Year Five- Chapter 37- Equal and Opposite

The Protector and the Guardian, Callia and Mekail, had known Ushas since she was a small child who had chased Koschei around and occasionally broke into their house to talk to her friend. She was a member of their house more often than not, so when they returned to their home to find that same young girl lying across their couch, her eyes wide open and her jaw clenched together, they knew something was terribly wrong.

"Ushas…" the Protector said gently, walking up to the girl. "Koschei told us that you went to the Embassy. Are you okay?"

The older Time-Lady noticed the blood on Ushas' uniform, but said nothing. She was sure that the headstrong Ushas had gotten into a fight with one of the dissensionists, and she was simply glad that her son's friend had survived it.

"Is Ghost alive?"

That was the question that had plagued Ushas for hours upon hours. Her insides were knotted as she spit out the words with scientific precision. She would not betray that she was scared for the answer. Ushas locked eyes with Koschei's mother, her gaze intense. She would not be lied to, but she would know what happened. Her friend was her responsibility.

"Ushas," the Guardian warned gently from his wife's side. He put a hand on her shoulder and gave a small nod of his head. "She's alive, but she has been injured."

"Where is she?" Ushas demanded, jumping to her feet. Her mind went from being numb to buzzing with a thousand thoughts and questions and plans. Her grasp on the script tightened. "What happened to her?"

"Please, take a moment to calm yourself," the Guardian offered, holding her in place gently. "She has been harmed, and her location cannot be released. Too many people know where she is already, and there are many people who want her dead. We cannot risk her safety. Surely you know that. Surely you understand that. I know that she means a lot to you. And I know you mean a lot to her. She asked about you when-" The man paused and shook his head. "Know that she is safe, and that there are people caring for her."

"That's… That's not enough! I have to see her!" Ushas sounded desperate but felt petulant. She was exhausted. Her heart had been racing for almost twenty-four hours, and her moments of sleep had been riddled with anxiety, fear, and nightmares. She could not count how many times she had seen Ghost die in the last hour of fitful rest. When Ushas caught the frustrated gaze of the Guardian, she stiffened. How dare he be upset about what she wanted? It was nothing complicated. It was her friend!

"Mekail," the Protector begged softly. "If it were Koschei, we would find a way to get him in…"

Callia considered Ushas and Theta to be her responsibility. She knew about Theta's injuries from the day previous, and she tried to quash her fury towards Theta's parents. At the same time, she was struggling to maintain her composure over the attacks on the South. So many of the people she tried to protect were dead. Both children needed guidance and help.

"If you won't get her in, I will." The Protector took Ushas' hand and looked to her husband, not for permission, but for acknowledgment. Neither of them ever asked for permission, simply for support, which was what the Guardian gave with a small nod of his head.

"Please be careful, Callia."

It was all so calm. It was all so white. There was something that smelled scaldingly clean about all of her surroundings. If she breathed too deeply, she would cough, but Ghost wasn't sure if it was the cleaners or if something had happened to her chest. She couldn't look down, but she would not let herself panic. So she simply let herself meditate, let herself rest.

The air was cool, almost too cold. Her fingers felt heavy and hard to lift. They weighed so much more than she remembered. What time was it? She couldn't tell because the bright lights above her were blinding and did not let any natural light, or lack thereof, betray what time of day it was. She felt tired. Her eyelids felt almost as heavy as her fingers, but she did not want to fall asleep. She wanted to know where she was. She wanted to know what had happened.

This wasn't the South, she knew that much. It was not like her home. Everything was so austere. There was so little around her. She was a prisoner somewhere where she could not sense another person in the building. No one was there, but she was strapped to a pristine white bed in a pristine white prison.

Her hearts-rate began to skyrocket.

She could not move.

No one would help her.

The Northerners hated her. They had attacked her family and she began to remember what had happened before she felt something slam into her head.

He was pulling her along, her father, his eyes wide. He was always so calm, a master of meditation and consideration. His composure was gone the moment the door burst down and flames began to lick at the walls. He grabbed his wife up from her chair near the kitchen and ran to Ghost who had been reading in the back of the small study near the kitchen. She saw the panic in her mother's eyes as she locked the doors to the study. Ghost's father rammed chairs against the wooden frame as her mother pulled back a bookcase to reveal a small door made of stone. Luacia shoved it open and pushed her daughter inside.

There was banging from the doors to the study. Wood broke. Her father yelled. Her mother screamed. Ghost remembered the fire's tendrils reaching out as people shove their way into the room. Ghost panicked and tried to dart past them, into the flames. That was when she was hit. She called out for help. She called out for Ushas.

Machines beeped loudly in the background as Ghost whipped her head around. She had to be free. She had to get out. She reached out with her mind to find someone, anyone. She needed help. Though Time-Lords could connect through bonds with intimate friends through physical contact, Ghost did not need any of that. She needed nothing to connect to a person's mind, and she had promised herself she would never misuse her gift.

But there was no escape.

-Ushas!- she screamed with her mind, knowing that no one was around to help her, to hear her.

She did not notice when the machine beeping a warning next to her short-circuited and the clocks near her head stopped working entirely.

"Okay, Ushas," Callia started, placing Ushas in front of her sternly. "You have to know that she had some broken ribs. She had a concussion and minor burns. She will be fine, but do not upset her."

"I won't!" Ushas kept looking at the door near them nervously. It led down, into the ground, she could tell from the way the door was built and thermalized. That meant that Ghost truly was hidden. That made her feel a little better. No one would think that the old storage rooms for a weapons plant contained such a room or such a person.

"Our people heard about the plans for burning, but got there as it started. They found the ambassadors, but Ghost tried to run, thinking they were Northerners, and got burns on her hands and shins."

"The concussion?"

"When she tried to escape, one of the men tried to subdue her, but accidently knocked her out," Callia admitted, feeling terrible about, not only not catching the plans for the attack in time, but for not being able to keep everyone involved safe.

Suddenly, Ushas was anxious yet again. Panic stuck her so deeply that she lost her breath as though she had been kicked in the stomach.

"Are you okay?" Callia asked, reaching forward.

"Yeah, yeah. I just want to see Ghost."

There was something there. There was someone there. Ghost felt it just at the edge of her reach. There were people. There was a threat. The monitor, had it still been working, would have begun beeping its warning again. The lights above her were blinding. The silence around her was deafening. She was so alone.

There was noise. She reached out with her mind. She needed to know who was there.

"Ghost!" Ushas called out warily as she opened the heavy white door that led to the room Ghost was in. Callia had explained that there were hidden shelters that politicians knew about across Gallifrey, and she had hidden the ambassador and his family after their house was burned.

Ghost's eyes widened and her petrified expression melted into relief. Ushas walked over slowly, worried that she might startle her injured friend.

"I… um… I demanded to see you."

-Ushas…-

The contact felt so odd. Ushas had used her thoughts to communicate with Ghost only once before, and it had been simply as a test that Ushas was going to write a report on. It had been only emotional imprints, but this was different. She did not like it, but she would not refuse Ghost her only mode of communication.

"I saved this for you." Ushas held the scroll out and then set it on a small counter next to Ghost's infirmary bed. "Went and found it in the rubble…" she lied.

Ghost gave a thin smile, but Ushas saw the deep sadness in her eyes.

-My parents are safe?-

"Yes, they're fine, but hidden right now. You'll be fine, too. Just a few days of rest, and-" Ushas looked over at what she knew was a monitor for Ghost's vital signs, but it wasn't reading anything. Worriedly, she looked back to Callia, who was standing in the door, hovering.

"There was a blackout when some rioters blew up what was rest of the embassy. It ruined technology from here to Prydon," Callia supplied wearily. "I'll let a medic know about the machine."

The older woman walked away as though she had the weight of the world on her shoulders. Ushas and Ghost both saw how her posture drooped and her voice trailed into a whisper.

"Koschei and Theta and I went to look for you," Ushas confided, walking to stand right beside Ghost. Her small friend seemed even weaker and more vulnerable than ever. Her eyes were sunken in, surely from shock or dehydration. Her light brown hair was splayed beneath her in knots that still smelled of burning wood. "I found a guy holding that… And I got it from him." Ushas had no intention of telling the bedridden girl beside her how she had stabbed a man for nothing more than a piece of paper. "I couldn't let them abuse it. I know that it means a lot to you."

-Have you read it?-

"No. It's yours. You never really did share what it was about with me, so I never pressed it." There was a silence between the two girls before Ghost bit her lip and frowned. "What is it?"

-My chest hurts.-

"Well, I think your broken ribs might account for that," Ushas teased gently.

Ghost strained to look down at her feet once again. She did not want to be restrained, but she assumed that it was all something to do with her wounds.

-You don't like me in your mind. I am sorry. I will stop.- And at that, Ushas felt the invasive pressure inside her head that bordered on a headache disappear. It was more comfortable, but the loss surprised her. It was suddenly empty within her thoughts.

"It's not…" She was about to continue, but Callia came back in with a young Time-Lord with wide eyes and a small stature. He was obviously a medic from the way he looked at the room with comfort and ease. He examined the machine and shook his head. He wheeled it out without a word to any of the women in the room.

"I need to get to a council meeting. I'm sorry, Ushas, but we need to leave."

"You can leave. I'll stay here." Ushas put a hand on Ghost's forearm and looked back at the woman who was more often than not more a mother to her than the woman that birthed her. Callia floundered for a moment, indecisive and worried.

"You don't have clothes or supplies. There's not even a place you can sleep… And I don't know if I can be back soon."

"I can sleep on the floor. And I don't need to worry about clothes. I go to Prydon; I've learned to go a few days wearing the same thing after forgetting to sleep." Callia was still wavering. "Please."

Whatever Ushas said seemed to have no effect. But Ghost looked to the older woman pleadingly. She could not be left alone. She was scared. She was hurt. She needed someone she could trust.

"Fine, but, please be safe," the Time-Lady said grudgingly.

Next Chapter: The Setta'la Scripts

AN: So, yes, Ghost is not dead! I really do love her a lot. (No, I have nothing in common with her, that would be ridiculous). But I want you all to know that I will not let an OC become the main focus of this fic. She is simply an instrument for change. This fic is intended to explain how Ushas becomes the Rani, how Koschei becomes the Master, and how little Theta-Sigma becomes the Doctor. All of them go through huge changes to become these dark, miserable characters, and I want to explain that to the best of my ability. You've already seen some of the changes in Koschei and Ushas through their violent outbursts and emotional instability.

I fully understand how frowned upon it is to have such a commonly mentioned OC, especially since she appears in (what my readers have interpreted) the position of a love interest. I promise that she (Ghost) will not take away from the story line, nor will she over-write any canon I am aware of (other than those I am explicitly ignoring {IE looming}). Please consider, too, that as a daughter of a mental health consultant, I am using atrocities in childhood to explain much of the changes in these children. Therefore, to get this point across, I use more OCs (the parents of all of the children). There is so little information about this time in the Doctor's life that I have to flounder for canon things, events, and people to use. I have watched quite a few Old!Who episodes to better understand the Deca and their developments. ("The Mark of the Rani" "Time and the Rani" "The Time Meddler" and the Celestial Toymaker Episodes in particular.)

If you do truly have complaints with the way I characterize a character, please wait. There will be times that all three of the main children (Koschei, Theta, and Ushas) undergo huge changes in personality and emotional states due to traumas, but I promise that there are no 'useless' or 'careless' changes that I will make. If you do truly have a concern, talk to me. Now that I have well over 100 people invested in this story, and more hits than I ever thought imaginable, I feel like I owe you all this horrifically long explanation of what I am doing and what this project means to me. Because I truly feel there is so much in these characters that is left unexplored and unstated, and I am deeply connected to these fictional people (unfortunately...).

So please, please, please feel free to either PM me here, or contact me through my tumblr account (1-url-to-rule-them-all) with questions, concerns, or comments.

I love you all and want to give a special thanks to those of you that use the WWWY canon for your Prydon-era fics. {The Linn and Noble Bea} Sorry! I apologize for this monstrously long message!

~Shara