Part Three: Ghosts

Tegan looked down half hoping that unconsciousness had finally relieved Nyssa of her suffering. But the girl's eyes were opened. Her breath came in swallow pants. Though her brown eyes were focused right on Tegan, the Australian wasn't sure Nyssa was actually seeing her.

"Nyssa?"

The young woman bolted upright and grabbed Tegan in a tight hug. Her body was shaking. "Oh, mother. I knew you would come back."

Surprised Tegan looked at Adric. "Mother?" She mouthed. Adric shrugged. From what Nyssa had told him, though she didn't talk about it much, her mother had died when Nyssa was five years old.

"Nyssa?" Adric sat beside her and gently tapped her shoulder. She pulled back from Tegan almost reluctantly and looked at him. Her eyes lit up.

"Adric, you're here. Did you see? The Keeper has brought back my mother." She looked back at Tegan and blinked several times in confusion. "Who? Where? You're not my mother. What did you do to her?" Huge tears filled her eyes and a couple slipped past her lids to run down her cheeks.

"It's me, Nyssa, Tegan."

Nyssa pushed away from her and Adric curling up into a ball in the corner where the top and side of the bed bumped against the wall. She hid her face from them but it was obvious she was crying.

Tegan rose and motioned for Adric to join her out of earshot of their friend. "She's getting worse. We can't wait for the Doctor to return. I'm going to find Sarif and demand that he do something for her. Will you be okay staying here with her?"

Adric nodded. He felt helpless to help Nyssa but at least she still seemed to know him. How unnerving it must have been for Tegan to be mistaken for her friend's deceased mother. "Be careful. I don't know if I trust these people. They know more than they are telling."

"I know. Sarif looked more scared than threatening. I think he will help." Tegan gave Nyssa one more concerned look and left.

Adric sat down on the second bed in the room and watched his friend. He wanted to say something but didn't know what. He blew out a breath of frustration. Why was he so useless in these situations? Give him a math problem to solve any day. Math was logical. Emotions were anything but. And what Nyssa was experiencing at the moment was definitely emotional.

By now Nyssa was sobbing hysterically. It broke Adric's heart to hear her. In the short amount of time he'd known her, the closest he'd come to seeing her cry was her eyes filling with tears as she watched the entropy field consume Traken. But even then no tears had actually fallen.

He looked up when she made a sharp cry of pain. She was banging her head solidly against the concrete wall. Rapidly he moved to her side, his hand moving to intercept her head before it made its next contact with the wall. She collapsed against him and grabbed his tunic.

"Father, get them out of my head. Please Father, I beg you."

"Adric, what's going on? Where's Tegan?" The Doctor stood in the doorway bewildered and concerned by Nyssa's emotional state.

Adric quickly explained what had happened. He was glad the Doctor was back; surely the Time Lord was more capable of handling what was happening than he was. The Doctor nodded grimly once he'd finished. "Hopefully Tegan will have more success than I had. You say she knew you but not Tegan."

Adric nodded. "But she was just calling me Father. How could she mistake me for Tremas?"

The Doctor sat beside them and gently drew Nyssa into his embrace. Like Adric he was unaccustomed to this side of Nyssa. As worried as he'd been about her, he hadn't wanted her to have an emotional breakdown in this way. He looked down as she became still in his arms. She was looking at him, the expression on her face as unnatural as her tears -- her eyes were flashing with unbridled fury and her jaw was set in anger. He never saw her hand coming until it she slapped him solidly across the cheek.

"You! It's all your fault!"

******

"But Barel, she's just a child."

Tegan stopped outside the room as she recognized Sarif's voice. She didn't enter, figuring she might learn more by eavesdropping.

"It does not matter, Sarif. Do you think I would wish this on anyone, especially one so young? But no one else has shown to be affected. We have no control over this. You know what must be done."

"But it isn't right. She's too young and it's progressing too fast. Her companions will never accept this."

"What choice do they have? What's done is done and there's only one path. We have no control over what Balkisia decrees. Do it quickly before she suffers anymore."

"Too right." Tegan stepped around the corner and glared at the two men. "Nyssa is getting worse. She's having hallucinations. She thought I was her mother."

Barel's gaze bore into Sarif but the medic wouldn't look back. He motioned for Tegan to enter the lab. "Where is her mother?"

"She died some time ago. Please, if you know…"

"It's impossible that she should be at that stage already. Seeing those who have already left the Life shouldn't come for several days yet. Barel…"

The Chief Elder touched Sarif's arm, silencing him. "My dear, I'm afraid your friend's suffering is due to the Balkisian Winds."

"But all of us were caught in the storm. Shouldn't we be affected as well?"

Sarif turned his back as Barel continued. "No, it's very rare. Only one or two suffer from your friend's condition each storm."

Tegan crossed her arms across her chest. "So you knew what it was from the moment you saw how she was reacting. Why let Nyssa go through such misery?"

"Barel, Nyssa is too young and she is an off-worlder. Surely the conditions are not the same…"

"Perhaps the effects are accelerated due to her unique alien DNA but the result is still the same. I'm sorry, Tegan wasn't it?"

"Sorry for what?" Tegan was growing beyond exasperated. "Please, how can you help Nyssa?"

"Sarif will give you a cordial to give your young friend. It should relieve her pain and perhaps lessen the hallucinations. I'm afraid, however, that there is no cure for her condition. I pray her release from this misery will be swift."

Shocked, Tegan looked to Sarif hoping he would deny what Barel had said. However, the medic wouldn't look back at her. He filled a vial with an amber fluid and handed it to her. "I will check on her condition later but for now this will help."

Tears filled the air hostess's eyes. There had to be some mistake. She needed to return to their room and hope the Doctor had returned as well. He would know what to do. Blindly she left the lab. Barel watched until she was out of sight and then turned to Sarif.

"As soon as her friends think she is dead we will send her to appease Balkisia and the Life will once more be saved."