The Mendicant and the Maiden

by CuChulainn X19

Pyrrha Nikos faces an overwhelming adversary in the Fall Maiden, but time can be rewritten, and her destiny takes a different path with the arrival of a stranded wanderer. The Mendicant has ties to Remnant, but the darkness continues to rise, and all is not as it seems. Slight Doctor Who crossover. First arc complete; on hold.

2. No Parking

Chapter 2. No Parking

The Tardis wheezed and groaned as the Mendicant darted frantically about the console, trying every trick in the Tardis manual he'd never written to pull his vessel out of the whirlpool it seemed stuck in. A small panel blew off the console, smoke pouring from where it had been, as sparks rained down from the ceiling. Finally, at a distant, echoing boom in the depths of his ship, the Time Lord surrendered.

"Fine!" he yelled at the unresponsive controls. "I give up! Land wherever you bloody want to! I can't make you fly straight anymore, why should I decide where we land? It's not like you've ever run off and gotten us into trouble we didn't need, is it? Oh, wait, that's always you—"

He was thrown from his feet as the time capsule came suddenly to a halt.

"Oh. Yes, let's have it like that, shall we. Now, what sort of hellhole have you put us in this time?" He threw open the doors, and light streamed from behind him to reveal the unconscious body of Sianon Ozpin.

"Shit." The Mendicant swore reflexively, his mood falling from anger to trepidation in an instant. He'd first met Ozpin lifetimes ago, and if something could defeat a warrior of his skill and wisdom, then the entire world of Remnant—if not the universe at large—was in grave peril.

As he looked, however, the green-suited man stirred, recovering his cane as he looked toward the source of the illumination.

"Mendicant. You've held on to this body for a while, I'm glad to see." He paused for breath. "There's no time to catch up—Cinder Fall. She's stolen the Fall Maiden's powers and is headed—up. To the tower. I couldn't hold her off; can you—"

The Mendicant had already turned back into the Tardis. The controls were beyond working in the time frame he likely had—with events like this, it was almost always necessary to remain in the same position relative to one's adversary within the causal nexus—so he dashed down to one of the storage lockers near the control room. A moment's undisciplined rooting rewarded him with a battered Time Agent's vortex manipulator, which he strapped around his wrist as he darted out the door.

"Look after her for me, would you, Oz?"

The exhausted warrior-schoolmaster nodded faintly as he leaned on the doorframe, and the Mendicant punched in the coordinates for the rooftop.