"I need to come up with a plan," The Doctor sighed, running his left hand through his hair, "a strategy…strategy…to somehow get into the premises unnoticed. I mean, we can't just waltz through the gates, you saw those guards!"
"Um," Tristan said, lying across the chair in the TARDIS control room, "Why can't we just use the TARDIS?"
He immediately looked up at her, hopefully, but then his face faltered and his hand whipped back up to his hair, "No, no that won't do. Have you heard how loud this baby is?"
"So?" She shrugged, watching him walk back and forth until his back was turned to her, "We'll still get in."
"It's not that simple," He pushed, "We can't just…go to the middle of the field. We would have to materialize into a specific room in that building to be unnoticed, but it's too risky. The chances that some guard is in one of those rooms is right off the scale."
"So?" She shrugged again, "We'll still get in."
"You know," He turned around, "You're not making this any easier."
No reply. He just watched her stand up and wander off, sighing all the way down the hallway.
'Women,' He thought, 'absolutely perplexing.'
He stopped everything for a moment and stared into space. Well, not space literally, he's already seen most of it, there's no need to stare. The last two companions he had just went with him because he asked them to. He was a complete stranger but they gave him their full trust and they only had just realized it until they were watching the universe end or when they were trapped in a motorcar surrounded by Macra. They always had a fit and asked him who or what he was and he acted as if he had the upper hand and never answered any of their questions. But now the tables were turned because it seemed as though Tristan knew everything about him and he knew nothing about her but he trusted her and let her come along.
And at that moment in time, he finally knew what it was like to be the companion.
Tristan walked down the hallway, against the wall, and tracing her fingers over the smooth surface. She walked until she hit a flight of winding stairs. Walking down, she spotted the TARDIS wardrobe. Sitting in the middle of it all, on the floor, cross-legged, she looked around. There were racks and racks of costumes and they were all in a mess, not in chronological order and the items of clothing were practically hanging on the hangers on a thread. She spotted a light blue and gold dress that looked like it had at least three petticoats under it. After staring at it for a couple of seconds, she reached over to touch the lace but before she could grab a hold of it, she heard the Doctor calling her all the way from the control room.
"Tristan!"
She rolled her eyes and pushed herself up.
"Tristan!"
She stepped up the stairs at a moderate pace and down the hall a little bit quicker.
"Tristan!"
"What?!" She said, obviously aggravated.
"Look," The Doctor sighed, "I've decided that we should materialize into a single room in the main building to get into the place. I set the co-ordinates but I want to lay down a couple of ground rules so that we don't get into any trouble. Number one: don't wander—"
But before he could finish, Tristan ran over to the console with a huge smile on her face and pulled on a random lever and the ship started moving toward its destination.
"No, no, no!" The Doctor grabbed the hair on both sides of his head, eyes wide, "You didn't listen to any of the ground rules I didn't even get to the plan yet! Oh my God how did you even know what lever to pull? This is a complete disaster!"
He immediately stopped when he noticed that the girl was just standing there smiling and staring at him.
"Doctor," She gently grasped his arms and pulled them off his head, still smiling, "shut up."
There was pounding on the door.
They both turned their heads instantly.
"Well I guess that's us," She shrugged, "let's be off then."
She started heading towards the exit when he quickly pulled her sleeve back to him, "There is absolutely no way you are going out there. I'm going first."
"What? Why?" She objected, ripping her arm out of his hold.
"My brain comes up with lines quicker." He said simply, ignoring her offended reaction, "here," he said, giving her a single key, "this is a key to the TARDIS, if anything happens and we get split up, you can get back here. Now, I'm going first to distract those guards."
"What are you going to do?" She chuckled quietly, "expose your leg?"
"Shh!" He hissed and opened the door.
Tristan gasped when she saw four arms grab him immediately, but she calmed down when she saw his head turn and he winked at her before he stretched out a Converse clad foot to kick the TARDIS door shut.
"How lovely to see you again Mr. Smith." Mrs. Ripley smirked as the Time Lord was dropped into a chair in front of her office desk.
"Just let me ask you one little thing Edna." The Doctor started.
"I've had enough of your silly questions John," she smiled, "for all I know, you're not even conducting an actual survey. I know exactly what you're up to."
"You do?" He replied a little bit stunned.
"Oh of course," She stood up to walk around her office, "I saw you talking to that Hector Mars, total piece of scum by the way, couldn't even protect his own business from me."
"Oh, yes?"
"But you don't need to pretend anymore John," She sat on top of the desk and crossed her legs and arms, "Just come out and tell me John."
"Tell you what?" He swallowed nervously.
"I've been waiting for an interview with Multi-Millionaire Entrepreneurs Weekly since I subscribed when I was a little girl! You could've just told me instead of making up that story about conducting a survey! I knew you guys were sneaky but I didn't know how bad it was!"
"What?"
With the push of a button the control room monitor showed the outside world. Well, room, that is. Tristan stared into the dimly lit room and spun a wheel that turned the outside camera around the room. It was completely empty.
She sighed, 'I should've listened to those blasted ground rules if I knew the plan was the follow up.'
"What am I supposed to do?" She groaned and leaned her elbows on the console. Her head shot up as she thought of an idea. Finally grinning, she whipped down the hallway and stopped at a slim door that was closed.
'Yes, closet.' She thought and turned the doorknob.
She groaned again when she flicked the light switch and the room was a complete mess. She threw her arms out to her side for balance as she slowly tried to step through the thin pathway that separated the two huge piles of objects to two sides of the rooms. It was so thin she had to step forward one foot at a time. Once she got to the middle of it all, she turned her head around and around, trying to look for something she could use as a weapon.
'This is going to take a while.' She sighed for the one-millionth time that day and sat down on a tall jar-like container that contained clear bubbling liquid and a hand.
Right at that moment, she spotted a plastic bag that had masking tape stuck on the front like a label. The label said "perception filter necklaces' on it.
'Perception filter necklaces,' She rested her elbow on her knee and her chin on her hand, 'Necklaces that…filter your perception? Perception like…what you see? Filtering what you see?'
"YES!" She jumped off the bubbling hand and finally looked down at what she was sitting on, "Ew gross." She quickly swiped her hand across her rear end and reached over to grab the bag with the necklaces in them.
Then she noticed that there was a piece of paper taped on to the back of the bag that had a really long message written on it in English.
Doctor, this is a message for yourself if you somehow get amnesia or a daft companion whom you don't feel like explaining anything to. These are the perception filters that you made in the Year that Never Happened with Captain Jack Harkness (cheeky immortal 51st century man) and Martha Jones (companion that basically saved your shriveled body in a cage). When you put one of these on your neck, nobody will see you, well, they will see you but it will feel like you're just something in the corner of their eye. One little thing, do not shout or wave your arms around or do anything to attract attention to yourself, because the perception filter will not work anymore and everyone will be able to see you.
"Excellent. Absolutely brilliant." She grinned and took one of the necklaces out of the bag and placed it into her pocket.
She turned around to leave when something caught her eye. On the same shelf was a metal stick with a yellow top that looked like a chunkier version of the Doctor's sonic screwdriver. She shrugged and grabbed it off the shelf as well and slipped it higher up her sleeve just incase she had to whip it out.
She ran back out to the control room and stopped at the exit. She patted down her pockets to check if she had the TARDIS key and the perception filter necklace.
Taking a deep breath, she gently grabbed the handle and slowly opened the door. Once she closed it behind her, she took the perception filter necklace out of her pocket and hung it around her neck.
'I hope these don't have an expiration date.'
At first, she walked slowly through the doorway and into the main foyer. After realizing that none of the three guards in the place actually saw her, she walked up the main stairs at a normal pace and down the hallway towards Mrs. Ripley's office. She sighed a breath of relief when she saw that there were no guards outside of Ripley's office.
'They must've gone back to the TARDIS,' She thought as she got closer and closer to the door.
Her hand levitated towards the doorknob until she heard Mrs. Ripley's loud voice and she bent down on her knees to look through the keyhole.
"…And then you came in wearing that attractive suit John," Mrs. Ripley said in a low voice, "By the way, what is your real name?"
"Erm, Doctor." The Doctor grimaced.
"Doctor Smith," She giggled, "I think I've read some of your pieces!"
"Oh…you have?"
"Oh yes Doctor," She leaned over him, making close eye contact, incredibly oblivious of the pained face he was making, "It would be a pleasure to be interviewed by you."
And she got closer.
And closer.
And closer.
"Alright that's enough!" the door flung open and hit the wall, "You are incredibly nasty." It was Tristan, and she was pointing the sonic screwdriver-like device straight at Mrs. Ripley.
Mrs. Ripley's eyes widened and she backed away when she saw what Tristan was pointing at her.
"Where did you get that laser screwdriver?" the Doctor automatically freaked out.
"The same place I got this perception filter necklace," Tristan replied, pulling it off her neck, "closet."
"What on Fossilius is going on—" Mrs. Ripley started.
"You're going to get away from my friend," Tristan said still pointing the laser screwdriver at Mrs. Ripley, "and then you're going to take us to the giants."