Wolves would always seek out a hiding spot they knew well and felt safe in whenever they became frightened enough to flee.
The Doctor knew exactly where he would find Peter and didn't need to consider the possibility of any other options as to where the Nimarian might have gone. There was only one place that bore any familiarity and could remove him as much as possible from what had happened in the blossoming woodlands of the Naksan Temple.
It was cool and dark in the console room of the TARDIS against the golden warmth of the morning sunshine outside. Only the minimal lighting had been left switched on and the soft green glow coming from beneath the hexagonal-shaped control panel was illuminating the transdimensional room as a quiet humming din filled the otherwise silent air.
Peter was perched on the very edge of the cushioned pilot seat with a blank stare and tense jawline.
He didn't look up when the Doctor walked in through the door and neither did his scowling expression soften when he began to make his way over to him. Stopping next to the control console and leaning against it, the Time Lord casually tucked his hands into his trouser pockets before waiting patiently do see whether the younger man would respond to his presence. As the seconds ticked by in complete silence, however, it became clear that he wasn't going to be the one to speak up first.
"I like to think that I know you well enough by now, Peter." The Doctor stated. "For instance, I know that there are very few things in the universe that scare you."
Peter didn't budge an inch and the only acknowledgement he gave to show that he'd heard him at all was the movement of his brilliant silver eyes as they flickered upwards to look at him. There was a challenging hint to them that could have unnerved even the most terrifying of aliens and creatures.
The Doctor merely smiled back at the hostile glare and carried on in the hope of disarming the rattled wolf. "You've faced ice warriors and big bloodsucking bat creatures from outer space without even so much as flinching." He continued. "Not to mention those nasty Vurdraids with the giant stingers back in Austria?"
"What's your point, Doctor? Or are you just stand there quoting my entire service record back to me?"
"My point is, Peter." The Time Lord responded. "You don't jump at shadows or run away from monsters. So what did you see that's making that hand tremble so much?"
Not even realising that his left hand had begun to shake, Peter balled it up into a fist to make it stop. Sitting up a little straighter and taking in a deep breath, he still couldn't make complete sense of what it was he had seen for himself. There wasn't any point pretending that the Doctor or Rose would be fooled into thinking that he had merely passed out from the overwhelming scent of the Matcha tea either.
The hot beverage might have made him dizzy, but Bodhi had been right about it having the power to reveal what was hidden away in his subconscious.
But the nightmare that had emerged as a result of his awakened state was something that he didn't want to discuss with anyone right now, even as it played over and over again in his head on repeat. This was no dream concocted by his worst fears or remnants of things he'd rather forget being distorted and stitched back together again. It was an entirely new memory, the brutality of which he understood without having to ask for an interpretation as to its meaning.
"I heard the sonic screwdriver buzzing away." He questioned. "You were scanning me, weren't you? Whilst I was out cold?"
"I did. Yes."
"Find anything interesting? Or were you just being curious?"
The Doctor knew that Peter sneering tone wasn't intentional and the real problem here was no longer trying to figure out what had caused him to pass out in the first place. Seeing the Nimarian was fiddling with his ring again, the Time Lord watched for a moment as the luminescent blue moonstone shone against the dim lighting of the console room. The two distinctive darker circles that gave away their Valerian origin were just about visible from where he was stood opposite him.
"You almost transformed in your wolf form out of fear, Peter." He told him seriously. "For that to happen… What did you see?"
The unfamiliar room and the women flashed crossed Peter's eyes again, as did the man who was dressed all in black. He could hear her screams and muffled cried as she fought for her life, and he was powerless to anything else other than watch the murder unfold as no one came to help in her last few terrifying moments…
He couldn't keep it a secret any longer. He might start screaming himself if he did.
"There was this woman…" He began. "Someone I've never seen before. Standing in a room I've never been in."
Stand up straight and crossing his arms across his chest, both the Doctor's concern and curiosity had peaked now, and he couldn't help but press Peter into revealing more.
"What happened to this woman?"
"She was murdered, Doctor," Peter admitted. "Suffocated to death by a man whose face I couldn't see."
Any remaining traces of hostility faded away with this final confession of what he had seen. But the Doctor could see that Peter's anger had been replaced with the fear of not yet being able to understand why these terrible images had suddenly found their way into his head. Was it his memory to begin with? If it was, then when might have witnessed such an event given he had only just recalled seeing it right now?
But this wasn't the most important thing to consider for the moment.
Whilst Peter wasn't new to death and the most horrible of sights given his career working for UNIT, such experiences and nightmarish scenarios could still easily break through all of the barricades his vast experience and training had managed to build up around his ordinarily ironclad state of mind.
"I'm sorry." The Doctor told him sincerely. "It must have felt so real and -"
"It was real." Peter snapped back. "I know that sounds mad. But it happened, and I was there. She was killed and I couldn't do anything about it even as I watched… Christ! He strangled the life out of her, Doctor, and I couldn't do anything about it!"
He was more upset with himself and not being able to help her more than from the trauma of what he'd seen. But even this hadn't been enough to frighten him into seeking out shelter within the quiet confines of the TARDIS' vast interior. There was another reason entirely as to why this woman's death had affected him so much, and both he and the Doctor knew it.
Feeling the tattered cushion of the benched seat dip down slightly as the Time Lord sat down next to him, Peter allowed him to be the first to acknowledge this out loud.
"Her death isn't what scared you." He realised. "Because you're wrong, Peter. You have been in that room and seen that woman before her dying moments. You just didn't remember either of them until now."
Peter's rate of breathing had hitched and was becoming shallower and quicker. He still didn't want to admit the truth to himself or anyone else about how this was possible and the time in his life where this place and person had existed. It had been so many years and he'd never imagined ever being able to recall anything from his brief life there.
But to say the name out loud made it all the more real that this murder really did happen in front of him.
"Valerus." He hissed. "It happened on Valerus."
The Doctor gently rested his hand on Peter's shoulder and nodded grimly.
"By the sounds of it, I think so." He agreed. "Nimarians are more than capable of forming memories that young, and the worst ones always seem to stay with us."
"Why? Why has it taken this long for me to remember any of it? Why now, after so many years?"
Standing back up and turning around to face him, the Time Lord understood that they might never find out why Peter's subconsciousness had chosen today to release these images. With or without the Matcha tea, they could have easily come back to him at any moment. After all, the brain was a delicate thing and not a single species in the universe could claim to know how it worked in its entirety.
"Those aren't the right questions to asking yourself right now." He told him kindly. "You know where and when this happened, Peter. The real question is, what do you want to do about it?"
Peter looked up at him as though he hadn't even thought that there was anything to be done at all, let alone that it was his choice to make in the first place. But what could be done in all seriousness? Was the Doctor proposing that they travel back and prevent the murder from happening? No, that would be a bad idea. Peter had watched enough time travel films to know that changing your own past only make things in the present much worse.
There was a soft creak as the door of the TARDIS swung open.
"Sorry," Rose apologised as she stepped inside. "I didn't know if..."
"It's fine, Rose." The Doctor told her. "Come in."
Making sure the voluminous folds of her skirt was clear of the doorway before closing the door behind her, she picked up the hem of her dress and walked up the ramp towards the raised platform that housed the control console. The Doctor and Peter were on the opposite side of it to her and Rose was pleased to see that soldier no longer looked as though he might throw up or faint any moment.
"Are you okay?" She asked him. "You had us all really worried back there."
"I'm fine." He told her. "I just erm… Something's come up and I need…"
He still didn't know what to do about any of this. Was he going to simply ignore what he'd seen and pretend as though it had never happed? Should he just take some time to clear his head and maybe they could travel somewhere else in the meantime? Should he go back to Earth and… No, definitely not that.
"Well, we don't need to decide anything right now." The Doctor assured. "Maybe we should go somewhere else? You know, we've not made it to Barcelona yet. Have we Rose?"
Sensing this as an attempt to keep the mood light and distract Peter from wherever had caused him to be so badly shaken up, Rose smiled back with deliberate brightness and positivity. Perhaps a trip somewhere new was just what they all needed, and the Time Lord had been promising her this trip ever since he had regenerated into the man he was today.
"At last! You've been promising me a trip there for ages!" She cheered. "It's a planet, Peter. Not the city."
Beaming back at Rose's excitement, the Doctor reached over and placed his hand on the first of the controls he'd need to use in order to pilot the TARDIS. He and Rose had already said their goodbyes to Bou and the other monks, and the spiritual men would understand their desire to leave after the morning's turn of events. They could always travel back to a later year and explore Sokcho in all of its imperial glory and…
"We need to go to Valerus."
Peter responded with an irritated frown as his decision was met with significant surprise.
"Valerus?" Rose asked him. "You mean the planet where…"
The penny dropped as realisation dawned upon her face. Not feeling obliged to explain himself any further for the moment, Peter focused his attention squarely on the Time Lord. He knew as much as he did about why they had to go there, and it shouldn't have come as a shock to discover that the journey back to the planet of his birth simply couldn't wait until after they'd explored some other rather unoriginally named world.
It was a small wonder that the Doctor hadn't suggested it himself given he had been trying to persuade Peter to go there almost from the moment they had met.
"As I said, we don't have to make any decisions right now." He reasoned. "Why don't we go to Barcelona and figure things out after that."
But once Peter Argent set his mind on doing something, there was no force in the universe that was capable of changing it. As the Nimarian stood up and folded his arms across his chest, it was abundantly clear now that the trip to the planet of Barcelona was once more going to have to wait for another time.
"You said know me, Doctor? Well, then you'll know that I am not going to let this lie. I am going to find out what happened to that woman and why she had to die." He told the Time Lord. "Besides, wasn't it a condition of yours that I go to Valerus at least once whilst I'm here?"
"Yes, I remember. Just as it was one of yours that you only go when you were ready."
But Peter was ready and more than willing to go.
A horrible murder that had taken place over two decades ago without any evidence save for a foggy memory? The Doctor should have been jumping at the chance to investigate it even if it had nothing to do with any of them. This was especially so given the Time Lord had proven his thirst for adventure and trouble on multiple occasions already.
So why, when this heinous crime had such a personal connection, was he hesitating to go?
"I am ready," Peter growled back. "Because that woman died protecting me and I cannot shake the thought of it out of my head. There is every chance she could be my biological mother, and if that is the first thing in my life that I can remember now then I am going catch the person responsible for her death. He is not going to get away with it, Doctor. So take me to Valerus, right now!"
The echoing remnants of his vengeful snarls bounded off the curved walls of the TARDIS and lingering in the air for a few more seconds. Peter's eyes had flooded with a yellow light that had shone in the darkness of the console room like a minute pair of car headlights. His anger and cause of it were completely justified, of course, and neither one of the two people stood before him were going to question it. But some caution had to be applied here. After all, this all did happen over two decades ago and they didn't even know where or when specifically on Valerus to even begin their search.
Rose had every sympathy for Peter.
A cold shiver suddenly ran up her spine as she recalled the moments leading up to her dad being hit by that car. The sound of metal hitting bone would live with her forever, and that had been an accident turned into an act of self-sacrifice on Pete Tyler's part to save them all from those Reapers, and not a coldblooded murder that might have befallen his mother.
"I'm sorry." The Doctor apologised. "You're right, Peter. I didn't think about that."
The acknowledgement of this was enough to calm the Nimarian down enough so that his eyes turned back to grey. Drawing in a deep breath, he held his hands up apologetically and was quick to admit that shouting at either the Doctor or Rose wasn't going to help any of them or the woman back on Valerus of the past at all.
"I'm sorry too." He replied. "It just makes me so angry that he could have gotten away with it. This could be the whole reason why I was sent away in the first place."
The Doctor decided not to remind Peter that the craft which had brought him all the way from Valerus to Earth should have technically not been able to undertake such a journey in the first place. Without seeing the escape pod for himself, he was still almost certain that the escape pad did not have the power or structural integrity to withstand such a trip through space. Something else entirely was going on there that had nothing to do with this murder…
"You were only three months old. There was nothing you could have done."
The Doctor could see determination flooding through the Nimarian as it washed away any lingering bouts of fear or worry. The decision had been made and Peter was determined to face what awaited him and the killer in his past that had potentially robbed him of another life. Nothing was going to persuade him to think otherwise.
"Well, I'm not a child anymore." He bit back fiercely. "There is plenty I can do about it now. So take me to Valerus."
But as the Doctor turned around and pulled down the first of many levers, he couldn't help but think that this was a bad idea.