"Are you sure we'll make that distance?"

The Doctor slowed and turned to look at her. Tegan joined him at the crest of the next hill, slightly out of breath. She didn't say anything to him about the pace he had set; it was the approaching dawn that they raced. "Hmm? Tegan, I landed the transport that distance away because it is akin to driving a stolen car on your planet. We have to make that distance on foot. To approach in the air would be lunacy. We have a chance on the ground."

"That makes sense, but what do you plan to do? Hell's teeth, Doc...they probably know about us. We can't just turn up on the front step and expect tea, you know."

The Doctor touched her shoulder and nodded to the research Dome. The building was not as impressive as the last one. Large and drab, it sat like a dull robin's egg in the middle of an oasis. Tegan had thought that there was little or no water on the planet, but when they had landed the Doctor had calmly explained otherwise:

"There's blood, Tegan and that contains a great deal of water. Water has to be in the system somehow. And there's your water...parts of it. And large water masses drive weather along with the rotation of the planet."

Now as she stared at the mass of water, it appeared to her to be blood itself under the reddening sky of morning. It was catching them. "Doc?"

"Yes, I see it, Tegan."

Together they ran down the incline, launching across the space. The Dome and its outer buildings, which Tegan hoped would hold few people and a place where they could hide, still seemed not to be growing any closer. It had worried her all night, racing the clock. She began to sprint, but it looked like it was miles away. Puffing, she hoped that the Doctor would run ahead and that she would find him later. To hell with the vampires finding them; they had to get him under cover before the sunshine broke the horizon. Let them deal with what would happen after they were under cover.

The Doctor called her name and slowed a little. As she drew even with him, he stopped her, twisted her and suddenly hoisted her over his shoulder. It was only a second of juggling; she didn't have a chance to say yes or no or even complain.

"Brace yourself," he shouted. And then...

The world flashed by her. She was jarred, but braced herself against his back. Swirling, pounding of blood in her head, bouncing, but the Doctor seemed not to be putting his feet on the ground. Then darkness.

They slid to a stop. And then with no worry for her decorum, he set her down on the ground.

When her head ceased to pound, she barked out: "What was that?"

"Time distortion," he answered concisely. Tegan could see he was casting around for a place to become comatose safely. "Vampires seem to move indecently fast. They are able to use a small contained time sense. As a Time Lord, I had better control."

He stepped through a door and twisted around. "Tegan..." he whispered hoarsely. She grabbed at his arm and felt how weak and boneless he was becoming. Within the darkest corners of the room, she saw a cupboard. She pulled him to it and threw open the lid. Desperately she dug through the interior, feeling a sense of do or die. Equipment and small pieces of materials were thrown aside. Tegan turned him urgently and pushed him toward the cupboard.

"Tegan..."

"I'll take care of myself. Get in there!" She ordered. "Hell's teeth, we don't have time to argue."

Through the window, the rays of the morning light were breaking. He slid down into the cupboard and Tegan gave him one last look as his pale face tightened in pain. With a grunt, she closed the lid and then turned, sliding down the side of it to sit in a heap on the ground. And panting, she contemplated the dawn.

"Hell's teeth," she muttered. "That was close."


"Tegan..."

The words were soft, almost a breath. They weren't in her head, she decided, but in her ear.

With a shout and a pounding heart, she sat upright. A hand landed at her shoulder; another found her elbow. She couldn't identify the voice and a scream caught in her throat. But a gentle reminder of: "Brave heart", made her calm slightly.

"Ah, you are awake," the Doctor continued. "Good." She saw his hand extend to her; she grabbed it and climbed out of the small area behind the cupboard in which he had slept. With a smile at her attempt at catching her breath, he glanced down at the area. "Good heavens! Were you comfortable there?"

"Comfortable or not," Tegan muttered as she rubbed at her hair. "I wasn't going to sleep out in the open. It was safer there. Your voice doesn't sound like you."

With a sigh, he nodded. "My throat is having a slight chemical reaction due to the blood intake."

"Hmm, I always knew I'd have some sort of affect on you," Tegan remarked as she surveyed the room. "I would have never thought it was my blood that would do it." She shivered. "It still sounds bloody awful to..."

"To feed off of you, yes." He looked wary, standing at the door. She drew even with him to see the building as it stood in the growing night. He was deep in thought. Tegan knew his stance and his facial expression; the incisors didn't change the set of his mouth.

"Doc?"

"Ah..." he glanced at her. "Our hosts are awake, Tegan. I can sense that."

"Just great."

"It shouldn't be much harder than expected here," he commented optimistically. "This is the central command so to speak. The least we have to do is to disrupt if not destroy or alter the course of their research on the reversal of the time pocket."

"Oh, is that all?"

"Yes, well...I admit it might sound daunting."

"Just a tad."

"And complicated."

Tegan sighed as she saw the tightness in his jaw and the way his eyes scanned the building. "We have to do it, Doctor. There's no other choice...if we want to get out of this place. Besides, although Bria isn't that bad, I can't see these people let loose on the unsuspecting universe. You can do it; we can do it."

"Very true..." He responded with a sigh. He gave her a tap on the shoulder. "Thank you."

"So," she pressed. "What's the plan? You have to have one."

"Of course I do," he hedged. "Tegan, how do you feel about being a distraction?"


Although he had suggested it and she agreed, when she slowly walked through the courtyard door and into the center of the open space, she felt like turning and running. In an effort to stay where she stood, she formed fists, pressing her nails into the palm of her hand harshly. And with an inhale, she lifted her chin and eyed the interior door. Above the expanse of metal was an observation window. She couldn't see within, but knew that she was being watched.

Hell, she knew she'd probably been smelled, but that was the whole idea. She was to draw their attention. And her blood was definitely going to do that.

She couldn't see the Doctor. He had to be near the doors, she thought. The plan that the Doctor had briefed her on had only gone as far as the distraction part. He seemed to know what he was doing. All she had been told to do was stand there until they came to her. Then, as the Doctor had put it as she left him: "Trust me, I won't allow you to come to harm."

The door in front of her slowly slid open, revealing blackness like death behind it. She swallowed hard and breathed a "brave heart" to make herself feel more secure. A fleeting thought roared through her brain to run, but her trust in her friend cemented her feet to the ground. Overhead a dull rumble that reminded her of thunder sounded. It almost surprised her, then, that a rain drop fell on her nose. It seemed too ordinary in an extraordinary situation. And it was her luck too. "Good day?" she asked, quietly.

"Ah, pet." Through the dark and the lost feeling in her stomach and the emptiness of the courtyard, she heard the familiar voice.

Tegan tensed as she recognized the voice. "Oh no. How did you get here?"

"Happy to see me again, dear?" Luke asked. "After all, we did part ways rather quickly, didn't we?"

As his hand closed on her arm, she knew that there had been a hitch to the Doctor's plan. She felt as though she had gone from the frying pan and into the fire.

And wondered if there was any truth to the use of garlic and faith against a vampire.


By the time Lukan's hand had anchored her to him, she was drenched with rain. She wasn't sorry that the rain blinded her; then she didn't have to see that smug smile of his. An attempt at struggling was cut short as she felt her wrist and elbow pained from lack of circulation. He had a powerful grip. "Let go!"

"Ah, pet..." Luke's voice sounded in her ear. He was very close. Although Tegan wanted to close her eyes, she kept them open. To close them would be to invite that nightmare image she had had of him back to mind. And that she couldn't deal with. "You don't really want me to let you go, here, love. What with all the types around here, you'll be bled dry in a moment."

"Rabbits...you'd do it if I gave you the chance. Don't believe I don't know that," she spat. Tegan brushed her wet hair out of her eyes with her hand and glared at him. Then her eyes moved past him to the door. "Who's your friend?"

"That is the Chancellor of Research," Lukan said quietly. "And amazingly, he doesn't know about your existence."

"Imagine that," Tegan grumbled. She yanked her arm back and this time Lukan let her go.

"Well, dear, that means that either you officially don't exist or that your Doctor is a rogue. Either way, you aren't supposed to BE."

"That's interesting..." she muttered in response as the Chancellor neared them. "How do you explain me being here, then? A dream?"

"No," came the rumbling reply from a strange voice. Tegan looked at the towering Chancellor as he neared. "But there is no paperwork by my reckoning for you...which means, simply, that we are at a philosophical impasse. You are here but you don't exist. And yes, Lukan, you are right...I can smell her blood."

Tegan gave a tight grin. "Philosophical impasse? I've been called nicer things. All I know is that I was created and I do exist. And that research place knows about me, obviously. Else why would the Doctor have made...me?"

The Chancellor grasped her arm as if feeling a side of beef. "Pliable. And I can feel the movement of your blood." He gave a pinch to her. "And the color of your skin is very interesting. Still...exist you do. I think that we need to examine you more closely and generate a report."

"Great." Tegan growled and gave Luke a harsh stare. "Wonderful."

As the Chancellor smiled, showing his jagged teeth, Tegan stared at his eyes. He seemed old. His eyes were fathomless and cold, almost black in the night. She suppressed a shiver and walked slowly, almost dragged into the building. She wasn't going to go easily.

She only hoped the Doctor was getting done what he needed.


The room into which she was pulled was cavernous. It was the only way she could think to describe it; it really did look like a cave. They had gone downhill and so she assumed that they were in an underground area. There were only bits and pieces of metallic surface showing through the ground. But what surprised Tegan was the amount of hustle and bustle occurring.

"Cripes, they don't look like they've just come out of coma," she breathed.

"Coma?" the Chancellor asked, interested. "I wonder why your creator didn't engineer you with the same time sense."

Sounds echoed slightly, deadened around the side of the room. Tegan looked about slightly desperately, looking for the Doctor, but he was nowhere to be found. She couldn't see anyone dressed differently. As far as she could see, there were people dressed in drab overalls. It seemed too large for a room with little occurring. But as they drew to the center of the dark large hall, she found her steps slowing. The place in which she stood was only an annex compared to the next room.

That had to be the technology about which the Doctor had been talking, she thought as she gazed at it in wonder. The Chancellor ordered her to be taken to the laboratory and walked away, towards the large machine. Tegan watched him go with just a little bit of relief.

Lukan drug her passed the door and towards a set of doors on the side of the cavern. She looked wonderingly for a moment longer at the buzzing, busy hive of workers around what seemed to her a large generator. A small part of her mind wondered whether there was an electric arc like Frankenstein's lab somewhere the size of which would have been bigger than her.

"Come along, pet," Luke muttered. "You don't want to keep the Chancellor waiting. He'd be rather upset if you keep him from other projects."

"Oh, I wouldn't want to be such trouble," she muttered sarcastically. Then she glanced around. "Where's Bria?"

"Bria has had a reaction to the photons; she's ill."

"Burned you mean," Tegan corrected. Her face tightened; Bria had been the only vampire who had been nice to her. "Will she be okay?"

"She'll recover, yes, dear," he responded. A flash of something like pain crossed his face.

"Haven't you known her a long time? Shouldn't you be with her?" Tegan pressed.

With a sigh, he pulled her into the room. To her, it looked like a miniature of the larger lab. "I would still be there if you and the Doctor hadn't run off as you had. Now, pet..." he pushed her down into a chair next to a desk. He leaned into her space, his light eyes filling her entire vision range. His hand moved aside the material at her neck. Then, quickly, he leaned in and nipped at her neck.

Blinded by fury, she kicked out with her legs, trying to connect with his body. It succeeded in only pushing him slightly away from her. "Get off!" He held her by the scruff of her neck.

"Oh, come on, sweet. The Doctor's fed more than once...your blood must have a taste that brings him back again and again," Luke argued. "And the Chancellor would rather like to have the information for his report." Her hair was grasped and he turned her face to the side to be able to get at her neck.

She could feel her pulse in her neck, in her head. Her hands blindly flailed, trying to hit him. He would bleed her dry. He would harm her.

With a shout, she tried to throw him off balance. He was so close; she could feel Lukan's breath on her skin but it was so different from the Doctor's. Although she still struggled, she prepared herself for the bite, leaning away from him as far as she was able. All she could think was about him taking her blood and then being in her mind. Like the Doctor was...

The Doctor might hear her. She shouted in her mind, calling for him, screaming his name.

And as she felt the touch of his teeth on her skin, she closed her eyes.

It was hard to know what happened next; one moment she was restrained. The next moment Luke's teeth disappeared from her skin, just barely scraping her. It was enough to make her skin crawl. She felt air against her face, like a breeze and she opened her eyes...

...to see a flurry of white material, blond hair and Lukan in a pile on the floor away from her. The interior door had slid shut and had remained shut and it cut them off from the rest of the large room. Tegan watched as the Doctor rose to his feet. Lukan had had the air knocked out of him and it allowed the Doctor to back away from the other vampire before the other rose to his feet.

"Doc..."

Tegan scrabbled out of the chair as her friend neared. His hand was behind him and she took the hint and moved off to the side. He didn't talk and his voice was not in her head, either. Uneasy, she went to step in front of him, but he pushed her behind him none too gently.

Lukan climbed to his feet and dusted himself down. His eyes glowed. A show of anger, she thought. "Are you that possessive of your meals, Doctor? You disappoint me. And after all the hospitality we've shown you and your attentive companion here..."

Tegan opened her mouth, but she heard the Doctor hiss and talk, his voice harsh, hoarse and extremely coarse. "She allows my feeding. She's repulsed by the idea of yours." She couldn't hear any of his normal intonation or inflections. "You won't feed on her."

With a shiver, she shook her head violently. "Too right...Doc..."

Lukan started toward them again, his face beginning to contort. The Doctor growled low in his throat, warningly. Far from making her feel protected, Tegan worried. He wasn't the same; he wasn't himself. They had to get out of there. She glanced around for where the Doctor had come. She found a side door which led to a service annex tunnel behind instrumentation.

"Come on, Doc!" she yelled and skittered towards the area and the gaping musky dark on dark behind it. The Doctor sensed where she was going. He turned and rushed Lukan, his growl growing in timber and collided with the other vampire. It gave Tegan the lead she needed and she ran for the area. At the edge of the door, she turned to look behind her. The Doctor was advancing on Lukan and the other vampire

"Doc!"

He turned to glance at her and Tegan saw why the other vampire was intimidated.

Dark eyes and very pronounced incisors over a mouth twisted and gnarled. The face was old and full of pain, rage. He looked like death, like hatred in humanoid form. She could feel shivers working up and down her spine and felt his restraint. She knew he was in her mind, but he was refraining from saying anything, doing anything. He would rip out a throat, she knew it. There was little to reign him in, she could feel his ire and anger; it literally shimmered in the air around him.

Lukan glanced at her with fearful eyes. The Doctor glanced back at Lukan and then rocketed toward her. She had enough time to turn around to face towards the wall and the opening. Tegan wondered if he were coming for her or to help her. Then she was moved into the annex tunnel and the door was pulled shut behind him dousing the entire place in dank, stank darkness.


Harsh breathing. In her ear. As if someone were hissing and breathing through an open mouth and teeth. She was nearly panting and not completely from physical exercise. A large part of her feared what she had seen and the reality of the Doctor becoming a monster.

"Thank bloody hell," she bit out as she tried to act nonchalant but then stilled. The Doctor's hand was on her shoulder and a part of her clung to the thought that he was himself...blond and easy going, but then he spoke.

"Tegan..."

The voice tore at her soul and made her lean forward into him. At the back of her mind, she could feel the begging need and hunger in his voice. It made her shiver. She closed her eyes in an effort to secure a different reality in her mind.

"Why did you....how did you..."

The answer was almost a growl. "Change?"

She nodded.

"Anger." A simple, one word response. "At Lukan..."

There was breath at her cheek, cool and familiar. Then his hand touched at her neck. "Did he..." the words were gruff. "Did he...bite you?" Tegan could hear, at the core, the voice she knew.

"No." It was said easily. In her mind, a sense of relief permeated and a feeling of satisfaction washed behind it leaving her breathing a sigh of relief. Her own heart's nervous beat was slowing as she reacted to his restraint from doing anything to her, from even flooding her mind with his temper.

She breathed in tandem with him, quietly against his harsh counterpart. She could feel his need to remain where they were; he couldn't move yet. "You're not...yourself, are you?" she asked, quietly. Tegan knew the answer. She had known it from when he had turned to see her. "

His negative head movement shook his body. Her hand reached up to touch his cheek and felt the wrinkles. Boldly, she felt at his lips. There was no feeling of rage, no feeling of hunter and hunted. She felt friendship and the inkling of fear that she had been hurt. Under her fingers she felt his skin regaining some of its pliability and his lips thickened. They felt alive and not a twisted parody of his mouth.

"I'm not a monster, Tegan," he croaked. "Temper...anger..." The breath remained on her cheek. The words began to sound more like his normal baritone voice. "I'm hungry...I expended a great deal of energy..."

Her hands continued to touch at his skin until she felt it return to normal. And then his voice: "Tegan?" It had returned to normal: slightly breathy with a tone on tone. And in the dark, she reacted blindly to his hunger and relied on the trust she had in him; she tilted her head to the side and felt his teeth sink into her neck. It was completely dark, but she felt like she was wrapped in a cloak of warmth and friendship as she laid her hands on his shoulders, was pressed back into the wall and he took what blood he needed, nipping and gently sucking at her neck.


"So what do we do? And what is that thing?"

They stood at the edge of the annex corridor and stared across at the large generator type machinery that inhabited the whole annex. The Doctor was in front of her and had been since he had led her from their sanctuary and into the twilight of the opening. She leaned into the wall behind him, slightly weak. He hadn't asked how she was and was ignoring her. Tegan couldn't even feel him in her mind; he was withholding all contact.

"Hmm?"

Tegan sighed. "That...thing. That large piece of Frankenstein instrumentation over there."

The Doctor turned and looked at her. Immediately he turned forward again. "Ah, well...that is part of the barrage of temporal and spatial transdimensional block transfer generators...they are like your generators...they assist in turning the calculations into physical reality..."

"Hell...teeth..." she breathed. "Math generators..."

"Yes, well...they run like typical generators, Tegan...one simply needs to reverse a few polarities..."

"Throw a spanner in the works, you mean."

"I investigated it before Luke decided to make you a meal," he informed her. "There are two areas that I can interrupt the process, cause a weakness in the system and induce some very interesting pyrotechnics." He nodded. "Exactly, Tegan; we will throw a spanner in the works. Almost literally. I admit that the culture here is quite interesting, but as the Guardian has stated...they cannot be allowed to run hobnob through time and space. We have work to do."