This will be the last chapter in this story, but I'll probably write more with Kerralie

This will be the last chapter in this story, but I'll probably write more with Kerralie. This is kind of a finishing off chapter, with less drama.

Chapter Five

Kerralie was alone in a large room of the TARDIS. She was surrounded by an aura of golden light. She focused her mind, and changed. She shimmered into the form of a cat, with black fur and gold eyes. Then she shimmered into a wolf, long black fur bristling along her back. She shifted back into herself, and set about trying to trace the signal which had overpowered her mind. It was no use. She couldn't find where it had come from. She sighed again, and went to get help from the Doctor, and possibly Jack too, since he was still hanging around for some reason.

………………..

"OK, I think the signal should be fairly easy to trace. There's some imprint of the mind left in yours so if I link you up with the TARDIS we can get a location for it. Now, sit still."

Kerralie obediently sat as the Doctor buzzed at her temples with a sort of silver pen with a blue light at one end. He explained what he was doing, and Kerralie and Jack sat and pretended to listen politely.

"OK, just going to patch in the TARDIS now. This is a sonic screwdriver, by the way."

"I'm not a shelf, Doctor."

"Jack, don't even try making the obvious joke."

"What? Why do you always say stuff like that to me?"

"Ah-ha! Got it!"

"What obvious joke?" asked Kerralie.

"You don't want to know. OK, you can move know. Got the location of our mind-possessor."

The Doctor set the TARDIS in motion before turning to Kerralie.

"Are you going to be OK with this?" he asked gently.

"I think so, yeah."

"At least you'll have us two to back you up," said Jack. "And if everything goes wrong you can use me as an immortal shield."

"You just can't stop saying that, can you?" Kerralie commented. "It's not that good a pick-up line!"

The TARDIS stopped and Kerralie glanced at the doors. There was no backing out now.

……………………….

The small house was surprisingly normal. And disturbingly like Kerralie's home. And very, very quiet. More than quiet, it was lifeless. And Kerralie knew why. In a way, she had known from when she had sent that blazing spiral of power into the mind that had been controlling her. Kay had not been rejected. Kay had been killed. As the three of them went into the living room Kerralie saw what she had been dreading but expecting. It was worse than she had imagined. The woman lying on the floor resembled Kerralie a little, with long dark hair, but she had been burned from the inside. Kerralie heard the scream before she realised it was coming from her. She staggered back, into the hallway. She pulled open the door and ran out into the night. Probably Jack and the Doctor tried to follow her, but she could run very fast, and had been living two streets away for the past eight years, so she knew exactly where she was going. Jack would know his way around but Kerralie was going somewhere only she knew about.

…………………….

Jack and the Doctor had tried to follow to follow her, but she had got away. So they had gone back to the TARDIS where the Doctor was now trying to reverse the tracker to find Kerralie. Jack was checking the monitor. The map of Cardiff appeared on the screen.

"Oh, no," he said as he recognised where the dot marking Kerralie was going. "She's heading for the docks.

…………………

Kerralie really was heading for the docks. It was the kind of place that everyone said not to go to, especially after dark, like it was now. So Kerralie, being one of the people that the expression 'curiosity killed the cat' was designed for, had gone there one night. There was nothing scary or special, but she'd found a separate part that could only be reached by wading through a little bit of shallow water. Kerralie shape-shifted into a horse to do the wading. She then pulled herself onto the isolated stretch of concrete and leaned against the slightly damp wall to think. She had killed someone. She knew Jack and Torchwood, which he had told her about, would cover the whole thing up for her, but that didn't take away the blame. It was self-defence, but it was still killing. From that moment, she resolved to never use her full power. She picked up a handful of pebbles from the ground and made them glow with her fire. She threw them into the water one by one, watching the gold fade in the inky blackness. She was still standing, looking into the water, when the TARDIS arrived and Jack and the Doctor burst out and dragged her away from the edge. She blinked, as she hadn't realised she was standing that close. She felt numb, and it took her a while to realise they were speaking to her. When she realised they were yelling about how she shouldn't be doing this, she relaxed her struggling and let them pull her into the TARDIS. They pushed her inside, and she retreated into herself, shutting out their voices and the TARDIS's mind. She felt exhaustion overwhelm her, are realised that she probably hadn't slept for about two days. Time travelling was confusing. She swayed slightly, and as she collapsed she felt Jack and the Doctor catch her and lower her to the floor.

……………………

Kerralie came round slowly, and found she was in another room of the TARDIS that was a lot like a sparsely-furnished bedroom. She got up, stretched, and made her way to the control room, somehow managing to not get lost more than twice. In the control room were Jack and the Doctor, deep in discussion which Kerralie suspected was about her. To check this, she shifted into being unseen. It wasn't invisibility, but just hiding. If she stood in bright light or moved quickly she would be completely visible, but moving stealthily through the shadows. She was right.

"She didn't seem to know what she was doing," said Jack.

"Trauma can do that to people, Jack. They just shut down completely when everything overloads."

OK, thought Kerralie, so they don't think I'm completely crazy. That's good. Think I'll stop hiding now.

She let them see her. They looked sympathetic, and Jack asked,

"You OK?"

She nodded. "I'm alright now, thanks."

"Would you like to go travelling to cheer yourself up a bit?" asked the Doctor.

"I'd like that, yeah."

"Jack, what about you?"

"Oh, I wouldn't miss this for the world."

"Off we go then! How does the most beautiful planet ever sound?"

"It sound amazing," said Kerralie, and she smiled. It was like dawn after a long night. The Doctor adjusted a few instruments, and they plunged into the vortex.

So, there it is, all done. the next Kerralie story will be called Illusions and will be up as soon as i can be bothered to write it. So, final reviews please!