Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Fellowship, the majority of the demons they're fighting (I may be improvising for some of them from here on in), or Morgraine and Mordred. The plot is mine, and that's it.

Feedback: Is Skinner slightly annoying? Of COURSE I want some!

Funky in Fishnet: Glad the battle's going down well, and thanks for saying you like my portrayal of Marcus; I was a bit uncertain about him, I have to confess.

The Fellowship of Extraordinary Men

As Robin felt the air around him ripple with his passing through the portal, he found himself wondering what kind of fight he'd let himself in for. He knew for a fact that Morgraine was a powerful sorceress, capable of performing remarkable feats of magic, but what else could she do?

What were her abilities when it came to fighting an opponent hand-to-hand?

What kind of weapons would she favour?

Were there any weaknesses she had that he might be able to exploit?

Before he could go any further in his train of thought, he felt himself hit stone, and rolled to his feet straight away, pulling out his bow and fitting an arrow to the string at the same time.

"Ah, you're here," Morgraine said, from where she was standing in front of him. At some point between her entering the portal and now, she'd changed from her original long black robes into a sleeker, more form-fitting outfit of a similar colour. It vaguely resembled armour, but it totally covered her legs and arms, which suggested that it was a great deal more flexible than any armour Robin was acquainted with. Her long red hair hung down her back, and she wore a golden face-mask that only exposed her eyes and nostrils.

"Isn't that a violation of our rules?" Robin asked, indicating the armour with his bow.

"Not at all," Morgraine smiled. "You specifically said you doubted I could hurt you in a fair fight; nothing was said about me being equally capable of being wounded. I am perfectly entitled to wear this armour; I break no rules that either of us made."

Robin briefly swore under his breath, but then sighed and pulled his bow back.

"Very well then," he said to her. "Let us begin."

He fired the arrow at her, striking her directly in the chest this time; his closer proximity to her left her with less time to react to the arrow. Unfortunately, it still didn't affect her that much; the armour just absorbed the arrow and left her standing, totally unscratched.

She looked down at the arrow as it fell to the ground, and then looked up at Robin with a smile on her face.

"My turn," she said simply.

Holding out her hand, she flexed her fingers briefly and a large sword appeared in her hand.

"Oh, don't think I'm breaking my word to you, Robin," she said, smiling cockily at him. "I assure you, I am not a liar, for all my other faults; this sword bears no magical properties at all; I just lack any actual weapons of my own normally, so I had to create one for myself." She raised the sword in a defensive posture, and smiled at him. "On guard?"

Robin swallowed nervously, but drew his own sword and raised it.

As his hands slid around the handle, the rest of the world seemed to slip away from him. There was no longer an army of demons threatening his new friends; there was no longer an entire world depending on him defeating this powerful foe before him, and he was no longer in another dimension far from his own one…

There was only him and his new opponent; an opponent that he had to defeat.

An opponent that he would defeat, because he had no other choice but to stop her.

He held the sword up in front of him, and grinned.

"Let's go," he said.

She leapt forward, bringing the sword down in a move that would have severed his arm if he hadn't deflected her blow with a strike of his own.

The fight was on.

Marcus roared in anger as he sliced his way through the mass of demons in front of him, his daggers shining and spinning like leaves caught in a massive updraft. He cut through the smaller demons in front of him like dry kindling, leaving them lying around him in small heaps as he moved on to the next round.

"Get down!" a voice yelled out from the side. Marcus spun around and ducked, just in time to see another Brachen demon try to drive a stake into his heart as the Black Arrow planted an arrow right in the middle of its head.

Marcus nodded at the Black Arrow. "Thanks for the assistance," he said. Then he raised an enquiring eyebrow. "Where are the others?"

"Last time I saw them, the Prince was trying to prevent any of his opponents from falling into the pit with the Old Ones, and Ivanhoe was trying to get to Mordred," the Black Arrow explained. He looked curiously at Mordred. "Would it actually pose a problem if a demon was 'given' to the Old One down there?"

Marcus nodded. "Possibly," he said. "I can't be certain, but-" He paused, spun around, and dug his sword into the head of a large furry demon that resembled a dog.

"Rouge lycan," he said by way of explanation, indicating the collapsed form. "Anyway, as I was saying, it may be that demons will serve just as well as humans, but their lack of purity may mean that the Old One won't be as powerful as it would have been otherwise."

"Well… that's good, isn't it?" the Black Arrow asked, as he spun around to plant an arrow in a nearby Fyarl demon.

"Not really," Marcus said, as he turned to stand back-to-back with the Black Arrow, his daggers raised in a prepared posture. "Even in a weakened state, an Old One would be more than a match for anything we had to throw at it, and probably even an entire army wouldn't slow it down." He heard the comforting thwip of arrows flying, and smiled briefly; evidently, the Black Arrow wasn't letting the grass grow under his feet.

"Any advice for this situation?" the Black Arrow asked the vampire, as he slid another arrow into the bow. "Demons aren't exactly my forte, after all."

"Just one main point," Marcus said, as he stabbed an approaching something that looked like a Tuingas of some kind. "Deliver blows that would kill a human instantly; you have a better chance of at least slowing them down that way. Whatever their differences, demons generally have the same weak points as humans; they're just harder to exploit."

"Right," the Black Arrow said, as he fired an arrow into the eye of something that had what looked like sharp claws. "Good luck, Marcus!" he yelled, as the demons turned their attention back to the Fellowship members.

"You too," Marcus said.

Then the two of them leapt forward onto the oncoming demons, Marcus tearing into something that looked like it had a squid for a head while the Black Arrow launched arrow after arrow at a large serpent-like creature.

"Get… BACK!" Ivanhoe roared, as his sword sliced through the neck of the large demon in front of him; it almost appeared to be more fat then anything else.

He kicked angrily at the fallen form in front of him. "DON'T get in my way," he said simply.

Then he heard- or maybe sensed- something coming hurtling towards him from behind. Instinctively, Ivanhoe swung around, raising his shield as he did so, throwing the strike back…

And found himself face to face with the man he had once called Malcolm, but now knew as his potentially most dangerous foe.

"Ah, the knight seeks to challenge me?" Mordred grinned, as he swung his sword around in his hand; evidently he didn't think Ivanhoe would have much chance in a fight between the two of them. "You forget; I learned my skills from the best that Camelot had to offer. I've been schooled in the arts of cunning and guile since before I can remember. What makes you think you can stop me?"

Ivanhoe didn't even smile. He just raised his sword in a combat stance and looked at Mordred, his eyes as hard as stones.

"Nobody wins forever, Mordred," he said simply. "And if this is my time to die, I promise you this; I won't go down easily." Then the left corner of his mouth turned up in a small smile. "And this I swear to you… I won't go down alone."

Mordred smirked. "You really think you can pull this off?" he asked the knight, as he raised his own sword in a similar gesture. "I'll be sure to make it quick and painless, I promise you that… You foolish mortal."

Ivanhoe swung his sword forward, striking Mordred on his shield with such force that the dark knight found himself swung around by almost a complete 180 degrees, following it up with a rapid swipe at his opponent's left arm that sent him straight to the ground. It didn't do any actual harm, but it still left Mordred winded.

Ivanhoe held his blade under Mordred's chin as the figure turned to look at him.

"I'm not foolish," Ivanhoe said simply.

Then he stepped back, and watched as Mordred rose to his feet to look at him.

"To the death?" Mordred asked.

Ivanhoe nodded. "To the death."

Mordred smiled. "Good."

The two men raised their swords, and the battle was on.

When the fight started, the Prince didn't even give himself time to think of an actual strategy; he just lashed out at the demons around him, hacking at them with his sword whenever he saw something rise up from near him, and didn't stop until they were down.

He didn't know much about demons, but he knew what had to go down, and right, that was everything in the room about from the other members of the Fellowship.

They weren't going to awaken that Old One, whatever it was, if he had his say in it.

And speaking of which…

Suddenly, the Prince realised that none of the Fellowship had stopped to see how Morgraine's departure had affected the summoning of the Old One; was it still coming, or did it require her presence to go any further?

Instinctively freezing time, the Prince ran through the demons towards the edge of the path around the pit…

And froze in horror at the sight before him.

Whatever was coming out of the pit evidently wasn't encountering any difficulties leaving without Morgraine's help; the portal wasn't any larger, but its tentacles were reaching out from the gap in the centre of the swirling energy, lashing out at the sides, straining as though trying to reach something.

Suddenly, something caught the Prince's eye.

One of the tentacles was moving towards him.

What…? The Prince thought, as he turned to look at it, more amazed at the how of what was happening in front of him then anything else.

Then it occurred to him. He was trying to control the time of something that wasn't even from this dimension originally. It probably perceived time in a completely different manner from the way humans saw it, and so couldn't actually be stopped like everything else here…

Then the tentacle struck him, knocking him off the path around him and towards the massive energy pit below him.