CHAPTER 28

I do not own Merlin and I am making no profit off of this.

Thank you for all of your reviews, favorites, and follows!

LET THE INVASION BEGIN

Sophia and Gwaine raced towards the sound of yet another scream just in time to find another dead knight. They did a quick search of the immediate area and found no trace of any assailant.

"What's happening here? Who or what can kill so quickly and leave no trace of themselves afterwards?" Sir Leon asked as he caught up to them.

"A creature born of magic. I can feel traces of magic in the area. It's something that can apparently drain the life force from humans in seconds," Sophia said as she briefly studied the dead knight before her with sad eyes.

"So it's a monster. Do you know what it is?" Gwaine asked.

"No, not yet. There are so many creatures that can drain the life from humans that I can't narrow it down. I'll need more to go on. Sorry that I'm not much help," Sophia said apologetically.

"That's alright. At least now we know a little more than we did. I guess it is a good thing that you came here. We'll need magic to fight this thing whatever it is," Gwaine said.

"I'm hurt, Gwaine, that up until now you weren't sure of that," Sophia said with a small teasing smile.

Then she looked back at the dead knight and briefly studied him as her eyes glowed with magic.

"What is it? What are you doing?" Leon asked intrigued by her abilities.

"It may not be too late. Yes, I think I can still do it," Sophia said almost to herself.

"Do what?" Gwaine asked.

Sophia pointed her staff at the dead knight, and power flowed from it into his body. All of the gathered knights gasped in shock as the man's eyes immediately flew open, and he started to breathe again.

"What happened?" the knight asked in complete confusion.

"You died but luckily for you it hadn't been that long. There was still a faint glimmer of life left in you. I just fanned it into a flame I guess you could say," Sophia said with a pleased look on her face.

"You brought him back to life," Leon said in amazement.

"Not exactly. He wasn't completely dead yet or I wouldn't have even tried it. I hate messing around with necromancy. That's tricky stuff and you're more likely to just wind up with a wraith or a shade than a real person," Sophia said.

"So he's normal now and just like he was before?" Gwaine asked.

"Yes, he'll be fine. He'll be a little weak for a while though," Sophia said.

The knight smiled at her gratefully as he said, "Thank you, my lady. I owe you my life."

"You don't owe me anything. I always do everything with no strings attached. I would like one thing from you though. What do you remember about the thing that tried to kill you?" Sophia asked.

"It was a shape changer. I saw a beautiful girl, and I tried to ask her what she was doing here. Instead of answering, she ran away from me. Then I suddenly saw her turn into a beast with several tentacles that quickly slithered away from me. I started to chase after it when I felt a horrible feeling like the very life itself was being sucked out of me. After that, I don't remember anything until I saw you," the knight said.

"A Lamia," Sophia said.

"I've heard of them. They take the form of beautiful women and manipulate men's minds so that they can suck the life force from them with a kiss," Gwaine said.

"So how can they be killed?" Leon asked.

"They can be killed with normal weapons if you can get close enough to them. You'll have to do massive internal damage to them though. An attack that can kill an ordinary person won't be enough to defeat them. Oh, and they have telekinesis and other powers so it won't be easy," Sophia said.

"We'll just have to do the best that we can then. At least we know what we're up against now anyway," Leon said just before he started to issue orders to the other knights.

Gwaine noticed that Sophia still looked troubled though so he asked, "What is it?"

"Something doesn't feel right about this. The Lamia usually manipulated all of the men around them and brought them under their power before they start attacking. Even then they pick them off one at a time. They're usually not this bold. It's almost as if something or someone just wants us to think that it's a Lamia to confuse us. I don't like this, Gwaine. I don't like it at all," Sophia said.

"What else could it be then, and why is it doing all of this?" Gwaine wondered.

"That's what I intend to find out. Stay very close to me, Gwaine. Lamias can't control women or people with magic if it is one of them so I'm your lucky charm," Sophia said.

"I'd say that even if we weren't in this situation. I doubt she could control me anyway. I'm already under the spell of another far more beautiful magical woman," Gwaine said as he kissed her.

"Always the charmer, Gwaine," Sophia said with a smile as she returned his kiss.

Then they heard a woman scream in fear and the triumphant cries of the knights.

"They found the Lamia," Gwaine said with a smile.

"Yes, or who they think is the Lamia anyway. I have to go there and make sure. I don't want them to accidently kill some innocent girl because of what I told them," Sophia said with concern.

They both rushed towards the sound of the screams to find a young woman pushing the knights away from her telekinetically as they all attempted to rush at her at once. She looked absolutely terrified and not a bit like a bloodthirsty monster at that moment.

Sophia noticed right away that she wasn't harming any of them though. That was something else that wasn't adding up.

"Just leave me alone. I haven't done anything. Go away!" the woman shouted.

"She isn't hurting them," Sophia noted.

"What?" Gwaine asked.

"Look at the power that she has. She's pushing a small army of knights away from her with ease. She could easily kill all of them but she isn't. Doesn't that tell you anything?" Sophia said in frustration.

"She isn't the one killing them," Gwaine realized.

"I knew there was a reason I loved you. Now we just have to make the others realize that too," Sophia said pleased.

"We have to slay her as quickly as possible before she can kill anyone else. Continue the attack," Leon ordered.

"No, no. Why won't you listen? It wasn't me. I saw what was killing your people. It was some kind of hooded cloaked figure with burning red eyes. I don't know what it was, but it looked terrifying. I was afraid to go near it," the woman said.

"Don't listen to her. She's just trying to confuse you," Leon advised.

"Please. I don't want to hurt any of you. I just want to be left alone. Why can't I just be left in peace?" the woman said in a voice filled with pain.

Then she screamed as one of the knights scored a lucky strike and pierced her through the heart with his sword. She was still alive but obviously in great pain as another knight came up behind her to finish her off.

That was when Sophia teleported right in front of her and put up a force field around both of them while she instantly healed the girl with a wave of her hand. The Lamia looked at the Sidhe girl in absolute surprise as she began to shout at the knights to back down.

"What does she think she's doing?" Leon asked Gwaine in disbelief.

"Saving an innocent girl. The Lamia didn't kill those men," Gwaine said.

"She's a monster though," Leon protested.

"So what? That doesn't necessarily make her evil does it? I know that some of you, probably most of you, once considered me a monster because I'm not human. Do you all trust me now though?" Sophia asked.

All of the knights nodded in unison. At first the fact that she was a Sidhe had made them all wary of her despite her relationship with Gwaine and the king, but they had all quickly grown to like and trust her as they realized what a kind, caring person that she really was.

"Tell me though. Would you still trust me if you didn't know me and you saw my true form?" Sophia asked as she transformed back into her Sidhe form.

The Lamia backed away from her in fear as Sophia said in her true voice, "If you didn't know me and saw me like this, would you still trust me or want to kill me instantly just for being different? Would you give me the benefit of the doubt?"

The knights were all silent as Sophia continued, "Don't feel so bad. I used to feel the same way about humans until I really got to know them. Now I know that I was wrong to judge someone as evil just because they look different from me or because they're another species and so do you. I don't think this girl did anything, and just because she's a Lamia that doesn't automatically make her evil. Give her a chance. Please."

Sophia then returned to her human form as Leon said, "We'll hear what she has to say. I just hope for your sake that you know what you're talking about."

"I do. Trust me," Sophia said.

"I do trust you or I wouldn't be lowering my weapon," Leon said.

"Thank you. All of you," Sophia said as she lowered her force field.

"Thank you. I always thought that the Sidhe were frightening creatures, but apparently I was wrong," the Lamia said with a grateful smile on her face.

"Actually my people aren't that friendly towards others, but I've learned differently. I'm an enlightened Sidhe I guess you could say. So you say some cloaked figure was killing the others, Miss . . .?" Sophia asked as she fished around for the Lamia's name.

"Yes, that's exactly what I saw. My name is Sara, and I used to be human once before I was cursed by an angry witch and turned into a Lamia because I broke up with her son. I swear that I've never attacked anyone despite an almost overwhelming urge to sometimes. In fact, I try to stay away from people as much as possible so that I don't get too tempted to attack them. Not that it ever seems to help. Sooner or later they always find me and blame me for something," The Lamia said in a voice filled with overwhelming pain.

"I'm sorry about that, Sara. I promise that I can take you to a place where that won't happen to you anymore. It's a magic school where you can live in peace among people who will accept you until we can find a way to remove your curse. I'm sure in a school filled with powerful sorcerers and one former evil goddess that we'll come up with some way to do it. Before we go there though, we have to find and destroy what's really attacking the people around here. Can you give us anymore help in finding it?" Sophia asked Sara in a gentle voice.

"No, just what I already told you. That . . . and the fact that it's standing right over there," Sara suddenly said in a frightened voice.

The knights all turned to see a hooded cloaked figure with bright red eyes and no discernable features just like the one that Sara had described standing just a few feet away from them. It held a large staff in its hands with a giant ruby at its tip that glowed with mystic energy.

It began to laugh at them in eerie unearthly tones that made all of the knights instantly become filled with terror as it said, "I came so close. I would have gotten the poor Lamia killed in another few seconds and putting innocent blood on the hands of the knights would have been immensely satisfying to me. It would have been such a great trick to play on them, wouldn't it? I would have actually been doing her a favor. Her life has been nothing but misery since the curse from the sound of it."

"Is all of this just some sick game to you? Is that all Sara's life and the lives of all of those men mean to you? Was this just for some horrible thrill?" Gwaine asked in anger.

"No, that was just a nice side benefit to set up the girl like that. I killed those men because I require sustenance. I feed on the life forces of living beings. It's my purpose. I weed out the weak from the strong, and sometimes like today I have fun while doing it," The hooded figure said.

"You're not from Albion or Avalon. What are you?" Sophia said as she began to glow with mystic energy while preparing for a fight.

"Very astute, young Sidhe. You're right. I'm not from any land that you know. I am from another dimensional plane entirely as a matter of fact. I am but the first of many new visitors that you will soon receive here now that the mystic barriers surrounding Albion that the Triple Goddess put into place long ago to protect it from invasion from other worlds have weakened. Sooner or later word will get out to the others of my world and to those of so many others worlds that your land is ripe for the picking. Today though I'm going to enjoy being the one to get here first when this place was still filled with plenty of new life for the taking," The cloaked figure said with joy as it advanced towards them with wicked laughter.

The evil being began using his staff to suck the life forces right out of the helpless knights even as Sophia began to attack it with her own staff. So far though, even she could do nothing against it.

"Gwaine, you need to go back to Camelot and bring someone here to help us," Sophia said as she did her best to slow the monstrous being down and keep it from slaughtering the others.

"I won't leave you, Sophia," Gwaine said defiantly.

"Stop the chivalry routine and go get help before we all die. Go!" Sophia said.

Gwaine reluctantly turned to go and then suddenly turned back and gave Sophia a passionate kiss. Finally he pulled away from her at last and said, "You stay alive. Do you hear me? If you don't, you'll suffer my wrath."

"Well, I wouldn't want that. I'd rather face the monster over there any day," Sophia joked.

Then she waved good bye to him as he quickly rode off. As soon as he was gone, she started to attack the hooded being with everything that she had as she unleashed one enormous blast of mystic energy after another from her staff. Sara had even joined in to help her by using her telekinetic powers to push the figure back every time it got too close to one of the knights despite being terrified of it.

"That's it, Red Eyes. It's time for me to show that we're not exactly slouches in this world when it comes to power. No one's hurting my humans without a fight," Sophia said with a huge smile on her face as she charged right at the monstrous figure.

As Gwaine rode for help, back at her usual spot outside sitting on the tree stump near the Magic School Catherine was about to receive a most unwelcome surprise. At the moment though, she was enjoying herself as she talked to Merlin himself. It seemed that a certain goddess had encouraged Merlin to take her under his wing and teach her personally in the use of her powers.

"So you really think that I could be a powerful sorceress someday? Honestly?" Catherine asked still unconvinced of this despite what Alice had said to her about it.

Merlin nodded his head enthusiastically as he said, "Yes, I do. I can sense great power inside of you, Catherine. You have so much untapped potential. I think you just need to know how to use it in order to do something besides just talk to the animals. I'm going to teach you everything that I know, and we'll both find out exactly what you can really do together."

"So I'll be like your apprentice?" Catherine asked excited.

"Yes and not just mine. This is kind of a package deal," Merlin said with a smile.

"What do you mean?" Catherine asked.

"He means that you get to be trained by me too," Nimueh said as she suddenly joined them.

Catherine immediately looked less than thrilled, and then quickly covered it up with a nervous smile. Nimueh automatically felt terrible because the last thing she wanted to do was to scare one of the students especially Merlin's personal student. She had done that enough before.

"I really thought that I had improved on my personality," Nimueh said in an upset voice.

Catherine immediately looked guilty as she said, "Oh, you have, Miss Nimueh. You're a lot nicer than you were just a few weeks ago. I'm sorry for reacting like that. It's not about you at all. I just . . . I'm just not sure if I'm good enough to have the two greatest sorcerers in Camelot teaching me. It's a lot of pressure and a lot to live up to. I think Alice is wrong about me."

"I really don't think so, Catherine. She's been around since the dawn of time so I think she knows who has power and who doesn't," Nimueh said.

"I guess so," Catherine said sounding unsure of herself.

It seems that the first thing that we're going to have to work on with her is her self-confidence. Merlin said telepathically to Nimueh.

"That's going to be hard. I've always had a self-confidence problem. It comes from being abandoned by my mother when I was little I guess," Catherine suddenly said.

Merlin and Nimueh looked at each other in shock as Catherine said, "What?"

"Catherine, I didn't say that out loud. I said it telepathically to Nimueh," Merlin said.

Catherine looked at him in surprise for a moment and then she began to smile as she said, "I can do something else. I never knew that I could read people's thoughts. I've never done that before."

"See, Catherine? You just need a little practice. Nimueh and I going to work together in our spare time to help you do exactly that," Merlin said.

"What spare time?" Nimueh asked grinning.

"We'll find the time somehow. I have a feeling about her. It's like I can just tell that she's important somehow, but I can't exactly say why," Merlin said.

"You need to stop, Sir, or I'm going to get a swelled head," Catherine said with a grin.

"Sir?" Merlin said surprised.

"I think you've just blown his mind, Cat. You're the first one to ever accuse him of being a grown-up," Nimueh said laughing.

"Cat?" Catherine said making a face.

"Sorry. I was just trying it out. I'm trying to get closer to you so that I don't seem so scary," Nimueh admitted.

"You're not. Honestly. Don't worry about it, okay? I like you, Miss Nimueh, and I'm proud to have the two of you showing such interest in me of all people. It's pretty overwhelming," Catherine said smiling at her.

Suddenly Catherine screamed as she started to vanish right into thin air.

"Help me!" Catherine shouted in fear.

"What's going on?" Merlin cried out as he cast a counter spell to undo whatever was happening to his new apprentice.

"It's the Triple Goddess. It must be," Nimueh said as she cast a tracking spell on Catherine just before she faded completely away.

Just as the girl faded, both Merlin and Nimueh were nearly blown off of their feet by an enormous pillar of mystic energy that suddenly appeared right in front of them. The energy quickly turned into Alice who practically snarled at the two sorcerers in anger.

"How could you let them do that?! You idiots! You were standing right there, and neither of you could save her?! If anything happens to her, I'll rip whoever did this apart!" Alice screamed in a homicidal rage.

Merlin and Nimueh looked at each other in absolute shock as they watched Alice raging completely out of control. It was obvious that she was extremely upset and worried about Catherine, but they couldn't figure out why since she had only just gotten to know her.

"Don't worry. We'll get her back, Alice," Merlin promised her.

"Yes, I put a tracking spell on her just before she vanished completely that should lead us right to her," Nimueh said hopefully.

"I hope so. I can't lose her. Not now," Alice said as she burst into tears.

Nimueh soon found herself consoling the sobbing goddess as Merlin watched in disbelief. What was going on?

Catherine meanwhile found herself in the middle of what she soon recognized as the Cave of the Ancients. She shook in terror as she saw Blodeuwedd standing there staring at her with covetous eyes.

"Hello, Catherine. Remember me? I'm your old friend, Blodeuwedd. I've gone up in the world since you last saw me. I'm one of the Triple Goddess now. You can always say that you knew me when though, can't you?" Blodeuwedd said as she put her hand possessively on Catherine's shoulder.

"W-What do you want with me?" Catherine asked as she shook in fear.

"The same thing that Merlin does, Catherine. Only we want you to be our apprentice not his. In fact, we want you to be our new High Priestess," Blodeuwedd said.

"What? Why? I can't do anything," Catherine protested.

"Merlin's right. You do need a self-confidence booster," Blodeuwedd said with a sigh.

"This is just all some huge mistake. You've got the wrong person," Catherine said.

Blodeuwedd shook her head as she said, "Oh, no. I've gotten exactly who I want. Alice hid you from us for so long, Catherine. Her cloaking spell was so thorough that we might never have found you if she hadn't started showing such an interest in you lately. When she took such great pains to protect you from me recently, the other goddesses became suspicious and decided to study you more closely. Then we finally saw through the spell that Alice used to hide your powers with when you were an infant. Now we know exactly who you are and just how much potential that you have. It's a potential that we want to fully develop but for our side not theirs."

Catherine continued to look at her in confusion as she said, "Why would Alice want to hide me as an infant?"

"Are you really that dense, girl?" Blodeuwedd said with an enormous sigh.

Suddenly Alice, Merlin, and Nimueh appeared in the cave next to Catherine. Alice grabbed Catherine immediately and wrapped her arms around her as she held her to her protectively.

"Alice, what are you doing?" Catherine asked.

"She definitely didn't inherit your brains, Alice," Blodeuwedd said laughing.

That was when Catherine looked at Alice in shock as she finally understood what Blodeuwedd had been saying. Then her shock quickly turned to absolute anger.

Alice looked at her apologetically as she said, "It's true. I'm your mother, Catherine."

Merlin and Nimueh's mouths both dropped as Blodeuwedd said, "You've come all the way here only to die, Emrys. You'll never rescue the girl. All you've succeeded in doing is getting yourself killed by the newly restored Triple Goddess!"

Suddenly the Old Woman and the Mother Goddess appeared next to Blodeuwedd, and all three of them began to join forces to attack Merlin, Nimueh, Alice, and Catherine together at once.

"Good bye, Emrys. It's been nice knowing you," Blodeuwedd said with mocking laughter.

Meanwhile even as Merlin and the others fought for their lives, back on the border of Camelot the knights and Sophia seemed very close to losing their battle. The mysterious hooded figure was finally starting to overwhelm the Sidhe girl at last, and she knew as soon as she fell that the knights would all soon follow.

Just as it seemed as if Sophia was close to falling before the hooded figure's extremely powerful assault however, a man who seemed to exude power from his every pore suddenly appeared behind the evil figure as if out of nowhere. He smiled mischievously at Sophia and held a finger to his lips as he drew closer and closer to the hooded being.

Sophia and the knights looked at him in complete disbelief as they fully expected to see him brutally murdered in a matter of moments. Then suddenly this newest arrival surprised them all by setting the cloaked figure on fire just by briefly touching him with his fingertips!

The cloaked figure looked at the man behind him in complete surprise even as he burned alive in front of him and said in a confused tone with his last breath, "What are you doing? Why would you . . ."

Then the cloaked figure was cut off as he completely disintegrated to ashes. The man who had killed him laughed out loud as the knights, Sophia, and Sara just looked at him in absolute amazement.

"Who are you and how did you do that?" Leon finally asked.

The helpful stranger grinned at them as if killing mysterious creatures who could kill entire armies was just another ordinary day for him as he said, "It's quite easy to kill him when you know how. That was an evil, condemned soul from the lowest depths of Niffleheim, which is the home of the dishonored dead. Sometimes these lost souls escape to the mortal world and plague mankind. At least they do where I come from anyway. If you ever see one again which you might, you can stop them by touching them with dirt blessed by a holy man or woman spread across your fingertips. It's an old trick where I come from. My name is Siegfried by the way, and I'm from the land of the Geats far across the sea from here. It's so lucky for you that I just happened to be visiting here when I did, isn't it?"

"Yes, very lucky," Sophia said suspiciously.

The knights however all looked at Siegfried in admiration as they cheered at him and clasped him on the back. They were all more than eager to congratulate their new hero.

"I don't trust him. He smiles too much," Sara said to Sophia.

"I think you're right. I'm going to keep an eye on our mysterious stranger I think," Sophia said.

Then as if he knew that she was talking about him, Siegfried immediately made his way to Sophia and said, "Hello, beautiful one. Might I be so bold as to ask your name?"

Sophia almost laughed at his cheesy pick-up line as she said, "It's Sophia but I'm already taken I'm afraid."

"I should have known that someone as beautiful as you would already have someone. Oh, well. No harm done," Siegfried said with that ever present smile never leaving his face.

It was at that very moment that Gwaine rode up with a huge group of knights only to find that everything was already over with. Even worse, he found Siegfried smiling lecherously at Sophia despite her having just shot him down.

Gwaine immediately pulled Sophia away from Siegfried while he proceeded to hit on Sara next completely surprising her. Sara politely refused him as she backed away from him. There was just something about him that set off all of her warning bells.

"Who is that man?" Gwaine asked jealously as soon as he had Sophia all to himself while Siegfried was being congratulated by an enormous group of knights who just couldn't stop singing his praises.

"I don't know but I don't trust him. He appeared and destroyed the monster at a very convenient moment, Gwaine. It's almost as if it was all planned," Sophia said.

Gwaine breathed out an enormous sigh of relief as Sophia giggled at him and said, "Were you really worried that I would fall for him? Believe me, Gwaine. I'm not even in the slightest bit interested. In fact, he's given me an uneasy feeling from the moment I first saw him."

"Me too but that might be for a very different reason," Gwaine admitted.

Sophia shook her head and kissed him in order to reassure him while Sara continued to watch Siegfried warily. No one who had ever hunted her or attacked her ever made her as nervous as this man did just by smiling at her.

Nearby and unseen by everyone, Gwen and Morgana watched this whole scene together and gave one another uneasy looks. They had both come here to lead the knights into battle while Arthur and Morgause were away on their long delayed honeymoon.

"Do you know that man, Gwen? You act like you know something that I don't," Morgana finally asked.

"I don't know exactly who he is because he's hiding his true identity from me somehow, but I can sense what he is. It seems that we've officially been invaded, Morgana. Do you know how I said that I was here to protect Albion from threats from other dimensions as well as the Triple Goddess? Well, that's one of them," Gwen said.

Morgana looked at her in alarm as she said, "You have to tell the knights. They're inviting him to come and meet Arthur when he comes back from his honeymoon. They actually want him to stay there until then."

"We can't let him know that we're onto him, Morgana. He might become violent and depending on who or what he is even I might have a hard time fighting him while unprepared for him. I think that it's best that we just keep a close eye on him until we find out who he is and exactly what he wants," Gwen said.

"I hope that you're right," Morgana said as she continued to eye Siegfried warily.

Siegfried meanwhile laughed at how easily this all seemed to be going. Soon thanks to his convenient last minute save of the knights from one of his own servants who had no idea that he was going to be sacrificed in that way, they would lead him right to King Arthur himself.

Then Loki's invasion of Albion would truly begin.

Next: It's Merlin, Nimueh, and Alice versus the newly revived Triple Goddess as they fight for their lives and for the fate of Catherine. Will any of them get out alive and will Catherine wind up a prisoner of the Triple Goddess? Also Loki, the Norse trickster god, tries his best to worm his way into King Arthur's court. Will he succeed and who does he have already working with him?