Author's Note: Tah-dah! ... I'm not happy with this chapter either...

Warnings: Short, dark. THE PLOT THICKENS. Like porridge.

Rewrite

'Chapter Eleven'

The TARDIS seemed to sense my sadness as I felt the invasive fingers in my mind as soon as I cleared the doors. The hum grew louder around me, drowning out the drums and giving me silence as I made my way up the steps that led to the many corridors.

I registered that Jack had yelled after me, and that the Doctor was subtly steering me towards a certain room, with his arm still around my shoulder I didn't think about any of this; only the child in my arms.

I prided myself on being heartless and full of hate, but the little thing seemed to pain me. In the short time I knew her, I had grown attached to the headstrong little Kaji and her quick wit and stolen doll. The sweet thing, in her ragged linen dress and her scaled feet caked in dirt and blood.

Suddenly, there was a door before me, and it swung open and I was ushered inside. The Infirmary was sterile and cool, and I made my way to a table to place the child upon it. Her scales were cool to the touch, and she seemed to be sleeping.

I barely noticed the hands on my shoulders and the soft voice in my ear.

"She'll be fine… Promise… She just needs some rest, and a hug when she wakes up."

I gave the barest of nods, staring at the girl. Strong arms curled around my shoulders from behind, and the Doctor's cheek was pressed to mine. I could smell the spice of his skin and feel the stubble from his chin like sandpaper on my flesh.

"I'm sure you don't want to leave her."

To this, I shook my head, though I said nothing. I didn't think I could speak. My words were forced into a ball, wrapped in the twine of my grief and unable to be let free.

I was sure if I had been in better spirits, I would have taken advantage of the closeness of the Doctor. It was the first time since we were children that he had voluntarily touched me, or allowed himself to be so close, and his guard to be down.

He treated me like a friend who was hurting.

"I'll need some things from my workbench; sit tight and I'll be back." The Doctor was gone in a flash, and I might have imagined lips on my cheek as I drew a chair and sat at Kaji's bedside.

She looked peaceful now, as a child should when they sleep. I reached out for her, to take a tiny hand in mine and run my thumb across scaly knuckles. I was numb, though I had caused horrors like this in my past. I felt a niggling feeling the back of my skull that I was changing, maybe even growing a little in spirit.

If the Doctor could become a colder man, why couldn't I become a warmer one?

'Without your hate, you are nothing. You've survived on bitter feelings and a need to destroy the Doctor.'

"I don't want to deal with you right now." My voice was hollow; shocking to my own ears. I had no energy to fight.

'You have little choice. I'm inside your head, you know; I am part of you. You have to accept that.'

I shook my head, "You're not a natural part of my mind."

The laughter echoed through my skull, and it made me cringe, 'You'll believe the Oracle? A creature that would rip the eyes from a child? She's nearly worse than you, only I felt your joy in this.'

"There was no joy." I muttered between lips that barely moved.

'Tell yourself that when you try to sleep tonight.'

I heard the hiss of doors, and the voice was gone; vanished into beating of drums and overrun by the Doctor's presence. I held Kaji's hand while he flittered around the room, acting like the Doctor the universe took the name from. I heard the buzz of his sonic as he passed it over her body, and then lifted it to his face.

"Everything is as normal as it can be, considering…" The Doctor paused, and turned his eyes to mine. I didn't look away from him, though I must have let something soft fill my eyes, because he smiled at me and came around the bed to draw up a chair and sit beside me.

"I'm surprised at you."

"You and the rest of the universe." I replied with no real inflection in my voice.

"I'm… very proud of the way you responded." The Doctor's words were soft, and careful, as if he expected me to bite. Given a different circumstance, I would have had plenty of scathing remarks.

"Thank you."

The Doctor prodded further, "You could have refused, and walked away but you didn't."

"No, I didn't…" I felt the corner of my lips twitch as I gave my friend a small smile. "And I know you're going to ask me why." I released Kaji's hand, and sat back in the chair with my wrists resting on my thighs.

"I remember being small. I remember being driven mad, and I remember someone saving me from a gruesome fate."

The Doctor chuckled as he leaned forward to clasp his hands together with his elbows resting on his knees, "Well, it wasn't so gruesome… And I left you." From the corner of my eye, I watched brown eyes turn to the floor and I smiled in spite of myself.

There was part of me that really enjoyed watching him feel remorse for what he had done to me, even if I might have deserved it.

"You did leave me. Eventually." I added fuel to his misery, though I was not in the mood to continue the game, "But it was for the better, I suppose. Everything seemed to work out…" Even if it turned out to be sort of … backwards and paradox-y.

It made him smile, and I felt like it was worth it to chase the shadows from his eyes, for only a moment. We sat in companionable silence for a time, both of our eyes on the figure on the cot. The Oracle might have helped me, but at that moment, I abhorred her very existence.

Kaji breathed easily, the little chest rising and falling in a rhythm that was comforting to watch. The tear tracks of blood upon her face were not, and I made a move to stand, to find something to clean her face with. I felt the Doctor's eyes on my back as I poked around the infirmary.

"Hang on.." I knew that tone, that curious tone that said he found something interesting. "What's this?" I heard his footsteps, and felt his presence behind him. Alive and radiating heat; it had been too many times that the cold was at my back. I was thankful for the Doctor, then.

As I reached the small sink with the cloth I had found, I felt gentle fingers at the back of my neck and my skin broke out in shivers. It was a caress by roughened fingertips, not a prod or a push that made me think that perhaps the Doctor saw something in me that I could not.

"There's a mark on your neck… Don't be too alarmed…" I felt his fingers stretch the skin, and there was a pinprick of pain, "But it looks like something burrowed its way into the base of your skull…"

"Well, that's lovely." My voice was dry and very unlike the curious tone I heard in the Doctor's voice. I was sure he could be missing a leg, and find it fascinating.

"If I'm right… And I usually am… This is quite the lovely thing you have munching away at your brain." I heard the grin in his voice, and felt his breath on my next as he leaned in closer to look, "Fairly fresh… Now, I wonder where you picked this little thing up at…"

"Doctor, the foreplay is tedious. Do you know what it is, or not?" I hadn't meant to snarl the words, though I did intend for the glare that I shot over my shoulder. The Doctor had the grace to look sheepish, and he grinned at me.

"Sorry. … Tell me, has anything strange been happening to you?"

"Oh, not at all. It's very normal for me to fall out of the sky to greet old friends." I all but snapped as the Doctor inspected my neck. I heard him scoff, and he flicked my ear, making me yelp.

"Don't be trouble." The Doctor spoke with an amused tone. "Are you sure nothing strange had happened?"

I paused for a moment. What was the worst that could happen?

'I can answer that for you.' The Phantom rose up like the tide, his words washing over me and leaving me cold as I watched the image materialize in front of me. I swallowed past the lump that had begun in me throat.

"I… I think I've been hallucinating." I barely heard my own voice as I watched the Phantom's face twist into a snarl. It was strange to see the Doctor, even an image, look so angry.

'Keep your filthy mouth shut! You're going to ruin everything!' He started towards me, and I bit back the whimper.

I was disgusted with myself. Of all the things I had faced in the universe, a ghost was going to be my undoing. I pressed back against the hands of the solid Doctor as the phantom came closer to me.

"What kind of hallucinations?" The Doctor asked, ever the curious man.

Would it hurt to tell the Doctor I saw him pacing around the room like a tiger in a cage? Would it hurt to tell him that I saw a blood coated figure that had tormented me since I first arrived here? Would it hurt to tell him why?

Though my Doctor could not read my mind, the Phantom could, and he rushed towards me like a storm. His hands on the arms of the chair, he placed his face very close to mine, So close that I might have imagined the stink of rotting blood upon his breath.

'If you open your mouth again, I will make sure that none of you leave this ship alive. It's not too late to kill him again. It's so fresh in your mind…'

"The same that I ran from in your chambers." My voice was tight, and small as I squeezed my eyes shut. I felt frigid fingers encircle my wrists, and the phantom trapped both of my hands in one of his, holding them off to the side as the other hand shot for my throat.

'I will possess you, boy! Do not defy me! I have been in the universe far longer than you have ever hoped to breathe! I will not be foiled by your insanity!'

The fingers clenched, and I heard a hum. A high pitched sound in my ears, and the noise of my blood thundering just beneath my skin as the life was slowly being choked from me. The Phantom's face was twisted into a grin as he threw my hands to the side as he set both hands around my neck. Thumbs pushed against my Adam's apple, and I couldn't stop the wheezing breath.

"Master?"

My vision began to fade in splotches; grey and white ate at the edges of my vision as I fought for breath. The Phantom had grown stronger, and I knew this was no longer a game to pass the time for this creature.

'I will eat your brain, you little bastard. You'll sleep, and I will destroy you from the inside. I'll feast on your Doctor, too. I'll whisper things into his ears, and he'll smother you while you lay here.'

"No!" I snarled, though it came out a coughing wheeze. Now, more than ever, I fought to keep air in my lungs, to stay awake even as the pain began in my head. It was unlike the drums; a sharp and stabbing feeling right in the center of my head. For an instant, I wished for nothing more than the sound of drums and the tide of my insanity.

I longed to think with muddled thoughts and act on impulse as I had done so many times in the past. I longed for my drums to chase away the thing inside my head, the thing I felt sinking razor sharp teeth into the delicate tissues of my brain.

"Help me…" I whispered as I felt my eyes flutter against my cheeks.

'No one will help you. You belong to me.'

The last sight I saw was the Phantom choking the life out of me, though I heard the frantic tone in my Doctor's voice. I felt his hands flutter, and I heard him shout, though I couldn't make out any of the words.

Freezing fingers released me as darkness washed over my vision, and I had the sensation I was falling as I became colder, and colder. There was a sudden shock of warmth; warm hands, a warm chest, soft skin…

And then there was nothing.

-TBC-