-1Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who.

From the Mist

Chapter Seven: Understanding

If not for the ominous humming and the sound of metal straining against the coming steam, the silence in the command room would have been awkward. As it was, it just seemed pointless, so the Doctor continued on with his tirade.

"You're a Time Agent?" The Doctor nodded to himself, letting the idea sink in. "A Time Agent." He frowned. "Wait, a Time Agent? A Time… Agent?"

Venn, meanwhile, had ripped his arm from the Doctor's grasp and taken to standing with his hands behind his back, looking impressively nonplussed that his entire crew appeared ready to kill him in a horrific way.

Except for Tamar, of course. He just seemed to be enjoying the show.

But the Doctor wasn't done yet. He so hated it when humans thought they could butt in and disturb his thought processes like this.

"WaitwaitwaitwaitWAIT!" he cried, silencing fingers up in the air, despite the fact everyone had yet to utter a word. "A Time Agent, right?"

"Yes," Spade groaned through clenched teeth, "I think you've established that."

"All right, but why?" he threw back, looking to Spade but quickly diverting his attention to Venn. "Hmm? Why a Time Agent here? I mean, I just thought you were looking to use those steam creatures as weapons for some seedy company-"

Melissa let out an objectionable noise at her employer being described as a 'seedy company', but rapidly diminished in size when the eyes of the others fell on her.

The Doctor allowed his gaze to remain on Melissa for a few moments longer than anyone else, but gradually dragged them back to the Time Agent. "-but a Time Agent wouldn't be needed for that. No… you must be here for something else. And a Time Agent with some kind of illegal species? Well, you're just trying to make things confusing for everyone by bringing him along. I mean, seriously, what are you two here for? What is so important about that steam?"

The good Commander (if he was a Commander) was keeping tight-lipped.

His camouflaged companion, meanwhile, had no such restraint. "You're half right, Doctor. He is here to use the…" Tamar chuckled in a quiet, condescending way, "…'steam creatures'… as weapons. It's just the methods you-"

He froze, his expression unchanging, staring at the Doctor in a most unnerving way. Slowly sliding to the left, the Doctor realised that Tamar was literally frozen in place. While Miss Tharsis snapped experimental fingers in front of Tamar's unblinking eyes, the Doctor sighed and turned to Venn, his hands still behind his back.

"Would you mind turning off the metabolastasis field?"

Without a word of answer, Venn lethargically blinked his gaze to the Doctor before returning it to some imaginary point on the wall.

The Doctor let out another sigh. "All right, fine." He held out a hand, like a parent to a misbehaving child. "Give me the Vortex Manipulator."

Venn stared at him like he was mad.

The Doctor beckoned with his hand. "Come on. If you're not going to use it right, give it to a responsible adult."

Nothing. Frustration building with every breath, the Doctor shook his outstretched hand.

Still nothing.

"Look, there's a time to be enigmatic and silent and there's a time to do what's sane and rational."

An impossibly loud groan from outside was quickly followed by a similarly loud bang.

The Time Lord's eyes bored into Venn's. "Guess what time it is now?"

Still unblinking and unmoving, Venn remained where he was. The Doctor lunged for the Vortex Manipulator, only to be easily backhanded away by the much larger and stronger Commander. Stumbling back, the Time Lord grabbed onto a guardrail beside him to stop the painful crash onto the metal floor below.

Instinctively, the Commander thrust his arm into the air, above anyone's reach. He said nothing, but his expression had a distinct 'Care to try that again?' look to it.

The Doctor was indeed about to try again when something unexpected happened behind Venn; Spade took a step towards him.

"Give him the Vortex Manipulator."

Venn's head whipped around to look at him. Another clang from outside.

"What?" he spat, anger and fear evident.

"Give the Manipulator to the Doctor."

Reaching into his jacket pocket as slowly as he could, the Doctor slipped out the sonic screwdriver and held it down by his leg, hiding it from view. Venn glanced back to him just as the implement was out of sight.

"You're trusting him over me?"

The look on Spade's face had a certain 'well, duh' quality to it. "Hell yeah, I am. At least he acts like he gives a damn about what's going on around here."

"But you don't know what he is! None of us do!"

"Maybe not, but at least he's acting like he wants to get out of here alive. That makes him human enough for me."

The Doctor kept quiet at that little comment, since he was pretty much done adjusting the sonic screwdriver. Thrusting it out into the open and aiming for the leather strap around Venn's wrist, he pressed the button. With the customary whirring, it undid the clasp keeping the device around Venn's pudgy arm. It tumbled down from where his arm stood in the air, dropping into Spade's waiting hand.

With only an alarmed grunt to accompany him, Venn lurched for the Manipulator. Spade easily dodged the clumsy move and tossed the device, piggy-in-the-middle style, to the Doctor. He caught it easily, and considered freeing Tamar for the briefest millisecond. Instead, he searched for any life-forms below the ground.

"One human, underground. That's Donna! Well, hopefully." He grinned and looked up at the rest of the crew. "Back in a bit, keep the kettle on."

And with that, he jammed his thumb down on the relevant button.

He never liked Vortex Manipulators. When he had compared Jack's and the TARDIS to a Space Hopper and a Sports Car respectively, he hadn't been kidding. As a Time Lord, the ability to travel from one era to another was something that felt almost holy and sacred; one of the few remaining vestiges of religion and such nonsense that the Time Lords really practised. Many species considered all the Rassilon stuff tantamount to religion, but it wasn't, not really. That was just history.

But the act of time travel itself… it was larger, grander… an altogether more awesome feat that transcended any other experience in so many ways.

Well, except for Pop Tarts.

And then there was this… thing. Vortex Manipulators. A device that let pretty much anyone tear their way through time and space. Anyone could have one. Anyone. Criminals, businessmen…

Then again, he couldn't really talk. The TARDIS wasn't exactly his, after all. And Vortex Manipulators had saved his life on more than one occasion. But that still didn't mean he had to like them.

The experience of using one wasn't exactly heavenly, either. Being stretched and pulled while still within ones skin was never a fun time. And the heat…

The heat?

"Doctor!"

The Doctor opened his eyes and cricked his neck. And there was Donna Noble, staring helplessly at him from in front of someone else. He frowned as he rubbed his sore neck. The Manipulator said only one life sign. Useless.

"Hello again. Feeling all right?"

She shrugged. "Bit hot, steam man shouting at me, metal bin in the ground. What about you?"

"Messed about with a temp, played Jacks, steam trying to kill me, Time Agent, nothing too bad."

"Good."

"Good."

She pointed to the figure in front of her. "This is McKenzie, but the way. Want to have a word?"

Blinking away whatever it was that Vortex Manipulators did to the eyes, the Doctor slowly made his way around the misty figure. Except, as he made his way around, he saw that the blurriness wasn't dissipating. In fact, it seemed concentrated around McKenzie.

"Hello there, big fella," he said, sidling up beside Donna. "I'm the Doctor. We didn't really have a chance to talk before. True, you were unconscious one time and walking like a zombie the next, but still, the point stands that we need to get to know each other better."

At first, there looked to be no reply from the literally steaming McKenzie. Then, raising a hand, he pointed to the metal capsule in the ground in front of them.

"Human."

The Doctor's mouth bobbed open and closed a few times. "Right." He spoke to Donna while keeping his eyes on McKenzie. "Um, is that… all he says, or…?"

"Mostly just that, really. When you try to get him to talk more he just gets angry. I just know that that thing," she said, pointing to the capsule, "is an accelerant for… them."

He scowled and gave her his full attention. "For them?"

"Don't look at me like that spaceman, it's him who said it!" She nodded to the metal shape embedded in the ground. "What is it, anyway?"

His gaze whipped around to the metallic shape as he squatted in front of it. "It's-"

He stopped himself as he ran a hand over the surface. "It's old. Older than it should be…"

"What?"

"Well, it looks…" he frowned and pursed his lips. "But it can't be…"

This time Donna scowled, crouching down next to him. "Could you stop being all mysterious and just tell me?"

"This thing… is technology from this era. From the 53rd century."

"Okay… and why is that a problem?"

The Doctor tried to slip on his glasses but quickly decided against it when they misted up almost instantly. "Because it's almost a hundred years old."

He could feel the sheer confusion coming from Donna even without looking at her. Fair play, too, considering that he was just as confused.

"But… if it's a hundred years old, how can it be from the 53rd century?"

"That, Miss Noble, is the question. So, we've got something that's older than it should be… an accelerant of some kind… and we've got a Time Agent upstairs…"

"A what?"

"Hm? Oh, Venn. He's a Time Agent. Or, at least, he has access to their technology." His eyes flickered just that little bit wider as he stared off into space, his brain joining the dots. "Time travel technology…"

"So Venn sent this back in time?"

"Exactly. But why? And accelerant, what kind of accelerant?" A glance to McKenzie confirmed that he wasn't really in any fit state to answer in-depth questions. He looked to Donna instead. "Did he tell you anything else?"

"Like what?"

"Like… anything. Doesn't have to be useful."

"He said they were called the Krell."

He frowned. "The Krell…" His whole face exploded into life, realisation stretching his already pretty malleable visage as he leapt to his feet. "The Krell, Donna, the Krell!"

"What?"

"The Krell are the natives to this planet."

"But you didn't mention them."

"Well, no, because they're supposed to be on the other side of the planet at this point. But Donna, they're the Krell!"

Quietly, and with a slight air of irritation about her, Donna stalked over to the Doctor. "You do realise that I have no idea what the Krell are?"

"Well, yes, but-"

"Then could you stop shouting and explain all this?"

A little embarrassed about being shouted at in front of a strange new life form, the Doctor glanced over at McKenzie before sheepishly nodding.

"Sorry." He took a breath, put his hands in his pockets, and started over, a little slower - for his own sake as well as Donna's. "Starting around about now, historically, the Krell were supposed to start evolving. Before, they were bipeds like you and me, just a little bit more blue. But over the course of about a thousand years, they're supposed to become sentient, gaseous life forms."

"Yeah, but… they're gaseous now."

He nodded gravely, eyes firmly on McKenzie. "I know… and a thousand years too early. I- OH!" he yelled, making Donna jump.

"The blurriness! Donna, the blurriness! That's why it's only around the Krell!"

She sighed. "Still lost, Doctor."

"Right, sorry, um… do you remember in Pompeii, when I told you about how some things are changeable and others aren't? And that Time Lords can sense these things?"

"Sort of, yeah."

"Well, that's what I've been seeing. A changed timeline around the Krell. I mean, in the history that I remember they never left the planet once they evolved - how could they, they're gas - and that must be why this whole planet isn't blurry to me."

"Is that how you usually see things that have changed, then? Blurred vision?"

"To be honest, I haven't often come across changed events after the fact, at least, not since the Time Lords died. Usually I'm there making the change or trying to stop it, so I'm part of the timeline, part of the chain of events. But with this, coming in as an observer almost a century after the change was made…" He blew out a relieved breath. "Blimey, and I thought I was seriously going to need glasses. Or contact lenses! Imagine me putting in contact lenses every morning!"

"You could get laser surgery."

"Get out of it. Lasers in my eyes? No thank you."

Donna's eyes flickered over to McKenzie, and she cleared her throat. "So, this thing made them steam a thousand years before they were supposed to?"

Getting back to reality, the Doctor nodded. "That's what the accelerant was for. Whoever sent it back from the 53rd century must have used the Vortex Manipulator, seen the gaseous Krell in the future and decided that they wanted it done quicker." His mouth curled in distaste. "But why? Why would someone want them as gas?"

"Weapons?"

Both the Doctor and McKenzie looked at Donna.

"What?"

"Weapons. I'm just saying, this steam can get through rock, possess people-"

The Doctor nodded. "Evaporate living tissue, wear their way through metals… the Night Foundation certainly won't change much by the time they next see me…"

"What?"

"Hm? Oh, nothing. But how are they planning to use them? I mean, obviously the Krell aren't going to go willingly, and they haven't got anything on the ship that could…" Another idea hit him, another concept, forcing it's way through his head. "Oh. OH! Tamar! That's what Tamar's for! He's there because he can take on the characteristics of other species!"

"Ay? How'd you figure that one out?"

"It's the only thing that makes sense! They couldn't bring the amount of equipment they needed to take the Krell without getting the authorities suspicious, so what do you do? Get a species, no matter how dangerous, that can take on different forms at will! Like a chameleon…" He yelled, leapt up into the air and gave his hands a solid clap. "He's a Krillitane! Tamar's a Krillitane, Donna! There's no other species that could so convincingly take on a human form and still have the adaptagenic matrixes needed for-"

"Oi!"

The Doctor froze, arms held out to Donna in mid-explanation.

"What's a Krillitane?"

"They're a species that pick and choose parts of different races and copy them genetically. Night must have sent Venn here to get samples of the steam and expose Tamar to it. Then he could take on the form at will, they go back to the Night laboratories, and BAM! Instant army of gaseous soldiers. Or whatever it is Night wants them for. Honestly, it's probably just to turn a tidy profit."

"But… I don't get it."

The Doctor was ready to explain again when he realised that Donna's question was directed at McKenzie.

"Why did you attack us?"

"Donna, did you… not just hear what I said? Evil corporation? Using them as weapons?"

"Well, yeah, but what I mean is… they didn't know about all that stuff, did they? And Venn and Tamar hadn't even tried doing anything to them when we first went down into the cave. So why did they attack us?"

"That's…" he blinked. "A good point." He looked to McKenzie. "Why did you attack?"

His skin looking very much the worse for wear, McKenzie's lips curled in. "P…" His brow quivered from some unseen effort.

"'P'? That's it?"

"No, Doctor…"

His attention turned to Donna.

"He… he sort of has trouble with words. Just give him a minute."

"Oh," he whispered, casting his gaze on McKenzie again. "Sorry."

The miner didn't seem to notice. "P… provoked. We are still… provoked."

The Doctor exchanged a glance with his companion. "Provoked?" His mouth hung open in understanding. "Oh, I see…"

"What?"

"The Krell, even before they evolved, were highly empathic beings. Once they became gaseous this only increased until they were basically one huge, living organism…" He rolled different terms around in his head before choosing one. "A hive mind."

"Like the Borg?"

"Yeah, like-" he frowned. "How do you know the Borg?"

"Boyfriend of mine liked Star Trek."

"That must have lasted long, knowing you."

"Watch it."

"ANYway," he continued, "since the Krell's evolution was forced on them at such an accelerated rate, their empathic abilities were amplified too fast for them to adapt."

"So…"

"So… there's someone upstairs who is having less than calm thoughts, which is having an effect on the Krell. So really, it's time to stop the chatting and get back up there."

"What about him?" Donna asked, looking to McKenzie.

"He's… not human anymore, Donna. He's not even alive. They're just using his form to communicate." After a pause to let it sink in, he spoke again, gently. "We have to go."

He brought the Vortex Manipulator up and set it for the return trip back up into the bridge of the ship. Donna looked unsure, so he nodded vehemently for her to grab onto the wristwatch sized device. She did so, and he turned to McKenzie.

"I'm sorry for what's been done to you. I can't undo what these people have done, but I can get them away and stop anyone else from coming here. You'll be able to live the rest of your life in peace. But we'll need you to stop attacking us for a few minutes, just so we can get things sorted out. "

For the longest time, McKenzie said nothing. Finally, his lips parted, and a whispered voice croaked forth.

"Will… try. Thank… you."

The Doctor nodded and looked to Donna, who gave her own little nod along with a brave smile to show that she was ready. She looked back to McKenzie as the Doctor pressed the button to return them to the ship.

"Bye."

And then, with that familiar tearing feeling like you were being pulled inside out and then put back to together again, the pair reappeared on the bridge of the ship. Everyone had remained where they were for all intents and purposes, with the exception of Venn, who had taken to sitting despondently on some steps like a scolded child.

"Oh, well, that's a bit boring, isn't it? I thought you'd at least be doing something interesting while I was away."

A groan from beside him had him turning into the quickly falling Donna, clutching her head. Ah. He forgot that some people aren't well suited to time travel without a capsule.

"S'all right… just need a… pie with… hairbrush."

The Doctor nodded, helping her down slowly. "Yep, sure, all right… just lie down, there we go…"

"She okay?" Spade asked from across the room, still not moving from his position beside Venn. It seemed that even with him sitting down, Spade didn't trust the Commander by himself.

"Yeah, she'll be fine," the Doctor replied, smiling at how serene Donna looked. "Just a bit of time transition dizziness, happens to the best of us. Should wear off in a few minutes. Anyway," he said, bursting up into a standing position. "Someone here needs to have some serious therapy, or at least take up jogging or boxing. Something to work off the old rage."

Everyone looked at everyone else, exchanging worried glances and perplexed shrugs. Except Tamar, of course, who was still frozen staring at the other side of the room. The Doctor once more considered deactivating the metabolastasis field.

Nah.

"What are you talking about?" Tharsis sighed, some of her earlier demeanour shining through despite the circumstances.

"Well, it's quite interesting, really. Amazing what a chat with a sentient gaseous life form possessed miner will get you. It seems," he said slowly, jutting out his lower lip like a sulking teenager, "that Commander Venn here sent an accelerant back in time that made the Krell evolve about a thousand years before they were supposed to."

Only Venn seemed to have a clue what he was talking about, and seemed fairly panicked by what the Doctor was disclosing. The expression only serving to make the Doctor happier, and the Time Lord continued on, hands in pockets as he wandered about the room.

"And it also seems that Tamar was going to be used as a sort of carrier for the Krell so that the Night Foundation could use it for, what, Venn? Money? Weapons? Doesn't matter, the point is, we're stuck now. But here's the interesting thing," he continued, moving onto Spade. "They're being provoked. Because you see, the Krell are highly empathic, and now that they're in the presence of other life forms such as ourselves… they're easily influenced by, say… negative emotions like anger, revenge, that sort of thing. So!"

He leapt away from Spade and over to Tharsis, bypassing Robert altogether. "Who here needs some anger management? Who could do with dealing with some parent issues? Let's play, the Weakest Link!"

Slipping on his glasses while he sung out the relevant theme tune, the Doctor perched them on the end of his nose, inspecting each person as he walked around the room.

"Now, you'd think that Tamar would be the obvious suspect. Another species, violent, murderous, being used for another's gain… but no. For you see, ladies and gentlemen, Tamar is a Krillitane. And among other things, Krillitanes are highly resistant to telepathy, and, you guessed it, creatures with empathic abilities. So while Tamar could be feeling more frustrated and violent than a Dalek without an eyestalk, there's no way the Krell could be picking it up from him."

He whirled on his heel so he was looking at the rest of the crew, the frozen Tamar behind him.

"So! Who does that leave? Miss Tharsis? No, you're a bit too uptight for the kind of emotions we're talking about here."

She seemed ready to protest, but kept schtum when she realised the Doctor had just exonerated her from any wrong-doing.

"So Spade, perhaps? Again, no. While you are confused and angry about what happened to your friends… now you're just sad at what happened to them. And, somehow, the Krell out there don't seem sad."

Hands firmly lodged in pockets, he walked around the offline holo table and to Venn, who glared up at him with unabashed anger.

"Venn, then? Oh, I like that. Venn then. Venn then. Anyway. As much as you're glaring poison tipped flaming explosive arrows with acid at me, I don't think you're the one. You're a military man, or at least you were. I can tell that much from how you walk and talk. So you'd have a tighter reign on your emotions, frankly."

Sighing, he turned to the only suspect left.

"Which leaves us with Robert."

Everyone stared at the temp, Tharsis backing away from him a few steps. He looked around, exasperated.

"What? You can't be… I mean… what about you? And Donna?"

"Well, the Krell chose Donna as someone to talk to. They're not likely to do that if she's making them perform emotional back flips. And me, well… look at me. I'm many things, but is hopelessly enraged and angry really one of them?"

Silence reigned supreme over the command centre. Venn slowly rose to his feet beside the Doctor, disbelief written all over him.

"But it can't be him. He's just a… temp."

That seemed to do the trick. Robert's eye twitched a little as a smile broke onto his face.

"Just a temp. Just a temp? Look at how afraid you are all of a sudden! If I was just a temp, would you be backing away right now?" he shouted to Spade. "Would you be staring at me like I was some lunatic?" he asked, glaring at the Doctor.

Robert's gaze whipped around until he was sending a piercing stare right into Miss Tharsis. "And you… I lived and grovelled and worked all the time for you. And it was always just 'fine, whatever' and 'go away, Allen'."

Venn nudged the Doctor and nodded to the sealed metal door behind Robert. A slow trickle of steam had started to make it's way through.

Robert continued on regardless. "But how are you feeling now, huh? Do you want to tell me you're too busy now? Go ahead. What's the difference?"

Clearing his throat, the Doctor stepped forward. "Um, Robert?"

"Oh, suddenly I'm important enough to take notice of, is that it? Before I was just nothing! A big fat nothing!"

"Robert."

"Well, now you're going to pay attention! I'm not taking anymore of this-"

"Robert!"

"What? What the hell do you want?"

"There's… steam coming out of your ears."

He scowled incredulously before the meaning of the Doctor's words struck him. Turning, he saw the cloud of steam just an instant before two tendrils dove into his head through the ears, his entire body melting away into the mist from the head down.

"Away, now!" the Doctor screamed at Tharsis, releasing the metabolastasis field on Tamar as he did so. The Krillitane blinked once before running to the other side of the command centre. Filling out the half of the room they had just vacated, the cloud started to hum, becoming louder and louder as more steam entered. Then, suddenly, a metal barrier slammed down from the roof, clanging loudly against the ground.

Impressed, the Doctor looked to Venn, who had surreptitiously activated the wall via a small panel in the wall.

"Containment, good. But oh, this is bad."

"You think?" Spade yelled. Miss Tharsis winced at the volume of the outburst, but the Doctor just nodded lightly.

"Worse than you think. Now that Robert's been absorbed the Krell, that means his psyche is becoming part of them. They're going to become more aggressive." He whipped his gaze over to Venn. "How did they get in?"

He scowled. "What?"

"The Krell. How could they have found their way into the ship?"

"I don't know, probably through one of the…" he stopped and stared into the metal barrier between them and the clouds. "The air recycling tanks…"

The Doctor nodded, chewing the inside of his cheek in thought. "Right then. Can you find out which one?"

"With that, I can," he said, pointing to the Vortex Manipulator.

Spade came forward, flanking the Doctor. "You've got to be kidding. You think we're going to trust you to stick around here and-"

"Where the hell could I go, Spade? This thing is everywhere!"

That seemed to quell any arguments Spade could come up with, though the Doctor doubted his feelings for Venn had been resolved. After only a brief moment of consideration, the Doctor handed over the Manipulator.

With a nod of thanks, Venn strapped it back on his wrist and tapped away on the keypad. "Air recycler B."

"Right," the Doctor nodded. "So we vent all the atmosphere from the ship, switch to air recycler A."

"What good would that do? It would just vent them out of the ship."

"Yes, but it would give us enough time to get down below and get to my ship. By the time the Krell have managed to get inside this ship, we should already have a big enough head start."

"That's ridiculous."

The Doctor shrugged and walked away. "Oh, well then, since you've got a better idea…"

The humming grew louder from the other side of the containment wall.

Sweat gathered on Venn's forehead.

"Fine," he muttered, getting to work quickly on the Manipulator.

As the Doctor grinned, Donna groaned something behind him that would have offended everyone in the room if not for the hum of the Krell drowning it out.

"What's… Doctor?"

He crouched down beside her. "All right, milady? Shine your shoes, guv'nor?"

Donna's face scrunched up. "Oh, bloody hell. I just have to wake up to you in my face, don't I…?"

Grinning inanely, the Doctor pulled the still slightly dazed woman to her feet.

"Thanks. What's going on?"

The Doctor took a breath. "Well… it's a funny story really…"

Venn barged through them and to the holo-table. "Right, I'm going to flush the air out in fifteen seconds. I recommend you all exhale. There will be a slight power outage after we're done; the system isn't used to flushing out the whole ship."

A frown wrinkling her forehead, Donna looked to the Doctor. "Air? Exhale?"

The Time Lord took a deep breath. "Yeah, we're blasting out all the air and the Krell with it so they don't absorb us like they did with Robert Allen who was the one causing all the fuss by the way and now we have to exhale or our heads are going to pop like in 'Total Recall'," he croaked, gasping for air by the end.

Donna stared at him. "'Total Recall'?"

With a panicky gesture of his hands, the Doctor got her to exhale as well. She was just about finished when the air suddenly completely left the room. The Doctor felt the pressure on his ears, and saw the others immediately clap their hands to theirs in a futile gesture. Except for Tamar, of course. He looked quite amused by the whole thing.

Eventually something on the holo-table beeped, and a thoroughly distressed looking Venn tapped a few controls. With a relieved hiss, air began pumping back into the ship. The Doctor's eyes were firmly on Tamar, who was now engaged in a rather intense staring match with Miss Tharsis, who stood beside him. Although this wasn't the kind of challenging staring that the Doctor often engaged in with rivals and enemies. No, this was something different. Almost fond…

The lights went out.

His ears still recovering from the pressure change, the Doctor just barely made out some shuffling coming from Tamar and Miss Tharsis' direction.

He really hoped they weren't doing what he thought they were doing. He blamed humans for giving him such a dirty imagination, he focused his ears a little more.

"Go. Run!" Tharsis hissed.

The Doctor tried to move forward, but just ended up bumping into Donna, whose hearing clearly hadn't returned at all yet. A muffled female grunt was quickly followed by a piercing, quiet snap. Venn yelled out as something collided with him, sending him tumbling into Donna and the Doctor. They all fell roughly to the metal floor, Donna wailing irritably.

The lights came back up, and Tamar was gone.

Miss Tharsis lay dead on the floor, neck twisted in a sickening direction with Tamar's metabolastasis generator bracelet clutched in her expertly polished fingers. Gasping from where he lay beside them, Venn launched himself to his feet and, panicked, clutched at his bare wrist.

"He took the-"

The lights went down to emergency level, the hellish red permeating every corner. Both the Doctor and Venn darted to the holo-table while Donna and Spade crouched beside Tharsis, the latter sliding a hand over her eyes to close them.

"We're on emergency power," Venn said, hands trembling as they worked on the table. "He's put the whole ship into lockdown."

Coming up beside them, Spade looked past Venn and to the Doctor. "So we're not going anywhere."

He shook his head. "Not until we find Tamar. Shame," he sighed. "I usually love a good game of hide and seek."

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(A/N: Well, it had to happen someday. David Tennant's leaving, the awkward bugger. It's like he has no consideration for my fan fiction at all (although he is being rather kind to my wallet - those box sets cost quite a bit). Ah, well. Got the Christmas special and four more after that to look forward to. I think that'll make do.

Anyway, review!)