"What happened?"
Tegan's voice was gritty and full of the must and ions that hung in the air. The Doctor stood in front of her, his hands hanging dejectedly at his side. As she drew even with him, she saw the crater in the middle of the gigantic floor and the gaping hole in the ceiling. When she concentrated her still shaky sight there, she saw the night sky and its twin moons.
"Good God," she breathed.
"Ah, yes, Tegan...destruction looks rather...dismal doesn't it?" he commented. There was still a growl to his voice. When he turned, his eyes still glowed. "And useless destruction doesn't improve on association either."
She reached out to dust down his back. "But with all that...why weren't we killed?"
"It was an implosion. The exposure of the block transfer generator to a form of kinetic energy, it took it and tried to formulate it into a physical representation, but was actively involved in cementing the time bubble. Therefore, it simply turned it inward and destroyed itself."
"So it only..."
"Had a path of destruction that was very confined."
She glanced about at the other vampires. Most of them were coming to and shaking their heads in shock. "Shouldn't we get out of here, Doc?" she asked, clearly uneasy with their situation.
He gave her a nod and together they turned to jog through the remainder of the destroyed scientific bunker towards what was the entrance, they hoped.
She set foot in the outside air, happy to see it was still night and happy that, as far as she knew, they weren't being followed.
"Yes, Tegan..." the Doctor breathed as his hand enfolded her elbow to keep her moving forward. "Yes, they've been waylaid...er...licking their wounds so to speak. Trust that they will be after us very soon. And I don't think I can handle them all at once."
"I wouldn't have thought that you could. So what are we going to do? I'm all for an intergalactic distress call if there is such a thing."
Tegan felt the Doctor's hand release her elbow and even as she turned to look at him, she saw that he was growing transparent before her eyes. "Doc? Doc...what's going on?"
And then, she too, disappeared.
They were nowhere, she determined. Somehow they had materialized nowhere, but the Doctor's hand was still on her elbow. But then very light type beach furniture became apparent to her vision. Tegan didn't think it would get any more confusing, but then a little old man in a panama hat joined them.
The Doctor took a deep breath and released it with an explosive sigh. "Ah...I see our work was done?" he said as he turned towards the man with a grimace. "There would be no other reason to pull us from the situation."
"No, there wouldn't be," the White Guardian responded. "And yes it is."
"But," Tegan began. The Doctor glanced at her but didn't make a comment. Clearly, he felt she had a right to continue speaking. "But what about the genetics? What about...well...Bria?"
The White Guardian smiled gently at her. "They won't go far on their genetics. Their own governing body will see the uselessness of inducing the changes without a reason. If they can't leave the planet, there would be no reason to change their genome that much. It is a...natural progression."
"So...we're done?"
"Yes, Tegan," the White Guardian responded. "The Doctor and you have done what I asked. The Doctor was right in thinking that the outcome of the vampires in time and space would wreak havoc of several different types. It would have induced another war between the Time Lords and the vampires who would have left most of the Galaxy in tattered shambles as neither species would involve themselves in keeping everything as it was. And what wasn't destroyed in the wake of their war would have been destroyed by the vampires in eating frenzies..."
The Doctor sighed and nodded, rubbing at his neck. "Ah yes, that's very true, Tegan."
"But Time Lords never involve themselves...like that."
"Not in recent history, no," the Doctor agreed. "But in our past we did."
"And all that about changing their genome?"
"They had reached a crossroads in their technical evolution. To continue as they had would have placed them without a home environment and would have set them looking for a new home...as the Doctor had guessed as well."
"Yes, Tegan," the Doctor added. He gave her a smile which faded as Tegan approached him. Her hand touched at his teeth. He shivered.
"Yeah, but..." she began. Then she turned to the White Guardian. "If we're done and if we did leave in under a month..."
The Doctor felt at his teeth. "Ah, well...yes...that is a good question, Tegan. Why wasn't I changed back into a Time Lord?"
"That will occur in time, Doctor," the White Guardian responded quietly. "Your body is lacking energy; I need to expend some of its natural power inherent in your psychonic frame to revert you, Doctor..."
The Doctor nodded, understanding perfectly the information given to him. "I'm depleted, am I? Interesting."
The White Guardian gave the Doctor a paternal smile. "Yes, you aren't used to the emotional expenditure that your anger has required."
Tegan sighed. "He needs to feed again?"
"Just a little, Tegan," the White Guardian said as he turned to the companion. She stood with her arms crossed over her chest. "It is why I sent you with the Doctor. You helped him by giving of yourself. Something that only a friendship could produce. He will not die if he does not feed; I can change him after some time. But allowing him to feed again now will quicken the transformation. It is your choice."
The Doctor nodded. "I am not hungry, Tegan. It would be only for..."
She frowned. "Given a choice between having the redecorated you or the old comfortable you soon isn't really a choice at all, you know."
"Ah, well..."
She shook her head and lowered her eyes. "That's a way of saying yes, Doc."
The TARDIS hadn't changed, she decided. But she certainly had. Tegan stood in the console room, fingering the collar on her neck and the bite marks underneath. And she didn't want to know how they had just suddenly appeared in the console room just minutes previously.
As suddenly as they had appeared in that white oasis, they had left it. The Doctor had sat with her in front of him, gently and quietly sipping at her neck. This time it had sent shivers and quivers up and down her spine. He took little blood; in fact he had only taken what was needed as the White Guardian had waved his hand.
They had reappeared on the floor of the console room, Tegan sitting in between his legs and his right arm across her chest. She had worried that he hadn't changed, but simply a glance behind her to see his smiling face let her know that he was back to normal.
But then his arm had left her as if he were burned and he had retreated down the corridors. The last thing he had said was that he needed to change his clothes.
"That's better!"
His voice brought her back to her self and the present with a blink. The Doctor was adjusting his coat and stood contemplating her from the doorway.
"Yeah..." she commented. "How long until these leave my neck?" she asked, pulling the collar away to reveal his bite. "At least the White Guardian could have changed that too..."
The Doctor walked across to her to look at the bites. "Hmm, well...I'm sure it will heal quickly, Tegan. I did make sure I exuded enzymes to help with the healing."
Tegan sighed and shrugged. She felt weird having something physical from the Doctor left on her body.
He guessed at her mental state and moved toward the console. "Yes, Tegan...it will heal quickly. And I do believe that the Guardian has seen fit to put us where we were, on trajectory with a nice quiet vacation. Just a short jaunt and then...we'll go get Turlough." He glanced over at her as he adjusted a knob on the console. "And about those bites, Tegan..." he tried for nonchalant. "Thank you. Without that I would have ceased to be or gone mad. It was more than the blood; it was the familiarity."
Tegan opened her mouth to issue a sarcastic comment, but a glance at his face and the earnest look on it stopped her. She simply said: "You're welcome." Then the impish part of her reacted. "I always said you'd be lost without me."
"That may be a possibility," he responded lightly. He flicked a knob and the TARDIS began its movement through the cosmos.
