Title: Sarmatian Ladies
Author: Jmaria
Rating: PG-13 - R
Disclaimers/Spoilers: Joss owns the Buffy crew, Bruckheimer, Franzoni, & Fuqua own this incarnation of Arthur & his knights. A bit of Kassandra's backstory is borrowed from Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Firebrand. It goes without saying that I do not own her stuff either.
Summary: Reunited, in the physical sense…
A/N: Can you believe this series started two years ago? Holy crap. Who knew what it would become? We're getting down to the last three chapters…Will he wake up? Will the baby be a boy or a girl? Will Faith and Trevor stop pulling a Hermione and Ron? Who knows…oh, wait, I'm supposed to know that….g

16. Believing Is Seeing

Chastity, probity, honesty, kindness, cleanliness, willingness, honor, strength, wisdom, trust, courage, faith.
Virtue dies. But some oaths bind forever.
- Killer in the Reign, Rosemary Edghill and India Edghill

Outside Room 107, Harrington Hospice, 2005

Doctor Arthur Kingston, Sr. paced nervously as the call went through his ICU ward. No one was to have direct contact with the condemned soul. No one. It was bad enough he let the boy and his prattling mother in to see the knight, but the other knights - his son included - and been expressly forbidden to have any contact with the man. His mobile phone chirped incessantly in his pocket.

"What do you want?" Kingston snarled angrily into the phone.

"Kingston, a little respect for your master," the annoying Italian voice said over the line. Kingston's blood cooled a degree or two.

"Lord Morte," Kinston's voice faltered a little as he tried desperately of something to say. "What ever can I do for you?"

"Kill the knight, like I instructed you to do months ago when his flea-bitten body washed ashore," the voice screamed across the line.

"It is not as simple as it looks," Kingston pleaded. "The child and his mother have contacted a journalist who's interested in the man's life."

"Do I sound like I care? Is this the impression that I give you? Because I truly do not. I want that knight dead by dusk."

The Hollis Home

Lanyon had shifted round to face the large group of neighbors that Felicia had been telling him about when she was pushing the bag of peas to his eye. Bloody, buggering security guards. If he'd had a weapon, those morons wouldn't know what hit them. A frown crossed his face. Where had that thought come from? Weapons? He certainly had never used weapons other than those cheap plastic mock-ups as a boy.

He didn't linger too long on this train of thought because of the young pregnant woman who stood not five feet away from him. She called him by name, though it wasn't really his name. It was, but it wasn't.

"Lancelot?"

"I said don't touch me! Don't ever touch me!"

"I knew him for four days. Four little days. And I wish those four days could have lasted a lifetime. I loved him. That may be hard for you to get, but I know he loved me as well. That piece of paper doesn't mean a thing. I have my memories. That's all that I need of him."

Lanyon's mouth went dry as his eyes locked tightly on the woman who'd tried to save his life over fifteen hundred years ago. His gaze went from person to person, recognizing his past in their eyes as well. Only three stood out as vague and partial memories, but the rest burned vividly through his mind. There stood his brothers, the Woad woman whom Arthur had fallen for, Vanora with whom he had flirted, their squire, the Roman Lady and her son that had cost them the life of Dagonet to begin with.

Dagonet. Lanyon jumped to his feet, rushing to Dawn's side so quickly that she almost tripped backwards. Her eyes opened wide in shock at the maniacal grin he knew he wore.

"You've been to see him? You know he lives?"

"What? Who lives?" Dawn whispered, tears shining in her eyes.

"Dag! Dagonet! The man you once claimed to love!" Lanyon's hands reached out to her, his fingers digging into her shoulders as he shook her. His eyes slid down accusingly to the bulge under her shirt. "The man who died for you - the one you have apparently forgotten!"

He didn't see her hand rushing up to meet his face, but he certainly felt it. Lanyon reeled back, his vision blurring at the jaw-jarring force of that little girl's hand slapping him. He stumbled back a few steps, rubbing his jaw as he looked back at her. Tears poured down her cheeks as she marched closer to him, anger and hurt warring in her eyes.

"I do still love him, but he's gone! He's locked away from me for forever because the Powers lied to him! He didn't get a fresh start like you did!" Dawn screamed, her voice ragged as she shrugged off one of her female companions. Even in this time, people rushed to defend the wounded little bird!

"No, he got a coma in a hospital ward and a doctor bent on ending his life!" Lanyon yelled right back at her. Part of him was quite satisfied to see the horrified expression in her eyes as she staggered backwards.

"He's what?"

"The knight, Dagonet, Mr. Dag is in hospital," Lucas Hollis said quietly, his hand slipping in Dawn's. "He's been waiting for you to find him, Lady Dawn."

Dawn's heart ached as she took in the boy's face for the first time. It didn't take long for her to see the other familiar faces in the Hollis family. Fulcina and Alecto stood with Jols and the younger Hollis children. They weren't called that in this time, just as the knights weren't called their old names. And Lucan was here, holding her hand, telling her that her Dag was alive.

"Dag's alive?" Dawn whispered, her anger at Lanyon forgotten in the moment. She crouched beside Lucan, her eyes searching his for the answer.

"Not for long," Lanyon answered for him.

"What do you mean?" Dawn cried. "Where is he?"

"Doctor Kingston plans to euthanize him up at Harrington Hospice within the day, I'd wager."

"Arthur?" Dawn spun around to face the tall, dark haired man Lanyon recognized as his old friend. He shook his head.

"Not him. Old Doctor Kingston."

Southern Briton, 467

The travel through the countryside of Ancient Sarmatia and Gaul took them longer then they had suspected. Nearly four years after their escape from the Lord of Death, the four Sarmatian warriors found themselves nearly at their goal. Hadrian's Wall had been Lancelot and Tristan's post, that much they had been able to gather over the years.

"Have you ever wondered, Morgana," Viviane said quietly to her as they made their way down the trail.

"Wondered what?"

"Wondered what Isolde and Elaine will do if they find their knights married or if they have forgotten them?"

"It is possible in Elaine's case, but I doubt that Isolde's lover could ever forget her."

"Why do you say that?"

"Isolde had been properly betrothed to her knight. Elaine, while her drive to find him is stronger, she never admitted her love to him. He may see her as nothing more than a foolish child."

Morgana had often worried about these things, especially Elaine. The younger warrior had little control over her emotions, and the gods forbid someone stand in her way.

"How are we to find these knights?"

"Blend in for now, discover where they have been posted. We'll meet here at nightfall. Elaine, Isolde, you take the north section of the village. Viviane and I will take the southern sector," Morgana divided her rough map of the area on the dirt road. "Do not use our names in the crowds. Raven, wolf, vixen and lioness are our names in this place. It is likely they will have not heard of us this far north, but the Roman centurions will have."

"No doubt a runner was sent to each corner of the empire looking for the bastard son of Death," Elaine muttered.

"Nor the famed beauty of Lady Lion, the woman who's deadly beauty matched even great Helen of Sparta's," Isolde snapped. "You forget so easily why we have had to sneak about for the last two years. We've done it to save you from the fate the Raven has suffered."

"Yes, Lady Lioness, would you have been content to draw your skirts apart for Death? The Raven had no such choice to make, and her own babe has been torn from her grasp to -" Viviane's tirade was halted by Morgana's hand on her shoulder.

"That is enough! What are we? Simpering Roman ladies or Sarmatian warriors? We have but one goal, and this bickering isn't solving anything!" Morgana cried, her eyes connecting with each of her sisters before she continued. "Now, ask your questions simply, no direct questions of certain peoples. You have heard of the infamous Arthur and his barbarian knights, you wonder how a lady might come to find such virile examples of manhood. We have heard they are at the wall, is it true. Simple questions."

"We've done this before, Raven," Elaine sighed.

"Yes, but we've never been in Briton before, never had so many of our hopes riding on the back of this pursuit. We will not tempt the gods nor fate in this matter," Morgana spoke quietly. So much rested on finding their lost brothers-in-arms. "May the Goddess preserve us in this effort. Keep each other safe."

Room 107, 2005

Two women were currently pacing in room 107 without being noticed by the staff at all. This could be because they were currently invisible to all human perspective. The man only identified as John Doe slept on, but not really. His astral form sat in the chair across from the bed, his eyes watching the two women who continued to argue.

"This isn't good, Tara!" the brunette that Dagonet had only met briefly cried, chewing on a nail.

"N-never said it was! I didn't know the old man was in on it!" Tara cried. "If I had, I would have informed you right away!"

"God, we have to figure out who this loser's puppet-master is and get rid of him!"

"You two are not exactly in the position to do anything," Dagonet sighed, glancing up at them.

"We could get the other liaison? Maybe she'll know what to do -"

"Europa's in on it with the doctor!" Cordelia snapped. "She's been in it since the beginning! It's why Whistler went ass-backwards about getting us into this without telling the Higher Planes or their other dl's. Short of Whistler, there's no one else we can turn to, Tara."

"Now princess, that makes me feel like chop liver," a new voice startled the two women.

A dark haired figure leaned against the doorframe. Cordelia's mouth hung open in disbelief as he gave her that little annoying Irish wink he was so good at. Allan Francis Doyle was the last person she expected to see in the eleventh hour, and the first person she'd wanted to see when she died. The first soldier down. Dagonet and Tara weren't shocked at the appearance of this new spirit, which kinda pissed her off.

"Finally, someone to talk sense into these two," Dagonet muttered. "Doyle, what news have you of my lady?"

"Little Dawn's got hell of a temper on her, that's for sure," Doyle smiled, clasping ghostly hands with the knight in welcome. "Bitch-slapped Lancelot's uppity new form, but not before he could tell her about you."

"He always did get under her skin," Dag laughed, a bit of the worry draining from his features.

"Before I act on my sudden urge to bitch-slap you myself for hiding away on the planes, I just gotta ask, " Cordelia marched over to Doyle, hands on her hips. "What are you doing here?"

"The Lady herself sent me to oversee this. Call it a bit of penance for dyin' on you and Angel."

"Doyle has been here before," Tara added. "I thought you knew."

"Nope, I didn't know the half-demon who gave me the visions that eventually killed me was sticking his nose in my case," Cordy huffed, giving Doyle a very dirty glare.

"Couldn't let you in on it. Europa could have found out, and then where would we be?"

"Right where we are now?"

"No, she would have done his bidding faster."

"He? Who he?"

"Can't tell you that, princess. All very cloak and dagger like business with this fellow."

"What do we do about Kingston?" Tara asked, her eyes flickering between her ghostly cohorts. If they continued on like this, they'd be here all day.

"Not much we can do. Hold him off a bit before she gets here."

"Okay, brain-trust, how are we supposed to do that?" Cordy snapped.

"Simple," Doyle grinned, pushing the door shut slowly. He leaned against it with his whole body, motioning for them to follow his lead.

"We're gonna stand in front of the door?"

The Hollis Home

"Did he just say what I think he said?" Willow asked, pushing past the other knights who had come to Dawn's side the second Lanyon had started freaking out.

"He's alive. He's been alive this whole time and now your freak of a father wants to kill him?" Dawn cried accusingly at Arthur.

"My father - he can't be thinking clearly. He only sees himself and what he would want in that position. But none of that matters! Bors, Lancelot," Arthur nodded to Boris and Lanyon, who apparently didn't notice the name slip and looked at him. "Faith, Dawn, and myself will go to identify him and stop this from happening. Willow, Guinevere, and Vanora, help Jols and Fulcinia deal with the remembering. Gawain, Galahad, Tristan and Vi, watch over them."

"Um, Artie, what the hell do you thinks gonna happen to them while we're gone?" Faith asked.

"We can't be sure. It's just a precautionary step."

"We have to go to him," Dawn murmured. "He told me to be patient and I didn't get it! Why didn't I get it?"

"Dawnie, stop beating yourself up about it," Gwen tried to reassure her. "There's no way you could have known. Europa and Cordelia told you that he wasn't here, that he hadn't been brought back."

"Why would they lie about it? Either way it was too late for me to conceive the 'right' baby. I was already carrying Dag's!"

"You're what?" Lanyon shook his head. "How is that possible?"

"Don't look so surprised, Lancelot," Dawn snapped herself out of the guilty train of thought about Dag. She watched as Lanyon's eyes narrowed. "I was sent back in time to conceive a baby of prophecy. Just be grateful that it isn't yours. I know I am."

Lanyon's shocked look was worth getting herself all upset over. Dawn had been determined to be decent to all of the knights, no matter how much they annoyed her in the past. She didn't take out her annoyance at Gawain and Galahad's Woad comments in the past on Gavin and Garrett. But something about Lanyon/Lancelot really bugged her. Maybe it was because he knew about Dag, that the Powers had somehow guided him to her love first that bothered her. Maybe it was just his smart-ass attitude that bugged her, or maybe it was just her hormones being out of whack and the realization that Dag was alive and near death without her. It was probably the last one.

"Dawn, we don't have time for this. Everyone get to work," Arthur's voice pulled her from her thoughts as Boris took her arm and led her back up the garden path and through the house. Faith was just behind her, separating her from Lancelot and Arthur.

"Well, I guess we're not having a nice quiet picnic," Felicia muttered.

"No, because we've got a ton of explaining to do," Willow answered, sitting down at the table as she watched the car speed out of the drive.

"Arthur fell back very quickly to calling us by name," Gavin murmured, sitting beside Willow.

"That could be because the memory recognition spell was so strong with Lancelot that it was easier to fall back on the old names."

"Excuse me, but can you explain to me why he called us 'old names'? Jenna, what's going on?" Joel Hollis cried.

"Joel," Willow said calmly, a smile on her face as she pulled his attention away from the other red haired woman. "It's gonna sound weird, but do you believe in reincarnation?"

"What? Who the hell are you people?"

"Oh, yeah, this is gonna be a load of fun," Willow sighed.

Vi stood with her arms crossed, her eyes on the road Dawn had just raced down. She was faintly aware of Willow and Gavin explaining to the family about their reincarnation, but her mind was stuck on the thoughts of her own. She heard someone come up beside her, and she knew that she wasn't the only one thinking about that time of her life.

"You haven't looked me in the face in over an hour, Vi," Garrett said quietly.

"Neither have you," Vi shrugged, turning away from him.

"Will you stop acting like a child? You remember being her, don't you?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"You do."

"I don't," Vi looked him in the eye, determined to prove him wrong. She could look at him and not think about that life that she was pretty sure didn't really exist. Honest.

"You are a horrible liar. You remember something, don't you?"

"What if I do? What the hell is it going to change? You don't remember it anymore than I do!" Vi cried, giving him an accusing look. "And you're just as afraid to remember as I am."

Room 107

"What the hell do you mean you can't open the blasted door?" Kingston shouted at the incompetent nurse in front of him. "They don't lock! My patient could be dying in there and I've no way to treat him from out here!"

"Like the bastard really cares," Cordy snorted, leaning harder against the door. "He's pulling the plug on Dag today anyway."

"He does care. If he doesn't off Dag today, his master will be sorely pissed at him. That man's not the type to react kindly to disappointment." Doyle muttered.

"What the hell does this guy have against Dag?"

"Dag? Not a damn thing. Dag's kinda the innocent one in this scenario. Arthur, Lancelot, and the women that love them, that's who he hates."

"And to get at them, he'll strike down Dag while he still can," Tara added.

South of the Wall, 467

Three weeks of reconnaissance had led them here. The word had spread of the Britons defeat of the Saxon army at Badon Hill, and the legendary Sarmatian knights who had led them to victory. In all their searching, the four Sarmatian sisters found no mention of the knights they searched out by name. No individual warrior was ever named, save their leader. Arthur Castus, a Briton out of Rome.

"The main populace is still at the wall of Hadrian," Morgana spoke quietly to her sisters. "The knights still remain their, though their numbers are few."

"How few?" Elaine demanded.

"No more than seven," Isolde said, her eyes cast downward.

"Seven? Out of the hundreds the Roman scum took from our people?" Elaine cried.

"A whole generation's worth," Viviane murmured.

"Silence," Morgana commanded, looking each of them in the eye. "None of these people have seen the knights, so there is the chance that they are simply wrong in the numbers. We have not crossed the breadth of the entire Roman empire to be struck down by idle gossip. Your men could still live, our people could still live. We cannot know what tomorrow will bring, nor can we know what yesterday has sown. All we can do is search it out. The trip is a day and a half's journey. We rest tonight and move out in the morning."

The next few hours passed in silence and half-sleep. It was hard for any of them to rest peacefully ever, and tonight proved to be as difficult as ever. Viviane rolled over, her eyes resting on Morgana.

"What is it, Viviane?" Morgana said quietly.

"Nothing," Viviane replied, her eyes shifting away again.

"You cannot lie, Viviane. Tell me what troubles you."

"Do you remember the day the Romans came to your village, to collect the debt?"

"Far too well. Why do you ask?" When Viviane did not answer, Morgana pushed the question farther. "Did the Romans take a loved one from you as well, Viviane?"

"No, not in the sense that they took a love from Isolde and Elaine. He was a gentle boy, a good ten years elder than I. He watched over me once. And then he was gone."

"And did you wish to find him? To seek him out as Elaine and Isolde have?"

"No, I hardly remembered him until now."

"What was he called, this boy of yours?"

"Dagonet."

Harrington Hospice, 2005

The ride from the house to the hospice had been quiet and awkward. Boris had spent half of the trip with his arm protectively around Dawn. Arthur drove as fast as he could. He cursed himself for not trusting that flickering idea three days back. He should have known that the man from the lake had been Dagonet. He'd thought it. He should have known.

Lanyon rubbed his jaw as his past coursed through his mind. Maybe the rush of old memories and personality had been too much. Maybe that was why he'd lashed out at the poor girl so harshly.

"How'd you find him?' Dawn asked, catching his eye in the review mirror.

"Dagonet?" She nodded slowly. "I was sent here to do a story on his rescue. Which is odd, considering my editor didn't even know he assigned me the story."

"What?"

"He never assigned me to it, and yet here I am."

"Sounds like something the Powers would cook up," Faith muttered.

"Is this it?" Dawn asked, ignoring Faith's comment.

"Yeah," Lanyon murmured. "We've got a bit of a problem though."

"What? What problem?" Dawn's voice cracked as panic set in.

"I'm banned from setting foot in the place."

"I thought it was a real problem, knight-boy," Faith scoffed, pushing her door open. She held a hand out to Dawn.

"Do you know what room he's in?' Lanyon glared back at her.

"107," Arthur said calmly, undoing his belt. "Lancelot, stay just outside the door. Boris, Faith, you're with us."

Arthur took Dawn's arm from Faith and led the way through the doors. The nurse sitting at the desk looked up at them with a smile on her face.

"Artie, I didn't know you'd be in today You're da's in, checking in on his patient."

"The John Doe case?" Arthur said pleasantly, giving her a small smile in return.

"Yeah, that poor man. Imagine not having a soul in the world to care for you -"

"He does have someone to care for him!" Dawn cried, tears welling in her eyes. The nurse's eyes widened in shock as she looked between Dawn and Arthur.

"Yes, he does. Margaret, this is his fiancé and his brother."

"Oh! Don't let me stop you, then!" Margaret pushed the button and the doors swung open.

Arthur led them down a winding corridor. Dawn's mind raced with thoughts of fear and doubt.

"Why would the liaisons lie to me? Why would Cordelia tell me he hadn't been reborn like the rest of you? Why would they try to keep me away?"

"Cause the Powers suck?" Faith asked.

"No! It doesn't make any sense. Unless they were trying to push me to make some kind of connection with Lancelot, and make the 'right' baby."

"That doesn't explain why they would make Lancelot the one to find Dagonet and tell you that he's alive," Arthur turned right at the end of the corridor heading to another set of glass doors.

The door around 107 was surrounded by two guards, three nurses and an older man. Panic skipped through Dawn's veins as she thought of all the possibilities. He couldn't be dead. Not after she'd finally found him.

"We're not calling him Dagwood," she blurted, getting odd looks from the others.

"What?"

"We're not making up some lame ass modern name for him," Dawn gritted her teeth. "If he's got one, great, but to us and to them he's Dagonet. Got it?"

"Arthur, what are you doing here, son?" the older man called.

"Father, I've got good news. We've found John Doe's family."

"You what?" Old Doctor Kingston paled, his eyes flickering to the three people with his son.

"His fiancé and his brother came into the clinic yesterday asking if we'd seen a man matching his description. He'd been hiking near the lake when he'd disappeared, hadn't he, Ms. Summers?"

"Yeah, Dag was the outdoors-y type to a T."

"Baby brother never could resist a bit of the rugged terrain. I knew I should have gone with him," Boris said gruffly, getting in on the act. Dawn squeezed his hand.

"You can't blame yourself, Boris. We gotta keep hoping that it's him, right, D?" Faith gave the Doctor her 'good' girl act, not wanting to be left out.

"Is he in there?" Dawn whispered, not having to fake the crocodile tears that formed in her eyes.

"We can't open the door," Doctor Kingston said gruffly.

"That's our cue," Doyle grinned at Dagonet. His hand turned the handle, the click ringing through the ears of the ten people huddled outside the door.

The door creaked open on it's own, shocking the nurses and guards in front of it. Dawn didn't wait for them to move. She pushed her way through the group, shrugging off Doctor Kingston's cold hand on her arm as she ran into the room. Her eyes locked on the still form in the bed. Even after meeting all of the other knights, it still struck her as odd to see such a familiar face in such modern settings. She shivered, almost afraid to move. Afraid to shatter this moment and have it all be a dream again.

Dagonet's astral form circled her protectively. He'd been right all those years ago. She looked beautiful carrying his child. His hands ghosted over her shoulder and she shivered again. Dawn stepped forward, her hand outstretched to take his sleeping form's hand. Dagonet took a shaky breath as she cried. She had found him, his brave beautiful girl had found him again.