Reunion and Betrayal Chapter 2
The young man wearing green pants and a yellow tunic sat up in concern as the men in the room knelt beside the collapsed young woman. A woman wearing a blue tunic rushed into the ward. She gently pushed the men aside as she knelt to examine Nyssa. Assured that the young woman's pulse and breathing were fine, she looked back to the men for an explanation.
"What happened?"
Bor explained once again about the incident in the lab and how Nyssa hadn't allowed the Trioxin to work. The doctor shook her head. "When will she learn that she's not as indestructible as she thinks she is? Let's move her to that bed over there and allow her to sleep off the Trioxin."
As Captain Lork and Bor gently lifted the young woman, the doctor looked to the new patient. She smiled. "Sorry about the excitement there."
He didn't take his eyes of the only familiar person in the room. "Is she all right?"
Doctor Myak glanced back at Nyssa. "The Director will be fine. Do you know her?"
Frowning as if in deep concentration, the dark haired young man shook his head. "No." Deciding that wasn't right, he changed his answer. "Yes." Still not sure that he had answered correctly, he tried yet again. "Maybe. I don't know."
Dr. Myak nodded. "That's okay. Perhaps she'll be able to help us figure that out when she wakes up. What is your name?"
Bor approached Dr. Myak. "Nyssa called him Adric before she passed out. Is that your name?"
"No." He answered slowly. "The other one was Adric... I'm ... I don't know who I am. I should though, shouldn't I? A name is important." He nodded toward the sleeping Nyssa. "I think she can help me find the Doctor. I need the Doctor."
Smiling, Dr. Myak patted his arm reassuringly. "I'm a doctor."
He shook his head. "No, I need the Doctor. He'll know who I am."
Bor approached Dr. Myak. "You know, when Nyssa first came to Terminus, she was traveling with a man who called himself the Doctor. Maybe that's who the boy means."
Suddenly the young man's dark eyes grew cold. "Don't call me that. I'm not the Boy. I have a name."
"I'm sorry." Bor murmured. He looked to Dr. Myak as if questioning whether he should remain while she talked to the young man. She smiled at him to reassure him that it was okay for him to return to his duties. Soon she was alone with her confused patient.
"You have some pretty serious burn scars on your wrists and ankles. Do you know how you got them?"
He studied his wrists carefully as if the scars themselves could tell him their origin. "I think it was the only way he could keep me."
"He who?" Dr. Myak probed gently.
The young man turned away from her and curled up on the bed covering his face. "He's evil, evil."
Sensing she had gotten as much from him as she could possibly get for the moment, Dr. Myak patted his back once again and rose. She checked on Nyssa once more and then left the ward. Once the door closed behind her, the young man turned on the bed to stare at the young woman in the bed next to him. Sitting up, he left his bed and crouched next to Nyssa's bed. Somewhere in the deep recesses of his mind a long buried memory bubbled to the surface.
The sky in the grove had turned dark and the wind had picked up fiercely. The girl lying in front of him was wearing a gauzy multi-colored skirt and a plum velvet top. She was having a hard time standing in the force of the wind. A curly haired man in a long red coat and even longer scarf was yelling at him to help her up.
"Help me." He urged the sleeping young woman.
As if she sensed someone watching her, Nyssa's eyes fluttered open and then remained wearily open. For a moment she just stared at him as if not sure she was really seeing him. Then she reached out and softly touched his face. "Is it really you?"
He shrugged but didn't move away from her touch. "Do you know me?"
She nodded. "You're Adric from Alzarius. But I don't understand, you died when the freighter collided with prehistoric earth."
He looked down at the scars on his wrist once more. "Am I? Did I? There are so many memories jumbled up in my mind that I don't know any more. I don't know how I know it but I know you are Nyssa and that I can trust you. How did we meet?"
"On Traken, my home planet. The Doctor and you came to help find out who was threatening the planet."
"Did we do it?" Adric's eyes never left her face.
Nyssa nodded. "Yes. When you and the Doctor left Traken, I didn't think I would ever see you again but then my father disappeared and the Watcher showed up on Traken to take me to the Doctor. I had no idea that the Master..."
Adric covered his ears and began to rock back and forth. "That name, don't say that name."
Concerned, Nyssa sat up and gently pulled his hands down. "It's okay, Adric. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It's okay."
There were so many questions tumbling in her head. Questions she wanted to ask him about how he escaped off the freighter before it collided with prehistoric earth. Questions about why the mention of the Master caused him such anxiety. Questions that she was afraid would cause him more pain than she could possibly endure seeing him in. So she remained silent until Adric appeared calmer. Then she offered him a reassuring smile.
Adric opened his mouth to ask something but then closed it again. When he repeated the motion a second time, Nyssa squeezed his hand. "Whatever it is, you can ask me, Adric."
"What happened to me?"
Now it was Nyssa's turn to frown. "I don't know, Adric. I thought I did but yet you are here and you are alive."
Adric nodded. It was clear that he was concentrating on trying to pull up a memory. "You said earlier that I had died. Was the⦠was that man involved?" He couldn't bring himself to say the name any more than he could stand to hear it earlier.
Nyssa shook her head. "No, at that time we still thought, or maybe hoped is a better word, that he hadn't survived the collapse of Castrovolva."
Adric shuddered hard. "Castrovolva, a trap within a trap within a trap. All part of the plan."
Worried by how troubled he seemed, Nyssa knew that Adric needed a break from the pressure of trying to remember what had happened to him. Sleep, dreamless sleep, would be the best thing for him but she didn't want to have to sedate him again. From what the captain of the Crobiean had said, he'd been sedated enough. Rising wearily, she led him back to his bed.
"Get some sleep, Adric. We can figure all this out later."
Adric shook his head. "Can't sleep. Dreams are too painful."
Nyssa nodded. She knew only too well how painful dreams could be. "Computer, activate Sleep Program 4829."
"Program commencing."
She smiled at Adric as the lights lowered and a soft soothing hum and dancing blue light filled the room. She inhaled deeply to take in the sudden scent of roses. "I couldn't completely reconfigure the Zero Room from the TARDIS but this comes pretty close. You'll be able to sleep without dreams."
Adric nodded, already yawning. "You won't leave me?"
"I'll be here when you wake up. If I don't sleep for as long as Bor thinks I should, he'll probably have me sedated next." She returned to her own bed and was almost asleep herself when she heard Adric's tired voice drift over to her.
"I wish I could have been the one to get to know you on the TARDIS rather than the other Adric."
