Sorry about being late in updating and this not being a double update. I have some really, really fun personal stuff going on, and by really, really, fun I mean I have really, really, not fun personal stuff going on.

This is a longer chapter than my previous ones though, and the next update definitely will be a double update. I promise.

Musical Accompaniment: I believe that reading can be enhanced by music, so I'm including a link to a piece of music (most likely instrumental) that can be heard in accompaniment to the Chapter.

Today's piece is Ghost Fleet by Robert Sheldon. Its scored for a concert band and if you want to hear it. Its youtube /

watch?v=nZAQyuET-q0

I can't format the URL it any other way without it not working (and if I keep trying this will be updated Saturday, not Friday)

Disclaimer: When I'm feeling tense I normally end up splitting the infinitive when I write about why I'm tense (actually it might be called not splitting the infinitive. Either way; really, really, not fun is not grammatically correct)

Episode 1: The Madman and the Recluse: Part 4

Chell marched quickly down the hallway, following the paths she thought she remembered she had to follow to get to the Wardrobe. The Doctors cries to come back slowly grew fainter and fainter and eventually died down all together. She then stopped; she was lost. Chell assessed the situation: long fall boots, check; nothing trying to kill her, check; portal device…

There weren't any portal applicable surfaces in the Tardis anyway; aside from the Wardrobe where she had left the gun. More pressing was the fact that her hand was burned to her crisp. She had gotten the device from a building in the town, which was the above-ground corporate headquarters of Aperture Science. She had no idea that the countless Portal Guns in that closet were defective, or wouldn't come off. The voice though said it was fine to try it on, despite her doubts. The voice would always advise Chell on how to deal with many things. It told her to be silent when GLaDOS spoke to her. It told her to jump when asked a question by a friendly core in the lab, Wheatly. It did not deal with puzzle solving; no that was another part of her brain entirely. But that part of her brain always listened to the voice and followed its instructions. It spoke up now, telling her that she should keep walking and ignore her hand. It was strangely easy to ignore the burn, as it was causing her no pain at all. Chell, obeying the order, did not ponder the lack of pain in her hand, nor did it occur to her that the voice had been completely mute since she had laid eyes on the Doctor and was only now speaking when he was gone.

She eventually found a door to a room labeled "Library." Opening the door (perhaps the room had a map of the Tardis) Chell beheld an expansive Library that must have held hundreds, if not thousands of books. She wandered a shelf, noting one shelf that had entirely children's books from all different planets. Another was dedicated to Agatha Christie novels, one of which, as she discovered, was published in the year 5 billion. Another shelf labeled Light Reading featured Atlas Shrugged, Zettels Traum, and In Search Of Lost Time. As Chell wandered the library, she felt drawn to a section labeled, Gallifreyan History. Looking at all the books on the shelf, she stopped at one entitled The History of the Time War. The voice spoke up.

"Don't read that book, it looks too long."

Chell, for the first time in her life, ignored the voice and took the book off the shelf, drawn to it. She found a pedestal to place the book on and began to read.

"The Last Great Time War was a war primarily fought between the Daleks and the Time Lords started by the Daleks in response to the Doctor's trickery that made Davros destroy Sakro's sun with the Hand of Omega…"

The book went into detail the war. The Time Lords were described a race of noble beings from a planet called Gallifrey; the oldest in the Universe. Their society had access to time travel and could see the whole of time of space, though it was rule not to interfere; except to resolve Paradox's and keep time as it should be. There were exceptions of course, Time Lords that interfered for better or for worse. One of them, the Doctor, helped ignite the war under the Time Lord's orders to cripple the Dalek race; who they saw in one reality had conquered the universe. The Daleks were a species of aliens who traveled in rolling metal pods with potent firepower and an undesirable desire to enslave or exterminate all inferior species. They also had access to time travel. Upon hearing of their planned Attack, Romana lady president of Gallifrey sent an army in response and so began the Time war. It was a feature where people would die and be saved every second due to the power of time travel. Chell was immersed in her reading, barely noticing the hours slowly ticking by; nor did she notice that the hall behind her labeled Theatre featuring such books as Broadway musicals of the 1940's was slowly getting darker despite the light not changing in the least.

The book meanwhile was drawing her in more and more, describing how the Dalek emperor flew into the jaws of the Nightmare Child after the Doctor failed to save him. She then heard the tale of a strange time lord called the Master who the council wished to resurrect with only two voices of dissent…

"I will not have him be resurrected; he is a danger to Time Lord Society and the Health of the Universe."

"Romana, the council has overruled your input; the Master can be utilized for the defense of Gallifrey."

"I will not sanction such actions Rassilon. We have called you back for the defense of Gallifrey; not to engage in modern politics. I will no longer accept your ancient sexist attitudes in this currant age."

"We won time wars then Romana. Your resistances to the council's proposals are ready cause for your removal from office."

"The session will take a 15 minute recess."

Chell gaped in shock, she had admired the efforts of the Lady-President to fight corruption and fight the war at the same time. Romana had used the recess to flee, knowing that a trial for treason would come and have an inevitable verdict. She was assisted by the Doctor, though she referred to him by a different name, a name Chell could not pronounce. She was assumed Dead by the end of the war, according to the book, for no contact had been established between her and anyone else since she left the Doctor.

The hours ticked, and the corner grew darker; but Chell kept reading, immersed in the work. The end was near; the Nightmare Child had tried to devour the commander of the Granix, who was instead killed by the 10th division of Daleks. The Gelth were helping to fight the siege of Gallifrey against the Dalek Emperor and the Could've Been King with his Army of Meanwhiles and Neverweres. Rassilon, now Lord-President, had proposed the Ultimate Sanction which would preserve Time Lords as beings of consciousness and destroy the whole of creation.

Chell was already shocked by the Doctor's actions. A man who had appeared to have the maturity of a child had done unspeakable acts and now was described committing the most heinous of crimes. Using something called the Moment; he had removed the entire Time War from time and space, effectively committing Genocide on both his species and the Daleks. The book also talked of regeneration, which made Time Lords change their personality and appearance when they were about to die, but this man was still the same being essentially, with the same knowledge and memories.

"Chell!" The cries from the Doctor faded in once more. The light in the back went dark

The Doctor saw the library door was open and entered the room.

"What are you doing here?" The Doctor noticed the book in her lap. "Wait, how are you reading that?"

"How am I reading this?" Chell was thrown off by the odd question. She had expected 'what are you reading' but not how she was reading the book. Wasn't that obvious?

"Alright let me rephrase the question. How long have been reading that?"

She didn't speak but gave a look that said "I don't know" and shrugged.

"How far are you?"

"You don't seem like the type who would commit genocide."

"But if you had gotten that far you had to be here for a couple of hours, and I lost sight of you two minutes ago. Which means their must have been a temporal shift inside the Tardis."

"A what!?"

"The Tardis is a time machine, always in flux." And when it's tunneling through large time streams, like how we're in now to go between Alternate Universes; it can result in separate time streams forming for different people. Think of when you see lightning and there is a delay in the thunder the farther you are from the strike. It's nothing like that at all but if it helps you think of it than it took the thunder longer to reach you."

"So our separation caused the shift?"

"No not at all. Two minutes separated is not enough time to cause a temporal shift; which is very, very, bad."

"And why is that?" The Doctor had a way of dodging questions, and Chell was not amused.

"It means that something else must be on board to have caused a shift to occur."

Chell looked at the Doctor. "That sounds like a beautifully told lie. Now I'd like to know about this Time War."

"Chell, look it's getting darker in here."

Chell then looked around and noticed the fading light. She slowly turned her head and saw that she could not see the back of the room. Chell walked backwards toward the Doctor. They looked at each other and silently agreed.

"Run!"

Chell followed the Doctor down the endless halls; looking back once to confirm that, yes the shadows were following him.

"How did they get on board? We should have been eaten if they got on board."

"There must have been very few; not enough to swarm. They're harmless on their own. But they've had an entire library to multiply in, and who knows how long it's been for them." They kept running, past many doors down the endless hall.

"Do you have any source of fire on the Tardis!?"

"Well there is the incinerator. Didn't you think I would have planned out where I was running to?"

"You weren't too big on plans when we were last chased."

"Well now we have the home field advantage."

"Alright, when I give the signal, break down the door your closest to."

"What's the signal?" she panted, she was not used to all of this running.

"Now!"

"What!?"

"Now!"

Chell broke down the door to reveal a room lit by a large furnace. It had a relatively large hatch used so large objects could be thrown in it. She only had a second to glimpse at it; for she had to help the Doctor lift the door and put it back in its place. Considering how heavy it was, Chell wondered how she broke it down in the first place with just her body weight.

Chell and the Doctor both rushed for the door of the furnace hatch and opened it to add more light to the room. There was electronic lighting in the room, but the Vashta Nerada could just as easily block it out; it didn't induce fire. Of course the door wasn't air tight and the swarm was gradually seeping in. The Doctor picked up a pair of extraordinarily long Tongs and took out a hot coal from the fire. The electric lighting from the room was fading and Chell and the Doctor could only see by the fire and the coal.

"Please," the Doctor said. "I'll take you back to your own time, please just don't hurt her."

"Doctor; drop it. They're not going to negotiate."

"No, I'm going to give them a chance. No one has to die. Please."

"If your guilt keeps you from doing it then I will." Chell stepped forward to grab the tongs but her burned hand could not hold them and she dropped them. The Vashta Nerada scattered and Chell quickly steeped back. Not one insect was scalded."

"God damn it, Doctor!"

"Chell"

"I can't tell if you're worse as a pacifist or as a madman."

"Chell, stay still."

"What?"

"I'm so sorry Chell, but you have two shadows, it's only a matter of time before they are ready to eat."

A thought flashed through Chell's head. She had long wanted it to end, her life; and it had. The Doctor destroyed it, but did he really. Could she really let this fool who had tried to save her life kill her? Could she let a stupid insect best her? A wry smile came over her face. The Doctor looked at her quizzically.

"Sorry, but you're not going to kill me Time Lord."

And with that she jumped into the furnace; expecting to burn to death. Not even the Doctor would be stupid enough to turn his back from the insect and try to save her. She would die on her own terms.

Except he was. Chell felt him grab her hand; her good hand; and begin to pull her up. She didn't fight it; she was in too much pain to do anything; except there was also no pain. She felt her body be lifted up. She felt it hit the floor. And everything went black.

Cliffhangers, they are ever so suspenseful in writing.

DFTBA, I'll Update before Next Saturday.