It was the size of a Shetland pony.
Underneath a glossy coat of charcoal-black fur were four powerful legs. The impressive muscles tensed tightly as the wolf crouched low towards the ground, its hackles raised all the way along its spine.
The pure and unrestricted fury coursing through the animal's shimmering yellow eyes was plain to see.
It was almost impossible to comprehend that such a unique gaze had belonged to Peter Argent just moments ago. Within the blink of an eye, he had transformed himself into a proud and dangerous beast that Rose would actually agree with the Doctor in being called beautiful.
Karina was both astounded and intrigued. But she was not yet frightened of him.
"Well now, look at you." She marvelled. "Not so much of a mutt after all."
It all happened so quickly after that.
The alien turned away from Rose, no longer interested in devouring her, and took a few tentative steps towards the wolf. What was left of Jane Wilson's appearance finally faded away as the monster hidden beneath emerged in its entirety. Karina then charged at Peter without warning, her long limbs covering the distance between them within seconds.
Stomping one of his huge paws down on the ground, Peter let out a roaring howl that reverberated all around the cave and stopped her dead in her tracks.
"Oh, that is magnificent!" The Doctor laughed. "Just look at him!"
Skirting around the two powerful shape-shifters, he had joined up with Rose and Stefan to watch from a safe distance.
Rose still couldn't believe what she was seeing. How had Peter managed to become something else entirely with such ease? Had it been that simple and quick for the creatures to transform? Was Peter even still in charge, or had the animal now completely taken over his consciousness? As strong as he looked, was he powerful enough to defeat Karina?
None of these questions made it out of her mouth, however.
"That's Peter!" She gasped. "Oh my god, that's Peter!"
The standoff did not last long. Peter and Karina came crashing together in a tangled mess of snapping jaws and deadly claws. Both of them were capable of inflicting serious damage to one another, and they were not merely sparring. This was a fight to the death.
The noise was simply deafening and there was no way of telling what the outcome was going to be.
Stefan was quickly becoming frustrated at not being able to do anything to help. Forced to stand on the sidelines he had resorted to shouting both encouragement and advice to his friend.
"Come on, Peter." He called out. "Pin her down. Go for the throat!"
The corporal hadn't even flinched at the sight of Peter's transformation. There was little to doubt that he had seen it before given how long he had known him and how equally secretive he had been over any signs of the lieutenant's alien nature.
"So, I guess I was right on all accounts." The Doctor mused. "How long have you…?"
"You want to do this now, Doctor?" Stefan bit back. "Watch those legs of hers, Peter!"
Karina was lashing out wildly with her front limbs as she tried to catch her opponent with the sharp talons that were protruding out from her toes. Whilst Peter's shorter height made it possible to duck under most of these attacks, he was finding it difficult to get close enough to her without running the risk of serious injury.
Despite the severity of the situation, Rose's curiosity was producing more and more questions. Like the Doctor, she couldn't resist trying to learn more even at this critical time.
"But you knew what he was, didn't you?" She asked Stefan. "Do the other soldiers -"
"Don't be ridiculous, Rose!" The corporal snapped at her. "You think this is something you go around telling the whole world about?"
He was getting worried now. Concerned for his best friend's safety was mounting and he was not use to seeing him fight like this. The scuffle between Peter and Karina was only going to end when one killed the other, and it was inevitable that the first decisive blow would land soon.
A high-pitched whine of pain cut through the air.
Peter had gone for Karina's throat and had almost managed to clamp his snout around it. But the creature had struck out at just the right moment and had caught him harshly down his left side as one of the claws pierced through the wolf's thick fur.
Sensing her opportunity as she felt Peter jerked back, Karina kicked him away with one of her rear legs.
It suddenly felt as though the end had arrived.
Knocked to the ground, the wolf was whimpering fearfully as he tried to get back up onto all four legs. But Karina wasn't going to give him the opportunity. Prowling towards him, she was ready to go in for the kill.
She didn't see Stefan run-up to her, but she certainly felt his knife as it sliced into her back.
It had been a masterful move that had been completely unplanned and might have only ever worked one in a million times. There would have been no second chances had the corporal not got it spot-on. He was already running towards Karina the moment that Peter had been injured, the knife out of its sheath and in his hand. But given the height of the creature, there was no way in which he could have struck her without leaping up and onto the alien.
As it turned out, however, Stefan Amell was very good at throwing knives with precision.
The toughness of Karina's hide might have been strong enough to deflect a round of bullets, but there was a chink in the armour in the form of a tiny fold of skin no bigger than a few inches stretching between her shoulder blades and her spine.
It was here that Stefan's knife landed and embedded itself nearly up to the hilt.
Writhing in pain, Karina stumbled away from Peter as she desperately tried to pull the offending item out. Finding this impossible as her limbs failed to reach far enough around, she instead decided to enact revenge upon the person who had inflicted it upon her.
The breath was punched out of Stefan as Karina spun around and struck him squarely in the chest, knocking him clean off his feet.
"Corporal, get out of there!" The Doctor shouted. "Move, now!"
Stefan barely had time to register what had happened, let alone plan his escape. Clutching his chest with one hand, he managed to push himself up onto his elbows just in time to see Karina hunkering down like a coiled snake that was about to strike him.
But the alien couldn't fight both of the soldiers.
The distraction had given Peter the time he had needed. With one bounding leap, he covered several metres and placed himself between Karina and Stefan.
Rose got the answer to one of her questions as she watched the wolf stand protectively in front of the corporal. He was defending him in a way that no wild animal would ever surely do. Peter was still in there, embodying the wolf as it equally embodied him.
Snarling at Karina menacingly, he was making his position clear.
The creature seemed to understand that she would have to deal with him first before she was going to be allowed to get near anyone else. But the knife protruding out from between her shoulder blades was causing her too much pain, and she attempted once more to reach around and pull it out.
It was a decision that cost her life.
Peter galloped towards Karina the second her head turned away from him. His strong jaw stretched out wide as he launched himself at her. Catching hold of the alien by the neck, he sunk his claws into the skin around her head and bit down hard. This time, he wasn't going to let go.
Karina went mad.
The creature thrashed around uncontrollably as blood began to spurt out. She was clawing and snapping ferociously as Peter continued to cling onto her throat. She scratched him many times, opening up fresh wounds, but the wolf was still refusing to relinquish his grip.
Soon enough, Karina's struggles began to waver and slow down.
Like a plastic biro pen being trodden on, there were a few tiny crackling pops before the alien's neck completely snapped. A sickening and definitive crunch followed before her body went limp and fell to the floor with a dull thud.
Peter waited a few more seconds before he let go of the creature. Backing away from her cautiously, he did not quite trust that she was dead. Karina's blood was dripping from his mouth, but he did not show any concern over this as he gave the large corpse one last sniff.
Then he transformed back into his humanoid self.
But Karina had left her mark despite his victory, and it became immediately obvious that Peter had been badly wounded in several places. His ability to heal did not stop him from feeling the pain of his injuries and most of the blood that could be seen through the tears in his clothes and on his face and arms was his own.
Collapsing to his knees, he keeled over just a few feet away from Karina's body.
"Peter!" Stefan shouted. "Damn it!"
His chest was still hurting him, and the corporal struggled at first to get back up onto his feet. But the need to help his friend quickly overtook his suffering and he was the first to reach the stricken lieutenant as Rose and the Doctor also rushed to his side.
"Is he okay? Rose gasped. "How bad is it?"
Peter was lying flat on his back with one hand placed his right side where the alien had sliced into him. Blood was trickling out from the wound, flowing between his fingers in tiny red rivers. His face was very pale and contorted with pain as every breath seemed to bring new discomfort.
The three-inch fragment of Karina's claw that had broken off during the fight was lodged in deep.
It was preventing the area surrounding it from closing up and healing. Peter's other injures were vanishing at an astonishing rate, so much so that it was possible to see the new skin growing over the old. The stark white chunk, however, was cutting into him again and again.
"Oh, that looks nasty." The Doctor tutted sympathetically. "Let's get it seen to."
Slipping off his coat, the Time Lord folded it up before he gently lifted Peter's head and slipped the garment in underneath so that it was cushioned against the rocky ground.
Peter didn't have the strength to protest. The pain was threatening to overwhelm him now and a sudden boat of coughing did nothing to help as the claw sliced into him once again.
"Aside from there, are you healing okay?" Stefan asked. "Does it -"
"J-just there, yeah," Peter replied shakily. "Need to g-get it out."
"We can't just pull it out." The Doctor pointed out. "If a piece breaks away inside you, it'll become trapped when the outer skin grows back over it."
"Do have to be such a know-it-all about everything?" Peter groaned. "Just get it…"
His jaw locked shut as a fresh bout of pain surged through him. Trying not to cry out, his back arched from the effort as his face flushed red from the effort. Just like when his leg had been broken, his grey eyes briefly turned yellow.
They changed back when Stefan laid a reassuring hand on his shoulder.
"Breath, Peter." He told him. "You're okay, but I've gotta take a look at it first before I do anything."
The lieutenant nodded in agreement as he managed to exhale a few deep breaths. But it all came surging back ten times as worse the moment the tips of Stefan's fingers made contact with the skin surrounding the wound.
"Ah! Oh, goddamn it!." He hissed. "She got me good, didn't she?"
"I dare say you got her better." The Doctor replied, smiling. "Your bite is worse than your bark, lieutenant."
Peter laughed at this and immediately regretted it as pain shot up through his side.
"Ouch! Don't make me laugh." He said, still half-smiling. "It hurts too much."
"Only because you've got a big bat creature's claw sticking out of you." The Time Lord remarked. "Now, speaking of which, let's get it out of you."
"I'm going to have to cut it out." Stefan decided. "The Doctor's right, if I try and pull on it then it might break apart."
His knife was still embedded deep in the back of Karina's body and it would not be removed easily, not to mention the bade would be covered in the alien's vile innards. Peter's, however, was still clipped around his waist.
Rose flinched at the idea of what Stefan was about to do as he unsheathed the weapon.
"You can't just cut into him." She protested. "What if you make it worse?"
Stefan did not take offence to this.
It wasn't an ideal situation. The knife was too large for such precise work and it would be very easy to nick an artery as he tried to carve around the claw. There was nothing to sterilise the weapon with either and Peter would have to endure it all without anything to relieve the pain. But they simply did not have the luxury of an alternative plan.
"Peter…" He began. "Do you -"
"I trust you," Peter told him. "Just do it, please."
Moving into the best position possible to make the incision, Stefan carefully peeled back the bottom of Peter's shirt.
With some reluctance, Peter moved his hand away from the wound. Dark red blood surged out for a moment, no longer being held back from escaping before it slowed back down to a steady dribbling. Anticipating the horrendous agony that was about to come, the lieutenant screwed his eyes shut.
But he looked back up with some surprise as he felt a hand close around his.
"It'll be okay," Rose told him sweetly as she held onto him. "You'll be fine."
Peter managed to return a weak smile of his own.
"Yeah, I know." He replied. "I've had…"
"Worse than this?" The Doctor guessed. "Back in Austria, perhaps?"
Stefan cut Peter off before he could respond.
"Don't get him started on that one." He ordered. "Now, no more talking. This is difficult enough without… Oh, Rose you need to let go of him."
"Why?" She challenged. "What's the harm?"
"Probably at least five broken fingers." He told her. "I've seen him crack open a metal padlock with that hand."
Remembering how Peter had pulled apart the buckle of the strap that had been holding him down, not to mention the chair leg he had broken off with a single kick of his foot, Rose decided that she did not want the same fate to befall her fingertips.
Though she reluctantly let go of Peter's hand, she did not move from where she was knelt beside him.
Stefan was looking grim now that the time had come to use the knife he was holding. He had never had to do anything like this before and was wishing dearly he had paid more attention during his onsite medical training. But there was no procedure for what he was about to do.
Peter's healing abilities worked in completely the opposite way to that of a human being's. Normally, the object shouldn't initially be removed to stop potential blood loss. Here, however, the claw had to come out for the injury to heal.
"I wish Emma was here," Stefan mentioned. "She'd do a better job of it."
"You're qualified enough," Peter told him through gritted teeth, closing his eyes again. "Now get it out, corporal. That's an order."
"Sir, yes sir." He replied jokingly. "Brace yourself, mate."
No matter how much preparation he'd given himself, Peter wasn't ready for the level of pain that came as the tip of the blade slid into his side. Bitting back a yelp, his body instinctively tried to jump away from it.
A pair of hands held him down by the shoulders, preventing him from moving again as Stefan continued to cut around the claw. He knew from their position that they belonged to the Doctor. But he didn't care right now as he heard the blood squelching out of him as it felt as though a red-hot iron bar was poking around inside him.
"Ah!" He hissed. "Son of a…"
"Nearly there, Peter," Stefan announced. "Just a few seconds…"
Had it been her, Rose knew that she would have been screaming her head off.
Throughout it all, however, Peter managed to hold it all in without much more than a flushed face and a few mumblings of discomfort. It was only when Stefan had managed to loosen the claw enough to slide it out did he emit anything louder.
The Doctor raised an eyebrow at several of the words the lieutenant spat out as it was finally removed.
"Dear me, you need to watch that mouth of yours." He scalded playfully. "After all, there is a lady present."
"Never mind me." Rose laughed. "I've heard far worse on the estate."
Peter coughed out a laugh.
"I'll bet a heard worse at Sandhurst." He told her. "Stefan, did it…?"
"Out in one piece," Stefan confirmed. "Nice souvenir for you."
Peter opened up his eyes and saw the bloodstained but still intact claw his friend was holding. With a groan at the idea of keeping it, he shook his head firmly.
"Nah, I'm good."
There was certainly more colour in his cheeks now, and the blood had stopped flowing out of the wound as it began to heal. The damage inflicted was slowing up the process, but there was no doubting that he was on the mend.
Then something occurred to Peter that made him forget that he wasn't ready to sit up just yet.
"Whoa, take it easy." The Doctor told him, catching him as the attempt failed. "Where are you off to in such a hurry?"
"Jane Wilson!" He told them. "She's in that ship."
Karina had confirmed that much at least, but not whether she was still alive or not. After all, they had been through, to find out that the main focal point of their mission was dead didn't bear thinking about.
"I'll go, she can't be too far inside." Stefan volunteered. "Be right back, okay?"
"I'm coming with you." Rose declared. "You might need another pair of hands."
Nodding in agreement, Stefan turned back to Peter. The frown on his face was giving away the worry he had for leaving him in such a condition, but both soldiers knew that Jane would most likely be in an even worse state than Peter was.
"I'm fine," Peter reassured him. "I'm in good hands here. Go and find her."
With little choice but to leave him in the care of the Doctor, the corporal patted his friend on the shoulder before he got up and left for the creature's ship with Rose in tow.
Watching as the pair climbed up and into the main doorway of the wreck, disappearing inside it a moment later, the Doctor allowed the awkward silence to linger a little while longer before he spoke up.
He knew what had to be done next and had chosen his words carefully.
"All that anger, Peter. That wasn't you just getting stressed or worried, was it?" He questioned. "Holding back your abilities all the time because you're afraid people might see them, transforming only when you're alone. You did it when you were out looking for the creatures, didn't you? That was why you had dirt on your nose, why you didn't take your coat or gun."
Ordinarily, Peter might have shouted back at him. But the younger man was exhausted, still injured and longer had any reason to hold back his secrets anymore. They had all just exploded out of him, and there was no taking them back.
"I don't have a choice." He mumbled. "No one would understand."
"What about Stefan?"
"He's an exception. Him, Emma and my parents…. They're the only people that know."
The Doctor hummed in agreement as he puzzled over the man that was led down in front of him. Peter's reluctance was completely understandable. Humans were not the best species in the universe for accepting those different to themselves.
Yet, down here, without the risk of exposure, Peter had refused to name where it was he came from and had waited until the last possible moment to use his abilities.
Karina had asked for the information in exchange for giving up Jane Wilson, and still, the soldier hadn't wanted to comply. He had hesitated when it should have been of little consequence, especially seeing as he was something so amazingly strong.
"Karina asked you what you were, and you didn't say?" The Doctor asked him gently. "Why not? Peter, you are fantastic! I am just astounded that you didn't want her to know given…"
He stopped when he saw the downcast expression on Peter's face.
The Time Lord suddenly felt very stupid indeed. There was a very obvious reason why Peter had not yet shared his origins with anyone. "You were adopted." He stated. "You can't say what you are because you don't know."
"Less left on a doorstep. More crash-landed in a spaceship." Peter replied. "My parents… The people who raised me. They found it with me inside it on their land. No clues, no explantation… Just a scrap of paper with my name on it."
"Alongside that ring." The Doctor recalled. "Can I see it?"
Peter frowned at his sudden interest in it.
Carefully, with some protest from his throbbing side, he managed to push himself up into a sitting position. Taking a moment to catch his breath and allow the dull pain to subside a little, he turned to face the Time Lord.
"Why?" He asked. "What could it tell you?"
The Doctor smiled at him.
"A great many things, Peter." He said. "Because, as you told Kalagan, I am too clever for my own good. From the moment we met, I knew there was something different about you. The clues were all there, like a jigsaw puzzle inside my head. But until now I've been missing a piece, one final bit of information that I needed to work out."
Peter frowned at him suspiciously.
"Work what out?" He questioned. "Are you saying -"
"The ring, Peter." The Doctor requested, holding out his hand. "Please."
Hesitating briefly before relenting to his growing curiosity, Peter twisted the ring off his finger and passed it over to him.
"Good luck getting anything from it." He told him. "I couldn't even tell you what the stone is."
The Doctor smiled as he examined the ring in more detail.
His first impression was that the silvery band was heavier than expected, indicating a more hardened and precious metal. It had not lost any of his brightness over the years, the metal was without scratches or tarnishing despite being worn every day. More curiously, however, there seemed to be a circular pattern embedded within the beautiful deep blue stone.
There was something familiar about it. He knew that he had…. Yes! Of course!
Using the sonic screwdriver to confirm what he had already guessed to be the case, the Doctor then pocketed the device before he looked back up at Peter.
"What else would a wolf be wearing but a moonstone." He said to him, giving the ring back. "But... do you see those circles in the stone?"
Peter nodded as he looked down at the ring.
"Yeah, I've seen them before. Two of them, one slightly bigger than the other."
"The same as your tattoo." The Doctor pointed out. "Do you know what they mean?"
The same distinctive pattern was inked onto the lieutenant's right upper-bicep. He had clearly felt a connection to the design, even if he didn't quite know why.
"No, I don't. It was just something that I felt connected to." Peter admitted. "Gut instinct, you know?"
"That's because they're more than just symbolic. These circles are a very unusual occurrence that is only found in this particular kind of moonstone."
"But what do they mean, Doctor?" Peter asked. "What does it stand for?"
He was leaning forward now, completely transfixed by what the Time Lord might say next.
"Well, the story I heard was…."
Something heavy had just been dropped somewhere within the spaceship, a dull thud echoing out as it hit a metal surface.
"Stefan?" Peter called out. "What's going on?"
It was Rose's voice who responded instead.
"Sorry, that was me." She replied. "These bags are super heavy."
She emerged out of the craft soon after. Wearing one of the soldier's protective vests as she carried the other in one hand, she was out of breath from the effort of dragging the two large and very heavy backpacks behind her.
"Where's Stefan?" Peter asked. "Did you find Jane Wilson?"
"Y-yeah." Rose panted back. "She's in…"
Peter was already up on his feet and running over to the ship.
There was nothing left to show of his fight with Karina now, save for the torn clothing and bloodstains on his hands and shirt. Easily climbing up to where Rose was stood at the entrance of the spaceship, he did not stop to help her with the load and instead ran straight past her to see where Stefan and Jane were.
"Charming." Rose tutted. "Who said chivalry is dead?"
But she didn't mind one bit. Jane was still their priority, not some stupidly heavy equipment she couldn't imagine having to carry for five minutes, let alone the five or six miles Peter and Stefan had transported them over the course of the night.
Besides, the Doctor was by her side in an instant, smiling at her in a way that made Rose's heart flutter a little.
"Job well done, Miss Tyler." He joked. "We'll make a soldier of you yet."
"Fat chance!" She laughed. "Anyway, black isn't my colour."
Helping his companion bring the equipment down from the ship, the Doctor peered into the shadows of the craft.
But he and Rose did not have long to wait as Peter soon reappeared, jumping down next to them before quickly turning back just as Stefan emerged with a young woman draped across his shoulder. There was no questioning who it was. The red hair and slender figure was hauntingly familiar….
It was the real Jane Wilson.
Rose was beginning to fear the worst as she watched Stefan carefully lower the unresponsive girl down to Peter. The lieutenant carried in her arms over to where the Doctor's coat was still folded up on the ground, the same spot he had been lying just a few minutes ago.
The young woman didn't stir as he softly put her down.
Peter and Stefan were knelt next to her, frowns on both of their faces as they examined Jane's condition. She didn't appear to be injured, just a small cut on her cheek that had happened at least several hours ago. But the young woman had been trapped down here for over twenty-four hours, most likely without food or water. She was cold to the touch and her anorak was torn in several places, allowing the dank air to seep in underneath the thick layers.
There was no telling either what Karina had done to her. At the very least Jane would have been terrorised by the alien, and maybe she'd even…
Rose's heart sank to the pit of her stomach as Peter drew out a long, deep breath. No… surely she couldn't possibly…. He was shaking his head slightly as he looked down at the poor woman. Though identical in appearance, Jane looked like a ghost compared to Karina's wickedly gleefulness.
"How is she?" The Doctor asked. "What's the verdict?"
They had all come so far and invested too much to hear bad news right now.
"Not in the best shape at all." The lieutenant replied. "Severely dehydrated, exhausted and probably traumatised for life. There don't appear to be any injures but she's almost on the verge of hypothermia."
But despite the grim diagnostic, a smile had slowly begun to creep across the lips of the two soldiers. Being cold and scared were things that affected the living. You couldn't be thirsty if you were dead and, given Jane was could only mean…
"She's alive!?" Rose gasped. "Seriously?"
"Her pulse is a little weak, but she's still with us," Stefan confirmed. "Nothing that a bed and hot meal won't cure."
"Yeah, wouldn't mind one of those each myself." Peter agreed. "Who'd have thought fighting giant bats would be such hard work?"
He did not stay serious about this for long as he caught Stefan's eye. The two friends laughed at the same time, exchanging a hug and fist-bumping one another like a pair of schoolboys who might have just won a football match.
Caught up in the excitement and jubilation, Rose ran over and pulled the two men into a tight embrace.
"Sorry, it's just such good news." She told them. "Mission complete, at last. We can all get out of here. Isn't that right, Doctor?"
Rose's smile faded when she turned to face the Time Lord.
He was smiling, but it spoke of something that told Rose that not everything had been sorted out just yet. Their journey back to the surface was going to have wait as his serious brown eyes landed on Peter once again.
"You asked me what those circles on your ring meant?" He said. "It's a pack symbol with the circles representing strength. The individual wolf, that's the thinner band, can only have so much power on their own. But, combined with others, their ability to increase that potential grows a lot more."
Peter's mouth opened to speak, but the words momentarily failed him.
"I've never been part of a pack in my life." He stated. "Not unless you count my team, of course."
"But you hide who you are from them." The Doctor pointed out. "That isn't going to help you get any stronger. If anything it hinders you, prevents you from embracing who you're supposed to be."
"You're making it sound like destiny," Peter argued, snorting at the idea. "Sorry, but I can't afford to think that way when I'm around people who would consider what I am to be a monster."
"Mate, you're not a monster," Stefan told him supportively. "Me and Emma didn't run for the hills, did we?"
Peter smiled back at the corporal, but the point had still stood. He could never truly be at ease with what he was whilst living on a planet with a majority population that still didn't believe that aliens and other planets existed beyond the world of science fiction.
"No, you did not, corporal." The Doctor praised. "But why would you? You've known each other since childhood. You wouldn't stop being friends just because you found out Peter was a Nimarian wolf, would you?"
Everyone's mouth fell open at the same time.
Rose was the first to recover. Shaking her head at the Time Lord, she could not believe that he had not said a word up until now that he had figured out what Peter was. She knew he was clever and had seen him narrow down a species to their planet by asking less than half-a-dozen questions, but he really needed to work on how and when he delivered such vital information.
"How come you didn't say before if you knew?" Rose added. "You said -"
"That I had some possibilities in mind, yes." The Doctor agreed. "But, all those planets and species out there, Rose. Sometimes you've got to finish the jigsaw puzzle before you can see the picture it creates."
"But you can't possibly…" Stefan began. "None of us has ever known."
"That's because you're human. Okay, working for UNIT gives you a tiny bit more insight into the universe. But I'm afraid that you're stumbling around blind most of the time."
Stefan opened up his mouth to argue but stopped himself when he saw how pale Peter had become. The lieutenant hadn't said a word about hearing the name of his own kind for the first time. He didn't quite seem to know how to process it and was barely breathing.
Finally, he managed to exhale the lungful of air he'd been holding in.
"W-what… That's what I am?"
The Doctor hesitated. It was as though he had finally realised how potentially life-changing the information he was giving was going to be. Well… best explain it all properly then. Peter deserved that at the very least.
"Nimarian wolves, or Nimari as they're otherwise known. The name itself translates as noble… Nobility with a pure heart." He told him. "It's not as pretentious as it sounds. Compared to other kinds of wolves, they… you are very evolved and culturally very advanced."
"You sound as though you've met them before?" Stefan questioned with some distrust. "What about their planet?"
He knew he shouldn't be the one asked these questions, but Peter would want to know the answers himself. He could see it in his friend's eyes, the desire and need to know everything and anything about the world he had been deprived of his whole life.
"Valerus." The Doctor replied. "It means strong. This gives meaning to the species as noble, strong and pure. A mantra that's been adopted by the Nimari for thousands of years."
Peter didn't seem comforted by this. He only had one question on his mind right now.
"How far is it from Earth?"
The Doctor looked at him sadly.
"Very far." He said. "Half a universe away."