The battle raged on for two days. For those two days, Tegan saw little of the Doctor. She saw him from a distance mostly. He had helped her rip the synthaskin from him, let the wound bleed and then let her reapply the living bandage. She could tell, even from a distance, that his leg still pained him, but the morning after they had crashed he was up and limping around.
Against his urging, some of which had been incredibly personal, she had joined the Draconians as a battle helper and then only by the Doctor's suggestion when he saw he wasn't going to win against her. The Draconians used her to her fullest abilities and yet kept her somewhat separated from the heaviest fighting. Peri had become Vidal's right hand, helping the second in command regain his measure. At least, Tegan thought, she was safe.
She had been very proud of Peri. By the time they had stumbled out of the pod after a rough landing, Peri had been there, toting both guns. The girl had been clearly rattled and had seen some action. The dirt and scrapes on her face had told the story. Over the Doctor's protests about Peri being in trouble, she had given cover to the three fugitives as they had run the fifty yards to safety. Tegan still worried, but Peri, although still a little squeamish about guns, was quite capable of taking care of herself.
And she was sure that the Doctor was safe and alive. At least she was sure until the night before when she had seen him last.
"Mistress Tegan," a Draconian missive drew her attention. She looked up at his eyes and gave a nod. She was manning the sentry post and helping return fire. Somehow, against her better efforts, she had ended up near the front line.
"Now's really not a great time," Tegan pressed. She pulled the missive down and was relieved to see him pull out his gun to help return fire. "As I think you can see."
"I bring a message from Supremo. The front line has been breached, the castle is under siege. He requests your presence." The words were shouted over missile and laser fire.
"The front line? Have you told the Draconian general? Are we in retreat?"
The missive nodded. "All are in retreat, but the Supremo requests your presence."
Tegan heard the call for retreat from the general up and behind her. She began to edge back with the rest of the line, following the retreat plan. The missive followed along beside her. "Mistress"
"Tell Supremo, I'll be there when the line retreats"
"He commented that you would make a remark like that, Mistress. And in reply, he told me to say: "Tegan. Now. I have my reasons.""
She turned and looked at the missive. He met her eyes earnestly. Just looking at the young being's eyes, she could almost hear the Doctor's voice and see the look the Time Lord had given him while passing on the information. The missive nodded. "Supremo was extremely adamant about you joining him immediately, Mistress Tegan. I will take your place in the line. Take your hand laser with you. You should be safe, but now" He ducked as another volley of shots flew over their heads.
With a nod, she turned, making sure the young Draconian was in place before she ran back through the lines and toward the center of the sieged castle.
**
The Doctor was standing, a black swathed silhouette against the dying sun, at the top of the main castle turret. She could see a slight adjust of his weight off of his injured leg. At his side, she saw Vidal, a different, younger man and Peri, a slim, militaristically dressed brunette. As she joined them at the top of the steps, she saw that they were surrounded by men with guns, Sonatarans, Cybermen.
"There you are. I gather you gave R'an an argument," the Doctor said, quietly, his hands in his pockets.
"The lines are in full retreat," she said equally quietly. "I'm sorry if you were put out that I wanted to stay with my squadron."
He turned and gave her a very direct stare. "I wanted you here, Tegan. There's something we need to discuss."
"If it's slipped your notice, Doc, the world's falling apart. And we're damn close to losing this battle. I don't think now is not the greatest time to have a conversation."
"That is precisely why we need to have a conversation. I've had it with Peri and now I need to have it with you. And I need a promise from you." He said, his eyes following the dying battle below. Then he turned to meet her eyes for the first time. She saw intensity, urging, extreme exhaustion and a need for her to understand in his eyes.
She shifted her weight. "What is it?"
"The General, Morbius, if all estimates are correct, will breach the final line in less than a standard hour. I'm calling back most of the forces into the castle in an effort to save some lives for some time. We're making our plans for a final defense action. Morbius has sent a communiqué offering to care for you and for Peri in the circumstance of my death and demise during the end of the battle or safety after my surrender."
Tegan neared the Doctor and kept her gaze firmly on his. A slight breeze ruffled his hair and that was the only move he made.
"You can't trust him," Tegan replied quietly in the deceiving silence around them. "He won't give us safety. You can't trust him."
"No," he replied and glanced down. "No, Tegan. He won't." His sigh moved his shoulders.
She swallowed and nodded to Peri, anticipating what he was going to discuss next. "Peri's told you about our decision about situations like this."
"Your pact, yes," the Doctor responded, raising his eyes to hers. "Do you still believe, think that?"
"That death is better than capture and torture, yes," she agreed with a nod. She saw his eyes darken and, immediately, she continued, sensing a tetchy response. "We've lived with that decision for almost a year, Doctor. We'd help each other do what we needed to do."
He nodded slowly. "I know you're earnest, Tegan. I don't doubt it. I just wanted to understand your thoughts and to let you knowI doagree."
The understanding of the weight of his words hit her and she felt her legs weaken. He was agreeing to hers and Peri's death. It was only his eyes, the call of his gaze that kept her on her feet. She nodded. "And your promise?"
"Help me do the same."
Her legs really did loosen and he reached out to steady her, his hands on her hips. "You'll just regenerate" she whispered, stating the obvious.
"And I'd forever be tortured by Morbius if he lets me live. If I don't take care of matters, he will. I would rather have the choice of it" he muttered. "But you see, Tegan. It isn't just me"
She felt tears of frustration, horror and sadness pricking at the back of her eyelids. "It's eight more of you" she breathed. "You'll end them."
He nodded, serious. So serious in fact that she felt chilled even in the heat of fire about them. They didn't say anything. He was talking of suicide and murder in the face of torture and death. Six of one, half dozen of another, she thought wryly. "There must be something else we can do," she whispered. "You always say where there's life there's hope."
"And there is, Tegan, there is," he responded sternly. "This is only in a case of no other out. I only wanted your support in the matter."
"You have it," she replied. "Not happily, but you have it."
"I trust your strength in it, Tegan," he replied. "I won't see you left to him and I want you to make sure I'm not left to him either." At her nod, he turned with her towards the wall and to show her the battle. "Do you still have your gun, Tegan? Both of them?"
"Of course and a knife. Peri has the same."
"Good. Peri will need it. Vidal is still weak and I want her with him in the center. But I need to join the troops at the perimeter. I can't order them to fight and remain here shouting out orders." He looked down at her. "I would like one of your guns, if you wouldn't mind, Tegan. I think I shall need it."
"Shooting isn't your thing," she replied, handing over the gun. "If you ask me, your thing is more towards chess than Cowboys and Indians, you know. If you take that gun, you take me with you. The least I can do is watch your back."
"Miss Tegan," he sighed as he took her offered gun. "The last thing I think you are is a sharpshooter."
"You point the business end at those you don't want near you and squeeze the trigger," she responded cheekily. "You have a better chance of hitting someone when there is more people there"
"Ah, probability," he nodded. "I won't be able to talk you out of it, I suppose."
"No."
He gave her a ghost of a smile. And she felt, as little as it seemed possible, that the world was looking up. She reached down and caught his hand, squeezing it. "I always said I would end up following you through fire. I never thought you would make it a complete, literal reality, but"
"Yes, wellI do try," he responded.
**
An hour later, she was following the Doctor at close proximity, Trock right behind her. She had yelled at the Time Lord to have his gun unholstered in the very least, safety off at best. He had muttered something about primitive responses and had continued along.
As she felt her apprehension and adrenaline increase, she began to sense rather than think. Shots became points of traveling light, shouts like a symphony. The Sonatarans were short stout wonderful fighting machines and the Cybermen became a military overture in A minor. The humans were quick, their resounding fire like lilts of a flute above the bass of the Draconian guns. She was mesmerized, lured
Seized and twisted, held against cold stone, heat by her head, black cool linen around her. The sound of an outraged Ogron in her ears. She felt the Doctor's body make contact with hers and she immediately extended her gun beyond his body. Around them, stones and mortal fell to the ground, her feet vibrating from the force of the strikes against the ground.
"Don't fire," he urged his voice in her ears. "Stray gunfire, Tegan. Don't shoot."
They had to climb out of the small pile of stones that had fallen around them, him holding the gun in his left hand, her fingers in his right. He immediately limped to the wall, staring out at the distance. "Reinforcements, I knew it."
"What?" she shouted, joining him at the wall. "They shot at us, Doc. Friends usually shoot away from you." But as she stood at the edge of the wall, seeing dead bodies and death and destruction as far as she could see, it was hard to concentrate on the actual moving soldiers. But it was true that those that had been fighting for the General and carrying his flag were scattering with only a small core remaining in tact. And that core appeared still intent on entering and taking the castle.
She glanced at the high ramparts around them, around the entry road. She guessed that maybe five wide could make it through the passage without large guns. Her breath quickened as she leaned out over the wall to look at the bases and scale of the ramparts. "Hell's teeth" she breathed.
"Guerilla warfare," the Doctor responded. Turning he yelled for his soldiers, not just his generals and captains to join him. Quickly and to Tegan's amazement, with accuracy borne of a great strategic thinker, he ordered his soldiers into the ramparts surrounding the entry gate to the castle. Sonatarans were ordered to ground level to stay at one end of the road to keep them from coming in, the Cybermen were issued to the back to circle around and help chase them in. The Draconians were told to thin numbers of soldiers before they made it to the Sonatarans. And the humans were told to pick off the rest.
Once the orders were issued he turned and pointed in her face. "Tegan, stay here with Trock."
"I won't," she said, raising her chin to him. "This isn't over yet and damn it, I can help you. How else do you think Peri and me stayed alive? You go, I go and I know you're going."
His sigh was loud. But when he turned, his hand was once again firmly around her fingers, she was brought along, running to keep even with his wide strides. They climbed together, falling to their stomachs at the rise in the rampart, next to the Ogron guard. As they watched the first of the approaching soldiers enter the gate, she whispered: "Are you sure you can shoot, Doc?"
"There's blood on my hands, Tegan," he muttered, his blue eyes narrowed. "If I allow them sanctuary, they might owe allegiance to me. If they show truce, I'll give them truce. I had hoped none of this was necessary"
She reached over to squeeze his non-shooting hand.
The noise began again, but ceased quickly as a white flag was shot into the wall with a long sharp instrument and the Doctor shouted parry and acceptance.
All Tegan could do was lower her head to her arms and cry as the thunder of cheering soldiers filled the air.
**
It wasn't Morbius that surprised her; nor was it the splendor in which he transmitted himself. It was the arrival of most of the Time Lord High Council that amazed her to no end. She had been with the Doctor as he slowly crossed the open field to their landing ship. His limp was more pronounced from exhaustion and she found her hand leaving his and her arm supporting him. She hadn't had a choice whether to be with the Doctor or not, he hadn't released her fingers since they had risen from the rampart.
Amidst the pain and death and burning ruins and dead forests, the shiny new and untouched Gallifreyan cruiser set down. Out of their door, a trio of splendidly dressed Time Lord Cardinals stepped. They seemed intent to reach the ground, but stopped midway down.
She glanced over her shoulder and saw why. Lines of battered men, machines and aliens followed the Doctor, still following him after their victory. They formed battle lines as far as the eye could see.
"They've followed you," she whispered, leaning closer to the Doctor's side. "Everyone."
His nod was minute. As the Cardinals continued to the ground, they addressed him in strange words and it was clear that even the TARDIS in the Doctor's pocket wasn't meant to understand what they were saying. No one was, except the Doctor. And, of course in direct defiance and to her amusement, he answered them back in TARDIS translatable English. "The meeting will take place, Cardinals" he inclined his head. "Here on Karn, here in this castle at a time I will set down. I must see to my troops and my injured first. I will send a messenger when you are required."
Without further words, he turned and faced his soldiers, his arm rounding Tegan's waist. His weakness was obvious. "Do you know the saying, Tegan?" he asked, conversationally, for her ears only. "That behind every strong man is a strong woman?"
"Yes," she admitted.
"It's true. Help me back to the castle. My leg is almost giving out."
**