"The Little People are known in Irish folklore as Faeries." the Doctor explained, "To them, they're just magical creatures, with powers beyond all comprehension. But in reality, they can bend time to their whim."
"Like those creatures you mentioned before?" I remembered, "Who can play with time like it was plasticine?"
"Exactly like them." the Doctor replied, "It may even be the case that they are punishing Cooper here for something he's going to do, or a relative of his will do, which explains why he's here."
"And where is here? You haven't explained that yet." Cooper interrupted.
The Doctor needed some time to come up with the best way to explain it: "Imagine time to be like a film-reel. Now a reel, in the old days, was only image, no sound. That had to be recorded on a separate medium. So when the two are played together, the sound and image weren't always in sync. And that is what this world is. A separate dimension, that is out of sync with our own."
Cooper needed some time to let this sink in, while Maen seemed bored with the explanation. I decided to ask: "Where do these Little People... these Faeries come in?"
"They decided to use this dimension as their own personal playground, where they can play with the heads of whoever they send in there." the Doctor answered, "Of course, since the people sent in shouldn't become aware that they are in another dimension, they tried their best to copy our dimension."
That would explain the Empty-Space people. If they're just copies of the people from the real world, and we have no need to see the inside of any body, of course they'd be empty on the inside.
"So that's why Gwen was acting so strange." Cooper told Maen and me, "It wasn't really her, it was a copy."
"So glad we have that out of the way." Maen didn't mean that.
"And why is there a second moon?" I asked.
"This is what keeps this dimension in place." the Doctor explained, "As long as that moon is there, this dimension will keep on existing."
"So destroy that moon, and the Little People would be no problem?" Maen sounded more enthused this time.
"It's not as simple as that." the Doctor answered, "The Tardis' powers are being drained just to keep them out. And even if I find a way to bring this moon out of orbit, if it crashes on Earth, it will cause a cataclysmic event that no one will survive. And in addition to that, the Faeries will use everything in their power to bring the second moon back into orbit."
"How do you know all that?" Maen asked.
"Because I have seen their power." the Doctor explained, "I have seen how they control the people on this planet, how they manipulate the few who are real humans, how they even managed to establish cults to further enforce their power, and yet manage to do all that without anyone knowing about them. They had someone try to expose them once, and it didn't make a dent to their power."
This sounded dangerous enough, so I asked: "Can't we just... I don't know, open the Eye of Harmony again and get out."
"They will detect it if I tried." the Doctor explained, "They probably already detected me saving Emma."
Maen sighed loudly: "If only I could access the Force again."
"The Force?" this was new to Cooper.
"How would that help us?" I asked.
"I could use that power to manipulate the Little People, perhaps even have them relinquish their hold on those empty Earthlings, so we can use them ourselves."
"Earthlings?" Cooper scoffed.
"Right now, that doesn't sound like such a bad idea." the Doctor said.
"But didn't you say I can't do any of that now, because it was tearing the universe apart?" Maen questioned.
"Years ago, sure." the Doctor replied, "But by now the universe has restored itself a little. And if only one of you uses it, it won't cause that much damage."
"Sounds like a plan." I replied, "But didn't you hypnotize her and all Jedi so they can't even remember how to do any of those things?"
"What are you people talking about?" Cooper couldn't understand any of this.
"I merely closed the door on that part of their brain." the Doctor explained, "All I have to do is open it."
"Can you do that?" Maen asked, her face lighting up even brighter than two moons put together.
"Excuse me, when will anyone answer any of my questions?" Cooper interrupted.
"When there's time." an expression that must have little to no meaning to a Time Lord, and yet here there was one who used it.
"Mr. Cooper, can you stay here and keep an eye on Emma?" the Doctor asked Cooper.
"Eh... Ok." he didn't know what else to do.
"If there's any problem, just press redial on that phone." the Doctor pointed at the phone on the Tardis' console, which (as far as I knew) last dialed the number to my phone.
"You two, come along." the Doctor told me and Maen, and so we followed him.
We didn't know what the Doctor was planning. Maen did ask him, on our way to where we were going, how he'd "open the door" as he put it. He replied he'd do that easily, but it wouldn't be enough. He needed a more direct way for her to connect to the Little People afterward. And as we were going through the Tardis corridors, I recognized the road we were taking. It was getting progressively older. Medieval, I should say.
"We're heading back to the Eye Of Harmony?" I asked.
"That is correct." the Doctor replied, "We need Maen to access the Force. And there is no better place in the world to do that more directly."
In my mind, I was wondering who was more dangerous. The Little People, or the Jedi combined with the Time Lords. I didn't have much time to think more of it, because we had soon arrived at the door, beyond which lay the Eye. We walked through that door, after which the Doctor motioned to us to walk toward the Eye.
"You've done it before, I'm sure you know what to do now." the Doctor said, with a slight hint of malcontent.
I suppose on the one hand it was a good thing that we saved him the time to explain, but on the other it was also a fact that we wouldn't be in this dimension if I wasn't so curious to check out the rest of the Tardis. Like before, I pulled one pole out of its place and looked into the light that was hidden underneath it. Again, the Eye opened, and again there was a projection. Not of those old men I've seen before. No, this time it was of a bearded, balding man, who had this expression on his face that wasn't just patronizing, but somewhat frightening. It was as though I was looking at the most horrible man in the world. I looked at the Doctor, who froze at the sight of that projection, his eyes wide, and his mouth wobbling. Did he know who this man is? Before I could ask him anything, he had already placed his hands on Maen's head. He was trying this mind-melt thing again? And without warning her first too, because Maen protested as soon as his hands were on her head. But that ended almost as quickly, as she closed her eyes, and relaxed. Things seemed to quiet down just then, when my phone rang. I rushed to answer it, but it stopped ringing after one ring. The only person I could think of that could try to reach me was in the Tardis console room. But if something was wrong, why would he ring only once? Unless...
"Doc, better hurry up." I told him.
"I'm... trying..." he replied, "I... may have... overdone it... just a little..."
Overdone it? Did he mean that his hypnosis was so strong that even he couldn't undo it? As I was about to ask, I saw something move at the door. It was small, and not alone. Several shadows were finding their way to the Eye Of Harmony, which (since it had my attention again) had started to project distorted pictures. And through those pictures, the Little People jumped. I got up from where I was sitting, hoping I could do something, but the whole floor was flooded with these Little People. No sooner had that image imprinted itself in my head, and I heard Maen inhale deeply. I looked, and I saw she had opened her eyes, widely, like she had just woken up from a nightmare. She stretched out her arms, pulled her head out of the Doctor's hands, and let out a cry, much faster than I could see her open her mouth to even make such a sound. Somehow, the cry was so loud, it did more to my eyes than to my ears. Everything started to brighten up, like everything and everyone was suddenly some source of light. They kept getting brighter, until everything was white, and I could hear no more.