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In the 30th Century, the mighty Sir Tristan was reincarnated as a beautiful woman named Amber March.

Origins

In his first life, Tristan had a tragic romance with a princess named Isolde. Although they loved each other, they could not be together as Isolde was betrothed to wed another man. However, they were able to have one night together in a room in Lancelot's castle overlooking a rose garden.

Tristan was one of King Arthur's greatest knights, but he also had a dark side. He was one of only two men that Arthur trusted with the grim task of killing every child born on a certain day to prevent the rise of the one who would kill Arthur; the other was Arthur's eternally loyal foster brother Sir Kay. However, while Kay regarded it as a terrible but necessary duty, Tristan performed it with relish, on at least one occasion raping a woman after ripping the child from her arms. They ultimately failed to avert the prophecy as one of the babies, Arthur's own bastard son Modred, survived and grew up to make war against Arthur and destroy Camelot. Tristan was one of the many who fell in those battles.

Camelot 3000

Over two thousand years later Tristan was reborn in a female body and given the name Amber March. "Amber" grew up in a small town called Cudbury in Alberta, Canada; and, believing himself to be a woman, "Amber" became engaged to Sergeant Owen McAllister. When aliens invaded Earth, Arthur awoke from his magic slumber and gathered his reincarnated knights to him. Arthur's new squire Tom Prentice was sent to Cudbury with an amulet that would restore Tristan's memories. He arrived just as "Amber" and Owen were about to be married and showed the amulet to the couple, believing that Owen was the knight. However, the amulet in fact awoke Tristan's true memories and he called off the wedding, apologising to Owen and telling him that he was not who either of them thought he was. Tristan used Tom's sword to cut his hair short and returned with him to Arthur's asteroid base "New Camelot".

Tristan reunited with the other Knights of the Round Table. He maintained that he was still a man despite his physical body and insisted on being called "Sir" rather than "Lady" Tristan. Shortly after the knights were gathered together New Camelot was attacked by a combined air and ground assault of what appeared to be United Nations soldiers lead by Owen. Tristan fought bravely against the attackers, motivated to prove that he was still a great warrior even in his new form. Arthur brought down Owen's fighter craft and when Owen emerged he attempted to kill Tom, blaming him for "Amber" leaving him; however, Tristan coldly shot Owen dead. Tom tried to thank "Amber" for saving him, but Tristan said he would have saved any of his comrades, and ordered Tom to call him Tristan. The attackers apart from Owen turned out to be aliens in disguise, although unbeknownst to the knights they had in fact been sent by the U.N. Security Director Jordan Matthew, who was in league with the knight's ancient enemy Morgan Le Fay, the leader of the aliens. Owen's body was handed over to the U.N.

At a celebration afterwards, Kay mocked Tristan and even presented him with a dress. Tristan, who hated his female body, was enraged and almost attacked Kay before Arthur broke it up. Tristan and Sir Percival, who had been transformed into a mutant Neo-Man, approached Merlin and asked him to change them back to normal, but he flatly refused and ordered them to leave. Tristan furiously stormed off to his quarters where he found Guinevere waiting for him. He instantly realised that Arthur had sent Guinevere to talk to him "woman to woman" and demanded that the queen leave, insisting that he was a man. After Guinevere left, Morgan LeFay appeared to him, and offered to change him into a man if he betrayed Arthur. Morgan demonstrated that she was telling the truth by temporarily changing Tristan using an amulet. Tristan was overjoyed but this quickly turned to despair when Morgan undid the spell, saying she would only make it permanent if Tristan betrayed the Round Table.

Arthur announced that he and Guinevere would remarry and Guinevere asked Tristan to serve as her maid of honour. Tristan reluctantly agreed to perform a service for his queen but refused to wear a dress. Just as the service was concluded, Guinevere was shot by a gunman up in the gallery. The knights chased after the man, but when they confronted him he demonstrated great strength and the ability to change his shape, allowing him to easily overpower the others and leaving Tristan to face him alone. The assassin revealed that he was Owen McAllister, raised from the dead and granted great power, while also seemingly driven mad. McAllister grabbed Tristan and tried to subsume him into himself, but Tom killed McAllister with an incendiary bomb. Tristan was furious at needing to be saved by a boy, believing he could have fought off McAllister if he still had a male body, and particularly as he knew that Tom was attracted to him. Suddenly, one of the bystanders approached Tristan and revealed that she was the reincarnation of his love Isolde. Unbeknownst to either of them at the time, LeFay had ensured both that Isolde would be present at the wedding and restored her memories at the moment she saw Tristan to further tempt him into betrayal.

The rest of the knights returned to New Camelot, but Tristan went with Isolde to her apartment and the two spent the night talking. Isolde wanted to resume their love, as she was free to follow her heart in this new life; but Tristan refused. He believed he could not be with Isolde as long as he had a woman's body, although Isolde did not care if he was a man or a woman. Tristan sorrowfully returned to New Camelot in the morning. When he returned he found Tom waiting outside his quarters hoping to "bump into" him. Tristan rebuffed the boy, disgusted by Tom's obvious desire for him.

Although Guinevere had been killed at the wedding, Lancelot's love allowed her to return from death. The two resumed their affair and were quickly discovered. Arthur banished them from New Camelot and fell into a deep depression, refusing to even rise from his throne for days. Meanwhile, Tristan finally gave in to temptation and told LeFay that he would betray the Round Table for Isolde. Morgan gave Tristan a talisman that would transform him into a man when her magic was channelled through it, and told him that she would cast the spell if he destroyed a charm in Merlin's quarters. Tristan went to Merlin's rooms, planning to destroy the charm, but when he arrived he found it already smashed. The charm had kept Merlin's former apprentice Nyneve at bay, and with it gone she appeared on New Camelot and spirited Merlin away. Arthur rushed to Merlin's rooms and found Tristan standing over the fragments of the charm.

Arthur recalled Lancelot and Guinevere to New Camelot and put Tristan on trial. Tristan admitted that he had planned to destroy the charm but swore that it had already been broken when he got there. Arthur made Tristan swear his innocence on Excalibur, claiming that it was sharp enough to cleave truth from lies and would kill anyone who lied while holding it. Tristan seemingly proved his innocence when Excalibur did not kill him and Arthur asked each of the knights to do so in turn. They all did, but Kay refused, demonstrating his guilt. He admitted that he had broken the charm in the hopes that seeing Merlin in danger would rouse Arthur from his funk, and that Merlin would have been able to resist Nyneve. He begged for forgiveness but Arthur sentenced him to death.

The Knights went outside for Kay's execution, when they were suddenly attacked by a fleet of alien ships. The knights managed to rally, but one of the ships flew up on Arthur from behind and fired on him. Kay and Tom both jumped into the path of the beam to save Arthur; Kay took a direct hit and was killed instantly, while Tom only caught a glancing blow and was left alive, but seriously injured and afflicted with radiation poisoning that would kill him in only a few days. In the aftermath of the battle, Tristan renounced LeFay, as she had tried to kill him; but as he still possessed the talisman, swore that he would force Morgan to change him back, and then kill her.

To save Tom's life, Arthur determined to find the Holy Grail which could heal him. He sent Tom with Lancelot and Guinevere, as well as Sir Percival, who had seen the Grail in his previous life, to find it. Before they left, Tristan, who now thought better of Tom, told him that he would have found his affections flattering if he thought of himself as a woman.

Meanwhile Tristan went with Arthur, Gawain and Galahad to launch an invasion of the alien's homeworld Chiron, the tenth planet of the Solar System and where Morgan's fortress stood. They travelled to Oregon, where the last rocket on Earth was kept. They tunnelled their way into the silo and Arthur ordered Tristan to "distract" a guard. Very reluctantly, Tristan flirted with the guard, but he quickly noticed the others and attempted to raise the alarm, and so Tristan knocked him unconscious. Arthur revealed that he knew Tristan still had Morgan's talisman and he had ordered Tristan to do something so humiliating as a test of loyalty. Tristan apologised for giving Arthur cause to doubt him and promised that he would never betray the Round Table again.

They successfully launched the rocket and flew to Chiron where they found the questing party had reached the planet just before them, and the Knights happily reunited. That night, Tristan and Guinevere both heard a low humming which the others could not. Guinevere realised it was because they were women and Tristan once again insisted he was not meant to be female. Guinevere replied that she was tired of his complaining and said being a woman was not all bad, but Tristan retorted she would likely feel different if she had been reborn the same sex as Lancelot. They were approached by friendly aliens who took them to meet their queen mother. To Tristan's irritation the aliens, who had a matriarchal society, insisted on carrying him and Guinevere in litters. The queen mother told them that LeFay's forces were some of her children, who had been corrupted by Morgan's magic, and offered her people as soldiers to help them stop her.

Arthur decided that a small force consisting of himself, Tristan, Tom and Gawain would infiltrate the fortress and free Merlin from captivity, while Lancelot lead the bulk of their forces on a frontal assault. However, Lancelot knocked Arthur out and took his place, hoping to retrieve the captured Holy Grail which he had lost shortly after being named its guardian. They successfully snuck inside Castle LeFay and fanned out to look for Merlin. Tristan was attacked by a blob monster, revealed to be Owen once again raised by necromancy. Now fully insane he attempted to kill Tristan. Owen could only be killed by Morgan's magic, and so Tristan was forced to use the talisman to destroy him. The talisman was broken, leaving Tristan trapped in a female body forever. He attempted to kill himself, but Tom found and stopped him.

Outside, Arthur's forces could not break through the gate of the castle, and so Galahad sacrificed both himself and the rocket to blow open the gates. Arthur and his forces charged in and squared off against Morgan and the reincarnated Modred. Arthur was able to kill Modred and free Merlin, who also slew Nyneve. However, Morgan summoned her entire army to attack them, and the knights and their allies could not fight them off. To destroy their enemies once and for all, Arthur had Merlin teleport the others back to Earth and used Excalibur to split the atoms of a rock, triggering a nuclear explosion and sacrificing himself to kill Morgan and her army.

The surviving knights returned to Earth, where they built a memorial to Arthur and the others who had fallen in their quest. Tristan told Tom that he had chosen to go with Isolde. Tristan intended to do this simply to let the young man down easily and allow him to get on with his life, but Isolde was still determined to once again share the love they once had. She took Tristan back to her home and showed him that she had filled her bedroom with roses, like the ones in France all those centuries ago. Tristan finally accepted that Isolde's love transcended his physical form and they made love, resuming their relationship.


Abilities

Equipment

  • Energy Shield

Weapons

  • Sword


  • This character or object is an adaptation of Tristan, a character or object in traditional stories. These include, but may not be limited to religious texts, myth, and/or folk lore. More information on the original can be found at Wikipedia.org.
  • Sir Tristan is the reincarnated soul of a cisgender man inhabiting a female body. He is in a relationship with Isolde, who is female; yet prior to regaining his memories was in a relationship with a man, who he claims he could have been happy with.

Related

Footnotes


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