Far away in an unreal wood, a human was having an argument with a tree.
"If you're right that big dome thing's about to fire," Lorna was saying, "then it's all even worse than I thought. She's only walked right into danger. Literally! She's doomed herself, and she thinks it's bloody clever."
"Yes," said the Fleurlis gently. "So now the two of you have to save her."
Lorna scowled, then sighed very deeply.
"You know," she said. "We don't actually have to do that. We could stay safe in here; watch as it all blows up."
"Mum!" said Chris, horrified.
"I'm just saying," said Lorna. "She's been awful to both of us."
"That doesn't mean she should die!" said Chris.
"No," sighed her mother, "of course it doesn't. I just have to let myself know that it's a choice. For my own sanity, or what's left of it."
"It might seem unlikely right this minute," said the Fleurlis, "but it's possible that she will return the favour. Save you, and everyone you know."
"But to save her we have to go out there," said Chris in a resigned sort of way. "To a planet about to get blown up."
"No," said the Fleurlis. "That was a terrible idea. Your mother was right about that. You need to break into that dome. To the weapon that does the exploding."
"That sounds like a bad idea, too," said Lorna. "Bet I'm right about that one as well."
Chris looked up at the tree uncertainly, like she secretly agreed with her mother.
"How would we get there?" she said, screwing up her nose. "Are you going to fly us in the TARDIS?"
"Not that," said the Fleurlis. "I'm afraid I wouldn't know how."
"Oh," said Chris. "But you said you were it. Why can't you drive a machine that you already are?"
"It's only a bit of me," said the Fleurlis. "Your stomach's a part of you, but you don't know how to operate that."
"But you've watched the Doctor for years," said Chris.
"So?" said the Fleurlis, leaves falling from his shoulders as he shrugged. "You've watched your mother in the car, but you've no idea how to drive."
"Then what do we do?" said Lorna. "If you can't fly this thing and we can't get out of it, then we're stuck here, aren't we?"
"We are," said the Fleurlis. "But here is a place that leads everywhere, if you're with someone who knows the way."
He did something impossible to describe with a sound that was even harder to explain— a sound like a TARDIS might make, only somehow even deeper and more real. When it passed there was an archway that hadn't been there before, leading out from the console room and into the forest beyond.
"All of time and space," said the Fleuris, gesturing through the arch. "It's all here in the wood, if you know the right way to go looking for it. You wouldn't ever need a TARDIS, if you knew what this forest really was. But that's Time Lords for you. They're not always as smart as they'd like to think."
Lorna looked at him, her arms folded.
"You want us to go out there along with you," she said. "You want me to take my daughter."
"I do," said the Fleurlis.
"And why should we trust you?" Lorna said. "We don't know anything about you! You might want to eat us, or chop us both up into wood."
"I can't turn people into wood," said the Fleurlis. "That would be ridiculous."
"Sounds to me like there's lots you can't do," said Lorna. "For someone who wants to be saving the universe."
"No one's all-powerful," said the Fleurlis. "All any of us can do is what we can."
He looked right into Lorna's eyes, and his own eyes weren't tree-like at all. They looked as human as hers, and possibly even more tired.
"You're right," he said. "There is no good reason to trust me. Except that if you stay, you'll be trusting a story instead. The one that says everything will be fine if you stay here and hope for the best. That the Doctor will survive along with the world you know, because things have to work out in the end."
Lorna shifted her crossed arms, looking uncomfortable.
"So it's really only a question of which of us you trust," said the Fleurlis. "And if I had to argue my case I'd say that story's already betrayed you, whereas I've yet to do anything wrong."
Lorna glared at everything around them, as if that might make it all catch fire and then go away.
Eventually, she took her daughter's hand.
"This doesn't mean you should go off with strangers," she said to her as they started to move.
"I know!" said Chris. "I'm not seven."
The Fleurlis wore an expression that definitely wasn't a smile as the three of them walked together into the woods.