Disclaimer: I don't own the Doctor, the TARDIS, Rose or any of the characters, planets, technology etc that appear in Doctor Who. I wish I did but who doesn't?

Chapter Summary: The Doctor goes to meet with Xan. They talk and a few things are cleared up, or possibly not.

Chapter Ten: Distorted

The designated meeting place was deserted. It was getting late, the sky darkening gradually and there was almost no one about. None of the people who were bothered the Doctor. He waited, with growing impatience, bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet in a distracted manner.

'I thought you might not turn up.'

The Doctor looked around. 'How could I not? There are a few things I still want to ask you.'

Xan walked towards him. 'Do you really? I can't imagine what you'd want to ask me.'

'Why's that?' the Doctor asked.

Xan tucked his hands into his pockets. 'You've heard everything about me you need from Liana, haven't you?' he said blandly.

'See, one thing I've learnt in nine hundred years of space and time is that there's usually two sides to every story,' the Doctor said mildly. 'I'd like to hear your side.'

'Why should I tell you?'

'Because I'm willing to listen to you.'

Xan considered him silently. 'Liana was my friend, before all this,' he said. 'It's funny how things change, isn't it? Amazing how people believe all that crap about me. You know I was a slave?'

'No, I didn't,' the Doctor said.

Xan nodded. 'I was. See, I was born in Circle Seven. A hybrid, one that could pass as human as long as no one looked too closely. Until I got older and then everyone could tell. I look mostly human, it's just not quite and here, that's enough to give you away. Unlike you, Doctor. You can get away with looking exactly like a human, even if you aren't.'

The Doctor didn't reply.

'When I was fourteen I was working illegally for a computer technician and hacker, a great guy who didn't care I was a hybrid, he just wanted me to work for him because of my skills. At fifteen, I was caught by a slaver trader who specialised in selling people with my kind of talents on the black market. I got sold, tattooed as a slave, and forced to use my various skills in ways I really don't want to go into. Eventually, my owner got caught by the security forces and they were going to arrest me, too, until they realised that I was actually a slave. They took me in and eventually trained me. I got a life, a career, a reputation, friends and then I lost it all.'

'Why?' the Doctor asked.

'I saw something I wasn't supposed to,' Xan said simply.

'What did you see?'

Xan ignored the question. 'It was all gone. I found myself arrested and shunted into a prison mine without even a trial, no chance to defend myself. I escaped and came back and now I'm trying to stop what's happening.'

'What's happening?' the Doctor asked quietly.

'You want to go through what I have?' Xan demanded. 'If you know too much, then you will.'

'I won't,' the Doctor said.

'You sure about that?'

'Oh, yes,' the Doctor said grimly. 'I'm sorry for what's happened to you, Xan, and I can help.'

'You really think you can?' Xan said in disbelief. 'You really think that?'

'No, I know I can.' The Doctor sighed. 'This is what I do, Xan. I stop bad things happening. I give the monsters nightmares. If I see something wrong, it stops.'

'As simple as that?' the young man said with a grim smile.

'As simple as that.'

'All right,' Xan said slowly. 'It's not as if I have anything to lose, is it?'

'What do you know?' the Doctor asked.

For a while, the other man didn't say anything. 'There have been people turning up crippled and dead for some time,' he said eventually. 'For months, to be honest. It may have been going on longer than that. I was still in the security forces and I started looking around, seeing if I could find anything out. We got orders from above to leave the case alone, to make some show of trying to find the killer but not to try too hard, really. I ignored those orders and I conducted my own investigation.'

The Doctor almost smiled but stopped himself in time. 'What did you find?'

'To be honest, I don't know exactly what it is I found. I managed to find out that these maimed and crippled, dying people had escaped from somewhere in the city. I saw one before they died and tried to find out where they had escaped from. She told me that they were being experimented on, and gave me the coordinates to the location before she died. They weren't the correct coordinates, she was confused and terrified but I managed to narrow down the field to a small area. Unfortunately, before I could act upon the information, I was arrested on trumped up charges. I never found the exact place and I never found out who was behind it.'

'What were the experiments?'

'Genetic experiments,' Xan said.

The Doctor frowned. 'You're certain about that?'

'Definitely. She said that they were involved in both genetic experiments and building experiments. I wasn't sure what she meant, so I researched it – '

'Building?' the Doctor said. He looked horrified. 'As in building another species from scratch?'

Xan nodded. 'I think that's what she meant. Does that explain the missing body parts from the victims?'

'In some ways,' the Doctor said slowly. 'I suppose…adapting specific parts of the body rather than creating an entire physical being from nothing…less waste, less trouble, less expense. Seeing what works and what doesn't before you try creating a complete being.' He looked disgusted. 'Have there been a high number of disappearances in the city? Any indication that people are being taken off the streets to fuel these experiments?'

'My reasoning is that the people behind this are either using prisoners, or are simply taking people from places where their disappearances won't be noticed, like Circle Seven,' Xan said, then frowned. 'You believe me?'

'You couldn't make this stuff up,' the Doctor said, also frowning. 'Does anyone else know about this?'

'There's a whole network of people who know,' Xan said. 'I worked with them until a couple of days ago, when you turned up. Once they knew someone had seen me, would remember my face, connect me with what happened, I got kicked out.'

'Who are these people?'

'I don't really know. Most of them only went by code names, and none of us knew who the others really were.'

'So what have you manage to do so far?' the Doctor asked. 'As far as stopping these deaths goes?'

'Not much,' Xan admitted. 'We try to make sure they can't be covered up, taking footage of any deaths or incidents we think might be connected, transmitting them across the city, investigating disappearances and making sure that the public knows about anything going on. We've tried hacking into various computers and databases to try and find anything information that might be available, but we've come up with almost nothing.'

'Do you think you can find out where this place the woman mentioned is?'

'If I had access to a computer,' Xan said. 'I could hack in and get at the electronic maps of the city, then it's a matter of pin-pointing the most likely locations within the given coordinates.'

'Right,' the Doctor said. 'I can get you access to a computer and I can give you a safe place to stay.'

Xan folded his arms. 'Why would do this? Why would you bother helping me?'

'Why insult me by asking that?' the Doctor said irritably. 'I believe you. And I believe that this should stop. That's all the reason I need.'

'You think you can keep me safe?' Xan said warily.

'I know I can.' The Doctor beckoned for him to follow. 'It's just getting there that's going to be tricky, right?' He paused as Xan hesitated. 'You're worried about whether you can trust me? If you want to know if you can trust me, read my mind. I know it's a huge breach of etiquette, but you have my permission.'

Xan paused, then closed his eyes, frowning slightly in concentration. The Doctor felt a very slight push on his thoughts, the very slightest and would never have noticed it if he hadn't known what to expect of someone reading his mind. The telepathy brushed swiftly across his mind, instantly coming across the thoughts referring to this issue.

Xan opened his eyes. 'All right,' he said. 'I can trust you.'

Despite himself, the Doctor was impressed. The younger man had unerringly found the thoughts he was looking for, had read them and gone without even touching any other thoughts in the Doctor's head. That took skilful telepathy.

'It's a big blue box,' Xan said, regarding the TARDIS with a sceptical eye. 'You expect me to hide inside a big blue box? What is a police call box, anyway?'

'Don't you know your twentieth century history?' the Doctor asked, unlocking it.

'Yes, but blue boxes were never mentioned,' Xan said, frowning.

The Doctor grinned, opened the door and said, 'Pray, enter.'

Xan gave him a suspicious look and stepped in through the door. 'Wow,' he said eventually.

'This is my ship,' the Doctor said, looking proud.

Enlightenment dawned on Xan's face. 'Chameleon circuit,' he said, a pleased smile flickering across his face.

The Doctor looked delighted. 'Yes. The circuit got stuck a few years back. I like the shape so I never bothered to fix it.'

'Fair enough.' Xan looked around, clearly impressed. 'This is incredible technology. I mean, I'm not massively into technology but I am seriously impressed. Did you build this?'

'No,' the Doctor said. 'I – acquired her a long time ago. But I've made all kinds of modifications,' he added with appropriate pride. 'Anyway, I have to go before anyone misses me. Here's a computer,' he said, taking out the one he had stolen earlier and handing it over. 'And you'll be safe in here. No army can get inside, not if I don't want them to and believe me, several have tried. Make yourself at home, don't poke through anyone's belongings, don't go wandering off because it's easy to get lost in here. Right?'

Xan nodded. 'Thank you,' he said sincerely.

The Doctor gave him a look that wiped the grateful smile off of his face. 'This is my ship,' he said grimly. 'You won't be able to fly her, you won't be able to do anything. You try sabotaging her, you try to do fly her, you damage anything here, you'll regret it because I will make you regret it. Understand? I am trusting you with my home. Remember that. I don't let just anyone inside this ship, let alone use her computer and I'm only letting you because I want to stop whatever is going on as much as you do and I don't like seeing innocent people hurt. Remember that I am trusting and if you betray that trust, I will make you more sorry than you have ever been before.'

Xan didn't reply for a minute. Then he said softly, 'I won't do anything to damage your ship, Doctor.'

'Good,' the Doctor said shortly. Then he left.