Chapter Five
Yalahsindrintalaasidvora reached up with one hand to brush back the spiky mop of hair that was not hers and sighed with borrowed lungs. She rather hated having to do this to her mentor, but there was no other choice. She couldn't let the murderer escape, even if it meant all their lives…
She hadn't even had time to tell him before the-
'I know you aren't the Doctor,' thought a voice in her head.
She stiffened; a bramblebush of gold with long, twisted thorns named Wrong and Pain and Death grew in the sight of her borrowed brain, shallow roots climbing carefully across years of dust to reach her where she dwelt among the bodies her Teacher had buried in his soul. Rassilon, she was even one of them. Sighing mentally, she watched the blossom grow toward her, spilling whole thoughts here, fragments there, carefully concealed in a nice big ribbon of falsely casual telepathy. But this mind was trained, agile. For a human anyway. And humans hadn't truly gained that talent till the 51st century…
'Hello, Captain Jack Harkness,' she thought, letting her words echo through the Doctor's skull, 'And now I know you know. Someone murdered me. My Teacher is trapped inside the Ship. Go find him if you want to know more.'
The flower paused in its unfolding; obviously this human's mind was a bit quicker than normal, whatever happened to make it so Wrong notwithstanding.
'I see. Harm the Doctor and I'll find a way to harm you, if he doesn't survive this. Where can I find your Teacher?'
She laughed aloud, which caused the human's head to turn just so toward her.
'He is observing my body, which is stuck in the wiring outside the Hull. It's near one of the landing lights. Don't make me lead you by the hand, little human.'
Yahlas was surprised by the sound that followed next. Perhaps it had been too long since she'd heard a voice like his, but when he laughed at her, this strange, Wrong little human, she felt… nice. There was really no other word to describe it.
She lifted her finger, reached. Her hand could almost touch Jack Harkness' cheek. She could feel the light in him, gleaming, growing. She could feel his time lines, squirreling around, converging like locusts at so many points in history and future. And present. He was like a… what had the Doctor called it? A Christmas Tree.
Suddenly, the man's mouth moved, biting, gnashing uncontrollably. His blue eyes flashed open, like the sodium lights in the corridors of the Ship. Words came, like drops of blood in the dirt, soaking up the silence as little red sponges.
"Don't touch me with those hands."
Then, she understood many things, in that one moment.
One, that Jack Harkness loved the Doctor more than she did.
Two; that she would have to die again.