TIME AND SPACE
CHAPTER 1
THE FIRST PIECE OF THE EYE OF RASSILON: MERLIN PART 1
I do not own Doctor Who, Merlin, or Star Wars; and I am making no profit off of this.
This story uses Doctor Who characters from my War of the Guardians universe and it takes places between the War of the Guardians and the beginning of It's Better With Two for them. It takes place during Season One of Merlin for the characters of Merlin.
Merlin always had a hard time serving as Prince Arthur's personal manservant, but today was even worse than usual for the young warlock. He and Arthur had been sent by Arthur's father, King Uther Pendragon of Camelot, along with some knights to drive out some local bandits that had been preying upon one of the local villages. It hadn't seemed like it would be that big of a deal at first. Arthur and his knights usually ate bandits for breakfast after all. These bandits though were far from ordinary.
As soon as Merlin saw them, he could sense that something was different about them. He didn't know if it was his magic that told him this or just his intuition. All that he knew was that these so-called bandits were not what they seemed.
Arthur of course, being the clotpole that he was, had no clue as usual that anything was wrong. He charged right into battle against the bandits at the head of his knights. He was quickly surprised when he was knocked off of his horse with one blow by one of the bandits.
Merlin reached out with his magic and quickly redirected Arthur's fall so that he wouldn't be dashed against a large tree. Arthur, as usual, had no idea that Merlin had helped him or even had magic for that matter and mentally attributed missing the tree to a lucky accident. Merlin then ducked just in time to avoid having his head disconnected from his body by one of the bandits.
"Who are these men?" Merlin asked.
"They're bandits, Merlin. I know that you're a little slow, but I thought that even you would have figured that out by now," Arthur said as he quickly got up off of the ground.
"No, they're more than just bandits. I've never seen any bandits that could knock a man off of his horse with one punch before. There's something wrong here," Merlin warned.
"There's nothing to worry about. The knights will make short work of them as usual. Just because you can't fight doesn't mean that nobody else can. You just stay there and do nothing like you usually do during a fight. I honestly don't know why I keep you around," Arthur said before running toward one of the bandits with his sword.
"I can think of a whole list of reasons. All of the dirty work that you make me do for you every day for instance. I'd like to see you polish your own armor and clean out your own stables. You can't even dress yourself without my help," Merlin grumbled under his breath.
"What was that?" Arthur asked as he fought with one of the bandits and just barely avoided being punched in the face by them.
"Nothing," Merlin said as he dodged a deadly blow himself from a bandit that had gotten too close to him. The bandit was soon engaged in battle by one of the knights and led away from Merlin.
"I must have been hearing things. I could have sworn that I heard the sound of someone whining. I guess I was wrong," Arthur said as he attempted to stab the bandit that he was fighting with his sword.
Arthur's eyes widened in surprise as the sword went straight into the bandit's heart, but he continued to fight.
"What kind of men are these?" Arthur asked.
"Finally, he gets it. I was trying to explain that to you two minutes ago; but, as usual, you didn't listen," Merlin said as he rolled his eyes.
"Merlin, I hear that whining noise again. Can you hear it?" Arthur asked as he stabbed the bandit in the stomach but again had no success in even slowing him down.
"No. I don't hear anything," Merlin said.
"Good. I'd hate to hear it again. If I was to hear it again while I was trying to think of a way to save my life from an insane bandit who apparently feels no pain, I might just have to take my anger and frustration about it out on you later on by having you polish all of the armor for every single knight in Camelot," Arthur threatened.
Arthur continued to hack away at the man that he was fighting, but nothing he did seemed to affect him in the slightest. He stabbed him through the heart several times more, but the man never even let out so much as a gasp of pain in response. He could see that the other knights weren't having any better luck either against their opponents.
All of the bandits were still standing and continuing to fight with no signs of slowing down while the knights were already showing signs of fatigue after having been fighting with them for several minutes now. It was all that they could do just to stay alive against the powerful attacks of the bandits.
Arthur had already seen how strong that they were earlier, and now their strength was made even more apparent as one of them knocked down a stone wall with a single punch while trying to hit one of the knights.
"What kind of men are you?" Arthur asked the bandit that he was fighting.
"Cybermen," the bandit responded as he spoke for the first time in a strange inhuman voice.
Then the bandit suddenly began to shimmer and blur right before Arthur and Merlin's eyes, and he turned into something out of a nightmare. What stood before them was like nothing that either of them had ever seen before. A man made out of metal. The other bandits changed into these metal men as well now shocking all of the knights too.
"You will all be deleted, and then we will continue the search for the first piece of the artifact unhindered," the Cyberman fighting Arthur said.
"What artifact?" Merlin asked.
"It's called the Eye of Rassilon," a voice said from behind him.
They turned to see a man with a large chin dressed in strange clothes and holding what looked almost like a magic wand that glowed with a green light. With him was a beautiful blonde woman also dressed in strange clothing that was a combination of pink and blue.
"You will not stop us, Doctor. We will have the Eye," the Cyberman said.
"No, you won't. Neither will your partner," the Doctor said.
"Partner?" Merlin asked the strange man.
"Yes, they're allied with an old enemy of mine called Eris. She's had it in for me for centuries just because I spurned her advances once. Who knew that someone could hold a grudge for so long just because I didn't want to be anything more than friends with them?" the Doctor said.
"I'd call it a lot more than just a grudge, Doctor. She's been trying to kill you ever since we were all at the Time Lord Academy together. She once blew up an entire planet just because you were on it," Rose Tyler said.
"Excuse me, but just who are you people?" Arthur asked in an aggravated tone as he continued to try to fight with the Cyberman.
"I'm the Doctor, and this is my wife, Rose. It's very nice to meet you. I just wish that it was under better circumstances," the Doctor said with a grin.
"There never are better circumstances with you, Doctor. All of your first meetings with everyone are always like this," Rose said.
"That's just not true, Rose. I'm sure that I can think of some nice, pleasant way in which I've met someone," the Doctor said with a pout.
"Name one then," Rose challenged him with a grin.
The Doctor paused for a minute and then said, "I'll think of one eventually. I'll have to get back to you with that."
"You do that, Doctor. How about stopping the Cybermen right now, or do you want me to do that?" Rose asked with a wide grin.
"Be my guest," the Doctor said.
Rose began to glow with golden energy as she summoned the power of the Time Vortex and became the Bad Wolf once more. She gestured at the Cybermen, and they all stopped dead in their tracks as she froze their mechanical joints in place instantly.
Arthur, Merlin, and the knights all turned to look at her in a mixture of awe and fear as she changed back to her normal self once again. She laughed at their reactions. She'd never get used to the way that people reacted to her whenever she used her powers.
"You have magic," Arthur accused her.
Merlin wanted to warn the woman. She seemed to have no idea that she may have just signed her own death warrant by showing her powers in front of Arthur. It was punishable by death to practice magic in Camelot after all which was why he had never told anyone but his mentor, Gaius, that he was born with it himself.
"No, it's not magic. It may look that way to you, but it actually came about when I stared into the Untempered Schism when I was eight years old back on Gallifrey. Being exposed to the Vortex changed me and gave me my powers," Rose explained.
"I have no idea what you just said," Arthur said with a blank look on his face.
"It doesn't matter. All that matters is that my wife is no witch if that's what you're accusing her of," the Doctor said.
Rose suddenly seemed to understand the danger that she was in now as she said, "Oh, no. They're not going to try to burn me at the stake, are they? I really hate it when that happens!"
"That almost happened to me too once before back on Calufrax. That was back before it turned into a dead world. That had nothing to do with me though so don't go trying to blame me for that," the Doctor said, speaking to Arthur as if he were confiding a secret to him.
"I'm sure that he wouldn't dream of it. Everyone knows what a wallflower you are and how it's just simply not true in the slightest that you seem to leave a massive trail of destruction in your wake wherever you go. He has no idea what Calufrax is, Doctor, or even what a planet is for that matter," Rose said with a sigh.
"I know. I just like messing with his mind. His expression right now is just priceless. He gets more and more confused the longer I talk," the Doctor admitted with a grin.
"You think that this is funny? You won't be laughing once I take you to my father and make you answer for your practice of witchcraft," Arthur threatened.
"Just who are you anyway to be threatening us, mate? We just saved your lives," Rose asked as she finally grew tired of Arthur's attitude.
"How do I know that? How do I know that you didn't create those metal men in the first place?" Arthur asked.
"This one is a bit dim, isn't he?" Rose said to the Doctor.
Merlin had to work hard to suppress a laugh at that comment which instantly brought him to Rose's attention. She quickly winked at him as she realized that here was someone who agreed with her. Merlin smiled back at her.
"Stop flirting with the witch, Merlin," Arthur said.
"I'm not flirting with her," Merlin protested.
"And I'm not a witch, mate. If you call me that again, I'm going to slap you right out of the Dark Ages," Rose said in anger.
"That's it. I arrest you for practicing magic and for threatening the Prince of Camelot," Arthur said.
His knights then pulled out their swords and started toward Rose. She looked at the Doctor, and he shook his head. Rose sighed and let the knights take her.
Merlin knew then that Rose and the Doctor were not evil. Rose all by herself could have stopped the knights from taking her, but she didn't. The Doctor had told her to go peacefully, and she had. It just showed that they wished to avoid fighting if they could. If Arthur wasn't so thick, then he would have noticed that too.
"I suppose we're going to get out later then after we get deposited in whatever dank dungeon that they put us in," Rose whispered to the Doctor.
"That's right. The last thing that we need is to draw attention to ourselves by starting a major fight here. The Cybermen have already done enough of that. We don't need to interfere in this world's history any more than we have to. We can just quietly slip away in the night, and they'll forget all about us," the Doctor said.
"I know that you're right, but I would so love to have slapped that arrogant prince right in the face," Rose said.
"You can't go around slapping King Arthur, Rose. It won't look good in the story books," the Doctor said with a smile.
"That was King Arthur?! That little prick was the great hero that people have talked about for centuries? I guess he really is overrated, huh?" Rose said with a laugh.
"He does get better later on. Merlin over there helps him to become a better person," the Doctor explained.
"So that was Merlin. I like him already. I wonder if he knows that you were once Merlin too. He might sue you for copyright infringement," Rose joked.
"I was Merlin back in our universe, Rose. Besides that wasn't this me so no one would recognize me anyway. That was back when you were still traveling with me as a human before you opened your fob watch, and I still walked around saying 'Allons-y' all of the time. Everyone knows that 'Geronimo' is a much cooler catchphrase!" the Doctor said.
"I don't know. I prefer 'Fantastic' myself," Rose said with a smile.
"You would. I still don't know what you ever saw in old Shouty," the Doctor said as he shook his head.
"I love all of your incarnations, Doctor. I've loved you since the day we first met when we were children. Why do you think big ears and an attitude were going to change that? In fact, I actually found the ears kind of . . ." Rose said before she was cut off as they finally arrived at the gates of Camelot, and one of the knights shouted at her to stop talking.
They were soon brought before King Uther, and the Doctor and Rose both looked at him in shock.
"Brother Lassar?" the Doctor asked.
"Oh, great! Please don't tell me that we're dealing with the Krillitane again. I hated those guys," Rose said.
"Excuse me? I have no idea what you're talking about. I am no monk," Uther said as he misinterpreted the Doctor's question.
"No, of course you're not. Monks are not cool. It's a case of mistaken identity, your majesty. You look a lot like someone that we once knew," the Doctor said.
"What do you mean monks aren't cool? What do you have against monks?" Rose asked.
"Mortimus, Rose," the Doctor said as he looked at her as though she were crazy.
"He's not even a real monk. You can't say all monks aren't cool just because of one rotten apple who uses that as his name," Rose said.
"I can if I want to," the Doctor pouted.
"You know you are such a child sometimes in this incarnation," Rose said.
"Silence! You have been brought up before me under serious charges, and all that you can do is babble nonsense. You will answer for your crimes immediately. Are you guilty of practicing magic and threatening the prince or not?" Uther asked.
"No, I'm not a witch. Yes, I did threaten to slap your brat of a son. I don't know how he doesn't get slapped by everyone about a hundred times a day for that attitude of his," Rose said.
"So you admit to threatening a prince of the realm. I'm sure that you are no doubt guilty of witchcraft as well, and that is it you who is behind the strange men attacking my kingdom. I pronounce you guilty of both charges and sentence both of you to death," Uther said.
Merlin glared at Arthur to say something and for once Arthur agreed with him. He had been having second thoughts as he had watched the two of them on the way to the castle. He feared now that he had let his pride and anger overrule his better judgment.
"Wait, Father. They did save my life, those of my men, and even that of Merlin for some reason by stopping the metal men in their tracks. I believe that they are not responsible for their appearance. I do not believe them to be evil. I now wish to drop the charges against them," Arthur spoke up.
"They still practiced magic and threatened you so the sentence still stands whether they're evil or not," Uther said.
"She was only joking about what she said to me," Arthur said as he tried to defend Rose.
"It doesn't matter. One does not talk so to a royal. My judgment is final, Arthur," Uther said adamantly.
Merlin could tell that Arthur felt guilty now. He knew now that he shouldn't have acted so hastily and brought these two to his father, but it was already too late.
"Wait a moment, your majesty. These are subjects of my kingdom, and I wish for you to give them over into my custody. I will take them back there once I leave and pronounce judgment on them myself later on I assure you," a woman dressed in a green dress with long black hair said.
The Doctor and Rose both groaned as they recognized the person who they had least wanted to see here. It was Eris.
"Hello, Doctor. Arkytior, it's been a long time since I last saw you, hasn't it? I'd heard that you were found alive and well again posing as an Earth girl. I was so hoping that they were wrong," Eris said.
"I missed you too," Rose said sarcastically.
"Somehow I doubt that. Your majesty, lock them in your cells tonight, and I will come back to collect them when I leave in the morning. I have an important object to find today, or I would leave with them sooner and spare you their annoying presence," Eris said.
"Very well then, Lady Korvus. I will give them into your custody in order to maintain peaceful relations with your kingdom of Gallifrey. Where did you say that it was again? Is it in Hibernia or Caledonia?" Uther asked.
"It's much further than that, your majesty. Let's just say that I have traveled for a very long distance to get here. I have gone through much to find this lost artifact of my world, and I will not see it fall into the hands of those who would use it for their own nefarious purposes," Eris said.
"That's rich coming from you," Rose said.
"Silence, witch! One more outburst like that, and I will reconsider my decision to give you to this gracious lady," Uther said.
"Thank you, your majesty. I appreciate your defense of me," Eris said.
"I am glad to do it, my lady," Uther said with a large smile on his face.
Rose sighed as she realized that Brother Lassar's stand-in here was head over heels for Eris. Boy, did he have bad taste in women!
"Guards, take them to the cells below. Arthur, I want you to take some of the knights with you and accompany Lady Korvus as she searches for her missing artifact. You are to give her protection the utmost priority," Uther commanded.
"Yes, your majesty," Arthur said.
Merlin was very unhappy now as he knew that this meant more traveling for him and no rest. He didn't trust this woman either. He knew just from looking at her that she was trouble. So, of course, Uther trusts her instead of the other two. Thickness seemed to run in Arthur's family.
Arthur gathered some of his knights together, and he and Merlin accompanied Eris as she began her search for the first piece of the Eye of Rassilon. Eris smiled to herself. She knew that tricking the Cybermen into attacking that village by telling them that a piece of the Eye was there would draw the attention of the Doctor and get him in his usual bout of trouble as a result. She knew Theta so well after all. Now that Theta, Arkytior, and now apparently the Cybermen too were out of her way, she was free to search for the Eye all by herself. She would even have the oh so noble Prince Arthur around to help her and to die in her place if anyone else came looking for the Eye. All in all, she had done pretty well for herself here.
Once she found all of the pieces of the Eye and if the stories about it were true, then she would have control over all universes and all of time and space. She would be worshipped as a goddess just as she was always meant to have been. Better still, she would make Theta hers at last. She would finally have everything that she had always wanted. She even had Arkytior here to torture for all of eternity as well.
All in all, it wasn't a bad prize for just a few days of work. Soon she would have the first piece, and then she would quickly find the other pieces in whatever dimensions that they were hidden in. She may have competition from others besides her old classmates and the Cybermen, but she felt confident in her ability to outwit and defeat them all.
Unfortunately for her, she had no idea of how powerful Rose really was now and therefore how premature her victory celebration was. She would find out very soon though because even now Rose was teleporting herself and the Doctor out of Uther's cells, and both of them would soon be hot on her trail.
Next: The Doctor and Rose go after the first piece of the Eye themselves as they attempt to keep Eris from getting it. Whose side will Arthur and Merlin be on in this fight?
In the future: The search for the pieces of the Eye will continue in the Star Wars universe next after Merlin's part in the story is through.