THE THIEF OF TIME

I do not own Doctor Who, Merlin, or Harry Potter and I am making no profit off of this.

This story is a crossover between characters from my War of the Guardians universe for Doctor Who and my Merlin story, A Destiny Changed Forever. You won't have to read either of those to understand this story though as I'll explain things as I go along.

Lady Christina de Souza had thought that nothing could surprise her anymore after having traveled with River Song and her husband, Donald Noble the Metacrisis Doctor for so long now. She was sadly mistaken though. The situation that she was currently finding herself in was certainly a new one on her.

Last night she had gone to sleep in her room on Donald and River's TARDIS and then this morning she had woken up to find herself in someplace completely different. She was now lying in a bed in what looked like a room inside of an ancient castle. She kept blinking as she wondered if she were having some kind of strange dream or not.

Then as she looked down at herself she realized that she was wearing strange clothing. It was like something out of a history book on the Dark Ages. She began to wonder immediately if she had somehow switched bodies with someone else, but the body looked exactly like her own so that couldn't be it. Could it?

"What is going on here? Lydia, if you've done this to me so help me I will kill you!" Christina shouted out loud.

Lydia was her best friend or to be more accurate she was the sister that she had never had. She traveled with River and Donald as well, and the two of them were partners in crime together wherever they went (Not literally of course. She didn't steal anymore. Donald had forbidden it, the party pooper!). They were practically inseparable, and they always got into huge amounts of trouble in their adventures together throughout time and space. Oh, and one other thing. Lydia was an Eternal, a member of a hugely powerful race of beings that could bend reality to their whim, although she had sworn never to use her powers again. She had broken that promise before though when she had wanted Christina to like her after she first came onboard the TARDIS.

She really hoped that this was just Lydia trying to make her happy in some way. At least then she would be safe since Lydia would never let anything happen to her. If this wasn't Lydia behind this though, then she was really in trouble since she had absolutely no idea where she was or how she had gotten here.

Worse than that, she had no idea if she could ever go back or not.

Then in the next moment, a young man with dark hair came into her room without knocking with a look of concern on his face. She smiled at him as she thought to herself that if she was trapped here that at least the scenery wouldn't be that bad.

"Nimueh, are you alright? I heard you screaming," the young man asked.

"Nimueh? I'm not Nimueh. You must have me confused with someone else. I am the Lady Christina de Souza, and I'd really like to know how I got here wherever here is. Did you bring me here somehow? I won't be mad if you did it just to meet me. I mean you're kind of cute and all, and I know how amazing I am. I'm sure there are plenty of people just like you throughout time who have heard of my legendary stories and can't wait to see me in person. I'm going to have to disappoint you though because I'm already in a relationship right now. At least it's the beginning of one anyway. So if you'll just send me back home to the TARDIS, everything will be just fine, okay?" Christina said.

"What? Nimueh, are you sick? Don't you recognize me? It's me, Merlin," Merlin said with worry furrowing his brow now as he began to feel Christina's forehead to see if she had a fever.

Christina started to slap him but she could see that he really was just worried and wasn't trying anything so she let it go. For now that is. If his hands went any lower though then he was in for a problem.

"Merlin? You mean like the wizard? Who names their kid Merlin? That's just asking to get him beat up. Are you a big Harry Potter fan or something? Is that what this whole castle set-up is all about?" Christina asked.

"You don't seem to have a fever but you're very, very confused for some reason. Who is Harry Potter anyway? Is he someone you used to know back in the old days before you became a High Priestess? An old boyfriend maybe?" Merlin asked with just a tinge of jealousy in his voice.

"High Priestess? Okay, what is going on here? Is this some kind of sick live role playing session where you've abducted me to be your princess? How did you get me out of the TARDIS anyway? Donald said that was almost impossible," Christina said as she became more and more confused by the moment now.

"TARDIS. You said that before, didn't you? Do you think that you're from Jenny's universe, is that it?" Merlin asked as he tried to understand what she was talking about.

"Do you know Jenny?" Christina asked with a hopeful feeling in her heart for the first time since she woke up.

"Of course I know Jenny and so do you. Jenny used her powers to make you forget who you were so that you would stop attacking me. Then we fell in love and luckily you stayed in love with me even when you eventually remembered who you really were again. I really, really hope that happens this time too when you remember again, and you don't start trying to kill me anymore," Merlin said in a nervous voice.

"Merlin, I am not this Nimueh person, and I am definitely not in love with you. I will kill you though if you don't let me go home. Jenny Tyler is a close personal friend of mine. If you don't send me back now, I'll get her to come here and kick you where the sun don't shine. Got it? Send me back to Donald's TARDIS right now. Enough is enough! This isn't funny anymore," Christina said in a furious voice.

"You're not kidding, are you? Alright, I'll call Jenny here. I have a way of summoning her with this amulet that she gave me if I ever need her. She'll settle this once and for all. Then maybe she can help me fix whatever's wrong with your mind," Merlin said as he softly caressed Christina's face with a worried look in his eyes.

Again Christina didn't hit him because she could tell that he was genuinely very worried about this Nimueh person whoever she was. She must look similar to her or something. Maybe he had taken her by mistake thinking that she was Nimueh.

"Please do. Then she can take me home," Christina said.

Before Merlin could even touch the amulet though, Jenny suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

"I'm already ahead of you this time, Merlin," Jenny said as she smiled at both of them.

Christina immediately launched herself at her and threw her arms around her as she said, "I am so glad to see you. You know who I am, right? Please tell me that you know who I am!"

"Yeah, I know who you are, Christina. Don't worry. I'm already working on a way to get you back home," Jenny said as she hugged her.

"What?! What do you mean working on a way to get me back? You just snap your little fingers and send me back right now. What's so hard about that?" Christina said in a panicky voice.

"You mean she's really not Nimueh? Who is she then? Where's Nimueh and why does she look so much like her?" Merlin asked with a totally bewildered look on his face.

"Nimueh woke up in Donald and River's TARDIS, and she immediately started causing trouble for them. She actually attacked River. She accused her of kidnapping her and stealing her magic. Can you believe that? That anyone would be crazy enough to attack River with no powers? Needless to say, River knocked her out cold," Jenny said.

Merlin raised his eyebrows at that as Jenny said, "Don't worry. She's fine. River was being unusually gentle with her. She didn't even break any bones. I think it was because she looks like Christina. They are friends after all."

"That never stopped her before," Christina joked as she began to feel more at ease with Jenny here.

"You never answered my other question though. Why does she look exactly like Nimueh? They could be twins," Merlin said as he looked at Christina intently.

Christina realized that that explained everything then. Nimueh was his girlfriend, and she looked just like her. She was a lucky girl in so many ways!

"I actually noticed that when I first met Nimueh, and I thought it was strange even then. This is a different universe from mine and Christina's so there shouldn't possibly be any connection between the two of them whatsoever after all. I think that I know what it is though. It's because Christina is a time traveler. Her image has been captured in the Vortex from traveling inside of it so much and imprinted throughout every part of reality that it touches on. That causes people from other universes, times, and places to wind up looking like her. It's similar to spatial genetic multiplicity except it isn't happening through a time rift. It happens to Time Lords quite a lot actually. My Dad has encountered people who look like him several times before. My Mum has too even in our own universe. Although I still can't help but wonder about that one. I mean they look and act a little too much alike if you ask me," Jenny said.

"You can talk about Rose's uncanny resemblance to Billie Piper later, Jenny. This is serious. I want to go home. For the record though, I think they're the same person," Christina said winking at her.

"I know! She has to be, right? Clara thinks I'm crazy though, and Dad won't tell me anything. He just smiles at me," Jenny said in exasperation.

"I think Clara just doesn't want to admit the truth," Christina said.

"You said that there was a problem with sending Christina back?" Merlin asked ignoring their talk about yet another person that he didn't know.

"Yeah, I was kind of hoping that you wouldn't ask about that. You see Christina and Nimueh didn't as much change bodies as minds," Jenny said.

"What are you talking about? This is my body. I'd recognize it anywhere," Christina said.

"No, it's not. You're still in Nimueh's body and she's in yours. That's the problem. We don't know how to switch your minds back just yet without hurting you. It's because this was done by what the people of this world call magic, and that makes it harder for us to undo it since we don't know exactly what type of science was used to accomplish it," Jenny said.

"It's not science, Jen. It's magic. You just said it was. So that means that Merlin here has to undo it. I mean you really are the Merlin, right?" Christina asked.

"Yes, but I have no idea what kind of spell that the Triple Goddess put on you much less any idea of how to undo it. I'd have to do some research into it first," Merlin said.

"That's just my luck! I just have to get stuck here with a young Merlin who has no clue what he's doing yet. You're definitely not like the Merlin that I've heard about. Who are the Triple Goddess anyway, and why would they do this to me?" Christina asked.

"The Triple Goddess are the top beings of the Old Religion. They used to be worshipped all throughout Albion long ago, and now they want to bring back that time. They want to destroy Camelot in order to bring that about because this kingdom is one of the biggest things standing in their way. As for why they picked you, they didn't. I'm sure that they wanted to get rid of Nimueh because since she switched from their side to ours, she's been one of Camelot's greatest defenders. By the way, I do know what I'm doing. I just have to figure out what's going on first, and then I can see if I can help you. I'm not all-knowing you know," Merlin said in an irritated voice.

"Maybe not but it would be nice if you knew something though," Christina said in an equally irritated voice.

"I know plenty," Merlin said.

"Really? Well, why don't you start proving it then? Find out what they did to me and undo it. I want to go home!" Christina shouted.

"I want you to go home too at this point," Merlin said with a sigh.

"Christina, Merlin, calm down! I'm working on trying to find a way to fix things. Of course if you could find out what's going on, then that would really help me a lot in doing that. Do you think that you could ask Alice?" Jenny asked.

"Alice? Oh, don't tell me that she has a white rabbit with her! That's all I need," Christina said.

Suddenly a young woman with dark hair appeared in the middle of the room and said, "White rabbit? Why would I have a white rabbit? This new friend of yours is very strange, Merlin, which is saying a lot since most of your friends aren't exactly models of normalcy to begin with."

"Who are you?" Christina asked as she became more and more angry by the minute now.

"Alice, youngest member of the Triple Goddess, at your service," Alice said with a mischievous grin.

"Wait a minute! You said that she was one of the bad guys, right? Why did you do this to me? You send me home right this minute or I'll smack you into next week," Christina said.

"Whoa! Hold it! I'm one of the good guys now. I'm on Merlin's side now. Well, I don't want to kill him anymore anyway, and I didn't have anything to do with this. It must have been the Old Woman. She's the senior member of our little group. She's also the one who caused most of the trouble to Camelot in the past and still is doing it even now that she's a member short. The other two can't do much without me since the three of us have to be together to cast most of our magic, but they can do certain things even without my approval. It helps if they have servants that we gave powers to before we broke up that are still willing to help them. In this case, since we're talking about mind swapping across dimensions they must be using someone who has some really heavy mojo. I'd say someone who has already been to your universe before," Alice said.

"Oh, no! Not Crazy Plant Lady! I can't stand her!" Jenny said with a groan.

"Mojo?" Merlin asked Alice.

"It's futurespeak, Merlin. I'm talking to people from far in the future so I have to speak their lingo," Alice said.

"I'm so lost right now. Who is Crazy Plant Lady?" Christina asked.

"I am!" A voice said as several flowers and leaves came floating into the room out of nowhere as if on a summer breeze and suddenly came together in the form of a beautiful woman with long blonde hair.

"I am Blodeuwedd and you are now mine!" Blodeuwedd said as she grabbed Christina by the throat.

"Sorry, but I'm just not that into you," Christina managed to say through the ever tightening hands around her throat.

"I brought you here so that I could deliver what's left of the Triple Goddess a new High Priestess to replace Nimueh. Your inferior mind should be much easier to brainwash into serving us than Nimueh's would be. You can then learn to use Nimueh's magic, and it will be just like she never left us. We need all the help that we can get now that someone has abandoned us," Blodeuwedd said.

"Oh, fine. Make it all my fault," Alice said.

"You're not going anywhere with her," Jenny said as she began to glow with the power of the Vortex that she had inherited from her mother.

"Let her go!" Merlin shouted as he used his magic to telekinetically push Blodeuwedd into the nearest wall.

"That's not going to be good enough I'm afraid, Emrys," Blodeuwedd said as she began to wrap Merlin in giant vines that suddenly formed underneath his feet.

"That's not going to stop me. I'm already wise to that trick," Jenny said as she phased out of the grasp of some more vines that were meant to entrap her.

"I know but those vines were just meant to distract you so that I could hit you with my real attack," Blodeuwedd said.

Suddenly Jenny was instantly teleported away as Blodeuwedd forcibly sent her back to her home universe. She then quickly did the same thing to Alice by sending her into another universe. Alice was nowhere near as powerful without the help of the other goddesses anymore so it was very easy for her to temporarily send her away as well. Now that all of the threats to her had been momentarily dealt with, Blodeuwedd swiftly teleported away with Christina before either Jenny or Alice could return.

She reappeared inside of the Cave of the Ancients where she knew that it would be harder to track her down since its magic made it almost impossible to find unless you were extremely powerful. She now threw Christina to the ground and trapped her within several extremely powerful vines that she formed out of her own body.

"Soon I will make you into our newest servant. You belong to us now," Blodeuwedd said.

"I don't think so," Christina said as she stared at her defiantly.

"You're very brave but it won't do you any good. No one will find you here. You're never going home again," Blodeuwedd said.

"That's where you're wrong. You've just made your biggest mistake in kidnapping me, Lady. Do you want to know why?' Christina asked.

Blodeuwedd laughed as she said, "Amuse me."

"You've just made my best friend very, very angry. That's why. Look behind you," Christina said.

"Do you really think that I'm that stupid?" Blodeuwedd said smirking at her.

"You must be because you just stole my friend away from me," Lydia said from behind her.

Before Blodeuwedd could even turn around, Lydia started to disintegrate her with a single gesture as she said, "Feel that? That's the power of an Eternal."

"No!" Blodeuwedd screamed as she quickly turned to dust in an instant.

Christina immediately fell to the floor as the vines holding her were now disintegrated as well.

Lydia immediately helped Christina up and hugged her tightly as she said, "Are you okay?"

"I'm just fine now especially if you can transfer my mind back to my body again. Not that I'm complaining or anything, but aren't you breaking your promise to your mother not to use your powers?" Christina asked.

"I don't care. I couldn't let you be trapped here forever. Jenny told us what happened, and I had to come to help. Not even taking you to this place could keep you hidden from me because we're linked to each other. I could find you anywhere no matter how far away you were," Lydia said as she continued to hug Christina tightly.

Christina could tell that Lydia was very upset to have almost lost her because she could feel her shaking all over. She decided to try her best to cheer her up in her own unique style.

"If you could find me anywhere, then why did it take you so long to get here?" Christina asked in a false angry tone.

"I, uh, thought that the other Christina was really you," Lydia admitted.

"Some best friend! You can't even tell when I've had my brain switched or not," Christina said indignantly.

"Well, how was I supposed to know?" Lydia said as she began to smile.

"Maybe the fact that the other me attacked River might have given you a clue," Christina said.

"I thought maybe you were just a little confused. You didn't seem to know who you were or where you were. I was thinking that you had flipped your lid not switched minds. Crazy me for trying to think of the most likely explanation!" Lydia said.

"Well, don't do that anymore. The next time I start talking crazy you automatically start thinking that my mind's been swapped," Christina joked.

"I'm sorry," Lydia said.

"For what? You saved my life," Christina said.

"I don't know how to switch you back though, and I just had to disintegrate the person who put you in there in order to save your life. You could be trapped in that body forever because of me," Lydia said sadly.

"Even if that's true, at least I look exactly the same plus I have magic. How cool is that?" Christina said smiling.

"I'm still sorry," Lydia said.

"It's okay," Christina said.

"Finally! I thought I'd never track you down," Jenny said as she suddenly appeared in the cave.

"It took you long enough. Lydia already saved me five minutes ago. I could have already had my brain swiss cheesed by the time that you got here," Christina complained.

"Sorry. I didn't have a mental link with you to help me automatically get here. I'm glad you're safe though. Now I just need to put you back in your right body. Oh, and your Mum says that what you just did is okay, Lydia, so don't worry. She likes it that you were only using your power to help Christina. That was a big plus in your favor," Jenny said.

"To be honest I really didn't care. I only cared about saving her," Lydia said.

"That's why she forgave you because you were willing to sacrifice yourself for her like that I think," Jenny admitted.

"You've certainly come a long way from who you were when I first met you, and you were conjuring up Daleks to try to make me have fun so I wouldn't leave," Christina said.

"Daleks are your idea of fun?" Jenny asked in disbelief.

"I guess you just had to be there. So has anyone figured out a way to switch me back yet or do I have to learn how to use magic now?" Christina asked.

"You're in luck, Christina. I just brought someone who knows how to switch you back," Jenny said.

She snapped her fingers and Christina was face to face with . . . herself.

"I take it you're Nimueh," Christina said.

"That's right. So this is your body, huh? I must say that I definitely prefer my own. Yours is a little bit on the pudgy side," Nimueh said.

"Pudgy?!" Christina said with a murderous look in her eyes.

"Just a little. You're also a little too short for my tastes and that breath! What have you been eating?" Nimueh said.

"Before you list all of my many faults in alphabetical order, can we just switch bodies already?" Christina asked.

"Definitely. Now just repeat after me and do everything that I do," Nimueh said.

Then she began to chant a spell and made several gestures with her hands that Christina did her best to copy. She was almost sure that she had done it all wrong, but she must have done it well enough to count because suddenly she found herself back in her own body again.

She sighed in relief as she looked down at herself in approval and said, "Pudgy, my . . .!"

"Christina!" Jenny said.

"What?" Christina said with a wicked grin on her face.

"Well, now that I'm back where I belong I'll go home now. I definitely won't miss being you, and I especially won't miss your so-called friends. That crazy blonde woman almost dislocated my jaw," Nimueh said.

"You're right, Lydia. River was holding back. She must like me after all. Well, goodbye, Nimueh, and tell Merlin that I hope that kiss was good for him too," Christina said.

"What?! You're lying!" Nimueh said in a furious voice.

"Am I?" Christina said smirking.

"Now, Jenny, before Nimueh kills us all!" Lydia said as she looked at the enraged sorceress.

Jenny teleported the three of them away as Christina said, "That's what you get for calling me fat!"

Nimueh teleported away even as she sighed with relief. As if Merlin would ever associate with someone that common. Why she wasn't even half as pretty as her. How she could have ever been mistaken for her was beyond her comprehension.

I hope you liked it. This is my first attempt at making Christina the main character of a story. I've always liked Christina and I've often entertained the idea of giving her a story of her own so I finally did it. Should I give Christina an ongoing story? Please let me know if that would be something that you'd read or not. Even if it's not, let me know if you like what I did here. I would greatly appreciate it.