A/N: Sorry that I've taken so long to update. I was going through a period where I had absolutely no inspiration for any of my stories whatsoever. I know this is late, but I also had my birthday a few days after Christmas so I was kind of busy… Anyway, I worked really hard on this chapter and I hope you all enjoy it.
And Happy New Year!
"What are you doing here?"
The Doctor shrugged and looked past me at the shop I had run out of. "Oh, you know me. I'm just wandering about."
Just inside the TARDIS, I heard Sarah Jane call the Time Lord's name. "Hey, Doctor?"
I grinned and bobbed on my toes in excitement. "Is that Sarah?" I questioned.
"Yes. Care to come inside and say hello?"
"Do you even have to ask?" I wondered with a grin.
He pushed the TARDIS door open for me and gestured for me to step in with a wave of his hand. I placed my hand over his where it was resting on the door, then jumped inside the ship with a giggle.
Standing by the console, Sarah was dressed in a lovely white gown with her chestnut hair down to her shoulders. When our eyes met she cried out and rushed forward to give me a firm hug, which I eagerly returned with a laugh.
"Oh, it's so good to see you," she told me when she stepped back.
"Have I been gone for a while?"
The journalist shook her head. "No, but it's always nice to see you."
The Doctor stepped past me, his hand brushing against my shoulder as he approached the console. "Sarah's quite right," he agreed with a grin.
"So, what have you been up to?" Sarah wondered as the ship started to dematerialize.
I smiled and spared the Doctor a brief glance out of the corner of my eye. "Well, a future incarnation of the Doctor took me to Cascatalia and was trying to impress me with waterfalls. Although, I have to say that those waterfalls were probably the most beautiful things I've ever seen."
The Doctor raised his eyebrows at me. "Oh? I'm sure I can best a few waterfalls," he replied haughtily.
I laughed. "Are you competing with your future self for who can give me the best date?"
"Oh, it was a date?"
"Well… Not exactly," I admitted with flushed cheeks, looking away from the Time Lord in embarrassment. "I haven't really been on a true date with you yet."
The Doctor didn't say anything; he only smiled briefly before looking down at the console. He set coordinates into the computer and sent the TARDIS flying into the vortex. Sarah grinned knowingly at me and laughed softly under her breath when I blushed and l looked away.
"So Doctor, d'you like what I've found?"
He looked up from the console in confusion, eyes wide. "Hm?"
"The dress, Doctor," she explained with a twirl. "Do you like it?"
"Where did you get that?" he asked.
Sarah gestured with her thumb pointed over her shoulder. "I found it back there in the wardrobe. Why, don't you like it?"
The Doctor waved his hand absently. "Yes. Yes, I always did," he sighed. "Victoria wore it. She travelled with me for a time."
"With Jamie," I added thoughtfully, earning a glance from the Time Lord.
"Well, as long as Albert didn't wear it," Sarah laughed. But when neither the Doctor nor I reacted to her joke, the woman exhaled through her nose with a shake of her head. "Oh, come on, Doctor. That's worth a smile, surely? What's the matter? You should be glad to be going home."
"The Earth isn't my home, Sarah," the alien told her as he started to step away form the console, his hands shoved into his pants pockets. "I'm a Time Lord."
"I know you're a Time Lord."
"You don't understand the implications. I'm not a human being. I walk in eternity."
"Oh, you make it sound so mysterious and important," I teased.
"It is," the Doctor insisted.
Sarah raised an eyebrow at him. "What's that supposed to mean?" she wondered.
"It means I've lived for something like seven hundred and fifty years," he grumbled.
"Oh, you wee lad," I joked.
Sarah nodded with a smirk on her lips. "Hm, yes. You'll soon be middle aged," she added.
The Doctor humphed. "Yes! About time I found something better to do than run around after the Brigadier. "
"Oh, come on," Sarah sighed. "If you're tired of being UNIT's scientific advisor, you can always resign."
All of a sudden, the console room went dark and the TARDIS tilted to one side. The motion sent all three of us to the floor with loud cries and grunts of surprise. A panel on the console exploded into sparks and I shrieked when a few sparks landed near my head.
The lights turned back on and illuminated the room again. Sarah and I struggled to our feet while the Doctor was already attending to the console. In one corner of the room, the image of an animal skull appeared in mid-air and then vanished mere seconds later. Sarah turned to look at me and we shared a startled expression.
I had know what was going to happen in the hours to come when I saw Sarah's white dress, but I had still managed to forget about the mysterious appearance of the skull. I tried to push it to the back of my mind and not focus on the appearance. I was more worried that I had forgotten important details about Sutekh's plans to destroy the world.
"What was it?" Sarah demanded.
"The relative continuum stabiliser failed," the Doctor explained casually.
"No, not that. I mean the thing."
"What thing?"
Sarah gestured to the area where the face had appeared. "There was a terrible face just for a second, then it was gone." At the incredulous expression the Doctor flashed her, Sarah shook her head. "You don't believe me, do you?"
"Nothing can enter the TARDIS, Sarah. Unless-" He cut himself off and stared off to a spot just left of Sarah's head.
"Unless what?" the journalist asked.
"Mental projection of that force is beyond imagination, yet it might explain the stabilizer failure," the Doctor mumbled, half to himself and half to us. "Let's see. Was it at this end of the spectrum?"
"No, Doctor, don't!" Sarah cried. I could see the fear written plainly across her face and felt the sting of guilt in my chest. Sutekh would manage to terrify and hurt all of us before our adventure was over. Sarah grabbed the Doctor's wrist and shook her head as she looked pleadingly up at him. "Whatever it was, I know it was totally malevolent."
The TARDIS thudded against something, jolting us slightly. The Doctor checked the time rotor and saw that it had stopped. "We've landed," he said with a grin.
"Where?" Sarah questioned. "Where have we landed?"
The Doctor flipped a switch on the console and the doors opened. Sarah and I followed him outside, both of us pausing for a moment as we stepped outside to look at our surroundings. I wasn't surprised to see the sarcophagi and large wooden boxes littered about the room, but Sarah and the Doctor obviously weren't expecting it.
"We've materialized at the correct point in space, but obviously not in time. A temporal reverse?" the Time Lord wondered as he glanced around the room. "Some vast impulse of energy has drawn the TARDIS off course."
"You're saying this in UNIT HQ, but years before I knew it?" Sarah asked.
The Doctor nodded. "Yes."
Sarah and I looked around and the young woman pursed her lips. "But it's so different. It can't possibly be the same house."
"It must be the old priory," the Doctor considered as he continued looking around. "The UNIT house was built on the site."
Sarah had a thoughtful expression on her face, her bottom lip pouting slightly. "The old priory was burnt down, wasn't it?"
"Something's very wrong," the Doctor said after a moment. He looked at me from the corner of his eyes and I nodded slightly, confirming his suspicions.
Beside me, the journalist shivered and shook her head, eyebrows drawn together. "Doctor, I don't like it here."
"Something's going on contrary to the laws of the universe. I must find out what."
"Wait," I blurted, grabbing the Doctor by the elbow and holding him back as he started for the door.
"What is it?"
"Just promise me you'll be very, very careful."
The Doctor's eyes flitted across my face. "You know what's going to happen," he realized.
"Mostly. I may have forgotten a few minor details," I admitted. "More than a few actually. But… It's important that we stay here, in this time. That I do remember."
He nodded in understanding and smiled briefly at me. "Alright." I kept my grip on his elbow firm and looked into his eyes for another few moments, hoping he would see how serious I was. He finally took my hand and squeezed it. "Don't worry. Diana, it's going to be fine."
I nodded and looked down at my feet, letting the Time Lord drop my hand. Sarah came up beside me and put her hand on my shoulder. I smiled briefly at her and assured her that I was fine, but she still looked concerned for me.
"Really, I'm just… paranoid, I guess," I told her with a shrug. "I'll be fine, Sarah."
"Diana, Sarah," the Doctor called. "Come here."
The Doctor had opened the door and started down a short hallway that led to another door. He was gesturing for us to follow him down the hallway. I lightly grasped Sarah's hand in mine and smiled reassuringly at her before heading after the Doctor.
"You found a door. Congratulations," I said dryly.
"Yes, very amusing."
"Something wrong with it?" I asked when I noticed him staring at the door.
The Doctor reached out a hand and turned the doorknob back and forth with a curious and almost puzzled expression on his face. "Why bother to lock an internal door?" he wondered.
Sarah took a few steps forward and looked at the door for a second. "Maybe this wing of the house isn't in use," she suggested. "It smells musty enough," she added with a sniff.
The Doctor looked over his shoulder at her. "That isn't all must, Sarah. Some of it's mummy." He then reached into his coat pocket and pulled something out, rolling it between his fingers with an all-teeth grin. "French picklock. Never fails. Belonged to Marie Antoinette. Charming lady. Lost her head, poor thing."
"Oh, very delicately put-"
I stopped midsentence when I noticed that the door handle had started to move without the Doctor turning it. The sound of a key sliding into place reached my ears and the three of us all looked at each other in surprise. The Doctor grabbed my hand and spun me behind him, then pushed me back towards the room we had first appeared in. I stumbled into the room and pressed myself against the wall beside the door, the Doctor and Sarah running in after me and hurrying to stand next to me.
Light footsteps started down the hallway and I looked up at the Doctor, hoping he had a plan because I couldn't remember for the life of me what was going to happen next. He suddenly stepped past me and gestured with his hand that Sarah and I should follow him.
"Of course," he began as he glanced around the room, "it would make an ideal headquarters for some paramilitary organization." Sarah and I looked at each other in confusion, but played along anyway. I pushed myself off of the wall and trailed after the Doctor as he pointed at the ceiling and walls. "This room could easily be turned into a laboratory- Oh, hello."
The Doctor and I had turned around at the same time, both of us starting slightly when we saw an older gentleman standing in the doorway.
"Who are you?" the man, who I guessed from my limited memory was a butler, asked. "How did you get in here?"
"Through the window," the Doctor replied with a grin. "I understood the property was for sale. No?"
The gentleman narrowed his eyes slightly. "Ah, you're not fooling me, sir. You came with Doctor Warlock, didn't you?"
"Did we?"
"He asked you to scout round whilst he kept his nibs busy."
I followed my instincts and butted in. "Um, you're quite right, sir," I interjected with a polite smile. "You saw right through us. I'm sorry if we've caused any disturbance, Mr…?"
"Collins, miss."
"You're the butler, correct?"
"Yes, miss, I am." Inwardly, I applauded myself for managing a small amount of average deducing. But my pleased mood soon faded away when Collins turned back to the Doctor with a grave expression. "Listen, if you're a friend of Doctor Warlock, sir, tell him to watch out."
Sarah came up to stand beside me. "Watch out for what?"
"The Egyptian," Collins replied seriously. "There's no knowing what he might do. He's got the temper of the devil himself."
The Doctor chuckled. "Egyptian, eh? Is this where he keeps his relatives?"
"Theta," I scolded under my breath. "Not now."
Collins shook his head. "It's no joke, sir. He's only been here a few days. I wouldn't be staying, but, well, situations aren't easy to find at my age."
"What are you afraid of?" the Doctor wondered, his tone suddenly serious again.
"He locked this wing. He didn't know there was a second key. If he were to find me along here, let alone you two, he'd go stark raving mad, sir."
"Ah, I see. In that case, we'd better leave."
Collins held his hand out when the Doctor started for the door. "Oh, not this way, sir. Better go the way you came. He might see you."
"Thank you, Collins," I said with a genuine smile as the Doctor turned and pushed Sarah in the direction of the window.
"And remember to tell Doctor Warlock what I said, sir."
The Doctor waved me over and nodded at the butler. "Don't worry. I'll remember."
I gave the butler a farewell wave, wishing the sinking feeling in my stomach away. "Thank you again, Collins. You be careful, alright?"
"Yes, miss. Now go! Please."
When I turned back to the window, Sarah was already climbing out and the Doctor was reaching up for my hand. I sat on the windowsill, threw my legs over and slowly lowered myself down. The Doctor put his hands on my waist and pulled me into his arms, making me squeak in surprise. He then set me gently on the ground and reached for my hand.
"Both of you stay down," the Time Lord whispered to Sarah and I.
We both nodded and hunched over to avoid being seen from the windows. The Doctor started walking around the large building we had materialized in with me grasping his hand and Sarah hurrying along just behind me. We hurried past about six or seven windows until we heard two men speaking loudly.
"Utter humbug!" one man declared as the three of us crept up to an open window. "That letter's a bogus fabrication if ever I saw one."
"Are you alleging that it is forged?" asked another man, his accent sounding like a mix of British and Middle Eastern origin.
"I am, sir," said the first man, "and I intend to prove it!"
"I warn you, Doctor Warlock, do not interfere."
"Are you threatening me?" Warlock countered.
"It is not I who threaten. There are ancient powers gathering in this place. Powers beyond the comprehension of unbelievers."
The Doctor risked a look over the windowsill, then quickly dropped to the ground. He placed his finger to his lips and shook his head when I started to speak in a low whisper.
"Ancient balderdash," the man named Warlock replied. "Now let me warn you, Namin. Unless you give me some straight answers, I'm going to the police."
"To say what? That a foreigner is living in Professor Scarman's house?"
"To say that he's not been seen for weeks, that his baggage is lying unclaimed in his hotel. Oh, yes, I've had some enquiries made in Cairo."
Suddenly, a scream echoed through the mansion and drifted to our ears. I could make out the sound of the two men, Warlock and Namin, running out of the room and a door closing behind them. The Doctor looked at me and nodded. He jumped to his feet and climbed up onto the sill, pushing the window open as he looked around. He helped me up after him first, then we both gave Sarah a hand inside.
"Come on," the Doctor whispered as he grasped my hand. "Both of you follow me."
We crept out of the room and down the hallway to the room we had first materialized in. The door that led to that room was slightly ajar, letting us see the two men who I guessed had been arguing.
"Poor fellow," said one man; I recognized his voice as belonging to Warlock. "He's been strangled."
"Who is that?" I whispered to the Doctor.
He looked down at me with an apologetic expression on his face. "Collins," he breathed. "I'm sorry."
"The gods have returned!" exclaimed the other man, whose voice was heavily accented. "I, Ibrahim Namin, servant of the true faith, rejoice in their power!"
"Get the police," Warlock said. "His assailant can't have got far."
Namin shook his head. "You blind, pathetic fool. The servants of the All Powerful have arisen. When the temple is cleansed of all unbelievers, the High One himself will come among us! This is how it was written."
"Yes, I see. Well, I still think the police-." Warlock stopped midsentence when he turned around to face Namin and saw that the man had pulled a gun out.
"You should have listened when I told you to leave, Warlock," Namin sneered. "Now you have seen too much. You must be the second unbeliever to die."
At the same time as the Doctor jumped forward with his scarf at the ready, I lunged ahead of him and shoved Namin to the side just as he pulled the trigger. The gun went off as I fell to the floor with Namin beneath me. Warlock cried out and clutched at his right shoulder as the Doctor ran to his side.
"Come on, quick!" Sarah cried behind me.
Namin shoved his gun against my ribs, making me gasp in pain. The Doctor was helping Warlock out of the room, letting Sarah support him as he turned back to grab me. I shook my head and shooed him away.
"Go!" I said firmly as Namin tried to push me off. "I'll take care of him! Get help!"
"Diana-"
"I got it! Go!"
The Doctor turned and was gone in a flash, his scarf trailing behind him. The door to the rest of the mansion slammed shut and I relaxed slightly. Namin took that moment to slam the butt of his gun against my breastbone and then elbow me in the chest. I fell onto my side with a low groan, holding my hand to my chest in an effort to soothe the aches.
Namin was suddenly on top of me, one hand at my throat and another pointing the gun at my temple. I instinctively grasped his wrist and took a deep gasp of air when I felt the gun rub against my skin. The Egyptian hovered over me with a cold look in his eyes. A chill ran up my spine when he cocked the gun.
"Who are you and why have you come here?" he asked slowly, his accent somehow making the words seem even deadlier.
"Please, don't-"
"Who are you and why have you come here?"
I stared into the man's eyes in terror and felt my heart freeze. "I-I'm not here for anything. Please, this is all just a misunderstanding. I came here by mistake."
The gun was pressed harder into my skull. "The man who was with you. Who was he?"
"My friend. Please, please," I begged, hoping to keep the man from harming me before I thought of a reasonable excuse. "Please, sir. Just listen to me. I really didn't mean to come here. It's just that my friend and I were travelling and came here completely by accident. We only stopped you because we're very nonviolent people. Usually. We just didn't want anyone to get hurt o-or killed."
"You had best be telling the truth," Namin sneered.
"I am!" I screeched in a panic. "The man- The man with me? He's a doctor. He can help that man you shot."
"I do not want him helped, I want him dead!"
Namin raised his hand and hit me across the temple with his gun, sending shooting pain through my skull and making my vision go bright red for a split second. Then everything went black.
I woke up with a loud gasp, looking wildly around at my surroundings. In one corner of the room was a large organ and standing on a sort of raised platform across the room was a black sarcophagus. Idris was standing in front of me, her eyebrows drawn sharply together. I bolted out of my chair and swayed a little when the room tilted slightly.
"Idris? W-What-?"
"You've gotten yourself kidnapped," she said with a half worried, half amused expression.
"What?"
She gestured with a pointed look to something behind me, her eyebrows raised. I turned around and jumped with a shriek when I saw my own body tied to a chair, head tilted to the side and a gag tied around my mouth. Cautiously, I took a few slow steps forward. My glasses were missing and faint bruises were just visible around my neck. A large gash reached from just past my hairline to the middle of my eyebrow and the surrounding skin was a dark purple-blue. Blood had bubbled out of the wound and was already dried and starting to flake.
"Oh God," I moaned in disgust. "That's… That's..."
"He's looking for you."
Confused, I looked over my shoulder at the manifestation of the TARDIS. "What?"
"Your Doctor," Idris said with a smile. "He's looking for you."
With a snap of Idris' fingers, our surroundings suddenly changed. We were standing just outside of the mansion, wind blowing heavily and tearing at our hair and clothes. The Doctor was carrying Warlock in his arms and far ahead of him, just at the edge of my sight, Sarah was running frantically through the forest.
Idris snapped her fingers again and we were standing in small building. Sarah was sitting in a chair by a fireplace, Warlock was sitting on a sort of couch with his arm in a sling, and the Doctor was standing next to another man by a small, wooden desk and talking.
The man standing by the Doctor shook his head. "Well, in view of what you've told me, I'm going to fetch the police," he began.
"No!" the Doctor cried. "This is much too grave a matter for the police, Mister Scarman."
"Too grave?"
The Time Lord nodded seriously. "Yes. They'd only hamper my investigation." He paused and I saw his eyes turn sad. "And they'd put Diana in danger."
"Diana?" the man repeated. "Who's that? A-And what investigation?"
"My w-… My friend. Diana is my friend. She's very dear to me and she was supposed to have left the mansion before we got here. I fear she's been taken captive by that Egyptian who shot your friend." The Doctor shook his head and sighed heavily. "And there's something else. Something's interfering with time, Mr Scarman, and time is my business."
Scarman turned away and began speaking to Sarah, leaving the Doctor alone to think. Even though I knew that he couldn't feel me take his hand or see me cup his cheek in my other hand, I did so anyway because I could see the worry and hurt in his eyes.
"I know you can't hear me," I whispered. "But I'm okay. I'll be okay. The TARDIS will look after me."
His eyes flickered about, even landing on mine for a brief second. I smiled sadly and leaned forward to press my lips to his. Then he turned around and leaned up against the table. I let my hands fall to my sides with a sigh. I gave him a hug from behind, whispering in his ear, "I know you'll come back for me."
Behind me, Idris snapped her fingers again and we reappeared in the same room I had been in when I woke earlier. She pointed to the door just before it swung open to reveal Namin, a key in one hand and his gun in the other. I recoiled in fear, reaching worriedly for Idris' hand as the Egyptian entered the room with a mummy staggering in behind him.
"Be brave, my dear."
I looked at Idris incredulously. "What? What do you mean?"
She smiled sadly at me and gave me a brief peck on the lips. "Brave heart, dear wolf." Then, with a snap of her fingers, I was pulled back into my body and my vision went dark again.
A wave of déjà vu swept over me when I woke up, gasping in shock with a terrible pain in my temple. The sound of outrageously loud organ music was blaring throughout the room and it only made the pain in my head worse. I groaned and shook my head, waiting for the room to stop spinning around me.
The playing suddenly stopped and two mummies began to walk slowly towards the black sarcophagus I had seen earlier. Namin stepped past me, completely ignoring my presence, and knelt in front of the sarcophagus.
"All high, all powerful, most noble Lord, thy humble servant welcomes thee," he whispered with his hands clasped in a position of prayer.
The sarcophagus began to change color and move in and out of focus. A figure clothed in black robes began to appear in front of the sarcophagus as more colors began to swirl around inside the suddenly portal-like coffin.
"Master, at last you are here." Namin kept his gaze rooted on the ground out of respect for the god, but I kept my gaze trained on the ground out of fear. "I, Ibrahim Namin, and all my forebears have served you faithfully through the thousands of years that you have slept. We have guarded the secret of your tomb."
"Stand," the alien ordered. "Look upon my face."
"Great One, Lord Sutekh, I dare not."
"Look." Namin looked up and bit back a gasp. "Is this the face of Sutekh?" the creature questioned.
Namin raised his hands in defeat. "Master, spare me. Spare me. I am a true servant of the great Sutekh."
"I am the servant of Sutekh. He needs no other." The alien placed its hands on Namin's shoulders and dug its fingers into the Egyptian's shoulder. "Die," it sneered. "I bring Sutekh's gift of death to all humanity."
Namin began to scream as the creature's hands made steam billow from the man's shoulders. I shrieked into my gag and strained against my bounds, hoping to free myself. My eyes flew across the room to meet the Doctor's and I could see both Sarah and the man with them restraining the Time Lord.
Namin's body fell to the ground with a sickening thud and I sobbed again in terror. The alien's body began to go in and out of focus as it slowly morphed into the form of an older man in a suit. I could feel a few tears start to form in the corner of my eyes as my vision started to grow fuzzy.
The alien, now in human form, began speaking to the two mummies positioned behind Namin's body. "Take up the generator loops," the alien ordered. The mummies obediently picked up two canopic jars by the sarcophagus. "Place them in position at the compass points. Activate at ground strength."
The creature then started for the door that Sarah and the Doctor were hiding behind, the mummies trailing behind him. I felt my head start to spin as a few warm tears rolled down my cheeks. Relief from being spared flooded through me and my head fell back against the chair, my eyes sliding closed as I took deep breaths to try and calm myself.
Moments later, I heard the door swing open and footsteps thudding towards me. I raised my head and gasped when the Doctor ran to my side. He pulled the gag down from my mouth, placed his hands on my cheeks, and pulled me into a frantic kiss. Then he pulled away and hurried around me to start untying my hands.
"Are you alright?" he asked. "How badly did he hurt you?"
I shook my head. "I'm fine, Theta. I'm just glad you're here."
The Doctor was at my side again, his fingers probing at the cut on my temple. I pushed his hands away and pulled him into a tight hug. He pressed a feather light kiss to the crown of my head before pulling away.
"What did he hit you with?" he asked as he ran his fingertips across my cut again.
"His gun," I answered with a grimace.
"Where are your glasses?"
I shrugged as I rubbed absently at my wrists. "I don't know. I-I woke up like this."
The Doctor shook his head and ran a hand through his mass of curly hair. "Sutekh is breaking free from his ancient bonds. This was just his first step in a master plan. If he succeeds, he'll destroy the whole world."
"You mean Sutekh is still alive?" Sarah asked.
"What do you mean 'still'?" I countered. Both Sarah and the Doctor gave me a confused expression. "Look, I can't remember every single detail about every single thing. Some of my memories are a little rusty."
"Oh, it's just a little bit of Egyptian mythology," Sarah explained. "Sutekh is also sometimes known as Set and he was killed by Horus, god of light."
"He destroyed his own planet, Phaester Osiris, and left a trail of havoc across half the galaxy," the Doctor continued. "Horus and the rest of the Osirans must have finally cornered him on Earth."
"In Egypt?" Sarah wondered.
The Doctor nodded. "The wars of the gods entered into mythology. The whole of Egyptian culture is founded upon the Osiran pattern."
"I'm afraid this is beyond me," Scarman sighed as the Doctor gave me another kiss on the forehead and walked off to inspect the sarcophagus.
Sarah smiled and nodded once. "It's beyond me, too."
The Doctor suddenly cried out in excitement. "Ah! Found it."
"What?" I pushed myself out of my chair and wandered over to where the Doctor was kneeling. "Found what?"
"The lodestone that drew the TARDIS off course."
Scarman and Sarah came up beside us. "That's not a lodestone, that's just a sarcophagus," Scarman stated.
But the Doctor shook his head. "No, it isn't. It's the entrance to a time-space tunnel."
"Leading where?" Sarah asked.
"To Sutekh," the Time Lord replied in a low voice.
He started to fiddle with something on the front of the sarcophagus and jumped back when it started to swirl with a dozen different colors. It seemed to activate some sort of tractor beam because the Doctor cried out and began to struggle.
"Doctor!" I cried in a panic.
"Keep back!" he shouted.
He reached into his coat pocket, took out a white handkerchief, and tossed it over his shoulder into the multicolored void in the sarcophagus. A loud bang erupted from the sarcophagus and the Doctor stumbled forward with a low groan, falling onto his side at mine and Sarah's feet.
"Theta!" I cried. I fell to my knees, taking his head in my hands and cradling it against my thighs. "Theta, you stupid alien."
"What was that?" Sarah wondered, kneeling on the other side of the Time Lord and resting a hand on his chest.
"I don't know. I mean, I know what was trying to draw him into that sarcophagus, but I don't know why there was that explosion." I looked down at the Doctor and ran my hand through his hair with a sigh. "I wish I could remember more. I just remember snippets, tiny little things that don't really make any difference or help."
"Don't be so hard on yourself," Sarah urged. "It's a lot to remember."
"I just wish I could help more. All I managed to do so far is get myself kidnapped and hurt."
"Diana, don't be upset with yourself for that. You've been trying to help. You're always doing your best to help the Doctor. That's nothing to be ashamed of," Sarah assured me. She gave me a kind, understanding smile and reached for my hand. "Now let's get the Doctor awake."
I leaned over the Time Lord and took his face in my hands, patting his cheeks with the palms of my hands. "Wake up, Doctor," I cooed. "Come on, we need you to wake up."
Sarah leaned over him and shook him by the shoulder. "Doctor? Doctor? Doctor, wake up. Please wake up."
Mr Scarman, who I noticed had a rifle in his hand, knelt by the Doctor's head and opened one of his eyes. "It's no good," he finally said with a shake of his head. "He took the full force of the blast."
"They're bound to come back soon. We're trapped!" Sarah cried. "Wait. Where are you going?"
Scarman had stood up and walked across the room by the organ, pressing his hands against the wall. "There's a priest hole here somewhere. Marcus and I discovered it when we were boys," he explained. The piece of wall he was pressing against was very ornately decorated with gold and was beautifully carved. One of the panels on the wall opened and revealed a small space just inside. "There. It isn't very large, I'm afraid."
"No, well, he is though," Sarah added with a gesture at the Doctor. "So come and give us a hand."
Scarman rushed back over, the gun slung across his back, and took the Doctor's left arm while Sarah took his right. I stood up and grabbed the Time Lord's legs, shuffling along with his calves gripped in my hands. Scarman went into the hole first, then Sarah, and then we all helped to arrange the Doctor so he was on his back with his head in Sarah's lap. But that meant that there was no room for me.
"What about you?" Scarman asked.
I smiled reassuringly at him. "Oh, it's fine. I'll find a place to hide."
"You'll have to hurry. They may be coming back now."
"I know. Look, both of you just stay as quiet as possible. If they do come back and then leave again, I'll come back here and knock on the door four times. Then you'll know it's safe. Okay?"
"Alright, but you should go now," Sarah said worriedly. "I think they're on their way back now."
I nodded. "Keep him quiet," I told them before closing the door.
Turning around, I quickly surveyed the room and tried to find a good hiding spot. There weren't many places I could hide in other than behind the curtains or even behind the sarcophagus. I considered going back to the chair that Namin had tied me to and making it look like I was still captive, but quickly rejected the idea. I didn't know what might happen to me if I was found and taken again.
Behind me, I heard the shuffling steps of the mummies and the door handle squeaked as it turned. Biting back a gasp, I ran for the window and flew behind one of the long, heavy curtains. My heart was pounding in my ears and every breath I took sounded loud and harsh.
"Remove this carcass," I heard a man say in a voice I didn't recognize. Then I heard the faint sound of sniffing and my blood ran cold. "There are other humans within these walls. Seek and kill them."
I heard shuffling and what I could only guess was Namin's body being dragged out of the room. I shuddered and closed my eyes, trying to block out the sound without moving my hands to cover my ears. I was terrified of alerting the alien disguised as a human to my hiding spot.
Suddenly, a shot rang out and the glass window right next to me shattered. I shrieked in surprise and then clamped a hand over my mouth. My heart stopped for a moment, then started beating again faster than before. As each second passed, I thought it would be my last. I wanted to look around the edge of the curtain and see what had happened, but was terrified of being caught.
Footsteps began walking towards me and I closed my eyes in anticipation of my certain demise. From outside the window, a man shouted, "Professor Scarman!" Something dropped in what sounded like gravel, then the man seemed to run away.
Right beside my hiding spot, a man uttered, "Seek and kill."
I took a long, slow inhalation and held my breath. I waited and waited, thinking the creature was still there and making me wait in fear for my death. Then I heard the two doors shut with a click. Even then, I didn't move. I kept holding my breath and waiting in case the alien was trying to trick me.
A voice whispered across the room, "All right, all clear."
A smile spread across my face and I took in a gasping breath before leaping out from behind the curtain. "Theta?" I shout-whispered.
The Doctor whirled around and grinned when he spotted me by the window. "Come here!" he whispered back, waving me over.
I rushed across and threw my arms around his neck in relief. "You're alright!"
"Shush!" he breathed. "We have to find that Egyptian."
"Why?" I asked.
"We need his ring," Sarah explained as the Doctor opened the doors. "But we can't search the whole priory for him."
"There's no need to," the Doctor said. "Look."
To our left, drag marks in the dust on the floor showed the path the mummies had presumably taken while dragging Namin's body away. The path led down a hallway into the room where the TARDIS and the other sarcophagi were. Waving his hand with a finger pressed to his lips, the Doctor silently led us down the hall.
Inside the room, the alien in his human form was ordering the mummies about. He started for the door just as we reached the end of the hallway. The Doctor reached behind his back for my hand and pulled me after him behind some sort of tapestry. Sarah and Scarman followed us and piled up behind us. The Doctor was standing with his shoulders pointed at the tapestry and me pressed against his chest so that we took up less room.
After the mummies and their leader left, the Doctor ran out from behind the tapestry with his hand still grasping mine. We hurried into the room and found Namin's body deposited between some crates and a sarcophagus. The Doctor released my hand and grabbed the man's instead, pulling a ring off of his finger.
"What do you think they're doing?" Sarah asked as she and Scarman came in behind us.
The Doctor looked over the ring. "I'm not sure yet."
"This is exceedingly interesting, Doctor," Scarman said from behind us. He and Sarah were standing by a small pile of opened wooden crates. Scarman was holding a metal bit of machinery that definitely didn't belong in our current time. "It appears to be some kind of machinery."
The Doctor took the machinery into his hands and briefly looked over it. "You're right. Yes, that's resonating tuner. Part of an anti-gravity drive. Oh!"
"What?" I asked.
"They must be building a rocket."
"Egyptian mummies building rockets?" Sarah questioned incredulously. "Doctor, that's crazy."
"They're not mummies, they're service robots."
"What?"
"Machines," the Doctor repeated.
"Oh!" I cried. "You're right! I remember that now."
"They're actually machines?" Sarah clarified.
I nodded. "Yeah. I'd forgotten that, but now that the Doctor mentions it… He's right."
"All right then," Sarah began, "why are machines building rockets?"
The Doctor placed the machinery back in the crate. "So that Sutekh can escape from the power of Horus."
"So where's Sutekh now?"
"Exactly where Horus left him seven thousand years ago: trapped beneath a pyramid and powerless to move."
Down the hallway, a door slammed and the Doctor took of running behind the other sarcophagi. Sarah, Scarman, and I ran after him and slid to a halt behind one sarcophagus as the Doctor unlocked the TARDIS. He pushed Sarah and I inside, then grabbed Scarman and pushed him in too.
"Great heavens!" Scarman exclaimed in surprise as the doors closed behind him. "This is unbelievable. Totally unbelievable!"
"You're going to say it transcends all the normal laws of physics," the Doctor said with a grin.
"I am, yes. I mean, it does. It's preposterous!"
"Isn't it? I often think dimensional transcendentalism is preposterous, but it works. Would you like to look around?"
"May I?" Scarman asked excitedly.
"Please."
Scarman ran off to explore the TARDIS and the Doctor walked over to the console, looking over the computer and checking a few monitors. I wandered on over to stand next to him and leaned forward, placing my chin in my hands and resting my elbows on the console. The Doctor looked over at me and smiled.
"Your head hurting at all?" he asked.
I shook my head and smiled. "Not really. I haven't noticed anything, at least."
"We should get the gash cleaned up, though." He bent over and looked under the console. "I think I have some bandages or a kit or something lying around somewhere."
"It's not exactly going to be under the console, is it?" I teased.
The TARDIS whirred and flashed her overhead lights. I looked up at the ceiling, then across the room to the doors where she was shining a light. A yard away from Sarah's feet was a red first aide kit that had no doubt been provided by the ship. Sarah picked it up and handed it to the Doctor, who immediately began cleaning me up.
"Well now we are here, why don't you tune up 1980 and we can, well, leave?" Sarah suggested.
The Doctor finished cleaning my cut and tossed the dirty cotton into the red box. "I can't," he told her as he grabbed a band-aid and a skin colored bandage.
"Ah. Why can't you?"
The Doctor applied the band-aid to the worst part of the cut and then glanced at Sarah. "Because if Sutekh isn't stopped, he'll destroy the world."
"But he didn't, did he? I mean, we know the world didn't end in 1911."
"Time can be rewritten," I muttered as the Doctor finished wrapping the bandage around my head.
"What do you mean?"
I pursed my lips. "I mean that time can be rewritten. To the three of us, the world never ended in whatever year this is. But if we were to leave now and not stop Sutekh, then the world as we know it now would no longer exist."
"How can you be sure? I mean, maybe you're wrong this time," Sarah tried.
The Doctor ran his thumb across my cheek and smiled briefly at me before turning back to Sarah. "All right. If we leave now, let's see what the world will look like in 1980." He set the first aide kit on the floor and set the coordinates for Earth, 1980.
Scarman reappeared in the console room then, his face lit up like a Christmas tree. "I say, this is like something by that novelist chap, Mr Wells!"
The TARDIS, oddly enough, didn't wheeze or groan when she dematerialized or rematerialized. The Doctor flipped a lever and the doors opened to reveal a desolate wasteland plagued by harsh winds and dirt storms. Blue lighting crackled towards the horizon as Sarah stepped towards the doors in shock. Scarman and I walked over to her side and looked out of the doors in shock.
The Doctor sighed lightly. "1980, Sarah, if you want to get off." When she didn't say anything, he closed the doors again and sent the ship back to Sutekh's time.
"It's a trick!" Sarah cried.
The Doctor shook his head. "No, Sarah. That's the world as Sutekh would leave it. A desolate planet circling a dead sun."
"It can't be! I'm from 1980."
"Every point in time has its alternative, Sarah. You've looked into alternative time."
Scarman looked stunned. "Fascinating," he muttered. "Do you mean the future can be chosen, Doctor?"
"Not chosen, shaped," he clarified. "The actions of the present fashion the future."
"So a man can change the course of history?"
"To a small extent. It takes a being of Sutekh's almost limitless power to destroy the future."
"But," I added with a half smile, "you're still right in a way. For example, if I wanted to change somebody's future, I theoretically could if I went about it the right way. Sometimes all it takes is a determined mind."
The Doctor nodded, apparently agreeing with me since he didn't say anything otherwise. "Well, Sarah?"
The young woman had a very determined look on her face. "We've got to go back."
The Time Lord smiled, looking almost relieved, and nodded. "Yes."
We materialized back at the mansion, then left through the window and ran off for the cottage that Warlock had been left in to recover. The Doctor told me that the cottage was where they had found Scarman and that so far, it was safe from Sutekh. But when we reached the cottage, we were met with the dead body of Warlock who had been strangled.
Sarah covered Warlock's body with a blanket, a saddened look on her face as she looked at the man's face for a last time. I felt a twinge of guilt in my chest; I had tried to save his life just hours before and now he was dead. Seeing him so pale and lifeless was very sobering.
"I can't believe that my brother. He and Doctor Warlock were the closest of friends," Scarman sighed in disbelief.
"Well, if you can stop thinking of him as your brother it'll make it a great deal easier for you," the Doctor suggested.
"But he is my brother!"
The Doctor shook his head. "From the moment he entered Sutekh's tomb he became subject to Sutekh's will."
"What does that mean?"
"That your brother isn't alive anymore," I interjected. "Your brother was dead the moment he entered that tomb. Now he's a slave to Sutekh's will."
Scarman turned to the Doctor. "Is that true, Doctor?" he asked.
The Time Lord nodded. "Yes. As a human being, Marcus Scarman no longer exists. He is simply the embodiment of Sutekh's power. He's given the paralyzed Sutekh arms and legs, a means to escape."
"If Sutekh is so totally evil, why didn't Horus and the other Osirans destroy him?" Sarah asked as she sat down at the chair by the fireplace.
The Doctor sat down at the chair in front of the table and began working on the contraption there. "It's against their code. To have killed him would have meant that they were no better than he, so they simply imprisoned him."
"How?"
"A forcefield, controlled from a power source on Mars."
"Mars?" Scarman repeated incredulously.
I thought he didn't know Sutekh was on Mars? I thought to myself. I'll have to ask after he fixes this machine.
"Yes. That's where the signal was beamed from, remember?"
"But how?"
"When your brother stumbled into Sutekh's tomb, the monitoring system on Mars detected the fact and triggered off an alarm signal," the Doctor explained.
Sarah suddenly gasped from her seat. "The rocket those robots are building!" she exclaimed.
The Doctor nodded gravely. "Yes. Will be aimed at the power source on Mars. If those warheads reach their target, Sutekh will have released himself."
"To destroy the world?" Scarman asked.
"Not only this world. Anywhere that life is found. Right. All I need now is a magneto."
Scarman nodded. "A magneto. Of course," he trailed off as he walked to the back of the room to a large cupboard.
"What's a magneto?" I asked. "I'm guessing it's not a Marvel supervillain."
The Doctor glanced up at me, taking a short break from his work. "It's an electrical generator that uses magnets to create periodic pulses of alternating current."
"Right. I was with you for most of that."
Sarah came up beside me and leaned against the table. "So what are you going to do?" she asked.
The Doctor lowered his voice. "If I can block the mental beam, Scarman will collapse."
"You mean die?"
"Well, he's not alive now in any real sense. Only Sutekh animates him. Deprived of his outside contact, Sutekh'll be as powerless as the day Horus left him."
"You know he'll try and stop you," I added.
The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "Who?"
Scarman came up between the Doctor and I, what I guessed was a magneto cupped in his palm. "Here you are, Doctor."
"Splendid."
The Doctor took the tool and quickly began attaching it to the contraption. He had just finished when a scream sounded outside the cottage. Scarman shot up from his chair and looked at us in alarm.
"What was that?" he asked fearfully.
Then, without another word, Scarman grabbed his rifle from by the door and ran outside. I ran to the window to peek outside between the curtains while Sarah and the Doctor and Sarah rushed to the door. An older man was trapped between two mummies who were crushing him with their chests. Scarman shot his rifle at the mummies, making them pull away from the man who had collapsed on the ground.
The Doctor grabbed Scarman by the neck of his coat and pulled him back. Scarman stumbled into the cottage, letting his rifle clattering on the floor beside the door. The Doctor then came running in with Sarah on his heels.
"Quick, Sarah, switch on the power!" the Doctor shouted.
Scarman cried out and grabbed Sarah from behind. "No, no, you'll destroy my brother!"
I hit the man on the junction of his neck and shoulder with my hand and he stumbled back in shock, releasing Sarah.
"Switch on!" the Doctor ordered.
Just as the mummies burst through the front door, Sarah threw the lever down and the machine started. The Doctor pushed me back and stood in front of me with his arms raised. He was easily shoved aside by one of the mummies, who then began to advance on me. To my right, Scarman was pushed onto the couch where Warlock's body lay.
"Sarah, look out!" I warned.
The mummy who had attacked the Doctor grabbed me by the throat and lifted me into the air. I was then tossed across the room and thrown into the wall. I cried out in pain when my knee cracked loudly and then made contact with a desk as I fell onto the floor.
"Doctor!" Sarah screamed. "Doctor! Doctor!"
I lifted my head to see Sarah pinned against the table, a mummy leaning over her with its hand wrapped around her throat. I struggled to my feet, gasping when my leg nearly gave out beneath me. Sarah was still trapped underneath the mummy and I hobbled to her aide as fast as I could.
"Let her go!" I shouted as I punched the mummy in the back of the head. "Let her go!"
A/N: I finished this at about 4 in the morning, so I may have missed a few sections of editing. I'm not quite sure. Anyway, I'm sorry again for taking so long. But I finally found my inspiration again and have some interesting ideas planned for the future.