Chapter Two
Adrian' Trial
As Owen and Jack joined a terrified Jasmine on the high emergency ward Adrian was being worked on. He had just been shocked,
"Two of his hearts are working now but their slow" A nurse treating him said
"Two hears! How may hearts does he have excactly!?" Asked a shocked Doctor
"Three" Jack said, "He's a special case"
"No shit" The Doctor replied, "Get these people out of here!"
"I'm his mother" Jasmine said
"I'll find you once I've stablised him, if that's even possible" He told her as Adrian went into cardiac arresst again,
"Compressions!" A nurse yelled
"Where?!" Yelled the other nurse with her
Adrian' eyes flickered and the light in the room seemed to become blinding to everyone.
As the bleeping of the machines faded out Adrian found himself, dressed in white with a white Time Lord' robe. He knew it was a Time Lord' robe from the high collars.
He was in the high court only this one seemed to glow,
"Uh...hello?" He called
"Emperor!" Partifimind called happily
"Jesus!" Adrian jumped
"Not quite, take a seat" Partifimind said
"Where are you?" Adrian asked
"One moment" He called, there was a buzzing sound and Partifimind appeared as a hologram, "Better, we're on different planes right now, it's temporary well it will be if you pass the trial"
"My trial...where am I?" Adrian asked nervous
"The path of the lost" Partifimind said, "It's our fault you're hear, you were infected with a parasite, and had an adverse reaction to it. At the moment the wrong person is dying"
Tears fill Adrian' eyes,
"You want me to kill someone?" He asked terrified
"We want you to lead someone, if you fail then we'll get someone else to do the killing" Partifimind said
"This is a dream" Adrian told himself
"If it makes you feel any better then fine. Follow the arrows Adrian"
Jack, Jasmine and Owen were sat in a waiting room with Emperor. The clock stopped ticking and the people outside stopped moving.
They all got up as one as they watched Adrian being wheeled by the room on a trolly, the sound of his shallow breaths the only thing hanging in the air now.
"Dad...why can't I sense his soul?" Jasmine asked
"Because his soul is on trial" Emperor said angry,
He was about to go after him when everything went back to normal and the Doctor from earlier walked into him,
"Sorry to have kept you waiting and I'm sorry about the way I spoke to you, Adrian is in a serious condition, we've found a compound in his blood that we don't recognise and a parasite, we're not entirely sure how to treat. We're waiting for specialists to come in, meanwhile he's being taken into ICU for observation"
"What compound did they find in his blood?" Owen asked, "I'm a Doctor"
"I can't say" The Doctor said
"Show me" Owen demanded
"I can't do that I'm afraid it's patient confidentiality" He told him and with that he was gone
"We need to know what that compound is" Owen said
"It's Fog Stamp" Emperor said
Jack, Jasmine and Owen looked at Emperor in shock,
"The letter!" Owen declaired, running out of the waiting room,
Everyone followed.
Owen, Jasmine, Jack and Emperor went into the little room they had put Adrian in, in ICU and Owen started searching his pockets.
"You said Liam was missing?" Owen said to Jack
"Yeah, why? You think the two are connected?" Jack asked
Owen found the letter from the court,
"Adrian slept with Liam yesterday, something came over him. He knows not to cross the line since their divorce and now not only is Adrian in here Liam has gone and both are on trial"
"On trial where?" Jasmine asked
"The Lost Path" Emperor said
"Dad, start talking" Jasmine said
"Some people in the Empire found out Liam was my son, they don't know his mother is a human. They're going to turn him into a second generation Time Lord" Emperor said
"He'd have to die first...oh no dad!" Jasmine exclaimed
"What is it?" Jack asked
"Adrian has to guide Liam through a tomb...he has to lead him to the truth about what he is and face his childhood fears. He has to survive in order to pass the trial and come back here. If Liam dies there we've lost him forever and Adrian dies too. If Adrian dies we all die because his future self won't be living within the time line before The Doctor" Jasmine said
"So where is Liam now? Is there any way we can see what's going on from here?" Jack asked panicked, "Shouldn't someone call the Doctor? What about this parasite?"
"We can treat the body while he's out there...you're going to need Brendan for this and I'd have Chrissie on standby too, I may need her" Emperor said
He held out his hand so that Adrian and Liam' locations could be seen by all in the room as a hologram.
Adrian entered a room with a model of a graveyard on the table. The only thing in a black room and all lit up by studio lights,
"Don't get too close Adrian, the threat is real" Partifimind said
Adrian took a magnifying glass and piered at the model. There was a minie Liam just outside the graveyard. Adrian moved the glass to the left and saw a pit of bodies,
"Plague!" He yelped, jumping back and smashing the glass
Liam, far below was brought to the ground by the vibration of the smash. He looked up, terrfied but could see nothing above him.
Adrian picked up a torch and shone it on the graveyard.
Liam instinctively followed the light and stumbled across a man in robes, sat by a fire near to the entrance of the Time Lord' Royal tomb in Oxford,
"Who're you?" Liam stammered, "Where am I?"
"Sit down and I will tell you a story" The man in robes said
Liam sat down, thought not a all sure why he was obying this man,
"Who are you?" Liam asked
"Me? The name was Mo Refus, I knew your father. I'm afraid you and that little Emperor of yours have been caught up in a rather unfortunate battle between Pole and Owen Harper"
"What battle!?" Owen said in question
"Shit" Emperor said and he stamped his foot
Adrian stumbled back a few feet from his standing postion,
Down in the model Liam shuddered and Mo smiled,
"Oh dear, daddy' not happy about that...Pole wants something Owen posessess, whether he knows what that is or not, the planet he came from...Pole that is, the planet Owen' father became king of belonged to us once upon a time. The court wants to test you and Adrian, the bond you have, they want to see if you're strong enough to be a Time Lord"
"What's my being here got to do with Owen?" Liam asked
"Pole has spies everywhere, he has the ability to mind control. Owen has an illegal stash of Fog Stamp, for emergency perposes. Fog Stamp bends the victim round to their way of thinking, he can essentially control anyone with the right dose or if too much is used it could cause every bone in their body to crack and shatter...Adrian was given a leathal dose and a parasite. The parasite brought you here, if both of you die Owen will be executed. The spy used poser cream so the finger prints on the button used to release it will be Owen'" Mo said seriously
Owen screamed with fright and crashed to the floor, hands to his head.
"I won't let that happen Owen" Jack said
"You can't do anything! None of us can" Owen screeched
At that moment they heard a crack. They turned to look at Adrian his hand was facing the wrong way,
"No...where's Brendan?" Jasmine cried tried to fix his broken hand with her sonic
"Stop you could do more damage this way" Emperor said
"Look at him!" She screeched
Adrian looked at his hand from, where he stood everything looked normal but then the pain reached him and he screamed.
Adrian opened his eyes and screamed but everyone could tell he wasn't really there. Emperor scanned him with the sonic,
His heart was racing,
"I need to seperate spirit from body without killing the body" He told them
Now his arm was broken, it flopped to the side from the elbow down,
Jasmine grabbed Jack for comfort,
"I can't watch this!" She said
Brendan and Chrissie arrived and Brendan took over,
"What do you want me to treat first?" Brendan asked
Emperor pointed at the hologram. Adrian was unconsious on the lost path,
"He needs to stay there but we can't let him feel the pain of the physical body here or both he and Liam will die" Emperor said
"What happened to his arm?" Chrissie asked
"Fog Stamp overdose" Owen said
"I've never seen a case this bad, he's shattering inside like a porcelain doll...and there's a parasite too" She held her hand out and light glowed from her palm and in her eyes, "I grant you astral projection of the 3rd sense, let not the pain of your failing body ground you here, if you have work to do, go do it"
Adrian shut his eyes and his heart rate became slow,
"Fog Stamp overdose...I need to raise his temperature to above 108 degrees and then drop it down to 5, destroying the parasite, his Time Lord radiation will take over then and remove the Fog Stamp but we'll need to be out of the room before that happens" Brendan said, "How're get getting away with this in here?"
Emperor blasted the wall seperating the room they were in and the unsuite bathroom. He then used the sonic to create a rippling glass that quickly solidified and became bullet proof as he demonstrated using Jack' gun.
Adrian went from lying on the floor to standing before the model again without even thinking about it,
"Why do I get the feeling you all orchestrated this?" He said in question
"What makes you say that?" Partifimind asked
"Well, while here I could become privy to a whole bunch of stuff and if I wake up I won't remember a damn thing, if something happens to Liam, it won't be the whole picture and you'll have altered my reality too" Adrian said annoyed
"You might not think it but we are doing this for you" Partifimind said
"So I should thank you for trying to kill me?" Adrain said sarcastically, "Really feeling the love...how do I lead Liam through a tiny tomb? I can't even see inside?"
"What do you imagine?" Partifimind asked
"I imagine myself to be small enough to fit inside and open the door for him, this trial is ours, I should be with him" Adrian said
All of a sudden Adrian was by the entrance of the Royal Tomb, he'd been within it once but this looked nothing like the tomb he remembered. The corridor that curved round and once housed crypts with blue led lights lining them and illuminating the names if it's occupants was gone, in it's place were mummies, he couldn't be certain wouldn't make a grab for him.
He took out his sonic and used it to unlock the door but then his sonic shattered in his hand,
He looked at his hand and blinked, it was morphing between OK and broken. He shook his head and called out to Liam, who was on the grass outside,
"Liam!"
"Adrian?" Liam said in question looking up
Liam saw Adrian and his heart skipped, his arm was broken from the elbow down and his hand was facing the wrong way, also his knee was out but he seemed to be able to walk just fine.
"Whatever it is that's wrong with me, don't draw attention to it" Adrian said
"But your..." He began
"Seriously, don't" Adrian said seriously, "I have to lead you now, I don't have much time"
Back on the hosptial ward Brendan hand his hands hovering above Adrian body as it continued to crack,
Chrissie squirmed when Adrian' knee snapped and Jack took her into his arms too,
"He has to be OK"
Brendan put his hand on Adrian' chest and Adrian' temperature began to rise, sweat started to appear on his forehead, his face and his arms went red and then his fingers started to blister.
Black marks then started to appear on his body forcing Brendan to stop,
"Great! Now he has the Black Death!"
"I'm immortal" Jack said, "Owen can bleed bloodless blood but...oh"
"I'm bloody not and I'm not immune either!" Brendan snapped
"Technically Jasmine is animated but dead so she's fine but no one can leave this room now"
"What about me? I'm the TARDIS soul I should be fine right?" Chrissie said
"Define fine, you have a connection to all the occupants of the TARDIS, every one of them is at risk right now including the time machine itself" Emperor said
"How are we supposed to get the antidote?" Brendan snapped, "Alien ailments I can cure"
"Wait...we have the antidote on the TARDIS, I can call it to me" Chrissie said
"We do not want you interacting with that machine right now" Emperor said, he then pointed and used his phone to contact Michael Iron, "I need a plague antidote now"
Liam and Adrian were tentitively making their way through the corridor of the tomb, it was hair raising as the floor was crumbling with each step they took.
They soon found a large drop to a lower floor. With the path off to the right block to them they had no choice but to jump.
Adrian arrived first, he didn't even need to think about it, he just appeared where he needed to be. Liam looked like he wasn't going to make it so Adrian waved his hand and thought him to his side,
"Huh!" He gasped in shock, "Thanks"
One step forward and a blade attached to chains shot down from the ceiling high above,
"We can use this to get across" Adrian said, nodding at the gap between them and the only path available to them,
"What were those blades used for this is a tomb?" Liam said
"I've been in this place before, trustme, nothing about what we're seeing is right" Adrian said
They waited for the blade to rise up and then used it to cross to the corridor.
Michael appeared outside the room Adrian was in, in ICU, biohazard suit on and antidote in his hand. A biohazard tent was sealed to the wall to avoid contamination to the rest of the ward before Michael was let in.
Once the door was shut he proceeded to administer the antidote to Adrian and then Owen, Chrissie and then Brendan, once they'd all been scanned,
"One question, why were they taken to the plague era?" Michael asked
"Vera was born in 1396, she was 4 when her parents succame, I took her because of the name on her estate, Timeless"
"The Timeless Time Lords" Michael said
"What?" Jack asked
"The court knew Vera would invent the TARDIS, her father was already trying to do so using power left behind by a family that vanished without trace. The first Lord to live in it was Adrian' son" Chrissie told him
"Oh God!" Jack exclaimed
"What happens in the future effects what happened in our past" Emperor said seriously
Around the corner Adrian and Liam came to a clearing with grass and camp fires. Spikes came up all around them and zombies crawled up out of the ground,
"Uh, Liam, seriously?" Adrian said, disturbed
"I saw something on a camping trip once" Liam said
"OK and how did you get rid of it?" Adrian asked
"I set it on fire" Liam said
Adrian and Liam grabbed lit sticks and threw them at the Zombies, nothing worked so Liam threw vodka over them and up they went but so did the grass,
"What's left of this camp side you went to?" Adrian asked
"Not a lot" Liam said
The spikes weren't lowering, the zombies were screaming and the fire was getting closer and closer.
Back on the hospital ward Brendan was once again raising Adrian' body temperature while Jack took readings,
"106...108...112" Jack said
"Get him into the ice bath now" Brendan said
An inch from the foot and the fire went out, the zombies turned to ash that blew into their faces. Adrian and Liam coughed in disgust and then everything began to freeze, setting the path out before them. Carefully they made their way across the ice to a door leading to a rope bridge with nothing beneath them.
Slowly, they crossed, nearly slipping a few times because of the ice.
Adrian realised he was shivering now,
"Stay with me" Liam begged
Adrian shook off the feeling and he and Liam worked together to get to the door on the other side.
Here they found four steps and 5 doors, larva poured from two, scorpians crawled from the third and snakes slithered from the fourth.
The steps were iced over and Adrian and Liam struggled to reach the only door they could use but when they got there only Liam was aloud to enter.
"What?" Adrian said in question
He had to think himself to a vent and cross the room Liam now found himself in.
Back in the hospital Adrian was in a bath of ice,
"His temperature isn't going down fast enough" Jack said concerned
Emperor sighed and placed his hand on Adrian' forehead, Adrian gasped in shock and his temperature went through the floor.
"Get out! Now!" He snapped
Emperor, Jack, Owen and Brendan rushed out of the unsuite and sealed the door shut. They then stood with Jasmine, Chrissie and Michael to watch through the window.
Adrian' eyes opened, they were black,
Black smoke scaped his fingers and his toes and filled the room until they could no longer see Adrian at all.
Liam found Mo at a banquet table, making himself a sandwich as blue marble like guards got off their podiums and started to observe Liam.
"Uh" Liam began
"Sit down and I will tell you a story" Mo said
Once again and not entirely sure why Liam sat down,
"What's going on?" Liam asked, "Why wasn't Adrian aloud in here?"
"It doesn't concern him" Mo said, "Ignore the guards they can't kill you, because of your father"
"My father?" Liam said
"Come on, you knew you were different, why do you think the TARDIS can't hide what she is from you?"
"My mother is her maker" Liam said
"The maker of her ship, her soul is a part of her own psychie. The maker, the most powerful witch in the universe, and her lover...your father, gifted the world on which the Time Lords call home" Mo said
Liam went white,
"No, that would make Emperor..." He began
"You're father, you are half human, half God. The problem we have here is that if you die you hold know place in heaven but nor do you have a place in Spirigal"
"Then I just won't die" Liam said
Mo laughed,
"No dear boy...we need you to become a man of many faces, you're going to have to die now there's no too ways about it"
"You're lying! I don't...we neither of us have to. We're getting out of here now, just watch us" Liam said and with that he ran from the room,
The guards went after him,
"Let him go" Mo said
Liam ran into Adrian' arms just outside the room he just left. The door behind him vanished and they were left with a raging river of mercury to cross.
"I won't leave you!" He said
"What did you see?" Adrian asked
"Nothing...it's what I heard but it can't be true, none of it" Liam replied, then he looked at Adrian, really looked at him, "I don't want to forget this face"
"You're scaring me. We're going to get out of here, together I swear" Adrian said, then he nodded at the wall, "I found these gloves, there are fibers in the walls and foot holes, we can cross that way"
The fog cleared and Adrian was left in an empty bath, clothes steaming themselves dry. Emperor and Brendan entered the room and gave the all clear to the others.
Jasmine used her sonic device to fix all of Adrian' broken bones and he was then placed back in the bed.
"It's over" Jack said
"He could still die, it all depends on how the trial ends" Jasmine told him
She, Jack, Emperor, Brendan, Chrissie and Owen turned to watch the rest of the trial before them as a hologram.
Adrian and Liam got across the raging mercury river and entered a room with an exit sign above the door. In this room Liam found an alien that had plagued his dreams since he was a child.
A Darlek.
The Darlek woke and took aim. Adrian stood in the way and used his hand to back back the beam, destroying the Darlek but then he was dragged into the floor and Liam was fired back by the beam of the Darlek Emperor.
Vera came into Liam' room and screamed as she found his broken body on the floor.
Everyone in the hotel looked up in alarm.
Adrian woke up slowly, unsure what all the fuss was about,
"What's going on?" He asked
"You took a fall" Owen said, "Off a roof" Adrian eyeballed him, "But you're fine now"
At that moment Emperor' mobile went off, he answered it outside and then came back in. Composed he was not,
"What's wrong?" Jack asked
"Liam...they found his body in his hotel room" He stammered
"No!" Adrian screamed!
One week later: An angry Adrian was watching the news, dressed head to foot in black.
Owen came of his bathroom, looking distracted,
"Thought I needed to pee but I can't...weird, then I smashed a cup but all I did was look at it"
Adrian stared at him in shock,
"You're joking right?"
"Maybe I knocked it and didn't register. You ready..."
On the news was a report about Liam' death,
"Police have confirmed that this is now a murder investigation, the cctv failed to pick up on the killer" The reporter was saying,
"This is wrong!" Adrian said, "He wasn't murdered by anyone...I was there...why can't I remember?"
"Adrian mate, you were in a coma in ICU" Owen said
"I was somewhere else! I was with Liam the whole time, I just can't place where we were" Adrian said full of anger,
"Adrian, I know you're upset, I get it. You reckon the court keep altering our reality for some reason..." Owen began
"They have been! Honour' with the Doctor!" Adrian snapped
"Really? And why wouldn't they just do all of that ligitimately? Why do all that? It doesn't make any sense. Liam was murdered" Owen said, "And Honour was a stillborn, Jack is over 200 years old, I'm sorry but that's the truth...you're paronoid and your greiving"
Adrian gave up, Owen just wasn't going to believe him.
Adrian stood alone at Liam' grave for hours until the 11th Doctor arrived,
"I'm really sorry boy-o" He said softly
"Why did they do it? Why did they take Liam?" Adrian asked, tears rolling down his cheeks
"If I had the ability to explain away every action or alteration the court made in our world and homeland of choice I'd be a God. You just learn to trust that what has changed has been for the best, that it'll work out"
"Mum and Jack losing Honour, how was that fair?" Adrian said
"I don't care about fair, they care about facts. Your future self needs Honour, it needed my DNA, 12' DNA, Jack' DNA and Jasmine as the carrier. She played her part, she was never going to be his parent"
"So what am I supposed to do?" Adrian asked, "Is Liam really dead?"
"Well. You're Liam is...for now"