DISCLAIMER: I don't own Merlin or Doctor Who. That would be the BBC.
This is my first crossover and my first Doctor Who fanfic, so I hope you like it!
"Doctor, the last time you set the TARDIS to random, we ended up in Cardiff. "
A girl with bright red hair dressed in a fashionable pair of vintage riding boots, skinny jeans, and flowery blouse dashed up the stairs to the TARDIS control panel. A man messing with flashing lights and various levers and knobs readjusted his bow tie.
"Cardiff's not so bad," the Doctor protested as he flipped a rather large panel into what the girl thought was an "on" position.
"Doctor, I'm with Amy this time," said the other man. He absentmindedly fiddled with his jacket's zipper.
"Amy, Rory, I promise. No Cardiff this time," declared the Doctor with a dramatic flair of his hands.
He leaned close to his machine's console.
"Dear, don't let me down this time," he muttered.
The ship flew her familiarly reckless path through the time vortex. Amy and Rory gripped the railing around the console while the Doctor let out a whoop of glee. His sexy thing was bringing them to adventure.
Birds called out to their future mates in the cool forest air. The trees communicated in their own way as the wind rushed past them. They rustled in a cadence echoed in the birdsong. There was an ambience about the place that some would call peaceful. The man traveling through the woods knew the peace that they exuded came from the magic that pulsed in them like a heartbeat. He let his own magic subtly melt into the ground, feeling its rhythm throb in his soul. As the birds cried ever more joyously, the untamed magic seemed to embrace him as a fellow wild creature.
"Merlin, fetch that bolt," called a slightly arrogant voice, reverberating through the shady woods. The usually garrulous warlock was silent as he went to obey the king, suddenly drawn out of his reverie. As he handed it back, Arthur noticed his eyes were somewhat vacant, as if the man were pondering the deepest secrets of the universe. He was, of course, but Arthur didn't have to know that.
"Someone's not all here today. Of course, you're never all here, but you seem especially out of it today, Merlin."
The king eyed his servant roguishly.
Merlin glanced up, momentarily broken from his trance.
"Hmm?"
"Seriously, Merlin. I swear you're mentally defective."
The wizard cracked a smile.
"You're one to talk, cabbage brain."
Arthur raised an eyebrow.
"Is that any way to address your king?"
"Prat," Merlin muttered, but his smile grew bigger.
Arthur's lip twitched as he tried to suppress his burgeoning smile by feigning horror. A bush rustled in the distance and a rabbit dashed madly away. A sharp squeal echoed through the woods as Arthur hit the unseen animal with an expertly timed shot. Merlin hurried ahead after it while Arthur lagged behind, casually adjusting his horse's saddle where the animal was tied to a low hanging branch alongside Merlin's old nag.
As Merlin rooted around in a rather thorny bush where he thought the rabbit had crawled, somewhere in his gut his magic warned him of… something.
Something ancient and powerful was coming to Camelot. Something so big it terrified even the young Emrys.
The TARDIS landed with a satisfying thump. The Doctor's brow crinkled into a smile as he examined the monitor and strode to the spaceship's door, Ponds straggling behind him. The couple was convinced they had landed in Cardiff again - Boy, were they sick and tired of Cardiff!
Oblivious to his companions, the Time Lord cracked open the police box's door and slipped through.
"Just going to check the terrain out, Ponds."
As he turned to close the door behind him, the Doctor knew he was on Earth, but somehow, not on Earth. The air felt richer, and the forest around him hummed with life.
The Doctor felt a pair of eyes on him. A young man crouched stiffly behind a bush a few meters beyond the TARDIS. Leather jacket, blue neckerchief, belted tunic. Medieval period? Definitely. He almost walked toward him but instead nearly stepped on a rabbit bleeding to death at the door.
"Ponds, we aren't in Cardiff again!"
The blue box flashed brightly with a whirling noise that made Merlin's ears ring. He knew Arthur could hear it too. He silently begged for it to stop.
He found he couldn't more for fear of what would come out of the box. He had no idea what a "POLICE PUBLIC CALL BOX" was, either.
Merlin nearly leapt out of his pants when a strangely dressed man twirled out of the box, nearly treading on Arthur's rabbit. Despite his goofy appearance, Merlin could taste raw power as the Doctor glanced in his direction; then, the man half-skipped back into the box shouting excitedly and the sense of power faded. Was he just paranoid?
Merlin pulled himself to his feet as another man and a woman emerged from the box. The second man was being dragged by the woman who seemed to be every bit as excited as the first strange man.
Only the hesitant man seemed to notice Merlin.
"Amy, Doctor," he half-shouted at the two daydreamers observing the dead rabbit, pointing to the warlock. Merlin tried to stand tall like Gaius always told him to, but he felt scrawnier than ever. As the strange man fixed his eyes upon Merlin, he realized that this was the danger come to Camelot. His youthful appearance did not prepare Merlin for the ancient eyes studying him. Eyes that spoke of overwhelming power, experience, and intelligence. Terrible eyes that watched worlds burn.
The Doctor had hardly paid the boy a thought despite his initial assessment. Only when Rory pointed him out did the Doctor make the connection. That richness that made these woods so wonderfully strange wasn't native to the soil. It came like waves from the trembling young man. A golden glow lurked behind the bright blue eyes that fixed themselves on the Doctor with purpose.
"I don't know who you are or what you want in Camelot, but this land is protected," he uttered. The Doctor's hearts jumped. That solidly determined, secret-bearing, self-sacrificing soul reminded him of a few of his prouder moments, of stoically delivered ultimatums to the Atraxi and the Sycarox.
"Are you its protector?"
The man nodded.
"Magic is banned in Camelot. You will be killed if you are caught," the man warned, pointing at the TARDIS as he slung the dead rabbit over his shoulder.
Amy looked at the Doctor expectantly, and he nodded for her to race inside, turning the ship invisible.
"She's not magic, but I don't suppose that makes a difference in this time," the Doctor confided.
The boy's eyebrow rose. Obviously, he still did not trust the madman one bit.
"What would you call that, then?"
"Science," grinned the Doctor.
"Merlin, who ARE you talking to? And what the hell was that noise?"
Merlin froze as Arthur rode his horse up behind him, dragging Merlin's steed by the reins. He was going to be in trouble AGAIN. The uninformed strangers were bound to say something incriminating that would get him into trouble. It was really too regular a pattern for his own good.
"Who are you?" demanded the king. The strange one had the courtesy to bow.
"Lord Doctor of TARDIS," he smiled with a bit of an impish gleam in his eternal eyes.
He gestured to his companions.
"Lady Amelia of the Pond, and Sir Williams, the Last Centurion of Rome."
The pair giggled at the names like they were some form of an inside joke. The lord flashed a blank sheet of paper at Arthur, who seemed to think it was a set of royal seals. The king bowed politely.
"I am King Arthur Pendragon of Camelot, and this is my manservant Merlin."
He elbowed said servant rather roughly. Neither of them noticed the way the Doctor's eyes twinkled a little more, or how Amy and Rory shared a split-second look. Merlin bowed curtly, then massaged his now bruised arm. Arthur gestured in the direction of the road and citadel, stepping toward the strangers.
"Well then, Lord Doctor, come with us to Camelot."
He turned to Merlin, who was still very confused by the exchange.
"Merlin, give your horse to the lady."
Merlin would have nearly protested were it not for the wicked gleam in Arthur's eye daring him to defy the order. He sullenly passed the reins to the "lady" who was helped on by the centurion. The men walked on either side of her as Arthur led them out of the forest toward Camelot, pacing his horse so that Merlin could still walk quickly beside him.
"Sire, don't you think they're a little odd? Walking through the woods with no horses and coming from a place that I've never even heard of!"
"That's why they're coming with us, Merlin. We can test their legitimacy once we arrive in Camelot, although those seals looked real. Until then, they will be our honored guests."
With a half-raised brow, Arthur challenged Merlin to disagree.
Right," nodded Merlin, falling silent trying to keep up with Arthur's horse.
"So, Doctor. Merlin, eh," Amy murmured down to the man near hopping with manic energy by her side.
"Is he the Merlin?"
The two turned to Rory, the Doctor peering over the horse.
"And King Arthur," he confirmed. "This must be before the days of his united land," he mused in a singsong voice.
"So the myths are true, then?" prompted Amy, in the same low whisper.
"So it would seem. I didn't remember them actually happening, though. Must have to do with when we reset the universe. It must have been rewritten as reality," said the Doctor. He made a face.
"Well, with a few tweaks."
"Isn't Merlin supposed to be a really old wizard, not a young servant?"
"That being one of them. I believe reality has decided he is actually some sort of telepath, what kind particularly I haven't quite worked out. Now, Ponds, remember. You can't let anyone know of the future. These people take prophecies even more seriously than the Romans."
"Doctor, you know our lips are sealed," the redhead said, rolling her eyes. The Doctor patted her knee.
"That's my girl."
Rory nodded in agreement.
"And of course I can count on the loyal centurion," he waved to him, and the man blushed at the nickname, trying not to stumble into his memories as living plastic.
They rounded the bend.
A majestic, ancient castle towered over the land with a crimson flag waving proudly from the highest battlements.
"Welcome to Camelot, Ponds."
"Lord Doctor," called the king. He stopped and waited for the man and his companions to catch up. As Amy came close, Arthur dismounted, and the woman followed suit, helped down by Rory.
"I assume you will be staying in Camelot for while?"
The Doctor glanced at his companions briefly, neither giving a particular preference for staying or leaving. This trip was promised to be a short one, but the Doctor's sixth sense, his sense of the inner workings of the fabric of time and space, told him that this was going to take longer than he had prepared for. He hoped Amy could forgive him again.
"I should think so. Always wanted to see a proper castle," the man grinned.
The pair looked at him curiously.
"Do you have some sort of tavern or inn of some kind that we could crash at?" asked the Doctor, gesturing wildly, meriting a questioning look from Arthur.
"Well, yes. But you are royal guests of Camelot. I insist you stay at the castle. We have plenty of guest rooms for you."
"No, no, it's fine," assured the Doctor.
"Doctor, no money, remember?" whispered Rory, ever the voice of reason.
"But if it isn't too much of an inconvenience, we would be honored."
"Not at all," bowed the king, once again elbowing Merlin roughly. The man nodded and took the horses away, leaving Arthur unprotected with the strangers. He prayed they meant him no harm.
"So I assume you'll want a room together?" Arthur said, pointing to Amy. The Doctor looked slightly bewildered when he realized Arthur meant him and Amy together, but was saved by Rory from having to give an embarrassing explanation.
In a harsh tone incongruous with his normal joviality, the nurse spoke up.
"I'm sorry, but Amy is my wife."
Arthur was taken aback by his fierce reaction, babbling a bit like Merlin in reply.
"My apologies, I should not have assumed. Please forgive me," he asked, knowing other knights would be greatly offended by such a slight.
To his surprise, the man merely nodded.
"Don't worry about it, sire," the man half mumbled, his sudden anger flickering out like a candle. Amy rolled her eyes at him.
"Stupid face," she purred, and he grinned at her like an inebriate.
"Don't know why I didn't see sooner," Arthur muttered to himself. He was surprised when the Doctor made a face at him in reply.
"It gets worse. Sometimes he gets all weepy, too," confided the Doctor with a shudder. Arthur smiled slightly; he couldn't help feeling that he could trust the man despite his eccentricities.
"Well, if you'll just follow me, I'll show you where you'll be staying."
So that's the first chapter! I hope you liked it!
It's actually been quite a while since I wrote this (about three weeks) so I don't exactly remember most of it (I've slept since then),
but if you have any questions, suggestions, exclamations, error pointing out things, etc. feel free to ask.
Also, I like to write notes to my betas, so they might accidentally still be in there. Think I took 'em out though.