Author's Notes:

Firstly, I own nothing! Sorry that this is kind of late. I had tests (A.P.s to those who can relate), and then writers block, and then I was just plain lazy.

Isis the Sphinx: Yes he would be letting his guard down too soon, but I figured it would kind of apart of the magic in the forest that was making him do it

Ominix: Sorry I didn't reply to you last chapter, I just wanted to get it up. Thank you for your comments. Yes Harry does seem simple minded, but it's the Doctor, if you ever watch the episodes when the companion tells someone why they travel with the Doctor, it's because they feel that they can trust him for no reason at all. Voldemort, his friends, for Dumbledore really won't be any real impact here, though maybe in the far, far future when Harry has to get back to his own timeline hint- hint


The Doctor watched as Harry was carried away by a hooded man. He fought through the mob, desperate not to lose him in a place where they weren't supposed to be.

There was a break in the fight and the Doctor ran forward, only to be tackled to the ground by one of the original guards. "Oh no you don't! Oi, Bernie! Got one!"

"Bernie" grinned maliciously and seized the Doctor's legs as the other guard grabbed his torso. The Doctor didn't have long to struggle. A moment later, he was chucked into a barred wagon with about ten other men already inside. His coat, that consequently held the sonic screwdriver, was ripped from him. The guard closed the door and locked it. A second later, the Doctor was at the barred door looking at the guard with a wild look in his eyes and face, "You have to let me out of here!"

The guard laughed, saying, "Yeah right. Who do you think you are, the bloody King of England?" Before he could respond, the guard continued, "Well it doesn't matter. Prince John rules this land here. The sayings of peasants mean nothing to him."

When Harry woke up, the first thing that he realized was that his head was killing him. The second thing he realized was that his hands were bound behind his back. When he finally opened his eyes, he groaned, not only from the result of bright light, but from the lack of glasses.

He tired to sit up and after a few tries, succeeded. He paused for a moment to let his blurred eyes to adjust to the light, only to make out that it was actually rather dim and he was in a sort of cave. There was also a man there who was holding a bloody cloth to his… nose.

By this point the man had seen that Harry was awake and said, "You're awake." He took the cloth from his nose and murmured, "Finally-" when he saw that it had stopped bleeding. He calmly put the cloth down, cupped his hands in a basin of water, and splashed his face. He took a clean cloth and gently wiped the blood off of his still tender nose. "Well, you didn't break it…"

Harry had enough of being ignored and he burst out, "Who are you? Why did you kidnap me?"

"Well, the point was not for ransom, if that is what you were thinking. Neither you or your father-"

"He's not my father," Harry said quickly.

The man gave him a look, "Well, what is he then?"

Harry paused. What was the Doctor to him? HE finally said, "He's called the Doctor. He's just a friend." 'Who happens to be an alien.' He added mentally.

The man gave him a strange look before continuing, "Anyway, you're here not for money, as neither you nor your friend looked rich. You're here because I tired to get you out of that battle, though I do suppose I could have done a better job at it…"

"You think?"

They remained in a stony silence for a few moments. Harry flexed his arms, remembered that he was bound and asked, "So… can you untie me?"

The man gave him a cheeky grin as he asked, "How do I know that you're not going to try and escape?"

Harry responded very dryly, "Where am I gunna go? I don't even know where here is." He paused and asked, "You wouldn't happen to have my glasses would you?"

"Those frames around your eyes?" He picked something off of a table, presumably Harry's glasses.

"Yep."

The man graced the room in three graceful strides, and put the glasses on Harry's face. The man sharply came into focus.

He was rather attractive, with shoulder length brown hair and eyes. He had sharp features, such as high cheekbones, pointed chin and nose, and a generally narrow face. He had full lips and his eyes were full of mirth but had a sense of trust in them. He was rather tan too. Harry stared at him and asked again, "Who are you?"

The man reached down with a knife in his hand and cut the bonds. He then looked Harry in the face and with a full smile said, "I am Robin Hood."


The Doctor was thrown roughly into a cell and his coat was carelessly thrown onto a table were another disinterested guard had his feet propped up. He ran to the bars and grabbed them, shouting, "You have to let me out of here! I need to find my friend!"

The guard ignored him and the Doctor now saw that he was asleep.

"Stop yelling. It's doing you no good." The Doctor turned to the speaker and saw a large blurry man with a kind face sitting on carved out stone. "Best not to get them aggravated seeing as they have the key." He patted the spot next to him. "Little John," he offered.

The Doctor let a small smile form on his lips. He sat down next to the man and groaned, "The first place I take him, he gets kidnapped and I'm thrown in jail."

"Your friend I take it?"

"Yep."

Little John smiled sympathetically and said, "Ah, I'm sure that he's alright. There may be bad folk here, but there are plenty of goof folk here as well. You just have to know where to look." (1)

Before the Doctor could respond, the door leading to the dungeons, which were surprisingly empty, opened. A regal man with the flowy robes to match flanked by two armed guards, stepped through the door. He walked until he was in front of their cell and looked in with a sneer saying, "Well, well, well. Little John is it? Hood's first lieutenant. I must say that I'm surprised that you've come."

The Doctor said, a bit confused, "Wait, Hood? As in Robin Hood?"

"What other Hood do you think there is in these parts-"

"The Doctor, just the Doctor." Realization dawned on him, "And you're Prince John?" He bounced on the balls of his feet, "Exciting isn't it?"

"Well then Doctor-" He stopped and sniffed the air, closing his eyes. When he opened them, they had a slight red tint to them, and he whispered, "Abhorsen."

"Well. I'd say I've found my Dead Creature," he put on the glasses that he didn't need, "So what are you, then? Hmm? A Dead Hand? Wait! No… clever. You're a Mordaut." (2)

"Ah what?" Little John asked.

"A Mordaut. A creature that takes live hosts and preys off other humans."

"Abhorsen is here…"

"So you're on your own here. There is no one to protect you."

The guards and Little John stared at the Doctor and Prince John as they conversed back and forth.

Prince John spoke again in the same whisper, "Who is he?"

The Doctor's voice took a sharp, protective edge to it, "He is none of your concern, only I am." This one had accumulated too much power from feeding off of prisoners, which explained why it was so empty. Harry would have a hard time defeating him without the bells and proper training. He hoped that the knowledge that he had accumulated would help, and that Styrke would help him.

"He will come, and he will die!"


Harry, Robin Hood, and some of the Merry Men lightly jogged through the woods towards the castle that, according to a scout, held the Doctor and Robin Hood's first Lieutenant, Little John, who had been captured from a tipoff during a raid the previous day. Robin Hood held up a hand to signal a stop and they all did so gratefully. Robin Hood walked to Harry's side and asked, "Feeling alright?"

"I'll be fine, you?"

"I'm good, we'll be there in about an hour, and then we'll have to wait for a signal."

Harry frowned, "Shouldn't we wait until dark or something?"

Robin Hood shook his head and said, "No, that's what they expect from us. We rarely attack during the day so they'll be unprepared."

Harry nodded and Robin walked of to check on his men. It had taken a little while, but Harry had managed to convince Robin to let him go along. Despite technically being a thief and an outlaw, he was surprisingly protective of people, even ones he scarcely knew.

Harry stretched a bit and pulled out Styrke. He twirled the sword around and frowned. The sword had not been damaged at all, but it seemed to flash, spitting angrily. Harry closed his eyes for a moment and reached out with the Charter. After a moment, he found the disturbance. His eyes flashed open when he realized that something was very wrong.


When they finally reached the castle, the sun was still shining and they executed out the battle plan. Silently, they crept up the steps and knocked the guards unconscious, not killing them, partly because Harry had asked them not to and partly because the sight of dripping blood would tip someone off.

They entered the castle via a window and set forth to the dungeons, where they hoped to find the Doctor and Little John. For whatever reason, no one was, well anywhere. The halls seemed emptied out and uninhabited. This didn't seem to bother Robin as he and his men to the familiar path to the dungeons. They flung the door open and saw two things. One they saw that the door to a cell with ripped from its hinges and inside the cell was Little John, his face bloody. He was staring at his hands that also had blood on him. Harry caught a whiff of something foul, something… dead.

"Robin."

Robin raced through the open cell and placed himself at John's side saying, "John, what happened to you?"

John stared at Robin and said, his voice broken, "Prince John, Robin, he- he. Oh by God Robin! He was dead, a dead thing. His eyes burned red and he ripped the door Robin! Ripped it right off! That other man- the Doctor- he just stood there, called 'im a Mordaut. And by God he screeched, it was so unholy, so damned! John said, 'The Abhorsen will come, and he will die.' And his men, he killed his own men! I tried to save them, but… And then they just left!" He let out a broken sob, and they noticed two guards lying on the stone, brutally murdered.

Harry felt cold, very cold. He felt Death there, and it was because of him. Those men were dead, and he was a cause of it.

Something raged inside of Harry, something that understood what he needed to do. He asked Little John in a cold voice, his face determined, "Where did they go?"


Harry ran down hallways that were nothing more than blurs to him. He vaguely heard Robin call out after him, but Harry paid him no heed, he knew what he had to do, and he was going to do it. Using his Death Sense, as one book had termed it, he followed the trail left by the Mordaut. After ten minutes of running, he reached a door and flung it open, Styrke in hand.

Harry saw the Doctor first. "Harry, get out of here!" He was silenced by an artifact held by that a regal man, who reeked of Death. The Doctor seemed trapped in a force field that Harry understood as Free Magic, as he smelt its distinctive corrosive tang.

Harry looked at the man and said his voice slightly cold, "So you're the Dead creature we've been looking for."

Prince John nodded to him and responded, "And you are Abhorsen. Too young for this, but I'll have to kill you nonetheless. He smiled more broadly, "They send a child to deal with me. And one without bells too! They could have at least sent you with panpipes, the silly child's toy."

Harry searched him for a weapon, anything, but found nothing. What was he going to do?

But Prince John seemed to know what he was thinking, "You will die in the place that you and your ancestors have sworn to guard."

Before Harry could think, Prince John lunged towards him and grabbed his shoulders. Almost immediately, Harry felt a cold spread through his body. He felt a river rush around his knees. All he suddenly saw was a horizon of gray, a vast never-ending gray. In the distance he heard a waterfall. It took him a moment to realize that he was in the one place where only the Dead and Abhorsens go. The one place where books failed to describe and a place where all feared… He was in Death.


Harry gawked for a second before instinct forced him to dodge an on coming hand. He fought against the current that was so inviting to take him down the river… Harry turned on his heel and saw what Prince John really was: a semi- corporeal shape, but it's form wasn't really distinctive at all. But he formed his hands into great claws and Harry could almost see the thing sneer. "Here Abhorsen, you will die."

He swung his hand again, but this time Harry was ready. He drew Styrke and held it up in a defensive position. Harry knew that he could not call upon the Charter here, but he didn't know any Free Magic either: he would have to defeat the Mordaut by force. Blow after blow, Harry grew tired. The Mordaut was strong, yet it was still a newborn, so it was rather weak.

Though he remained mostly on the defensive side, Harry managed to get in a few good blows, until he managed to stab the Mordaut in what seemed to be the neck, causing sparks to fly everywhere. The Mordaut lost its somewhat corporeal form and slowly fell into the awaiting river, which gobbled the up the Mordaut hungrily.

Harry took a breath and ignored the call of the river. It was now that he panicked. He had never been in Death before, as he had only read about it in theory. He touched Styrke's blade and felt the reassurance in the Magic that dwelled within it. He realized that they hadn't gone that far, so he did as a book had told him: he felt for the border between Life and Death. When he found it he gave a sigh of relief and started to wade through the river, wincing as he made very conspicuous splashing noises. When he reached the border, he looked around for a moment and felt strangely at peace there. But he felt the warmth that was life, and stepped through.


Harry felt cold when his spirit reconnected with his body and soon realized why. His entire body was surrounded in a dissipating fog and frost covered every inch of him. His ears even had icicles growing on them. He felt a pair of hands on his shoulders, and saw Prince John holding him. Said prince promptly collapsed. Harry felt his spirit fading, which meant that he was dying.

Harry spotted the Doctor, who was whooping for joy, and the artifact that the Mordaut had used to trap him. Harry walked up to it and saw that it was a Free Magic talisman, but could be canceled out with Charter Magic if the user was either too weak to keep up the spell or if they died.

Harry called upon the spell he needed and easily broke through the Free Magic, feeling happy that he could both feel and use the Charter.

The Doctor practically ran up to him and engulfed him in a hug saying, "Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant! Not many can go into Death and get out on their first time, and defeat a Dead creature- which by the way was a Mordaut in case you didn't know."

"I knew and it was brilliant. It was like I knew that I had to do this and I did it, I really did it!"

The Doctor had a serious look on his face now, "They won't be that easy in the future, I hope you know that."

"They never are, but lets not spoil the moment." Harry suddenly had a sly smile on his face and said, "You where wrong."

The Doctor looked confused, "About what?"

"You said that Robin Hood didn't exist. But guess what I met him."

"It appears that I was wrong, but to make things fair, I did meet Little John-" The Doctor slapped his forehead and said, "Oh damn, what happened after I left?"

"He's freaked out, but I'm sure he'll recover." Harry spied the talisman and said, "I wonder where he got this."

"I think that it was given to him. That's an ancient talisman, completely untouched by the Charter. Very rare and hard to come by. I'm surprised he has it."

"We should keep it then, yeah?" Harry put it in his pocket. "So how long was I in Death?"

"About an hour or so, why?"

"We probably should find Robin… But what about him?" He pointed to Prince John.

The Doctor knelt down next to him and said, "Too much of his life was taken out for anyone to save him. He'll die soon. We'll let Robin decide what to do with him."


They found them still in the dungeon, where Little John had stopped shaking and they where starting to leave.

Robin exclaimed, "There you are! I followed you, but I couldn't get the door open and…" He saw the Doctor, "It's you from before!"

Harry piped in, "Yep, Robin Hood, Doctor. Doctor, Robin Hood."

"Thanks for looking after him," the Doctor said. He paused and then added in a quiet voice, "Prince John is dying. There's nothing anyone can do about it. So what do you want to do?"

Robin Hood looked divided between shouting for joy and showing respect. On the one had, Prince John had terrorized the people for years, something that Robin and his men had been fighting against. On the other hand, he was a formidable foe and had earned a place in Robin's heart.

"How long does he have."

"About a week, give or take a day."

"Then he will have it, he shall not interfere unless necessary. Even he deserves that much."


A week and a two days later, the Doctor, Harry, Robin, and Little John where standing in front of the TARDIS. Apparently, Prince John had been rather stubborn to die and had lasted a day longer than he should have, but even he kicked the bucket, so now there was peace in Sherwood, as there was no ruling tyrant. They had all attended the funeral, though they remained out of sight. As it turned out, Robin Hood was only a myth because of the mystery shrouding Prince John's death. Someone had seen the bodies of the two guards and a still scared Little John and had concluded that something fishy had happened at the arrival of two oddly dressed individuals. Thus, legends had been born and the truth forgotten, as would the two outsiders.

During that past week, Robin and the men had taught Harry some swordplay, survival skills, and how to shoot a bow and arrow, which he apparently had a knack for. The Doctor talked with the locals about their way of life and experimented with different types of food, and had secured his coat with the sonic screwdriver in it.

Harry looked around and said, "This forest, it's different. It's not oppressing anymore. It's at peace."

No one said anything, as they felt it too.

The Doctor said, "Well, best be off. You know places to go, people to see."

Robin said, "Yes thank you for all that you have done for us."

Little John just nodded but said to the Doctor, "Don't forget what I said Doctor. About people."

The Doctor smiled and said, "I won't, thank- you."

Harry stepped in first and the Doctor closed the door.

"What was that about?"

The Doctor smiled again and said, "Oh nothing. Now where do you want to go next?"


Authors Notes:

Finally! I got this chapter done! Oh my god! Sorry if the fight scene between Harry and the Mordaut kinda sucked, I'm not sure how to do those and I just wanted to get this done. Also, Little John doesn't really have a role here because there are so many variations of his personality that I didn't want to screw anyone's perspective of him up. Also Robin Hood is fictional, and once again, I don't own it. Review please.

1) Yes, that is from The Sarah Jane Adventures (don't own!) It's not a bad show either.

2) The Mordaut's definition is accurate, and its first appearance (and only I think) was in Sabriel. (don't own!)