NOTE: Once again sorry about the long wait. However I am now moved into my new place (a little cabin on a lake that has loons...love it here!) so I should be much quicker on the chapters now that I have my world in order and my wifi hooked up!

Chapter Twenty-one

Quay and Dace stared at River as she twittered and chirped at the Doctor. Although they couldn't understand what she was saying the meaning was made clear by the high pitched anxious tone to her notes and the wild gesturing. The Doctor put his hands on her shoulders to settle her down. River fell silent but she had a petulant look on her face as she huffed in frustration. When the Doctor continued to show concern River backed a step away. Taking a deep breath she composed herself and sang a short sweet song with her new avian voice.

"No apology needed." The Doctor said in response to the song.

River turned her bright blue eyes on Dace and Quay and chirped at them with a note of concern.

"They are okay." The Doctor assured. "Your voice is still somewhat hypnotizing to humans. Nothing they can't handle if they just try a little harder to pay attention."

River gave the men a doubtful look. The Doctor turned to them, brought his hand up and snapped his fingers in front of their faces a few times to break the spell.

"Oy!" The Doctor snapped. "Focus."

"Sorry, Doctor." Dace replied as he shook his head.

"We have to get back to Tanya." Quay said as he looked down at the delicate bird that was still in his hands. "Even if it didn't restore River's voice properly at least she looks healthy again."

The Doctor took a quick scan of River with the sonic and consulted it. River rolled her eyes and chattered, she knew she was feeling better she didn't need the sonic to confirm it.

"She's good." The Doctor announced.

River raised a sultry eyebrow and asked a question that caused the Doctor to blush.

"What did she say?" Dace asked.

"Nothing." The Doctor said quickly. "Let's go."

"Go?" A deep voice suddenly asked disapprovingly. "You're going to leave without even saying 'hello' to an old friend? That's not very polite."

Turning around to face the voice the Doctor stared into the bright green eyes of the Phantom. The Phantom smiled from his place near the door. The Doctor went to move into a protective stance in front of River, a move that was made difficult by the fact that she had tried to do the same for him. Dace and Quay started to take defensive poses, but both quickly became listless after the Phantom glared at them. Turning his attention back to the Doctor he smiled again.

"Hello, Doctor." The Phantom greeted politely. "So glad you could come."

"Uh, hello...you." The Doctor replied awkwardly.

"Come now, Doctor, surely I left more of an impression on you than that. I recognized you through that new face of yours, you must be able to do the same with me." The Phantom looked the Doctor's tweed jacket and brown pants and nodded in approval. "I'm pleased to see that you've out grown your garish colour phase."

The reference to his sixth regeneration gave the Doctor a time frame to work with, but it didn't really help. The Phantom looked truly disappointed that the Doctor didn't remember him.

"I'll give you a hint: just like you I am the last of my kind, but unlike you I'm proud of my title. Survival of the fittest and all that. Not an easy contest when there can only be one winner."

The Doctor's breath hissed over his teeth as he finally identified the creature that stood before him.

"Ah, you do remember me."

"Yes, sorry, the last time I saw you, you weren't so...well...reptilian."

"Not all of us are lucky enough to be as naturally long lived such as yourself, Doctor. I've had to take some extreme measures to survive this far."

"I can see that."

"Speaking of which clearly you're surprised to see me again. Why could that be?" The Phantom asked rhetorically. "It's probably because the last time you saw me you left me to die."

"I did no such thing." The Doctor said defensively. "I just left you on your world where you belonged."

"A world that was doomed from the start." The Phantom snarled.

"That's not my fault."

"You could have helped me."

"It wasn't my place to interfere in the natural evolution of your planet, even if that evolution had gone horribly wrong."

"Doctor," Dace asked nervously as he shook some of the fog in his head "what is that thing?"

"His name is Riku. He is a Psychevore, a creature that feeds on life force and emotion, a person's 'soul' if you will. Worlds that evolve a psychevore ecology always collapse in on themselves. They are worlds that eventually consists only of parasites that feed off one another's souls, a chain of vampirism that doesn't end until there is only one left."

"The strongest." Riku beamed. "Or in my case 'the most clever'. You may not have helped me off my world, Doctor, but you did teach me something very interesting. You taught me that there were other worlds and it became my singular purpose to reach them."

"And suck them dry?" The Doctor growled.

"I've left a few decimated." Riku admitted casually. "However I have been refining my tastes. I've found that the raw emotion released in reaction to beauty is the sweetest meal of all."

"Let me guess: nothing brings out that emotion in humans quite like music does."

"Exactly!" Riku crowed in excitement. "I've been experimenting with harnessing the purest form of music in my birds."

"So you've been stealing voices so you can grow fat." The Doctor said in disgust.

"We all have to eat, Doctor." Riku shrugged.

"The people of this world are not cattle." The Doctor hissed.

"Of course they are. They were stealing and selling one another long before I arrived. I didn't set up the Ivory Market, I've just been benefiting from it. It brings me all sort of treasures, like 'Miss Afterglow'. She is money well spent."

River squawked something that sounded very much like a threat at Riku. The reptilian man contemplated River for a moment.

"I'm sorry, my Dear, I didn't quite understand that."

More than willing to make herself clear through actions rather than words River took an aggressive step forward. The Doctor put his hand out to stop her. River glared murderously at Riku but she allowed the Doctor to keep her at bay for the time being. Dace and Quay watched the scene unfold, but they couldn't seem to make themselves a part of it.

"I like her." Riku chuckled. "Her voice was more powerful than any of the others, I'm still not sure if that's because of her physiology or just her talent. When I learned that she was your consort I switched my focus. I will regret losing it, but if that what it takes to get what I want I'm willing to give it back."

"Back?" The Doctor asked confused.

"I'm a business man these days not just a mindless bottom feeder."

"Dare I ask you what you want?"

"One of my necklaces is in your pocket, Doctor." Riku said simply.

"And you expect me to put it on?"

"Good Lord, no." Riku shook his head. "I can't imagine you having much of a singing voice, Doctor. I don't need a crow in my collection."

"Then what do you want?"

"I want you to improve it. You are infamous for being terribly clever. I want the voices I take to last longer and I know you can make that happen. Fix the necklace, Doctor, and I will restore River's voice to her. I will even help whoever that little purple bird your friend is holding belongs to. Deal?"

The Doctor didn't respond to the bargain right away. River was already protesting and looking like she was going to dabble in the theory that violence could solve their current problem. From what Dace was experiencing he knew a physical assault wasn't going to work. Dace had been trying to make a move for the reptilian man himself, but every time he tried to put a plan into action he somehow just lost interest. Quay was having a similar issue as Riku's natural hypnotic and psychic aura protected him from the humans.

"Doctor?" Riku asked. "Do we have a deal?"

"I'm sorry, I can't help you."

"You mean you *won't* help me." Riku corrected calmly. "Just like you wouldn't take me off my dying planet all those years ago."

"You're a killer of the worst sort, I won't help you."

"I'm not a killer, I'm a predator. There is a difference. However I don't want to argue semantics with you, Doctor." Riku sighed as he turned his attention to River. "I really was willing to be civil about this, but I suspected that this was going to take force. I'm sorry, my Dear."

"Riku, wait..."

The Doctor stopped as River reared back with her hands flying up to her throat as she desperately tried to pull off the necklace that she still wore. She managed a strangled cry before she was silenced once more as the necklace tightened down. The Doctor just barely managed to catch her when she suddenly collapsed. He eased her down to the floor as she continued to claw at the metal bird wrapped around her throat.

"River? River!"

The violent turn in events managed to jolt Dace and Quay out of their state of hypnotic stupor. Dace went for Riku with all the fury of an angry bear. Riku calmly watched him approach. Dace was caught once more in the monster's bright green eyes and suddenly couldn't remember what he was doing or why. Stopping in place he looked around lost. Quay's attention was divided between trying to help River and protecting the bird in his hands. With his own mind clouded with Riku's spell Quay couldn't seem to do either task.

Laying on the floor in the Doctor's arms River stopped fighting with the necklace. Her hands fell away from the metal garrote as her colour began to rapidly fade once more. The stone in the center of the necklace was glowing an angry red as it pulled far more than just her voice into it. The Doctor panicked as River's hair began to turn white from the curled ends up giving it the appearance of ice crystalizing in spirals across a surface. With an expression of terror in her graying eyes River stared up at the Doctor.

"Riku, stop this!" The Doctor begged. "Don't hurt her! Please!"

"I wouldn't have to if you'd be a good boy and just do as I ask." Riku pointed out.

"Riku..."

"Agree to fix the necklace, or watch her die. Simple."

"I'll do it, just let her go!"

"The blood of billions stains your hands and yet the loss of just one more life turns you into a slave. I love it."

"Riku!"

Riku didn't appear to do anything but River suddenly took a deep breath like someone breaking the surface of the water after nearly drowning. Dace was actively trying to break through the haze in his mind but Riku silenced his thoughts with a glance. The true mind control took more effort than Riku was showing, but he managed to keep Dace and Quay in line. The Doctor held River close to his chest as the wintery hue that had consumed her melted away. Shaking from the experience River held on to the Doctor tightly as she recovered.

"I'm sorry, River." The Doctor whispered to her.

Riku stepped closer to the Doctor and River and looked down on them. An expression played across his reptilian features that may have been pity, but could have just as easily have been disgust. Lording over them a cold smile split his thin green lips.

"You have always been such a stubborn creature, Doctor, and yet it is the unfortunate souls in your path who tend to suffer because of it. It's a shame I can't feed off irony, you'd make a meal that would last me a thousand years. As it is you should just be grateful that I don't enjoy the taste of guilt..."