Chapter Seven. Prisoners

"What about him?" Mara!Lon asked.

"He is not important." Mara!Tegan answered, "The boy Adric is the only thing that is important. His powers, the Homeostasis powers. I need it!"

"Well," Mara!Lon replied, "I'll have to see what I can do."

"You must not fail me."

"No. No, I understand." Mara!Lon replied before leaving.

The Doctor was kept imprisoned after being taken away trying to get details of the Great Crystal's location where Chela explained to the Time Lord about Dojjen, the director before Ambril, who believed that the Mara would return as well. Mara!Lon told Tanha if she saw a boy named Adric looking for the Doctor to bring that boy to him.

Nyssa and Adric proceeded to look for the Doctor. They heard the Doctor shouting that he wanted out of here. Then they found the Doctor in his prison cell.

"Adric!" the Doctor exclaimed, happy to see his remaining companions, "Nyssa!"

The two young companions tried to break the Time Lord out of his cell, but neither of them had such luck in doing so.

"Oh, it's no use." the Doctor told his companions, "I have tried."

"This is so stupid!" Adric exclaimed.

"The lock is extremely primitive." the Doctor replied as he went to lay on his bed, "It's practically a museum piece! There's no electronic impulse matrix to decode, no sonic micro circuit to disrupt. Crude mechanical six barrel movement, key operated. Primitive but adequate."

The Doctor sat up from his bed, "Well, it's more than adequate, actually, because the key is what we don't have."

"There must be some..." Nyssa started to say.

"Quickly!" the Doctor exclaimed as the group heard a noise. Adric and Nyssa fled the scene as Chela would talk with the Doctor and had him to read the last page of Dojjen's book.

Adric and Nyssa entered Ambril's chambers trying to find the key to free the Doctor, they found it successfully only to be stopped by Tanha and a guard.

"What do you think you're doing?" Tanha asked.

The guard grabbed Adric and Nyssa on opposite sides of him as the older woman glanced at the two companions.

"Where is Ambril?" Tanha asked, "He should be here."

"We are trying to free the Doctor." Adric spoke up, "As we don't have a clue why you have him imprisoned in the first place!"

"Oh," Tanha answered, "I am really not sure what to do. It is hardly a situation one needs. Ah!"

The guard handed the older woman the key as she faced the young boy, "Aren't you the one named Adric? The one who travels with this Doctor?"

"Yeah." Adric answered, "What of it?"

"You are needed. My son is needing you." Tanha replied with her answer, "As for you, young lady, I think perhaps you had better come with me. Isn't that what one usually says in this kind of situation? Take the boy to my son. I'll deal with the girl."

"Nyssa!" Adric cried out in fear as the guard took him away from his friend/lover.

"Adric!" Nyssa called back in worry about what was going to happen as Tanha took her to be imprisoned with the Doctor.

-Doctor-Who-

Mara!Lon had Ambril with him as a puppet show was in progress. The possessed man bought a pair of snake like coverings with candles, probably preparing for the ceremony.

Several minutes later, a guard arrived with Adric in tow. Clearly by force.

"Will you let me go?!" Adric exclaimed in anger.

"What is this?" Ambril asked.

"You shall see very soon." Mara!Lon answered as he faced Adric, "So at long last we meet."

"Who are you?" Adric asked as the possessed man motioned the guard to release the Alzarian, "What do you want from me?"

"I heard so much about your powers, Adric." Mara!Lon answered, "It seems to me you are gifted. Come."

"Oh!" Ambril exclaimed, "Where are we going?"

"Just you wait and see. Come on." Mara!Lon replied.

Mara!Lon, Adric and Ambril arrived at the entrance of Snakemouth cave as it was covered with decorations. The Alzarian felt uneasy as if something was about to happen.

"In there?" Ambril asked before stating, "Oh no, it's impossible, my lord. All the passages have been thoroughly explored over the years."

"What's the decorations on the cave?" Adric asked.

"For the ceremony this afternoon." Ambril answered.

"Come on." Mara!Lon insisted to the director as well as the Mara's key to freedom, "No wait, we may as well do this properly."

He got out a piece of cloth.

"What's that?" Ambril asked.

"A blindfold." Mara!Lon answered.

"Oh most certainly not!" Ambril exclaimed.

"You don't have to. It all depends on how badly you want the honor of having made this discovery on your own."

"You would allow me to take the credit?"

"Certainly. It's up to you."

"You can't do this!" Adric exclaimed as the possessed man placed the blindfold on the director, "The Mara can't be released! It can't be freed! The Doctor is not making this up!"

-Doctor-Who-

Chela was surprised to see Tanha arrive in the prison room, "My lady."

"Bring her in!" Tanha ordered a guard and then moments later, he brought Nyssa into the room.

"Where's Adric?" the Doctor asked, "Did he escape?"

"No." Nyssa answered as she was brought in the prison cell with the Doctor, "He was taken somewhere else."

"He is in good hands with my son." Tanha replied before she left the room, "You can be sure of that."

The woman then left the room.

"I fear the Mara might want him." the Doctor told the Trakenite, "That's probably why it isn't seeking the Great Crystal, it wants Adric's Homeostasis powers."

The two was silent for a moment before Nyssa finally asked as she was worried for both of her friends: one possessed by the Mara and the other about to become the key to the Mara's freedom, "What are we going to do?"

"Shush." the Doctor replied.

"Doctor!" Nyssa exclaimed, "Tegan and Adric are in danger!"

"What do you suggest?" the Doctor asked.

"We got to get out of here!" Nyssa answered, "To find Adric and maybe finding him will lead us to Tegan."

"How?"

"If only you had brought the sonic screwdriver that River Song gave you at the library." Nyssa said as she looked at the lock to their cell.

"Well, I forgot it at the TARDIS." the Doctor replied, "So for the time being, we must make use of what we have."

"What?"

"This." the Doctor shown the Trakenite Dojjen's journal as both the Time Lord and the Trakenite were unaware that they were about to get help from Chela.