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The ship had been flown to the bottom of a wide canyon that wasn't too far a walk away from the main dome. The three of them cautiously walked over to it and through a side entrance to the inside of the ship. Marion noted that the door was suspiciously unlocked, but didn't think she'd be able to convince them all to leave.
'We've already gone this far. It'd be a bad idea for me to say "actually, nevermind" at this point,'
They slunk through a short hall and into a large room that Marion and the Doctor had come in through first when they'd arrived here. Winton pointed to the large robot taking up most of the space in the room.
"Marion is that-?"
"The robot that IMC tried to murder me and the Doctor with?" Marion examined the robot, "Not sure if that's the exact same one, they might have multiples, but it certainly is the same kind-Jo, don't touch that," Marion held out her hand to stop Jo from touching the robot.
"Don't touch things that could've been used in crimes unless you're wearing gloves. Especially when there's no way for you to explain why you were there other than 'I'm a trespasser',"
It wasn't that the adjudicator was going to give much of a shit considering who he was, but still. Not getting your fingerprints on things was an important life lesson.
Marion turned from the robot, "Well, you've seen the robot, so I think that we should leave before-," Winton walked down a corridor that pointedly was NOT the one they had come in through.
"Come on you two," he said, grabbing Jo's hand which Jo responded to by grabbing Marion's hand.
"Or, we could just walk deeper into the ship. That...that works too,"
She heard a noise behind her as she walked, but she didn't stop to look at what it was.
'God I hope that it's not the door,' Marion thought.
It was.
The three of them went quickly and quietly down a hall. Winston peaked around the size and then held up a hand.
"A guard," he mouthed.
Marion nodded. After a few seconds, Winton looked out again and pulled them along and around a corner. Marion heard a loud buzzing noise behind her as they left.
'Now that was definitely a door,'
It most certainly was.
Winton let go of Jo's hand as they approached a metal door with the words "Communications Deck,"
Winton slid his hand around the perimeter of the door. It slid open with a hum.
"Quick, in here,"
Marion knew that this was a bad idea, but she also knew that literally every other way out had been shuttered.
She sighed.
As soon as the door was open wide enough for them to fit through, Winton, Jo, and Marion slid inside.
The room was very dimly lit and as they walked in, the door slid shut behind them.
The lights suddenly flickered on and they turned around.
On the other side of the room, were four men in IMC uniform holding guns pointed at three of them. Dent stood just behind them and was clearly the one giving out orders.
The three of them put their hands up.
"I-uh, don't suppose that you'd believe me if I said that I had left something on the ship when I was here earlier and these two had come with me to retrieve it?" Marion asked smiling nervously.
Dent nodded towards his men.
"Take them away,"
"I didn't expect that to work," Marion admitted, "But it would've been nice if had,"
"Be quiet,"
'I'm not going to say that I told you so. I could've insisted more about us leaving as soon as we say the robot,' Marion thought as she was handcuffed to a bomb.
The bomb looked like a bunch of wires and such inside of a translucent plastic box. The whole thing was inside a metal frame with thick bars that reminded Marion of a birdcage and then another round ring connected to the main body of the explosive. The round ring is what their chains locked too.
Marion would've put up more of a struggle, but the last thing that she wanted to do was cause the bomb to explode or worst yet, get them all shot.
Could Marion walk it off? Probably. She doubted that either a bomb or one of their guns could do anything to her body that a long drop on a marble floor or a cyberman laser couldn't do. But Winton and Jo?
No. She couldn't put their lives at risk. Especially not Jo.
The fact that the Doctor had been so excited to be leaving earth and had spoken about being exiled meant that even if she did try to change the ending of the War Games, (and she absolutely would,) she'd fail. Or at least, she'd fail to keep the Doctor from being exiled and Zoe and Jamie from being taken away from him.
And that was bad enough, but at the very least, it was a matter of being unable to make things better than they would be if she wasn't around. Marion couldn't be blamed for that.
Making things worse was something completely different.
She did not want to have to go up to the Doctor and say:
"Hey? You know Jo Grant? The girl you basically see as a niece at this point? She's dead. She got blown up and/or shot! What? Why'd I let her go to the ship if I knew that that was going to happen? Oh, funny story. In the Omega Timeline, you know, one where I don't exist: she's still alive! Yeah, her death is 100% my fault. Struggled too much and made the bomb go boom' or 'Made too much of a ruckus and just let out a barrage of gunfire. Yeah. Oh no no, I absolutely knew that doing so would result in all of our deaths. I just didn't really care since I could always come back to life. Yeah. Is that cool? I hope that that's cool,"
Not to be dramatic, but she'd rather die than have that conversation and she'd rather have said death stick than cause the events that would lead to her having that conversation in the first place.
The man who chained them pressed a button that made a red light flicker to life. Winton pulled at his chain.
"I wouldn't do that. Not until I've gone. Once the charge is primed, these things are very sensitive. In fact, I wouldn't move at all,"
"Don't you think that this is a little bit...excessive?" Marion asked, gesturing to the whole elaborate setup.
"No," the man shook his head, "not at all. You should've let Charlie kill you when you had the chance," the employee said over his shoulder before leaving.
'It couldn't have, but it's the thought that counts,'
The man finally left.
"What is this place?" Jo asked looking around.
"Primitive dwelling," Winton explained, "Rather aptly named. Well? What do we do now?"
"Try and escape?" Jo suggested.
"Yeah obviously,"
Jo stopped closer to the bomb and stumbled, nearly falling over.
"Are you okay Jo?" Marion asked quickly.
"Be careful, Jo! You'll blow us all sky high,"
"I've got a bunch of screw heads in my pocket," Marion brought up, "Do you think that there's anything we can do with them? Could you pick the locks?"
Winton shook his head. "These aren't analog handcuffs. They're purely electronic. There's nothing here to pick,"
"Oh,"
'Fuck,'
That's why Marion had brought the screwdrivers. She didn't know if they'd have time to do the grease thing and, seeing as there were three of them.
She knew that she could survive it, but she really, really didn't want to blow up and knew that if one of them had to be left behind because there wasn't enough time to get all three of them out, the person left behind would have to be her.
Marion was fine with that.
To not be fine with it, would be arguably rather selfish.
It'd be like refusing to tug someone away from the path of the car because you'd risk scraping your knee on the pavement.
Again, Marion was completely fine with being left behind if that was what needed to be done.
To not be fine with it would be selfish.
That being said, that didn't mean that that was what she wanted.
"SO…," Marion said perhaps a bit too loudly. "What's the plan then? If we can't pick the locks, then what?"
Winton brushed his hand atop the bomb and then rubbed his fingers together.
"Wait a minute. This thing's just been unpacked!"
"So?" Jo asked.
"Well, there's still some grease on the casing,"
" I get you," Jo said with a nod, "But I can't reach. Look, if you can get some on my wrists,"
"Let me try," Marion reached over the bomb and covered the fingers in the odd oily stuff on the side of the metal.
"Come on," she said, "Give me your wrists,"
Jo held out her cuffed hands to Marion and she spread the oil on her wrists nearest to the cuff.
Once Marion figured she'd gotten as much as she was going to, she grabbed ahold of the cuffs themselves.
"Okay Jo," Marion said, "Now you need to pull,"
Marion held herself steady and leaned away from the blonde woman slightly. She would've pulled as well but..she didn't want to risk it.
It only took a few seconds for Jo to manage to pull her hands out of the cuffs. Jo rubbed at her wrists.
"Now back to the dome and warn Ashe," Winton recommended.
"I'm with Winton,"
"I'm not leaving here without you two!" Jo declared.
"Look, don't you see this is just the evidence we need for the Adjudicator?"
Jo leaned over a hole in the wall of their makeshift prison and retrieved a large rock.
"I'm not leaving without you two,"
She crouched down next to Winston.
Winton maneuvered his chain to on top of a rock and Jo slammed the rock repeatedly against the chain. Eventually, it snapped with a dull clinking noise.
Marion glanced to the left and noticed that the light on the bomb was blinking faster.
'Fuck!'
The guards were on their way. Marion wished that she had thought to hold the bomb in place, but you know, hindsight is always 20/20.
Jo went to free Marion's hands. The woman shook her head.
"Jo," Marion said in a swift whisper, "You and Winton need to leave right now. Guards are coming,"
"But Marion," Jo reached for Marion's chain.
Marion jerked her hands away from Jo and her rock.
"Jo. Jo, listen to me. Leave right now. You and Winton gotta go,"
"But,"
"JO!"
"Listen to her Jo," Winton said.
"Jo, you and I both know that pretty much no matter what, I'm going to be fine. Unless you can assure the same thing to me about yourself, and I know that you can't, you two need to run,"
Jo still hesitated. Winton grabbed Jo by the arm and tugged her towards the hole in the wall Jo had reached through to grab the rock. He climbed up and pulled her through. The two of them managed to get several yards away before the door to the private dwelling opened.
"Stay where you are," The guard shouted at the retreating figures. He fired a few shots through the hole in the wall but he was more focused on the person he still had captive than the people who were slowly getting further and further away.
"You know, I don't think that they're listening," Marion deadpanned.
"Be quiet," the man said, aiming his gun at Marion's head, "or I'll shoot,"
"Go right ahead," Marion replied, "Try to aim for the back of my head though. Or my chest. Or my stomach! Somewhere that's easy to cover up later. Just not my face" Marion paused, "Oh, and also run right after. Because if you shoot me, I will make sure that my body falls in such a way that this bomb you've chained me to goes off,"
The man stared at Marion like she was crazy, which like, fair is fair, without the added context of who she was as a person, her words sounded like the words of a madwoman. He slowly lowered his gun and then reached into his pocket for his communicator.
"Security guard Allen to Captain Dent. Two of the prisoners have escaped,"
"Which one remains," Marion could hear Dent's voice over the radio that the man, Allen, apparently was speaking into.
"The girl who came here earlier with the older man,"
"Ah, excellent. Make sure to stay where you can see her so that she doesn't go running off too,"
"What about the explosive charge, sir?"
"Don't worry," said the man on the other end, "We'll give you plenty of warning,"
The radio cut out.
"So," the man looked at Marion who sighed, "I don't suppose you'd be willing to tell me where your friends might've run off too,"
"You'd be right," Marion said with a shrug, "I'm not,"
"You know IMC doesn't need three hostages. If you would just tell me, I might be able to convince the Captain to let you go,"
"Hmf," Marion let out a small laugh, "Oh yeah. I'm sure that Dent would be thrilled to let me, one of the people who literally saw evidence of y'all's shenanigans off scot-free. I'm not stupid," she tilted her head, "And even if I thought that if I snitched on my friends you'd let me go, which I, and I cannot stress this enough, I absolutely do not, I still wouldn't tell you,"
"Well then," It was quite clear from the man's body language that he had expected Marion to be a bit more scared and threatened by him. "I could always call Captain Dent and tell him to detonate those explosives you're chained too,"
"That's true," the woman said with a nod, " I really wish that you wouldn't though. I've come to like this sweater. It's really soft and I think being those close to a bomb the goes off might mess it up,"
"I think it'd do a bit more than that!"
Marion tilted her head to the side, pretending to consider this.
"You're right. It'd probably mess up my pants too," she blinked exaggeratedly. "Oh and my hair. Hey, on second thought, maybe don't blow me up,"
Marion was willing to admit that part of the reason she was saying what she was saying was to simply be chaotic. She thought the look on the man's face when she said what she did was funny.
But the other thing was that she wasn't lying. She legitimately wasn't frightened.
Marion was more concerned about how her main concern was that if she got shot or blown up, she might ruin the sweater she was wearing than she was about, you know, getting shot or blown up.
She knew that she was still able to feel scared of danger. She'd been terrified in the dome when the robot approached the Doctor and her, but here, she felt more like she was waiting for one of those "The Bell Doesn't Dismiss You, I Do" teachers to shut the fuck up so that she could go to lunch.
"You aren't taking this seriously are you,"
"I'm taking this about as seriously as I ought to," Marion shrugged, the chains around her wrists jingling as she did.
"You must be mad,"
"I'm more annoyed than anything," Marion replied.
She sat down carefully on the rocks near the bomb with her back facing it. "You know, if I were you, I'd uncuff me and leave. You know, if I was concerned about dying," She held up her arms.
Marion thought that it'd be at least fair to give the man a bit of warning before he was clubbed to death. Although considering that this man was completely okay with murder as long as he got the order to pull the trigger from someone else...Marion wasn't as direct about it as she had been with others.
"Why would me uncuffing you prevent me from dying,"
"It wouldn't, but it'd be rather polite. Plus, I could always tell the authorities that you let me go,"
"I'm afraid I can't do that,"
Well, no one could say that she didn't try.
"Eh, it was worth a shot,"
The man's radio beeped again. He stopped staring at Marion and picked up his radio.
"Hello, this is Allen speaking,"
"Have the prisoner brought back to the spaceship, things have changed. We can keep her out of trouble just as well here,"
"Understood,"
The man put his radio back into his pocket and approached Marion.
"There's been a change of plans," he said, "I've been told that you are to be held in the ship instead of in this dwelling,"
The man roughly grabbed Marion's wrist and pressed something to the side of her cuffs. They clicked open and he roughly dragged Marion to her feet
"No need to do that. I can stand up on my own just fine,"
"Be quiet you!" the man ordered holding his gun to her head.
Marion rolled her eyes and held up her hands lazily. "You really ought to be careful about who you point a gun at. I'm just saying,"
"I said be quiet,"
The man gripped tightly on Marion's shoulder and pushed her towards the door. Before he could push her out, three Natives pushed through the entrance spears in hand.
The guard backed up slowly, pulling Marion along with him. He aimed his gun at the approaching men.
"Wait!" Marion said quickly, "No don't do-,"
He fired his gun.
"That,"
One of the men clutched their arm and made a hissing, pained noise before crumbling to the ground.
One of the other men hurled his spear at the guard. Marion shoved the guard holding onto her lightly. She shoved just enough that the spear hit the man in the arm rather than the chest and send him to the ground. It looked like she was trying to distance herself from the man the spear was aimed at and that's how she wanted it to look, but her actual goal was to keep the man from dying.
The man fell to the ground and a quick look at him and his chest let Marion know that he was, at the very least, still alive.
The men approached Marion and she held up her hands.
"I uh, hope you aren't too mad about that guy I knocked unconscious earlier," Marion said, talking quickly and, trying to keep them from looking too hard at the man on the ground and finishing the job. Yeah, the dude had tried to shoot at one of their men and probably deserved a spear to the chest but, if the man was going to die, and there was nothing Marion could do to prevent his death, then she wanted to be able to say that she tried.
She didn't want to spend time staring up at her bedroom ceiling thinking about what she could've done when she could be doing something productive. Like sleeping.
The men got closer to her pointing their spears. "In my defense, he did try to stab me. So…"
"Please don't stab me," Marion said quickly.
The men looked at each other, in wordless communication, before two of them grabbed her by her arms and purposely tugged her towards the exit to the hut.
"I'm coming, I'm coming. There's really no need to drag me,"
They didn't let go of her arms which, fair. It's not like she could say:
"No seriously, I'll walk with you normally. It's fine. I'm from a world where this is all a TV show and I'm not really interested in changing up the plot any more than I have to,"
So she just sort of went with it as she was taken out of the dwelling.
The green men took Marion to a part of the canyon that she kind of remembered from her drive with the Doctor and Morgan but had her take a turn into what she had thought was a dead end when they passed by it.
The man that had been walking directly in front of Marion and her two escorts walked ahead of them to a wall that on first glance, looked like it just had a huge circular crack in it but on second glance, was clearly some kind of door.
He waved his hand for the rest of them to come closer. He tapped the door lightly with his spear and it opened with the rough noise of stone grinding against stone.
The man who opened the door pushed through it. The Marion was guided closer to the door, and then they finally let go. Marion shrugged and walked through the door and into their city.
The city was lit about as brightly as a 5 o'clock sky in early December. Still, Marion could tell where she was going and even if she couldn't, the two people holding onto her arms made sure she continued the trek through halls that were the special width that helped the third-wheel of a three-person friend group figure out that they were the third-wheel of the group.
"You really don't have to grip my arm like that," Marion groaned. "What am I going to do? Try to flee from y'all through this unfamiliar maze of a city that I've never been to before. A city that I assume you've lived in all your lives?"
One of them let go of her arm, but the other one gripped her tighter.
"I'll take what I can get,"
They walked further down the hall until finally, they came to a stop. A large irregularly shaped flat and faintly glowing rock stood in front of them. It opened with a whirring noise and Marion was shoved through the door.
Marion stumbled trying to keep herself from falling flat on her face. "You could've just gestured for me to walk through!" she complained.
Marion didn't get a response.
Marion steadied herself and looked around the large round room. Her eyes focused on the figure in front of her. He had his back to her and wore a high collared grey cloak that looked like it had been decorated by what was either some kind of precious stone or beetle shells.
Marion braced herself. In the show, the short grey man's head had looked like an exposed brain. The show hadn't shown anything too graphic, but then again, they hadn't done that with the brain of the Star Whale either and…
Actually, she didn't want to think about that again.
She heard the guards walking into the room as well and could tell from the shadows they were holding their spears out in case she decided she was going to launch at their man and attack him with her bare hands or something ridiculous like that.
The being in the grey cloak tuned turned around slowly and Marion got a look at his face.
"Oh,"
He looked fairly identically to how he'd appeared on the show, just with a face that looked more like skin than rubber. And that included his head too. It didn't look like an exposed brain. It looked like his large light grey head that was just excessively wrinkled and lumpy.
'That's nowhere near as upsetting to look at as I thought it was going to be,'
Marion blinked.
"Shoot, I said that out loud didn't I,"
After a few long minutes, the guards and the leader gave each other a look and then swiftly left out of the stone door leaving Marion alone.
She reflexively reached for her bag's straps only to find them not there. She fidgeted with the scoop-neck of her sweater instead.
'I hope the Doctor brings my bag when he comes,'
If he did come.
Not that Marion didn't have faith in the Doctor, but it was very possible that the Doctor simply wouldn't be coming. Like, he's come for Jo, but he might be expecting her to break out herself.
Not in the "I don't care about you" kind of way.
But in more of the "You're unkillable and capable of feats of increased strength, I think you can handle yourself while I do other things" kind of way.
That bit didn't seem too unlikely, especially considering Marion hadn't really been clear about when exactly she'd come from. For all she knew, the Doctor figured that she was a lot older than she was and was half-way back to the main dome by now.
Marion glanced at the door. It was a pull door from her end, and she didn't see anything that would work to pry it open. She pressed experimentally against it, but it didn't move or budge.
She thought that she could...maybe shove open the door if she pushed hard enough, but that'd call attention to herself and she wasn't sure if she wanted to do that, at least not yet.
Marion backed away from the door with a shrug and instead looked around the large round room.
One of the walls didn't have anything on it. It was just metal and it was shiny enough that Marion could see herself quite clearly.
'God,' she thought to herself, 'My hair's a fucking mess,'
Marion loved her hair and how curly and fluffy it could be. And she especially liked the way that her hair didn't get frizzy in humid areas. Considering what summers were like where she grew up, that was most certainly a plus. What wasn't a plus, was the way her hair reacted to dryness.
Marion put her hands to her head and tried to shape it with her fingers and palms into something more "I've had a long day and aren't really interested in putting too much effort into the way that I look" and less, "I got into a fight with a windstorm. I won, but at what cost,"
"I really should keep a headband with me," she mused aloud.
"I've got one right here,"
Marion looked to the left of her reflection and then turned around.
The Doctor was standing there near the entrance to the room. Jo too.
"How long have you been there?" Marion asked.
"Not long. Here you go,"
The Doctor held out her bag to her along with one of her grey elastic headbands.
Marion slung the bag on her shoulder. Jo rushed towards her and gave her a big hug. Marion's arms limply hung by her sides for a moment, before she reached them up and gave the other woman a light squeeze in return.
"Marion! You're okay,"
"'Course I'm okay Jo," Marion backed away from Jo and began to fit the band around her head. She didn't need a reflective surface for this. It was basically muscle memory at this point. "Okay is my middle name!"
"And here I thought it was Horatia,"
"Don't," Marion deadpanned.
The man who has been escorting Jo and the Doctor left. The door closed behind him.
"Wait, wait! We must talk!" the Doctor shouted at the door.
"He went to go get his superior," Marion explained, "He's an interesting looking dude,"
"How so? Is he humanoid?"
"He's got two arms, two legs, and a head. So yes," Marion replied, "But you know how severely dehydrated people have really defined muscles?"
"Yes?"
"His head looks like that, but with his brain,"
"That sounds horrible," Jo replied with a shiver.
"It's definitely not as bad as an exposed brain," Marion replied. She then quickly changed the subject before they could ask how she knew that. "Jo, did you and Winton get back to the dome alright?"
"Oh yes!" Jo replied, "Mr. Caldwell helped us and we told everyone all about what IMC was up to. When you didn't show up at the ship, we were worried so we went back to the hut but no one was there except for the guard they'd sent after you,"
"How was he?" Marion asked.
"Severely injured," Jo exclaimed, "They had to get him immediate medical attention,"
"Oh good," Marion replied.
"Good?!"
"He got a spear hurled at him. I half-expected that he'd be dead," Marion turned away from Jo and put her hands in her pockets, "So, Doctor, how much are you buying me back for? I'm curious"
Marion knew that offering the people of the city something was how the Doctor had planned to get her back, or at least that's how he's planned to save Jo.
"They're actually paying us to take you off their hands,"
Marion stared at the Doctor and blinked exaggeratedly. "Ha. You're hilarious,"
"I am aren't I," the Doctor said looking around. Something against the wall caught his eye. "Judging by the room and this machinery, it could have been a highly advanced civilisation,"
"Not 'could have'. They were,"
"Then what happened to it?" Jo asked.
"It went into a decline," the Doctor reasoned, "These Primitives could be descendants of a tremendously advanced race,"
"Decline suggests that this all happened gradually," Marion responded, "It'd say it was as much of a decline as a tumble off the grand canyon. Considering that they had enough technology to build all this stuff," Marion gestured around the large room with its blinking lights and computers and smooth metal walls. "And now their main weapon of choice is what basically amounts to a sharp rock tied to a stick, something really, really, really catastrophic had to have happened. Apocalyptic even,"
"Is that a hint Marion?"
"If you want to call it that,"
"Hey you two, come take a look at this,"
A series of images were depicted on what was probably glass but might've been some kind of plastic. The pictograms on it looked like they had been done in some kind of ink and then allowed to dry fully. Marion figured they had also been covered with some kind of lacquer as well because she doubted it would've survived this long otherwise. Ink smears.
The first one depicted a humanoid figure colored in white with another thing next to him that reminded Marion of a yellow and blue rocket.
"That's extraordinary," the Doctor said in amazement, "A sort of chronicle, history. Buildings, cities, machines. They even invented flight."
Then there were more geometric designs, and then black and white figures collapsed to the "ground" with a brown and tan image that reminded Marion of the rocks outside along with collapsed buildings.
"What happened here?" Jo asked.
"Hmm? Oh. Buildings in ruins, people lying dead. Some great catastrophe, I should think. "
"Look at these next ones," Marion said, "The art style's a lot different,"
Unlike the earlier drawings on the left which were flat enough that Marion was sure they were done in ink, these were raised and bumpy, like they were done in paint hastily. The drawings were rough as if the people who had drawn the earlier ones were long gone and the new people were doing their best. In the earlier images, all the figures had been fully colored with no gaps where the original metal backdrop could be seen while, meanwhile, these newer ones had some streaks where they could see through the glass, clearly showing that the paintbrush of the person who had done this drawing wasn't as fine or high quality as the ones used previously.
"Yes, look at this, Jo," the Doctor said pointing to the figures, "A completely different style and design. Much cruder, more primitive,"
"More recent too," Jo pointed to one depicting two figures in white dragging another figure into what might've been either a pit on a window that had been depicted as containing bright oranges and yellows, "A man being forced through a hatch,"
"It looks like some sort of sacrifice," the Doctor looked away from the wall and at nearby machinery, "Marion, there. Would you say that was some sort of time mechanism?"
"No clue, the only Time Machine I've ever gotten a close look at is the TARDIS and even then, I wasn't exactly examining the console. You've seen him work on fixing parts of the TARDIS though haven't you Jo?" Marion turned to the blonde, "Any of this look familiar to you?" She gestured to the metal machinery.
Before Jo could answer Marion's question, the door to their little room opened.
The grey man from before walked into the room followed by his three green guards.
"How do you do?" the Doctor greeted.
"Hello again,"
The being looked at the two of them in the face when they spoke but his eyes never met theirs.
He turned to look at Jo. She flinched and backed away shakily.
"Don't move, Jo," the Doctor warned, "I think he's almost blind,"
The man turned to look at the Doctor again.
The Doctor pointed to Marion. "I've come to take this young lady back. If you go to Ashe's dome, he will give you food,"
The man looked at the Doctor, and Marion, and Jo. And then, instead of saying anything, he looked at the last image on the glass. The one implying a sacrifice. He gazes intently at this for a moment, and then at the three of them, and the back at them. And then he and his three guards left the room.
Jo stared in horror at the depiction and then back at them. "That picture he pointed to. It was the sacrifice!"
"Yeah that's not…," Marion paused, "Ideal,"
'I wonder if any religions have a precedent for what you do if you sacrifice someone and they come back to life? Do you get to become their new God, or do they take this as a sign that you suck so bad that God said "Gross! No thanks. Imma pretend I didn't see that. Send me something different,'
"But, uh, it'll be fine," Marion assured.
"How can you be so sure Marion?"
Marion looked Jo in her eyes and sighed, "I...don't know how to word it properly, but I'll do my best. There's two," she held up two fingers, "types of danger. And one type is significantly worse than the other,"
"What's the difference,"
"For the first kind, I know that if I don't intervene, things will likely turn out okay. The second is the kind where I know that unless I intervene, things likely won't,"
"And this is the first type,"
"If it was the second type, I would have explicitly told you not to come for me. Period. It's not like we aren't in any danger at all, but I know for a fact that there is a way out of this. It'll be fine,"
As if in response to what she said, the door to the room they were in opened and one of the green guards walked into the room.
"Now what?" Jo asked.
"Now, we distract him so we can get past him and leave,"
The Doctor snapped his fingers to get the guard's attention and pulled a coin out of his pocket. The Doctor snapped his fingers and tossed his hand up, but the coin seemed to have disappeared. He gestured for Marion to come closer and she did. He reached out to her ear and when he took his hand away, the coin was there.
He proceeded to do more coin tricks gaining the guards complete and undivided attention. The guard lowered his spear slightly to stare as the man did sleight of hand tricks. Finally, the Doctor appeared to toss the coin up in the air only for it to disappear instead. The guard looked around in confusion.
The Doctor pointed behind the man and he turned around.
The moment he did, Jo and Marion yanked away the guard's spear and the Doctor aikido-chopped him on the back of the neck. He crumpled to the ground.
Jo and Marion dropped the spear.
"Yeah, that guy is super fired as soon as he wakes up. I honestly am baffled that that worked,"
"Do you have that little faith in me Marion," she could tell that he was joking.
"I have a lot of faith in you. That doesn't mean I don't find some of what you manage to get away with ridiculous Mr. James Bond. Now, we should leave before we come across someone who doesn't have a short attention span,"
Marion considered putting the spear in her bag. She was pretty sure it would fit considering how much stuff she had already been able to get in there without a struggle.
She didn't though. She already had the pointy half of a spear, and she didn't know what she would need a full-size spear for other than comedically pulling the spear out of a bag that it shouldn't fit in.
Marion glanced back at the spear again.
'No, no, I've got the robot arm for that,'
The Doctor politely gestured towards the door.
"Ladies first," he said.
"Thank you,"
The three of them left the room and went out into the tunnels of the underground city.
An orange circle of light pulsed like a heartbeat on the door that they exited, and to the left, they could see more identical doors with lights pulsing in unison.
Jo moved to step further down the hall. Marion grabbed her by the back of her shirt and pulled her back.
Just as she did the grey man walked past one of the halls at the other end of the one they were on holding a staff in his hand.
"Marion, they can't see us, can they," the Doctor asked.
"Their vision isn't good enough. As long as we're quick and quiet, we shouldn't have too much of an issue. But they are heading this way so…,"
The three of them quickly moved around the corner and into a side passage. They pressed against the wall.
'Huh,' Marion thought, watching several aliens walk past, 'I didn't remember there being more than one of the little grey dudes,'
"Where are they going?" Jo asked.
"Into the room we just left," Marion said, already moving down the hall. "And uh, if you'll remember, there's an unconscious guard in here so…,"
They walked quickly down the corridor while Marion tried to wrack her brain to remember which direction she had been dragged in from.
"So, I think we should head down this way-"
She heard something moving behind her and she and the Doctor turned. One of the green guards walked through the hall and then turned to see them.
"QUICKLY. We should head down this way quickly. Come on now,"
Marion grabbed each of their hands and ran.
She ran down a hall that she sort of remembered, and then around another one and right to a wall a dead end.
"This way," the Doctor said. "I think this looks familiar,"
The Doctor took them down a hall that looked like a bunch of doorways a couple of inches above the ground making them have to step over them.
This also led to a dead end.
They tried a different hall heading in another direction. Footsteps thundered in the distance. The guards were getting closer.
They tried another corner and ran into a pair of the ones with the grey cloaks.
They turned around to head in the other direction, but there were just more green guards.
"Checkmate, I'm afraid," the Doctor said.
The ones in the cloaks moved out of the way to let the guards "Encourage" the three of them to head down a particular hall with their spears.
"Guess we're heading with them,"
(Next Chapter: Your Honor, This Is Literally Entrapment)
Allen: Please take this seriously. You are tied to a bomb and I am literally pointing a gun at you.
Marion, in a high-pitched mocking tone: I aM lItErAlLy PoInTiNg A gUn At YoU
The Master will be here next chapter. I promise.