Dragon's Claws #41

"Nobody ever grew despondent looking for trouble."
- Kin Hubbard

Wynter focused, closing his eyes and trying a spell to take him and the other members of the Dragon’s Claws back to Otherworld.

Pen Dragon wanted to get there and wanted to do it in a hurry so they would back in a relatively short time so that he did not miss the meeting of the World Council to deal with the fate of Dream Summers, the young lady who had been the host of the Dark Phoenix and had tried to remake the world. Pen was perhaps the only one defending her, but something was amiss on Otherworld and they needed to sort it.

Sweat began to form on the brow of the mage, and he began to tremble as he focused his magic, trying with all his might to tear open a portal to get them to the world of his birth. There was nothing that should be able to prevent him from returning home, but it was as if he was denied access to the most fundamental of pathways. The links between England and Otherworld were forged by the energy matrix and it was still present, Meggan could see it, so it wasn’t that and mystical prowess was not the only thing that Merlyn had given his son for Wynter shared his incredible force of will and the mage would not be denied. He gave a roar of anguish as light flared around him, sending out a shockwave that shattered all the windows of the Dorneywood mansion and he gasped in ragged breaths, his look of anger all they needed to know. He had failed.

“DAMN IT!” he said, standing and walking away leaving the rest of the team to stand and watch and then the others looked at Pen.

“Don’t ask me,” he said, his gaze not leaving the back of Wynter until he had gone, and he lit a cigarette. “We’re running out of time though.” He looked at Meggan, Kylun and Elsa. “One of you must have some idea? I’ll take anything right now – hell, I’d even take a trip through Limbo.” Kylun shook his head. He was a warrior, not a sorcerer and he knew how to fight, but he had always left the transportation issues to someone else. “Meg?”

“I was trying to help him,” she answered, “but my power and Wynter’s combined cannot open the pathways between Otherworld and Earth.”

“There might be a way,” said Elsa, quietly and they looked at her. “I have a genie. In a lamp.”

“You’re shitting me,” said Pen in astonishment. “You’re not?”

“He takes me where there’s trouble,” she said, “I haven’t called on his services for a while because well… there’s been trouble since the Barrier went up and I was bouncing back and forth and back and forth. I set him free, kind of. I just have to use the lamp to summon him.”

“He goes where’s there’s trouble? There’s trouble on Otherworld,” said Pen. “You think it’d work?”

She shrugged. “It’s all I’ve got.”

“Good enough for me,” said Pen. “You get your genie, I’ll get Wynter, we’re going to try it…”

Wynter was pacing around the Sanctum Sanctorum he had crafted here. It wasn’t home, like the one he had with Kate, but it was a place of sanctuary and meditation or so it was supposed to be. First he had been unable to get home and then Dark Angel had fallen in battle and losing her had hurt him. She had been his friend, a disciple as such and as he had trained her, she had shown him things as well and now she was gone, killed by the rampaging Phoenix and Wynter was angry. He was angry at Dream Summers, at Phoenix, for killing her, he was angry at Feron for not stopping her sooner, he was angry at Shevaun for getting herself killed, but most of all he was angry at himself. Could he have done more, should he have done more? Pendragons had died before, but none of the deaths had gotten to him as much as this and he wondered if he had failed. He gestured, conjuring her face in the air.

“You could get us there,” he said to her. “It would have been child’s play for you.” He waved his fingers and the image drifted away. “I’m going to miss you.”

“I know the feeling,” said Pen, standing in the doorway. “I’ve lost a lot of friends over the years, hell an entire world and you wonder is there something I could have done, should have done, if only I’d known.”

“What do you want?” asked Wynter, without turning, his head pointed down to the floor.

“There might be a way to get us to Otherworld,” Pen said. “We’ll sort out you and my differences with the Queen and be back to tea and scones at the palace. If it doesn’t work, we’ll find another way.” Wynter sighed.

“Tell me about my mother,” he said abruptly and Pen almost lost the cigarette from his mouth. “Or put it this way - what is it you’re not telling me, Pen Dragon?” He looked at him and Pen didn’t move. “I know you know the truth of my parentage, so what is it? My mother wasn’t just some servant in the castle my father took a fancy to, was she?”

“I told you before, it’s not my decision. There are things in place I cannot break and I certainly will not do it here and now.”

“Why do you have such loyalty to my father?” Wynter demanded.

“I don’t,” he replied, his tone low and sincere and Wynter knew it was not Merlyn he was protecting.

“My mother?” he whispered, but Pen Dragon gave no reaction. “I need to know.”

“Not here,” said Pen and he looked at the mage and made a choice. “When we’re on Otherworld, I’ll tell you and your sister the truth.” He nodded to the passageway. “Come on,” he said. “Let’s go talk to the genie of the lamp…”

“I can’t,” the genie said with a shrug as the team gathered around. “Otherworld is beyond my ability to reach.” Elsa glared at the genie, but the genie shook his head. “It should be easy but all I can tell you is that Otherworld is currently out of synchronisation with the rest of reality.”

“That isn’t possible,” said Wynter. “It’s Otherworld, all paths lead to Otherworld.”

“Not anymore,” said the genie.

“Define ‘out of synchronisation with the rest of reality’ for me,” said Pen.

“The temporal synchronisation is off. The paths do indeed still exist, but we are approximately one second behind Otherworld’s temporal area.”

“Energy can come through, but objects can’t,” said Meggan.

“The door won’t open because it’s stuck,” said Wynter, realising. “I was trying to circumvent time and I don’t have that power, not here anyway.”

“What do we do?” asked Kylun. “Is it a problem? Surely they can’t get to us either.”

“It’s cuts us off from the Time War,” said Pen. “This was done deliberately. Wynter, what do you know about the Time Lords?”

“Jumped up bureaucrats with an infinite capacity for pretension,” Wynter sneered but then shook his head. “But they would have the power to do this to Otherworld. Even Merlyn in his prime would not have been able to stand up to them. That said, they’re sworn not to interfere.”

“Things have changed,” muttered Pen then something struck him. “What if we were in a place where time didn’t exist. Could we get there then?” Elsa looked at the genie, who looked perturbed that this upstart was talking to him and she glared.

“Yes,” the genie said. “It would be theoretically possible, but Limbo is gone.”

“Null Point,” said Elsa, catching up and Pen raised his eyebrows and gave a smile. “Take us to the nearest trouble near New Camelot!” The genie smiled, clapped his hands and the team disappeared only to appear in New Camelot, but there was no lamp and no genie with them. “Oops,” Elsa said with a shrug as they looked about the place. It was seemingly deserted.

“Where’s the trouble?” asked Kylun, and then a troop of about twenty guards descended towards them. “Never mind,” he said, drawing his swords and Elsa pulled a couple of guns. Pen’s hot knives came to life and Meggan and Wynter prepared themselves.

“I love New Camelot,” Pen said as they began to fight.

“Who are these people?” asked Elsa, firing her pistols, dropping some of the enemy.

“No idea,” Pen said. “Though I’m not too popular in these parts.”

“Are there any parts you’re popular in?” she quipped and Pen chuckled. He liked her, but not like that. He was with Jessica, and he had seen the way she looked ay Kylun and how the feline warrior had looked at her. There was certainly an attraction between the two of them and it showed.

“Where the hell are the Walkers?” he mused aloud. “Where’s what was left of the people who were still here?”

“New Camelot belongs to us, Pen Dragon,” said a voice and Pen looked up. High up on a balcony stood the Castellan of the Chancellory Guard of the Time Lords, the head of their security detail. That meant these guards were also Time Lords, which meant that either Otherworld had surrendered New Camelot to them or…

“Oh I don’t believe it…”

“You have run amok in Time for the last time,” the Castellan said. “Take them!”

“Like hell,” said Pen and the Dragon’s Claws began to fight the Gallifreyan Guard. Their weaponry was advanced, but it was not as effective as it should be. The absence of time within Null Point was making their temporal weapons a hindrance, when these weapons should have been able to take them out quite easily. They were probably quite effective against the locals but it meant they were going to do as well against a trained cadre of super-heroes. As they fought, Pen sidled up to Wynter. “Otherworld has been taken by the Time Lords.”

“That’s insane,” said Wynter.

“I’m going to bet that when New Camelot emerged here, the Time Lords were waiting and took the exhausted nobility of Otherworld with quiet ease.”

“There is an understanding between Otherworld and Gallifrey,” said Wynter. “They would not dare…”

“They have,” said Pen. “Consider this – where was Otherworld when Dark Phoenix came to undo the magic? Why have we not heard from Grey or Betsy about Shevaun? Because they’re busy? The Time Lords came to Otherworld intent on taking it by force if their demands weren’t met. What if that was a show? As soon as we started to get involved, we were dismissed.” Wynter pondered it and his eyes flashed with fire and he raised his arms wide and magic reigned forth, scattering the guard.

“I’ve had enough,” he said in dark annoyance and he looked at the Castellan. “Run, little man. You may be a Time Lord, but I am a Lord of Otherworld, and you are on sovereign ground.” The Castellan turned and ran and the Dragon’s Claws gathered.

“They’ll be back,” said Elsa. “We’ve won a battle, but not the war.”

“The Time Lords seem to have declared themselves as a side of the Time War,” said Pen, “and I think they’ve taken Otherworld.”

“They’re going to come after us,” said Kylun. “We know too much.”

“Agreed,” said Wynter. “But first we need to find out what happened here, before they come back. Null Point will not be safe.”

“At least I know who’s going to be after me in the future,” said Pen, thinking back to his first visit here, and he’d only been saved then by the intervention of the future members of the Dragon’s Claws, which begged the question of what would happen to this team. Of course that was some way off and at that point they held New Camelot, they just had to get there. “I really hate time travel.”

“I don’t sense Betsy,” Meggan said and Wynter nodded.

“She isn’t here, neither is Roma or Merlyn. Can’t even sense the Walkers.”

Pen sighed. “Let’s try the Great Hall,” he said. “Besides, I really don’t want to be here when the Time Lords come back.” They agreed and moved out as a pair of eyes watched them from a distance. She smiled, thinking it was about time they got here and there was hope for them all yet.

Inside the Great Hall, there was no sign of life, but there was sign of a battle.

“It was swift,” said Wynter as he crouched down. “I can feel the taint of magic used, but they’re so faint. If they were taken here, in the seat of Vortigen’s power, then they would have been exhausted from the journey.”

“They were captured with a temporal net,” said a voice and they turned to see Kate-Pryde-Rasputin standing there. “If not for my ability to phase, they’d have got me too, but I was quicker than they thought.”

“Where are my father and my sister?” Wynter said.

“Gallifrey,” said Kate. “Prisoners of war.” Wynter’s face became black as thunder, as Pen’s suspicions were confirmed. “They had waiting several Time Lords who had been… regenerated to resemble us all.”

“How could they do the magic?” asked Elsa.

“Clarke’s Law,” said Wynter. “Any sufficiently advanced technology can seem to be magic and the reverse is true that a sufficiently advanced magic can seem to be technology. Consider how Merlyn and all of us have used science and magic.”

“Brian,” said Meggan. “He was given power but magic, but his uniform was science.”

“The Time Lords are not ignorant of magic, but they do not practise it as such.” Wynter sighed. “They have the technology instead.” He looked up at the roof of the Great Hall. “Gallifrey and Otherworld are at war, and they’ve taken the nobility.”

“Not all of them,” said Kate. “Betsy was too dangerous to hold on Gallifrey, so they allowed her to be free, but she is watched and her powers are limited. President Romana is the true power on Otherworld, and if Betsy steps out of line… they’ll erase Grey Poldark from history. They could do it anyway, but the Time War means they can do that without consequences and Betsy would always remember Grey. She won’t lose him.”

“How do you know?” asked Elsa.

“This is Null Point,” she said. “Wander far enough in this place, you find someone from the future. Or the past.” She closed her eyes and bowed her head and for a moment she seemed to be so old.

“This place is always changing isn’t it?” said Pen, putting his hand on her shoulder. “When you leave, it’s never the same time period as when you come back.”

“The absence of time is the absence of stability,” said Meggan. “What a strange place.”

“The Time Lords have made a dangerous enemy,” said Wynter, darkly. “My family and I have our differences, but they’re still my family.”

“We’ll get them back,” said Pen, putting his hand on the man’s shoulder. “I promise you, we’ll get them back.”

“There are other things to do first,” Kate said, pointedly. “The Time War is being fought and you’re missing out. The Time Lords are changing events in the past, present and future, in order to repair the time stream, and when they have finished it will be as they believe it should be, not as it was.”

“So the Time Lords will cement their dominion of Time,” said Kylun and Kate nodded.

“They mean to use New Camelot as their staging ground, so that Gallifrey is protected, but there appear to have been… issues around that.”

“So many opposing forces trying to take control of Time,” said Meggan. “This will cause the end of everything.”

“We have to stop them all,” said Pen. “It’s just us against the rest of reality.”

“We can’t be everywhere at once,” said Elsa. “There are too many fires to be put out.”

Pen closed his eyes and then opened them again. “Kate,” he said, enquiring. “How hard would it be for you to pilot a TARDIS, seeing as you spent a long time working the computers and such in Limbo? I know you looked in to them while I was there, before I became Pen Dragon.”

“Should be relatively simple,” she said. “I’d need someone who can make it work though. A TARDIS needs a Time Lord imprint to make it work properly. Once it’s been properly primed there’s a symbiotic link between the TARDIS and the Time Lord, and the main functions are isomorphic.”

“Are what?” asked Elsa.

“Only the specified person can use it,” Kylun said.”

Kate nodded. “It’s a security feature and can be deactivated by the user, unless you know what you’re doing and then maybe you can… override that. But it would need someone special.”

Pen grinned. “What about me? I’m a blank slate when it comes to time, an anomaly. Could we use me to… hotwire it?”

“You’re mad,” said Wynter. “We can’t just steal a TARDIS, they’ll come after us, hunt us down.” Pen smiled and gave him a wink.

“It might work,” said Kate, with a shrug and Pen took a cigarette from his pocket. “Oh I hate it when you get that look,” she said and Pen chuckled. “You have a plan…”

The Gallifreyan security forces patrolled New Camelot. They had TARDISes stationed at intervals all over, disguised to be part of the surroundings thanks to chameleon circuits that disguised their appearance, used when the Time Lords had been observers rather than warriors. New Camelot was under lockdown, the people within the city had been transported back to Otherworld and were none the wise as to what had really happened to their leaders. The only weak link had been Grey Poldark and he had been taken away.

Castellan Kalian had put out many guards searching for Pen Dragon and the Dragon’s Claws and he had ensured that there were images of him out there, so the many denizens of this place would hunt for him also, but the Castellan knew Pen Dragon was a dangerous foe and so he had put the warrant out for him dead or alive and there would be nobody in this place he could turn to for help. Kalian wanted to be on Gallifrey but this was a key strategic post and he had to make sure it was held. His responsibility was Gallifreyan security, but on the orders of the Lady President he was taking a wider view.

He wandered to where his own TARDIS was. He didn’t command a war-TARDIS, but it was modern and had many refinements as suited his position. How the renegade known as the Doctor had coped in an old type-40 he’d never know. As he walked up to it, he became aware of something on the edge of his temporal senses, which wasn’t unusual for this place. He didn’t see anything and shook it off as he stood in front of a large chair. He put the key in the lock and the chair shimmered as the TARDIS door opened, but as he opened the door, he felt a presence and turned just in time to see a fist coming at him. The Castellan yelped as the fist struck him and he fell back, hitting his head against the TARDIS and falling to the floor unconscious.

“Nice punch,” said Pen as Elsa stood there, and he opened the door for Kate. “Told you his fancy Time Lord senses would be thrown by my presence. I love it when a plan comes together." He looked at them. "Let’s go.”

“He’s not going to be happy about this,” said Kylun, checking on the Castellan to make sure he was ok.

“He’ll be less happy about this,” said Wynter and cast a spell, triggering the Castellan’s regeneration cycle. “That’ll keep him confused for a while. Premature regeneration wreaks havoc on a Time Lord’s mind.”

“You’d think they’d have some little blue pills for that,” said Pen and they all entered the TARDIS. The door closed and after a moment there was a whirring and wheezing as the TARDIS dematerialised and away they went, with just one stop needed before they charged head first in to the Time War…