Wishful thinking

Chapter 1

Catagory: Multi (Crossover)

Characters/Pairings: Rose/10th Doctor, Merlin/Arthur, Guinevere/Arthur
Rating/Warnings: K+, Light slash between Merlin and Arthur.
Summary: Merlin travels back in time with the Doctor to see Arthur one last time. When the younger Arthur however slips on board of the tardis he is shown his own future and has no intention to return to his own timeline.

Link:

Merlin stared over the glassy surface of the water where he had send off Arthur only a couple of days ago. It still hurt, so very badly...He felt a tear drip down over his cheek but he could not be bothered to wipe it off. Around him there was total silence, not even the wind was breezing or the birds singing. It had seemed with Arthur's death, the kingdom had died with him. Merlin felt as if he had failed his destiny.

Even Though Kilgharrah had assured him he had not, he had supported Arthur till the end of the battle. As the prophecy had foretold, he had made Arthur the king he was when he died. Assuming it was his task to save Arthur's life, had been Merlin's only mistake.

Sadly he sat down next to the water, waiting. Another day passing by as Merlin ate some of the fruits around the lake to sustain his own health. And drank some water from the lake. He didn't leave the shore for over 5 days already now. Never returned to Camelot because it was too painful.

The memories of the man he had grown to love were too fresh, facing Gwen who had probably figured out by now Arthur would not return. Or explaining to Gaius that he had not been able to save him...he just couldn't do it.

Merlin's depressing thoughts were abruptly disturbed by a noise he had never heard before. A loud alarming sound, that seemed not to come from anything he knew.

He quickly got up walking into the forest from where the sound had been. Everything had been quiet again by now though. It took Merlin a moment before he arrived at a strange small blue box. Which had markings on it Merlin could not read. They were nothing like the markings in Gaius his books.

This thing however appeared out of nowhere, it had to be some sort of magical box.
"Hello?" Merlin carefully called readying himself to defend himself with his own magic when necessary.

"Ow hello!" A friendly face answered sticking his head out of the box, looking around. "Brilliant! Just Brilliant!" The man called stepping out of the box. A girl followed him, she was wearing clothing like a man, trousers and some sort of shirt. Merlin looked at them as if he had just seen the weirdest thing in his entire life...

"Who are you? Or what are you? How did you get here?" He stammered as he backed up a little.

"I'm the Doctor, and this is Rose." The man answered as he was looking around to find out where exactly they had landed when he spotted the castle further down.

"Oh my, is that Camelot?" he answered excited.

Merlin nodded, a sadness appearing back into his eyes. "Yes it is"

"Camelot, with King Arthur? You kidding me right?" Rose expressed herself as she walked up to the doctor.

"You know of Arthur?" Merlin asked carefully.

"Of Course, who doesn't he's a legend. Can we go meet him doctor?" Rose answered

The Doctor nodded proudly "I don't see why not"

"You can't..." Merlin sadly responded

"Why not?" Rose reacted sounding a bit disappointed.

"Because Arthur died...a couple of days ago. In battle"

"Oh that is just..." The doctor said sounding annoyed that he had misjudged the time travel again.

"And who are you then if you don't mind my asking?" Rose carefully addressed Merlin.

"I'm Merlin" he answered.

Rose looked stunned at him, raising her eyebrow a little "You?! Are Merlin?!"

"Yes" Merlin answered not entirely understanding her disbelief in her voice.

"But you don't have a long white beard or a staff or a pointy hat"

Merlin couldn't help himself but laugh at the picture she was describing. "A pointy hat? Nobody wears those."

Rose laughed a bit as well "But if Arthur died, who rules Camelot then?" she asked a bit curious.

Merlin stopped laughing immediately "Guinevere, his wife..."

The doctor walked up to them "But what about the pendragon bloodline? Is Guinevere expecting a child? How did Arthur die exactly?"

Merlin shook his head "Not that I know off, there has been no official announcement at least. But I have not returned to the castle yet." Merlin paused for a short moment "I failed to protect him, Mordred killed him"

"What?!" The doctor expressed with a disgusted look on his face "That wasn't supposed to happen!"

Rose looked at the Doctor curiously, it was indeed not how she remembered the legend either.

Merlin bent his head down sadly and ashamed...

"Oh come on! Cheer up mate...the Doctor will fix things. Won't you doctor? We could just travel back in time and save him restore things to how they were supposed to be."

The doctor shook his head "No we can't, we can't cross his timeline. It would create a huge paradox...Neither can we just change how things have gone. That is not our place, we may merely observe the timeline. Not alter it"

"But you've changed time so often already?" Rose asked not quite understanding.

"I may only interfere if extraterritorial, is meddling with Earthly events. But here, it's a normal cause and effect, choice and consequence that have altered the timeline."

Merlin sighed deeply, feeling even more burdened now. It felt like he failed even worse than he already thought he did. "Time travel?" he asked hesitant not understanding anything of what the doctor had said about timelines and extraterritorial.

"The Tardis is a time machine, it let's us travel in time. We're from the future you see" Rose explained to Merlin. Who still stared at her in disbelief. "So it's magic?" he answered a bit hesitant.

"You could say that yea" the Doctor answered.

"I wish my magic was powerful enough to see Arthur again" Merlin said sighing sadly.

Rose looked at the Doctor when she saw the sad and utterly defeated Merlin. She felt sorry for him. "Doctor...isn't there anything we can do for him?"

"I'm sorry, if I take him back and he meets himself...things will become a lot worse" The doctor answered with a serious face.

"So I can't meet myself? But I could meet Arthur?" Merlin said a bit hopeful

"Theoretically...yes but you both live in Camelot there's no way you could avoid meeting yourself if you go look for Arthur" The doctor answered.

"I haven't lived in Camelot forever, I used to live in Ealdor before my mother send me to Camelot. So what if we travel to before I went to Camelot?"

The doctor raised his eyebrow and Rose started smiling radiantly... "That should work" Rose answered excited about the idea.