power. It felt as though his mind and body were being torn apart. The power began to lash out at the surroundings. Nearby rocks began to rise. The still pouring rain held still in mid-air. Lightning flashed all round, though none of it hit the two in the middle. The rider fell to his hands, the blood in his veins beginning to glow an odd white as power enraptured him.

'Look... what you've done!' Akaysha roared at him mentally, 'I can't... control it!'

Ragin tasted blood in his mouth, trying to think through the energy stripping him and his mind of everything, 'Combine our minds!'

'What?' the dragon blinked, not struggling quite as hard as him but still unable to get a handle on the increasing pressure flooding her. She had begun to push it out in random directions, more homes being destroyed under the flooding magic.

'Like... we did before. We... were able... to control it... then,' Ragin gritted his teeth.

He felt her confusion. While she still had her memories, it was like they were from a different being entirely than what she was now. Despite that she still had access to them, and Ragin felt her struggle to see what he was suggesting. A strange twist of emotion broke through her as she was forced to look back into previous memories, and she growled with a wine, shaking her head.

'If you think we are going to combine minds again, you are insane. I would never... not with you,' she snarled at him, the snarl turning into a rumble as even more power suddenly broke through.

'Akaysha! Please!' the rider cried out, 'It... it is the only way... we are going... to survive this!'

The dragon groaned again, 'Why not force me to do... it?'

'There is no point... in trying... to force you. We both need to... control it... together!' he told her, 'After that... I will let you go. Please Akaysha."

She could feel through their bond that he was telling the truth. Help her rider out one more time, and he would let her go as she wished. Energy continued to crackle around her. White light had begun to glow through the gaps in her sales, the energy pushing her to the very edge. If she was having this much difficulty, then Ragin would be faring far worse.

'Fine!' she roared out, knowing she didn't really have another choice.

Doing as they had done but once before, she began to pull at Ragin's mind. It felt like she was pulling him up a waterfall, every wave of magic getting closer and closer to breaking both his and her mind apart. He embraced her mind with his own, all her hate, malice and blood lust a stark contrast to his desperation and love for her. Akaysha felt entirely disgraced by his thoughts, wanting to distance herself as far as she could, but now that their minds were so close the wild magic seemed to have the opposite effect. It reacted to their need to survive, seeming to have a will to follow the command. It gathered the two conscious together and shoved them into one another.

As it did... Akaysha saw everything. It was like her entire life flashed before them.

She remembered fear, being so terrified as dark spells were cast over her, like her body was being ripped apart and put back together again. More fear as she was trapped, helpless in a cage with humans on either side laughing and drinking. Then there was relief, like a part of her had been filled as the man who she had combined her life with revealed himself, rescuing her from her captors.

She felt worry, as during the escape he was injured, and she could do nothing to help heal him. She remembered longing, longing when he hid her mind from her with that annoying ring, and her desperate attempts to feel his thoughts and emotions running against her own. She remembered sadness and confusion when he was angry with her for trying.

She remembered being petrified as the weather of the open plains tossed her far into the sky, flailing and useless against nature, being far too weak to fight it. Then there was safety and warmth when she was finally back in his arms, after he had run for miles in order to get her down. There was wonder and excitement as they explored the mountains of the spine. Humour and passive rivalry with the horned-two-leg they met there. The thrill of her first successful hunt. Pride as she discovered her magic.

There was wonder and fulfilment as Ragin and her flew too the top of the world in their first flight together, a feeling that she wished to feel every day. Fear again when the riders came looking for them. Frustration at being grounded for so long. Longing to see others of her kind up close. Determination and anger as the riders drove them to the ground in their attempted to escape and embarrassment in their defeat.

There was pride for her rider as he dealt with their capture in the best way he could, though she knew how unhappy he was. She felt happiness herself when she saw him beginning to make friends with Freya, but confusion at his reluctance to get too close. A sense that he was hiding something. Wonder as she sort through his memories and frustration that she couldn't see more before he woke. Fear for him when he was attacked and his mind closed off. Pain when she was shot in the shoulder while flying through the Dragon Mountains.

Anxiety and longing were her emotions as they reached New Doru Araeba, scared about what the dragons around her would think of her and longing to be one of them, knowing she had missed out on so much. Relief and happiness when Eragon didn't punish her rider and separate them. Joy as she began to live out her life in New Doru Araeba. Joy as she grew closer with the dragons around her, flew with her rider, and watched him make friends as well. Nervousness on the night of the Dagshelgr Invocation, quickly followed by pleasure and satisfaction, knowing she was doing her part in continuing the dragon race.

That quickly came crashing down though as she learnt what Ragin had done. It was like sorrow and rage filled her in buckets, accompanied by a deep sense of betrayal that washed through her entire being. Those emotions only grew when she faced him, and he refused to explain himself. That was then followed by an emptiness and loss when he disappeared the next day. But she remembered the determination that acted as a counterweight when she figured out that he wouldn't betray her willingly.

She felt the desperation to see him again as she flew as fast as she could to Alageasia, then the overwhelming panic when she felt him dying. Relief again when she managed to find him and save him from eternal darkness. It was followed by a fullness and sense of belonging as he fully accepted her... just as she fully accepted him. The anger and determination to kill the man that hurt him. But the final memory was the worst, as the spell was cast over her. The spell that stripped her of everything that made her, creating a darkness of hate and anger that was separate to the dragon she truly was.

The flashing memories stopped as dragon and rider became one, neither able to feel where one's thoughts ended and the other began. They thought together, moved together and decided together. The energy was still flooding through them, breaking apart their physical bodies further and further as it struggled to escape its physical confines. As one the dragon and rider pulled at it, but it still wouldn't budge, as difficult to control as a flood.

In their final breath the two of them tried one last desperate effort. Reaching themselves over the wild magic, instead of attempting to control it, they cast a spell. Almost instantly the wild magic reacted, ecstatic at the chance to be used in the world around it. More energy flooded through them, as the energy to cast the spell they attempted exceeded even what they currently had.

It was as though the energy of the world lay before them, flowing through them in its eagerness to move with the intent of its host. Akaysha and Ragin held on to each other's minds as the power of wild magic ripped them raw, feeling as though it tried to break them apart as well as follow the natural command.

The spell they cast had no words, no complexity to it. It was simply a desperate thought, a plea, that required every ounce of wild magic they had and more. There was no malice or hate in the intentions of it, but there was also no care for anyone around them, the two only focused on one thing. That was, they wanted the wild magic to stop; to stop and disappear.

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Hey guys! New chapter! Woohoo... there is only three left after this one. What do you think will happen? Will the spell work? And if it does what do you think it'll do? Questions to be answered in the next chapter ;) Vote if you enjoyed and comment what you thought. The next chapter will be out soon. See Ya!

Pennator^^