CHAPTER 52
I do not own Doctor Who or Merlin and I am making no profit off of this.
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Rose and the Tenth Doctor come from just before Fear Her in the second season of Doctor Who and after Doctor Who Vs. Dracula. Ace and the Seventh Doctor come from right after the episode Battlefield in the original series.
OOPS! WRONG MERLIN!
Even after the honeymoon, Jenny was still thinking about Merlin. She couldn't help but worry about whether he was okay or not after that visit by Blodeuwedd. She had to know so she decided to take a quick trip back to his universe in order to check on him. There was no need to take anyone else along with her. She was just going to pop in to say hi and that was it.
Nothing was ever that simple though. Not for Jenny Tyler anyway.
She quickly dematerialized and left Patrick, Sarah, and Jon on Florana. She promised herself that she would be back before they even knew that she was gone.
The TARDIS experienced some turbulence on the way there, but otherwise it had seemed fine. She had no reason at all whatsoever to expect that anything had gone wrong until she opened the door.
Rose Tyler immediately came running right at her and pushed her back inside the TARDIS immediately closing the door back behind her. Rose was shaking all over with fear, and Jenny found herself being the one to comfort her mother for once. She had absolutely no idea what was going on here at first until Rose started to speak to her.
"I'm so glad that you're here, Cassandra. Is this red box of yours a TARDIS? Please say that it is," Rose said in an extremely upset voice.
It took Jenny a minute to realize that this was the human version of her mother that had traveled with the Tenth Doctor, and that this version of her only knew her as a girl named Cassandra Harkness who had been lost in time the last time that she had seen her. She didn't know her as Jenny or even as her daughter at all.
"It is a TARDIS, Rose. How did you know that?" Jenny asked even as she felt really weird calling her mum Rose.
"It was obvious to me when we first met that you must be some kind of Time Lord or why did you keep going in and out of time like you were. Only the Doctor ever seems to get into that much trouble. I don't know why you didn't want the Doctor to know that though. I figured it must be some kind of timey wimey thing so I didn't question it," Rose said as she started to sound more like herself again.
"You can't tell him," Jenny emphasized.
"I don't know if I'll ever be able to tell him anything ever again," Rose said as she started to cry.
"What happened?" Jenny asked as a sudden dread seized her hearts.
Suddenly Jenny's TARDIS began to shake as multiple blasts hit it. She turned on the monitor to see knights with blasters shooting her TARDIS on the outside.
"What is going on?" Jenny asked in surprise.
"I told the Doctor not to get involved, but did he listen to me? No, he just had to do it. He said that if he didn't that it would create a paradox. Apparently one of his past selves found out that a future version of him would become the Merlin to the King Arthur of another dimension one day. So when we came across this man who called himself King Arthur the Doctor said that this was that day. I didn't like the situation at all. I had a bad feeling about it from the get go, and I was right. We stayed with him and helped him for a while, and then suddenly one day just out of the blue King Arthur was overthrown and everything fell apart. The whole thing ended up with me and the Doctor being separated from the TARDIS and on the run for our lives," Rose said.
"He should have listened. You're usually right, M- Rose," Jenny said.
"It's too bad for you that he didn't listen. You might have lived," a female voice suddenly said from behind Jenny and Rose.
"Morgaine," Rose said in fear.
"I take it that you're not exactly friends," Jenny said.
"She imprisoned the Doctor in some kind of ice cave. The Doctor distracted Morgaine's knights and allowed me to escape or she would have gotten me too," Rose quickly explained.
"In the end, it still did you no good though. I have trapped Merlin forever, and now I finally have you as well, Nimueh. No one escapes my wrath forever. Now you will die, and my revenge on Merlin will be complete," Morgaine said.
"You'll never touch her as long as I live," Jenny said as she stood protectively in front of Rose.
"Cassandra, don't!" Rose warned.
"Then you will die. Nimueh will be mine," Morgaine said as she pointed at her and a blast of energy poured out of her fingertip hitting Jenny in the head.
Jenny screamed as her head exploded in intense pain. She instantly collapsed to the floor of her TARDIS and stopped moving.
"No! You didn't need to kill her. She was just a kid," Rose screamed as she suddenly felt as if her heart was being torn apart.
"She was in my way. That was reason enough. She knew that she might die for daring to oppose me and yet she did anyway. She was very brave. I will bury her with full honors," Morgaine said.
"Not if I bury you first," Rose suddenly said in a voice that wasn't just hers anymore. Morgaine could swear that she could hear the growl of a wolf in her voice now and the anger of the wolf in her eyes.
When those same eyes began to glow with golden energy, Morgaine backed away from Rose in fear as she saw that she was far more than the innocent girl than she had pretended to be. She was a sorceress just as she was.
"There's no need for that," Jenny's voice said from the floor.
Rose looked down at her with a smile as she immediately went back to normal without even realizing it as she said, "I knew you Time Lords were hard to get rid of. Plenty of people have tried to kill the Doctor after all, and no one's succeeded yet. At least, I hope they haven't."
"He'll be fine," Jenny said as she began to glow with energy. This time it wasn't the power of the Vortex though. It was something else.
"How do you know that?" Rose asked.
"I know a lot of things now. I feel different. Something's changed about me. I don't know what it is yet though,' Jenny said.
"Are you alright?" Rose asked in concern.
"I think so. I just feel strange that's all," Jenny said.
Even as they talked to each other, Morgaine watched them both in silent terror. They looked so innocent, but they each had power beyond imagining. She suddenly knew that either of them could kill her in an instant if they chose. She had to escape now while she still had the chance. As Morgaine quickly disappeared from the TARDIS, Jenny breathed a sigh of relief.
She hadn't been sure if she could have taken her in her current state or not. She still felt extremely weakened from Morgaine's attack.
"She's gone now. Sit down and rest before you fall down," Rose ordered her.
Jenny looked at her in surprise at first and then smiled as she obediently sat down right away. Rose was already acting like her mother even though she had no idea who she really was to her.
As Jenny sat down in the Captain's Chair, Rose went to the console and put in the coordinates for the ice cave that the Doctor had been trapped in.
Jenny looked at her in surprise as she said, "You know how to fly it?"
"I know that I'm just a stupid ape to you lot, but I can be very smart when I want to be, Cassandra. I've watched the Doctor long enough to know how to fly the TARDIS on my own now. It's putting in the coordinates that I'm not quite sure about. I think that I've got it right though," Rose said as she carefully turned the knobs and switches on Jenny's TARDIS.
"You're not a stupid anything, Rose. You never were. You're the smartest person that I know," Jenny said.
Rose looked at her with a warm smile as she said, "Thanks. You don't really know me that well though, do you? We've only met three times counting this one."
"I know you better than you think, Rose Tyler," Jenny said with an enigmatic smile.
"Oh, I can tell that you're a Time Lord alright. You're just like him. You're all dark and mysterious, and you can never tell us ordinary mortals what's going on. You always have to keep everything to yourselves," Rose said.
"I'm sorry. I want to tell you so much but I can't," Jenny said in a guilty voice.
"Yes, I know. It's the Laws of Time and all of that rubbish. The Doctor's given me enough lectures about it by now that I know the whole drill by heart now," Rose said.
Jenny suddenly had a splitting pain go through her head again, and she cried out, "Mum! Help me!"
Without even thinking about it, Rose was by Jenny's side in an instant with her arms wrapped around her in a comforting embrace. She rubbed Jenny's head gently as she said, "What's wrong? What is it?"
"I don't know. It's my head. It won't stop killing me. I feel so strange. Something's happening to me," Jenny said in terror.
"It's okay. I'm here. You're going to be okay. I'll make sure of it," Rose said as long buried maternal instincts leftover in her from raising Cassiopeia immediately came up to the surface and took charge.
The TARDIS landed inside of the ice cave and the Doctor immediately came running toward the direction of the sound of the materialization with a huge smile on his face. He knew that Rose had been watching him fly the TARDIS for a long time now even though he had pretended not to notice it. He had wanted her to know how so that she could go home if anything ever happened to him. He should have known that Rose would never give up on him though.
He was shocked to discover Jenny's red phone box instead of his blue box standing there. It was another TARDIS! How? Could it be that he wasn't alone after all?
The Doctor touched the door of this TARDIS and was surprised when it opened instantly at his touch. He went inside to find Rose comforting the girl that he only knew as Cassandra. He had absolutely no idea what was going on, but he knew that he had to get out of here quickly and find his TARDIS before Morgaine or her knights found it.
"Rose, we have to go," the Doctor said as he rushed to the console and put in the coordinates where he had last left his TARDIS.
As Jenny's TARDIS dematerialized, Rose said, "Doctor, Cassandra's sick. Morgaine did something to her because she was trying to protect me."
The Doctor went over to check on Jenny and was shocked to find that she had two hearts. She was a Time Lady. He wasn't alone anymore!
"Cassandra's a Time Lord," the Doctor said with joy.
"I know. You're not supposed to though. She told me not to tell you," Rose said.
"Why? Unless . . . ," the Doctor said.
He stopped as he looked back and forth between Jenny and Rose, and he suddenly knew why she didn't want him to know what she was. She must be his and Rose's child. Why could he never see the resemblance between the two of them when he had met her before? Cassandra must be their child from the future. That would explain so much including why there was suddenly another Time Lord around when he was the only one. It would also explain why Rose was so attached to her and had always been so protective toward her each time that they had met. Somehow on a subconscious level, Rose had recognized her as her child.
"Unless what, Doctor?" Rose asked.
"Nothing. I'm sure that it's not important. I'll just make myself forget all about what I learned about her today as soon as I know that she's okay," the Doctor said.
"How do you know that she's going to be okay, Doctor? Morgaine could have done something terrible to her for all you know," Rose said in an angry voice.
"No, I'm sure that she'll be fine. Time Lords are almost impossible to kill. We're like cockroaches. You'll never get rid of us," the Doctor said.
"Doctor, did you just compare yourself to a cockroach?" Rose asked as a smile spread over her face despite her worry about Jenny.
"Yeahhh, I believe I just did. I must be really slipping today. First I have to get rescued by my companion, and now I'm comparing myself to a bug. I'm really batting a thousand today. I think that when all of this is over I'm going to need a good long vacation to clear my head. Maybe I could go to Argolis or the Eye of Orion. It doesn't matter to me just as long as it's somewhere peaceful and quiet," the Doctor rambled on.
As the TARDIS materialized, the Doctor immediately ran outside without even thinking about checking the monitor first. It was a move that he instantly regretted.
"Destroy him! This time he will not escape," Mordred, Morgaine's son and the commander of her knights, ordered the massive army of knights surrounding the Doctor's TARDIS.
"Oh, yeah! I'm really having an off day today. It's just one low after another for me lately. I swear if the Master shows up, I'm just going to find some nice deserted planet somewhere with a nice big tree to sit under and park myself there for the rest of my lives," the Doctor said with a sigh.
"I certainly hope not. I'd hate to think that I would spend my retirement doing something that boring. It makes me wonder if I'm wasting my time coming here to check up on myself after having run across some of your handiwork recently," the voice of the Seventh Doctor suddenly said.
The Tenth Doctor turned with a groan to see his past self and Ace standing behind him. He really didn't need this, especially not after the day that he had been having lately.
"Now I know I'm at an all-time low. I have to be saved by you," the Tenth Doctor said with an audible sigh.
"Oi! What am I, chopped liver? Professor, who is this sad sack?" Ace asked.
"I'm afraid that he's me, Ace," The Seventh Doctor asked.
"If you wind up turning into him on me, I'll blow you up myself just to force you to regenerate again," Ace said.
"I missed you too, Ace," the Tenth Doctor said with a wince.
"Two Merlins? It doesn't matter. We'd still destroy you all even if there were a dozen of you. Fire!" Mordred shouted.
"I'd think twice about that if I were you. I'm holding highly combustible explosives here," Ace said as she held up some cans of Nitro-9 with an evil grin on her face.
Mordred's men froze in their tracks even as Mordred shouted, "It's a lie. Shoot them!"
"You want proof? Catch!" Ace said as she threw one of the cans towards Mordred's men.
They all quickly moved out of the way in a mass panic which turned out to be a good thing as the Nitro-9 exploded as soon as it hit the ground. The explosion only made Mordred's men ran harder as they fled from the crazy girl with the explosives.
Ace laughed as the Seventh Doctor said in an angry voice, "Ace! I thought that I told you to bring only empty cans."
"Sorry, Professor. I guess one must have slipped by me," Ace said with a malicious grin on her face.
"Will all of you stop standing around wasting time and help me?" Rose shouted as she helped carry a barely conscious Jenny out of her TARDIS.
"Well, someone's got her shorts all in a bunch," Ace said.
"Stop it, Ace. She's obviously very worried about that young Time Lady," the Seventh Doctor said.
"How is it that you can see who she is so quickly? It took me three meetings with her before I figured it out," the Tenth Doctor complained.
"It's probably because unlike some of me I actually use my brain," the Seventh Doctor said.
"Doctors, if you don't help her right now, I'll slap both of you into kingdom come!" Rose shouted in a rage.
Both Doctors ran over to take a look at Jenny immediately with a downcast expression on their face that made them look like whipped dogs. Rose glared at them the entire time as if daring them to say something that didn't have to do with helping Jenny.
"I like her. She's my new hero," Ace said happily.
Both Doctors realized that Jenny was far more than just another Time Lady as they studied her closely. They both came to the same shocking conclusion at once.
"She's changing into a Guardian," both Doctors said at once.
"What? What's a Guardian?" Rose asked.
"They're extremely powerful entities that can control all of time and space at a whim. She's slowly becoming one. That's why she's so sick. She'll be better soon though once her transformation is complete," the Seventh Doctor said.
"I'm becoming a Guardian?" Jenny asked in disbelief.
"Yes. The process seems to be making you extremely sick because you already have powers gained from the Vortex. It's making your transformation a lot harder and longer than it should be," the Tenth Doctor said in a gentle voice.
"The Vortex?" Rose asked as she looked at Jenny in shock.
"Rose, she's our daughter from the future," the Tenth Doctor said.
Rose looked at Jenny with a wide smile spreading over her face as she said, "That explains everything."
"I can't let any of you remember this. None of you are supposed to know about me yet," Jenny said.
"Obviously, since you haven't even been born yet. Are you sure that you want to be alone in this condition with no one to help you go home?" the Seventh Doctor asked.
"Yeah, I can make it," Jenny said in a weak voice.
"Sure, you can. I'm going with you," Rose said in a firm voice.
"No, Mum. You can't. You have to stay with Dad," Jenny said.
"No. I won't leave you until you're better," Rose insisted.
"I'll be alright. Now go home all of you," Jenny said as she started erasing their memories of this entire meeting with her.
Seven and Ace immediately went back to their TARDIS in a trance like state as they prepared to leave and so did Ten and Rose. Jenny slowly made her way back into her TARDIS alone and set the coordinates to take her back to Florana before she collapsed on the floor unconscious.
The TARDIS materialized, but Jenny never moved. She continued to slowly change all the while. Then the door to her TARDIS suddenly opened and someone came inside and shook her head at her as she said in a French accent, "What am I going to do with you, Jenny Tyler?"
The woman studied the coordinates on the console and sighed as she said, "You entered the coordinates wrong. It's lucky for you that I was alerted by the future version of you and sent to help or you'd be stuck alone on the Florana of the past for who knows how long until you woke up. Allons-y, Madame Jenny. Now you can finally go home."
Jenny's TARDIS materialized back on Florana at last, and Patrick opened the door with an angry scowl on his face as he said, "It was nice of you to go off without telling us. I was worried sick about you."
Then he saw Jenny lying unconscious on the floor, and his anger at her instantly evaporated as he raced to check her pulse. As he checked Jenny's other vital signs, he suddenly felt the presence of someone else in the Console Room with him.
He looked up to see a very familiar woman looking at him with an amused look on her face. He couldn't believe his eyes. It couldn't be! Not her!
"Hello, Patrick," Reinette said with a warm smile on her face.
"Zut alors!" Patrick said with a shocked look on his face.
Next: Reinette? Really? How could Reinette be back? I mean she's dead, right? That answer will be revealed next time along with her connection to the future version of Jenny. Now excuse me while I run from the combined anger of River and Rose. Hopefully, I'll survive and be able to come back next time to finish this story. If I'm lucky!
