A/N: Two chapters for you all, cos you're all awesome and I'm very happy :D


Chapter Nine

Means and Motives

The first thing Ashley became aware of as she woke was the throbbing pain in her jaw. Actually it was probably the thing that woke her up. The whole left side of her jaw felt stiff and painful. As she automatically flexed it, a jolt of pain racked through her teeth and she cried out in agony.

'Take it easy,' the Doctor told her gently. 'You've been out for a while.'

Ashley ignored his suggestion and sat up quickly. A little too quickly. Black spots threatened her eyes, but it was hard to see them in the darkness of the room. She groped around until she found the Doctor's hand and looked around for him. His face was nothing but a pale blur in front of her.

'Wha… what happened?' she mumbled, but her words were slurred from her swollen jaw. 'Ow my jaw…'

She felt the Doctor's gentle hand on the side of her head. 'Do you feel sick? Dizzy?'

'No, just my frigging jaw… ow…' Ashley rubbed it, and soon realised that hadn't been her best decision. 'That bastard kicked me.'

'I gathered,' the Doctor replied. 'You've got one hell of a lump on your face.'

'Oh great,' Ashley grumbled. 'Swollen face. I bet I look like a chipmunk.'

'You look lovely,' the Doctor replied distractedly. He moved away from her and she squinted to keep sight of him, but it was too dark.

'Where are we then?' she asked with a groan, pushing herself to her feet. 'I'm going to take a wild guess and say that there's something someone doesn't want us to know about.'

'Actually, it's your barman friend and Mr Leville. A good old-fashioned father and son massacre as I've gathered.'

Ashley frowned. 'Rynian is Leville's son? Wow, didn't see that coming. They look nothing like each other.'

'No one really looks like their parents anymore in the 51st Century. Not with all the designer baby thing going around.'

'You mean that actually took off?'

'Yup. Nice for ugly people who don't want to spread the genes.'

Ashley pushed her hair back off her face and wiped her head. 'That's not very nice, Doctor.'

'Sorry. I'm not in a very nice mood.'

Ashley stood in the disorientating blackness, waiting for the Doctor to explain to her what was going on. She decided not to press him for answers, simply because her head was hurting almost as much as her jaw. She put that pain down to the amount of wine she had consumed in the past hour or so.

'Verschlings.' The Doctor said finally.

'What?' Ashley frowned, caught off guard.

'Verschlings. They were warmongers. They liked to declare war on planets that had little or no defence and then kill every living thing they found. They were rounded up by the Time Lords years and years ago and banished from this universe.'

Ashley was quiet for a moment. 'What's that got to do with what's happening here?'

The Doctor sighed, but not with exasperation or impatience. He just sounded genuinely tired. 'The Angel's Eye must be a weak spot between this universe and the next. The Verschlings must have been trying to contact someone from this universe through it, and got in touch with Leville. They've made a deal with him. What kind of deal, I don't know and don't particularly want to know, but part of it is to bring the Verschlings back to this universe. That can't happen.'

'There's more than one universe?' Ashley asked, confused. 'Like… other dimensions and stuff?'

The Doctor appeared by her side again, despite the fact she hadn't heard him moving at all. He leaned against the wall beside her. 'Imagine you have a sheet of paper,' he said. 'And you soak it in water. Drop a spot of ink in the centre of the paper and it bleeds out, right?'

Ashley nodded. 'Right.'

'Now the universe is just like that. Smaller universes run off this one like ink bleeding out. There's an infinite number. Parallel dimensions where, say… Hitler was never born or… or the Spice Girls never got a record deal.'

'Did you just compare the Spice Girls to Hitler?'

'Never mind that,' the Doctor replied. 'The point is that we banished the Verschlings to another dimension. They should never have been able to get back. Ever. But apparently it's happening.'

Ashley prodded her jaw thoughtfully. 'So… what do we do?'

The Doctor was quiet for a moment. 'Not a lot until I know exactly how they're getting through.' He turned to her, leaning on his shoulder instead of his back. 'There's no way they come through the Angel's Eye. It isn't a hole. It's just… more like a window. A window left ajar. They can't fit through it. They would just get turned to mush.'

'Maybe they don't know that.'

'I'm pretty sure they will have tried it already. They'll know.' The Doctor pondered silently. 'Leville said something about details. What details?'

'Well, let's break it up,' Ashley said. 'I might miss some things because I think that bastard knocked some of my brain cells out of my ears but I'll have a go anyway. We're the nearest thing to the light anomaly, right? There are no planets nearby?'

The Doctor nodded. 'Not as close to the anomaly as the hotel.'

'And… someone took over the construction of this place just after it appeared, right?'

'Go on.'

'That would suggest that whoever bought the hotel knew what the anomaly was.'

The Doctor was nodding slowly. 'Sounds about right.'

'So they would have worked on it to make sure it would attract people,' Ashley carried on, trying her best not to lose her track of thought, which was starting to get increasingly complicated in her throbbing head. 'Because whatever they're going to do, they'll need a lot of people for it. And that's worked, because there are hundreds of people here.'

'Leville said he needed details to send to them…'

Ashley shrugged, her migraine being too much to fight. 'Maybe it's so each of the Van Helsings have a dance partner? Oh I dunno…'

'That's it!' the Doctor cried out suddenly. He grabbed her arms and grinned. 'I can guarantee you that every single person who received an invitation had to have a blood test before flying out here. That's what the details are! Their DNA!'

Ashley was frowning at him. 'How would they possibly send blood samples of hundreds of people into another dimension?'

'Same way as Leville talks to them on the phone,' the Doctor went on, pacing the room with his hands pulling at his hair. 'The radio waves are getting through the Eye. They broke down the DNA strands and sent them through, ready to be put back together by the Verschlings. Oh it's genius! And once they have the details of every single person at the party they can…' He trailed off.

Ashley waited apprehensively. 'They can what? Doctor?'

The Doctor appeared again right in front of her. His expression was solemn. 'They don't need these people to feed the Verschlings.' He told her gravely. 'These people are going to become the Verschlings.'

Ashley's jaw would have dropped if it wasn't so swollen. 'That's impossible.'

'No,' the Doctor shook his head. 'It's not.' He held her hand tightly and led her to the door. 'We need to get everyone out of here and away from the Eye. If we can get it out of range then hopefully the Verschlings will lose momentum and just evaporate in space.' He rattled the door handle and then pulled out the sonic screwdriver. 'We've got to do something, or in ten minutes this whole platform is going to be swarming with those monsters, ready to set off and pillage whatever planet they get to.' He turned to look at Ashley. 'And there are no Time Lords left to send them back this time.'

Ashley swallowed. 'There's you.' She said.

The Doctor smiled thinly. 'I'm just one Time Lord. It took three thousand of them last time.'

Ashley had a few seconds to look worried, before the Doctor opened the door and led her out into the red-lit corridor.


Ashley made the decision to leave her shoes behind in the room. It wasn't a very hard decision and she didn't even look back to them as they quickly and quietly snuck down the dark corridor, not sure whether or not they were headed the right way.

'We've got ten minutes,' the Doctor whispered. 'Or it's probably about eight now.'

'To do what, exactly?' Ashley whispered back, scanning her surroundings for any lurking barmen.

'Well… I'm sure I'll know when the time comes.'

'That doesn't sound too promising.'

The Doctor stopped suddenly and turned around, bundling her to the left so they were both tucked away in an alcove. Ashley frowned at him questioningly, but he shook his head and put his finger to his mouth. He tapped on his ear, and then pointed towards the corridor.

'You definitely locked the door?' It was Leville, and he sounded anxious.

'Of course I locked the door,' his son replied irritably. 'Do you think I'm stupid or something?'

'No, it's just that man had a tendency to get through locked doors. He's done it a few times already. I just don't want them messing this up.'

'What could they possibly do to mess it up anyway? They're nobodies. Just bloody spongers. Nosy spongers at that.'

'You shouldn't underestimate people, Rynian.'

'I'll stop it when they start surprising me.' Rynian grumbled. He came into view, looking slightly stressed. He suddenly resembled his father quite a lot as he ran his fingers through his hair and sighed heavily. 'How long it is anyway?'

'Seven and a half minutes.' Leville replied.

'So what, are we staying down here or are we going to greet them?'

Leville shuffled uncomfortably.

'C'mon, dad! What's wrong with you? This was all your idea in the first place, and the closer it gets the more you start twisting your face.'

Leville shifted again. 'Well… it's just… All those people. There are hundreds of people up there, Rynian.'

Rynian snorted. 'They deserve it.' He muttered darkly. 'You'll be laughing about your doubts when this is over and we're rich.'

'That's the thing,' Leville sighed. 'We were rich before we built this place. Did we even need any more money?'

Rynian was silent and startled for a moment. 'People always need more money, dad. What the hell is wrong with you?'

'Nothing. Sorry, son.'

Rynian sighed heavily. 'That leaves about seven minutes now. We're wasting time here. Just chill out and…'

The Doctor had tried to grab her, but she had slipped out of his hands easily. Ashley lunged towards Rynian, who looked at her with bewildered stupor, and she hit him hard in his face with her fist. Stunned, he half twirled and crashed into a pile of boxes behind him. He lay there, dazed. The Doctor emerged, rolling his eyes.

'That's for kicking me in the face!' Ashley roared with her fists clenched by her sides.

Leville looked around in alarm. The Doctor pushed his hands in his pockets and stepped forward. 'Right then, that was an interesting conversation to overhear. Should have guessed it was for money. People will do anything for money these days, won't they? Sounds like a bit of a dodgy investment though; taking the word of a bunch of invisible aliens from another dimension and spending all your savings building a big fancy hotel so they can what, double your money for you? There are places in Vegas who can promise you the same thing with much less effort involved. And much less money but… that's not important.'

He turned and looked to Rynian, who had recovered some and was starting to get up.

'Oh I wouldn't do that if I were you,' the Doctor shook his head. 'You've wound her up big time, and she's like a rottweiler when she gets going.' He paused to eye Ashley. 'Or more like one of those little yappy things.'

'You said you'd locked the door!' Leville cried.

'I did!' Rynian snarled. 'He must have a skeleton key or something.'

The Doctor produced the sonic screwdriver and tossed it up in the air, catching it again with a grin. 'Oh, I suppose you could call it that.' He turned to Leville and held out his hand. 'Now if you would like to give me your phone.'

Leville just stared at him, bug eyed.

The Doctor clicked his fingers impatiently. 'Come on, come on! End of the universe in six minutes! No time to be catching flies!'

Leville handed over the phone, mostly out of bewilderment, and the Doctor turned the sonic screwdriver on it. Ashley leaned over towards him.

'What are you doing?' she asked.

'Seeing if I can get through to our expected guests.' His tongue traced his teeth as he worked. Finally, the phone beeped and he smiled. 'There we go! Now quiet please while I'm on the phone.' He put the phone to his ear and waited.

The gruff voice that replied was not at all pleasing on the ear. The Doctor moved the phone away for a moment with a wince.

'Oh hello, yes? Am I through to the Verschlings? Current residence, not this universe?'

'Who is this?' a gruff voice demanded. 'This is not the Leville human.'

'No, it's not as a matter of fact. This is the Doctor. And well, I'm quite sure this is not going to work, but I'd like to ask you to hold off this whole coming over to this universe thing for say… forever?'

'We do not take requests from humans.' The gruff voice barked.

'Oh, okay. How about from Time Lords?'

There was a chorus of angry growls and barks from the other end of the phone, once again causing the Doctor to move it from his ear. A moment later and the line cut off. The Doctor tossed the phone back to Leville, who fumbled with it before managing a secure grip.

'Well, that was helpful.' The Doctor sighed.

'What did they say?' Ashley asked.

'Nothing much really.' He glanced at his watch. 'And we've got five minutes.'

The two of them looked at each other for a moment, and then sprinted along the corridor to the stairs that lead back to the great hall.