Author's Note: Here's the final part of this story. Please read and review - and, hopefully, enjoy...

Daughters Of The State (Part 4)

Puecia did not bother to lock the door when she and the Grand Usher left the observation room. The game was almost over and she had no interest in keeping Aristha prisoner any longer. She had no further interest in Aristha whatsoever. The Eternals were preparing to leave this small, artificially constructed, world behind them and return home to the endless voids of eternity. There they would relieve the tedium of their existence by formulating their next plan to entertain themselves. In a while, this world would fade out of existence and anyone left behind would die with it.

There would not be very many of those though. The only ephemerals remaining would be Aristha, the five wolf girls and a smattering of about a hundred humans brought here to make up the general population beyond the palace grounds. Those ordinary people were, at this very moment, enthusiastically beginning to gather outside the palace in the hopes of meeting the five former Daughters Of The State upon their release into the community.

Puecia had started to get a feeling of anticlimax following the death of the Doctor and her taunting of Aristha. The thought of releasing the wolf girls into the outside community lifted her spirits no end though. She smiled at the thought of the savage, primal carnage which she was about to unleash. It was a simple plan. As soon as the wolf girls were released and the doors of the palace were closed behind them, the Eternals would lift all of the memory blocks they had placed on the ephemerals and switch off all of the hallucinogenic devices. The appearance of the wolf girls would generate chaos and fear in the humans, which would be delightful to behold.

The scene in the banqueting hall had calmed down somewhat. With no more edible parts of the Time Lord remaining, the five wolf girls had sated their appetites for now and were curled up together on the floor sleeping contentedly. They stirred only ever so slightly at the sound of Sajika re-entering the hall.

"My sisters, my most dear to my heart," began Sajika. "I trust that you have feasted well?"

Nyiha got to her feet first.

"Indeed so."

Nyiha could hardly believe that just a few hours earlier she had led a delegation of her sisters to Sajika's room in order to try to end the practice of eating a stranger at the Transition. The Doctor had been, quite simply, the most delicious morsel that she had ever tasted. She accepted Sajika's hand as the Mother Of The State reached out to help her to her feet. Once that Nyiha was on her feet, Sajika helped in turn each of the others to get up.

"Now it is time for you all to leave and begin your new lives out amongst our people. I trust that you shall all find satisfaction in the world beyond. You must leave within the hour. Be ready at the main door." Sajika turned and left the room leaving the wolf girls to sort themselves out.

Aristha found herself alone and afraid. She had cried until no more tears would come. Rubbing her eyes with her vomit stained sleeve, she blinked herself alert and took a look at her surroundings. She was still in the observation room but now she was alone. The £10 note lay on the floor beside her where Puecia had obviously dropped it. Aristha picked up the money and put it into her pocket. It might provide her with some clues as to her real identity and her real life - though with the Doctor slain by those beasts it seemed very unlikely that she would ever find her way home. She could not just sit here for the rest of her life though.

She rose unsteadily to her feet and crossed the floor to try the door handle. To her great surprise, the handle gave easily and the door opened. Where should she go though? She was torn with indecision for a moment. She felt almost duty bound to go down to the banqueting hall and pay her respects to the skeleton but the thought of coming face to face with the wolf girls put her off that idea quickly. The other option was to try to find the entrance to the underground passageway connecting this palace to the one where she had been held captive the previous night. That was the only place where she might stand a chance of surviving for a time. There was no shortage of food there and perhaps she might be able to barricade the doors somehow. It was a slim hope but realistically it remained her only viable option.

The corridor outside the observation room was entirely deserted and Aristha encountered no one - neither Eternal nor Wolf - on her walk to the passageway. Retracing her steps from the observation room back to Puecia's study proved to be far easier than Aristha had expected. In her mind she remembered making the trip many times before during her childhood. She laughed bitterly to herself at the idea of her false memories finally being of use to her. Upon reaching Puecia's study it was a simple matter to retrace her steps along the short distance to the passageway. The secret door opened at the first attempt. Her luck seemed to be holding for the moment so she took advantage of it. With the door closed behind her she hurtled along the tunnel at breakneck speed and didn't stop running until she was back inside her former prison. Setting up the barricades was what she knew she ought to do next but her desire to feel clean and human again was overwhelming. So she headed up the stairs towards the bathroom to get herself bathed and tidied up to her satisfaction. Perhaps she might be able to think more clearly with all the dirt of the day removed from her skin?

After locking the bathroom door behind her, she turned her attention to the shower cubicle. She decided to get the shower running while she got undressed. Parting the double doors of the cubicle she was astonished to find not the empty space which she was expecting, but instead a tall blue box. Straight away she realised that this must be the Doctor's missing TARDIS. What was it that he had told her? She could still hear his words ringing in her brain…

"That is the spare key to my TARDIS. We might get separated and, if we do, you might stumble upon the TARDIS before I do. If you find it please get inside, lock the doors behind you, and wait for me. You'll be safe in there."

Well, the Doctor was dead. He would not be coming back. But that didn't necessarily mean that the rest of his words would not hold true. She might be far safer in the TARDIS than outside of it. She dug her hand into her pocket, retrieved the strange looking key, and placed it into what appeared to be the lock. With one turn the TARDIS doors opened inwardly allowing her access. She climbed over the edge of the shower cubicle, entered the Doctor's box…

… and blinked in astonishment at what she saw within. Even after all of the shocks and horrors of the last day and night, nothing could have prepared her for the spatial anomaly that is the TARDIS. She found herself in a vast white hexagonal room. At the centre of the room stood a hexagonal instrument bank packed with flashing lights, switches and buttons. Protruding from the top of this unusual structure was a large glass cylinder, inside which there was another odd looking structure made up of vertically arranged red and pink glass rods. Aristha was just starting to take in the other features of the room, such as the roundels on the six walls and the modest looking door hanging open on the other side of the chamber, when the double doors through which she had entered slammed shut behind her. The cylinder in the centre of the control bank started to rise and fall seemingly of its own volition and a strange screeching sound reverberated through the room. Aristha ran over and clutched at the control bank for support as the whole room shuddered slightly. She did not know this, of course, but the TARDIS was now in flight.

The crowds outside the palace had swelled to the full one hundred by the time that Sajika gave the instruction to open up the doors.

There were gasps of awe from the men folk as they caught sight of the five beauties for the first time other than on their television screens. The five sisters warily walked forward as one until they were halfway up to the gathered throng of people. The palace doors closed behind them and the crowd moved forwards.

The Eternals were all crowded together in the observation room watching the scene unfold. After a few moments, the Grand Usher flicked the switch that would cut off the hallucinogenic devices and restore the real memories of the humans and the wolf girls alike. The Eternals leaned in closer to the screen in anticipation of the massacre to come.
The human crowd was now milling about in total confusion. Where were they? How had they gotten here? They looked at each other in utter confusion. However, they didn't have very long to ponder these mysteries before one of them happened to glance over at the palace and spot five ravenous looking nightmare creatures bearing down upon them. The man pointed and screamed and the crowd scattered in terror as the wolf girls advanced. Unfortunately for the humans, the wolves were far quicker and far less concerned about being in unfamiliar surroundings. The street was soon awash with human blood as the wolves gained the upper hand.
A short while later, the Eternals transported themselves back to their own domain and this whole world (now no longer needed) ceased to exist, leaving behind no trace that it had ever been there.

No trace except for Aristha, the only ephemeral to escape the carnage. She knew and remembered the horrors. They were her only true memories. She and the TARDIS were now far, far away though …

THE END

Authors Note: This concludes my 4 part story. I'm already planning another story to follow on from this in which I shall resolve all of the open threads.I know exactly what's going on but...oh, I love to tease...