Chapter Seven.

"I've got to tell Arthur. There isn't any time," Merlin huffed, and turned toward the door again, but Dean grabbed him by the shoulder and spun him back around.

"Kid, you gotta make time," he demanded. "Because, trust me, you got no idea what's going on here."

Merlin shook Dean's hand off his shoulder. "I know better than you do," he argued in a near shout. "You didn't even know of Camelot until Sam told you that you were here. Why should I trust you?"

"Whoa, alright, let's just all calm down," Sam said politically, placing himself between his brother and Merlin and looking at Merlin square in the eyes. "We don't really know anymore than you do, okay? We're on an equal playing ground here—"

"Then stop treating me like I'm beneath you."

Merlin half expected Sam to tell him that he was beneath him. He was a servant, having to hide the only thing that made him special out of fear of death or exile; Sam was a man from the future, who could travel across time and space and spoke in a way that suggested he had it all figured out, even if he really didn't. Merlin was tethered; Sam was free. He wondered if all men from the future were this way.

However, to his surprised, Sam nodded in understanding. "Fair enough," he agreed. "I'm sorry. We all are. We're just trying to help." He looked to the others for support, and then back to Merlin. He raised his arms from his sides for a brief second and then asked, "What can we do to help?"

"I'd say, we figure out what the maids are before we do anything rash," the Doctor interjected, and all eyes fell on him. "Just a suggestion. A rather good one, though, if I don't say so myself."

Merlin squared his jaw and reluctantly nodded his agreement. Every instinct was pleading with him to run to Arthur and tell him of the oncoming danger, but he knew the Doctor was right. He couldn't risk exposing his knowledge of the maids before he knew exactly what they were and what they were planning.

"They're some sort of sorceress," Merlin said surely. "I know that much, but I've never heard of anything that can slowly kill a man with a single touch. Have you?"

"No," Sam said. "But what about, uh—your friend. The one with all the books?"

"Gaius," Merlin offered, and Sam's eyes lit up.

"Yeah. Gaius. Would he know?"

Merlin considered this for a moment. He didn't think Gaius would know anything about such creatures through prior knowledge, but perhaps his personal library would hold an account of them. "He may," Merlin said at last.

"Alright, then," Sam said. "Let's go talk to Gaius."


Night had already fallen by the time they reached the city, and Merlin snuck the group through the back corridors and shadowy areas to avoid any watchful eyes. Twice, they had to pause and hide from the armored patrolmen. "We can't risk anyone realizing who you are," Merlin informed Sam. "They'll kill me on the spot, and you don't want to know what would happen to you." Sam didn't want to find out, either.

When they were approaching the modest chamber occupied by Merlin and Gaius, Sam saw that the door was already wide open, and he could hear a struggle coming from inside.

"Gaius!" Merlin shouted from next to him, and he took off through the door.

By the time Sam and the others caught up, the room was in ruins. Tables were overturned, books and papers were torn and scattered about the room, glass bottles and vials were smashed, and an old man in a long blue robe—who Sam assumed was Gaius—had been knocked onto the floorboards. Merlin was knelt down at the man's side, but he had a finger pointed towards the opposite side of the room.

"Stop her!" he shouted.

Sam tried to follow his gaze, but before he got a clear idea of what was going on, he heard Amy shriek, "Dean, watch out!" Sam's eyes shot over toward his brother. Mere inches from Dean, was a small woman with jet-black hair, pale skin, and a clean white peasant dress. Her eyes were the color of blood as she reached toward Dean with a bony hand and went to graze his cheek with her palm. Sam shouted his brother's name, but the woman was moving too fast for him to do anything else. However, she was suddenly thrown back towards an overturned table by an unseen force. The fall left her body unmoving and unconscious.

Sam scoured the room for whatever it was that knocked the woman back, and when his eyes fell on Merlin, still kneeling across the room, Sam saw the man's own eyes fading from a bright gold back to their normal blue.

"Amy, Rory, help me restrain her before she wakes up," the Doctor said, rushing towards the woman. "And don't touch her bare skin."

Meanwhile, Dean stood shell-shocked and speechless, blinking at the spot before him where the woman had been knocked backward. Then his eyes flashed toward Merlin. "You—you saved me," he gaped, obviously having seen what Merlin had done for him. Sam couldn't help but smile.

"You're no use to any of us dead," Merlin reposed, and then looked back down to Gaius. "Now, help me get him up." Sam followed Dean over to help Merlin, while the others worked on tying the woman to the wooden ladder in the corner of the room with fraying ropes. Out of the corner of his eye, Sam saw the Doctor pull out his sonic screwdriver and further tighten the ropes that bound the woman's wrists for good measure.

"That should hold her," the Doctor told them, as Sam, Dean, and Merlin managed to heave Gaius up onto a small cot along one wall of the room.

"Gaius, can you hear me?" Merlin said softly, sitting on the cot next to the man.

The Doctor strode over and flashed the sonic over the man before checking its readings. "He's fine," he assured Merlin. "Just a bump to the head." As if to prove him right, Gaius groaned softly and his eyes fluttered open.

"Merlin?" the man croaked, and Sam could almost see Merlin's heart jump out of his chest.

"Gaius! Are you all right?" he asked speedily. "Did she touch you?"

Gaius struggled to sit up, and Rory broke through the crowd to hand him a clay glass of water.

"Touch me?" Gaius wondered, confusion in his voice. "No, my boy. She was in a rage. I was knocked back when she overturned the table. I'm afraid I'm not as young as I used to be." Sam watched a broad smile form on Merlin's face.

"Who—who are these people, Merlin?" Gaius asked, looking to Sam and the others as though he had just noticed their existence.

Merlin's smile faded, and there was a pause before he said, "Friends."

"Merlin," Gaius said, almost disapprovingly. "Are you lying to me?"

Merlin changed the subject. "We need help," he said, his eyes turned to the woman across the room. "She's not Annis' maid; none of them are."

"How do you know?"

"One of them killed the messenger."

Gaius looked shocked for a moment. "How?"

Merlin's eyes met Sam's for a brief moment, almost as though he was asking Sam to back him up. "She touched him," Sam said, and he hoped the guy would believe him. Merlin trusted him, and that would have to be good enough for Sam.

"Have you ever heard of something that can do such a thing?" Merlin asked.

"Uh," Rory said from behind the group, successfully getting everyone's attention. "I think, maybe, we can just ask her that question."

Sam looked at the woman in white, still tied tightly to the wooden beam of the ladder, and realized her piercing eyes were now open and she wore a crooked smirk on her lips.


"Who are you?" the Doctor was bent over to look the woman in the eyes, his face inches from hers. It had been over an hour and the woman still wouldn't talk. Sam saw Dean getting anxious; he saw his brother's fingers curl as though they were clenching a knife, he saw his lips snarl as his mind reeled with the thousands of angry or sarcastic comments he could throw at the woman. However, the Doctor continued on. "What are you?"

"Doc, she ain't talkin'," Dean finally spoke up, no longer able to hold it in. The Doctor straightened and turned to face him. "I think it's time you let me and Sam have a crack at her. We know a thing or two about getting the truth out of evil sons of bitches."

"And just what are you suggesting?" the Doctor said, scorn in his eyes. "Torture? Do you really think that will get you anywhere?"

"Think of it more as an interrogation," Dean insisted.

"Torture," the Doctor replied shortly.

Dean shrugged. "Works on demons. It'll work on whatever she is."

"Do not—" Sam stood straighter as the Doctor approached his brother, looking at Dean in such a way that suggested he were the threat. He got right into Dean's face, standing slightly shorter than him, and pointed a thin finger at his chest. "Do not make me your enemy, Dean Winchester." His voice was strong, old, and definite. "Just because the things you hunt aren't human doesn't mean they're not alive. You could be so much more than any of your kind, any hunter." He spoke as though he thought hunters were the lowest of the human race; there may have been a time when Sam agreed with him. "So much better than torturer and a—murderer."

Dean licked his lips, never one to back down. "Thanks, Gandhi, but you got your methods, I got mine."

"Not today." The Doctor turned back to the woman, still pointing his finger at Dean. "Do you hear what this man is saying? He wants to torture you! Now, I'm giving you a choice: him or me? I'm the Doctor, I can help. Tell me . . ." He knelt down on one knee again. "What planet are you from?"

For the first time, the woman's lips parted to let out a howling cackle. When she spoke, it was in an icy, growling voice. "We come from Earth."

Sam saw Amy and Rory exchange nervous glances, and he watched Merlin straighten up from his slouch on a wooden chair. The Doctor's expression didn't seem to change.

"That's not possible," he said slowly.

The woman cocked her head to the side. "Then you know nothing of what is possible, Doctor."

"No!" the Doctor said, hitting his forehead with the heel of his palm. "No, it's not. You're fast; you transfer your will onto others through touch. Why? For sustenance? For defense?"

"For fun," the woman cackled.

"I think I've worked it out," the Doctor continued as though she had never spoken. "But it can't be possible. It can't . . ."

"Worked what out?" Merlin asked from the sidelines. "Doctor."

The Doctor ignored him. He just stared at the woman. "Who are you? What do you want?" he asked again in a softer voice than before, as though he hoped her story would change.

"We are the Lamenta," the woman said, still smirking. "We're here to follow orders."

"Whose orders?"

"Our great Queen's," she said. "We will go to her in the dead of night. She will give us our final orders." Her eyes fell on Merlin, looking at him as though she could see right through him. Sam could see the alarm in the young wizard's eyes as the woman said, as though it were to him, "We will take everything you love."

The room went eerily quiet, until Sam stepped in. "I think we've heard enough," he said, taking the Doctor by the arm. "Doctor?" He fished for the man's attention, and the Doctor finally met his eyes.

Then he looked passed Sam and released himself from his grip. "Merlin," he said pointedly. "We need to find out who the Lamenta are working for. I think it's time we went undercover." He was smiling now, but Merlin just shook his head in wonder. "Do you have the ability to transform someone into something else? Just for a bit. We don't want her as a Lamenta forever. Isn't that right, Amy?" he called to her.

Amy looked confused as to what he was talking about and what it had to do with her, but she agreed anyway, a bit unsurely, "Yeah!" Sam wondered just how much trust she had placed in her Doctor.

Meanwhile, Merlin was nodding. "It will require a potion," he told the Doctor. "Gaius and I can make it now; we've already got all the ingredients."

"Chop, chop. We've no time to lose," the Doctor said, fluttering his arms as he spun around towards Amy. "Now, as for you . . ."