Collaboration with [@Wick]

"I can kill him," Merlin insisted. "I just need a stronger power source. I'll travel worlds and take what I need from those of power..." he trailed off. "Maybe not, my phase ability isn't working well like i said. I need to figure out what's wrong with that first."

She had run out of the house in such fury that she was arguing almost face to face only two feet from this man who had openly said he was there to copy her powers and yet she was not afraid of him hurting her in the least.

[color=ed145b]"If she doesn't love you back what is your purpose for going? The chances of her being alive are so remote. Are you that obsessed with this girl? Is she really worth all of the harm you will do to others in the process? Is she worth your life?"[/color]

"All I am, all I've ever been is someone who serves and saves. This 'girl', as you put it, is the most just ruler you could ever imagine. Kind, strong, loyal. She loved her people without fault. I am confused, but you think my stealing powers hurts others? How so. It is only mimicry, so it's not as though they lose their powers."

Merlin turned to gaze at the sky. "I would be less than nothing without what she did for me. She gave me a purpose greater than myself, and united my peoples. The English, you called them? They were once barbarians, just like the nordic and germanic tribes. Until Camelot was built, that is."

He turned back to her, eyes accusing. "What have you done since your fiance was slain? Hidden in this village? What if you had the power to avenge him, to see the tyrant Michael dead at your feet? Would you be able to resist the urge for revenge?"

Zandaria looked at her hands for a moment and she nodded [color=ed145b]"I've been around a lot longer than you think Merlin. I've done a lot of good but I wanted revenge in the beginning but no longer. Michael is a part of this world and killing him would cause his purpose to go unserved."[/color] She looked at him as he looked at her eyes. She froze him in time. His eyes unseeing and she walked up to him and kissed his face. She was testing something. 

She walked to his other side and unfroze him. She was on the wrong side of him and she knew it but would he?

[color=ed145b]"Do you know my name Merlin?"[/color]

"You said your name was Zandaria the White Witch. Why ask something like that?" Merlin rubbed at a sudden tingling feeling on his cheek. He tried to activate  the teleport ability she just used, but to no avail. "I don't...what? I can't use your power...I don't understand. I can't teleport..."

He looked troubled. Turning to where she stood now he asked "Do you have some sort of power that blocks my own?"

[color=ed145b]"No, I just didn't use the power you thought I did. I asked you my name to see if you listen to what I say to you. I have decided, against my better judgement to teach you and take you to Michael. BUT we will not be stealing any powers from anyone else. If you'd like I'll let you copy my powers and I'll teach you how to use them so you don't get killed."[/color]

She wondered if she was losing her mind. This was a suicide mission but he was so obsessed that he wasn't going to leave it alone until he got himself killed. [color=ed145b]"I'll need to stock up on some potions as well before we leave."[/color]

Merlin threw his arms up and grunted. Even with Arturia it was the same, trying to predict actions was useless. Women always defied his expectations of logic.

[center]Chapter 2.[/center]


Zandaria had just finished making her last potion. She went outside to find Merlin. He had been sleeping in her spare room for the last two nights. He was getting very anxious to go but she still had to teach him how to use her powers.

[color=ed145b]"Merlin? Are you ready? I'm finally finished with the potions."[/color] She saw him near the garden and smiled. 

"Ungghhh, uh, yeah, I was just...resting my eyes. Yeah." He stood up from where he'd been sitting and winced as his back screamed in protest. Sleeping while sitting up never turned out well. "Huh? Potions? Oh, we can go then?"

He stretched his arms as wide as he could and yawned. Suddenly there were loud screams coming from the direction of the village. "What in the world is that? Do you have problems with feral animals here?"

Hearing the panic in the voices and the screams of pain Zandaria instantly began running towards the village.[color=ed145b] "Something is very wrong!"[/color] She yelled as she past him, [color=ed145b]"Come with me!"[/color] When she got close enough to see she hid behind a tree to get a better look.She reached behind her and grabbed his hand so he would stay hidden. 

The village was under attack. The Scots had invaded and the warriors were destroying the village and killing all of the men they saw or anyone who got in their way. Seeing a young child get struck down as a warrior swung his mace backwards made her cry out in anger. 

Zandaria ran out into the middle of the fray and threw her hands up in the air angrily. Everything in the village stopped. She turned and threw her hands up a little differently as she pointed them at the warriors. When she did the molecular structure of the warriors spun so fast it blew them up.

[color=ed145b]"I hope you are watching Merlin."[/color]

Merlin was walking up as Zandaria slaughtered the soldiers around her. "That is...interesting. So you can stop time and disolve enemies? I don't really understand how those powers intersect." He walked up to the child who had been struck and knelt by the young boy. The child's skull had been cracked and he was dying. Merlin stroked the boys cheek, power coursing through his hands. "Rise child, and find your mother."

The boy got up and stared wide eyed at Merlin first, then Zandaria. "Go!" Merlin shouted. The boy ran off.

Zandaria smiled as he healed the child. As the freeze started to wear off the rest of the village opened their eyes in shock at the dead warriors all over the ground. When they saw Zandaria they knew who had done it.Those that had seen the boy fall were curious about Merlin. They were beseeched with requests for healing. Zandaria looked at Merlin and smiled. [color=ed145b]"I believe they are asking for you druid."[/color]

She went to the other side of the village and started helping people over there leaving Merlin to heal those that he could.

A queue had quickly formed in front of Merlin. Many had cuts or burns or bruises caused by the fighting, which Merlin healed. Many of the people who came up to him were holding the corpse of a loved one who had been stabbed through the heart, or had their head bashed in. One little girl had been slashed right across her eyes, leaving her blind. Despair was quickly welling up in Merlin, for he was too weak for such tasks.

Standing he shouted "If your loved one is no longer alive, plan a funeral for them. I cannot bring people back from the dead. Even if I could, it would be necromancy, an evil art that twists the souls of the enslaved."

Kneeling back in front of the little girl he cast multiple spells to remove the scars and relieve her pain. "I'm sorry young miss, I am not strong enough to heal blindness. Your scars are removed, the cut is healed, but that is all I can do."

Zandaria returned looking for him a little while later. She had been helping some of the elders. Some of her spells had righted buildings that were falling over and she had healed some of the severely wounded. Spells took longer than his power did though. Seeing him on the ground near a child she walked over and  sat down near him. She hugged the child and called out for her mother who ran over and hugged the child to her and ran off. Zandaria looked up at the village and spoke to Merlin.

[color=ed145b]"You asked what I do, what I have done since Michael? This is what I do. I help save others." 

After the village calmed down she was going over the bodies and realized they were scottish warriors come to claim land for Scotland in their fight against the Royal family. Her heart fell. She knew there would be a lot more of this in the future. She turned to the people and yelled. 

[color=ed145b]"These men are from Scotland. They are at war with our country. The only way you will keep the village safe is to build a wall around it."[/color] She was getting very tired. Spells took more out of her than her powers did. She turned and started to walk back home.

Merlin suddenly jolted. His dimensional phasing had been, unlocked? "Zandaria, I think I can phase again." He couldn't understand it, just like that, his power returned? Was there a time limit on it? He needed to wait a few days after using it? Or was there something else linked to it. "Say...would you explain how time control and rapid disintegration are related? I don't really understand that."

Zandaria turned and waited for him to catch up. [color=ed145b]"It's not really time control or rapid disintegration."[/color] She thought a moment on how to describe it. [color=ed145b]"Think of a body as made up of a million specs of dirt that when together make up a person. My power makes thos specs go faster or slower depending on what I want them to do. If they go too slow then they stop, hence the freezing in place. If they go too fast they will literally blow apart causing death of the body." [/color]

Satisfied that her answer made sense she  smiled. [color=ed145b]"I hope that explains it well. Later, after a nap, I'll teach you how to use them.[/color]