Chapter 17:

Out of the Frying Pan,

Into the Volcano

No.1 had been sitting in the same position for five hours now.

At the Bruin Fadda Warlock College, he was gaining a reputation for both his innovation and his power. He had already figured out how to cure the Swear Toad epidemic, made breakthroughs in proving the Gaia Theorem, and reportedly he and The Alchemy Department had turned coal into silver.

Now the young demon was trying to figure out intangibility. The Art of Wind Masquerade, as the ancients had called it. Reportedly, at the Battle of Taliate, a elf warlock named Due Shadueil had become intangible, walking straight through the human armies to stab their leader dead with one blow. But at the second the human general fell, Due's skull was crushed in by the general's second in command, and the secret was lost.

Now No.1 was trying to rediscover the secret. Qwan had given his apprentice use of the main experiment room, and locked the door from the outside, ordering everyone not to disrupt the young prodigy.

For five hours No.1 sat in that room, staring at the rock on the table in front of him. By using minerals, the process could be discovered and then refined to accomadate living beings. For five hours No.1 had been chanting and pumping magic into the rock, refining the amounts, mixing energy signatures, repeating chants backwards, anything. But the rock had yet to pass through the table onto the floor. So now he was just staring at the rock, directing all his magic onto the rock to affect it at a molecular level, in hopes of shifting the atoms enough to move it through the tabletop.

"Come on, rock. Move for No.1" he thought. "Just for a second. Fall through the table, and we can both get out of here."

A minute passed. Then two. The rock stayed where it was...but then, No.1 felt a breeze against his skin. The air in the room was circulating, creating a mini vortex. The rock began trembling on the table; no, the whole table was trembling! No.1 kept his magic focused on the rock, convinced it would become intangible. "It's a lot noisier than I expected" he thought.

Just then, a dull groaning noise slowly faded in, and a strange shape began to form around the rock and table. It was ghostly, but soon became whole. A blue rectangular box had formed around the table. No.1 was so shocked, he fell off the chair he was perched on.

Then, the front of the box opened up. A bright light was coming from the inside, but No.1 could see a silhouette in the center of the box's door frame. It looked like a tall, lanky Mud Man, with a tweed jacket and a bow tie. The man looked right through the young demon, and held out his hand.

"Come with me" he said simply. And without a second thought, No.1 did.

"Another adventure, eh?" said No.1 after the situation had been explained to him. He was sitting on the TARDIS' couch, trying to resist the urge to reach over and flick buttons on the console.

Holly nodded. "Pretty much. Apparently, you'd be able to help us, however..." she stared at The Doctor, "...he hasn't explained how. Which is annoying, seeing as he just convinced us to kidnap the most powerful warlock in Haven."

No.1 blushed. "Happy to help." He turned to The Doctor. What do you want me to do?"

The Doctor began working the console. "Two things, is all. First, I'll have to get us there." He pulled a lever, and the whole control lurched. Everyone grabbed a hold of something, to prevent themselves from sailing over the railings into the engine room below.

The Doctor was clicking buttons and pulling levers like a madman. The TARDIS flipped to and fro, until finally it stopped rocking. The Doctor grabbed No.1 by the arm, and pulled him to the door.

"You can tell if somethings is from a different time, right?" said The Doctor. No.1 nodded. Then, a massive BOOM shook the entire TARDIS. Everyone grabbed hold of something again, feeling the shock resonate through their bones.

The Doctor opened the door. They were back at Fowl Manor, above the lake. It was apparent what the BOOM was. They were circling around the Nightmare Child, much like a fly would circle a bull. It seems whatever Daleks were in charge of the weapon systems thought it would be a good idea to fire on the tiny ship flitting around.

"What I want you to do is tell me when that thing is from! Alright?!" the Doctor yelled over the din. No.1 nodded, and began to focus his energies. Temporal divination is not a day-to-day tool in the warlock arsenal, so it took a bit of time to get in the right state of mind. So before No.1 could divinate, he had to meditate. He sat in the doorway of the TARDIS, humming to himself.

"ANY TIME NOW WOULD BE GREAT!" Butler yelled from across the control room.

Then, it all slipped away. The noise, the shock waves, all of it. No.1's mind became clear, and he was floating in a void. Suddenly, in the black, there was light. Tiny, pinpoint windows of light. No.1 stared into one of the windows. It was a city, encased in a dome, surrounded by mountains. Over the mountains were giant saucer ships, blasting away at it.

"Alright" thought No.1. "The one I'm looking for should be right around...Here!"

The young demon peered into another window. There it was, the giant fish ship. Flying through space, blasting at cities, destroying armadas with its massive jaws.

"Wish I could fast forward through all this." Then, "...There!"

No.1 stared at the window. A swirling, green gas cloud in space was what he saw. Then, lightning bolts. Currents of electricity striking through the cloud. The bolts converged on one spot, and the nonexistent air seemed to bend and shift. The space bulged, shimmered, and... the fish ship simply phased into the cloud. No sound, no light, no explosion. It just faded in, dispersing the particle clouds. Then, it started moving.

While No.1's mind was wandering, his body was firmly planted in the TARDIS. The Doctor was holding onto the door frame, afraid to go back to the console lest the little demon fall out.

Suddenly, No.1 opened his eyes. "Temporal point of origin is exactly 441 years, 3 month, and 9.5 days ago. Date when it entered this time-line is exactly 1 year ago. First spacial point in this time-line is universal coordinates 3-67-89-03.3, 8-37-75-0.2."

The Doctor grimaced. "The Medusa Cascade." He closed the TARDIS doors and sprinted towards the console. "Keep doing exactly what you're doing" he ordered No.1. The demon nodded, and began his meditation rhythm again.

"What's the Medusa Cascade?" Foaly whinnied, hugging the console for dear life.

"The Medusa Cascade," The Doctor grunted, spinning a console wheel, "is a weakened part of space-time. My people used to use it to power the time vortex we used to time travel." He spun over to the other side of the console. "The thing is, once every year, the Cascade weakens even more than usual. It becomes so unstable, that anything, even a time-locked spaceship can break through, provided it had the equipment to navigate the temporal storm and one hell of an engine."

Trouble climbed his way up to the console. "So that's how the big fish got here?"

"Most likely. But the thing is, even the Nightmare Child isn't powerful enough to break through the Cascade. But the Cascade itself is getting weaker by the century. Gallifrey? Lost in the time lock. The only reason I was able to show it to you is because the Cascade has become so weak, that parts of history bleed through, no matter what protocols or locks are in place."

"And this didn't concern you? Like, AT ALL?" Juliet asked.

The Doctor simply shrugged, and checked the screen on the console. He ran down the gangplank and threw open the doors.

The TARDIS was in space again, circling a red-green cloud galaxy silently twisting in the black. Bolts of energy-lighting streaked across the clouds. The Doctor motioned for No.1 to join him.

"Now," said The Doctor, "I want you to feel out the Cascade."

"Pardon?" Luskar asked.

No.1 grinned. He loved giving lectures. "When an event takes place, it leaves behind a sort of signature. A warlock can feel out certain aspects of that event, right down to the past of a specific individual."

"Or his intention for the future" The Doctor said. "Hopefully."

No.1 sat down on the floor, and The Doctor sat across from him. The Time Lord placed his hands onto No.1's temples, and began to meditate.

"Mind giving me a magic boost, Holly?" No.1 asked. "Something like this is a massive power drain."

Holly placed her hand on No.1's shoulder. "Just make it up to me later." Blue sparks ran down Holly's hand and sank into No.1's skin.

The young demon began to chant slowly, his stumpy horns glowing. The Doctor, in his mind, felt himself being dragged into No.1' conscious, until he found himself in a blue space, looking at a ethereal version of the warlock.

"You know, usually when this happens on T.V. the space is supposed to be black."

No.1 shrugged. "Black's depressing. I like to think blue is more positive."

The Doctor clasped the left hand of the demon. "Now, just focus on the picture you saw last time, and will be transported-"

FWSHHSSS. The two were now floating in the clouds of the Medusa Cascade. The Nightmare Child was hovering directly in front of them. No.1 knew this was an illusion of the past, but he could swear to his dying day that the giant ship-beast was looking at him, as if to say "I will eat you soon".

No time for fear, though. No.1 and The Doctor floated themselves up to the head of the ship-beast, floating through the skull into the control room. Ghostly-looking Daleks were sliding all around, tweaking machines and barking muted orders. In the center of the room sat Davros on a raised pedestal, looking out of the giant porthole in the center of the Child's skull.

"That's the one in charge" said The Doctor, pointing to Davros.

"Which one?" said No.1. "One of the little floating peg things, or the big scary guy sitting in the captains chair?". He was getting the hand of this sarcasm thing.

The Doctor floated up to Davros. "I'll overlook that. Now, what I need you to do is..."

"...read his mind, basically. Yes, I know what I'm doing."

The Doctor looked slightly put-out. "Alright then, Mr. Magicky Warlock, do your thing."

No.1 floated over to Davros' head. He focused his thoughts onto the ghost of the man in front of him, sifting through his memories. "Come on," thought No.1, "there must be something. Everyone wants to do something, so what are you going to...?"

No.1 felt it. Faintly at first. A visceral, black blob that sat in the dark recesses of this man's mind. The Doctor felt it too. "That's it" he said. "No.1, go deeper."

No.1 obliged. He sent a small stream of focused magic into the blob, hoping to unlock it.

The blob did not unlock; it exploded. No.1 thought he heard a BOOOOM, and wave after wave of black fury struck the two, throwing them back, away from Davros, out of the ship, into space. It kept pushing at them; images flashed through their heads, images of a giant mass flying through space, destroying ships and consuming everything.

The shock was so great, it forced both The Doctor and No.1 back into the world of the living. No.1 collapsed onto the floor of the TARDIS, hyperventilating. Holly and Juliet rushed to help him. Butler ran to The Doctors aide, as the Time Lord was on his hands and knees. He felt like he had taken an anvil to the stomach.

Trouble slammed the TARDIS door shut, and got down onto his knees in front of The Doctor. "What the hell was that?"

The Doctor opened his mouth to answer, and promptly threw up onto the floor. When he was finished puking, he sat with his back against the railing, collecting his breath.

"Davros is insane" he gasped. "I knew he...I knew he was mad, but this is just going too far."

"Not one good word in that sentence" Mulch grumbled

"SHUT UP, Mulch!" Holly yelled in his face.

Luskar leaned close. "What did you see?"

The Doctor held up a finger, and put his head over the rail to throw up again. When he was again finished, he told them.

"Davros, he was always getting the Emperor to sponsor his projects during the war, no matter how insane. When...he was trying to recreate the Nightmare Child, he tried to install a...a hive mind, so all the clones could move in unison with the original. And he...he ended up creating an even more dangerous living weapon."

"Just what I wanted to hear" Trouble thought.

"The Gallifrey generals, they called it The Horde of Travesties. Millions of creatures, all of them starving and able to survive anything; they could even fly through space. Each and every one of them is guided by one, shared mind."

"Let me guess" Holly said, "they're trapped somewhere around Earth, right?"

The Doctor smiled. "Who says science-fiction doesn't teach us anything?" Butler helped him get up and guided him to one of the benches. "The scientists on Gallifrey found something left behind by the Eternals; The Gates of Elysium. It was able to send something into the space between dimensions; The Void. A fleet was sent to capture the Horde, and they...it...was trapped."

A light went off in Juliet's head. "So this guy is just trying to get his super-powered pet weapons back?"

The Doctor nodded. "Which explains why he took Artemis. The lock on The Gates requires 15 Time Lords to open, but with Davros' intellect he might be able to figure out another way to open it. He must be using Artemis as a bio-computer to "pick" the lock."

"What's with this guy and bio-stuff?" Mulch asked. Holly didn't bother to tell him to shut up, she merely punched him in the gut.

While Mulch was on the ground, holding his gut in the fetal position, Holly knelt down beside The Doctor. "When you say "computer"..."

"We need to get him out of there" The Doctor said. "I've seen people that Davros has used as his 'machines'."

Butler responded to that news by cracking his knuckles. "So what do we do?"

The Doctor slowly limped over to No.1, who had finally calmed down. "How're you feeling?"

"Better, thanks."

"Good." The Doctor looked uncomfortable. "I'm sorry to ask, but I need your help one more time."

No.1 put on his brave face. "What with?" he asked.

"What I'm planning right now is going to be fairly difficult, so we'll need help. Lots of help. And you and me are going to get in touch with some people..."