Part 3

Chapter 8: A Field of Metal

Kelly's thighs ached. So did her back, her neck and her hip but her thighs hurt most. Something pointy tried to dig through her skull despite some kind of thin and lumpy material her head rested on. Stiffly, she reached under the material and removed the offending object. The pressure gone, her head began to clear. She blinked uncomprehendingly at the sky above her. Her fingers scraped earth and tuffs of grass. It was also damp.

Have I been camping, she wondered as she caught the faintest whiff of smoke from a wood fire. But if she was camping then where was the tent? There was none in sight and the sky had greeted her, not the canvas of a tent. It didn't make sense.

Where am I? How did I get here and why do I have a sinking feeling that I am not going to like finding out?

Most distressingly, this was clearly not within the castle walls. She didn't know what the Doctor had done but somehow he must have forced her to leave, the manipulative git. When she got her hands on him... No matter, she had to find her way back first. How naïve the Doctor was to think he could save Ace on his own. For an annoyingly stubborn but intelligent man, it was a very stupid belief.

The ground vibrated slightly. Something was moving nearby and getting closer. She could hear muffled footsteps. Automatically, she reached for something she could use as a weapon but could only reach the blanket coated in coarse reddish-brown hair beneath her head. It was hardly an effective weapon so she changed tactics. She shut her eyes and kept perfectly still.

Oh very good, chided the voice of reason in her head. Feigning sleep, wonderful. Of course whoever's sneaking up on you can't see you if you can't see them. Like this will protect you.

The vibrations grew in strength until Kelly was certain they were right next to her. She cracked open an eyelid as something nuzzled her hair. A large brown elongated face covered in hair with giant nostrils stared down at her.

"AAAAAHHHHHHH!"

The face backed off, startled by the cry. Kelly scrambled backwards as fast as she could. Her back hit something solid and she tore her eyes away to look behind her. Taking advantage of the tree, she sprung to her feet and clambered up, pulling herself up from one outcrop of bark to another. Ignoring her protesting hip and thighs, she continued to climb until the branches above were not capable of holding her weight. Still the ground seemed much too close when she dared to look down. The creature stood at the base of the tree and nudged the trunk with its shoulder. To her horror it stood up on its hind legs and stretched its long neck.

"Kelly?" cried a voice.

The beast returned to all fours and turned its head to identify the speaker. The creature watched patiently. As if it hasn't chased me up here, thought Kelly bitterly, like it isn't waiting for me like a dog waiting for the cat to give up and climb down.

"Kelly?" called the voice again. Kelly broke eye contact with the beast to watch the Doctor run up the hill. Despite being furious with him, she was glad to see him. She saw him halt mid-run and frown. The frown was soon replaced with a semi-concerned, partly amused expression.

Her relief at his appearance started to wane. And what does he think is so funny?!

"What are you doing up there?" he asked having stopped a few metres away.

Gee, I wonder. What does it look like I'm doing? Cooking a cake? How could he fail to notice the huge beast standing beneath me? "Don't just stand there!" she yelled, irritated by his lack of action and obliviousness to the situation.

He took a few steps closer before stopping again. His hand propped up his chin as he examined the scene before him as though it were a particularly difficult crossword puzzle. "How ever did you get up there?" he mused, more to himself than to her.

"Do something!" she demanded in desperation.

"Do what?"

Oh for goodness sake. "Make it move!"

The Doctor glanced at the beast as though he had only just been made aware of its existence. "The horse?" he asked.

No, the giraffe. Yes, the four legged monstrosity. "Yes," she managed, hugging the tree tightly and clinging for dear life.

He tilted his head as he stared up at her. "It's not going to eat you," he told her.

No it wasn't but she was more concerned about its hoofs and being kicked, crushed or trampled.

Receiving an icy glare, he sighed and approached the horse. Taking the reins, he led it to another tree a fair distance away, the horse trotting happily after him. It whinnied when he tied the reins around the tree and started walking back to Kelly. "You can come down now!" he called in a loud voice. "Or," he added, "do you need help with that too?"

He was too far away to notice the glare Kelly gave him. Oh, the nerve! "I can manage, thank you!" she snapped in retaliation.

He had reached the tree by the time she had plotted a route down. She ignored his offered hand and, dropped down. Failing to factor in her injuries, her legs buckled upon landing and she was saved from greeting the ground face first by the Doctor. She hurried to regain her balance and removed his hands from around her waist with as much dignity as she could muster. Not that she had much left. It had well and truly been skewered today already. To have been seen so openly petrified by her fear... She buried her head in her hands to hide her face. To his credit, the Doctor said nothing. She expected him to but he didn't.

Frustratingly she felt like she owed him for coming to her rescue. Even though he had not commented, the feeling was still there. It left an unwelcome taste in her mouth. Kelly did not like debts, not when she owed them. She composed herself. "I had a fall," she informed him, refusing to look directly at him. "Long time ago."

He nodded slightly, implying he had suspected as much. Kelly did not elaborate and he did not ask. That suited her just fine. The less said about it the better. Trying to put her embarrassment behind her, she turned to the situation at hand and assessed it in an analytical manner.

Location: Edge of an incredibly large and thick forest of towering trees. A castle stands on the horizon beyond numerous hills to the north-west, barely larger than her finger. It is the only recognisable landmark in sight.

Time: Judging by the height of the sun in the sky, it has to be early to mid-morning.

Estimated distance to castle: Hard to tell with all the hills. Several hours on foot.

Instead of allowing herself to be demoralised by the distance she had to cover, she concluded she better start walking.

"Where are you going?" the Doctor called after her as she marched down the hill. He soon identified her destination. "No, no. Stop. Stop!"

She almost laughed as he raced to catch up and place himself in front of her, attempting to block her path. Like he can stop me. He has no idea just what it takes to prevent me from getting where I want. Fences and physical barriers were the equivalent of the sides of a playpen to her. A locked door was less difficult than getting through a messy dormitory in the dark.

He attempted to appeal to her reason but it would not be swayed. In reason's opinion there was no point in speaking. There was no need for words. She is here and Ace was there. Getting there held priority. If he continued to get in her way or otherwise attempt to slow her down, he was an obstacle. Kelly dealt with obstacles in two ways; avoidance or a rapid application of brute force.

"Stop and think! If you return, they have no need to keep her alive," the Doctor said as if the very notion had not occurred to her. He seized her arm. "You set one foot inside those walls and they will kill her. What can you hope to accomplish? It's a castle, a structure designed to keep people out! All ways in are watched, all doors and gates guarded. Only an army could hope to storm it and overcome its defences. What hope could you have?"

I gave up an opportunity to save Ace for this, thought Kelly. I gave it up thinking this idiot might actually be productive in providing a better chance of rescuing her. I thought I had had an ice-cubes chance in hell of helping Ace back when I was in the alleyway. Now the odds are even less favourable. Worse, by placing even the smallest amount of hope in him sharing the common goal of wanting Ace rescued, I find myself hundreds of miles away in the countryside. I now have to travel all the way back and then find another way into the castle. He has made my task a thousand times harder than it already was.

As much as she longed to march off without him, she knew that she could not. Like it or not, he could not be left on his own. He was the designated driver, their only way home. Ace'd kill me if anything happened to him and I'd end up stuck here maybe permanently. As much as she needed to rescue Ace, she needed to convince him to follow her lead, and she needed to do so quickly. She was furious with him but channelling that anger would get her nowhere. Every minute they spent here exchanging retorts was a minute they should be going back the way they'd come.

"I am going to that castle, Doctor," she declared. "If you won't help then I'll save her myself."

"No!" was his reply. "I will go after her once you are out of danger, preferably inside the TARDIS."

"I am not going to wait in that box while you go and do something as stupid as trying to rescue her yourself."

Threats would not work on him. Arguing had proven as effective as hitting her head against a brick wall. What she needed was something to rattle his rocky fortifications and make him listen to her. Not just pretend to listen and consider what she said but genuinely listen. She needed something that would convince him that she was deadly serious in her intent and would not take no for an answer.

"Kelly," he sighed, "I know you mean well but you're a liability."

Ouch. She almost felt offended by how much he undervalued her. "Oh really?" she asked, sarcasm practically dripping from her tongue. "So you're telling me you have absolutely no need of an intelligence agent?"

There, she thought. My trump card. I've revealed my hand. Your move, Doctor.

Inch by inch, he began to frown. His mouth slowly formed the word 'agent' before a little light bulb went off in his head. "You- You work for MI6?"

"7 actually," she corrected. "SIS Agent Jones at your service." She mocked a bow. "Specialising in retrieval and infiltration which, I think you'll agree, would be pretty darn handy right about now."

His eyes widened as he processed the information. Not quite the 'liability' you thought huh, she thought with a sly grin. Refute that. That look in his eyes almost resembled respect. Very nearly. Well well, we might actually be making some progress here.

"Now, if you're done wasting my time, I've got an awful lot of ground to recover."

The cogs were spinning in his head. "We can't go just yet," the Doctor interrupted.

Kelly rolled her eyes. 'We'? Since when did 'me' become 'we'?

"We can't leave that boy out here on his own."

Boy? What boy? After considerable thought, she had a vague recollection of the thief boy appearing in the stables. "He came with us?" she asked. "Why would he-"

She stopped as she noticed the Doctor looking hesitant. "There may have been some hypnotism involved."

Kelly clenched her fists. Hypnotism?! The manipulative sneak! He hypnotised me! It was the only explanation as to how she could have gotten here so quickly. There's no other way she would have gotten on let alone ridden a horse. She would never have done so willingly. That's why I can't remember getting here, she thought, scowling sternly. He's been playing with my head, just like Ace had complained he did all the time. Who knows what kind of alien influence he might have had over me. It made her skin crawl to know he had effectively been able to control her seemingly without any resistance.

"It didn't work too well on you," he commented, doubtlessly noticing her scowl.

Oh, didn't it? Seeing as it managed to get me on horseback and ride across country in the dark, I dread to imagine how well it was supposed to work!

"The boy took the other horse to find water," the Doctor explained and turned around to lead the way.

Shuddering at the thought of encountering another horse, Kelly followed.

The forest was wild, almost as wild as the Jurassic. Triassic, she mentally corrected. There was a faint trail of hoof prints through the undergrowth of moss covered tree roots and fallen branches. The brown and yellow leaves that were scattered everywhere surprisingly did not crunch underfoot. The Doctor seemed to have a spring in his step until she noticed the ground was actually quite springy. All the trees were staggeringly tall and only seemed to grow taller the further they went in. Sunlight filtered through gaps in the treetop canopy. After stumbling on a few roots, Kelly directed her attention closer to the ground.

She secretly thought it was a waste of time going after the boy. If he had been her (presuming she hadn't freeze in close proximity to a horse), she would have run away at first opportunity. The poor kid had been hypnotised and forced to travel with them against his will. Surely he would have done the smart thing and-

She momentarily lost track of her thoughts as a something pale blue flashed through the trees. The scent of fresh water eased the tension in her shoulder blades and the trees thinned out before making way for a creek to run zig-zaggedly through the forest. The otherwise beautiful sight was foiled by a chestnut horse standing in the water. The thief boy was in up to his knees and was splashing the horse's back with water.

Kelly paused near the trees as the Doctor led his horse to the edge of the creek so it could drink. Unwilling to be near the horses, she initially avoided the water. Spying a deeper section of water further downstream, she followed the creek bed, removed her boots and socks and sat down, soaking her feet in the water. Oh clean water, I've missed you, she thought and the water swirled between her toes. She looked down and was horrified at the sight of a crazed-looking mad woman with clumps of leaves and straw in her hair. It took a few rapid turns of the head to accept that there was no witch behind her. Her hair looked worse than it had the time when some First Years switched the shampoo for jelly and the conditioner for fruit juice.

Kelly clenched her jaw and set to correcting her reflection. She bent over and rubbed her hands against each other to rub off the ever-accumulating dirt. Compared to the filth under her nails, her hands shone, then a few splashes on her face quickly turned into ducking completely under. Her tunic ran a reddish-brown stain in the water as she scrapped off flecks of earth, blood, plant matter, straw and horsehair. She felt guilty about polluting the stream but the impurities were swiftly washed downstream and most dissolved. At least it was mostly eco-friendly.

She scratched her scalp until it ached, hoping no insects or mites had taken up residence. For the first time in days she felt clean. She could run her fingers through her hair without revulsion at how greasy and dishevelled it was, not to mention the bits of everything that ended up in it. After picking as much dirt out from under her nails as she could and wringing water out of her tunic and pants, she kept still and allowed her reflection to appear.

Much better, she thought. I don't look like a hag anymore. Almost look human now, Ace would have said with a cheeky grin. Her reflection smiled before she was struck with a pang of guilt and surged to her feet. I shouldn't care how I look, not when Ace is in danger.

"Feeling better?" the Doctor asked as she waded out of the water.

She regarded him coldly as she tied her hair up once more. "We should be going. It's a long walk."

As she pulled her boots back on and wrung out her clothes, she heard the Doctor apologise to the boy. The boy, who introduced himself as Finn, didn't seem concerned at all and was far from distraught upon learning they had travelled quite far from the castle. If Kelly didn't know better, she would think he was excited about the whole thing. He had been kidnapped and hypnotised against his will but didn't seem to mind. It was baffling. Maybe he just didn't understand just what he'd been pulled into.

Even more shockingly, the boy insisted on staying with them when the Doctor began giving directions for him to return to the castle. Kelly bit her lip. The castle in the distance was not Peel Castle. They were a lot further away than she had thought. The Doctor tried to explain that they were not exploring the land or going off on grand adventures but the boy's determination tripled upon hearing they were preparing for a rescue.

Her foot tapped impatiently as the Doctor tried to convince him otherwise. She rolled her eyes when he gave up and conceded that if the boy was to join them he would have to do as he was asked. He can't be serious, she thought. Sure, he's got light fingers and a knack with horses but he's just a kid. We don't have time for babysitting. She longed to be on their way. They had a lot further to travel if Peel Castle wasn't even in sight.

The Doctor had other ideas. "It was difficult enough getting out of the castle. It will twice as difficult to get back in now they are after us," he explained.

And we wouldn't have this problem, thought Kelly as she gave him a glare, if you had listened to me instead of insisting on sending me away.

"Last night, we drifted off course but fortunately we should be able to reach that castle before dark."

Kelly opened her mouth to argue that his plan was leading them even further away but closed it without a word. Think, Kelly, she told herself. Even if you got to Peel by tonight, you'd be facing an impossible task of getting inside. You have no supplies and only a tiny knife. No-one bigger than a squirrel would even call it a weapon. What you need is rope and lots of it, and you're not going to find any out here in the wilderness.

Grudgingly, she accepted the Doctor was right. This new castle was sure to have a market and the supplies she needed and, she added, they might be able to slip out and leave the boy there. Two birds, one stone.

"Which castle is this one?" she asked instead of arguing.

The Doctor didn't have any idea. "I didn't think there were any castles between here and the far south. We ended up here by accident. We must have taken a road east rather than south."

Because that's where he left the TARDIS, Kelly remembered. Because he was going to lead me there and leave me behind. He still might. I have to stay on guard in case he tries to. He made a big mistake telling me about the hypnotism. Now I know how to avoid it.

The Doctor tried to convince her to ride with Finn but Kelly was adamant on walking. Oh, she knew they would get there a lot faster if she rode. The problem was that she had to, well, ride. That was not going to happen again.

Kelly found she was simultaneously amused and irritated by the way the Doctor watched her. For the last hour, she had caught him staring at her numerous times before quickly glancing away. It amused her that he pretended he wasn't doing it and immediately looked away whenever she caught him in the act. She could feel his eyes drilling holes into the back of her head constantly and it set her nerves on edge, especially because she knew the reason for his stares; he was assessing her.

While she had originally thought to go to him upon Ace's capture, she had not planned for him to become as involved as he was insisting. In hindsight it had been a bit too optimistic, not to mention a bit thick-headed, of her to expect him to assist in the acquisition of equipment and then leave her to it. Now Kelly found herself in the position of the hired help to the Doctor's scheming as he assumed the role of tactician, overseer and general brains of the operation. She was unaccustomed to being the brawn, so to speak. She didn't have the same attention to detail or cunning as Polly or many of the other Geeks but she found stringing together ideas and making them work came easily to her.

After leaving St Trinian's though, she had not willingly involved herself in any real teamwork. Approving of her mentality to avoid confrontations and discretion, MI7 had granted her a considerable amount of autonomy in how she went about her job. They still threw partners or tech support at her on occasion but she preferred working alone. Having grown accustomed to this independence, Kelly found it stifling to be serving under the instructions of someone else even if she wanted the same end goal as them. The restriction was almost numbing. She longed to break free and strike off alone if only to breathe easier but she had little choice. She needed an ally and the Doctor was the only person she knew who would not turn on her and stab her in the back. Not literally at least. It was far more likely that he would leave her behind or hypnotise her or both but she doubted he would otherwise harm her.

As for Finn, he was a child. Admittedly he was a thief and a half-decent one at that but that hardly meant she could trust him. Out here in the middle of nowhere she didn't have to worry about him too much but there was no telling how far his enthusiasm and determination to join them on their journey was. It might not take much for him to decide otherwise when presented with an opportunity.

Meanwhile, the Doctor's view of being responsible for her welfare did not comfort her; more chains to bind her independence; but he was also the only person who could operate the blue box that she needed to get her home once she survived this. If she survived this. Technically she had already been killed once. She might not be as lucky a second time. She could not afford anything to happen to the Doctor and the easiest way was to keep a close eye on him. She resolved to maintain a facade of patience and strength and to make every effort not to throttle him when his ability to rub her up the wrong way rivalled even Ace's capacity to annoy.

It is easier to let him think he's in charge, she decided. It's more productive than bickering and arguing every step of the way. Time is not on our side. Sooner or later Mordred will give up on finding my body or decide that Ace's usefulness has expired.

A tremor ran through her. Expire, a chilling word in the context of a life when one hangs in the balance. She tried to make light of the fact that the captors would have almost as much trouble dealing with Ace as they could inflict on her. Kelly hoped they had enough sense to gag Ace because that would give her and the Doctor more time to attempt their rescue before her incessant jabbering drove her captors insane.

Kelly did her best not to care what the Doctor thought now he knew of her occupation but the sensation of being judged refused to mitigate. What do I care what an alien thinks? I've never given a damn what the alien police thought of me, not until they were blowing steam out of their ears and their eyes screamed murder. Sure, perhaps the Doctor isn't as stuffy and pompous as the alien police that refuse to leave me alone are. Sure, he hasn't attempted to round up and murder hundreds of people like some of the ones that have tried to take over London. And, alright, he hasn't turned himself into an electric scarf of torture and tied himself around my neck.

For those reasons he was... tolerable. A pain certainly but that had become synonymous with the word 'alien' by now. He was still a manipulative git who'd shattered Ace's trust and played her like a piece on a chessboard. That the light in his eyes had faded to voids of nothingness upon learning of Ace's capture however indicated he cared dearly for her, no matter how he might remand her or lead her across dangerous ground or act on her behalf without asking first.

Alright, if she were to guess why she cared about the Doctor's opinion it would be because he meant a lot to Ace. She had never described the Doctor in great detail but he was the one who, when he called, Ace went running to. That meant more than words could say.

There had to be a reason why!

The trio had been travelling for a few hours, traversing the countryside of empty plains and the occasional woodland and were about halfway there when Finn spotted something shiny down the next valley. The allure of the shiny was, in Kelly's experience, a primal instinct of thieves. When something caught their eye like that, they would seek to obtain it. Naturally Finn's and Kelly's course changed to lead them towards it. All too quickly more objects shone as the sun reflected off the metal. Her stomach dropped as she made out armour; helmets, chest plates, chainmail, shields; and weapons; battleaxes, broadswords, pikes.

This is a battlefield, she realised.

Finn was slower to process the sight before he too stopped walking. The sense of wrongness was overwhelming but it was not the bodies, rather the lack thereof. Armour was strewn across the valley, gathered in clumps of a helmet, a weapon, body armour and occasionally a shield. It was as if they'd been arranged that way, or someone had come along and removed the bodies and left their belongings behind.

As distasteful as it was to imagine stealing from the dead, Kelly doubted that would have stopped present-day thieves. Armour was expensive and there was a lot of it here. She knelt and examined a pile while the Doctor continued to scan the area with his eyes. The armour was almost unblemished, the polished surface of the shield was barely scratched, the sword still sheathed. She expected it to stick and refuse to slide free but she drew it with ease. Its blade was clean. It baffled her why such valuable equipment had been left in the middle of nowhere. Scraping at a small mound of dust, she dug out a large medallion engraved with spirals. It was untouched by rust. That something with as much valuable as the medallion had not been pilfered made the hair on the back of Kelly's neck stand on end. Was this all some kind of offering?

A thought occurring to her, she swallowed and gently brushed the dust of her fingers. The armour was arranged thus because this was where their wearers had fallen, and the bodies had not been removed. They were the dust. It was all that was left.

The Doctor reached a similar conclusion as he poked at a pile of ashes with the tip of his umbrella. He offered her something and it took a minute for her to register what it was. A rifle, in the Middle Ages! With a puzzled frown, she turned it over in her hands and checked it. There were no bullets, just a single golf-ball sized magi stone in their place. It glowed mauve. An energy weapon, she concluded. It must project bursts of magic. Is that what happened here? A magic fire fight?

"This was a battalion," he told her grimly. "The majority of armour bears that mark." He nodded at the spiralled medallion she clutched in her hand. "The deceased of the victors are few and far between and carry these in addition to their swords." He showed her another energy weapon, this one more akin to a pistol. It was likely that it was powered by a similar stone.

"They overwhelmed them," Kelly stated.

He pointed the tip of his umbrella to the top of the hills around them. "They were fired upon from a distance. It would have thinned out their ranks dramatically. Exposed like this, there would not have been many left for the attackers to climb down to dispose of."

She tilted her head up to follow where he was pointing, struggling to maintain her emotionless mask. Tactically his description made sense but it was not a sports game. "You sound so clinical."

He surveyed the scene once more. "We all have our ways of coping," he mumbled.

Kelly glanced around, worried at how Finn was responding to the situation. She shook her head sadly when she caught him rummaging amongst the clusters and relieving them of anything he could carry. Living on the streets in the castle, he had probably grown used to being surrounded by death. Once his hands were full, he hurried over to her. He regarded her with puzzlement as she refused to accept a handful of the goods. He was offering to share what he had found. It was probably a sign of respect from his perspective. In his eyes, leaving these possessions here was a waste. They were not being used and would only rust or get taken by others who stumble across the battlefield.

And this is where our contexts and their morality shows, she thought. Where he saw opportunity, she saw remnants of lives. He saw value and a means of obtaining food and improving his life while she saw personal histories. That silver ring might have been an heirloom passed down for generations before ending up here, that knotted bracelet could have been a gift, that strand of hair that drifted to the ground after falling from an opened locket could have been a lover's or a child's. In the present, a silver necklace could be worth a few hundred gold pieces. In the twenty-first century, the same item, having survived the journey through time, would be worth thousands. But it was not their age, condition or material worth that made the recovered artefacts valuable. It was their hints of stories and lives that came before. It hadn't really hit home until now.

The Doctor nodded his approval as she returned the medallion to where she had found it. She muttered a prayer and an apology then retrieved the sword and buckled it around her waist. She pulled the knife from her boot and twisted its point into the ground beside the armour. The medallion was twisted around it so that it hung off the ground. The knife was next to useless to her. It could hardly protect her or the Doctor. It made a poor trade, a pathetic knife for a sword, but she had nothing else to exchange.

They didn't linger. They still had a lot of distance to cover. She followed Finn and the Doctor on their steeds as they navigated out of the battlefield. The Doctor surely knew as she did that a battalion being ambushed in the open could only mean they had wandered into a war zone. Unlike the wars closer to Kelly's time, these wars were mobile. Skirmishes and battles could spring up out of nowhere. Knowing neither side, they were in danger of being mistaken as the enemy as well as faced the danger of being caught in the middle.

Kelly waited until the Doctor was facing the other way then slipped the pistol into the waistline of her trousers. The weight was surprisingly comforting. It was an unusual weapon, out of place in this otherwise very medieval dimension, and she was not entirely certain how it worked but a gun was a gun no matter what its ammunition was. Whoever had attacked these warriors had beaten them severely using weapons like this, weapons that had a clear advantage over infantry forces. A long range weapon such as this was indeed a force to be reckoned with and Kelly sensed she would need every possible advantage she could get.

"I don't believe it," repeated Kelly for what felt like the tenth time.

The castle appeared similar to Peel Castle on the outside. On the inside it was a completely different story. There was no way a visitor from another time could imagine that this was the Middle Ages and not a set from a fantasy film set. The harsh reality of life in this time period painfully obvious in Peel Castle was not present here. In comparison, this castle was the ideal as if pulled straight of a dream of Tolkien's. Neat stone roads bordered by grass so green it was almost painful to look at. A clean stream of water ran from the fountains on each street corner and not a whiff of human or animal waste anywhere. It simply wasn't there to emit any smell. There was no spoiled food either. Kelly kept turning her head from side to side trying to take it all in. There were toilets! Not latrines, not chamber pots, but actual composting toilets.

What magic is this? she wondered then realised she had discovered the answer; magic. Magic that filtered water, magic that powered devices that stitched clothes and weaved baskets, magic that converted waste into compost or fertiliser, magic that did things other than power lanterns, repair injuries and fire energy blasts. Useful magic!

Finn was in a deep state of shock. Upon catching sight of the confines of the castle, he had stopped mid-step and stood there, mouth hanging open. Kelly didn't blame him. She was gaping too. The Doctor predicted that he had never travelled far from Castle Peel. After living there all his life where the only magic he saw gave light at night and caused pain when picking a lock, he was swamped by it. It was shattering his perspective that magic was a barrier, a thing to be avoided.

"But why?" Kelly asked aloud. "If magic can do all this, then why-"

"Why wasn't it being used like this in Castle Peel?" the Doctor finished for her. She nodded. "Life in the keep would be much more extravagant. They do not want to share magic with the common peasant. It makes them powerful and lets them to control everyone else."

"How could they fail to see how much improved this is?" Kelly asked in disbelief.

"Because," the Doctor continued bitterly, "it is easier to keep things the way they are. Introducing any kind of magic could start a chain reaction. The people would imagine how they could use it to make things better, not just economically but also how it could improve sanitation, health, medicine, agriculture, crafting, building... They will try to invent, rewire and improve and those in the keep want to keep them in the dark. It is cheaper the way things are. If the people knew, they would revolt and it would be a bloody revolution."

"It would be worth it."

The Doctor blinked. Kelly herself was surprised by what had flowed unbidden from her mouth. The response had forced itself out of her heart.

"To have the knowledge but do nothing is disgusting. The people deserve better."

The Doctor nodded in agreement.

"And," she continued, "this is the kind of thing you and Ace do, isn't it? Empowering people to liberate themselves."

The Doctor tilted his head, studying her. "Is that what she told you?" he asked. He appeared distant for a moment and Kelly knew he was thinking of her. "Hmm... Sometimes," he eventually answered. "Sometimes we can't. History may have other plans."

Only sometimes? But you have a time machine, thought Kelly. You can go anywhere and do anything. "But you could make things better," she persisted.

The Doctor shook his head silently. "Not always."

He dismissed the idea too quickly for Kelly's liking. "Why not?"

Her glare seemed to convince him that she would not drop the issue without a justified answer. He took a deep breath as if beginning a lecture. "Imagine if Franz Ferdinand was never assassinated. What would happen?"

She tried to imagine. "The First World War wouldn't have happened."

"No."

The bluntness of his answer surprised her. She frowned.

"Think carefully," he prompted and began to describe the situation in detail. "Tension rife across Europe, mass stockpiling of resources and weapons, soldiers drafted, equipped and trained, ready to mobilise at the drop of a hat, alliances and agreements between nations poised on the edge of declaring open hostilities."

Somehow Kelly knew that he had been there. His description was too vivid and passionate.

He met Kelly's eyes. "Would the sparing of one man's life really stop the continent from raging war?"

Sparing the right man could absolutely change things, thought Kelly. It could change governments, change opinions, yes, possibly even stop a war. But a war involving a continent was a lot bigger than a conflict between two nations or two groups of people. But she realised that was not the Doctor's point. He was not talking about a death being the cause for conflict. He meant the entire context, the atmosphere, the tension and patriotism. In that instance, it was like lighting a fire with a match or a flamethrower. Different spark, same outcome. "No," she replied. "Something else would trigger it."

He nodded. "Some events and times," he began, "are fragile. Shatter them and the tremors are felt far into the future, damaging it irreparably." He accompanied his explanation with a gesture of crushing something in his hand. "Others are more flexible," he continued, miming bending something between his hands, "and adapt to slight changes without causing much harm, like choosing to wear green socks rather than red, making a decision to pursue one path instead of another or a child being born on another day or in another country. And then, there are events that are fixed. Remove one cause and another springs to take its place. Attempting to avert tragedy may only guarantee it."

The incorporation of gestures assisted Kelly in understanding and she had a feeling this was a rehearsed explanation. She imagined Ace had listened to the exact same speech. Yet it didn't explain why he was reluctant to actively try to improve things in this time. "So you can't help them?"

"I don't know yet."

That wasn't an answer, more of a dance to avoid giving one. "Would you?" she persisted. "If you could and had the opportunity, would you?"

His answer was unchanged. "I don't know yet," he repeated. "What happens here," he added as Kelly took a breath to respond, "affects events that happen in your world. Events in one dimension create ripples in another. They effect what happens to Ace and I. Those events are in the future for these people, like Ancelyn, like Mordred. We are in the past from our point of view but from theirs we're from the future.

"Knowing what is to come before it's happened makes this a very delicate situation. The timeline may be fragile..." He paused. "Or it may rely on us doing something in order to make things happen the way they happened to us in the future. The consequences of causing changes include creating a paradox. If Mordred never came to our dimension, would we ever arrive here to make that happen? Time is very complex. That is why it is best we do what we need to rescue Ace and leave this dimension as soon and as unnoticed as possible."

I agree with you there, she thought. But how can he tell what is fragile and what is not? In this instance, tampering would likely cause more harm than good but he knows this because he has lived through the future and seen how it turns out. What if he didn't know personally what was going to happen? She highly doubted there was a giant history book in the blue box that he consulted for advice. Or, she wondered, is history predetermined by someone or something? Personally she didn't put much value in that idea, but someone with that ideology and a time machine might try to make it that way.

Ace, she thought, your life is far more complicated than you had me believe. You always told me it was "complicated" but never did I imagine it would be like this; evaluating events' cause, effect and kind, treading the line between paradoxes and possibilities, of what should be and what was and what will be. Do you have to think about this all the time? You said your job was saving the world and ridding the Universe of evils but that's what you do, not why. I don't know why.

Did she even know? Even the Doctor seemed uncertain. Ace had never said if there were times she had to stand back and watch, unable to do anything... Unless those times were too painful to even think about. The Doctor had been something and someone to believe in who knew all the answers and what to do. But those lives she lost, the ones whose names she muttered in her sleep as she tossed and turned, what if she hadn't liked the answer he'd given her when she had asked why? That would explain why the Doctor's breach of trust had broken her. He'd been her saviour, her partner, her tutor, her constant no matter where or when she ended up. And he failed her.

Kelly was suddenly glad they had ended up in another dimension. She didn't know how she would have coped with meeting a figure whose fate she knew and could not save them from, to bump into a figure of history and speak to them whilst knowing who was plotting behind their back, to have to hold her tongue and stay her hand from interfering because time was fixed. Worse, what if she grew to care about them? Had Ace made that mistake? Was that why she sometimes looked so mournful, so haunted? Kelly had thought it callous and unfair when Ace had tried to disappear without a word but that must be how she coped with it all. All the things she knew that she could never share, the knowledge that must not be remembered, the warnings she could never deliver. All the lies… All the goodbyes...

Does she know what happens to me?

The Doctor waved a hand in front of her face and she blinked, not realising how long she had been thinking. "Now..." He held his chin up with his hands, looking thoughtful. "I have a few questions for you."

Uh-oh, she thought. This could be the next round in their verbal sparring.

"About your capabilities... What exactly can you do?"

Where to start? "Abseil, climb with prusiks, pick locks, rewire alarms, disable electronic surveillance..."

His ongoing scowl confirmed Kelly's theory that he did not approve. He was also proven to not be the person Ace had learnt to make Nitro from. This was the man behind the chaos that was Ace, the scientist who adds the catalyst to the situation and watched the results. Finn also listened intently, chiming in every so often with awe. It was one of these interruptions that Kelly identified why the boy had decided to tag along. He thinks he can learn to do what I do. Little does he know it's not magic that I use but technology and a bit of science.

The Doctor looked thoughtful for a short while, pondering the information. "How were you thinking of getting in?" he asked a short while later.

She selected the first from her mental list of strategies to share. "Climbing over the wall."

The Doctor raised an eyebrow.

"The front gate too heavily guarded," she explained, justifying her choice. "That leaves the other adjacent walls which are manned by fewer guards positioned at large intervals. Night would be safest. The guards in the watch towers can't be able to see very far in the dark. The bends in the wall should make blind spots where the guards can't see except when patrolling past. Then it's just a matter of getting up there. Getting down's easy. Secure a rope and you could practically fly down."

"I'm beginning to suspect this is not be the first time you've trespassed on castle grounds," the Doctor mused aloud.

She smirked. Oh, he had no idea. "Scaling the wall directly," she added, "would be dangerous as the area's so open that they would see anyone approaching from several hundred metres away. However, the walls also back onto a cliff face and fewer guards would be positioned there because, well, the cliffs are enough deterrent on their own."

"Rather steep cliffs..." the Doctor commented, concern apparent in his tone.

"The closer to the cliffs, the fewer the guards, the less likely to be spotted before reaching the wall," Kelly reasoned. The Doctor nodded. "The hard part will be actually scaling the wall. If the right kind of equipment or a variation was available, I could use a grappling hook as an anchor. Again, smaller is preferred as it would be less likely to be noticed and removed. Too small though and it might come loose. Of course," she added, "I know what Ace would say."

He looked up, startled.

"Big boom and there's your way in."

Despite such an idea being the direct opposite of what they wanted, they both smiled. "Give her a saw and a few days and you would have a catapult with Greek fire ready to go."

"Days? She must be out of practice. Should be more like hours," Kelly amended.

He chuckled. "First thing tomorrow, we shall see what we can find for this escapade."

"New clothes are on the top of my list," Kelly decided. "Don't want to end up being challenged to a duel again. I've had enough of them to last a life time."

"Agreed," murmured the Doctor.