Just as Sarah Jane had wanted, Tom and Violet started preparing to go to Northern Horizons, getting breakfast ready for Eric and Heather and even leaving a message for Jackie and Rose informing them that they were on their way.
But before they could set foot in their car, a yellow taxi cab parked in front of their house, with the broad-shaped, dark -haired driver sticking his head out the window and saying, "Hello there. Got some important business to take care of, isn't that right?"
For a moment, Tom and Violet were thinking that the cab driver was dropping off Sarah Jane (strange as it was seeing how she'd called Tom only an hour earlier), and so they peered closely at the cab to see if there were any passengers on board. It turned out they were right, although the passenger wasn't Sarah Jane, but rather a tall, muscular girl wearing a brown, native-style dress and a long brown cloak. She was shivering heavily, and glared suspiciously at the couple.
"Shouldn't we have just stayed around to watch Rose?" she asked, speaking in what sounded like a combined Russian and North American accent.
"Sarah Jane's friends are going to need a lot of explaining when they get there, and with everything you were able to see, Lyssa, you might be the right person for the job. And besides, I like running into people I should be avoiding, as you've probably learned by now," the cabbie said with a smile.
Lyssa chuckled. "Yeah, as if having half of the residents of the Land of Fiction trying to hang you didn't bother you in the slightest."
"Excuse me, but who are you two and how do you know Sarah Jane?" Violet demanded.
"Did Sarah Jane ever tell you about her time traveling adventures?" the cabbie asked.
"Yes. We thought her stories seemed a little outlandish, but given all the mishaps we'd had with her in the past, we couldn't doubt her for a minute," Tom said.
"You see, Lyssa and I happen to be another one of these time travels, although we've had a couple of, let's say, challenges with certain authorities in past time periods which make things a little more complicated than they were for your friend," the cabbie explained.
"Well, there we have it, Tom. We've found ourselves in the hands of time traveler rebels. This day just keeps getting more fascinating as it goes on," Violet said.
"Now, are you going to accept a ride from us?" the cabbie asked.
"Would you mind telling us your name first?" Tom asked.
"With pleasure. The name's Captain Jack."
…
After a good cup of tea from Victoria and some words of reassurance from Eleanor Oswald, Rose was soon composed enough to tell the group her story, starting with her vision of the ballroom and ending with what had just happened to her mother.
"At first, Mummy looked as if she'd fallen asleep in her desk. Then, she slowly got up and started walking around the hotel, with her eyes wide open but completely still, making her look like a zombie," Rose said.
"How long did it take her to get to the ballroom?" Victoria asked.
"About a minute. She was there for only a while, but that was where she started mumbling, sounding like she was arguing with someone. She then took out wine bottles from a small refrigerator in a closet, drinking three whole bottles before I woke her up. And when that was over, she was crying, telling me she was so happy to see me because something scary had just happened to her, but when I tried to comfort her, she started yelling at me and threw a wine bottle across the room," Rose continued.
"And was that when you called Allison for help?" Eleanor asked.
"Yes. Mummy has the numbers of all the hotel workers inside a notebook in her desk. Allison got there very quickly, just a while before you and Clara arrived. She seemed much better at calming Mummy down, and when I asked why that was, she told me that it was because Mummy didn't want to talk about her problems to a small kid like me since I wouldn't understand what was happening to her."
"So, it's gotten this complicated already," Nina said. "Maybe if we had come to present day England sooner, we could have avoided these problems."
"Now Nina, it's not your fault," Victoria said. "You weren't actually here to see Rose's problems in person. If anything, I should be the one taking responsibility for this."
"Nonsense," Ace scoffed. "You've been dedicating so much time to helping UNIT with this case. Blaming yourself for this would seem pathetic."
"Ace, it's not fair to make fun of someone for feeling guilty," Eleanor said.
"I'm not making fun of her, Mrs. Oswald! I'm just saying that blaming yourself for everything that goes wrong when you've been helping all along is stretching the whole matter too far. You're putting too much responsibility on your shoulders, and that's almost as bad as doing nothing at all," Ace insisted.
"Point taken, Ace," Victoria said.
"And there you go again, being all nice and not lifting a finger in defense of yourself. I wonder how you survived your time with the Professor," Ace said.
"Now you are making fun of her," Nina said.
"Enough of this!" Eleanor yelled. "Looks like we're in desperate need of someone with both experience and patience to lead us out of this mess."
"And what's your experience? Driving a bunch of five -year-olds to school?" Ace said.
"I'll have you know I'm no stranger to psychic experiences," Eleanor said firmly. "Many years ago, I had a neighbor who told me about several things that would happen to my family in the future, like how my father would soon get a promotion, my sister was to experience a deep period of depression, and I would struggle to find the occupation I wanted the most. All of this would come true within a period of three years, and everyone in the area soon started coming to her to learn about this information, something which she usually did reluctantly because of how she believed it was best to let life run its course without any more interference than was necessary."
"Are you saying that you've always known what's happening to me, Mummy?" Clara asked.
"You're not exactly like that woman, Clara, but I understand that you are experiencing something similar. What it's supposed to mean, I'm not sure of, but I think we will know as time goes by," Eleanor said.
Clara frowned. "So, you were never telling me the truth at all? You knew so much about this and you couldn't tell me anything about it at all?"
Hearing this didn't please Nina either. Her own mother had given her a long talk on people with special gifts and the right way to use them when she'd been as young as Clara. But then again, because of their lifestyle, her family had always been more open to the mystic and spiritual mysteries of life than was the average person. Eleanor Oswald, on the other hand, lived such an ordinary life that seeing what was happening with Clara would have left her with no choice but to keep what she knew about psychic powers a secret. However, no matter how good her intentions were, keeping her daughter in the dark for so long about her abilities seemed unfair to Nina. In her opinion, there were some things which just shouldn't be kept hidden from children, and the knowledge that they might possess strong powers was one of them.
However, she knew that someone in here had to settle things down. And so, she turned to Eleanor and Clara and said, "This seems like a problem that you'll have to talk about with your daughter at another time, Mrs. Oswald. Right now, our priority is helping Rose."
"I agree," Eleanor said. "Clara, we'll talk more about this later. Is that okay with you, dear?"
"Yes, Mummy," Clara said. Although she wasn't happy about what her mother was doing, she cared as much about resolving Rose's problems as much as the others did. After all, if it hadn't been for a dream she'd had of Rose wandering around the hotel anxiously, Rose wouldn't be here right now.
"So, can I first get a detailed explanation of what's happening?" Eleanor asked
"Looks like a job for you, Victoria," Ace said.
"Of course it is, Ace. Now Mrs. Oswald, do you think you can handle any more bizarre yet true stories?" Victoria asked.
"What I've seen already has prepared to hear just about anything, Victoria. Also, feel free to call me Ellie."
"Okay," Victoria said. And so, she gave Eleanor the full details of what she knew about the situation, starting with an explanation of who the Doctor was and how he'd gotten himself inside Rose's head, and ending with the haunting incidents which had been going on in Northern Horizons.
"So, let me get this straight. We're not only dealing with psychics and haunted hotels, but aliens as well?" Ellie asked once she had finished.
"That's correct," Victoria said.
Ellie laughed. "I don't think even fairy tales have ever been this shocking. We've got both an alien and his long- estranged granddaughter in the picture, one of you happens to be from the past and is incapable of aging, and Rose happens to not only be psychic, but also a potential savior with powers that no one is certain of yet. You've sure got a strong chip over your shoulders is all I can say."
"And you're still certain about helping us?" Ace asked.
"I don't have much else to do besides taking care of Clara, so I could use a little adventure right now," Ellie said.
"Clara could still help as well, can she?" Rose asked.
"I wouldn't have gotten involved if it wasn't for what she'd predicted was happening to you, and so keeping her out of your adventures would not only be unfair, but also inconvenient."
"Thank you for being so helpful, Ellie. Now, should we go over to Northern Horizons?" Nina said.
"But how? Through my car, or this time machine of your alien friend?" Ellie asked.
"What do you think, girls?" Victoria asked, looking at Nina and Ace.
"Well, we already told you that it's unnecessary to take the TARDIS over to Northern Horizons for the time vortex to do its work, and given how unreliable it can be at getting us to our desired destination, we could end up at King Arthur's court once again," Nina said.
"The legends of King Arthur are real as well? Oh, dear. I don't know how much more new information I can take in," Ellie said, pressing her hand against her forehead.
"Nina, could you try to keep Ellie's shock level to a minimum, please? The poor woman has had enough for one day," Victoria said.
Rose and Clara started giggling. "She sounds just like a schoolteacher," Clara said.
"She actually is a schoolteacher, Clara," Rose said.
"Which makes it even funnier. I wonder if all schoolteachers are this bossy when they're not at school," Clara said.
Nina took a quick scan of everyone in the flat. "About how much people do you think could fit into your car, Ellie?"
"About four or five people. I really don't believe I could fit seven people into it though. Don't you have your own car, Victoria?" Ellie said.
"No. Unfortunately, I never gathered up the courage to learn to drive. I always find myself starring at the busy highways and shuddering at the thought of having to go through them in my own car," Victoria answered.
Ellie shook her head upon both realizing the situation at hand and hearing Victoria's overly formal way of speaking. But she couldn't think too much about this before Ace said, "I had a handful of lessons on how to handle the coordinates on my own during my time with the Professor. Perhaps I could handle the task of bringing the little ones over to…"
"Ace, don't even think about it! Don't you remember the Doctor explaining some of the rules the Time Lords put in place on the time machines? The prohibition of children younger than the age of ten aboard was one of the principal ones, having been established after all the trouble young Gallifreyans aroused when their parents would take them on trips," Nina said.
"Oh, really?" Ace asked, sounding surprised. "The Doctor never told me that. And anyway, I thought he basically ignored every rule the Time Lords put in place. Are you sure there's no way around that rule?"
"I don't know, and at this point, I don't want to try testing it out myself. The Doctor's in enough trouble already, and I don't want to make it worse by letting you cause any more mischief," Nina said.
"But Nina, I wanted to go inside the TARDIS!" Rose protested.
"You just might be able to when the Doctor gets back to his regular form, but for now, we must stick to business. Victoria, you should come along with me, Ellie, and Rose to Northern Horizons. Ace, you should stay here with Clara and call UNIT," Nina said.
"Now, why do I have to stay here? I might just be able to bring the ghosts down with my Nitro 9!" Ace said.
"Trust me, Ace. I don't believe that stuff works on ghosts," Nina said. The Nitro 9 may have worked on the dragons in King Arthur's court, but Nina had a feeling that the situation at Northern Horizons couldn't be handled by turning the place into a war zone. And this was why she felt Ace needed to stay while Victoria came along; fighters had to know when it was best for them to settle down, while those left on the sidelines needed a chance to step up and take action once in a while.
Clara groaned in disappointment, but was still more cooperative than Ace was, saying, "I'll doing anything you guys want me to do, I guess."
As they were preparing to leave, Rose came up to Victoria and asked in a whisper, "Victoria, have you been having visions of the Bad Wolf?"
"I dreamt about it last night, and just before you arrived, Nina had a vision about it, which I managed to see as well," Victoria responded.
"And were those the only times you saw it?" Rose asked.
"I believe so," Victoria said.
"Do you think you're probably developing psychic powers because of me?" Rose asked, getting to the point she was most concerned about.
Victoria shrugged. "I have no idea why this is happening to me, Rose. I've never had visions in the past, and my dreams would always just be dreams. Anything could have caused this, like some dormant ability I had inside me all along, meeting you, being in the TARDIS, or maybe even Northern Horizons itself. I suspect it may have been the hotel or its spirits which caused Truman to be so irrational around me and Laura when we told your mother about her friend's death, seeing as how courteous he started acting later on, and it may still have a grip on his employees."
"And my mummy as well?" Rose asked, looking on the verge of tears.
Victoria put an arm around Rose's shoulder. The girl was obviously very frightened about the situation, not that different from how Victoria herself had been all those years ago as a young time traveler. She'd sometimes wondered if things would have been any easier for her if there had been another girl or woman on board, someone with both brains and courage who could have understood her struggles and have guided her in a way which the Doctor and Jamie couldn't have. In some ways, she figured this made Rose much luckier than she'd been, because she had more than one female role model in addition to the Doctor to help guide her though this.
"Rose, you have many people looking out for you," she said. "It's not going to be easy for any of us, but we have no intentions on giving up. If we come across anything difficult, it's all right to be scared or have doubts. But the most important thing is to never lose hope and to keep working towards justice in your own way. And we will do your best to look out for your mother."
Rose gave her a small smile. Then she said, "So, you really think I'm luckier than you because I have more women to help me?"
"I do, actually. Although I'm glad to see that men and women are more equal now, I still think girls are at more of an advantage when they have a woman they can look up to. I mean, my own mother died when I was young, and I was the only girl in the TARDIS when I was with the Doctor, so I never received any enlightenment on strong women until much later, which showed in my fear of almost everything when I traveled," Victoria answered.
And as they were about to enter Ellie's car, Rose asked, "So, I already know that the Doctor can change into another body when he's about to die."
"Yes, that's right," Nina answered.
"Do you know if it's possible for the Doctor to go from being a man to a woman?" Rose said.
Both Nina and Victoria chuckled, while Ellie just looked confused. "Well, the Doctor knew several time lords who did change their sex upon regeneration. It was usually involuntary, but some did manipulate their genes to make it happen," Nina explained.
"So, it is possible? I never knew that before," Victoria said.
"It's not usually something Time Lords like sharing with other species, since it tends to make them either jealous or outraged," Nina explained. "Now why is it that you ask, Rose?"
"Because Victoria was telling me about how it's good for girls to have strong women to look up, so I wondered if the Doctor could ever change to a woman for that to happen," Rose said.
"Clever girl, but honestly, given how the Doctor usually travels with women, I think he'd most likely serve as a partner for a man if he were to become a woman," Nina said.
"A nonromantic partner, that is," Victoria clarified.
Ellie shook her head upon hearing what she considered to be crazy talk. "All right, ladies. Could we settle down with all this talk about Time Lords for now? I'm going to be driving right now, and this all sounds just too distracting for me to concentrate," she said.
"Of course," Nina said. But once they were taking off, she whispered to Rose, "But if this does happen someday, be sure to call me, because I'd love to see if the Doctor is just as brilliant and eccentric as a female as he is as a male."
