Adventures of John: Death of Magic
Chapter 4: The Hunt Begins
"Do I know you?"
"Uh… Yes. No. Sort of." I shook my head, trying to rid myself of the shock of discovering that Merida was the bounty hunter. "You were at mine and Elsa's wedding about a year ago."
"Ay, I remember that," she replied. "Fancy decorations, interesting guest list. I liked yer friend Nicholas. Never been to a royal wedding like that one before. Most o' them have too much pompousness, but yers was more real. You actually had some of yer odd friends there, not just royal stiffs."
"So how did a princess of DunBroch become a bounty hunter?"
"I don't have much interest in being a wee princess. Sometimes my mother brings me along with her to royal events like yer wedding, but for the most part I'm all to meself. I wanted adventure, and bounty hunting turned out to be a good way to get it. Now, no time for flapping our gobs." She swung off her horse, patting its side. "Once we get ol' Angus here into the stables yer going to show me this prison that my quarry escaped from."
. . . . .
After her massive horse was stabled, Elsa and I led her down into the dungeons. Anna and Kristoff remained behind, not wanting to bring their children down into those depths. Avan was particularly upset at not being able to go, but his mother was adamant. So it was that Elsa and I stood to the side as Merida looked into the broken cell, still left unrepaired since the conclusion of the battle against the darker half of my personality. Merida squatted down and stared at the floor of the cell, turning her head to look at the destruction around her.
"I'm going to guess that this wasn't the rogue prince's work."
"It was not," I agreed. "This happened when… an enemy sorcerer attacked. We defeated him, but the damage he caused allowed Hans to escape."
"Hmmm…" She continued to look around the room, and after a moment I felt a whisper of power. She stood up suddenly, turning to leave. "Alrighty then," she declared. "I'll be off. I've got meself a prince to find."
"You've already found a clue?" Elsa inquired, shocked. "How?"
"If you knew you were going to find something so quickly why did you even bother getting your horse stabled?" I added.
"I'm the best at what I do, yer Majesties. Now off with you! I'm sure you have some important queenly duties to see to. I'll stay the night in the stables, but then I'll be off." She strode out of the dungeon and I chuckled to myself. She was so much like the young girl from the movie, yet so different as well. Like Anna, yet also in a very different way, she was not a teenage girl anymore. While Anna had become a mother, Merida had become something else, something wild. Something I didn't entirely trust.
"I need to go with her," I whispered to Elsa.
"What?"
"There's something off about her. When she was searching the room I sensed a breath of power. She's not what she appears. Besides, this is Hans we are talking about finding. You know even better than I do how devious he is. Do you think he has been idle this whole time? He is too power-hungry to be content with exile. He will have been planning, and someone needs to be there to deal with whatever it is he has planned. You know there is no one better to do that than me."
She raised her eyebrow at that. "I can think of one person."
"You know you can't come with me," I stated plainly.
"And why not? Because I'm your wife? I am no less able to defend myself now than I was when we met. If anything I've become far more capable. There is no way you are leaving me behind."
I took her lightly by the shoulders and smiled down at her. "My dearest Elsa. Beautiful, intelligent, unrelenting, uncompromising Queen Elsa. Princess, I could tell you that you aren't prepared for something like this. I could tell you that I only want to keep you safe, that the kids need their mother more than they need a father. I even could tell you that I don't need your help. But we both know that would be a load of crap. You are the strongest, most powerful woman I have ever met. You are certainly a stronger person than any man I have ever met, you could probably even beat me in a fight. As for the children, I fully intend on coming back and being the best father I can be. I doubt either of us could die in this or any other event. I would love to have you with me on this new adventure."
I sighed, pulling her close. "But you simply cannot come. You are the queen. Arendelle needs you. It needs you to rule it. That is your duty as queen. You can't just drop everything and go on an adventure with me. Too many people rely on you. That's the thing about pesky things like responsibilities. You can't abandon them whenever you feel like it. You know that far better than I do."
"What about your own responsibilities?" she questioned. "What about your other home? You are usually only able to be away for eight hours or less at a time. Are you just going to abandon your responsibilities there?"
"About that…" I hesitated for a moment, knowing that there would be some serious backlash from what I was about to say. "I sort of have a way around that issue."
"You what?" her fists clenched and the air around her snapped with frigid power. "Are you saying that you had a way to spend all your time here and you didn't use it?"
"I said I sort of have a way," I replied, holding my hands up in surrender. "I have a theory, but I haven't fully tested it out yet. If I've gotten anything incorrect, I would be torn apart and scattered across all of time and space."
"Then you can't use it now! Do you really think I'm going to stand by and let you kill yourself?"
"I have to do this. It could be the only way to stop Hans's insanity for good. Besides, if this works we won't have only a few hours at a time together. I won't have to always be leaving. No more mornings waking up to not see me there, no more nights spent alone. If this works I can live both my lives to the fullest and be there for you one hundred percent of the time. I've been dying to try it, but I couldn't find a good enough reason to possibly kill myself."
"Don't kill yourself," she ordered. She smiled sadly and reached up to put her hand on my cheek. "We need you. I need you. I may be Queen, but you are my King. You will survive this. You have to."
I smiled back down at her. "Alright then Princess. Your word is my command." We walked out of the dungeon, and along the way I explained my plan. "So you know how I travel to this universe in my dreams using a talisman, right? Well, that talisman is the key. I was doing some experiments when I discovered that my body contained trace chronal energy from my time in the TARDIS. Through manipulating that chronal energy I discovered that I was able to store time in the talisman. By using the stored time from the other universe I can extend my stay in this one. The basic result is that as long as I keep storing and using the time from the various universes, I will theoretically be able to spend a full day in one universe while time is halted in the other, and then a full day in the other universe while time is halted in the first one. This would allow me to technically exist in both universes simultaneously."
"You know I could barely understand half of that," she stated, giving me an irritated glance. "But as long as you don't have to be away all the time, I'm fine with it. Just make sure you don't die."
"Will do."
. . . . .
It never would have worked if not for my close-up look at Timelord technology back during the war against the Void. Luckily I did get that close-up look, and since then I have made sure to learn as much as possible about time and how it works. Combining that knowledge with chronal energy and my own magical energies, I managed to enter my own personal time stream. Images flashed by me as I floated through flowing energy, images of my life. I saw my past, violent images of magical war intermixed with images of homework and school. Some images I didn't recognize, images that I assumed were of my future. I tried not to look at those ones too often.
I concentrated on the energy flowing through my time stream, warping it around me. It resisted harshly, but I forced it into shape, tearing it apart and putting it back together in a violent struggle. Several times I nearly found myself torn apart, but I was able to will the energy of my time stream into submission. I emerged from my time stream, finding myself in mine and Elsa's bedroom.
"Did it work?" Elsa looked down at me, worry widening her eyes.
"It worked," I grunted back, forcing myself to my feet. I looked down at my chest where the talisman hung, a faint bronze glow added to the golden, blue, and white light already glimmering from the talisman. "It worked."
. . . . .
"Hey now, you're an all-star, get your game on, go play!"
I jumped out of bed, mind blurred from the first full night of sleep in Arendelle since destroying the Voidheart. Or, maybe not entirely full. Looking out the window, I saw that the sky was still dark, with only faint traces of pink as the sun had only just begun to rise.
"What is it?" Elsa asked groggily, wrapping the sheets around herself.
"Merida just left." I had conjured invisible warning beacons around the palace, designed to blare the song All-Star in my head when she left. I had intended it to be a warning, but I hadn't intended it to be an alarm clock. Even in alternate universes, dawn is far too early a time to wake up. "I guess that's my queue to go." I snapped my fingers and my bedclothes vanished, replaced by golden armor and a crimson cloak. I leaped out the window and transformed into a red-and-gold feathered hawk, screeching as I flew into the mountains.
. . . . .
Merida rode through the mountains, feeling the wind on her face once more. She had someone new to hunt, and that meant that she had another adventure before her. Glancing at the ground, she saw a line of blue flames, stretching out into the distance. "Come on then," she whispered. "Lead me to my fate." Looking up into the sky, she saw a red-and-gold hawk soaring above her. "Are you coming with me, my wee feathered friend? We'll see if you can keep up."