The Doctor ran down the hallways peeking and glancing into the doors. Tegan had to rely on his eyes. When he stopped and tried a door, she shook her head. "They use those pass cards" she hissed.

"Hmm, apparently" he muttered. He glanced down the hall. "Ah...keep a look out, could you, Tegan?"

"You know they can smell me" she grit out. "I'm like an advert for finding us out...and I don't think they'll be happy with you. Shouldn't you be working with them? Finding out more about what's going on with this whole scientific thing"

"No," the Doctor grunted as he dug in his pockets. "No, no...there's no practical way to keep them from getting your blood for a long period of time. I don't think there is a place I could stash you for safety...no" he knelt in front of the door. "I do still wish I had my sonic screwdriver."

Tegan crossed her arms over her chest with a huff. "What are you going to do?"

He leaned close to the door, peering at the lock with a frown. He fiddled at the swiper until the cover fell off into his hand. Then he began to pull at the wires inside. After a moment or two, the door slid open silently. "I'm going to open the door," he muttered, tone on tone. "Did you have another plan?"

Tegan stepped into the door, holding it open. The Doctor pushed the wires back inside the box and replaced the cover. He pushed her inside and let the door slide shut. "Ah good, it is tridium lined. They won't be able to smell you here, Tegan." He grunted and opened up the interior panel and yanked out the wires.

"Hey!"

"Yes, well" he said, giving her a smile. "They can't get in and we will have time to do what I need."

She stared at his back in the gloom as he passed her. "And it's our only way out."

"Wellâ€there are always two sides to a coin."

The Doctor stopped at a bank of electronics. "Interesting, Tegan: I do believe their main programming language is a derivative of Gallifreyan."

"Oh, lucky." Tegan's voice sounded very unimpressed. She nervously looked over her shoulder at the door.

"Hmm."

She saw his fingers test at the keyboard and heard a quick response from the screen. Then with a flourish, he sat in the chair and began to type. His fingers literally flew over the keys. There was no time to ask a question; when she shifted her weight, he held up a finger to silence her. With a sigh, she sat.

"Ah, yes" he said moments later. "Four levels of authoritization and a ten position password." He grinned widely. "Just be a moment, Tegan"

"Show off," she muttered in return and got up to walk over to the window. It was a different vantage point from previously and she saw into the interior of the reactor. It was dark, the bright light was only a memory. She shook her head. Below many moved around, but quite a few looked dazed and burned.

Rabbits, she thought. What are they doing to themselves?

"Trying to change their very essence it seems," the Doctor responded. Tegan jumped. He was scanning the screen as it flashed by, not paying her attention. It was unnerving. "Pedra is doing some very impressive work in genetics here. The pharmaceuticals are combinations of gene therapy and drugs to induce abnormal hormone production. They are, quite simply, coming out of the dark. And the rest of this information is...beyond a doubt...thought provoking." She turned her eyes to the doors at the bottom of the well below her. Behind her she heard him clicking away on the keyboard. A door slid open below and Tegan nearly rocketed back. Pedra and Lukan ran into the large reactor room. "Hell...Doc"

"Yes" he responded. "I know."

Tegan ran back to him. "Then let's go...they'll figure it out quickly, don't you think?"

He continued to quickly pound on the board and then finished with a grunt. As he backed out of the program, Tegan asked: "How are we going to get out of here?"

"Don't lose your head," he advised smartly. Squinting, he rose and stared at the ceiling. With a nod, he pointed to the air duct.

Tegan sighed. "Well...it worked in the Sea Base, didn't it? But where to? We haven't a clue about this base. And you're forgetting..."

"Yes, I know," he sighed. "They can smell you; I can smell you. But when you are in the air dispersal unit, Tegan?"

She gave a slight smile. "The aroma is spread around for everyone."

"Correct."

"But where are we going?"

"Well" he smiled as he drug a chair over and took off the cover. "I think some exploring is in order. Up you get."

"Will you tell me what is going on?"

"Later. First let's find some transportation. We have another port of call."


Tegan inched along the air duct on her elbows and knees. Occasionally, in her head, she would hear the Doctor make a comment and feel a confirming touch to her ankle to turn right or left. She would do so slowly. But this time, she slowed and stopped of her own volition. There was a large vent and she was able to place where they were. Glancing over the edge, she saw they were positioned over the main reactor.

"Oh...cripes" she whispered.

"What is it?" the Doctor whispered, barely above a breath.

"We're...over" she began and then shook her head. "The reactor...and there's..."

She felt him lever up over her and she pressed her body to the bottom of the airduct. He climbed over her and stretched out to look down at the reactor. "That's it," he said in her ear. "Exploration, Tegan...this is the main air vent. I opened it earlier. We should be not too far from the external vent."

He slowly eased over and off her to crawl along the air duct, leading the way.

She started after him, hoping that he knew where he was going.

After five minutes, he drew to a stop and she saw him slide over the edge. She could feel the cool air of the predawn morning on her face. She knew they had reached where he wanted. The sky threatened morning. Reds and greens warred for dominance in the clouds. And the Doctor was approximately three stories below her coming to a stop at the bottom of the incline.

With a sigh, she swung her legs around and slid down the side of the Dome as he had. Once firm ground was underfoot, she touched his arm. "We don't have long, Doc...morning."

"Agreed."

He turned and she sprinted behind him until, somehow, probably through dumb luck, she thought, they found a transport. There was no speaking as he opened the door and searched the cabin. "This is too easy," she commented quietly as she climbed into the transport after him. The Doctor was busy hot wiring the console. "Why haven't they found us?"

The Doctor gave her a look. "I think they have. I suppose they are either worried about the approaching morning and expecting the light to nullify my threat or they want to see what we are going to do. Or..."

Tegan jumped as the door to their right flew open. She barely saw the people that left the Dome.

"Tegan, the door!"

She leaned into the door mechanism. It closed just shy of the beings reaching the vehicle. The transport rocked on its moorings. "Doc! I think we need to leave. They're here."

The transport fired to life as the Doctor connected two wires. Tegan fell to the side and grabbed a hold of the seat as the transport was rocked by whatever held it in its grip. With a hiss, she leaned forward to balance and swallowed a scream.

Old...older than anything she could fathom. And pain. Teeth and dark, dark eyes, she felt like she was looking at sheer anger. But she knew

"Ah, Tegan...don't look," the Doctor advised, loudly. "And hold on."

She stared for a moment longer at the face in her window before the transport completely jumped to life and roared away into the growing morning.


"Doc?"

Tegan sat in the corner of the transport. Somehow she had found a place to put the vehicle down after several hours of flight. It hadn't been an easy landing; her father's flying lessons in the Cessna of her youth had never included landing an alien transport. But they were in one piece, and she was quite happy with that.

She sat, holding her knees. Sleep had been slow to come and waking had been quick. And it was only evening, not night. The Doctor was still comatose, tucked in the very back of the transport in a now half-open storage space. It was dark enough that she felt it safe to open the door part way and see him. It made her feel better to be able to see another person.

But he still slept.

With a frown, Tegan turned her gaze away from the Doctor. The landscape of the slight canyon in which they rested was the same as the canyon when they had first encountered this world. It reminded her of a the pictures of Skaro she had seen.

Cold, dark, desolateâ€like the look in the eyes of...

Lukan.

Lukan! That was who had been in the window.

"Rabbits."

She felt a gaze on her and she turned to glance at the storage container. The Doctor's eyes were open and staring at her. Defining the look was hard; there was equal parts confusion, knowledge and hunger. And a part of her wondered, just from the slight change in his eyes, if he were going to change...to become Lukan

...and that face.

She shivered.

"Ah good morning, Tegan," he croaked. The tone on tone was heavier and Tegan wrapped her arms around her knees more tightly. He glanced around and squinted. "The sun has just gone down, hasn't it? My timing is getting better. I must be acclimating to the hormonal change. Thank Rassilon I already had the time sense"

"Bully for you," Tegan whispered. She lifted her chin and gave him a weary glance. "Yes, it has. We should move. You're up, that bloody well means they're up."

"Very true, Tegan," he responded and quickly slid out of the storage container. "Very true."

He sprung to his feet, but teetered slightly. "Doc?" Tegan asked, climbing to her feet.

With a frown, he turned to her. "Tegan...ah...I know it has only been two days... Apparently the need for hemoglobin is unparalleled compared to the need for food. Gallifreyans normally can go for days if not weeks at a time with minimal food"

Although they had had three times where the Doctor had taken what blood he needed from Tegan, this time was different. As he sat behind her, his arm both restraining and holding her, she started when she felt his cool breath touch her throat.

"Tegan," he murmured. "You're quivering."

She opted to shrug, but when she closed her eyes she saw the painful, old gaze and gnarled teeth she had seen through the windscreen. Her eyes popped open and she gasped. "Don't."

"Don't? Don't what, Tegan? Don't feed?" he asked, releasing her. She turned quickly, pivoting on her backside to stare at him. His eyes were dull and wide and his face was pale. The familiar visage she knew as well as her own and could see the pain in his features. And she knew as well as her own mind that he would not feed if she told him not to. He touched at her brow and a shadow of doubt crossed his face.

"Rabbits," she responded. She shook her head. "No, you need it. But do it from in front...I...have to see its you."

"What's the matter, hmm?" He frowned thoughtfully.

"I saw...Lukan and he had changed."

"How. How changed?"

Tegan frowned. "He looked like Stoker's Dracula. He looked like anger and old." She shook her head. "I need to know that you aren't like that. Haven't become that. Look how can that happen what I saw wasn't humanoid it was evil. Hell's teeth, am I going to close my eyes and wake up to have a friend, now monster with the ability to hear my thoughts?"

She wasn't sure that she liked the idea of him in her head and the thought of him becoming evil and causing her to slide with him into the abyss was too much to consider. She would continue as they were; she couldn't not help him, but she didn't want to fathom what could happen to the both of them.

"Listen to me," he said quietly as he bent his head to talk to her. "We've known each other some years, Tegan. I am and will continue to be the Doctor you've known. I won't harm you. I won't become a monster. What you saw are centuries and millennia of genetic aberrations culminating in a show akin to a cosmic temper tantrum. Both Time Lords and Vampires were known for their tempers at one time. Time Lords learned and bred themselves to keep emotions to a minimum. Vampires...did not. They are creatures of emotion and intellect. Old Rassilon would say it was their weakness. But I will not be like them, Tegan, I promise you."

"You'll remain you?"

"Well, yes, barring regeneration," he joked. His eyes changed and his smile faltered as her gaze drifted to his bared incisors in the moonlight. "Do you think you can handle this? I won't-"

"Of course you wouldn't," Tegan assured, her voice harsh. "But you can't bloody well starve, can you? I can handle it."

The Doctor lifted an eyebrow. "Hmm."

She lifted her chin. "Your bark is worse than your bite any day, Doc. Come on get with it. We have to leave here soon. Just"

He bent his head and she felt the touch of his breath on her throat. This time, however, she saw his fine blond hair as it ruffled from her breath. He moved her collar out of the way and quickly she felt him tense and bite. The suddenness of the act made her start and clutch at his shoulder with one hand. But one of his hands found her cheek while the other held her hand. Although the thoughts still raced through her mind, she found herself relaxing and allowing the slight euphoria to sweep her away.

Her aunt was touching her cheek. She was supposed to be waking up for work; she'd overslept. Where was her brain anyway? Still, she could take five minutes to wake. With a swat to the hand, she tried to turn over and bury into the covers. A finger trailed down her cheek to her neck. She felt a teasing and a prickling at her neck where she had been bitten.

Tegan's eyes opened and she glanced to her left. "Ah, you've awaken," the Doctor remarked. She squinted at him. He looked better than he had before. "You looked tired before we... before I..."

"Before you fed," she finished tiredly. He nodded in agreement. "There's no need to pussyfoot around with it."

"Yes, well you did look rather weary. You haven't been sleeping."

Tegan yawned and shook her head. "But you didn't wake me up in my head again."

"No," the Doctor responded. He checked the course heading and adjusted it slightly. With a frown he changed the velocity as well. "No, but I must admit that the level of telepathy between us is a worry."

"You haven't been in my head since"

He gave her a glance with a raised eyebrow. "Late for waking up for work oversleeping just five more minutes, Auntie V.." he said quietly.

"Rabbits!"

"My sentiments exactly, Tegan." He inhaled and nodded.

She grumbled and crossed her arms over her chest. "Hell's teeth, well then take my mind off of that then" She nodded out the window while keeping the frown firmly on her lips. "Where are we going? And what the hell is going on? What are we supposed to be doing here? And when...are"

"When am I changing back to..well...me? When we leave, I will. As I said, the information they had was thought provoking. There are two other research Domes on this planet. Each is working on different projects. The first one is working on a way to reverse the time pocket. The other is working on a new metal alloy."

"So which one are we going to?"

"Ah, the first one; it also serves as the hub, Tegan. There's an area which constitutes what would amount to a Brain Trust of sorts. If they can use moveable food, are able to sustain exposure to light and a useful package to go places in the galaxy will not be safe from them. The most important thing, however...is the engineering of a way to reverse the time pocket. I cannot allow that to happen."

"Can they reverse that time pocket thing?"

"Well, yes...it is possible. Granted, it is easier to be exterior to the pocket. The block transfer-"

Tegan moaned. "Lay terms, Doc, if you please."

She could hear the mild exasperation in his voice as he replied. "Very well. Imagine you are infinitely small. Now...imagine that you have a normal size pocket to turn inside out. Would it be easier to reach in and pull it out or to push it out from inside and keep all the dimensions equal and proper?"

With a shrug, she answered: "On the outside, I suppose."

"Correct." He gave her a glance to the side. "But yes, it is possible to turn a pocket back out from the inside. It takes being exceedingly exact with your equations. If you aren't, it can be the destruction of not only you and your pocket, but the surrounding small area of the Universe as well."

"Small?"

"About twenty or thirty systems," he responded.

Tegan shivered. "How are we going to stop them?"

"Ah...that is the question, Tegan. But I do think I know where we're heading."