Hi gang! Good news! As I type this, I have November's chapter mostly written, so I can guarantee once and for all, that come the Fall Semester, you won't be hit with a hiatus! I'm actually keeping my promise this time!

Oh! Also, an important note, chapter sixty-one is SUPPOSED to be posted on August 31st. However, I can't guarantee that? It's not that it's not written, because it is, but I'm going to be spending a semester abroad, and on August 31st there's a high chance that I might be jet-lagged as hell, not to mention the time zone difference. So the chapter could come out August 29th so I have the possibility of seeing a few reviews once I get off the plane or it could come out September 1st, when hopefully, I'm more focused and less out of it.

Either way, chapter 62 will come out September 28th.

Bookworm our beloved did more art. superwholocked2016 [PUT A PERIOD HERE] tumblr [PUT A PERIOD HERE] com/post/723036718457044992

Here are some acknowledgments:

thank you Emrys Akayuki, Lady Shalpha, and andre-papushi for reviewing and thank you LegendsOfTime for favoriting.


They were back in the corridor with the gap Marion had pulled Secker out. The room was hazier than it had been last time she was there. The mist or the fog or whatever that stuff was in the intersection had crept further out of the doorway and brushed against her feet. Marion stood close to the Doctor. She wanted him within grabbing or shoving distance at all times. She needed to be able to yank him out of the way or shove him behind her or whatever was needed-

Is what she WOULD think if there had been anything to worry about. Which there wasn't because the Doctor hadn't gotten hurt and it was just some sort of coincidence that time had looped back the same way just that it had when the Doctor had gotten impaled through the chest.

Marion opened and closed her hands. She realized that her shoulders were hunched up by the side of her head. Took a careful breath in, held it for seven seconds, and then let it out.

If she thought that enough, surely she'd eventually believe it! And if she believed it, then her chest would stop pounding as hard as it was.

And of course, seeing is believing! And so, she would simply go with the Doctor instead of Romana so she could see for herself how literally nothing dangerous had happened and things continued as normal.

Marion tucked her hands into her pockets and grabbed at the fabric inside trying to stop her hands from shaking, or at the very least, keep people from seeing her hands shake.

"Well, Captain, you'll have to show us the best place." the Doctor remarked, looking around the room.

"It's a pity we can't get further up there, and I don't want to damage an air seal or cut through a stress point."

"Oh, I'm sure K9 will be careful, won't you, K9?"

"Affirmative Master"

"Go," said the Doctor, "Make it as big as you can, K9."

Marion kept her eyes towards the gap in the intersection between the ships. There was a monster somewhere on this ship. She knew that. And her vision was swaying slightly so she knew that it was close. Considering that Secker had been inside the intersection when he was attacked, it stood to reason that the monster might be around.

With a high-pitched buzzing noise, a red laser emerged from K9's nose and glowed against the panel. The air was filled with the scent of burnt metal and plastic. Marion stepped further in front of the Doctor and closer to K9. Her nose wrinkled.

Her vision swam a bit and Marion's eyes flickered about, trying to locate the source of it.

"Very handy, that machine of yours, Doctor," Rigg remarked.

"He's not just a mobile blowtorch, you know. He's saved my life on lots of occasions. Beat me at chess, once."

Marion glanced back "It was definitely more than once."

"Shush." said the Doctor poking Marion in her side, "Besides, it's not like you've never beat me in chess."

"I find it hard to believe you convinced me to play chess with you in the first place."

"I can be persuasive!"

Marion looked back at the hole K9 had cut. If her timing was right, whatever had happened, was going to happen soon.

"Right," said Rigg, "give me a hand."

Marion was fairly certain that Rigg was talking to the Doctor. But Marion had gotten to it first and she was going to do it. And Rigg seemed unable or unwilling to say anything.

Marion grabbed a hold of one end of the handrail and Rigg grabbed the other. She knew it was the correct choice when her nausea faded somewhat

She could hear something faintly on the other side of the wall. Something scratching. She pulled at the bar and the panel felt like it was made of cardboard and foam. As she moved to lower it, she suddenly felt something sharp, painful, wet, burn, sting, in the side of her neck. No, not something. Somethings. Plural. Three things. Close to each other like claws.

It felt a bit like the sting of decapitation, but not as quick. And things that are quick and painless tend to stop being painless when they stop being quick. "SHIT!" she choked out.

She found herself thankful for how dark her clothes were. And then she felt the thing swipe at her again and this time, it did manage to grab her shirt collar and start to pull at her.

"Marion!"

The Doctor sounded panicked.

It hurt. It hurt so, so, so, much. It wasn't the worst pain that she'd ever felt. But it hurt nonetheless.

But as seen from Secker, it didn't seem to be the kind of pain that would kill her instantly so she was just going to have to deal with it.

Great. Super Duper.

Marion hoped that the reason why her face felt warm and wet was because of the blood and not that she was crying.

Marion felt something, someone, (The Doctor? The Doctor.) wrap arms around her waist, and with a sharp yank and the sound and sensation of tearing flesh, she was away from the monster.

One of the arms around her waist moved and dipped under her legs and the other shifted upwards so it was resting behind her back and her vision shifted and she realized she was horizontal and felt herself get lower and away from the wall and she was away from the hole looking up and she was on the floor.

The Doctor's arms and chest felt cool against her back and the side of her head. The side of her neck where the claws had dug into wasn't the side that was leaning against the Doctor's shoulder. So that was good. She didn't want to get her blood on his coat.

It's true, their blood was a different color. The Doctor's was more orange-tinted, but that didn't matter. She didn't want to see it on him. Seeing Five's shirt covered in her blood was awful. She didn't want a repeat with Four, and he wouldn't have had time to change. So if it had been that side that got slashed up, she would have had to move her head, and she didn't really feel like moving right now.

She could feel the gaping wounds in her neck closing, the blood crept back where it was supposed to be and the taste of copper was no longer filling her mouth. She stared straight ahead at the hole in the wall and the monster on the other side. She carefully brought a hand to her neck and felt the blood flow upward and put her hand down.

The monster was large and dark green, nearly black. It was covered in something that was probably fur but looked more plant-like than something that could grow on an animal. There was no fur on its arms, just thick skin in bands. Above where its mouth would be was what reminded Marion of a duck's bull, but wide and frilled, and fanlike.

Its eyes were large and lime green and seemed to be about the size of the palm of her hand. It had three large sharp silver claws on each hand. The claws on its right hand were stained a bright crimson.

If Marion had been up with Romana, would they have been stained vermillion instead?

Marion allowed herself to think about that for two seconds and then stopped. She was trying not to think about that. And speculating about what could have been counted as thinking about it.

Marion hoped that she hadn't gotten blood on the Doctor's shirt.

The Doctor scooted further back away from the monster with Marion still in his arms. He ordered K9 to fire at the monster. A much larger beam of light emerged from K9's nose and fired at the monster over and over again. She smelled something like burnt paper instead of burned meat like you'd expect, and the monster's shouts got louder. It continued to wave its bloody claws back and forth and then it ducked back out of the hole.

Marion was ever thankful that K9 had made such a small hole. Marion rubbed at the side of her neck and didn't feel the wet of blood on the side of her neck or the rawness of skin. Marion went to get up, but she felt the arms holding onto her tighten slightly.

"Doctor," Marion said slowly, "I'm fine now, can you let me put the piece back?"

The Doctor held her tighter for a moment, and then let go.

"You need a medic!" Captain Riggs said. "You were-,"

Marion ignored him and crouched down and picked up the handrail on the piece of the wall and held it in place.

"K9. Could you weld this back in place for me?"

"Affirmative."

Captain Riggs got closer to her. "You must be in some kind of shock. I saw-"

Marion moved from a two-handed grip on the handle to a one-handed grip and turned the side of her neck that had been slashed to face him.

A part of Marion was tempted to stare at him blankly and go "What are you talking about? Are you sure you're feeling alright, is the smoke getting to you."

Marion ignored that part of her. It just didn't seem right. Also, the collar of her romper was definitely ripped and there was probably some blood that was hard to see with the dark purple color, but not impossible. So Marion shrugged and told the truth.

"Injuries that would be major for someone else mean pretty much nothing to me."

Marion looked back at the wall and realized that K9 had welded enough of it back in place that she could step away. She brushed off her hands.

"What the devil was that?"

"I don't know." the Doctor replied.

"And what in the name of the suns is it doing on board the ship? First a collision, then a comatose navigator, and now a monster roaming about my ship attacking people! It's totally inexplicable."

"Nothing's inexplicable."

"Then explain it!"

"Hard to do that right now," Marion replied. "Best to look around and keep on our toes."

"It must have been that that got Secker." Captain Rigg deduced.

"Yeah the claw marks match," Marion replied offhandedly rubbing at the side of her neck. And then she stopped. She looked down at her hand and found her fingertips smeared with light tan.

Ah fuck, her makeup. Whatever.

"But he was already at a bit of a disadvantage," Marion continued, "What with the Vraxion in his system."

"He was taking Vraxion?"

The Doctor nodded.

"Oh no."

The three of them let K9 finish welding the wall the rest of the way and Riggs back towards the yellow and brown of the first-class corridors.

"None of my passengers could have brought it on board the ship." Riggs insisted.

"What about Dymond's," The Doctor asked.

"You might find something, but I doubt it." Marion paused and tried to word it without sounding like she knew too much. "Had Secker been acting odd prior to the crash?"

Riggs blinked. "Well now that you mention it, he WAS behaving strangely. That's how the crash happened. I'll have to do another scan."

"Yes, the Vraxoin must be found."

"Yes, it's bad stuff."

"Bad stuff?" the Doctor stopped walking and stared at the man appalled., "It's the worst. I've seen whole planets ravaged by it while the merchants made fortunes."

"Your people knew it would be on board, did they?" Dymond asked.

"Our people?" the Doctor replied confused.

"Come on Doctor," Riggs said carefully, as if he'd just figured out a mystery and was just waiting to confront them about it. "I know what you, Marion, and probably that blonde woman are now. You're narcs."

"Excuse me?!"

"You're working for the Intergalactic Narcotics Bureau."

"OH!"

Oh, that was as good of an excuse as any. But didn't they have another cover going? Suppose that cover might work well as a cover for this cover, but still.

Marion shook her head. "We told you, we're working for Galactic Salvage and Insurance"

Riggs stared at her unamused. "They were liquidated twenty years ago in 2096."

"Huh." Marion blinked slowly as if confused. "Then where's my paycheck been coming from?"

"You're getting paid?" the Doctor replied, adopting the same tone of bewilderment.

"You're not?"

"Don't give me that!" Rigg said sharply. "I know you two are agents. Who are you working for."

"Well," Marion said pointedly, "Hypothetically. If we WERE agents investigating Vraxion on this ship. We couldn't TELL you that we were agents. Because if we TOLD you that we were investigating narcotics on this ship, you might tell someone. And that someone might, hypothetically, be the person we're looking for. And you telling them might mean that they can hide evidence."

"Why would you be telling me this now?"

"Well. We're obviously just talking hypothetically. Who says I'm telling you anything." Marion said pointedly.

Captain Rigg nodded. "Of course." He seemed relieved to have been let in on a secret.

You know, instead of being lied to.

Which he was.

Rigg led them back to the room that they'd followed Dymond into when they'd first arrived.

"If there's any Vraxoin on board, it'll show up on the scan," he said walking in and towards a machine.

Marion had read somewhere that the machines in 20th-century sci-fi being chunky and clunky and covered in bright wide and flashing lights made a whole lot of sense from a Watsonian perspective.

Large glass touch screens looked cool, but they were easy to break and tricky to repair which wasn't ideal when you were in space. Thick, chunky plastic with tactile toggles and buttons and switches and knobs were easier to operate and easier to repair.

Marion wondered at what point would the technology make the switch over from everything getting flatter and glassier to this.

Probably as soon as space travel started to be a thing.

She hoped that this hadn't been after some kind of cracked screen disaster.

Captain Riggs flipped a switch and the machine lit up. A white wireframe image of the ship glowed on the dark blue screen. Vertical lines blinked slowly from left to right making a piercing beeping noise as it went.

"Can you check the whole ship with this?" the Doctor asked.

"Every nook and cranny," The machine continued to beep. It was loud and high-pitched and Marion tightly held onto her bag strap to keep her from moving her hands to her ears to cover them.

Why was there so much high-pitched beeping noises everywhere that she went? She hated those noises. They made it hard to focus and felt like something sharp stabbing through her ears.

"Nothing in the forward section," Riggs remarked. He pressed a different button and the scan began again.

"Secker kept his in the luggage area. I took what was left then someone took it from me. After stunning Marion and me, that is."

"Who?"

"Yes, who indeed."

After a little bit longer, Riggs shrugged and moved to turn off the machine. The terrible beeping blessedly stopped. Marion lowered her shoulders that she hadn't even realized she had raised.

"Nothing!"

"Is there any possible shield against that scan?" the Doctor asked.

"No, no, no,"

"Really"

"Well, any shield would be too small to hide any useful quantity of the stuff."

"Yes, a small thick tube. Very mysterious."

"Suppose you could store it in a different form." Marion trailed off. She sat down in one of the spinny chairs. One hand on her chin and her fingers tapping on the table. The Doctor turned to look at her. "Something that the scan wouldn't know to look for."

"We can look into that later. This drug is hardly our most pressing problem."

"Yes, I know, I know," the Doctor replied, his tone making it clear that he didn't really think that, but he knew that things wouldn't move forward unless they dealt with the ships, "We've got to get the ships separated."

"Yes, but how to get through to the power unit?"

"Marion, do you think that we could use power from the TARDIS?"

Marion stopped tapping her fingers. She remembered the Doctor trying to do that, she couldn't remember if it had worked or not. It managed to work eventually she figured. But she didn't know if it was try one or try two. Whatever the results had been, they hadn't been catastrophic enough for Marion to tell him not to do it. She couldn't think of a real reason to say no.

"You could try it."

"What's the TARDIS?" Riggs asked.

"A ship."

"Why's it called that?"

Marion got out of her chair and stretched lightly and pointed a thumb at the Doctor. "Don't look at me, his granddaughter named it."

"His granddaughter?"

"He's older than he looks. Now, let's go. Doc."


"Marion, are you alright?" the Doctor asked. He unlocked the door to the TARDIS and was looking through a small box of wires and machines until he found a rolling stand.

"Yeah?" Marion thought for a bit, trying to see what the Doctor could be asking her about "My neck's healed? Is that what you meant?" The Doctor handed her a coil of wire. It seemed confusing that the Doctor would ask about that. Sure, Five had freaked out in the church, but that had been a decapitation that had "killed" her. Surely she'd gotten bad energies that she'd had to heal in front of him right?

"I'm not talking about that." The Doctor sounded less jovial and more serious. "You seemed off even before then. Your hands were shaking for a while. Then you put them in your pockets to hide them. You put them in your pockets to hide them," Marion went to shrug that off, and then the Doctor continued to talk. "Then there was a bit of a time hiccup earlier."

Marion didn't freeze in place. At least she hoped that she didn't. Or that she hoped that if she did, the Doctor didn't notice enough to call her out on it.

"I know you can't really feel them, not the way a Time Lord can-"

Oh, so Marion had lied, lied.

Or maybe she hadn't lied and the Associate had said very clearly and specifically "I can't feel it the way you can-"

Because that technically wasn't a lie.

The Doctor continued speaking oblivious to what was currently going through Marion's head. He was under the TARDIS console trying to take something loose. She could feel something rumbling under her feet that got softer as the Doctor removed whatever he removed and got to his feet.

"-but I know that they affect you. I don't know exactly how they affect you, but I know it's not good. Are you sure that you're alright?"

Honestly, Marion felt like crying a little bit, but not for the reasons that the Doctor probably suspected.

"I'm fine," Marion said. She clenched her fists to hide the shaking. The Doctor didn't seem fully convinced. So Marion tried again. "I'm-I'm just a bit tired."

It wasn't a lie. She wasn't tired in the sense that she was feeling sleepy. On that front, she felt fine. Weirdly fine. It was more the sort of tiredness where you aren't sleepy, but the idea of being sprawled out with your eyes shut doing absolutely nothing but breathing for several hours seems like the greatest possible gift. "God willing, as soon as this whole situation gets sorted out I'm going to SLEEP." Marion stepped out of the TARDIS and nearly tripped over something. She flailed.

The Doctor's hand reached out to grab the back of her romper and keep her steady so she didn't faceplant on the floor.

Marion looked down. "Oh, there you are K9."

"Apologies Boss"

Marion stepped fully outside, the TARDIS The coil of wire around her shoulder unspooling as she walked.

"It's fine K9"

The Doctor took whatever the purple laser thing he took out from under the console and pushed it up. He crouched down and lined it up towards something she couldn't make out on the other side of the intersection.

"Predict only sixty percent chance of success, Master."

"Tell me, K9, how is it that, how is it you always look on the black side of things?" The Doctor adjusted and refocused the machine again. "Here am I, trying a little lateral thinking, and what do you do? You trample all over it with logic."

"It's always worth it to try things." Marion remarked, "Even if you fail, you might learn something."

"And if you fail really badly," the Doctor remarked, "Then you might end up teaching something!"

"Either way, it's worth a shot."

"It is a question of the localised power available. I predict-"

"-Sixty percent." The Doctor cut the robot off annoyed, "I heard you, I heard you. But it's worth a try. Now, come on. Let's go and find your mistress. Come on. Come on."


As they walked back to the lounge, Marion was suddenly hit with a wave of worry. Not like, the weird danger sense kind. The normal kind. The reason she'd stepped in the elevator with Romana in the first place was because she'd remembered the Time Lady being knocked unconscious by something from the projection. And she'd figured that maybe something could have gone wrong.

And like, things had seemed normal while she was there until they didn't. But she had figured that Romana would be fine without her because she'd been fine in the show. But she had ALSO figured that the Doctor would be fine if she didn't go with him. And that had-

Before Marion's thought spiral could get any twistier they entered the lounge and Romana was standing there. She was fine and alive and so Marion was also fine.

Romana explained to them what had happened. She had been looking at Eden on the CET machine. And Marion remembered her doing that. And she said that she'd seen something in the Eden projection and had been drawn to it to the point where she couldn't look away. She had felt something staring at her.

At this point, Marion had been kind of out of it, but if her timing was right when Marion took the elevator with Romana, Romana had managed to tear herself away from the projection when she'd heard her panic.

But in this version of events, Marion's little episode didn't draw her attention away, and she continued to get closer and closer until she saw something fly out and bite her neck.

"And then you collapsed." Marion finished. "Are you alright?" Marion noticed what looked like a still-full glass of orange liquid. "You didn't drink any of that, did you?"

Romana shook her head.

"You told me not to touch it!"

"Good." Mario nodded, "That's good."

"You're sure about that?" the Doctor exclaimed. He pointed to the wall where the CET had projected, "That creature came through the picture?"

"Yes." Romana nodded.

"You were right about this machine. It is unstable, and that creature's escaped from its electric zoo. I wonder where it came from?"

"A planet called Eden."

"Eden?"

"Well, do you know it?"

"It rings a bell."

Suddenly, there was a jarringly loud voice.

"Ah, Doctor. I have a message for you," Tryst. There was a moment, where Marion wanted to launch herself at him. She could visualize herself, tackling him to the floor.

She didn't.

She remained with her hands by her side and her fists clenched tight because clenching her fists kept her hands from shaking.

It seemed that looking at him flipped a switch and she went from doing her best not to think about what happened when she went with Romana instead of the Doctor to being able to do nothing but think about what had happened when she went with Romana instead of the Doctor and the more she thought about it, the angrier she felt.

She felt so, so, so angry.

His machine had killed the Doctor. His negligence had killed the Doctor. Lazarus had fallen from the cathedral and didn't get back up the way that she could. And he was dead. And the Vicar had drowned. And Tryst was standing there.

Breathin-

Marion looked down at her hands. They were open again and shaking. She closed them and tucked them back into her pockets. That was the beginning of an intrusive thought and rule one of intrusive thoughts was to not let them win.

"Oh, I'm so delighted that you are taking an interest in my CET machine." Tryst continued talking to the Doctor completely oblivious to the daggers that Marion was glaring at the side of his head.

"I'm absolutely amazed." the Doctor said, his voice full of false cheer and his mouth a wide smile that didn't meet his eyes.

"Yes." Tryst smiled brightly, tucked his hands behind his back, and laughed lightly. "Well, it is rather impressive, isn't it."

The Doctor's jovial tone remained but it was more biting, and his smile was a grimace. "No, I mean I'm amazed at you, Tryst, using a machine like this when it's still so primitive." he tapped his hand on the side of it. "The whole thing's utterly unstable."

Tryst's smile instantly flipped and he was quick to try to defend himself. "Well, I value your opinion, Doctor-"

"Good, good." the Doctor cut him off, "I value my life and this machine makes me fear for it."

Marion hoped that the Doctor didn't see the way that those words made her flinch.

The Doctor maintained a cheerful and positive-sounding town as he verbally tore him apart.

"It does?"

"Well, what do you think is so wrong?"

The Doctor had been clearly waiting for this opportunity. "Well, at a rough guess, I'd say the spatial integrator, transmutation oscillator, hologistic retention circuit. Shall I go on?"

"Yes."

"Dimensional osmosis damper?"

"Er…the what?"

Marion understood each of those words separately. But she wasn't Tryst and she hadn't built this unstable device so she didn't have to know what they meant. Just that Tryst SHOULD have known what they meant and maybe if he had than-

Those thoughts were not conducive to Normal Thoughts. She had left denial, she was in anger, and what she needed was an acceptance speedrun so that she could calm down.

The Doctor stared at him and spoke in a hushed whisper. "You mean you haven't even got a dimensional osmosis damper?"

"Ah-"

"Professor, you don't realise how unstable this machine is."

The Doctor had previously been occasionally tapping the machine every now and again for emphasis. Now, he was keeping his hands in his pockets.

"Personally I feel that you are exaggerating, Doctor," said Tryst. "However, I've decided to turn off the machine and I shan't use it again until I've made a full check. I'll close it down right away."

"I'm glad to hear that," replied the Doctor.

Tryst started to press buttons on the side of the machine and then he paused and snapped his fingers.

"Yes. Oh, I nearly forgot."

"What?"

"The message. The separation of the ships. Dymond is waiting for you."

The Doctor nodded. "I'm on my way. Romana," the Doctor pointed to the woman. "off to the TARDIS. I'll give you the details later. Tryst! Don't you forget to switch that off. Marion, come with me."


Captain Riggs wasn't smiling and his eyes seemed focused. Which gave Marion some hope that he'd listened to who he thought was a narcotics agent when she told him not to drink anything uncovered. So that was a green flag.

"Doctor, Marion," he greeted.

Marion waved.

Two of the screens in the room were on. One of them showed Dymond in his ship, and the other looked to be showing the round circles of the TARDIS interior.

"Stay there, K9. Stay there," the Doctor ordered, "Right then, Dymond. Ready for another try? I want you to put your ship on full power. Not now. When I tell you."

"Where are you going to be, Doctor?" Dymond asked.

"Here, if it's alright with you. Romana's in my ship. I can keep an eye on things from here."

"That's fine." Captain Riggs replied.

"Thank you. Romana?"

Romana came into frame.

"All ready Doctor."

"Good, good. We're just waiting on Dymond. K9?"

"Yes, Master?"

"Just in case your prediction is correct, go along to one of the blurred areas and take a reading for me."

"Affirmative"

"Good dog."

"Success only sixty percent owing to factors of localised energy."

The dog left.

Marion had a sudden spike of fear that the Doctor was going to ask her to go along with K9. And for a moment, it seemed like he might, and then he said something else.

"Marion, you stand here with me, I might need you to retrieve Romana if something goes wrong."

Marion nodded and leaned against the doorway and watched K9 go. She gave the Doctor a thumbs up.

"Ready when you are, Doctor," Dymond said on the other side of the screen.

"Romana, get ready." the Doctor said carefully.

Captain Riggs pressed a couple of buttons on the ship's deck. And in the distance, Marion could feel a humming noise. It was a bit like the TARDIS communicating with her in the same way that listening to garbled syllables of a spirit box was like listening to music on an old radio. There was a low droning sound that started out level and then got louder and louder until it got to the point where the Doctor's expression changed from excitement to concern.

"I'll have to switch off, Doctor," said Dymond from the screen, "My ship's breaking up."

"No, no," the Doctor shook his head, "Come on, Dymond, now. Don't lose your nerve. We're almost there. Just a bit longer."

For a few moments, the droning got louder and louder, and then Dymond moved something just out of frame and it and the humming stopped.

"No, she won't take it!" Dymond said finally.

"And here I thought you were eager to separate our ships." Riggs scoffed. "If any of you need me, I'll be in the lounge."

The Doctor watched the man leave and then looked back at the other screen, "Romana, switch off. Something's wrong. We'll go and find K9. He's reading for me."

The Doctor pushed back from the chair and took off. Marion was once again thankful for the fact that she could run for a while without getting tired. Keeping up with the Doctor and his overly long legs would be so much more of a chore otherwise.

The blue wavy heavy wall was back with the ship on the other side and K9 was nowhere to be seen.

"Marion?"

"He made it to the other side." Marion said simply."He wasn't cut in the middle of the wave."

"He must have slipped right through during the partial dematerialisation."

"Yup!"

"There's a clever dog!'"

Marion caught something out of the corner of her eye. She turned and saw the man dressed in a silver jumpsuit with large black sunglasses. He had brown curly hair, and three familiarly shaped claw marks just barely missing his eye.

"Hey!" Marion said, taking a step forward.

The Doctor turned from the doorway and saw who Marion was looking at.

"Ah, could we have a word with you, please?"

The man decidedly did not desire to have a word with the Doctor and decided to dash.

Marion grabbed the Doctor's hand and ran after.

When they turned around the corner, Marion the man was in the elevator pressing the button to close. Marion rushed forward and nearly slammed face-first into the door.

She considered that she might have caught up to the man if she hadn't been pulling the Doctor along with her, but it's not like the Doctor had caught him in the show so, it was a wash, and not a loss. Marion glanced to her left. There. The stairs.

"Doctor, come on."

Marion gestured with her head towards the Doctor and darted towards the door. The stairs were narrow. And Marion raced ahead of the Doctor. She wanted to get where she was going, and she also didn't want to be so close to the Doctor that she tripped over that long scarf and ate concrete.

She didn't feel like the Doctor was in danger so it's not like she was worried about him. He was probably coordinated enough with it at this point. Marion took the steps two, three at a time. With each step, her feet and ankles burned. And then they felt normal again and then she took another step. She hit a landing and held out her hand to keep her from slamming face first and used that hand to push herself back off and give her a quick boost of momentum to continue to run.

She reached the first landing and ran past it. "Doctor!" Marion shouted behind him, "This way!"

Marion felt like she was flying.

Marion pressed her hand against the bottom of the banister and lept the last couple of stairs. She landed solidly on her feet. Her ankles burned for a moment, and then they didn't.

Marion pushed through the door and out of the stairwells and through another door. The door to the elevator opened. The man in the white jumpsuit got a look at her for a moment and then took off. Marion took off after him. She could hear the Doctor's footsteps thumping rhythmically behind him.

There was a door at the end of the wall. It reminded Marion of the door between train cars. Or at diner kitchens. There was a plaque against one end of the wall that said "Passenger Panels 67-90" in gold bendy letters.

The figure darted through the door. Marion and the Doctor raced after him.

The room was about twice the size of the passenger part of an airplane with the middle third acting as an aisle between the two sets of seating on either side. Each seat was filled in by passengers, all of them wearing the same metallic hooded jumpsuits and dark sunglasses.

Marion wondered where exactly this ship had been taking them. Perhaps to get up close and personal with some sort of star? The jumpsuits didn't seem heavy, they might be used to reflect back heat.

Marion got the quickest of views of the man they had been chasing running out of the other end of the cabin.

"What's going on?" a woman sitting in an aisle seat demanded.

Fair.

"Nobody leave your seats. No one open the door. Everyone stay put this is an emergency."

"We're looking for a man dressed just like you." the Doctor explained.

That however, didn't address the crowd's concerns.

"When are we going to land?" shouted another man, "We've been stuck for ages. How much longer?"

Again, fair.

"Marion," the Doctor tried, "Where did he go?"

"Further down the passenger way," she said. "Come on"

As they raced off, Marion could hear a man behind her guess that the two of them must be some sort of in-flight entertainment.

They got through one cabin, and then another, and then another, Marion calling out a warning as they rushed past each group of disgruntled passengers, and then a woman stood in their way with her hand out pressed against Marion's chest blocking her way.

"What's the meaning of this?" the woman shouted, "Why aren't we going down to Azure?"

"Ma'am I assure you, that we're doing everything that we can," Marion said pointedly.

She started to walk away and the woman held onto her arm

"What are you doing about it?!"

"Well, for one thing, we're trying to go after the person responsible for the delay and you are slowing us down."

The Doctor took a paper bag full of jelly babies out of his somewhere and in his coat. Took the woman's hand off Marion's wrist and pressed one of the candies into her palm.

"Here, have a jelly baby, and don't forget to brush your teeth."

Marion grabbed the woman. "Stay in your seats. There's a potentially dangerous individual walking around, and we wouldn't want any of you getting hurt. Don't open the door. Tell the flight attendant I said this." Marion nodded once more, and let go.

Marion pushed open the door. The Doctor walked through quickly and Marion let it close as she raced after him.

The elevator closed just as the two of them reached it. The light above the elevator blinked brightly showing that it was going up. The Doctor looked at the stairwell for a moment, before he sighed deeply.

"Do you want to take the elevator instead?" Marion asked. Pointing at the second bay. The Doctor was already moving towards it.

This side of the ship had two bays instead of just one. The moment the elevator chimed, the Doctor quickly jumped inside with Marion close after him.

"Which floor?" the Doctor asked quickly.

It took Marion a moment to think. "One floor up."

The Doctor jabbed the button and then the button then the door closed button.

The door opened a few moments later. The man in white was pointing his stun gun at them. It was the stun gun, and it wasn't even making Marion feel nauseous, but Marion still tried to push the Doctor behind her. But the man didn't shoot. He stared at them for another moment or two and then took off running. He turned around the corner and into the mist. Both of the men stared at each other breathing heavily.

God Marion was so glad to not have that problem anymore.

"I only wanted a word with you, whoever you are," the Doctor said firmly, "You took something from me, old chap. I'd rather like to have it back."

The man looked at them for a moment and then ran deeper into the smoke. Marion raced after him. The pocket dimension felt just as odd, just as heavy, and it was just as hard to figure out where she was going and how she was going to get there. The Doctor followed in after her. Marion glanced over her shoulder. The Doctor was further behind than she was and his movements were sluggish. Marion stopped, took two steps back, and reached for his hand. It wasn't as easy as it sounded. Marion hadn't noticed it when she'd picked up Secker.

Marion wasn't sure if it had been that she was focused on other things, or if it was that the rift had gotten worse, but it seemed like every movement of their hands was followed by an echo image. Eventually, her hand managed to reach for the Doctor and she held on tight.

"C'mon!" Marion shouted. Inside the mist it was oddly quiet, and yet Marion still felt the need to yell otherwise she'd be unheard.

The heaviness in the room gradually faded. Or at least, it felt like that to her. The Doctor was moving faster, but his movements seemed slow and heavy.

"I just want to talk to you." the Doctor shouted as they got close and closer to the continuously fleeing man, "I promise you, you'll enjoy it. Stop!"

They ran, and while the Doctor and the man in white kept up with her and they all seemed to be running at the same pace, they moved as if they were in slow motion. And she was the only one capable of moving normally. She wondered if it felt the same to them.

She started to doubt it when the man in white lunged at the Doctor and Marion let go of the Doctor's hand for a moment so she could grab him by the shoulder and shove him away. Something came off him in her hands. She didn't want to drop it, so she tucked it in her romper pocket and then shoved the man away.

She felt sick to her stomach, and it clearly wasn't coming from the man in white, because it probably wouldn't have happened all at once.

"MARION!" the Doctor called out. Marion grab blindly reached out and grabbed his shoulder this time. There was a fourth figure in there. It was large and green, and much, much, much, much taller than her.

The room started spinning, her chest started to hurt, and Marion knew she had to grab the Doctor and get the fuck out of that space and she needed to do it now.

"COME ON!" She shouted as loud as she could.

There was a second or two, where Marion wasn't quite sure which direction she wanted to go. And then, she heard Romana's voice coming from her right.

"Doctor? Marion? Where are you?"

"IN HERE!" Marion shouted back.

Marion lightly tugged the Doctor down, so that she could speak directly into his ear.

"Doctor, when I say run, run."

Marion held tighter onto the Doctor's hand and turned so that she was facing where she heard Romana's voice coming from.

"Run!"

The two of them took off. Marion could hear something behind them, and the way her vision seemed to flip back and forth between swimming and not and the way her arm vacillated between being in pain and not made it pretty obvious what was going on.

Soon, the mist started to fade away and the hallway became much more clear. She could even see Romana on the other side and most importantly, she could see as Romana's expression went from relieved to terrified.

"Down!"

Marion shouted again, she and the Doctor dove and slid a few feet away from the intersection.

One of those large green monsters from before, (she couldn't quite tell if it was the same one that had gotten a good swipe at her earlier) tore out of the mists. Marion recovered faster than the Doctor had, and she could see Romana flattening back against the wall on the far side of the room. Marion crouched on her heels in front of the Doctor, ready to lunge at the monster if it got too close.

From somewhere she couldn't see, someone shot at the monster multiple times. Marion got a brief glimpse of the white metallic jumpsuit. It retreated and Marion sighed in relief before carefully standing up unsteadily on her feet. She reached down to help the Doctor up, but he remained on the ground breathing heavily. Marion kneeled down and lightly pressed a hand to his chest.

He wasn't looking at her. His eyes were wide and he was staring off into space. Marion couldn't feel a buzz under her hand and his chest was rising up and down, so he had to have been breathing just fine. Otherwise, his bypass would have kicked in. He just seemed shaken.

Romana joined Marion crouched next to the Doctor and the two of them each tossed an arm over their shoulders and pulled the Doctor to his feet. He moved with them, but shakily. It reminded Marion a bit of when Five had gotten a face full of Malus smoke and she had had to guide him to the pew.

"Doctor!" Romana said frantically, "Are you all right? There's a creature in there. It's horrible," the woman looked at Marion, "We've got to get away. What were you two doing in there? Come on!"

The Doctor suddenly stopped moving. His eyes widened, but they were less glazed over. They still didn't seem focused on either of them.

"Stop," he said quickly. His voice had an airy quality to it. "Do you know I've just come through an interface? That's no mean feat." he patted himself on the chest and looked around, "I'm not even sure I'm all here,"

"You are," Marion assured, "At least, you ought to be."

"Marion, you're fine aren't you?"

"Of course!" Marion said quickly. "I'm always fine,"

Marion saying this seemed to have the opposite effect. The Doctor turned to look at his fellow Time Lord.

"Romana, are you sure that Marion's alright?"

"Doctor!" Marion insisted, "I'm fine! Right as rain. I felt a little blurry for a bit. But I'm fine now."

"You two went right to the other side?" Romana asked.

"Yup!" Marion nodded. "Chase him down a couple levels, through several cabins worth of passengers, then up a level. And through a matter interface. It's weird in there. I can't say I recommend it, but I can't tell you what to do."

The Doctor pointed over his shoulder back into the mist. "Did you see anyone while we were in there? Coveralls, dark glasses."

"A slight scar on his face."

"Well," Romana thought for a moment, "someone shot at that creature and drove it off."

"It must have been the chap we were chasing. The fellow who jumped me in the luggage section."

Marion reached into her romper pocket. "He dropped this."

She handed the band to the Doctor. He held it up to the light.

"Well, we know something about him now. This is his radiation band."

"I accidentally pulled it off his arm."

"Good job Marion," the Doctor encouraged, "Now, look at this." He pointed to some writing engraved on the side of it. "Volante."

"Tryst's ship?" Romana asked. "But Rigg said that Tryst and Della were the only two people on board."

"The only two that he knew about," Marion replied, "We should go back to the lounge to talk to him,"

"Who," the Doctor asked, "Rigg or Tryst."

"Either of them,"

"Well if you want to talk to Rigg, you're going the wrong way." Romana said, "Last I checked, he had walked off to the infirmary."

"Is he okay?" Marion asked. "Last you saw, he wasn't acting odd. Was he?"

"Odd how?"

"Like someone had spiked his drink with Vraxion,"

"That's a bit specific."

"I'm aware of that. Now tell me, did he seem like his drink had been spiked."

"Oh no," Romana shook her head, "No, said he was just going to go back to the infirmary."

"To check on his navigator." the Doctor surmised. "Besides, you told him not to drink anything!"

"Yes." Marion said pointedly, "Imagine someone getting in trouble because they explicitly did something I told them not to do. That would be crazy."

"Yes," the Doctor replied, knowing damn well that Marion was referring to him, "That would be rather unusual."

"It would be! Especially if that person knew I had a track record of being-"

Marion heard footsteps behind them. She paused on her heels and turned around.

And there was Tryst. He was walking towards them and he sounded out of breath like he'd been running all the way there.

"Ah, Doctor. Marion, Rigg has told me about the drugs."

"Oh really?" the Doctor said offhandedly. He turned to walk away, but Tryst reached out to stop him.

"Yes. Doctor, I believe I can help you over this problem."

"Oh?" Marion replied. "You can, can you!"

"Yes, er," Tryst gestured towards Romana.

"She's with the investigation too," Marion said quickly. "She can stay."

Tryst glanced at the Doctor who nodded.

"Well, I'm very sad to say that I think the drugs were smuggled onboard my ship, and I'm pretty certain I know who it was."

'I'm sure that you do.' Marion thought. 'What's their name?" she said.

"Stott." Oh, so that was his name. Scott was pretty close. "One of my crew," Tryst elaborated, "But he was killed. But I think he passed the drugs on before he died."

"Oh, you do, do you? So, who do you think he passed the drugs off to?"

"To Della."

"What!" the Doctor's voice raised.

"I question her, of course, but she wouldn't admit it."

"Well, there's a very good explanation for that!" Marion replied.

"And that would be?"

"Perhaps she didn't do it," said Romana.

"How do you know that she did it?" the Doctor asked.

"Doctor-"

Before Tryst could finish serving up whatever lies he was cooking in that brain, a siren went off.

"Calling the Doctor and Marion Henson. Would the Doctor and Marion Henson please report to the bridge immediately?" Dymond's voice chimed over the intercom.

"We'll be seeing you. Tryst" Marion dismissed.

"Della indeed," Romana scoffed as soon as Tryst was out of earshot.

"C'mon," Marion said. She reached into her bag and felt around until her fingers grasped the little wallet case with her psychic paper. She knew what was going to happen next, and there was a far simpler way of dealing with it. "Just play along. And if I ask you for something you don't have, just say that it was stolen or something.."

"What?" asked Romana.

"Just trust me on this."

"Oh you have a plan do you?"

"I hope so."


Next Chapter: Knife to Meet You


Tryst: Hi Doctor. For no reason in particular, I'd like to give you some people who I think did the crime that I definitely did not do and am not involved with.

Marion, with visible killing intent: … ((((((((((((((((:

Tryst: Doctor is she alright?

Doctor: Of course she is! Aren't you Marion?

Marion, with hidden visibly killing intent: Sure (:


I know I've said this for a while, but I'm still thinking about the little side story book. It would be a bunch of loosely connected bits that would rarely reach the chapter length of this fic.

I know for a fact that at least a handful of you have read Solar Lunacy. I'm thinking of something that's kinda like Bytes of Lunacy, only without spoilers for later on in the fic.

Part of me is considering calling it "Oops, all Interludes" because a lot of the stuff in my Denik notebook is like, interludes and side bits I have no idea when I'm going to use but really want to put out there. But alternatively, it would be scenes from this fic, only from the Doctor or a Companion, or an outsider POV of some kind. I really, really, really liked writing that bit in chapter 42.

Anyway, I know I've been saying I'm going to do a side-story thing for over two years, but I actually mean it this time.

It's just if I do that, there's something that I'm going to need you all to be cool about:

Sometimes, ideas will change between the time when I post a side story and when I write the main story. Nothing major plot-wise like what's going on with Marion, what's the meaning of her dreams, but still.

So! If there are some minor inconsistencies between something I wrote in 2022 for the side stories and something that gets posted in the main story in 2024 (which I don't THINK will happen but might). Like, please be chill about it and just go with what's in the original fic. It'll be minor details if it happens, don't worry. Nothing that'll throw off the sleuths, and if too many of you start barking up the wrong tree, I'll just send out a tumblr post letting people know that they're barking up the wrong tree like I did about my use of the word "Guardian"

The main purpose of the side stories is to practice writing character interactions, provide additional context to scenes, to write the hurt/comfort scenarios spinning around in my brain, and to give something to the many of you who have said that the interludes were your favorite part of the fic. So it might not be super clear where exactly in the timeline it takes place. Just like. Be cool.

I'm currently making a cover for the fic as we speak, and I've got a handful of stories in my notebook that are long enough to be somewhat complete if I decided to type them up and post them.

If I do post it, I will let you know on my tumblr lunammoon, and also whenever I updated the fic next.

See ya!