The Doctor crashed into Scorch, pulling her to the ground. There was a flash of light, and they landed hard on the floor of a small room inside the Krize ship. Scorch instantly threw the Doctor off of her, scrambling away crablike. The Doctor stood up quickly when Scorch suddenly hissed in pain. He looked at her in time to see her hunched over on the floor, her breathing raspy. Two Krize stood over her, one with an empty needle in their hand.
"What have you done to her?" the Doctor shouted, wanting to help but afraid to touch her until he knew what was wrong.
"It's a drug, Doctor," Julius said as he entered the room, the main command bridge visible before the door shut behind him. "Instantly lethal to anyone else, but with so much energy flowing through her, it simply takes the edge off. She'll be fine in a few moments. You may return to Earth."
"Not without her."
"Oh, just shut up," Scorch snapped as she stood, already fully recovered. "You can't do anything to stop this, Doctor. The longer I wait, the greater the chance the Rahki will get me. Just leave."
"Kathryn—"
"Don't try, Time Lord," Scorch said scathingly. "It's either this or whatever the Rahki have planned."
Scorch looked over at Julius. "It's safe for my manipulator to come off, right?"
He nodded and she pulled off her manipulator and tossed it to the Doctor. "Use that. Bright boy like you can figure it out."
"You're trying to get rid of me."
"I was perfectly happy until you showed up in my life!" she screeched at him, tears starting to form in her eyes. "I had everything mapped out, my future planned and looking just fine, and then I got thrown out of it because of you! And then when I try to leave to keep you safe and out of danger, you still follow me. I try to be you, I try to keep people I love safe, but I can't unless I die! Just let me do this one thing right! Let me fix something for once!"
Scorch swallowed hard, breathing heavily. She turned looked determinedly at Julius. "When do we start?"
"Are you that eager to die?" Julius asked, unknowingly saving the Doctor from having to do the same. Scorch spread her arms in a shrug.
"Not much of a life."
The Doctor wanted to protest, but no argument would do any good. She sounded too much like him. The Doctor just looked at her steadily, reading all her emotions. Then his gaze turned curious. "Kathryn, you're smoking."
"I'm what?"
"Your shirt. It's smoking."
Scorch looked down at herself and realized that something was burning its way through her shirt. A slow realization came over her face and she quickly pulled out the end of one of the necklaces she was wearing. At the end of it was her TARDIS Key. And the Key was glowing.
"Doctor, you're going to have to explain this one."
The Doctor stepped intently towards her. "Kathryn, I need you to fight. Once it starts, fight as hard as you can, understand?"
"Once what starts?"
"The Rahki don't need the chip in your arm anymore," the Doctor said. "They just need a TARDIS Key, and they have the one they stole from me on Beriin. Taking yours off won't do any good," he said as Scorch tried. "They just needed the one link to find you first. And neither will shields," he told the Julius. "It's a temporal transport, not a physical one. You've taken just enough energy out of her to let them do that," the Doctor finished tightly.
Scorch turned pale and seemed to find it hard to breathe. "They've still caught me. I tried so hard and they still caught me." She looked at the Doctor, terrified. "I'm sorry. I didn't want this to happen. I was going to leave quietly. It was all going to be taken care of." She swallowed hard. "Doctor, what are they going to do to me?"
The Doctor didn't answer.
Scorch looked like she was holding back tears, emotions of all sorts running through her. "Find me. Please."
There was a bright flash, and Katie was gone.
"Sir!" one of the many soldiers called out to Julius. "The signal we have on the Doctor's ship; it's gone. The Rahki took the TARDIS."
"Follow them," Julius ordered. "Having her is bad enough. We can't afford to let them have the TARDIS as well." He turned back to the Doctor. "I'm going to have to ask you to stay on the planet Doctor. We'll return your ship to you once this is finished."
"Do not keep me from this, Karzon," the Doctor said angrily, looking every inch the Last Time Lord. "They have my friend, and I am not going to sit and hope you do your job."
"This has too much to do with you, Doctor."
"Then I need to be there."
Julius looked back at the Doctor, surprisingly without fear. "The only hope you have of preventing this and saving her is to stay away. If you go anywhere near her, especially now, you will both end up dead. The known universe will end, and it can only be stopped if you stay away." He held up his hands as though relinquishing authority. "I can't stop you, so I won't try. You can do one or the other; stay away from her and let her live, or chase her and watch everything you once held dear crumble." He made certain to look the Doctor in the eye. "Choose wisely."
*Constructive critisisim welcome, praise happily accepted, flames not wanted*
End Episode 11. Hope you all enjoyed it.
Love to hear from you on what you think the "Final Stage" is.
My grand ending awaits all you readers in my next, and final, episode: "And She Lived"