A/N: Hey, I am sorry for the length of time that it has taken me to post this chapter. There has been a lot going on with work and such so I've not had that much free time. The time I have had, I have spent catching up on my sleep. This is one of the reasons why shall apologise for any spelling mistakes and grammatical errors that I know I have missed.
There were several things that were running through Kari's mind. Adrian, the man who had saved her, was actually the Emperor, not Nero, his little brother. It was also his sister that was missing. But most of all, her friends were apparently locked in the dungeon, a man and a woman. "The Doctor and Clara." She managed to whisper through her shock.
Adrian and Nero both stopped their bickering and looked at her. "I was informed of the arrival of two strangers, the pair spoke of someone who they had left behind, who they couldn't contact." Adrian told her, trying his best to explain what had happened. "I figured that there was someone out there still, a stranger who had no idea where they were or what was going on, and possibly in some trouble."
"Wow, you got that spot on." Kari replied, a hint of surprise on her face. "I was definitely lost with no plan, and when that Warper showed up, I was certainly in trouble. Lots of trouble." She still couldn't believe that she hadn't noticed it before, the fact that both of them look so similar.
"Unlike my dear brother here, I decided not to jump to conclusions. Can I assume that these friends of yours are not Monster Hunters? I know that there is a rather large galactic reward for that beast we have. However, those hunters have only ever brought us trouble, and the left us with more problems than anything else." The look in Adrian's eyes was a pleading one. He was pleading for her to tell him that they weren't hunters, that they were not there to cause trouble. If they were, then his brother would have been right to have them locked away.
Quickly, she shook her head. "Nope, not Monster Hunters. The Doctor does have a habit of attracting trouble, but he really does have the best of intentions." Even though she was still upset with him slightly, she would still defend him. After all, at the end of the day, he was still the Doctor, and even if he was a more difficult man now, he would always be there for her. "We didn't come here to cause trouble, we came here to help."
Nero slumped down in his chair, feeling defeated. "Fine. go and get your friends." He mumbled, poking at the food on his plate with the fork he had just picked up.
But Kari wasn't ready to go just yet, she still had a few questions for the acting Emperor. "You never answered his question." She said, surprising him a little. "Why were they thrown into the cells while I get the comfort of sitting here and being served food and drink?"
A nervous look crossed his face, as his older brother gazed at him, waiting for his response. "Well, you see… the thing is…" It was clear he didn't have a valid excuse, he was tripping all over his words and turning bright red in the process.
A smirk stretched across Adrian's face. "You were trying to impress her, wasn't you?" His comment just made the younger man turn a deeper shade of red.
Kari, however, was keeping a neutral expression on her face. Of course, she was flattered that he wanted to impress her, then again, she was also a little freaked out by it. "Why, Nero? Why were you trying to impress me?" She really did want answers, and she wanted to know more about that Warper. That would have to wait, she would have to get the Doctor and Clara out before the three of them worked out what the Warper really was.
Nero let out a sigh and put the fork back on the plate. "I spend all my time here, seeing the same faces day after day. I'm not allowed out of the palace, and sometimes it gets a little… lonely." Kari had a pretty good idea she knew where things were heading. "I just wanted someone to talk to, not to impress, but to be my friend. I don't exactly have many friends in here."
"You went about it all the wrong way, Nero." Kari told him softly. "If you want to make friends, you need to just be yourself. Putting on a show really isn't the best way to do things." He looked at her and nodded slightly, a sad look on his face.
"Come, let us go and release your friends." Adrian called from beside her, holding a hand out towards her and waiting to help her stand. "I will apologise to them and explain the situation. Hopefully they will be able to help us with our problem."
Without a word, the pair of them headed down to the dungeon. Kari was actually slightly nervous, she didn't know what kind of mood that Doctor was going to be in and if he was going to start scolding her for not going back to the TARDIS like she said she was going to. She didn't want him to be upset with her, but she was very worried that he would be.
As the door to the cells opened, an icy blast of air swept across her face, causing her to shiver. "I promise you, your friends have not been harmed. I came down here myself a short time ago to check on them, they both seemed all right, apart from the arguing over something." There was assurance in his voice, as well as annoyance. Adrian was annoyed at his brother for what he had done, for the suspicion that drifted through his people every single day.
"Honestly, I'm surprised that the Doctor hasn't tried to break out yet. He's usually very good at things like that, locks." Kari had been wondering why he was still in a cell when he could have gotten out of there in just a matter of seconds with his sonic screwdriver.
"Well, that all depends on the tools he has with him. He was stripped of his jacket and other personal belongings before my brother had him thrown in the cells. The same for the woman that was with him." that explained everything to Kari, the Doctor didn't have his screwdriver, he didn't have his bottomless pockets, he didn't have any little tricks up his sleeve. "They will be returned to them both, of course."
Kari couldn't help but smile a little. Adrian was so different to his brother, he was more accepting, more trusting, and much less uptight. Then again, he was older, he had a lot more experience with life and people. "I'm sure he'll be glad to have it all back."
"I'm sure he'll be glad to have you back." Adrian commented, a sly smile on his face. Kari was about to question him, to ask him what he meant by that, when he began speaking again. "I may have mentioned that something he lost had been found. He seemed rather keen as to the condition it was in and if it was safe."
Kari couldn't help but frown at him a little. After the words that had been said before she walked off she was sure he would be annoyed with her, angry even, not concerned. "Did he happen to hit his head at any point? You see, I'm pretty confident that he wouldn't be worried about me that much after what had happened."
The pair of them stopped as they reach a large metal door, with two guards standing on either side of it. While they unlocked it, and pulled back the bolts, Adrian continued to explain what he knew of the arrival of the Doctor and Clara. "He was asking about someone when they arrived. The woman was trying to calm him down, telling him that 'she was probably just in the bath' or that 'she doesn't want to talk'. He seemed to be getting rather frustrated about it all."
Immediately, Kari pulled her phone out of her pocket and glanced down at it. "Huh, over a hundred missed calls. All from Clara. Talk about persistent." She muttered to herself, clearing the calls and shoving her phone back into the depths of her pocket. She was curious as to why there were so many calls on her phone, but Kari couldn't dwell on it that long, as they were quickly heading down and into the depths of the dungeon.
Kari couldn't help but notice how dark and quiet it was down there. she had thought, with the Doctor down there somewhere, there would be at least some noise, mainly from him talking or Clara moaning. But there was nothing. "There is nothing to be nervous about." Adrian told her softly, sensing that she was feeling uneasy. "Although they have not been treated with respect by my brother, I can assure you that they have been treated well."
"I'm surprised that the Doctor didn't make a fuss. He likes to be dramatic sometimes, it's just who he is, and he can be so brilliant when he's being dramatic at times." A smile stretched across her face as she said that. "And bossy. He can definitely be bossy. Honestly, it doesn't matter where we are, he just walks around as if he owns the place."
"It sounds like you care for him a great deal." The man walking next to her said, taking her by surprise. "He must be a very special man."
"He's a great big pain in the backside who is always causing trouble and getting into trouble. But I suppose he is my great big pain in the backside." Kari said, not realising that they had stopped walking.
"And here I was, all ready to apologise, I don't think I'll bother now." A very familiar voice called through the darkness and behind the metal bars. "You get into trouble a lot more than I do."
The Doctor may have sounded angry and annoyed, but Kari knew he better. He was glad to see her, he just wouldn't admit it, he was too stubborn for that. "Oh, is that right? So, tell me, Doctor, why are you locked up in a cell then? Hmm? Why have I had to come all the way here to save your backside?"
There was a twinkle in her eyes as she looked at him and waiting for him to answer. It was actually kind of fun for her to be able to have a little banter with him, and he could actually see the relief in his eyes that she was now right there in front of him. "I would have gotten out of here eventually, I always do. You're the one that went and got into so much trouble that you had to be rescued by this lad here."
"Yeah, and how do you know that?" Kari said in a rather challenging way. She wasn't sure what Adrian had told the Doctor about how he had found her, but she was hoping that it really wasn't that much. She didn't want him to know that she had gotten lost and had to be rescued like a damsel in distress.
"That would actually be because of me." Adrian admitted, while Kari continued to simply look at the Doctor. She could see that he was perfectly fine inside of that cell, not a mark on him. "I am afraid I may have mentioned that you were a little too close to the Warper."
Kari simply shrugged her shoulders this time. "Oh well, it doesn't matter. You alright, Clara?" She asked, stepping over to the next cell where the woman was anxiously waiting.
"So much better now that you're here." Clara breathed in relief. "We tried calling you, what happened, why didn't you answer any of the calls?" It was clear that she had been worried, and unlike the Doctor, she was going to just come straight out and say what she was thinking.
"Yeah, sorry about that, I was a little busy." Kari replied, as Adrian opened the metal barred door to the cell which was holding Clara inside. "But I'm here now, and you have been rescued." Straight away Clara was hugging her tightly, which took her slightly by surprise.
"Next time, just answer your phone." Clara managed to tell her, before letting her go. "Seriously, just answer your phone, okay? We were both really worried about you."
They heard a coughing coming from over where the Doctor was. "Hello, still locked in a cell here." He called, clearly getting annoyed at how long he was being left in there for. "Could you possibly wait until we are all out of here before having a happy reunion."
Kari couldn't help but let out a sigh. His moods seemed to change so quickly, she didn't know how she was ever going to keep up with them all. "All right, calm down. It's not like we're planning on walking out of here without you, is it?" The look on his face showed that he still wasn't amused, but Kari really didn't care, there was nothing that she could do about it as Adrian unlocked the cell and pulled the metal door open.
The Doctor stormed out of the tiny, damp room and stopped right in front of Kari, his face only inches away from her. Her first instinct was to back away, to take a step back and try to avoid him, but she didn't, she stood her ground. She knew that if she backed away from him now, he was going to just hate her even more and claim that she was scared of him and that she was treating him differently. In all honesty, she was a little scared, because she had no idea what he was going to do next.
"Don't you ever scare me like that again. You never walk away from me again, no matter how angry or upset you are. Is that understood?" He asked her, wagging his finger in her face, talking down to her as if she were a child. In her shock, Kari just nodded back at him, trying to keep herself calm, to breathe normal. "Good." He announced, before grabbing a hold of her hand and heading towards the door that Kari and Adrian had walking in through.
"Uh, okay, where are we going?" Kari asked him, as Clara and Adrian followed behind as she was dragged along.
He didn't stop to explain, he carried on going, but still managed to answer her. "To speak to that little runt of an emperor. Humans, they never listen."
That was when Kari stopped, yanking on the Doctor's hand, forcing him to stop as well. "Uh, that 'little runt' is not the emperor." She informed him, not all that happy about how he had described Nero. "His name is Nero, and he is Regent. He is the emperor." Kari spun around and pointed to Adrian, who stood there scratching his head.
"I think it would be best if we discussed this somewhere more suitable. My brother will be apologising for his behaviour and actions, and he will be dealt with, I assure you." Adrian said, for the first time sounding like he was an emperor. "I hope that you really can help us."
It didn't take them that long to walk back through the stunning palace and to a room where nero was pacing constantly. On the way there Kari had taken the opportunity to take in some of the decor, and she had to admit that she was rather impressed. Tapestries hung from the walls, brightly coloured and trimmed with a golden thread. There was just so much colour everywhere, she didn't really know where to look.
Adrian waited for them all to be sitting down comfortably before he started speaking with them all. Kari was sitting on a rather large, and rather comfy, ruby red sofa, Clara on one side of her, and the Doctor on the other. "Allow me to apologise once more for my brothers unacceptable behaviour. I hope you can find it in you to forgive him." Adrian said, glancing at Kari first, hoping that she would be the one to break the ice.
"I suppose I might be able to forgive him for the way he locked up my friends, but on one condition." The Doctor looked at Kari with curiosity in his eyes. He had no idea what she was playing at, but he really would like to know what it was.
She watched as Adrian raised an eyebrow at her, while Nero just looked on in a bit of a daze. "Oh? And what condition might that be?" Even he was amused.
"Tell us everything you know about the Snow Warper, everything." The moment Kari said that, she noticed Adrian freeze, and Nero flinch. It was clear that it was a subject that they didn't really want to talk about, but there was no way she was going to give up. Kari needed to know what was going on, she needed to know what that thing was that had been chasing after her. And she had to prove to the Doctor that she was not useless.
"It first appeared 48 years ago. Our father had just become Emperor, he was 27 at the time. No one knows how it get here, or why he came here. All we do know is that 48 years ago, people started to disappear. At first, there was confusion and very little panic, people going missing wasn't a very big issue, they usually turned up a day or two later, having gotten lost in the forest." Adrian explained, pacing the room as he spoke. "But more people started disappearing, men, women, children, all just vanishing. He set up a curfew, sent out more men to patrol the street, he warned people not to go anywhere near the forest. They didn't listen to him."
The Doctor snorted a little, and Kari quickly shoved her elbow in his side. "Just shut up and listen, you might learn something." She hissed at him. "You brought us here because of the stories, you came here to investigate, to find out if it was all true and if the monster was real. Well, guess what, Doctor? It is real, and we're about to find out everything about it." He ended up folding his arms in front of his chest and letting out a huff, just to let everyone know that he wasn't entirely happy.
"More people disappeared, it got to the point where a curfew just wasn't enough, and the city gates were closed. No one came in, and no one went out." Adrian stopped and let out a long sigh. It was easy for anyone to see that retelling the entire story was not something he wanted to do. "It wasn't the best idea, we were running out of supplied and resources, we needed to trade, we needed food. Nero was only little when it happened, he doesn't remember much about it, but our father went out with a large group to gather what we needed. He came back a broken man."
Kari could tell by the looks on both their faces as they glanced at each other that it wasn't good. Whatever had happened to their father had been really bad, and she wasn't sure she wanted to hear it all. But she had to. She had something to prove. "What happened, Adrian?" She asked him softly, knowing that she needed to be gentle with the whole thing.
She watched as he let out another long sigh before just collapsing into one of the chairs he had been pacing near. "He was raving about a beast, as big as a house, glossy black skin, and with glowing red eyes. As soon as he started to describe it, those that went with him jumped in, claim to have seen something entirely different. One man saw a giant serpent, with green and black stripes. Another said he saw a dog, with yellow fur, fangs that were dripping with blood, and hollow black eyes." As he described what others had seen, Kari thought back to what he had told her in the forest, how everyone sees something different.
And then it clicked into place. "No one believed any of them." She muttered quietly. "And because no one believed them, they started to question themselves, to question what they had seen. Then, they started to believe the rumours that they were crazy, and started to act that way."
Both Adrian and Nero looked up at her, a hint of surprise in their eyes. "He stopped eating, he stopped caring about everything. Our mother passed away soon after Nero was born, she had been sick for some time and she was taken from us. We needed him, but he turned onto nothing but a shell. He couldn't rule, and eventually he left us as well."
"But there's more, isn't there?" The Doctor announced, just knowing that there was still much more to the tale. "Something else happened, someone else left, someone close to you both." Although Kari wanted to say something, to tell him to be quiet and let adrian finish telling him everything before starting to piece it all together, she didn't. Kari was going to just let him get on with it, because she really didn't want to have another fight with him.
"With our father gone it was down to me to step up as Emperor. I relaxed some of the laws our father had put into place, but the gates were guarded at all times. You may have noticed when you arrive, the guards were watching you. They are always trying to protect the people."
"And they've done a useless job of it!" Nero suddenly shouted, taking everyone by surprise. "If they had been doing their job properly, then she would still be here, safe. They should have recognised her, and stopped her. She should never have been allowed to get out of the palace, let alone the city!" His was bubbling with anger, his fists clenched tightly in his lap. "If they had been doing their job right, Mara would still be here."
The tension was filling the air now, and Clara couldn't help but shift uncomfortably where she was sitting. The Doctor was rather interested in how things were going to play out and what was going to happen next, while Kari was worried about how Adrian was going to react. She knew he was old, he was sensible and thought things through before acting.
They all watched as Adrian pushed himself out of the chair and slowly walked over to his brother. "Mara is just as much to blame as they are." He said quietly as he approached Nero. "We both warned her, we both caught her sneaking out several times. She listened to no one, not even you. The pair of you were always causing trouble, but Mara was always worst than you."
"You don't even care, do you? You don't give a damn that our sister was taken!" Nero screamed, launching himself at his brother. "She went out and never came back, but you don't care, do you? One less person for you to worry about." The final thread had broken, the tension having become too much.
To Kari's surprise, the Doctor had quickly grabbed hold of her and pulled her a little closer to him. He seemed to be trying to protect her while the two men had a bit of a scuffle. Nero was releasing all that built up anger against Adrian, who was just standing there, letting his brother try to beat him.
The Doctor leaned a little closer to Kari and quietly spoke to her. "Maybe we should take this as our cue to leave." It was plain to see that he was feeling rather uncomfortable still, especially with the way that Nero kept on screaming and shouting at his Adrian.
"No, just give them a minute, Doctor. They've lost their sister, I think this is something that was a long time coming." Even she could see that it was something that hadn't really been talking about properly by the two. Adrian had his own way of dealing with things, and Nero just didn't like it.
She had been right. A few minutes later and Nero had broken down and was sobbing on the floor. Kari managed to get herself away from the Doctor and knelt on the floor herself, doing what she could to console the upset man. "It's all right, Nero, we are going to help you." She assured him, glancing over at the Doctor, hoping that he would back her up.
The Doctor sat there and brushed some non existent dust off his jacket. "Missing people, a monster that is always different. It could be a shapeshifter, or using a perception filter."
Adrian couldn't help but chuckle a little, causing Clara and the Doctor to look at him. "Miss Kari said almost the same thing, about the monster that is."
"Did she now? Well, she did learn from the best. Now, if you lads have finished messing around, we have a monster to catch." Kari could see the twinkle in the Doctor eyes now, and she knew that he was going to help them.
Kari had been so surprised by what had happened next. The Doctor had jumped into action and began gathering more information, decoding it, trying to work everything out. He had questioned both the men, and they barely even had time to register what was going on before the Doctor decided that he had a plan.
"What did you see?" The Doctor asked her as they headed out of the palace and back through the city, Adrian following close behind with a few of his guards. "When you were chased by that creature, what did you see?"
"Uh, well, it had white fur, I think." She told him, trying to recall what she had seen. "I just saw a big, moving, white mass of fur. It didn't seem right, Doctor, I couldn't see any eyes, or work out anything else about it. There was no real shape to it, no hands or feet or claws or anything like that." Kari still wasn't sure of what she had really seen, there was something about it that she couldn't trust. "It was wrong, Doctor, it was so wrong."
A smile seemed to stretch across his face. "Good. Trust nothing that you see when you look at it. Whatever it is, you're smarter, it wasn't able to change your perception like everyone else." He actually seemed rather proud of her for that, which was something else that surprised her.
"And is that because of how special I am, Doctor?" Kari asked him, a little bit of cheek in her voice. It seemed that he was forgetting what had happened when they had left the TARDIS, at least for now he was forgetting. But she was glad about that, because she really hated fighting with him with any version of him.
"No. Yes, of course it is. You are the most impossible woman in the entire cosmos, of course you see things differently. You can see things that haven't even happened yet, you know people who haven't even been born. Nothing about you has ever made sense." Kari couldn't help but frown a little at the Doctor's little speech. It wasn't exactly comforting, the way he was speaking about her, it was making her feel a little uncomfortable. "But that is the best thing about you."
"I'm not sure whether I should be flattered or upset." Kari admitted to him. It was still hard for her, she was still trying to figure him out, to work out how they were going to fit together, if things were always going to be bad between them. Of course, things had been pretty bad with her big eared leather jacket wearing Doctor, but that was so much better now. They were better.
"You should be flattered. Now, come on, we have a monster to hunt down." He told her, before grasping her hand tightly and pulling her out of the city gates, calling back to Clara who was chatting away to Adrian. He had his Kari back, and she was safe. He could stop worrying about her now, now that she was there beside him. Everything else could wait, he would be able to apologise to her once they had helped, once they had found out what that monster really was. He would fix everything, just like he knew he could.
A/N: Again, I am sorry for how long this chapter took. I know where this is going, and things will get better, I promise. I have a few episodes planned after this story is done, so I'm hoping that will help to bring back my mojo. I have spent the weekend watching Doctor Who, in fact I am still watching it now. I really hope that this is going to help.
I will try my best to get the next chapter finished as soon as I can, but I still have a lot going on in my life and I have no idea how long this is going to carry on for. On the up side, I have got a weeks holiday coming up at the end of May. Oh, I also have a wedding to attend, which I am bridesmaid for. This is how hectic my life is getting right now.
Time for me to stop moan. Thank you to everyone who has stuck by me through everything, the good and the bad, I really do appreciate it. I know that there have been times when my writing has lacked that special something, but I promise you I am trying to find it again. I'm sure I saw it hiding under my bed the other day...
Well, until the next time...
Pippa.