Beetlejuice

Season 2: The Sleeper Saga

Episode 30: Merlin's Young Face

Merlin met the children at Ben's home in the woods to answer some questions they had for him. Bertha sat directly in front of Merlin while Claire, and Prudence sat to her right and Ben and Lydia sat to her left. They looked as if they were scattered around the room in front of the fireplace while staying as a group. Bertha was the first to break the silence. "So what exactly is this thing you gave me?" Merlin spoke happily as he explained to her, "I don't have a clue. I think it's a legendary item from ancient times even before me, but I'm most likely wrong. I didn't even know what it was capable of doing until you summoned that creature of yours. For now I think that we should just call it the Mirror Stone until we discover what it's really called." Silence permeated the room as everyone who knew Merlin was flabbergasted at the fact that there was something that he didn't know. The old wizard looked around the room realizing that he was being gawked at. "What?" He asked before realizing why they were so surprised. "Oh come on. I'm old but not that old." He then retorted to the silent insult.

"Do you think that it was created by Arachnis Widow?" Lydia asked with a slight epiphany. "Could be." Merlin stated. "She was well known for her spellwoven artifacts. Most of which were fabric but a great many also were woven with precious metals and stones." He then outstretched his hand to ask Bertha to examine it. Bertha generously handed Merlin the Mirror Stone and he brought the object up to his face to gaze closely at it. He hummed to himself slightly for a time while examining the craftsmanship. "Yes, definitely crafted by Arachnis." He answered as he handed it back. "How can you tell?" Claire asked him. Merlin simply flipped it around and pointed to a tiny spider engraving with the initials A. W. along each side of the spider. "This is how." Merlin stated. The others simply groaned in exasperation.

Bertha was about to take it when she became scared of the kind of power it held. "You keep it. I don't know if I can handle that kind of power." She pleaded. Merlin gently shook his head and handed it back to her, "I can't. If it works for you, it'll only work for you. That is the way Arachnis makes her things. Initially she had them made to be used by the direct family of the one she made it for but that soon became too complicated when a soul was destroyed using one of her creations. She soon retrieved all of her spellwoven instruments and rewrote the spell to have the item choose one and only one worthy wielder per generation. She then scattered what she didn't destroy around the Neitherworld and the Outerworld." Merlin answered her. Bertha gingerly took the medallion and gripped it with a new sense of nervous responsibility.

"Perhaps you know something about the spider silk?" Lydia blurted out. "Ah, the last and most elusive of Arachnis' spellwoven articles." Merlin sighed as he leaned back in his chair as if the question had a kind of nostalgia to it. "I'm sorry Lydia, but even I don't know everything about the spider silk. All I know is what you already learned. As well as it was the last thing she created before retiring and going onto permanent hiding." "Maybe we could visit Arachnis and ask her about the spider silk. Naria was willing to erase my soul from existence in order to get at it, and the Angelic Queen even obsessed over studying it and finding more about it. I wanna know what this thing is exactly, why so many psychopaths are willing to get at it, and why its power was so inconsistent." Lydia pronounced. Merlin looked at the group of friends for a short while when he reached inside his robe sleeve and produced three, brown, leather bound books, each with an etching of an angel in the front cover. "Angelic Journals!" Lydia exclaimed. "Now don't get your hopes up. Queen Myra was a scholar and always engrossed in research of some kind. The Angelic Journals are simply records of her discoveries and findings. Her research ranges from the temple where my brother was trapped, to the spider silk, all the way to research on lost souls and even ancient entities presumed trapped under the lands of the Outerworld."

For a time the group studied some of the entries of the journals and found research on lost souls, sand worms, and even some lore of the Neitherworld such as a sand worm queen deep in the desert, said to be so powerful that it could devour lost souls just by looking at them. That research consisted mostly of Myra wandering the sand pits where the sand worms live with an adolescent Naria at her side with no luck as to even locating the creature.

"This is pointless." Lydia finally exasperated in frustration. "Why did you give us these useless journals?" "You asked for knowledge that I didn't have. I told you not to get your hopes up. Besides, I found those just before I joined up with you guys today and hadn't had a chance to view their contents." He retorted. "But you see the future." Lydia snapped. "Watch your tone young lady. I don't see the future, that part was made up by the locals of the Neitherworld under superstition. The closest I get to future sight are these prophecies every once in a while and visions from the wind." Merlin himself was beginning to grow angry at her attitude toward him. "Lyds, why are you getting angry at him?" Ben asked her. Lydia calmed herself down before answering him, "I'm sorry. I guess that I'm just fed up with all of the cryptic secrecy. And just want a straight answer for once." Merlin exhaled his own frustrations and then turned to the group and said to them, "There are many things that Arachnis never wanted to be found. Making vital information as scarce as possible to avoid having good people corrupted by power. Not knowing exactly what you are dealing with keeps fear at the forefront of your mind, thus forcing wielders to 'hold back', as it were." Lydia began to wonder if her adversaries had the same amount of information as she did and simply were expressing greed or curiosity. Either way, there was but one thing to focus on now. They needed to find The Sleeper before Grimnak could.

"Merlin, can you repeat that new prophecy for us?" Ben asked. Merlin leaned forward in his chair and repeated the words so engrained in his soul. "The dragon sleeps on the water's edge, upon the stone and light of which he beds. When the name is said and he begins to wake, the light of day he shan't forsake. Upon this day of familiar prize, look in at burnt sand in size. In daylight's conflict awake again, to reunite those close to him. Remember not until that day, when all of light will fade away. A secret kept for ages past, shall awaken and cease the quarrel at last." This time while he recited the prophecy to them Lydia noticed his eyes glaze over as if his soul left his body for a moment. As this happened, she was reminded of the way her mother looked when the paramedics rushed her mother into the emergency room to attempt to revive her. Lydia felt her heart sink as the gloomy memories flooded her mind and a single tear fell down her right cheek.

Ben gingerly placed his hand on Lydia's shoulder, noticing the tear, and asked, "Hey, Lids. You ok?" Startled out of her revere, Lydia slightly jumped and looked at Ben with her heart now racing millions of beats per second for a short time. As her heartbeat slowed down, Lydia could hear Ben trying to apologize to her. She waved her hand toward him as a gesture that she didn't think that apologizing was necessary at the moment. At this time, Merlin had snapped back to reality, having finished the prophecy engrained into his soul. He then began fumbling through his pockets while mumbling to himself. He brought out a great many of objects and nick-knacks, none that caught the eye of Ben more that a small glass sphere with a multicolored flame trapped inside. "Oi! Is that essence of an omni-elemental being?" He blurted out. Merlin stopped for a second and glanced at the Australian teenager then shifted his gaze to the sphere and shot his eyes wide in excited realization. "Oh goodness. I had completely forgotten I had that." The four girls were now confused as to what was exactly the glass sphere. "Eh?" Prudence squeaked out. Snapped back to his reality, Merlin sheepishly grinned and placed it among the things from his pockets, "It's nothing really. Just an ingredient for a potion or a catalyst for certain spells." "Oh no, old man. That is extremely rare to find." Ben countered shifting back into Beetlejuice. He then picked it up out of the bunches of items and showed it off to the girls. "This is the essence of an omni-elemental being. Pretty much concentrated magical energy of every element all at the same time." Beetlejuice explained. "And yet none of them at all." Merlin added. "And," Beetlejuice continued sneering with mild distrust at Merlin, "There are only two ways to acquire it."

Lydia shifted her gaze between Merlin and Beetlejuice before asking, "And how does one get this 'essence of and omni-elemental being'?" Merlin seemed a bit insulted at what Beetlejuice was implying. "The first way to acquire the essence is to have an omni-elemental being grant you their essence as a lost soul." "So they have to die." Claire said under her breath in realization. "The second is to siphon it forcibly, essentially murdering the being if you do it while they're alive. It traps them if they're already a lost soul." Merlin added to his earlier statement. Suddenly, Lydia and the others could understand why Beetlejuice was so distrustful now. "So, how did you get this?" Beetlejuice snapped angrily, gesturing to the sphere of rainbow colored flames. "How dare you! What is this 'pick-on-the-old-guy-day'?" Merlin countered and snatched the sphere out of Beetlejuice's hand. "And if you must know, a dear friend gave me this during Naria's reign to keep the power it held out of her cauldron." Lydia shuddered at the mere mention of that sinister pot of boiling brew. "Wait, I thought that you needed souls for the cauldron." She asked in realization. Merlin turned to the gothic girl and answered her question back in his calm demeanor. "The souls grant power and strength to the magic she cast. Its direction is the elemental essence you combine with it. That also greatly limits the spell types you could use while the energy remains in the cauldron. If she had acquired this flame," He said holding out the sphere, "She would have been able to cast just about any spell in existence, even immortality or time altering spells." "And what would happen, if she had assimilated it?" Prudence asked. Merlin was caught off guard as he clearly never thought of the consequences of assimilating the essence.

"Naria, could cast lightning bolts and fireballs at any time because she assimilated the souls of those elemental beings. Think of how much power she could have had with the soul of an omni-elemental being." Lydia thought aloud. "You have a point." Merlin stated, "Considering that the essence of an elemental being is literally a part of their soul." "So why don't you just break it and set the being free?" Bertha asked curiously. Merlin looked gingerly at the glass sphere as if looking at a newborn child, "Because, once a soul becomes essence, there is no turning back into a soul. It's the ultimate price for an elemental being."

Later that evening, Merlin continued on walking through the forest close to the wood home he created utilizing his own magic abilities and knowledge of matter manipulation. He hardly realized how far he had traveled when something large tackled him from behind and drove something sharp into his left kidney. Pain surged through him as he felt whatever it was jump off of his back and begin to laugh at first it was a low chuckle but quickly built up to a familiar sinister laugh of triumph. "I can't believe how easy it was to get the drop on you, my brother." Grimnak belched out with dark laughter. Merlin cursed himself for failing to keep track of how far he wandered from the cabin and painfully stood to his feet only to drop back to one knee holding onto his wound with his right hand. "Why, brother? What could possibly be worth injuring your own family for?" He struggled to say through his cringing. Grimnak simply laughed aloud and finally revealed a crazed look that he had hidden away for centuries. "I need power brother. Power to defeat you, power to secure and rule worlds, power to stop the whispers." His gaze, as he spoke, showed the centuries of torment. As if continually trying to please a parent that would never leave him alone but never be satisfied with anything he did. "Can you stop the whispers?" He asked Merlin fully crazed by the torment. Merlin was now officially terrified of his brother, something he had felt only once before in his life. "What do you mean by, 'whispers'?" Merlin asked in fright. "The whispers in my head, dear brother. Oh, I do grow tired of them, but they just don't stop." Grimnak chuckled. "And what do they say?" Merlin asked in a terrified tone, worried for his life and genuinely afraid of his brother. "They say, to end you both."

Merlin ran as fast as he could despite the wound on his back. Terrified of his brother and in need to warn Beetlejuice of the doppelganger cackling and crazed behind him. 'His doppelgangers must heighten various parts of his personality from time to time.' He thought to himself as he hurried in the direction of the cottage, his blood leaving a clear trail for Grimnak to follow. 'At least now his behavior back then makes sense.' A few memories of his personality becoming slowly corrupt over time before he attacked the two brothers came to the forefront of his mind as he continued to run.

Finally the cottage came into view, "Beetlejuice, I need your help." Merlin yelled as loud as he could, his adrenaline keeping him from feeling the effects of his blood loss until his knees buckled and he collapsed in front of the front door, Grimnak's voice echoing through the forest, "Why do you run brother? It's not like I'm going to kill you." Betlejuice at last opened the door to see Merlin collapsed in front of him. "Old man!" Beetlejuice exclaimed and hurried to assist him. Merlin held his hand out to signal Beetlejuice that there were more important things to do. "Just stop Grimnak." He said and pointed in the direction of his attacker. Beetlejuice looked up and finally noticed the crazed look on his face. "Did he do this to you?" Beetlejuice asked. However, the only response he received from Merlin was an angry and urgent, "Go!"

Beetlejuice hurried to find a way to stop Grimnak's pursuit until there were suddenly two of him, and then four, then eight, then sixteen. Beetlejuice stopped in his tracks as he faced down now thirty two foes at once alone. Surrounded and outnumbered he thought frantically about what to do. Suddenly an idea came to him, "Why don't you all stick around!" He shouted with a smile. All of the many Grimnak's grinned at him and one said, "I think not little ant" and attempted to take a step forward only to find himself glued to the ground. "What is this?" He shouted as all of his other selves also found themselves in the same predicament. "Literal Translation. You know I love it."Beetlejuice smirked. "Now all I've gotta do is find the original you and destroy him, then you won't be able to come near my house without breaking view of you projection gate." "And how would you know that?" Grimnak asked questioningly. "When I faced Naria so many years ago, I studied on how to counter duplication spells just in case she tried to use that trick to confuse me." Beetlejuice boasted. Grimnak's laughter could be heard belting out the moment his words were finished leaving his lips. "A good theory little ant, but you forget, the original is actually on the other side of the projection gate. All those you now see are copies. At this moment, you literally would have to destroy us all," As he spoke all of them lifted their feet with such strength that they tore their boots right off of the sticky resin that bound them to the earth and took steps toward him. "And I don't think you can do that." Grimnak finished.

Merlin dragged himself up to the house and propped himself up on the wall close to the door feeling the effects of his blood loss at last. He then reached into his pocket with his right hand and took out the glass ball containing the rainbow colored flame. He gazed longingly at the aurora flickering in the sphere and shed a single tear before whispering to it, "I'm sorry old friend" before stabbing his thumb into it releasing the flame from the sphere. He then gathered the flame into his free hand and slowly brought it to his wound. The flame felt both burning hot and burning cold all at once and then a soothing felling washed over his old bones as his wound healed and his face began to mold and sharpen to a younger age. Strength and youth began returning to him as his body stopped aching and his aged skin smoothed out returning him back to his younger years. Merlin breather in though his now thirty year old face as he stepped into a patch of evening sun feeling the crisp and cool air as it surrounded him. He then hung his head in respect while whispering, "I will always remember you, Senia" as one tear from each eye rolled down his cheeks. He then opened his eyes to focus on his brother. "Whisperings in your mind, eh? Then let's see if I can literally knock them out of you."

Grimnak was busy knocking Beetlejuice around like a gang of middle school bullies, shoving him into another doppelganger and that one shoving him in the direction of another. Apparently too busy to realize what had just happened and only was able to glimpse at Merlin after he had placed his hood back on. About three doppelgangers broke away from the childish shoving of poor Beetlejuice to confront the newcomer approaching them. "Look at the old geezer trying to take us all on. You could barely take on one of us before. Looks like you can't teach an old dog new tricks." The Grimnak in the middle taunted. Merlin simply smiled under his hood, knowing full well that his face was still unseen. "You had to jump me last time. And I find that I learned more..." He flipped his hood off before aiming the palms of both hands at the outer doppelgangers, "in my youth." Before they could blink, the two doppelgangers he was aiming at received one lightning bolt each and were immediately turned into dust. The third watched in shock as his two duplicates vanished too quickly to think. The crack of the thunder caught the attention of the other doppelgangers. "I think the humans now-a-days call that 'owned'." Merlin stated in a cocky manner. His voice was no longer tired and worn but now held a melodic sway to its even tone. It was also higher in pitch than it used to be, making him sound slightly manly and sensitive all at once.

In her room, while studying her math homework, Lydia felt as if she was being bombarded by a swarm of flies ramming against her back and chest in pairs. Annoyed with the constant tiny thumping feelings around her body, Lydia immediately stood up from her chair and mumbled to herself, "Just what the heck is he doing, using himself as a punching bag? One day, all I ask for is one day of peace and quiet." She quickly thought of an excuse to leave the house and began rubbing her right temple as she descended the stairs toward the front door. She passed by the living room as she continued on her journey. "Lydia." She heard Delia call to her. "Where are you going?" "Headache, mam. I'm going to ride my bike for a while to try and clear it." Lydia lied without so much as turning to her. She continued to rub her temple to attempt to make the story believable. Delia hesitated for a while before answering, "Ok dear, but don't be out too long. It's almost sundown." Lydia then turned to Delia slightly to give a thoughtful smile before nodding her head in acknowledgement. She then exited through the door just as the small thumping feelings halted. 'Strange' she thought to herself, 'I'd probably go and check on him anyway.'

By the time she had gotten to the forest, the battle was over, Merlin making use of the element of surprise and his manipulation of nature to fight off the doppelgangers. However, he had failed to actually slay all of them in time and the thirty minutes had at last run out, forcing Grimnak to end his projection gate and cut off all contact with his copies. Lydia skid her back tire across the dirt as she sharply turned into her momentum after applying her rear brakes. "Beetlejuice?" She called into the forest in an even mid-shout, trying not to let her voice echo across the hills but still be loud enough to be heard through the forest. "Ben?" She worriedly called to avoid saying his name too many times in a row and suddenly find herself in the Neitherworld. Ben finally emerged through the trees, leaning against them for support as he staggered by. The boy smiled at his friend and said in his Australian accent, "Hope I didn't scare ya too much there." Lydia dropped her bike on its right side as she dashed in to help the boy stay on his feet. He placed his right arm around her shoulder as she propped him up. He regained his strength and smiled as he showed her that he was alright.

A short moment, after Ben was looked over for injuries, Lydia finally noticed a semi-familiar shadow among the trees. She readied herself to fight if necessary until he spoke, introducing himself. "Do not be alarmed child. It is just me, Merlin." He stepped into a patch of light with his face unveiled. He was so different and yet, she knew who he was. "What?" Lydia began questioning everything she thought she knew so far about the Neitherworld. Merlin smiled at the young girl gently realizing that she must have a thousand or more questions by now. For now he was simply amused at how she squeaked out, "Huh? What? When? How?"

End of Season 2 Episode 10