Fusion: Warehouse 13/Legend Of The Seeker

Notes: This is the third in a collection of seven AUs spotlighting Bering & Wells - one for each day of AU Week. Some will be one-offs, others I hope to revisit in more detail later.

This is one of the AUs I have big plans for. That said, this is just a bit of a test run, and may not appear in the finished product - it's the first few minutes of the Legend Of The Seeker episode 'Broken' as it might have played out in my particular fusion, and presumes knowledge of the earlier Seeker episode 'Sacrifice.' (I apologize for the lack of Steve and Leena - it just didn't work for this particular bit.)

A NOTE ON PAIRINGS: this fusion is pretty much disregarding the Richard/Kahlan pairing from both the books and the show, so there will be no Pete/Myka - nothing against it, just not part of what I'm doing here. :)

~~FIC~~

The girl stood with closed eyes under the glaring sun, seemingly as content in its warmth as she was oblivious to the way it had parched the earth all around her. She was muttering a prayer under her breath, and her eyes flew open as the final words passed her lips.

The reason for her obliviousness became immediately apparent - the girl was completely blind, pupils and irises both lost to thick silvery cataracts. That didn't stop her from smiling at the warm breeze on her face, or from holding her arm out just so to catch the companion she'd summoned.

The bird sat quietly on the girl's arm as she talked in a low urgent voice, its black head tipped curiously to one side as it gave its full attention to its mistress' words. Once that mistress fell silent, the bird gave a loud caw that sounded for all the world like it understood exactly what the girl had told it.

"Go, my friend," the girl whispered. "You must find her, and warn her."

The bird flew for days, stopping only for food and rest as its native desert turned to hill and forest - whatever magic its young mistress had cast over it gave it the knowledge it needed to find its quarry. Finally, it began to drift lower and lower in the sky, until it landed gracefully in the branches of a tree edging a forest clearing.

It had landed right next to the woman it had been sent to seek. She was sleeping soundly - as were all her companions save one - and never even noticed the bird, much less its almost-human scrutiny. Once satisfied it had chosen correctly, the bird opened its beak and let out a single soft caw - what emerged, however, was its mistress' voice, whispering a name. "Myka..."

Myka Bering, Mother Confessor of the Midlands - apparently the only one who could hear the bird - shifted in her sleep as the whisper reached her ears, but did not wake. The dream she was currently lost in - a happy dream, for once - shifted as well, altering itself even as she rolled over to her side.

She suddenly found herself standing in a large field of dry, cracked earth, under a blue sky filled with fluffy clouds. Looking down, she saw that she was in the middle of a patch of perfect white roses, of the sort that should not be growing in such thirsty soil - there was nothing alarming about that, however, and she simply smiled as she stared down at the flowers.

A sudden crack of thunder drew Myka's attention upward just in time to see storm clouds race in and open up, sending large, crystalline drops of rain onto the flowers below. She laughed aloud in delight as the cool water hit her upturned face, then looked back down as a sudden sense of foreboding came over her.

The sight that greeted her horrified eyes twisted the otherwise pleasant dream into a nightmare. The raindrops turned to blood as they hit the pristine, snowy rose petals - the assault caused each delicate flower to wither and die, until Myka stood amidst a field of their corpses, staring at the one single rose that remained, somehow still completely untouched.

Something moved ahead of Myka, just beyond that single flower, and she looked up to see a blind little girl standing there with a large black bird on her arm. The little girl, speaking before Myka even had a chance to, addressed her by name. "Myka Bering. Soon you will be the last of your kind..."

Myka woke with a gasp of horror and confusion - something, sadly, that was neither new nor unfamiliar. In a matter of moments, everyone save Claudia - who was difficult to wake under the best of conditions - had gathered to check on her.

None of them held the Confessor's night-born terrors against her. A year had passed since the day Pete had rescued her from the D'Haran Quad hunting her, but it had been a very near thing - he'd saved her from being abused, but only just barely, and she'd still taken a pretty brutal beating before he'd arrived.

Helena crouched down near Myka, making the gesture look unbelievably graceful despite her constrictive Mord-Sith leathers. "Another nightmare, Mother Confessor?"

Myka never knew what to do with the solicitude Helena always displayed in these moments - they certainly never got along the rest of the time. "Yes, but it wasn't like the others. This one was... different, somehow."

"So tell us about it," Pete said, handing Myka a water skin as he sat down beside her. "Maybe it'll help."

Myka shuddered involuntarily as she tried to recall the dream. "I was in a desert, I think. There was a bird, and a blind little girl."

Artie, with the finely-honed instincts of a Wizard of the First Order, spotted the cause of all the trouble immediately. Of course, being Artie, he began mumbling to himself as he worked it all out in his head, and only the last part of what he said was even halfway intelligible. "...a Starless Blackbird of Caska!"

Only Claudia, his ever-put-upon apprentice, had the courage to say what they were all thinking. "It's the middle of the night, old man. Either talk like a normal person or let me go back to sleep."

Artie hardly noticed the attitude - mostly because trading barbs was just what they did. "That wasn't any ordinary dream, Myka. That was a message, from this bird."

Artie whistled a series of short, sharp notes, and the bird actually flew down from the tree to land on his outstretched arm. "This bird belongs to a Dream Caster."

When the rest of the group continued to stare at him blankly, Artie just sighed. "There's a clan of mystical nomads who live near Caska, a desert far away from here. Every generation, a Blackbird befriends one of the clan's young girls. That child is then recognized as the High Priestess and has the power to send dreams, messages, on the wings of birds."

Myka gasped, green eyes wide. "The girl in my dream - she called me by name, like she knew me. She said something to me, something about how I was going to be the last of my kind."

After that, Artie insisted that Myka recount the dream to him, exactly as it had happened. It didn't really mean much to anyone else in the group, though it clearly worried Artie - by the time Myka was done speaking, he was scowling unhappily, bushy eyebrows drawn down towards the bridge of his nose.

"I don't want to jump to conclusions," he said finally, "but it could be a warning that the line of Confessors is in danger."

Myka seemed inclined to agree with Artie's assessment. "I need to go to Valeria, to make sure my sister's safe."

Helena, surprisingly, was the first to object. "Valeria? That's hundreds of leagues from here."

Pete's gut told him that there was something behind Helena's objection that he needed to look into, but Myka was already throwing supplies into her personal pack and his gut would just have to wait a moment. "You can't go alone, Mykes - it's too dangerous. Let me go with you."

The Westland variant on her name seemed to get Myka's attention, but Helena was still apparently against any trip to Valeria. Marching over to Claudia, she snatched up the girl's right hand, turning it palm-upward to display the indigo rune tattooed there. "There is nothing more important than taking her, and this magic rune, to Pamorah to find the Stone Of Tears - you said so yourself."

Even though Helena was sending his Seeker instincts into overdrive, Pete really couldn't argue with her logic. "Okay, fine. Artie, how about you go on ahead with Helena and Claudia? Mykes and I will catch up when we're done."

Artie, Claudia, and Myka burst into a spate of overlapping conversation, arguing about whether to risk the Seeker's safety on a side mission. It was Helena's almost desperate shout that silenced them all. "It's a waste of time!"

Even Myka could see now that something was up. "Why do you say that?"

Helena stood silent for a moment, then ran her fingers through her hair. "The Confessors living on Valeria are dead."

Silence fell for several long heartbeats before Helena continued, addressing herself to Pete. "The previous Lord Rahl got word of the male Confessor living there, and sent us to retrieve the child. We were... unsuccessful - the boy's father killed him to prevent us from taking him."

Myka, stunned by news of her nephew's death, sounded as close to tears as Pete had ever heard her. "And the mother?"

Helena, to her credit, looked Myka squarely in the eye. "She... fell in battle, defending her son."

"My sister- Tracy is dead?" Myka's voice hovered somewhere between shocked and angry, and something about it made the hair on the back of Pete's neck stand on end.

"I'm sorry, Mother Confessor," Helena said, a flicker of regret crossing her face. "If it's any consolation, I killed her swiftly - there was no pain."

Myka made an odd sort of gasping noise, and Pete's gut started screaming even louder. He turned around to find her literally shaking with rage, face a mask of mindless fury - it was nothing he'd ever seen in the Confessor before, and he wasn't quite sure how to respond. "Mykes?"

Claudia scrambled up off her blankets, backing away several feet. "What's happening to her?"

Artie had never known Myka to berserk before, but he'd also never seen her this angry. "She's losing control. Everyone stay back!"

"Myka!" Pete tried calling out her name, in hopes of snapping her out of whatever it was, but the Confessor only shook harder. Grabbing Myka's arms, he turned to warn her target. "Helena, you have to get out of here!"

Helena's voice held a note of anguish that Pete was sure she hadn't meant to let show. "I only did what I was ordered to!"

The sound of Helena's voice only seemed to madden Myka further, and the Confessor tried to shove past Pete, one hand already reaching for the Mord-Sith's throat. Luckily, Pete got both his arms around Myka's waist and caught her - furious at being restrained, Myka threw her head back and screamed in rage.

She continued fighting to get free and reach Helena, her anger making her even stronger than usual. It was all Pete could do to hang on to her, and he finally ended up just wrestling her to the ground, hoping he'd have better luck using his weight to keep her pinned.

"Pete, no!" Artie called out, as one of Myka's hands flailed dangerously close to the Seeker's face. "She'll confess you!"

Pete, though, only had attention for Myka and Helena. "I can't hold her much longer, Helena! Go!"

Helena refused to budge. "I vowed to protect you, Lord Rahl-"

Pete, still trying to keep Myka in one place, cut Helena off. "You can't protect me if you're dead! Go!"

Artie grabbed Helena's arm when she continued to just stand there. "Head back to the inn we were at two days ago. We'll fix this somehow and meet you there. Now go, damn you!"

Helena, finally understanding that she wasn't simply being banished or abandoned, bolted from the clearing and into the trees. Myka, sensing that the object of her rage was getting away, made one final heroic effort to break Pete's hold, screaming her frustration to the heavens when it wasn't enough to set her free.

An eerie silence reigned for several minutes after that as Myka slowly regained her senses. Pete was the first one brave enough to speak to her. "Are you alright?"

Myka wouldn't even look at him, and Pete didn't care at all for the flat, emotionless tone of her response. "You shouldn't have stopped me. She deserved to die."

"You aren't yourself right now, Mykes," Pete insisted, shaking his head. "And even if you were, killing Helena out of vengeance won't bring back your sister or your nephew. The only person it would help is the Keeper."

Myka continued staring into the campfire - Pete kinda wished she'd cry or scream or yell, just anything other than her current disturbing numbness. Finally, she spoke. "This isn't about vengeance, Pete. Helena is a Mord-Sith - the only thing she knows how to do is torture and kill. Who knows where she'll go or what she'll do now? I have to find her and stop her."

Artie, at the end of his patience, jumped into the conversation. "Might I remind everyone that we have bigger problems than one unsupervised Mord-Sith? Much, much bigger problems?"

His tone softened a bit as he addressed Myka. "I'm sorry about your sister and her son, I really am, but getting the Stone Of Tears and sealing the Underworld back up has got to be our priority."

"He's right," Pete said gently, putting a hand on Myka's shoulder. "If we don't get Claudia to Pamorah and find the Stone Of Tears, the Keeper will destroy every living thing on the planet."

Sensing that he was starting to get through, Pete kept pleading. "I need you on this, Mykes. Who else is gonna watch my back like you?"

Myka just bowed her head a moment, as if thinking. When she looked back up, her eyes were as cold as Pete had ever seen them. "Fine - I'll go with you. But if I ever see her again, I *will* kill her..."