Disclaimer - Once again, Kit-Kat would kill me if I said I owned Merlin. Oh, well, at least I have Spencer Reid…

"Sire, I can explain, we're not witches." I bit my lip slightly as Uther concentrated his glare on me.

"Really?" he growled. "Then what are you?"

I looked down at myself. "Um, the last time I checked, I was a girl."

Uther glared some more.

"I'm telling the truth! We - Ow!" I grabbed my head. A voice was pounding through it, repeating one phrase over and over. "Seer, protector, seer, protector, seer…"

Catherine looked at me. "Healer and truth-finder. What the hell is that?"

"Seer and protector." I replied, then turned to Uther. "Apparently we do have magic. Who knew?"

He hissed slightly and we flinched. "Why are you in Camelot?"

I shrugged, but Catherine looked thoughtful. "I think we're supposed to be here. To help you."

Uther raised an eyebrow. "How?"

Catherine straightened her stance and tried to look as though she wasn't terrified of him. She failed. "I can tell when someone is lying, and if they are I can force them to tell the truth. I've got a very big talent for healing magic, as well."

"And I have a talent for protective charms." I added. "And I'm a Seer, meaning that I have visions of the future, and sometimes the past."

"And I'm supposed to believe you?" Uther frowned.

"You already do." Catherine piped up. I bit back a smile at Uther's expression.

"The King has forbidden them, but there will be three. One by his side to always stay true, one by his son to carry him through and one who will heal them and help them stay free."

I blinked and saw Catherine and Uther looking at me strangely. "What?"

"Prophecy, Jelly. Your voice went all funny and your eyes glowed gold."

I winced. "And I said…?"

Catherine recited it back to me and I thought for a second. "Right, the last one is obviously you, but I have no idea about the other two. One of them's me, and all three of us have magic…"

Uther cleared his throat and I glanced up.

"I you are caught, I will have to sentence you to death." he warned.

We nodded.

"You, girl." he pointed to Catherine, who jumped slightly. "Gaius needs an assistant. If you have healing magic." he spat the word. "then he would be the best place for you. The guard outside will direct you to his chambers."

Catherine nodded and ran out of the room. I winced in sympathy. Uther was pretty mean, but I was used to arguing with mean people. I lived with my mother.

"As for you," he began. "I cannot be sure that you will work with me, rather than against me. I do not trust you."

I snorted slightly. "But you trust Catherine? What if she decides to work against you?"

His glare intensified and I fell silent. "She is of no consequence. She can be scared into submission."

Submission? Who the hell did he think he was? Oh yeah, a King. But, as usual, my brain-to-mouth filter decided to ignore this information. "Excuse me?" I asked coldly. "Scared into submission? May I remind you that she is a human being who has rights and will not be purposely scared by anyone whether they are a King or a peasant. May I also remind you that she is a truth-finder? She could have you spill your darkest secrets in front of the entire court if she wanted to."

I saw his expression. Oops, was all I thought, before I landed on the floor. Uther had a rather powerful backhand, and it didn't help that he had a couple of rings on, either.

"You will speak to me with respect!"

Yet again, I decided to be smart. "Perhaps if you earned it, instead of threatening my sister." I scowled, getting up and holding the side of my mouth.

"And now you show why I cannot trust you. She is not your sister. You look nothing alike."

Hmm, fair point. Well, might as well go with it now. "Our father was quite the busy man. He decided to sleep with two women that lived near each other. When they found out, they weren't best pleased and they sent us to live with him a few weeks after we were born. So you see, she is my sister."

He huffed slightly in anger. "It matters not. I cannot trust you, and so I shall place you where I can keep an eye on you. You will be my personal maidservant."

Aw, hell no! I gaped in shock and horror as he dismissed me. "I expect you around dawn. Find some suitable clothes."

…...

I opened the door to Gaius' chambers in a daze, barely noticing that Catherine was sat at the table in a soft blue dress, or that there were two other people with her.

"Jelly!"

I looked up as Catherine walked over to me. She was smiling and her dark brown eyes were shining. She hadn't looked this happy since the airport. She pulled me over to the table. "This is Gwen and Gaius."

I smiled, but winced as the action stretched my lip. I hadn't even noticed it was split. Blood dripped down my chin and onto my t-shirt. I froze. No. Not happening. "Catherine…"

She gasped. "Oh, what happened?"

"Blood just dripped on my David Bowie shirt." I told her, my voice trembling slightly. If it didn't come out…

"I'll wash it out." she told me, sitting me onto a chair. "I meant how did the blood that is meant to be in your body come out of it?"

"Uther has quite the backhand." I said dryly. "The gold rings aren't exactly a positive addition to the whole experience."

Gaius froze in the middle of making a paste for my face. "The King hit you?"

I shrugged. "In his defence, I did start shouting at him."

"Jelly! Are you mad?" Catherine looked at me in shock and I felt a twinge of annoyance.

"f you'd rather be, and I quote, 'scared into submission', then next time I'll keep my mouth shut, all right?"

Catherine sighed. "You just had to give him attitude, didn't you?"

"You are talking to me, remember? When do I not give attitude? And besides, he mustn't have minded that much, because he made me his personal maidservant. Guess that answers my earlier question." I shot a look at Catherine, who nodded.

Gwen gave me a look of astonishment. "Really?"

I nodded. "If you can teach me how to be a decent serving girl in a night then I would be in your debt for about, oh, forever?"

"A night?"

I winced as Gaius dabbed the paste on my lip, chin and cheek. "Yeah, he wants me to be there at dawn. How I'm even going to get up before dawn I have no idea."

"You'll manage it." Gwen said. "Catherine said that you might need a dress?"

I nodded. "You're a life saver, Gwen. Thank you so much."

"It's in there." Catherine pointed to what I knew would be Merlin's room. I looked at her suspiciously.

"Why are you smiling like that?"

"Like what?" she said innocently. Didn't fool me for a second.

"It's pink, isn't it?"

She nodded, chuckling and I sighed. "Pink. I hate pink."

I walked into Merlin's room, Catherine's chuckles following me. I shut the door as soon as she was in. "Here's the story," I said quietly. "I told Uther that we were sisters, but we have different mothers. We were given to our father a few weeks after we were born, because both our mothers found out he was playing them. We grew up with our father, we've never met our mothers."

She nodded. "Okay, I can keep to that. Did Uther really make you his personal maidservant?"

I nodded and put the dress on. "He said he can't trust me, for some reason that I can't figure out." I grinned.

As Catherine laced up the dress I felt my lip. The paste Gaius made had numbed it, but I knew it was going to sting like a bitch in the morning.

"Do you want me to heal it for you?"

"Nah, it'll be fine." I shook my head.

Biting her lip, Catherine looked at me worriedly. "Your face is already bruised, and your lip's going to get worse, especially if you keep using it. And what if he hits you again? He'll probably break your jaw!"

"Catherine! Don't worry your pretty little head about me. I'm a big tough girl, I tie my own shoes and everything. The worst that will happen is he'll give it a poke if he looks at it tomorrow."

Catherine looked at me and I blinked slightly. "Okay, don't ever look at me like that again, it makes you look like my grandma. The Jehovah's Witness."

"The one who keeps trying to convert you?" Catherine giggled.

I nodded. "Yeah. God, I am not gonna miss that. I remember once, she was talking to me about gays and how they were 'against the teaching of the Lord' and how they were 'unnatural' and I quoted Russell Howard and said 'what, and a talking snake is natural?'. I don't think she spoke to me for two weeks!" I laughed.

Catherine shook her head, smiling, and I poked her arm. "Don't worry. Tomorrow will be fine."

…...

"What is wrong with you?" Uther snapped. "You've done nothing right!"

I turned to face him for the first time that morning and felt a stab of satisfaction as he winced. "My apologies, Sire. I'm not entirely focused."

"I can see that. I want to know why?"

I motioned downwards. "I cannot move properly in this pitiful excuse for female clothing, I have a migraine, and your shouting does not help that."

He glared at me and I returned it wholeheartedly. I was not in a good mood. To say my face was hurting would be the understatement of the century.

"You will talk to me with respect, girl. I would have thought you had learned your lesson yesterday."

I held up a finger. "One, you hired me, so you're going to have to deal with the attitude, and two, I have a name. It wouldn't kill you to use it."

He opened his mouth to snap back but I cried out as pain flashed behind my eyes. Images were flashing across my mind and I felt blood trickling from my nose. Voices were echoing and a woman shrieked. I vaguely heard Uther order a guard to fetch Gaius and Catherine before I blacked out.

Catherine's P.O.V. (finally!)

I ran into the room with Gaius and saw Jade on the floor.

"What happened, Sire?" Gaius asked as I pulled Jade's head onto my lap and wiped the blood from her face.

"She had a vision." I said. "A proper one this time, not like before."

They both looked at me. I avoided looking at Uther and spoke to my mentor. "That's got to be it. She's never fainted before in her life, except when she had flu when she was about 6."

"What did she see?"

"I don't know, funnily enough, I don't know what she thinks, as I'm not her!" I snapped, then gasped as I realised who I'd snapped at. "I-I'm sorry, Sire. I d-didn't mean to -"

He held up his hand. "I've received the same attitude from your sister. I am more accustomed to it than I was yesterday. I will not lay a hand on you."

I nodded gratefully, then turned back to Jade, who had started to stir. "Jelly, you okay?"

She moaned. I looked at Gaius fearfully. "Is she okay?"

"She is just peachy. Can you, I don't know, maybe move?"

I shook my head. "You should have let me do this yesterday." I held my hand over her face and closed my eyes. I thought about how it had looked before Uther had hit her, about how it looked when it wasn't hurt. I gasped as I felt my cheek swell and my lip ache. Gritting my teeth, I pushed the pain away and felt the swelling go down.

Jelly looked a me with her eyebrows raised. "That hurt, didn't it?"

I nodded. "Little bit."

She sighed. "Idiot. Help me up."

I helped her up and she looked at Uther. "You need to be careful what you say at the execution today."

"Why?"

"Because Thomas' mother will be there. And she's not going to be entirely happy with the fact that you're killing her son. She's planning a little tit-for-tat."

Uther's eyes widened. "How?"

"I'm not entirely sure. I saw something about a knife and a chandelier, and there were cobwebs everywhere. I couldn't really tell, because the images were sort of centered around someone else."

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"Merlin." she said.

I felt a sort of calm settle over me, like there was something comforting about the fact that he was coming to Camelot. I realised something, and I gasped. "Jade, we need to talk!"

She frowned. "What about?"

"Can you remember anything?"

"What am I supposed to be remembering?"

I racked my brains. "Err…Lancelot Du Lac, Season 4! What happened in that episode? It was something to do with Gwen…"

"I don't know." Jade shrugged. She froze. "I don't know! How can I not know?!"

Uther and Gaius were looking at us in confusion, but I ignored them and shook my head. "You can't remember what happens in any of them, can you? You know that you have watched them, and you know who everyone is and how important they are, you just don't remember why."

Jade thought, then nodded in agreement. "Fuck."

My thoughts exactly.

A.N. - Catherine, this is an absolute bitch to write. You should have said 'no' when I asked if I could. BUT, I like this version better than the other one, so although it kills my brain power, I will carry on the rewrite.