The words in bold and italics is the voice in Katie's head. I only own Katie and the voice.
"My lady?" Merlin muttered.
"Merlin." She turned quickly and gasped, "You scared me."
"Arthur sent me."
"Of course he did. You wouldn't be here otherwise." She replied softly and stood up. "Well, deliver your message and you're job will be done."
Merlin paused, he stared into his ex-flame's eyes. "He… er… he said-" He stopped himself when he heard the sound of warning bells. Katie didn't wait for him to finish and rushed past. Merlin followed quickly and they both ran towards the stairs, Katie glanced out of a window, outside there was a huge army.
She stared down at the vast amounts of warriors. "Go and find Arthur. He will need your guidance." Katie instructed Merlin, before running towards her bedroom. She grabbed her armour and changed quickly.
She ran downstairs and outside the castle. Katie pulled out her sword as she leapt down the last few steps and stopped as she saw the army that she was faced with. An undead one. She knew her sword would not kill them but Arthur was in sight so she couldn't use magic.
Arthur looked up at her and glared, he made his way over to the girl. "What are you doing?" He demanded.
"I'm helping you." Katie explained and then added, "Duck." He did as she asked and Katie decapitated a skeleton, who's head rolled away. The skeleton then followed the head trying to grab it in a comic way.
"No. Go and hide." Arthur instructed, staring at the odd scene in front of him.
"As much as it pleases me that you are leading these men, I will not do as you say." She said as she stabbed a different skeleton in the ribs.
After a while, Katie was still fighting the same skeleton, becoming more and more exhausted. Arthur was near to her still, looking worn out. "Where is Merlin, Arthur?" She asked, suddenly realising that the warlock had gone missing, she cut off the skeleton's arm.
"What? Why on Earth would you want to know where… oh." Arthur stopped himself.
"'Oh?'" She imitated. The skeleton reattached it's arm and started fighting her again as though nothing had happened.
"I see. You have feelings for Merlin." He grinned.
"No- I- I- Don't be silly." Katie replied.
"I see it now, of course you do. Why else would you try so hard to talk to him?" Arthur laughed, unaware of what he was doing to the girl.
Katie couldn't think of anything to reply with and suddenly felt something sharp stick into her arm. She screamed and the cut burned. Arthur stopped fighting his skeleton to defend his old friend, "You'll be fine, Kathryn. Just fine." He kept repeating.
Hello again, Kate. "No." She whispered.
Yes, I'm back. Now I am going to weaken your pain, you won't die. I promise you. We still have a quest to complete. "I won't leave again." Katie said stubbornly, breathing through her pain.
If you keep speaking out loud, people will think you are going mad. And sure enough Arthur was staring down at Katie who was clutching her arm in a corner. The skeletons had vanished. "W-where did they go?"
"I don't know." Arthur sighed and picked her up.
"Wh-what are you doing?" Katie asked, the way the prince had picked her up felt quite intimate, he had one arm under her legs and one under her shoulders- supporting her back.
"I'm taking you to Gaius." He looked down at his ex-fiancé and smiled sympathetically. For the first time in a very long while Katie felt safe and put her head on Arthur's shoulder.
Don't get too comfy, my lady. I'll be taking you away from your beloved family and your precious Merlin soon enough.
Katie shuddered, Arthur just guessed it was from the pain.
"Hm, you'll be fine. However, the skeleton cut the muscle in your arm. Muscles take longer to heal." Gaius concluded after a long look at Katie's arm.
"What?" Katie exclaimed.
"Don't use your arm to often and it will heal quicker. I will do easy exercises with you so the muscle won't seize up. Give it time." Gaius patted her head and she sighed.
I don't have time. Katie thought. Terrified. She couldn't deny the voice in her head what it wanted or she would know about it. She had tried.
"You'll be able to fight and do whatever it is you do soon enough, my dear." Gaius smiled and hugged Katie. Arthur had left her in Gaius's capable hands and had gone to find Gwen almost as soon as they had entered Gaius's quarters.
Merlin appeared and stood at the door looking ashamed of himself.
"I need to go get some figwort. I'll be back soon." Gaius announced, excusing himself.
"What happened to you?" Merlin asked.
"A skeleton." Katie replied shortly.
"How bad is it?"
"It will take a while to heal, it got the muscle." Katie replied, looking at the floor. "I won't be able to fight for a little while."
"Oh." There was a long silence. "I'm sorry."
"It wasn't your fault." She said knowing exactly what he meant but not wanting too let him off so easily.
"No I meant, I'm sorry I didn't trust you. That I thought it could have been you who was disturbing the King's mind. You can see my thinking though, you… appeared… when…" He slowed to a stop when he saw the glare that Katie was giving him.
"How dare you? How could you? How could you ever think that I would do that to the man who took me in and cared for me? To the King? Do you not know me at all?"
"You know what? The truth is I don't! You were here for what, three days? And then you left. You then come back and I can't spend any time with you because Arthur needs me. How do you expect me not to suspect something?" He was pacing angrily.
"You should trust that I would never do that!" Katie yelled.
"How can I trust any part of you when you are so unpredictable?" Merlin screamed. Katie had never expected unpredictability to come into the argument. She knew she was, simply because there was a voice in her head telling her to do things.
"I can't tell you why I'm unpredictable." Be careful, or you know what I will do. "It's just part of me, I guess. You accepted me last time I was here. Why can't you this time?"
They were quiet for a little while. "Morgana left for one year, she came back as an evil witch. You left for over two years. Who knows what could have happened?"
Who knows indeed? The voice laughed. Smart boy. He shouldn't trust you. At least not while I'm here.
Katie got up and started to walk to the door, wanting shut out the voice, "A lot of things happened but nothing that I can change. I'm different, I'll admit." She felt a short jolt through her body and grabbed a table with her bad arm. She cried out and fell to the floor.
Merlin was at her side in seconds. He lifted the girl and walked her back to the bed. "I have to leave again, Merlin."
"What?" He asked, disappointment in his eyes, "You promised me."
"I know. I'm sorry. It's not safe for you to be around me!" She yelled 'me' as another jolt - this time longer and more painful- coursed through her body. You know, I don't actually enjoy doing that but you make it necessary.
"Katie!" Merlin led her down and sat by her side, clutching her hand.
"I have to leave, there is something I must do before I can settle down here." She groaned, breathing heavily.
When she had promised Merlin she would stay, the voice in her head had promised her that she wouldn't be going out on another quest. At least not for a long while. She hated having to go back on her word but she couldn't bare to think about what would happen to her if she betrayed the voice.
She had found the voice in a strange part of the forest just before she visited Princess Elena and her father. He had appeared in her head as she passed under a great stone archway. He hadn't left her since, she didn't know his name just that he was a powerful warlock with a deep voice.
Just before I give you the wrong impression, we will be following Katie on her quest this time. Hope you enjoyed, please review.