Returning to the inn, Taylor went up to the room, there the TARDIS waited for her as she stepped through the door.

Upon closing the door behind her, Taylor exhaled sharply as she gone over to the TARDIS with worry in her emerald eyes as she asks it, "Why did you bring us here?"

There was no reason for coming here, in fact it'd be dangerous for them to stay, the risks far too great for something going wrong, and the effects that come from it would be catastrophic.

Taylor watched the door opening on its own, allowing her inside, and from there the screens lit up with text.

Walking up to the console, her emerald eyes focused on the screens, Taylor reads the text as the TARDIS informed her what it was able to do within the parameter of the universe.

There was a reason for their presence, the TARDIS confirmed this, but the universe is making things difficult, since this was a fixed point and cannot be altered in any fashion.

Only one individual survives the events that befell the colony, and that individual had a purpose to fulfill prior to surviving, failure to do so would result in consequences.

"What purpose?" Taylor questions what the individual was supposed to do and the text changes to show the answer.

The surviving individual would end up having a domino effect inspiring generations that should they perish in the massacre, the consequences of it would be punishing.

Though the lasting effects will haunt them, their contributions outweigh the trauma.

Unfortunately, this meant the couple couldn't outright kidnap the individual and spirit them away from the trauma, it is required they witness the massacre and survive it.

Any attempts otherwise would result in pushbacks by the universe and consequences.

It's not the answer Taylor wanted to read, but it's the only way for the events that follow to occur without the consequences had they not occurred.

The issue, that Taylor's aware, Paul's inherent desire wanting to save everyone he can help, and this adventure of theirs is a testament that he can't always do such things.

Many Doctors fell into the mindset, it's natural, and it's the companion and the TARDIS there to keep their heads leveled, else they would do something they regret.

Even if the presiding Doctor thinks otherwise.

"Is what Hap's doing going to cause the colony to "disappear"?" Taylor wanted to know the truth about the colony's fate.

One man's desire becoming the downfall of the colony and everyone residing in it.

Shockingly, the grave robbing wasn't what done it, but the TARDIS remained tightly lipped.

It took Taylor pleading with it to finally tell her that one of the colonists would do something and that would be the end of the colony.

"You're saying one of them kills a Drekker?" Taylor winces as she catches what the TARDIS implied.

Though it was reluctant, the TARDIS admitted that it was true, someone from the colony would kill a Drekker, and set off the chain reaction that would result in the massacre.

It won't tell her when it happened, but when it does, they will have only a short amount of time to rescue the individual that would be the only survivor and flee themselves.

There will be plenty of rosemary for them to use, but with the enraged flock, that won't be enough.

Find the individual and rescue them amid the massacre, then get out of the colony.

Those are the terms the TARDIS managed to reach with the universe.

Do that, the universe won't aggressively correct the events, and all will be well.

Mentally, however, Paul and Taylor won't be, but that's the price paid for ensuring that the colony "disappears" as historians' squabble over thereafter.

The lone survivor will suffer unquestionably from the massacre, also, but the TARDIS insist it was for the good of the timeline.

Though, the other issue Taylor had was who they were meant to find, but the TARDIS remained hesitant, instead telling her that when the time came, it will inform them.

However, it did mention that by rescuing this person, it will endow them with information they needed regarding the Drekker.

Until then, they are to remain as they are under strict provisions.

They cannot warn the colonists of the Drekker and the consequences of their actions, they cannot tell them anything how to ward them off, or even to escape with their lives, they must abide the rules in place, or else the universe will kill them without mercy, too.

Cruel, the TARDIS knows, but it's what it managed to negotiate without worrying about them.

For now, it will remain in their room until it's almost time for the events to transpire.

"Why didn't you bring us the day of, why make us wait?" Taylor questioned the TARDIS's choices and it gave a reasonable response.

If it brought them the day of the massacre, they would be overwhelmed, and well, the TARDIS couldn't have that.

Waiting for the inevitable wasn't what it wanted, either, but there wasn't much it can do.

Her questions answered, Taylor stepped out of the TARDIS, going over to the window where she lit the candle as requested by Paul, the darkness overtaking the area as faint light from sparse torches barely broke through it.

Quaint, charming, horrific what was to come, but the TARDIS was earnest warning her, nothing good could come from attempting to stop the events in motion, but the invaluable information they will learn from the survivor allegedly would be enough to satiate their woes.

Though, mentally, it'll be an uphill battle, something the TARDIS noted was inevitable becoming the Doctor.

Things happen for a reason and worse things would happen if they challenged it.

That said, the TARDIS promised to make up for the horrible adventure they have the misfortune of being a part of currently.

Glimpsing outside, Taylor saw nothing stirring, people gone home for the night, incapable of traversing until morning, and Paul hadn't returned from tracking down the man that ran into her.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, barely shifted underneath her as the ropes were tightly bound against the bedpost, Taylor crossed her arms as everything weighed on her mind.

She nearly jumped when she heard the door open behind her as Paul stepped in, smelling like dirt and sweat.

Pushing herself off the bed, Taylor reached out to touch him as he pulled off his long coat and messenger bag as he exhaled sharply.

"You didn't give them fright coming in, did you?" Taylor quizzically asks as she felt his warm skin with her bare hands.

Shaking his head, Paul informed her that the couple had gone to bed, he snuck in through the back, crept up here, once more grateful of his heritage, as he shuddered to know what he'll feel like in the morning.

"It told me what we needed to know," Taylor explained to him while he hobbled to the bed, plopping down on the hard ropes as he proceeded to undo his boots.

Tossing them to side as dirt came off the soles, Paul responds with a cough, "Why are we here in this hell we can't even do anything about?"

He watched Taylor come around him and sitting beside him on the bed as she answers, "We have to rescue someone from… from what'll happen… because they'll help with understanding these things in the near future. It won't tell me who, though. I think it knows we won't be happy about it."

Tossing his sweaty cotton shirt to the side, Paul turns his head with a look in his angel eyes, Taylor confirming with a nod, before he turned towards the TARDIS with furrowed brows.

"It's someone we met, that's it, isn't it?" Paul was swift to accuse the TARDIS, but it won't tell him anything, no, it knows him too well, and it knows he can't do anything to it, no more than it can do to him.

Undoing his belt and rolling it in a coil, Paul tells Taylor what he found and candidly he might add.

Several skeletons.

Some weren't Drekker.

It wasn't a grave like they thought it was.

Well, it was, but it wasn't.

The tribe that lived in the area before the colonists came were burying Drekker alongside their kin.

For generations up until the tribe was driven away from their ancestral homes.

"Just like Prospero's ancestors," Taylor drew parallel to their previous adventure.

Nodding, his matted stringy chestnut hair barely moving, Paul exhales sharply as he undid his trousers.

"Then the massacre wasn't just because someone killed a Drekker… it was revenge," Taylor drew a connection as she watched Paul stand up, tossing his trousers to the side before moving towards the door into the loo.

Opening the door, Paul tells Taylor that if he had to bet, that the tribe believed the Drekker came and went, like spirits, and invoked rituals hoping they'd return to seek vengeance against the settlers that drove them from their homes and slaughtered their kin.

"H-how do you know this?" Taylor asks how Paul could have known what she learnt without being in her head only for Paul to remind her that he was the Doctor.

And, he was quick picking up context.

Entering the loo, Paul drew a bath where he soaked.

Would've used the TARDIS's but he was rather sore with it for the moment and couldn't trust it not to do something foolish with him inside.

Once he stepped out after scrubbing away the grime from his face and hair, Taylor had tea ready for him, his clothes washed and, on the bed, and the TARDIS gone from their room.

Not what he thought, the TARDIS wanted to locate a route where they would take.

And.

It wanted to give them privacy.