Maureen O’Brien – Merlin: A Jewel Riders/Doctor Who Crossover
Summary: Maureen O’Brien plays with the idea that Merlin was the Doctor from Dr. Who all along.
Archival Note from The Jewel Riders Archive: This story is presented as it was originally published. It is presented for archival purposes and for the enjoyment of the Jewel Riders fandom. If you are the author of this story and wish to have it removed from the Jewel Riders Archive (or wish to share more!) please email us at archivist@jewelridersarchive.com. Happy Reading!
Disclaimer: Characters and situations from Princess Gwenevere & the Jewel Riders (aka Starla and the Jewel Riders) belong to….
Characters and situations from Doctor Who belong to the BBC;
Ancelyn and Bambera come from the episode “Battlefield”, btw.
And everything else belongs to me.
===================================================================
PROLOGUE
He was old, so old.
He had seen a thousand worlds, stepped from universe to universe
as easily as crossing a stream. He had saved nations, mended
broken hearts, and sipped over a billion cups of tea. And he had
raised a boy to become a king. Twice, in fact. This was his
second chance. If only it didn’t go all wrong again, as it had
in this world’s parallel. If only he could remember what had
happened where and keep it straight. If only he wasn’t so tired
and old and alone.
And then she came to him, her eyes smiling, her brown hair brushing
his face as she bent over him. And he smiled back, and pulled her
down and kissed her.
But there was something wrong.
She would have kissed him back — or hit him, either one. But she
would never have gone still in his hands, like a rabbit hoping to
escape a fox. Never. His stomach sank, and he pulled his dry old
lips away from her. His hair was white and straight, not brown
and curly. His hands were wrinkled and achy, not strong and clever.
And that was Nimue, not….
“I’m sorry,” he murmured. “So sorry, child. I thought you were
someone else for a minute.”
She flinched back. “I…I understand, Master Merlin. Sometimes you
aren’t yourself.”
“Don’t call me Master!” he said irritably, and she almost smiled.
He didn’t. “I am myself,” he told her. “Just not the same self.
This body’s gotten too old, you see. I can’t go on like this; it’s
too dangerous for the kingdom. And I’ve taught you everything you
need to know.”
“Master…I mean, Merlin….” She reached for him, then flinched
back again. His stomach sank again. “You sound as if you’re
planning to die!”
“No, Nimue,” he said gently. “But I must go away. To the forest
of Broceliande. There’s a certain cave beneath a certain oak…
well, I’ll show you. There I will go and rest until I am strong
again.”
“And then you’ll come back?”
“Yes, child. But not in your lifetime.” He closed his eyes against
the warring emotions in her face. “You must guard the kingdom
now, Lady of the Lake. When the time comes, you must bring Arthur
to Avalon. His sister, the wizard Morgana, will help you; I made her
swear. But don’t trust her for anything else. And when your time
comes, and you go on to Avalon…which should be a long long time
from now…do me a favor and tell someone where I am. Otherwise, I
might just stay there forever.”
She laughed a little between the tears. “Anything else?”
“Be happy, child. And forgive me for leaving you this mess. Whatever
happens, it’s not your fault.”
He fell asleep then, as the very old do, and dreamed of a different
life. And a girl with brown hair.
A DIFFERENT LIFE
She walked under the Brigadier’s apple trees one spring, watching
him talk to the rest of her old friends from UNIT. Ian Sullivan
was still a bachelor, and still hinting his interest. She rolled
her eyes and grinned. Still calling me “old girl”, too. Benton
looked as indestructibly good-humored as ever. Mike Yates, on the
other hand, had acquired a bone-deep calm from his studies of Tibetan
Buddhism and…other things. It still seemed strange to her that
a renegade Time Lord had set up shop in the English countryside,
teaching humans how to use psychic powers. But then, her own
renegade Time Lord had come to work for UNIT, for free — which
was even stranger, in her book.
“Deciding what to report, ma’am?”
Sarah Jane turned to Brigadier Winifred Bambera and shook her head
ruefully. “I do love to watch,” she acknowledged. “But then, so do
you.”
The roundfaced black woman’s lips twitched.
“A hit, my lady!” The tall blond man holding Bambera’s hand looked
amused.
“She doesn’t need your help, Ancelyn,” Bambera growled. “I’m fine
when we’re exchanging war stories,” she explained. “But they’re
back on the personal stuff now. You should be there.”
“I was,” she said. “But it hurts sometimes. That was a different
life. I was young, then. I didn’t really mind picking up and
going all over England at a moment’s notice.”
“Or halfway across the cosmos, from what I hear.”
Sarah froze for a moment, then relaxed. “I keep forgetting that
you two know about the Doctor.”
“And about faring across the cosmos,” Ancelyn said gently. “Or at
least from universe to universe.”
“Do you miss it? Your universe, I mean?”
“I miss my family, lady, and my home. But for all that the Empress
Morgana is saner than she was, still I’d rather be here, with
my lady Winifred, than have the Nine Worlds and all its magic.”
“Organic and psychic technology,” Bambera corrected him.
“Call it what you will.” Ancelyn turned his unnerving blue gaze on
Sarah Jane. “But not everyone has gone on errantry with Merl…The
Doctor, I mean. Do you miss it, lady?”
Sarah snorted disgustedly. “Miss the dungeons? The monsters? The
murderers, thieves, dictators, mad scientists, and assorted dregs
of the galaxy? The Doctor’s quirks and secrets? The way he’d do
his best to get himself killed? The trouble he’d get us into
because he could never let a mystery alone?” Her voice softened.
“Oh, yes. More every day.”
THE LADIES OF THE LAKE
“This is where it happened, lady,” Ancelyn was saying. “The High
King Arthur rests in his ship beneath these waters. But despite
the legend, he will never come back.”
“Never say never,” Sarah Jane chided him. “Where’s your sense of
wonder? Just look at this place. Look how the reeds are blowing
in the wind. Look how the sunset is making the lake water seem to
glow. Anything could happen.”
Bambera stiffened. “That’s not the sunset. The lake *is* glowing!”
She stepped closer to the lakeshore, and Ancelyn followed.
“Oy! Get back from there!” Sarah Jane shouted, matching her movements
to her words. “And get down! If something’s going to blow, we don’t
want to go with it!”
The glow grew, and suddenly the waters were churning with colored
fire. Ancelyn stood watching it; Bambera unceremoniously dragged
him down beside her. Then, with a mighty surge, the colored fire
flared and broke the surface.
It came from a great golden jewel.
The jewel rose. They saw a hand, then an arm encased in armor. Then
a blue jewel, and a red. Then, with a gasp, three heads in winged
helmets appeared.
Then three horses’ heads.
Except they weren’t horses. No, not at all.
“Who are they, Ancelyn?” Bambera was demanding. “What kind of
ordnance can we expect?”
“I don’t know,” Ancelyn whispered slowly. “But I don’t think they
come from the Nine Worlds. Our unicorns look different indeed.
And on my life, I’ve never seen a zebra with a horn before.”
“I’ve never seen a purple unicorn,” Sarah whispered, eyes dancing.
“I never hoped to see one.
But I can tell you anyhow,
I’d rather see than be one.”
“Oh, that’s a great help.”
The three fell silent, watching and listening as the three
helmeted people and unicorns emerged from the water and
complained about the mud on the bank.
“Sounds like women. And they speak English,” Bambera said slowly.
“You understand them, too?” Sarah said under her breath. “Good.”
For some reason, she’d never had trouble making out what people
said once she started traveling with the Doctor, and they never
had trouble understanding her. “A gift for languages,” her editors
said. She suspected it really was a gift from the Doctor, but for
some reason, she rarely thought about it. And maybe that was a gift
from the Doctor too.
She forgot about it and just listened.
“I don’t understand it, Tamara,” one was saying. She sounded like
an American. “How could the Travel Trees have sent us into a lake?”
“I don’t know, Gwen,” another answered, low and troubled. She also
sounded American.
“I don’t know and I don’t care,” the third said. She sounded English.
“What worries me is that I don’t recognize this place at all. Do you?”
“No,” Tamara said, sounding even more troubled.
“Nope,” said Gwen. “And we three have been almost everywhere in
Avalon.”
“But Gwen,” a high sweet voice lilted, “I know this place. It’s
the Lake of the High King. Ask Fallon.”
“No way,” Gwen retorted. “The Lake of the High King is right by
Avebury Town and Castle Dragonden. This place is in the middle of
nowhere.”
“Fallon, Sunstar says this is the Lake of the High King,” Tamara
told the third. “What do you think?”
“Well, if I ignored the town and the castle…it does look like
the Lake of the High King. The monument to Arthur’s arrival would
be right over there.”
“Yes,” said a low voice. “And that’s the meadow where they hold
the Avebury Fair in the fall. Remember the apple trees there?”
“Moondance says that’s the meadow for Avebury Fair, and the apple
orchard. But it doesn’t look as if anyone’s tended those trees in a
long long time.”
Gwen looked interested. “Maybe we’ve traveled in time. Merlin said
something about that once.”
“They speak of Merlin,” Ancelyn whispered. “Yet the places they do
speak of are strange to me. And indeed, they do not have the look
or the speech of the folk of the Nine Worlds. Also, they pause
strangely often.”
Pause? Sarah Jane gave him a puzzled look. Sounded like nonstop
talking over there to her. Though how those girls made three
voices sound like five was beyond her. And why did they have to
repeat half of what they said?
“Some invasion force,” Bambera commented. “They sound like kids.”
“They’re obviously lost,” said Sarah Jane. “Look, why don’t I go
talk to them? If they try anything, you’ll be here — not that I
think they will.”
“What would you do if I said no?” Bambera said interestedly.
“Go anyway,” she answered. “I’m not with UNIT anymore.”
“And besides, you’re dying to find out what’s going on.”
Sarah grinned. “Professional nosy parker, I am.” She moved away
stealthily, then got up and walked toward the three girls and
their unicorns. She stopped at a safe distance. “Hallo! My name’s
Sarah Jane Smith. You look a bit lost.”
“That name sounds familiar,” a male voice said. “Now where have
I heard it before?”
“Look at those strange clothes she’s wearing!” another male voice
exclaimed. “Maybe we have traveled in time.”
Male voice?
“I guess we are,” Gwen said. “We’re Jewel Riders…or at least,
the set of Jewel Riders from our time. Where in Avalon are we, and
which way to New Camelot?”
Sarah goggled. “I’m sorry, but you must have really made a wrong
turn. Avalon is a myth, at least in this universe. Camelot is a
legend from more than a thousand years ago. This is Britain.”
“Britain?”
“Maybe she means Britannia. The Isle of Prydain, they sometimes
call it. You know — the kingdom that Merlin and Arthur and his queen
Guenevere came from.”
“But that would mean….”
“That we’re on Earth!”
“Imagine!” Gwen said ecstatically. “Right over *there*, my ancestor
King Arthur, and all his faithful knights, fought his last battle
against the wicked Mordred.”
“Yeah, well….” Fallon said dubiously, “the part I remember is that
the battle was started by a snake. Watch your feet.”
Tamara was busy questioning the mysterious white-haired woman in
the strange clothing. “Do you know if there has been any strange
magical activity around here? Wild jewels? Wild Magic?”
“There’s no such thing as magic in this postal code,” she said
bluntly. “Unless you’re using that to describe some elaborate
‘organic and psychic technology’, or the odd genetic engineering
project.”
Tamara just stared at her.
“What did she just say?” the male voice said. “And what did it mean?”
“It sounded like Greek,” the low voice said.
“It’s the Queen’s English,” Sarah Jane snapped. “And whoever you are,
it’s very rude to keep butting in with your comments when I can’t even
see you.”
“She can hear us!” the high sweet voice said.
“You can hear them?” Tamara asked excitedly. The other girls’ heads
swiveled around. They looked shocked.
“Yes, of course I can. I may be getting on, but there’s nothing
wrong with my hearing yet.”
“She didn’t mean any insult,” Fallon explained. “Is it common
among your people to hear unicorns speak?”
“Not likely.”
WILD MAGIC
“So there’s some sort of gate between universes down at the bottom of
the Lake of the High King,” Tamara summarized, “and for some reason we
got drawn into it while we were riding the Wild Magic.”
“That’s my best guess,” Sarah Jane agreed. “So the best thing for
you would be to go back through it, and then see if you can close
the gate behind you. Rips in the fabric of space and time can get
a bit messy.”
“Then we should get moving. Sunset’s coming soon,” said Gwen, “and I’d
rather not try this in the dark.”
The three girls mounted the unicorns and used the Sunstar grumbled
about wet wings. Moondance and Shadowsong said goodbye. Then Gwen
raised her round yellow jewel.
“Sunstone, show us all the way
Into Avalon today.
Light the rift, so we can see
Just how bad the hurt may be.”
A beam of golden light plunged into the dark waters of the lake, and
suddenly they were dark no more. A glowing golden whirlpool formed
out in the lake. Streamers of light shot out from it toward the shore.
That’s how far the time/space anomaly has spread, Sarah Jane realized
with shock. Very messy indeed.
Fallon raised a blue crescent and called upon its magic.
“Moonstone, blaze a path of light
Into Avalon tonight.
Keep the rift from growing more
As we leave this world and shore.”
And suddenly, a path of blue light blazed out toward the golden
vortex. When the two lights met, they mingled. The whirlpool turned
a beautiful verdant green. But the rest of the blue beam hung in the
air, becoming a path well fit for unicorn hooves. Fallon looked
surprised, but pleased.
Sunstar, I guess your wings won’t be getting wet after all, thought
Sarah.
And now Tamara raised her hand and her red heart-shaped jewel. She
threw back her head and spoke her part of the spell.
“Heartstone that I raise above,
Bring us back to those we love.
As we leave this world behind,
Heal the rift with love to bind.”
Red light shot out from the Heartstone and touched the whirlpool.
Suddenly the pool glowed with an unbearably pure white light. Red
light surrounded the Jewel Riders and pulled them toward the
whirlpool with all the strength of homesickness. Their steps were
light as they walked the glowing blue Moonstone path. Gwen heard
the gentle voice of her mother, Queen Anya, and saw the comforting
bulk of her tall father, King Jared. For a moment, she flashed on
the face of Drake, and she blushed almost as red as the Heartstone.
And then the whirlpool was before them, whiter than the jewel armor
on her back and Sunstar’s. The blue path led down into it like a
ramp.
“Ready, Sunstar?”
“Ready when you are, Gwen!”
“Then let’s do it.”
They led the way into the whirlpool of light and magic.
And suddenly, they were through, and a tunnel of Wild Magic
swirled around them. But this tunnel, unlike that of the travel
trees, gleamed gold with the Sunstone’s light. Glowed blue
with the Moonstone’s rays. Radiated Heartstone red, as they were
themselves inside a heart.
“It feels like coming home!” Sunstar shouted with joy.
“We are going home!” Gwen yelled back. “Where we belong!”
And then the tunnel ended, and the light swirled around them,
and they were…out!
In the middle of the Friendship Ring. Under the good old stars
of Avalon, with the lights of New Camelot shining near, and
the Crystal Palace standing tall and proud before her.
It stood at the heart of every Jewel Rider. It was where they all
belonged, until the Circle turned — and even then, the Ring
would remember. Gwen’s heart swelled as she watched her friends
come through the Wild Magic in their turn: Fallon, Moondance,
Tamara, Shadowsong, Archie, Sugar and Spike and Cleo. Her friends.
Her family. She had led them all back safe.
The jewels’ light mingled again, and the tunnel mouth turned
incredibly bright. And then the Wild Magic was gone.
They were home.
The Jewel Riders gathered in one huddled, chaotic group hug,
gleeful at the success of their spell.
And then a woman said, “Excuse me.”
They turned around. It was the white-haired woman from Britannia.
“It seems your ‘magic’ decided to shanghai me,” she said grimly.
“Remind me never to complain again about wanting to travel.”
AN UNEXPECTED VISITOR
“Oh, no!” Gwen felt conscience-stricken. She hadn’t been doing
so hot as a leader after all. “It’s my fault. When I said,
‘show us all’….”
“You didn’t know that would include Sarah Jane,” Fallon calmed
her. “It’s never happened that way before.”
“But the spell felt right,” Tamara worried. “It felt like the
rift closed, and that everything ended up where it belonged,
including us.”
“And it did, my pupils.”
“Merlin!” the girls called, relieved. He would know what to do.
“Merlin!” shouted Archie the owl, Merlin’s old familiar. “Oh,
thank goodness you’re here! The Wild Magic has been doing all
sorts of strange things, and we traveled all the way to Earth!”
“So I saw, Archimedes,” Merlin said fondly. “You have discovered
yet another property of the Wild Magic, my pupils, and another
power of your Jewels as well. I am very proud of you.”
“But Merlin,” Gwen pleaded, “what do we do with the woman from
Britannia? Sarah Jane Smith?”
And suddenly, time seemed to stand still for Merlin. His eyes fixed
on a woman with a piquant face, laughline wrinkles, and white hair
that used to be brown. Not to mention lips that incredulously formed
the word…
“Doctor?”
Time rushed back in on him as he felt his own lips pull into a
delighted grin. “My dear Sarah, noone’s called me that for a thousand
years. Merlin this and Merlin that, but never….” He strode forward
hug her and hit the borders of Avalon in time and space.
Which no wizard might pass without a Jewel of Power.
He almost pounded the wall with frustration.
“Doctor? What’s wrong?”
“His Jewel of Power got destroyed,” Fallon explained soberly. “He
can’t come into Avalon without it, so he’s stuck out in the Wild
Magic. If he makes a portal he can come give us advice, but then
he has to go away again.”
“But that’s horrible!” Sarah choked out. “We’ve got to get you
out of that…that prison, Doctor!”
“It’s not as bad as all that,” he told her. “I have a house in
a very nice neighborhood. The gliders are good friends of mine,
and the prism foxes come to visit me and tell me of their
wanderings. That’s how I heard about a dangerous time/space
anomaly. I was going to see about closing it, but it would appear
that my pupils have taken care of it for me. Although they
shouldn’t have taken you along for the ride.”
“We didn’t mean to,” Fallon pointed out. “She just came.”
“Stowed away again, eh, Sarah?”
“Not this time,” she objected — but she laughed. “Police
boxes are a much safer way to travel than magical jewels.”
She sighed. “I feel homesick for the TARDIS. I’ve missed
you so much.”
Gwen couldn’t stand it anymore. She ignored their cryptic
references and got to the good part. “You two know each other?
But how? Sarah said that her time was a thousand years or more
after Arthur ruled.”
“Time and space are one, Gwenevere. To travel in one is to travel
in the other. And I traveled through them for many years, with
many different friends for traveling companions. My friend Sarah
here was one of those who stayed longest with me.”
“Until you made me leave,” she said gently. “I know you had a
good reason. That’s why you were so distracted, and that’s why
you put me down in the wrong part of Croydon. But why?”
He sighed. “I made you leave because the Time Lords forbid outsiders
on Gallifrey. They would have taken all your memories away and
put you back in the moment when I left with you — which would
have wreaked havoc on the time/space continuum, given your
involvement in so many crucial historical events — or simply
imprisoned you in the Citadel for life. I couldn’t do that to
you, Sarah. And I knew you wouldn’t just stay meekly on the
TARDIS while I went around risking my neck in Gallifrey’s political
snakepit. And if I had told you all that….”
“I would never have left. You couldn’t have pried me out of the
TARDIS.” Her eyes turned suspiciously bright. “Oi! Don’t you
dare pull that on me again!”
“I won’t, Sarah Jane.” His voice was deeper than they had ever
heard it. “It’s too hard on hearts.”
“Hearts…” Tamara mused out loud. “That’s it! Merlin, Gwen and
Fallon asked to have ‘us’ brought to Avalon. But I asked the
Heartstone to take us to the people we love. So the magic
compromised by bringing Sarah Jane to Avalon, but as close to you
as it could.”
Merlin looked at Sarah Jane Smith. Sarah Jane Smith gazed back.
Everyone else watched them. There was something in the air that
made it hard to breathe.
“My pupils can send you back to Earth,” Merlin said quietly.
“And leave you here by yourself? Not likely. Besides, I’m retired.”
“Aren’t you married?”
“No. And Brendan can take care of K-9, if need be.”
“Did I tell you that this is my last regeneration?”
“No.”
“Did I tell you my mother was human?”
“No. In fact,” Sarah said, with a bit of an edge, “I seem to recall
you harping on how you weren’t human.”
“Ah. But I used to be afraid of that side of me. Because I knew
that humans grew old and died in a distressingly short stretch of
time.”
“Whereas now you’re as mortal as I am.”
“Exactly.”
“But now I’m old.”
“Given your time’s age expectancies, you’re middle-aged. And
compared to my age….”
“Then all I need is a way into the Wild Magic,” Sarah Jane said
briskly.
“The Jewel Riders would be honored, Lady Sarah,” said Archie the
owl, bowing. Quietly he added, “I knew I’d heard your name before.
He used to call for you when he had nightmares, you know.” Then he
stepped away.
[Go back and fill in the ‘explanation’. Also, Bambera & Ancelyn.
Doctor needs TARDIS from Broceliande. Sarah and Jewel Riders go
back? No…Doctor traveled to Avalon using TARDIS. So. TARDIS
is at the Lady of the Lake’s place.]
