Chapter 6

The Doctor Immeadently started to push buttons and pull levers around the center console. The engines started, and though she felt no different, one look out the small window told Jezabell they were flying through space.

"We can go to six planets and spend three days at each one of them; then go back to earth and visit six different time periods, and we can be back to your house five minutes after you left. Where to first?" He asked. Jezabell smiled.

"You know your way around the stars. You tell me where we should go." She replied. Now the Doctor smiled.

"Doesn't that take away the fun?"

"Not at all. It'd be a mystery to me. Take me to the last of the planets, spaceman. Or take me to the end of time, Time Lord."

"Your good, you know that?"

"Trust me, I've always known that." They laughed as the Doctor accepted Jezabell's challenge, and started pushing buttons and pulling things again.

"Right then, how about, the first successful planet ever created? No, wait, maybe I should bring you there another time. After you got used to the whole alien thing, and the time and stuff." The Doctor thought for a moment. "I know! Ooh and you'll love it, too!" He pulled more levers, and the TARDIS started shaking violently. Jezabell held on to the rail that surrounded the center console area. The TARDIS made a sudden stop, causing them to fall to the ground. Jezabell quickly got up and ran to the door.

"Can I go out?" She asked.

"No. You must stay in here while I go have fun on this planet." The Doctor said, walking to the door. "Of course." He smiled and pulled the door open. Jezabell stepped out and gasped.

The TARDIS had landed in a huge field; a field of blue grass. When Jezabell looked up, the sky was purple with pink clouds. She turned back to look at the Doctor.

"Blue grass, purple sky, where are we?"

"Harmoria. I think you'll like this one." The Doctor stepped around his new friend and stepped outside, keeping his back to the blue field. "Very diverse planet. Diverse, meaning lots of different species." He continued talking about the different species. Jezabell looked past him.

"Um, Doctor…" She said, but he didn't seem to hear her. He was trying to remember when the planet first started. "Doctor!" She tried again. He just kept talking as he turned around. Then he stopped abruptly.

There was a group of, what looked like, soldiers pointing guns at them. These people, however, had red skin. Their hair colors ranged in colors of black, orange, pink, red, green, and blue.

"Who are you?" One asked. This one was female with black hair.

"I am the Doctor."

"You're a doctor?" She lowered her weapon slightly. "Prove it."

The Doctor pulled a small black thing from his pocket. When he opened it, he showed it to her. "See." The woman took it, and read the paper that appeared blank to Jezabell.

"Lower your weapons." The woman said as she handed the paper back to the Doctor. "I'm Hanera, and glad you came."

"Pleasure meeting you, Hanera. Is there something I can help you with?"

"Yes, follow me." The soldiers parted as she lead the Doctor and Jezabell out of the field. She brought them up to the large castle made of solid goal.

"Doctor who?" She asked as we entered the castle.

"It's just the Doctor."

"And this is…?" Hanera gestured to Jezabell.

"Jezabell Adams." The Doctor said before Jezabell could answer.

"Relation?"

"Friend," Jezabell said.

Hanera led the two of them into a large room with two large thrown in the center. Both thrones were empty.

"Where is everyone?" Jezabell asked.

"The King has gone, so no one bothers to come. The servants all left." Hanera said. Her expression stayed neutral.

"Where did he go?"

"Follow me." She brought them to the stairs and then up. She explained how he stayed in the castle just no one knows except her.

Eventually they reached the wall to the far end of the corridor. Hanera put her hand to the wall, and a door suddenly appeared.

The three of them filed through the door, which led to another hallway. This hall was dark and cold. At the end of it was a door that was locked.

"Why is he locked in here?" The Doctor asked.

"He has gone insane. I don't know why or how." Jezabell looked at the Doctor, who was just looking at Herena, waiting for her to open the door. Herena noticed the waiting look too, because she sighed quietly and opened the door.

They were now standing before a large, dark room. There was one window that had metal bars on both sides of the glass. The marble floor had many layers of dust and dirt, turning the white floor grey. Herena entered the room first, followed by the Doctor, then Jezabell.

"My king?" Herena asked. Jezabell heard a faint whimpering sound. The sound was so faint, she had a feeling no one else heard it. The sound came from a shaking bundle in the farthest corner. Herena stepped closer to it, and Jezabell realized this was the king.

Suddenly, the king shot up on his knees and growled at Herena, who jumped back covering a scream with her hand. The king's head was bald, but dirty. His clothes, probably once clean, and beautiful were now grey with dust and had holes. His teeth, or what was left of his teeth, were yellow and chipped. He looked nowhere near a king, but instead a mad man driven to a point of insanity.

There were scratches all over his arms and hands. His bare feet also bore many cuts and bruises. Even his neck showed signs of self torture. Jezabell noticed a sharp rock nearby with blood stains all over it. There was also dried blood on the walls and floor, as well as his filthy clothes.

"I brought you someone." Herena said. "Someone to talk with." The king looked at the Doctor and barred his ragged teeth. A low growl escaped him and his eyes looked crazed. He reminded Jezabell of a starving lion about to attack its prey.

"Hello, I'm the Doctor." Perhaps the king recognized the simple word, "Doctor," and thought him to be evil; or perhaps he simply did not like the Doctor, because he growled again and jumped into a crouch, slowly advancing towards his visitor. The Doctor slowly backed away.

"I'm not here to hurt you," he said. "I am here to help you, maybe even just to talk?" The inhuman king must not have like these words either because he sped up, not taking his eyes off his prey. Faster he went, until he jumped into the defenseless Doctor.

"No!" Jezabell shouted. "Leave him alone!" She didn't actually think anything would happen, but something did.

The king jumped off the Doctor, and slowly approached Jezabell, with curiosity in his eyes. He was a few feet shorted than Jezabell, but this is because he walked like a monkey; in a crouch. He was probably incapable of standing straight up.

Jezabell glanced at the Herena, who was helping the Doctor up, before crouching lower so the King could see her face.

This king was not dead on the inside. Jezabell could tell right away. When you're dead inside, you feel no emotion, and this creature was feeling many. Jezabell could see the sorrow in his eyes, and knew why he was so insane. Something happened. Something terrible happened to this man and the depression drove him mad. The king looked into her eyes, and must have saw that she understood. He must have seen that she could now see past the filthy clothes; the scars and bruises; the black finger nails and the shoeless feet. The crooked, yellowed teeth; the thinning, dirty hair; and the fading, grey skin. She saw a living creature, buried in a sea of depression.

"Hello," She said quietly to him. "I'm Jezabell. Can you tell me your name?"

The king grunted at her. He moved his mouth, as if trying to speak, but he seemed to have lost his ability to speak as well.

"His name is Rikario." Herena said. Jezabell looked at the withered, old alien in front of her.

"What happened to you, Rikario?" Jezabell asked quietly. He obviously understood what I asked, because he answered. His eyes went dark. The red turned to grey and they grew moist. Jezabell turned to Herena. "Did something tragic happen to him?"

"No. He just suddenly went mad, and I had to hide him from the kingdom." She replied, looking at her king.

"Did anything happen at all before this happened? Or was he just sitting and decided to go mad?"

"Well," Herena said thinking. "He was just off with a few soldiers. They went to an opposing kingdom who threatened us. He had just gone to make peace and to warn them that fighting with them would be a very bad idea. They got into a small fight, but no one was killed. He did get injured though. His leg was cut. It got infected and he couldn't walk. But he had just gotten better when this happened."

"Did he speak at all while recovering? Did you see him?"

"Of course. He had seemed very different though. Almost sad, but he only said he was tired. But I had heard him crying a few times. Do you think something I don't know about happened during the fight?"

"There could be plenty of things you don't know about. He's the kind and you are only a soldier." Herena stared at me for a second before replying.

"That's where you are wrong." She said, standing tall. "I'm not just a soldier. I am his daughter, and princess of the planet Harmoria."

"Oh," Jezabell replied. "I'm so sorry, I did not know-"

"It's alright. I never told you." Herena said.

Jezabell then realized that the small king was no longer in front of her. He was now huddled by the wall with his sharp rock, once again hysterical.

:

CHAPTER 7:

Jezabell went quickly over to him. He looked at her with eyes that were half crazed and half depressed.

"Rikario, please, don't hurt yourself. Everything will be okay." Jezabell slowly tried to take the rock from his grasp. The Doctor approached them, and the king growled at him. "Doctor," She started, but he got the message and stepped back.

"Why don't you like him?" Jezabell asked. The king looked at her, but made no noise. "What's wrong with the Doctor?" She asked again. He just stared at her. Since this wasn't working, Jezabell stood up and went to the Doctor. "He's not so bad. He won't hurt you. He's my friend." She stepped slightly closer to the king, pulling the doctors arm with her. Rikario kept staring at them. His eyes stayed dark, but his expression seemed to change. Maybe he understood that. Jezabell thought. But she thought it too soon. The closer they got the more stern Rikario seemed to get. He lashed out again at them. He jumped up and started yelling. He snarled at the Doctor and tried to get at him again.

Jezabell shielded her friend with her own body to protect him. She assumed it would work since Rikario seemed to like her, but it did not. In his eyes, he was hurt. He almost seemed to have thought his new-found friend had betrayed him. He tried to push her out of the way, but the Doctor caught her by the waist so she wouldn't fall. This infuriated Rikario even more. He jumped at them and bit the Doctors hand where it was still holding Jezabell's waist. With both of them distracted, Rikario pushed Jezabell once again and jumped at the now unprotected Doctor.

Herena helped Jezabell up before turning to where her king was attacking the Doctor, who was wrestling the dirty creature sitting on his chest. Rikario tried to bite at the Doctors neck.

"Father, don't!" Herena screamed, and jumped into the scene. She pushed her father onto the ground, then reached into her pocket and pulled something small out. Before she could be stopped, she stabbed the king's arm with the object and he immeadently went limp.

"What did you do to him?" the Doctor asked, breathing heavily.

"He's still alive, just unconscious." Herena answered, not taking her eyes from the creature that was once her father.

Jezabell went to where the Doctor was still lying to make sure he was alright.

"I'm fine," the doctor said to her, sitting up. "But he's not." He scooted over to the unconscious king and examined his face.

He held his face in his hands, and looked at each section carefully. He opened the king's eyes, one by one, and saw the same sadness Jezabell had seen. The Doctor examined the rest of Rikario, while Jezabell and Herena watched silently. After about fifteen minutes of careful examination, he looked at Herena.

"Physically, there is nothing wrong with him except for that cut on his leg. Of course, there are all the cuts from self-harm, and there could be internal injuries, but i haven't seen anything dangerous or worth worrying about. However, mentally, he is beyond unstable. There is something you aren't telling us, Herena." He said.

"I'm not hiding anything from you. I have answered every one of your questions truthfully." She replied.

"Yes, you have, but there is more you haven't said. There may not have been something tragic occur at his fight, but there were things in his life. What were they?"

Herena looked slightly uncomfortable. "Well," She started, clearly not wanting to give up her father's tragedies. "Have either of you ever had kids?" She asked the Doctor and Jezabell.

"Yes." They answered in unison. Their glances at each other, however, were not.

"Do you still have those children?"

"No." they both answered again.

"Neither did my parents. They had another child, my twin. In our culture, we do not name the child until the naming ceremony at three months after birth. This gives the parents time to make sure they want to keep the child, and so they can name the child properly, with a lot of thought. My parents adored my brother and I. they've said so many times. My brother was such a ball of energy, and so adorable. He had my mother's skin. It was green." Herena smile faded. "He never made it to the naming ceremony. He got sick and died three days too soon."

"Burying a child is one of the hardest things for someone to do." The Doctor said. Herena nodded in agreement.

"He also had to bury my mother. She died from the same sickness two years later. She is buried beside my brother. I wasn't here when she passed. I was out visiting the world with a few friends. It wasn't until I came back and went to visit my baby brother that I saw her grave." Herena's eyes grew wet, but she did not let herself cry, or even allow her voice to break. The Doctor and I gave a moment of silence for her and her lost loved ones.

"Then," she continued. "Everything seemed okay. I helped my father run his kingdom, and I took over for him when he left. It wasn't until he came back a few months ago that things changed."

"There is more. There has to be more, something that you don't know about." The Doctor began pacing.

"Isn't that enough sadness for one person to deal with? Burying the ones you love most?"

"Of course. It's more than enough. But no one can become so depressed that they go mad from just those things."

"Not everyone has the endurance you seem to have, doctor."

"Yes, but there has to be more!" His pacing quickened.

"Well, he did seem to slowly lose sight of everything else." Herena said. The Doctor stopped and looked at her.

"Explain."

"Well, he began to forget who people were. He got sadder and sadder, and it seemed to be the only aspect of him. He forgot he was king at one point. He forgot his servants names, and- and he even forgot who I was." Herena looked back at her father, lying limply on the ground.

The Doctor kneeled down beside him again. "I don't think I can help him."

Herena looked at him. Her eyes filled again with tears, and time, her barriers allowed them past. Tears streamed down her red checks.

"Is there really nothing you can do?" The Doctor shook his head. "But you're a Doctor!"

"I'm not that kind of Doctor." He sighed.

The three of them returned to the main castle. Herena was dry now, but the doctor was still deep in thought.

"Why is it," He said. "That He reacted to Jezabell in a positive way, hated me, and didn't even notice you?"

"Her hair," Herena replied. "It's like my mother's was. He remembers her. And her eyes. My father was the most devoted husband. He loved her so much. I don't think he remembers the love, just the pain."

"Pain comes from love, Herena."

"And he hated you, doctor, because he doesn't like doctors. He never has. He said he had bad memories of them"

"Another thing to add to the list." The Doctor said.

Herena lead Jezabell and the Doctor to the door.

"You're welcome to stay for a little longer, but I recommend that you leave as soon as possible. The people don't like humans."

"I'm not one." The Doctor informed her.

"She is." Herena turned on her heel and walked off.

"So, you were a father?" Jezabell asked the Doctor as they walked out the castle gates.

"Yes, once. But you, you're only twenty; just a baby. When did you have a child?" He asked.

"First, never call me a baby. Second, I adopted when I was eighteen."

Before the Doctor could ask any more questions, they heard someone yelling behind them. Turning, they saw that it was Herena.

"Doctor, Doctor!" She was calling.

"What is it? What's wrong?" The Doctor called back.

"He escaped! Come quickly!" The Doctor and Jezabell ran back into the castle.

Inside, there were many soldiers aiming their guns at the small, grey creature growling at them. They all were waiting for the creature to make a threatening move before shooting at it. Jezabell looked at all the soldiers and noticed that some had different guns. It wasn't something you would notice at first, but Jezabell pays close attention to every detail. The different guns had a different size shooting hole and they were slightly smaller. She assumed, since there were fewer of these, they were not guns that shot bullets, but instead something like Herena used on Rikario. Jezabell also looked around the room and told the nearest four soldiers to cover the four exit ways she noticed. It was best to keep Rikario in one place.

"Form a circle around him. Trap him, then let me talk to him." She said.

"We don't take orders from humans!" One of the soldiers said.

"You will from her." Herena ordered him. "Trap him, now!" All the soldiers did so, and Jezabell squeezed through.

"Why should we take orders from a human? Why should she get to talk with this thing?" another soldier said.

"Because I said she could! Do you have a problem with that?" Herena challenged.

"Why is she even here? Humans are not allowed on this planet, and now there are two?" The soldier speaking was big, and green. He didn't have any hair, but neither did any of the other soldiers; male or female. He pointed his gun at Jezabell. "Humans are bad. We have rules agenst them!"

"If you hurt her or her friend, you will receive severe punishment. Do you want to end up like Maklumi?"

"No ma'am."

"Then listen to your princess and stand down." The soldier did so. As he pointed his gun back at Rikario, the Doctor's tension decreased. He hated guns, and he didn't want his new friend to die from one on their first adventure together.

Jezabell worked her way to Rikario.

"Hey there," she said, hoping he'd remember her. If he did, he was angry with her. He lashed out again growling and swiping his clawed hands at her. "Rikario!" She exclaimed. "Don't you remember me?" He did not stop. He screamed, and hit. He growled and bared his yellow teeth. His eyes were lit with insanity, but dark as night with despair.

The Doctor then jumped into the circle, wanting to defend his friend. Unfortunately, all he did was make it worse. Rikario kept screaming and swiping at Jezabell and the Doctor. Suddenly, there was the loud sound of a gun firing and Rikario fell to the ground, dead. Behind him was his own daughter standing with a gun pointing to where Rikario once was. A silence fell in the room that was louder than all the shouting and screaming. Herena's eyes were slightly wet, but mostly she had a determined look on her face.

"Herena," the Doctor said quietly.

"He was a danger to my kingdom. I don't care who he once was, he hasn't been that for a long time now." She answered, calmly. She took one last look at her dead father, then turned and began shouting orders.

"Take his body out of here. Burn it at the lake; he doesn't get a grave." She walked up to the stairs. Before she retreated up, she looked at Jezabell and the Doctor. "Thank you for your help, but you must go now. There is nothing else for you to do. Leave quickly, so no one attacks you."

They ran out the castle door and strait to the TARDIS, not wanting any Harmorians to see them.