I'm out of relevant Time Lord facts so from now on, I'm going to give you some headcanons that I have about them.

None of these are canon for the Doctor Who universe (although given the nonsense that Big Finish does sometimes, it wouldn't surprise me) but they are canon in the Celery-verse (a dumb name I know but it's all that I got). If Doctor Who writers can come up with whatever the fuck they want, then so can I.

Headcanon One: Regenerative Amnesia and the general wooziness of a Time Lord post-regeneration is not inherently caused by regeneration itself. It's a defense mechanism that is caused by their brain attempting to make sure that the Time Lord is able to mentally distance themselves from the fact that they just died. The more traumatic or serious the death, the more scrambly the brain gets. Imagine slamming a rod against a carpet to shake out the "dust" with the "dust" being memories. Something like dying of old age only needs a little hit to get it out. Something like, getting shot and then dying on an operating table takes a whole bunch of heavy, heavy, hits and it knocks out a bunch of other memories along with it. That's why Romana II was perfectly fine after regenerating.

Oops, I almost forgot about the acknowledgments.

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The air was suddenly a lot easier to breathe in and breath in Marion did.

Something...wait no, someone was dragging her to her feet by the back of her coat.

"That," She went into a coughing fit. Maybe it was a trick of the light, but she could've sworn a tiny cloud of smoke emerged from her mouth, "was not my greatest plan. I'm willing to admit that. I really thought that was going to work,". She looked down at the fallen nozzle is disgust.

Marion couldn't tell you what the man who had dragged her to her feet looked like. He was dressed in all black with a black hat with a chinstrap and black tinted glasses but of the parts of his face that she could see out of the corner of her eyes, there wasn't much about him that could be identified.

Marion supposed that that was the point. Marion wouldn't be able to tell apart the man holding her up from the man holding Jamie up let alone the two of them from a crowd of other men.

The man who seemed to be delivering the orders that the men were taking didn't see fit to cover up his face. He dragged the Doctor to his feet as well.

"WAIT!" the Doctor shouted, the man dragging help up a fist, getting ready to punch the Doctor.

"This will be my pleasure,"

Marion wasn't sure what he could've done to make the man want to punch the Doctor so badly. It wasn't like this version of the Doctor didn't purposely annoy people, because he most certainly did, but none of them had done anything yet.

Well, actually she'd broken what was probably an expensive piece of equipment but that was HER. Not the Doctor.

Anyway, none of that mattered. On the wall, a circular monitor that Marion had confused for some kind of mirror brightened to reveal the face of the man. "Vague-something,".

"Packer! Bring them to my office,"

So that was the man's name.

"But Mister Vaughn, I haven't interrogated them yet!"

"Packer, please do as I say,"

The screen shut off.

"Yes, sir,"

A third man, one who looked pretty much identical to the other two, grabbed the Doctor. Jamie, the Doctor, and Marion were pushed down and along a corridor.

"Come on. This way," Packer said.

"No need to shove," Marion grumbled, "I'm walking, I'm walking,"

The office that they were eventually led too looked a bit like Robertsons except bigger. Bigger didn't mean that there was more stuff. The room seemed emptier. It was also better lit. There was a huge floor to ceiling window with a set of open, vertical blinds. The man who had spoken earlier, (Van?) stood behind a curved wooden desk. Three dark brown leather seats had been placed in front of the desk in a way that they curved around the desk.

There was something off about him, but then again, there was something off about most tech executives. He had the sort of side slicked hair and pursed lips of a person who knows that everything about the way they look and act makes people want to punch them, but knows they have enough money that no one's going to do it.

As Marion stepped forward, the massive rug on the ground reminded Marion of a Target with Vang(?) in the middle.

"Come and sit down," the man greeted them as if he hadn't just pumped the hallway that had been full of some kind of gas.

"Thank you,"

The Doctor, Jamie, and Marion sat down on the left, middle, and right chairs. Marion shifted herself so that she was leaning heavily on the armrest with her chin resting in her hand.

"You can go, Packer,"

"But Mister Vaughn, I-,"

Jamie and Marion smirked at him.

"Yes. Sir," Packer said through gritted teeth. He turned, opened the door, and left.

"I must apologize for Packer's crude devotion to duty. But your method of entry into my building was rather unconventional, wasn't it?"

"Trying to gas people is also 'unconventional'," Marion replied, "sorry about- Well, I was going to say 'sorry about breaking your gas machine' but..,"

"Marion," the Doctor hushed her and spoke to Mister Vaughn, "I think perhaps it is we who should be apologizing to you, Mister..."

"Vaughn. Tobias Vaughn. I'm the managing director of International Electromatics. Your business must be very pressing to force you to such extremes,"

"Yes, it is,"

"Concerning Professor Watkins?"

"How did you know?"

"The Doctor shouted about it enough into that computer. I don't doubt that something had to go through," Marion said.

"She's right. My computer reported what you said directly to me. Sad to say, you've gone to a lot of trouble for nothing, you know. The Professor's working on an experiment and refuses to see anyone,"

'Sure,'

"Ah, well, we only want to talk to him, you see," the Doctor said. He was quickly losing hope that he'd be getting the TARDIS to work anytime soon.

"Perhaps I can help?"

"No, I don't think so, thank you very much," The Doctor seemed quick to leave. Likely because he'd noticed something off about the man.

"Yeah," Marion added, "Real shame. Oh well. We'll figure something else out surely,"

"Oh, come on you two," Jamie said, failing to read the room, "It's only a couple of electronic circuits,"

The Doctor kicked Jamie's chair while Marion slapped her face.

"Circuits? Electronic circuits? My technicians are the best in the world. I'm sure they'd be able to assist you. Show me the circuits,"

"Well, I-"

The man stood up. "Please, I'd like to help,"

Instead of at least pretending that the circuit had been left at home or something, the Doctor retrieved the TARDIS circuits from his pocket and handed them to the man.

'Geez,' Marion thought. 'Whatever happened to "Rule One: The Doctor Lies"?'

"As you say, rather complex. However, I'm sure we'll be able to help you,"

"Yes, I-," the Doctor reached to grab them back. But Vaughn put them into one of his drawers.

"I'll have them sent to my workshops immediately,"

"Oh, how very kind," the Doctor replied, sarcastically.

Vaughn pretended not to notice. "Not at all. Professor Watkins is a valued colleague. Any friend of his is,"

"Oh," he retrieved something from inside of his drawer, "have either of you have one of these?" He held up two electronic boxes roughly the size of an unused bar of soap.

"No," Jamie said, "What is it?"

"Surely you've seen them about. They're disposable transistor radios. One of our latest products. Most popular. We've sold ten million in this country alone. Here," he handed one to each of them. "Compensation for the treatment you received from the worthy Packer,"

Marion considered slamming hers against the desk and leaving. She didn't 100% remember what was wrong with them, but she did know that they would need to be destroyed eventually. Then again, it's possible that there was something useful about it, and wrecking it now would cause bigger issues later. So instead of slamming it, she slid it into the coat pocket that didn't have her ID card.

"Thank you," said Jamie "How does it work?"

"You press the button on the front but-"

Jamie did so and loud, tinny music played from the tiny device.

Marion winced. "-it's very loud,"

The Doctor leaned over and pressed the button again and the music blessedly stopped.

"Yes, that's how you turn it off, Jamie,"

"Now if you'll excuse me, I'm afraid I have an urgent appointment," the man said. It was a clear dismissal.

"Yes, of course. Come along, you two," the Doctor stood up and Jamie and Marion stood with him.

"Packer will meet you and show you the way out, Mister?"

"Doctor," the Doctor said quickly, "Goodbye,"

"Goodbye, Doctor,"

"Goodbye, Mister Vaughn. Thank you for the radio,"

"Not at all,"

"Bye,"

Packer met them just outside the elevator.

"Mister Vaughn told me to escort you lot off the premises," the man said. From his done, it was clear that what he meant was "I would greatly enjoy escorting you lot off this mortal coil, but I've been asked by boss told not to,"

"Why thank you!" Marion said with an over-exaggerated smile.

The man all but shoved them out.

"The next time, read the notice on the door," The words "or else" went unsaid.

"Oh, don't tell me you can read as well," Jamie said with mock amazement, "What else do you do!?"

"A regular renaissance man you are then huh?"

Jamie, Marion was quickly learning, was very easy to play off of when they were bothering people together. It was a lot of fun too!

"Stop it you two,"

The Doctor didn't agree.

Packer went back inside the facility, slamming the door behind him as he went.

They stood there for a moment, waiting for the door to properly close.

"Friendly sort of chap," Jamie said sarcastically after Packer left.

"Hmm?" the Doctor said. He clearly had heard Jamie speak, but wasn't listening.

"Is something wrong?" Jamie asked. The three of them began to walk away.

"Vaughn for one thing," Marion said, "He seemed really off. And not just because he's a tech executive,"

"What do you mean?"

"The normal range of human blinking is about once every ten or fifteen seconds. Vaughn was blinking far less frequently than that,"

"Doctor, that doesn't necessarily mean much. The slow blinking thing I mean, but I do agree with you, there is most certainly, something very, very, very, very off about this company,"

'And not just in the typical, use of borderline slave labor as part of the manufacturing process,'

"He seemed...I don't know? Fake?"

"I get that you feel that way, Marion," Jamie said, "But are you sure there's something off about Vaughn?"

"I'm very, very serious Jamie," the Doctor said, "Underneath all that charm there was something odd. Sinister. Almost inhuman,"

Marion stopped suddenly.

"What the hell do you mean 'charm'?"

A car was driving up behind them.

It had been following behind them for a while.

Now, normally, a car driving behind Marion while she was walking for any length of time would make her sprint in the opposite direction in hopes that she could find a crowded group of people to hide in after running from nothing. However, Marion knew who was in the car and since they were going to end up being caught anyway, and the people driving didn't mean any harm, she slowed down instead.

"Marion?"

"Yes, Doctor?"

"What are you doing?"

"Slowing down. There's a car following us," she said plainly.

The Doctor stared at Marion as if she'd lost it.

"If there is a car following us, then why should we slow down?"

"So they can catch up to us of course!"

"Are you sure that that's a good idea, Marion?" Jamie asked glancing at the car and the two men inside of it.

"Certainly," the car came to a full stop next to the three of them.

"I'm going to need the three of you to come with us," one of the men said. Benton? That's what his name was. Marion was (mostly) certain of this. He might as well have been Benton, Marion didn't know what the other one's name was.

"Hello, gentlemen!" Marion said brightly. "I think there's someone you want us to see yes?"

Marion climbed into the back seat first and scooted down all the way to the end to make room for Jamie and the Doctor.

"Hop in you two!"

The back seat was surprisingly roomy, at least roomer than Marion had expected anyway. Four people could've fit in there as long as they didn't mind more or less sitting on top of each other. The three of them fit in there just fine. Marion sat the furthest inside with the Doctor in the middle and Jamie on the other side.

Marion buckled into her seatbelt and adjusted her coat.

"Now Marion are you-,"

"Buckle your seatbelt, Doctor,"

"Marion,"

"I'm serious, Doctor,"

The Doctor sighed.

"Now Marion."

"You too Jamie. Buckle up!"

"What are you two talking about?"

The car made a turn around a corner.

"Marion-," the Doctor tried again.

"Help him buckle his seat belt Doctor. We don't need either of you hurling through the windshield,"

"Marion be serious!"

"I am! I am VERY serious about seatbelts,"

The Doctor let out an exaggerated sigh.

"Come Jamie. You just...yes and then you push that into there and you should hear a-" there was a clicking noise, "there you go,"

"Now, Marion,"

"You too Doctor,"

"Marion!"

"Stop being so difficult, Doctor. You're worse than-" Marion stopped, "You're the worst that's what. Here!"

Marion reached over the Doctor; bracing herself on the bit of seat between the two of them and grabbed the little handle bit of the seatbelt and clicked it into place.

"Honestly Doctor. Jamie's one thing but you? I thought you knew better tha-"

"Marion!" the Doctor shouted.

"Yes, Doctor? And there's no need to be so loud. I'm sitting right next to you,"

The Doctor looked aggravated. "Where exactly are we headed? We just got in the car with a couple of strange men who were following us around. You just slowed down, climbed in, and told Jamie and I to get in with you,"

"I know what happened, Doctor. I was there. It's fine,"

The car took another turn.

"I know that you wouldn't tell us to get into the car if there was something dangerous going on unless something more dangerous would happen if we didn't get in,"

Marion sighed, "There's a 'but' coming isn't there?"

"But would very much like it, if I could have at least some kind of hint as to what we're getting into,"

"Oh," Marion said, "Why didn't you just say so?"

Time Lords couldn't glare at a person hard enough to like, reverse the polarity of their neuron flow killing them instantly could they? Probably not. If they could, Marion was positive that with the glare the Doctor was giving her, she'd be dead.

"I'm messing with you," she said, "But seriously…,"

Marion looked out the window and saw that they were quickly approaching a small plane with a lowered ramp leading into it. The driver of the car was obviously steering there towards it.

"You," Marion said slowly, "Are going to meet someone that you've met before and left on good terms with. You are still on good terms,"

"That hardly explains anything,"

"Well we're here so even if this was a huge trap, it's not like we'd be able to do much about it? Could we? Let's just go,"

The man in the driver's seat (who might've been Benton) pulled into the back of the plane and stopped it. Benton(?) got out of the car and opened the back door.

"Thank you very much, Mr. Benton!"

The man didn't correct her, so she was pretty sure she had got it right. The men wrestled with their seat belts for a bit and then joined her.

"Right this way you three," the man who was not Benton said. "The Brigadier is right this way,"

"Would you mind telling me what this is all about!"

The three of them were led into a small room. One of its walls was made of glass and had a flat, circular projection of the northern hemisphere etched onto it in white. Through it, Marion could see several people facing Radios? Or computers? Some kind of communication thing. Marion didn't know much about early computers other than they took up a whole room and were, when one got down to it, not much more than elaborate calculators.

Benton opened the door for them and the three of them walked inside.

"Would you mind telling us what all this is about?" Jamie asked.

"You'll find out, sir," Benton assured.

"Sir?"

There had been a man with his back facing the three of them. He had been climbing a short ladder to retrieve or look for something and came back down to meet them. He was a tall man dressed in a grey-ish green military outfit. He had about the same dark haircut that most of the men Marion had passed by and a mustache across his upper lip with a short break in the middle.

"All right, Benton, thank you," the man dismissed their escorts.

"Sir,"

"NAAFI break, sir?" said the soldier who wasn't Benton.

"Very well,"

The two of them saluted and left.

"How nice to see you again, Doctor," the man said with a nod.

The Doctor's eyes lit up with recognition. "It's Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart!"

"Ah, Brigadier now. I've gone on up in the world,"

"Ah," Jamie said, "That's what Marion called you wasn't it?"

The Brigadier paused for a moment and looked at Marion for a second.

"She did, didn't she, McCrimmon, in the underground. Must be four years ago now,"

"That long? It only seems about a couple of weeks ago, doesn't it,"

"I've told you over and over again, Jamie. Time is relative,"

"It hasn't even happened for me yet. Jamie! I haven't even met any of you before. Well, I've met the Doctor, but not this- Nevermind," Marion was starting to go on a tangent and if the Brigadier's face was any indication, she was barely making any sense.

"The point is Jamie," she finished, "time only begins to make consistent sense for everybody when everyone's traveling forward seconds at a time. Once you toss time machines into the equation, things start getting a little," Marion couldn't believe what she was about to say, "a bit wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey. Does that make sense?"

This was a genuine question. Instead of an answer, Marion was met with a few seconds of silence.

"You're still not feeling too well are you Ms. Henson" the man finally said.

"What do you mean still?" she asked. "Time's kinda screwy for me because of the way I'm dragged along it. Whatever you're talking about hasn't happened yet. That's what I just said!"

"That might explain some things. How's your eye?"

"My eye?" Marion asked in confusion.

"SO!" the Doctor said quickly. Almost too quickly. "Why all the cloak and dagger stuff to bring us here? If Marion hadn't gotten us to stop and get in the car with Mr. Benton, we would've made a run for it and you might've not caught up to us,"

"They would've cornered you eventually,"

That came out a bit more ominous than Marion had intended but she didn't know what else she could add to make it better.

"That came out worse than I meant. Tell you what, pretend I didn't say anything," Marion said. "I just wanted to save us all a bit of time you know?"

The Brigadier had a look on his face that said, "I have questions, but also very little faith that any answer you give me to those questions will do much other than make me have even more questions, so I'm not going to even bother asking them,"

"Look, do sit down," the man said gesturing to the many open chairs around the area.

"Thank you,"

"Oh how nice,"

"Don't mind if I do!"

Jamie wrapped an arm around the Doctor's shoulder and steered him towards the desk. Marion followed after them.

"Sergeant Walters!"

"Yes, Sir!" The man that the Brigadier had called to, the one who sat second from the right at whatever machinery all the men had been working on stood up.

"Lay on some tea, will you?" Walters saluted and left the UNIT control room, "You'd like some tea, wouldn't you, Doctor?"

"Oh thank you," the Doctor locked his fingers together, "and a patty cake biscuit. Thank you,"

"Yes, well, since the Yeti do, I've been in charge of an independent intelligence group that we call UNIT. That's United Nations Intelligence Taskforce,"

"Grade A name," Marion said.

"You mean you're like a" Jamie searched for the words, "world secret police,"

"Oh dear, no Jamie," Marion said.

Secret Police had certain connotations that Marion doubted anyone in this room would like.

"We don't actually arrest people, just investigate them," The Brigadier explained.

"What're you investigating us for then?"

"My men were keeping a watch on the International Electromatic Headquarters when you three showed up. I've been keeping a check on everyone going in that building. Your photographs were transmitted to this Headquarters and I recognized you,"

"But what's so odd about people going into the building?"

"Oh, nothing odd about them going in. The trouble is, some of them haven't come out,"

"That," Marion agreed, "is troubling,"

"Here," the Brigadier reached into his pocket and pulled out a series of photographs and set them down in the large table they were all sitting down around. Walter came back with the tea. Jamie took one sugar, Marion took two, and the Doctor might as well have poured in the rest of the sugar bowl into his cup.

"So," Marion said, taking a sip, "These are some of the others that you've taken photos of right?"

"This is Gordon Jones," he pointed to a photo of a man with combed over dark hair and glasses of the same shade. The photos were in black and white, so Marion couldn't tell much, "lecturer in physics, Churchill College, Cambridge. Next one's a chap I knew at Sandhurst," this man had light-colored hair and a dark-colored mustache, "old Billy Rutlidge. He's got himself a very cushy number at the Ministry of Defence,"

"Good for him," Marion said, taking another sip of her tea. It was pretty decent considering where they were? Maybe British government agencies were better stocked on tea than American government places were.

"No, no, most of them came out again, but there was something definitely odd about them when they did,"

"Odd?" the Doctor asked.

"You heard him," Marion said simply, "odd,"

"Yes, old Billy Rutlidge, for instance. He was quite cooperative about my investigation into Vaughn initially but after he'd been to the IE Building he started getting a bit sticky about it,"

"Someone changing their mind about investigating a multimillion-dollar company isn't too unusual," Marion pointed out, "I mean, there's totally something else going on behind the scenes, but that in it of itself wouldn't be too out there. So, what else has piqued your interest?"

Jamie noticed a picture on top of the pile and held up.

"Hey, would you look at that one!"

"Do you know this man?"

"Yeah"

"Jamie, yes,"

"Aye, he gave us a lift in his lorry,"

"When did you last see him?"

"This morning. We got to where we needed to be, and then went off our separate ways,"

"Ah, so you must be the three that he mentioned."

"Oh?" Marion asked.

"He sent in a report early this morning. Late yesterday evening he found out that they somehow knew all along that he'd been working for UNIT, and had been feeding him false information. He decided to get out of there and came across four strangers. One of them claimed to be working for UNIT and drove the lorry off a cliff,"

"I didn't know there was a-," Marion paused, "I mean do continue,"

"Ms. Henson," the Brigadier. The tone of his voice reminded Marion of a teacher about to send a student to the office.

"I don't know what you're talking about, please, continue what you were saying,"

"I expect that he's all right," the Doctor said, "He was alright this morning when we left him. Brigadier, tell me more about this International Electromatics set-up,"

The Brigadier gave Marion a look that told her that their discussion wasn't over. That was fair enough Marion supposed. While she had done it to save someone's life, she had impersonated a member of a top-secret military group and then apparently, drove one of their vehicles off a cliff. She hadn't even been aware that there were cliffs in that direction.

"Oh, there isn't much to tell," the man continued, "The head of the group is a man named Tobias Vaughn,"

"Oh yes, we've met him. A nice man. He gave me this," Jamie retrieved the small radio from wherever he had been keeping it.

"Jamie, don't-"

"He gave me one too," Marion pulled it out of her coat and put it back in its inner pocket, "Don't let me forget that I've got it,"

"Oh yes," the Brigadier fiddled with one of the boxes side dials and handed it back to the Scot, "that's just the small stuff,"

"Put it away," the Doctor all but hissed.

"They control practically all of the major computer lines. They made their real breakthrough in micro-monolithic circuit designs, undercutting practically everyone else in the market,"

"And UNIT cares because…,"

"Well, I knew a little about Vaughn before his sudden success. I put out a routine check on him and we came up with one or two things of interest,"

"Like the disappearance of Professor Watkins," Jamie said, leaning over the Doctor and jabbing a finger at the Brigadier.

"Yes,"

"Ah, see,"

'I am unironically going to pick up a small package of gold stars and literally no is going to be able to stop me,'

"I see,"

The Doctor pushed himself out of his chair.

"I don't suppose you have any authority to search the building, have you?"

"No. Vaughn's too powerful. He's got too many top people on his side. You see, Doctor, I daren't make a move against him unless I have good reason to do so,"

"But if you sent in some unaffiliated randos in there and we just happen to find something, you've got plausible deniability eh?"

"I don't believe that I would word it like that but…,"

"But?"

"You've just about summed it up quite frankly,"

"Well, it looks to me that if we want to find the Professor, we'll have to find him in our own way," The Doctor said, his mouth in a thin line.

"That's about the sum of it. However, should you find yourself in any difficulty. Sergeant Walters!"

He called to the man who had brought them their tea.

"Yes, sir?"

"Got a TM-45 handy?"

"Yes, sir. Right here,"

"Is that a tank?" the Doctor asked.

"God wouldn't that just be amazing though?" Marion said aloud she downed the rest of her tea. She and Jamie stood up and joined the Doctor. "Make stealth missions a bit tricky I reckon. So? Are we getting a tank?"

"Oh no, no," The Brigadier said, "My units are on constant alert, so should you find yourselves in any real trouble, you can just give us a call,"

"Jolly Good,"

"Here you are sir,"

Walters handed the Brigadier a device. It was about the size of a screwdriver and was shaped a bit like one. Only, this one had a speaker grill on the side and a button.

"Thank you, Sergeant," he handed the device to the Doctor.

"Now, this is a small transceiver, range of about fifty miles on a set frequency. Just press this button and ask for me,"

"Oh yes, that's splendid," The Doctor handed it to Marion.

"Keep that safe for me?"

"Certainly,"

She placed it in one easily accessible pockets just on the inside of her bag and closed the flap once more. "Yes, that should come in very handy," the Doctor said to the Brigadier.

"Call me any time. I'm usually available. Now, I'd better lay on transport to get you two back to London,"

"Thank you very much," Marion said with a nod.

Benton and the other man who Marion still couldn't even begin to guess the identity of drove then back to Number 18 St. James Garden. Maybe he was Yates? No. That didn't sound right.

Anyway, the two of them drove the trio back to the Travers and not, Watkins residence. The two men got out of the car (after unbuckling the seatbelts Marion had badgered them into wearing) and Marion thanked their drivers and got out themselves. The jeep sped away.

Jamie rang the doorbell.

There was silence for a moment, then he tried again.

Marion pushed open the door.

"They must have gone out," Jamie reasoned.

"Yeah," Marion, put a palm on the front door, "And they left the door open," she pushed it and the three of them walked inside of the empty townhouse.

"Zoe? Isobel?" The Doctor called to the room.

"Probably gone for a walk," Jamie guessed.

'Jamie I think I would be willing to pay actual money if things were able to be that simple,'

Marion wondered what would happen if she just told them straight up where they were and why and then they left now. She decided against it. Maybe if this episode had been the one where Zoe dies or if Isobel died, she might've said something. But the current way that they were going had led to everyone more or less coming out okay if she remembered right. She had no way of knowing if them arriving a few minutes earlier would change anything and she didn't want to find out.

If someone had died in the show and then lived because of something that she'd done. She could take credit for that. She'd saved them.

If someone had lived in the show but then died here, it didn't matter if she knew why or what. If she wanted to claim to be the reason that people who were supposed to die survived, then she also had to accept that she was the reason that people who were supposed to survive, died. She couldn't have the former without the latter.

So, it was best to keep things roughly the same as what they were. As the old adage went, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

They walked to the main living room where they had been modeling earlier. There was no one to be seen in the room. On the floor, was a plate with two sandwiches.

"Look, sandwiches. I'm hungry. Want one?"

"No thanks," Marion said, "I just ate before I got here. What about you Jamie?"

Jamie had already grabbed the other half of the sandwich off the plate and took a bite out of it.

"Thank you. You know, Doctor. That chap, Mister Vaughn, doesn't seem such a bad man,". He took the radio out of his pocket.

"Maybe it's because of the time period I'm from, but I can't imagine looking at a big millionaire tech executive and feeling anything but suspicion," Marion said sitting down on the floor with the two of them and crossing her legs.

"What time period are you from anyway Marion?" the Doctor asked.

"You mean you don't know?"

"You haven't told me yet! You keep saying that you've already told me before,"

"I think I'm telling you now. I'm from the 21st century. The later fourth of the early fourth of it,"

"That does explain some things," the Doctor mused aloud.

"I don't know what the 21st century has anything to do with anything, but Mister Vaughn can't be all bad. He gave me this,"

Jamie turned his radio back on. It was a shame. The song sounded pretty decent, but the audio quality was trash. The Doctor quickly shut it off.

"Oh, Jamie. How can I think when you've got that thing on?"

"Hey!"

The Doctor turned the thing over and began to examine it. Jamie reached out to take it back. The Doctor angled his body away from Jamie.

"All right, all right,"

"Don't break it!" Jamie insisted.

"It's fine Jamie. If he breaks one, don't forget that I've got one too. I don't really need a radio for anything,"

"I just want to take a look at it, that's all," the Doctor insisted. The Doctor pried open the back part with his fingernail and looked at the circuitry. "Oh, yes. It's an interesting little piece of-" he stopped talking.

The Doctor retrieved a magnifying lens from somewhere inside his coat and examined the thing more closely.

"What?"

"Well, well, well. What have we here?"

"What do you mean, what have we here?"

"There's a micro-monolithic circuit in the back plate of this radio,"

"Well, what's that?" Jamie asked.

"It's a complicated circuit made into a complicated, but tiny circuit," Marion explained.

"What's so odd about that?"

"It has nothing to do with the radio, as far as I can see,"

"That's never a good sign,"

"Oh Doctor, just put it back together again,"

" All right!" the Doctor said, taking another bite of his sandwich,

"I don't suppose Zoe would have left a note, do you?" Jamie asked.

"She didn't but if they did leave, Isobel might've. Check the wall near the phone,"

"That right," the Doctor said, "Isobel never writes anything on paper. You can't lose a wall, remember let's check the hallway,"

Jamie went ahead of them. "I found it!" he called back. "Tired of waiting. Gone to IE offices to look for you. Zoe and Isobel,"

"That's what I thought," Marion mumbled, "Hopefully, Zoe listened to me when I said for her to be careful, but on the off chance she didn't..."

"We need to go after them!" Jamie was already heading for the door.

"I think I owe you all one gold star apiece. Don't let me forget," the Doctor and Marion ran to keep up with Jamie.

They were at the tower once again. Marion looked up at it and sighed.

"Come along then,"

Jamie began to walk up a set of stairs until Marion and the Doctor beckoned him down and to the side.

"I thought that we were going in there to look for Zoe and Isobel?" Jamie said, sounding confused.

"There's no one in there except that stupid computer, and that's won't tell us anything,"

"And even if it couldn't tell us anything-," Marion couldn't say that Zoe broke it. She wasn't even sure that that was what happened. There was every possibility that Zoe had listened when Marion asked her to be careful. Maybe they got caught some other way? "You heard Vaughn! It sends him a report of anything we say to it. Any variation of 'Computer? Where do you keep the kidnapping victims' is going to be a big red flag,"

"But how are we going to find out that they are in there?"

"Well, if the Brigadier's men are still around, they should have seen them go in. Marion. Could you hand me the-"

Marion retrieved the transceiver out of her bag and handed it to the Doctor.

"Thank you, Hello," the Doctor pressed a button on the side of the transistor. A younger sounding man answered quickly.

"UNIT to operations, over,"

"Hello, could I speak to the Brigadier?" the Doctor said into the microphone on the side of the device.

"Stand by. Out,"

"What a splendid little toy this is," the Doctor said, marveling at the machine.

"Aye, but doesn't play tunes like mine,"

"I've got something in my bag that could do all that and more. This isn't a competition,"

"Aye, well-"

"Don't start you two," the Doctor said quickly, "I'm trying to hear-,"

The Brigadier's voice began to sound from the speaker.

"Yes, Doctor. I've got a report here on two girls. About nineteen or so. One of them dark, one of them fair. One of them was wearing very distinct clothes,"

"That sounds like Zoe and Isobel all right,"

"Marion, just a minute please. Brigadier?"

"Yes?"

"These clothes. Did they include a rather brightly-coloured feather boa?"

There was the sound of rustling paper before the Brigadier gave a response.

"Yes, the little dark one was wearing that. They friends of yours?"

"Yes, I'm afraid they are,"

"I don't suppose that you're going to tell us that they were seen leaving the building 10 minutes ago and we just missed them are you?" Marion asked hopefully. "Because if you were to say something like that, well that'd be just splendid,"

There was more silence and the sound of rustling paper.

"No Ms. Henson. I'm very sorry. The two of them haven't come out yet,"

Marion sighed. "Thanks anyway,"

"Come on, let's get after them," Jamie said. He looked like he was ready to bolt off at any moment and charge into the building at full tilt.

"All right, all right, Jamie. Brigadier, we're going to try to get into the building and try to find them,"

"Yes, well, be careful. You may not be so lucky this time. Call me if you get into trouble,"

"Thanks,"

"Right, over and out,"

There was a low clicking noise as the connection ended. The Doctor handed Marion back the transistor.

"Right then!" the Doctor said, "We can't go back through the front door,"

"And we can't enter through the side entrance like we did before. They might put something worse than sleeping gas in those nozzles,"

"Aye, so we just need to find a back entrance right?"

"Right!" the Doctor said, "And I think I know where we can find one! Follow me!"

Marion wasn't sure how the Doctor knew to follow the railway, but he did. Marion supposed it made some sense. If you're doing something that needs a lot of raw materials, it'd be good to have a railway company or at least some tracks to get things where you need to be especially if you've got something large enough to be called a compound.

The rail they walked along led them to an unlocked chain link fence.

"You're right, you know. This does lead into the back of the place," Jamie said looking at the many freight cars and the doorway up ahead. Marion was more focused on the many men in dark uniforms.

"Yes, of course, Jamie. Come on you two,"

They pulled aside the fence, just enough to get through and the three of them walked in, being careful to make sure that there was a freight car at all times between them and the men in black's lines of sight.

The goal was to get to the warehouse. If they could just reach there, then the rest of their plan would (hopefully) be a snap.

The walls of the warehouse were made of large bricks painted with white and was broken up into sections by large panels of white dry wood. The floor was greyish silvery linoleum and the three of them moved carefully making sure not to be seen or heard.

Speaking of which. Marion hearing the sound of footsteps on the other side of the wall grabbed Jamie and the Doctor by the back of their shirts and holding them in place before they could give away their position.

Jamie whipped around. Before he could say anything, Marion put a finger to her lips and pointed around the corner. He nodded.

A man wearing some kind of work suit marched in from another hall holding a huge cylinder over his shoulder. He set it down next to about a dozen or so other canisters and marched away. If Marion hadn't had heard the sound of his shoes tapping on the linoleum, they might've run right into the man.

"That's odd," the Doctor commented.

"What's odd?"

"The ease with which that man carried that crate,"

"Probably empty,"

"Even if it was empty Jamie, it's huge and bulky. It's gotta be pretty hard to maneuver right?" Marion reasoned, "He took that bad boy off his shoulder and set it down like it was nothing!"

"Let's go and see,"

Jamie and the Doctor stood on either end of the tube and crouched down. They attempted to lift it off the ground, but for all the good they did, the cylinder might as well have been bolted to the ground. It didn't' budge

"This thing must weigh two tonnes!" Jamie exclaimed. Both he and the Doctor stepped away from it.

"It's odd, Jamie, it's distinctly odd,"

The sound of someone else's footsteps clicked through the room.

They all looked around for the source.

"There's someone coming," Jamie said quickly. They ran back to the wall that they had come from with Marion ahead since she'd been the closest. Jamie shoved the Doctor forward for the last little bit of the way. The Doctor stumbled a little bit, and Marion reached out her hands to catch him to keep him from falling on his face. Jamie joined them.

Another man marched in carrying the canister. Actually, come to think of it, it might've been the same man as before. Marion hadn't seen his face good enough either time to be able to tell with any amount of certainty.

"It's amazing," Jamie said, referring to how easily the man had been able to drop off the canister.

"Yes,"

"Come on, let's find Zoe and Isobel and get out of here. These fellows are giving me the creeps,"

"You said it!" Marion remembered something, "I'm pretty sure that they know that we're here. But I'm sure we can find them if we move quickly. The warehouse can't be that hard to navigate. Right?"

"Alright," Marion said, "Now, I'm sure that we've been here already. I think we just went around in a big wonky circle,"

"This place is like a maze! I think we're lost,"

"There must be a door to the main building somewhere,"

"Well," Marion said, "we tried going left, and we just came in from the right, so let's go-"

There was a loud scream coming from behind them.

"That way!" Marion said quickly.

Marion hadn't needed to say anything. The two men had already spun around and were sprinting in the direction of their young friend's screams.

"Hey don't leave me behind!" Marion called after them. She sprinted to keep up.

(Next Chapter: But This One Is Even Shadier)

Marion: We've had a lot of fun here today kids but do you know what isn't fun?

Marion: Not wearing your seatbelt.

I drew Marion with an Espeon. I finished it about the time I finished this chapter. It's on my DeviantArt right now.