A/N: Just something that's been bouncing around my head. There may be romance and there may be a crossover. I just have to figure out how to make that all work!

Don't own any of these ACD/Moffatt/Gatiss characters but do own the OCs. Just tinkering around with a character I feel could be utilized a bit better. And yes, it's AU and that means I can have all the fun I want….BWAHAHAHAHAHA…cough, cough, BWAHA…wheeze…whew! Welcome to the Paladin Universe!

We walk in the light, and see the obstacles of life

We dare not stop, for our pride follows

We are the paladins; we have come to cleanse this land. – Samuel Daniel

Paladin, Paladin,

Where do you roam?

Paladin, Paladin

Far, far from home. – Johnny Western

Prologue: Nexus

noun ( pl. same or nexuses )

• a connection or series of connections linking two or more things.

• • a connected group or series.

• the central and most important point or place.

Arthur Malloy looked around the large room. Nodding his head, he stopped hovering, smiled, and thought, yes, everything looks much better when it's clean. Pushing his spectacles over the bridge of his nose, he straightened up from wrapping the cord around the machine. He pushed it over to its designated closet and then made his way to one of the lavatories to wash his hands before going down to the kitchen to help with the dinner prep.

He had been at Windemere House for nine and one half weeks. It was a new shelter that seemed to have sprung up overnight. It was clean, had showers, nice beds, good food and caring people. He was glad it wasn't one of the places where you had to endure some sort of preaching to get a meal.

He had come there as just one of the many seeking to get out of the elements, stay warm and get food on a regular basis. But he'd come by every day and soon found himself as a volunteer of sorts, helping out around the place. He wasn't really using his skill set but was glad to have purpose back in his life.

The conversation at dinner was lively and Arthur had struck up a friendship of sorts with a few other individuals around the table whose pasts were a bit more interesting than his. They all kept up with their former industries and discussed things at the table.

And things progressed along those lines until two weeks later when one of the group failed to show up to dinner three days running. Questions were asked around the table and no answers were forthcoming. Another person failed to turn up six weeks later. One person was one thing, but the individual that failed to turn up this was a stickler for punctuality and always on time, in fact usually showed up a bit early. The group was concerned. Arthur even went so far as to check with the administrators of Windemere House but no one seemed to know anything. After all, since when does a homeless person have an address?

A month later at the end of the evening, Arthur was dealing with the bins. He was outside at the back making sure they were lined up in the correct positions when he felt a sharp pain on the back of his head; things went white, then began to fade to black. He tried to hold on to his consciousness but the pain was too great and he felt himself slipping away.

"I don't know if we should have done this one. He's not like the others." Through the haze of pain, Arthur thought he recognized the voice.

"Do stop whining. He's just another transient. If he'd had someone and some place to go, he wouldn't have been here. No one will miss him."

But Arthur Malloy wasn't a "forgotten, down on his luck" man. He was three things: first, a smart and talented man with good skills who had gotten caught in the economic downturn; secondly, a member of a certain homeless network and last but not least, had just gotten a new job in the research department of a tech company.

And through all the experimenting on his body and the injections, the branding and being brought to London and tossed in an alley in dirty, stained and foul smelling clothes, if he'd been at all aware, the tall, middle aged mild mannered greying redheaded and bespectacled Arthur Malloy would have been quite upset. Because even with his reduced circumstances, he had been fastidious about himself and had continued to cling to that as best he could.

So, in all honesty, with what had happened to him over the last 10 days, it was good he was dead.