Chapter 35

Someone tried to rush the albatross man. He turned his attention to them.

With him distracted, the Doctor launched herself forward. She didn't even bother to dislodge the person leaning on her back first. With them as extra weight, she knocked the albatross man over when she rammed him, and all three of them hit the ground.

The albatross man pointed his gun at her face.

"Oh no you don't."

The Doctor grabbed it, hand actually going over the opening. It would sure hurt if he fired. Luckily, he didn't. She was pushing it away, and he was too busy fighting for control to fire. But it was a losing battle. He was physically stronger.

Then a knife was suddenly pointed at the albatross man's neck. "Alright. That's enough. Hold up everyone. I don't want trouble. I'm here to help."

The Doctor slowly lifted her head and looked at the pigeon person in front of her. "Pess. What are you . . . ?"

"Here to help, as I said. Because . . . I think you have a point, and I'm listening. I can free everyone else's neck with this button."

She pulled a device out of her pocket. At this point they'd attracted attention from the people working in the kitchen, though they couldn't slow down to watch with the retraining bolts still on.

"That's efficient," the Doctor said. Better than going one at a time with her sonic.

"Yes. But, if we're going to their base to make peace, I don't want everyone coming with us yet. They won't be interested in peace if we give them such an obvious advantage, just capturing or killing as many people as they can."

"That's not how we do things here." The Doctor couldn't just leave them in the bird people's base.

"Actually Doctor, that might be best."

The Doctor turned around. Anthony had spoken.

He continued. "We're all rather tired, and could probably use some food and rest. If she frees us, I'd say that's a good sign you can negotiate peace without all of us. At least, provided you'll be there Doctor. Just don't expect us to stick around and be imprisoned again."

The Doctor looked at Pess, who was leading the albatross away. She looked at the people she'd already freed, who seemed to agree with Anthony, and the people still working who looked very much like they were ready to stop.

Well, she could see their point, and whether she agreed or not she had to free the remaining people soon.

"Okay," she said, looking at Pess. "Just the two of us and Anthony then."

Pess looked a little skeptical, but pressed the button, and seemed to lose a lot of tension in her body as she did so.

"Right. This way," the Doctor said, standing up and hanging a left.

"Uh, Doctor, the exit's that way?" Pess said, pointing right with both fingers.

"Yes, but I've got two friends I'm looking for, and I know one of them's back this way."

Luckily, Pess followed her without question. The Doctor had had a long day, and would really, really like to get to the resolution now. Pess had captured her and Lilly, she probably knew who the Doctor was looking for.

They went to the hall the Doctor knew they'd taken Lilly through. The two walked forward, Pess staying silent behind her. Then they stepped off the platform.

"What have you done?" Pess asked.

The room looked a little like it had held a battle in it. The table was flipped up. Papers and cloth were fluttering, torn up, around the room. There was a knife embedded in the wall. And most importantly there were several injured or dead bird people in the room.

Lilly was talking to one of them. It looked like she was trying to help with his wound, but he kept moving back. Pride was by the wall. He'd taken part of the wall off and was looking at the controls to the tunnels. Though from how still he was, and how blank his expression was, he had no idea what he was looking for.

They both turned when the Doctor entered the room.

"Doctor!" Lilly cried, running over. She began rambling about what had happened. She bounced around a bit, speaking without thinking, but the Doctor got the idea.

Pride was less chatty. He just turned to her with a resigned, but genuine smile. (It seemed to be his most common type of smile.)

"So, just to make things clear, you were both chained up to be executed, and escaped because Pride got the cult to fight over leadership?" the Doctor asked.

Lilly's jaw snapped shut. "Yeah, that sums it up."

The Doctor turned to Pess. "It's true. Lilly doesn't really fight and Pride can't hurt or kill anyone. Any violence in this room had to have come from the cult itself."

"Not to mention Ther's been orchestrating the war to stay in power," Pride added with a shrug.

"What?" Pess and the Doctor chorused.

"Ther's been keeping the war going. I overheard him while he was attacking that other base. He's conspiring with someone on their side, Ella, to keep the battles going while no one ever wins the war."

"What?" Pess gasped, eyes going wide.

"You accepted that easily."

"None of us really thought much of the cult, the way they behave. But I never thought. . ."

"If Ther and Ella set this up, we better get back to the Kinnome base," the Doctor said. She turned to Pride. "Could you recognize her?"

"Oh definitely."

"Then let's go."

[Not exactly happy with this chapter, but too drained to keep working on it.]