Holy shit, I can't believe it's been almost two years since I posted chapter one.
So, funny story. When I first said "I'm going to do a Fifth Doctor Serial next" I was actually thinking of Black Orchid. Then I remembered that Black Orchid needs to come a little bit later due to some things that are in my notes.
Still, I really wanted to have Five, so I did the Awakening instead. The next is going to be either the 1st, 11th, or 12th Doctor.
It's really a toss-up since on one hand, I know for sure which serial I'd do if I did One (not the Unearthly Child yet, although it would be an early one with Ian, Barbara, and Susan) but I know that a lot of y'all want to see Eleven and Twelve again soon so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I just don't know 100% which story I'd do next. I know which ones I don't want to do (not because I don't like them, but more because I'm saving them for later).
Anyway, if there's a specific 11th or 12th Doctor serial that you want to see, let me know.
Here's some art:
Art of the woman from Marion's dream in chapter 38:
deviantart [PUT A DOT HERE] com/lunammoon/art/The-Speckled-Woman-903669258
Art of Marion. The art was drawn with chapters 44-47 in mind because she's wearing the clothes from there, but whatever:
deviantart [PUT A DOT HERE] com/lunammoon/art/Marion-Art-Meme-3-904563689
The new cover:
deviantart [PUT A DOT HERE] com/lunammoon/art/The-New-Cover-of-CLSFAOQFC-905505364
Art I commissioned of Marion from a really cool person on Twitter. They're bugbrainzart and I love how it came out:
twitter [PUT A DOT HERE] com/Luna_M_Moon/status/1495545770270994432
Thank you jade23night for reviewing.
To spice things up a bit, the powers that be placed Marion down gently on her feet in the TARDIS console room so that she was facing the wall rather than hurling her against it. She could hear Honey beeping softly somewhere behind her. She stood perfectly still for a moment.
"Marion, what are you doing?"
Marion recognized that voice, it was hard not to. Tegan's accent was very distinct. And it meant that she had to be on Five's TARDIS. She hadn't met that Doctor yet. She'd met two of his faces twice, but hadn't met this one even once. She had been looking forward to meeting him. Tegan.
Speaking of Tegan, she'd just asked her a question, hadn't she.
"I'm waiting to see if I get hurled against a wall,"
"Marion, if that is a dig against my piloting skills then-,"
"It's not that Doctor," Marion cut him off waving her hand, "It's just that normally my landings aren't as delicate as this one was and I can't say I fully trust it," Marion said. She took a careful step backward away from the walls and then carefully turned on her heel to face the group.
She could see the Doctor had his head turned to face her and Tegan was looking at her from the other side of the console. And wow, he really did use Celery of all things as a corsage.
That was questionable.
Someone whose face Marion couldn't make out but who could only be Turlough was on his back and fidgeting with some of the wiring under the console. Marion assumed that the rising and falling shapes and the flickering had something to do with what he was up to, but had no clue.
"Nevermind," Marion said, "It's probably nothing. Anyway, what's up?" She clapped her hands. "Where're we going? Where have YOU been? I just finished dealing with an evil killer robot,"
"Oh really?" The Doctor asked, looking back at the screen, "Which one? Or is that spoilers?"
"No, it was Kettlewell's. You know Harry, Sarah? You'd just-"
"Ah." the Doctor nodded, "Yes, I remember that. You were right, that was a rather long day."
Marion felt something buzz just underneath her feet and then even itself out. Turlough looked up from under the console.
"Hello Marion," He turned his head to look at the Doctor, "Is that any better?"
"Er," Marion could hear loud tapping sounds coming from the console "No. No, no, still some time distortion,"
There wasn't that much of a difference between Four's and Five's TARDIS interiors. The main thing that set them apart was the console itself. Five's had more buttons and seemed to much more convincingly play the part of the console of a spaceship. Cluttered with boxed sections of buttons and levers and switches and knobs with the aforementioned CRT screen embedded into it.
"Is there a problem? We are going to Earth right?" Tegan asked.
"Date, time, and place asked for. How else could you visit your grandfather?" the Doctor replied.
"We're nearly there," Turlough remarked.
"See?"
The TARDIS began to shake and make buzzing whirring electronic noises that Marion could feel in her legs. And then it settled down moments later.
"Hmm," the Doctor said after a moment, "Well, we've arrived,"
Turlough looked down at the blinking screen. "We've hit an energy field,"
"Unexpected aura for a quiet English village,"
"Marion, have we actually landed on Earth?" Tegan asked.
"Yes."
"In the right place?"
"Yes!"
"And the right time?"
"Yes again!"
The Doctor flipped a switch and the large grey screen on a nearby wall flickered to life to reveal the interior of a church basement. Stones and rubble crashed down with a loud roar that could be heard both through the screen and the TARDIS doors.
"Let's get out of here!" Tegan said.
"Quickly, Doctor. Relocate the TARDIS,"
Marion saw movement in the darkroom. A figure dressed in a black cloak. What was his name? Did he have one? If he did Marion didn't know it. Will maybe? No. Will was someone else. Who was this guy
Tegan saw the person too.
"Hold on! There's somebody out there!"
The Doctor saw it too. "He's trapped. If there's another fall, he'll be killed,".
Tegan was already making towards the TARDIS's exit when the Doctor flicked a switch and the door opened with a gentle whir. She was out of the ship first with Marion close behind her and the Doctor right behind her.
"We can't go out there!" Turlough shouted after them.
"Come on Turlough!" Marion shouted back.
The church crypt smelled dusty and Marion was sure that it wasn't just because of fallen debris. It was dark too, the only real light came from the stairwell and the high windows that Marion was sure would be fully underground if they were any lower. Marion doubted they'd be able to see at all down there if it hadn't been the right time of year and the right time of day.
Tegan looked around the room and the piles of rubble inside of it. Her eyes searched for the man that they had seen.
"He's gone," Tegan said in disbelief.
"Hello, Hello!" Marion called out. "We know that you're here!"
The figure in black darted past them.
"Wait, you don't need to!"
The Doctor ran at the man, but before he could get close, he disappeared.
"Did you see his clothes?" Tegan turned her head to quickly face Marion "Marion I thought you said that we were in the right century,"
"I did and we are,"
"I checked the time monitor," Turlough added, "It is 1984,"
"Let's have a look around,"
The Doctor ran up the stairs with Tegan and Turlough close behind him. Marion lingered at the bottom of the stairs for a moment staring at the crypt. Had she forgotten anything?
Nothing came to mind, so after a moment, she joined the other three.
It was warmer in the church proper than it was in the crypt. But it was still drafty in a way that old churches always were. And it was an old church. But then again, most churches in England were old.
Marion wasn't sure exactly how old the church was. A good six centuries, she figured. Maybe seven. It had been old in the 17th century, she was confident of that. The church was dusty and looked disused.
Marion walked over to where the Doctor stood examining a carving in the wood of the pulpit.
"Where'd he go?" Teagan asked.
"Nowhere," Marion replied.
"Marion, look at this,"
The Doctor gestured to the craving he had been examining. She brushed her fingertips on them. Carved wood. The drawings depicted a figure that was probably a man and a decidedly more demonic-looking figure with horns.
God, what was that thing called? Something stupid? Malice maybe? Something like that.
"Interesting," The Doctor remarked.
"It sure is a carving,"
'The Malus, that's what it was called,'
"I don't like it," Tegan said.
"Then admire the craftsmanship. Seventeenth-century. Probably on a theme of a man being chased by the devil. Must admit I've never seen anything quite like it before,"
"Looks as though a bomb's hit the place,"
"Maybe it did,"
"Tegan, I don't know that a bomb could blow up and leave the stainglass windows intact,"
"They could be new windows,"
"I suppose so,"
Marion's eyes were drawn back to the huge crack. It wasn't THE Crack, the one that was made when the TARDIS blew up. But Marion knew that it was A Crack. A rift able to do something fucky enough to deserve capitals on its articles and names. Marion wondered if the Malus was behind it already, just lurking.
They heard a loud creaking noise
"What was that?"
"A ghost," "A door," the Doctor and Marion said at the same time.
"Perhaps a ghost door," Marion amended.
"Would that be the ghost of a door or a door that lets in ghosts?" Tegan asked.
"Yes,"
Looking at the church from the outside, Marion was increasingly sure about her assessment of the building's age.
Their group walked outside of the church and into the bright sunlight. The dusty dirt road that led away from it was probably partially to blame for the state of the church floor.
It was significantly warmer outside than she'd expected but it was spring she supposed.
Marion shrugged off her suit jacket and tied it around her waist as she walked.
"Why'd they build the church so far from the village?" Turlough complained.
"Maybe they wanted to have a nice long walk to wake them up when they got up early on Sundays,"
"Or perhaps they were refused planning permission,"
The Doctor held out a hand to stop them from continuing on the path. "Behave yourselves." he pointed up to the top of the hill the dirt path led to. A man on horseback looked down at them. Marion could hear more horses approaching from behind them and somewhere off to the side. "We have company!"
"We should go back!" Turlough said.
More men on foot ran up from behind them. And men on horseback charged at them.
"Too late. The LARPers are already here,"
The Doctor pushed Teagan and Turlough back behind him as he all but tripped over a fence. Marion too tried to keep her distance from the horses.
"Where do you think you're going?" The armored man on the white horseback shouted down at them "This is Sir George Hutchinson's land,"
"Hail and well met to you as well pal!"
"Marion!" the Doctor said in a tone that might've been scolding. He looked back up at the men, "If we're trespassing, I apologise,"
"Little Hodcombe, for your own safety, is a closed area. We're in the middle of a war game!"
"We're here to visit my grandfather," Tegan explained.
"You'd better see Sir George," the man on the horse said with a huff, "He'll sort it out. Move out!"
The men on the horse "escorted" them to a large house in the center of the village. Everyone that they passed from the children to the adults was dressed like a soldier of a villager from the 17th century.
For the children, Marion got the feeling that this was going to be one of those "I thought that this was an incredibly normal thing that happened in my childhood but when I told my university friends about it, they were like 'what the fuck'" kind of thing.
After some more walking, the men dismounted their horses and pushed Marion, Tegan, Turlough, and the Doctor into the main hall and through a door into a wood-paneled room. Marion stood in a doorway for a moment looking around and got shoved.
"Watch it!"
An older-looking man dressed in black armor and an orangish-red sash looked at them in momentary confusion and an older-looking woman with her grey hair tied in a bun stared at them in disbelief.
"What's going on here?" the older man asked.
"Trespassers, Colonel," said the man who had the black armor and the white horse, "I've arrested them!"
"I don't believe this!" exclaimed the older-looking woman.
"Are you sure you should be doing this?" said the older man.
"I think if you feel the need to ask that question, the answer is no,"
"Sir George has been informed,"
Hearing the two of them talk to each other was like being in English class, going around reading a Shakespeare play aloud, and listening to a conversation occurring between a character played by a student who was just doing the bare minimum to pass and a character being played by a theater kid.
"I'm sorry about this," the older man who spoke normally turned to face the two of them,
"Some of the men do get a bit carried away," he laughed lightly. " We'll soon have the business sorted out and you safely on your way."
"Thank you," the Doctor turned on his heels to get a good look at the room. "It's a very impressive room, Colonel,"
And it was. Marion didn't know very much about interior design, but the room did look interesting enough. The walls were paneled with dark wood. There was a large fireplace against the back wall with yellow candles stuck on black metal candlesticks and a bonzai tree on the mantel. A painting was hung on the wall and most of the light came from the huge window against the back wall with tan patterned curtains. The floor was covered in square tiles in black and white. Tables were littered with papers and maps and there was a wardrobe cabinet covered with yet more knick-knacks. Sir. George was taking the role of whatever the War Reenactment equivalent of a Dungeon Master seriously.
"My pride and joy," said the man with the red sash.
"Seventeenth-century?"
"Yes, perfect in every detail!"
"What is going on?" Tegan crossed her arms.
"I'm sorry, I don't know," the older woman sighed, "I think everyone's gone mad,". She finished her statement by glaring at the older man.
"Look, we don't want to interfere. We're just here to visit my grandfather,"
"Oh yes? And who might he be,"
"Andrew Verney,"
"Verney?" The man stared at her in confusion and walked past her.
"What's wrong?"
"He disappeared a few days ago," the older woman explained.
"Well, has anything been done to find him?"
"Ben?" the older woman replied in a sharp and accusatory tone.
"Well?!" Tegan's voice had increased greatly in volume.
"Now calm down," the Doctor held up his hands as if to placate her, "Tegan. I'm sure we can sort this out."
"Oh, for fuck's sake!" Tegan charged out of the room.
"Tegan, come back!" the Doctor called out to her, "Turlough, fetch her, will you?"
Turlough darted out of the room. Marion and the Doctor turned to run out after them as well. The man who had ridden on the white horse and whose name still didn't know pointed his rifle in her face.
It took a moment for Marion to remember that this was something she was supposed to freeze in response to.
"You! Stay where you are! And you too!" The man pointed his gun away from Marion, then at the Doctor, and then back at Marion.
"You really shouldn't point a gun at anything you aren't trying to kill. Haven't you ever heard of basic gun safety? Jesus,"
"Go to the wall," the man ordered, "Right there!"
Marion sighed loudly and backed up closer to where a chair was. The Doctor sat down at a nearby chair while Marion leaned against a wall and crossed her arms.
They didn't have to wait very long.
Another man walked into the room. One with much longer hair and beard and a frilled shirt of a brownish-gold. He looked at the two of them against the wall and the man holding a rifle to them. George? Marion recalled. George.
"What's this?" he asked, gesturing to the two of them.
"They tried to escape, sir,"
"They aren't prisoners, Sergeant Willow," And that was great, now the dude had a name.
"You must treat visitors with more respect,"
George pushed down the gun in Willow's hand and away from them.
"What is going on?" the Doctor asked.
"They're LARPers,"
"It's a celebration. On the thirteenth of July, 1643, the English Civil War came to Little Hodcombe. A Parliamentary force and a regiment for the King destroyed each other, and the village."
"And you're celebrating that?"
"Why not?" replied George, "It's our heritage,"
"It's a madness!" the older woman corrected.
"Yes. Miss Hampden, you see," George gestured to the older woman with the grey bun. "disagrees with our activities,"
"Hmm. I can understand why,"
George pulled out a chair for Hampden to sit down in and then walked around close to the two of them.
"Who are you two?"
"I'm known as the Doctor. And this is Marion, my Associate,"
Marion gave a small wave.
"Are you members of the theatrical profession?"
"No more than you are,"
The man laughed.
"How did you get to the village?"
"We came from the church," Marion replied, "And a bunch of your fellow players decided to escort us here forcibly through the woods,"
"We did find them outside of the church," the man, Willow, agreed.
"I would avoid the church if I were you. It's very dangerous. Could fall down at any minute."
"I take it y'all don't use it very much,"
"No. No, we don't. However, since you're here, you must join in our games. It's our final battle,"
"Why are you dragging random people to play pretend with you? What are yo-"
"What Marion means is," the Doctor cut Marion off, "we'd love to, but first we must find Tegan and Turlough, and Tegan's grandfather. I gather he's disappeared," The Doctor leaned forward and shoved Willow's rifle in the opposite direction. He grabbed ahold of Marion's wrist and darted out of the room with a simple "Good day!" tossed over his shoulder.
Marion adjusted their hands so that she was holding onto his arm just as much as she was holding onto his and added an extra boost of speed. It was easier to run with the Doctor than it had been to run with Sarah. Longer legs and increased lung capacity probably had something to do with it.
The two of them ran back the way that they came and kept running until they came to a road and they finally slowed down.
"They'll take a while to find us," Marion remarked, "They're really really committed to the bit. So they aren't going to send out a call or an email or whatever. I don't know. How did people coordinate these kind of things in the 80s? We used discord," Marion shook her head, "I got on a tangent. Anyway, these people are really committed to acting like it's the 1600s so any communications they do are going to be in person. They actually have to spread the word that they're looking for us,"
"You've done something like this yourself?"
Marion turned her head to look at the Doctor as they kept walking down the street. "That wasn't the point of what I said. And anyway, we've got to meet up with Tegan and Turl-"
The man dressed in black charged into her. She fell to the ground with a wordless shout.
"Wait! Come back here" the Doctor called after the man. He pulled Marion to her feet and then sped after the man in the black cloak.
Marion ran just after him and kept pace just a few feet in front of him. "He's running to the church,"
Marion reached the church before the Doctor did. She held open the door for the man to walk through and then slowly closed it behind her. The heavy church door wasn't that heavy, but Marion by now knew that that had nothing to do with the door being lighter than it appeared.
"Hello?" The Doctor called, "We know that you're here. I saw you enter. All I want is Tegan's bag. What have you done with her? I know you can hear me,"
"Tegan's fine," Marion quietly, "She'll just get her bag stolen. She and Turlough will be here shortly, Doctor. Doctor?"
The man wasn't looking at her. He was staring off into space.
"Marion, do you smell that?" he asked.
"I don't smell any- oh,"
Marion started to rummage through her bag looking for her headphones. She supposed that the Doctor being able to hear the other side of The Crack was some kind of Time Lord thing. Something she couldn't hear on this side of the screen but he absolutely could. It might be a little bit easier on him if he had something to block it out. "But you should sit down,"
"Marion what are you-" the Doctor cut himself off. The Doctor's nose wrinkled and he grimaced like he'd just been hit by a bad sinus infection, and he winced as if he was hearing something loud, jarring, and unpleasant. His hands flew to his ears practically clawing at his head. Marion couldn't hear what he was hearing. Which meant that there was nothing to block out the sound of the pained noise that escaped his throat.
"Shit, shit, shit," Marion said under her breath. She plugged her headphones and tapped one of the shortcuts on her phone. It just played an instrumental. Nothing with lyrics. Just something she had listened to when she was supposed to be writing an essay but her brain wanted to do literally anything else. Hopefully, it wouldn't be something that would make things worse.
Marion took the earbuds in her hands and gently reached up and pushed her hands against the Doctor's so that she could slide her hands under his and put the earphones in place. The Doctor let her and crouched down a little bit so that she could reach him better.
The two of them crouched down further until both of them were sitting across from each other with Marion's hands covering the Doctor's ears and the Doctor's hands resting on top of hers.
"Is that better?" Marion asked, carefully emphasizing her words on the off chance he couldn't hear her voice through the study mix.
"Yes," the Doctor's face relaxed and his eyes closed for a few seconds, and then opened,
"Much better. Thank you very much, Marion."
Marion moved to take her hands away from the Doctor's ears, but he pressed down harder.
"I'd appreciate it if you kept your hands where they are, Marion," the man said. His voice was raised ever so slightly. "You're helping very much."
"Okay?" Marion wasn't sure how she was helping more than a pair of noise headphones blaring music but if she was helping, she was helping. Maybe it was just that the presence of an extra pair of hands offering an additional barrier helped more than nothing at all.
"Okay!" Marion repeated, it sounding less like a question this time.
"And you're sure that you can't hear any of this?" the Doctor asked. "Even faintly,"
"I'm sure,"
"You're sure?"
"I know what you're hearing, and I'm not hearing it,"
"Must be some kind of psychic projection then," the Doctor said under his breath.
"Can you still hear it?"
"Just barely. You're being very helpful in blocking it out."
"Okay. It shouldn't be that much longer,"
As Marion said that, she looked over to a shallow alcove against the wall. There was another crack. A large one like broken porcelain. A dirty hand reached out from the side of the crack and pulled back a piece of the wall. The empty church echoed with a cracking noise. The Doctor looked off to the side and slowly let go of Marion's hands. She took the headphones back and dropped them into his bag. They both stood up and stared at the wall just as the young man (and he did look young) broke away enough masonry and plaster and wood to just squeeze through.
There he was.
"Sorry it took me so long," the young man said "Thought he'd never eat-" the young man cut himself off once he got a look at the two of them.
"Hello!" Marion said with a wave, "I'm Marion and this is the Doctor. What's your name?"
"Doctor?" the man smiled, "That don't be a proper name. Will Chandler be a proper name,"
"It's nice to meet you, Will,"
The dirt and gunpowder did nothing to hide how young the man looked. He barely looked older than Adric had. Between that, and his posture, Marion put him at nineteen at the most, and that was being generous.
The Doctor took a step forward and Will lurched back and picked up a small stone, looking like he was ready to throw it at them.
A distinct lack of nausea made such threats hard to take seriously.
"We aren't going to hurt you,"
The Doctor took a step towards Will and the young man got even more defensive.
"I won't let 'ee"
Will winced.
"My hand's hurting,"
"Let me see," the Doctor reached out for the young man's arm. He took it and the Doctor began to examine it.
"Anything broken or dislocated?" Marion asked the Doctor.
"Doesn't seem like it. Everything seems normal," the Doctor emphasized the word "normal"
"His fingers just seem rather raw,"
Marion turned to look at Will, "It's probably because you just tore through a rock wall with your bare hands. They'll feel better in a little bit,"
"What were you doing in there?" the Doctor asked.
"It's a priest hole, innit. I hid from fighting,"
"What fighting?"
"What fighting?" Will grinned and pulled his arm away from the Doctor's hand. "Ere, where you been then?"
The Doctor leaned down to be eye level with the young man. "What year is it?"
"Ah, I know that one," Will held out a finger and got a grin on his face like the Doctor was a teacher who'd tried to trip him up with a question he'd known the answer to. "Year sixteen hundred," he paused, "and forty-three." Will sat back down in the pew, still wincing and rubbing at his hand. He turned his head around to look at the two of them.
"Is the battle done?"
"It's been done for a while Will." Marion looked turned to look back at the Doctor, "Here comes Turlough and Tegan," she said, pointing at the door. It flew open. Turlough and Tegan burst through, shutting the door behind them. Will ducked down in the pew.
"Ah, your timing was perfect Marion. Tegan, Turlough, you're just in time!"
"Time? We almost didn't make it." There was no doubt in Marion's mind that Tegan and Turlough had run all the way here and had only slowed down because the door was too heavy for them to rush through.
"We have to get out of here," Turlough insisted.
"There's something very strange going on,"
"You saw a weird person dressed in white randomly appear in the middle of a barn and then disappear right? Surrounded by blue lights?"
"How did-," Tegan cut herself off. "Nevermind,"
"Who's that?" Turlough looked down at the boy that was still docked down in the pew.
"Will Chandler," Marion replied. Marion turned back to look at the boy. "You don't have to hide in the pew. They aren't going to hurt you,"
"Ah, well, that's something we're going to have to talk about," the Doctor said.
"So, it's like this," Marion gestured towards the priest hole that Will had torn down. "Will broke through that wall to escape a battle. Except you see, it's not the battle that they're roleplaying outside. Will crawled his way through from 1643 to 1984. There's some sort of rift between the two,"
"And what about the apparitions?" Turlough asked.
"Psychic projections," the Doctor said.
"The man we saw when we arrived? He was real enough,"
"Still a psychic projection, but with substance,"
"Matter projected from the past. That would require enormous energy,"
"That's correct, it would," Marion replied, perching on top of the back of the pew, lightly kicking her legs.
"It's an alien power source of some kind,"
"What about Will?"
The Doctor glanced down at Will who was lying down on the pew next to him, seemingly asleep. "A projection, too, and at the moment a benign one,"
Marion shook her head, "Nope. He's real. Something, something, psychic transfer of physical matter. He's an actual living person from the seventeenth century that made his way here,"
"Marion, are you sure?"
"Positive,"
"This crack has gotten larger," Turlough stood up and pointed to the wall.
It started to look less like a crack, and far more like a rocky wound.
"Yes. Ominous, isn't it? As is the fact your grandfather has disappeared," the Doctor tapped on Tegan's shoulder, " I think it's time I sought some answers."
"Where?"
The Doctor took a coin out from inside of his jacket and closed it in his hand. He held both of his hands in front of them, seemed to weigh them, and then opened his right fist.
"The village," the Doctor said with a sigh.
"Always so scientific,"
"Come on, Will," the Doctor shook the young man awake, "You're coming with me. You too Marion,"
"What about us?"
"Don't go into the TARDIS right now. The blue glowy stuff is there." Marion replied, "Also, stay out of the sanctuary." Marion added.
She didn't know if more nonsense had come out of the crack while they were gone, and didn't want to risk it.
"Then where are we supposed to go!" Tegan called after Marion.
"I don't know. Just avoid the horsemen. Stay low and out of sight! Don't go near any wide open roads. Oh, and try to stay together,"
Marion caught up to The Doctor and Will at the church graveyard. "Come take a look at this" he led the young man to one of the gravestones.
Will brushed away a bit of moss from the front of a tombstone revealing a year carved into the stone.
"1850"
"This ain't possible," Will said in disbelief.
"Look at the others,"
Will walked from tombstone to tombstone carefully tracing each number with his fingertips. Will moved from tombstone to tombstone with each Tombstone making the man more and more distressed. One moment, he was hiding from a battle and the next moment, he was somewhere else with two people claiming to be from centuries in the future, and the next, he was examining gravestones that were old and weathered and yet, somehow, 200 years younger than he.
It was probably a LOT to deal with.
Will came to one last grave right next to the church and crouched down with a soft sigh; his head resting against his knees. Marion walked closer to him and lightly patted him on the shoulder. Will looked back up at her.
"You'll be able to get back home. Don't worry, you aren't stuck here," Marion said, "The Doctor'll get you back home. Don't worry about it. You'll see your friends and stuff soon,"
Ok, when Marion said "soon", what she meant was, "about a month". But still.
In the distance, Marion heard a sound like jingling bells.
Marion stood up and beckoned the Doctor to them. "Okay everyone, let's go now. Horsemen are coming," Marion pushed through the door to the church and beckoned the Doctor through. Will remained standing still trying to look around the side of one of the columns at the approaching soldiers. Marion grabbed him by the back of his shirt and tugged him through the door. The moment they were through, the Doctor shut the door behind them.
The door led to a side chapel to the church. It wasn't very big, but it wasn't small either. By Marion's guestimate, it was about the size of a TARDIS console room. Not Twelve's or Eleven's but easily Five's. The ground of the chapel was marked with stone flags with some sort of carving, and against a back wall, was a large gravemarker that looked like a man lying on his back atop a stone slab.
Will went right to it and looked it over while the Doctor crouched down on the ground and examined carvings on the floor.
"Strange," the Doctor said under his breath, "Will, what do you think about this?"
"Doctor, maybe don-"
Will looked at where the Doctor was pointing and let out a small terrified noise. He fell to one knee, staring at the floor.
"I'm not sure that we-"
The Doctor crouched down next to the young man, "What's the matter? Will? Will, what happened in 1643?"
Will shut his eyes tight and then opened them again. "Troopers come,".
"No. No, no. Something else,"
"Malus come. Malus's got to war, ain't he?" he nodded, "He makes fighting worse. He makes them hate more."
"The Malus is just a superstition," the Doctor suggested.
"Doctor, when has something that was supposed to be 'just a superstition' actually turned out to just be a superstition,"
"I've seen Malus," Will insisted. His hair wild from running his hands through it and standing on edge, "I seen it,"
The Doctor put a hand on the young man's shoulder.
"Will, tell me what happened? How did it appear,"
"It was Roundheads and Cavaliers, and they were fighting in church," from the way his voice was shaking, you'd think that he'd just run a marathon. "And there was a wind coming. Such a wind. And then Malus, he came from nowhere."
"What did it look like? Like this? Did it look like this?" the Doctor pointed to a carving on the stone floor.
"You don't need to look at it Will," Marion turned to the Doctor, "Yes, that's the Malus," At Marion's words, Will flinched and looked away.
Marion stood up and pressed her foot down on the stone slab until she felt something click under her foot. She moved her foot away and the stone slab slowly raised itself revealing a trap door leading down to a staircase. Marion took out her phone and turned the flashlight on. It blinked to life. "Well, Doctor? Will? Shall we go?"
The hallway led down to an even smaller and mildly claustrophobic room. The Doctor had to duck down in some places to keep himself from banging his head against the wall, but Marion didn't have to worry about such things. The whole place reminded Marion of a crypt. Come to think of it, people were buried under chapels sometimes weren't they? Especially important people who wanted everyone to know how pious and religious they were.
The three of them traveled down the long tunnel. Marion's mind slid to the imagery of the catacombs of Paris with the thousands if not millions of human bones. If the Malus had its way she wondered, would these walls be lined with human skulls?
Marion shivered and tugged her jacket back onto her shoulders.
"Stay close you two," the Doctor said.
"I'm the one with the light Doctor,"
After they walked for a little bit longer, the Doctor tilted his head to the side and then pushed the two of them by the shoulders to the small area under the stairs they approached. He and Will went under the stairs. Marion moved to join them, and then she stopped.
She stepped back and made eye contact with Miss Hampden. Marion silently waved and then pointed to the area under the stairs where the Doctor and Will looked at her in confusion and horror respectively.
"What are you doing?" The Doctor mouthed.
"Miss Hampton," Marion whisper-shouted both answering the Doctor and getting the older woman's attention. "Under here!" She pointed to the underside of the stairs and, from Hampton's point of view, it must've looked like she'd disappeared.
A few moments later, Marion heard the distant sounds of men's voices and then in another moment, Hampton had joined the three of them in hiding under the staircase.
Marion turned off her phone's light and tucked it carefully back into her bag. The footsteps increased in volume, and Marion could fully make out what they were saying.
"Keep that light near. We'll catch her before the church. Move yourselves! I don't want this to take all day," said Sir George.
Neither him nor the man that he was with considered checking under the stairs thank God, so they watched as they walked past them and through the church passageway.
"Them be troopers," Will said, the moment that the men were out of earshot making Hampton look at him in confusion.
"No," said the Doctor, "Just, twentieth-century men playing a particularly nasty game."
The four of them stayed put under the stairs in utter silence for a while after that. The sounds of the men's footsteps and speech got softer and softer and then it got louder again. Sir George and his troopers returned; not seeing their queries hiding right under their noses.
"She won't get far," he told his men, "The village is sealed. Get me, Sergeant Willow. I must see how the preparations are going. And see my horse is brought round immediately. I'll spend no more time on this."
And with that, Sir George and his men left. The four of them remained quiet and hunched down until the footsteps finally faded away.
"It's not like Sir George to give up so easily," Hampton commented.
"They haven't fully given up," Marion said, carefully standing up from under the stairwell and brushing the dust from her suit pants. "But they aren't going to be checking down here for a bit."
"How long is a bit?"
"Long enough that it's not a problem,"
The Doctor nodded and glanced upward for a moment. "Where do the steps lead?"
"Colonel Wolsey's house," Hampton and the other two stood up from under the stairs,
"This must be the passage Andrew Verney discovered. He's our local historian."
Marion turned back on her phone's light. It reflected off something on the ground. The Doctor paused for a moment, crouched down, and picked it up in his hand.
"Just a minute," He rolled it over in his palm. "Marion, is that what I think it is?"
"Yup!"
"What is it?" Hampton asked.
"It's metal,"
Hampton snatched the piece of metal out of the Doctor's hands and squeezed it carefully.
It molded in her grip like silly putty. "It can't be," she exclaimed, "It's all squashy,"
"I mean," Marion said, "Gallium exists,"
"It's tinclavic," the Doctor stated.
"Tinclavic? What is it? Where has it come from?"
"The planet Ragga," the Doctor said as if that made sense, "Let's get back to the church," the Doctor said finally. And then he sped off back down the tunnel.
It wasn't that Marion wouldn't have been able to keep up with the Doctor easily, but she wasn't the only person traveling with him.
So Marion understood the reason that Hampton was pissed by the time they finally caught up with the Doctor at the wooden carving that Tegan had looked at first.
"Slow down," Hampton shouted after him, "What do you mean, this is from the planet Ragga?"
"Precisely what I said. The Tereleptils mine tinclavic for more or less the exclusive use of the people of Hakol," and then as if realizing that the woman would probably want more information than that, he said, "That's in the star system Rifta, you know."
"Doctor," Marion said, "I need you to understand that just because I know what you're talking about-," She didn't really. She knew the point that he was getting to, but she didn't know where those planets were or any other information about them that couldn't be summed up with psychic shenanigans. "Doesn't mean anyone else does. You sound like you're just saying words,"
"Ah," the Doctor said with a nod. He turned to Hampton "You see, on Hakol, psychic energy is a force that's been harnessed in much the same way as electricity is here."
The woman hung her head and sighed, "Oh, no. I've escaped from one madman to find another. Do you expect me to believe what you're saying?"
"You should, he's telling the truth,"
The Doctor looked up from the carving at the pulpit and started to walk towards one of the nearby pews to sit down. Marion joined him.
"You take that sample to any metallurgist and they'll confirm it isn't from this planet."
"You're serious," Hampton stared at the Doctor in disbelief with her head tilted to the side.
"He's serious and more importantly, correct!"
"Very well, then," the woman came to stand near The Crack, "For the sake of argument, I'll accept what you two say, but how did it come to Little Hodcombe?"
"As part of a space vehicle."
"A spaceship from Hakol" the woman gestured up to the sky, "landed here?" and then back down to the ground, "Is that what you're trying to say?" There was a bit of laughter in her tone.
"Well, more likely a computer-controlled reconnaissance vehicle,"
"Like a Rover," Marion said, trying to be helpful.
"Like a dog?"
"No, like a-," the Doctor lightly nudged Marion. Why did he? Oh right. 1984.
"Forget Rover. You know about the Vikings right?"
"They are like Vikings."
The flat tone in Hampton's voice told Marion that the woman didn't know what she was talking about and was beginning to think that both of them might be crazy.
"Not the people. The robots. They're a thing NASA sent to Mars a few years back in order to find minerals and bacteria and stuff like that. They named them Viking One and Viking Two."
The Vikings had been sent off to Mars in the 70s and they were a perfectly good reference comparison. If Hampton didn't know what they were enough for them to work then that wasn't Marion's fault.
"I see," Hampton said. She seemed to VAGUELY know what Marion was referring to at the very least. Because he nodded. Or perhaps she was just humoring her. One or the other.
"Tell me," the Doctor stood up again and leaned down to be eye to eye with the woman, "was Andrew Verney engaged in any research concerning the Malus?"
"I believe he was, yes,"
"That's what led him to the tunnel and the remains of the Hakol probe wasn't it?"
"See?" Will began to grin enthusiastically as if his fear was eclipsed by his excitement at being believed, "I seen the Malus."
"I believe you, Will," the Doctor clapped Will on the shoulder, "My sincerest apologies for ever doubting you."
"Doctor, the Malus is a myth," She raised her voice and sounded almost like she was trying to convince herself more than them. "a legend. Some mumbo-jumbo connected with apparitions or something-"
"A lot of time, what people pass off as apparitions and the like are actual real things that happened but were too frightening to consider. If it's make-believe, then it can't come back and hurt you, you know?"
"And that's precisely what Will saw. Remember, psychic energy is Hakol electricity."
"But what has that got to do with the Malus legend?"
"It's the reason behind the legend. The Malus was on the ship,"
"Oh. I see what you mean," Hampton started to look around the church, her eyes wide.
"It's still here," she said in a hushed tone." Then she looked closely at the crack, "Doctor, that wasn't there the other day-."
"HEY, DON'T TOUCH THAT!"
Hampton startled at Marion's shout and her hand moments from brushing against the wall. The crack moved and swelled like it was flexing and large chunks of the plaster swelled and fell somewhere behind the crack.
The Doctor started to examine the crack carefully, but when Marion got closer to him, she saw that she wasn't really looking at the crack or anything much at all. His eyes seemed glazed and unfocused. Marion bet she could wave a hand in front of his face and he wouldn't have noticed.
And here came that sense of dread. It wasn't increasing but it was there. Marion wondered if for once it could just be garden variety anxiety.
"Don't touch it!" Will shouted.
"He's right, Doctor. There's suddenly a very strange atmosphere in here,"
The Doctor reached out carefully and grabbed onto the sides of the crack on the wall and began to yank pieces of it aside.
"Doctor, what are you doing?"
Acrid-smelling white smoke poured out from behind the wall.
"Come and have a look at this!" the Doctor said, gesturing to the wall that he'd just pulled aside.
More smoke began to flow from the crack in the wall like it was a wound gushing blood. Marion hoped that it was merely the acrid smell that was making her as anxious as she was.
Either way, Marion grabbed the Doctor by the back of his jacket and tugged him backward as hard as she could. Moments later, a bit of the wall plaster cracked off and fell with a loud bang right where the Doctor had been standing mere moments before. The Doctor nearly lost his balance until Marion steadied him on his feet, a little further back and closer to the rest of the group.
Through the fog, Marion could make out green eyes that glowed with an eerie bioluminescence brighter than they should have been and with slit snakelike pupils that seemed to absorb more light than they ought to.
Marion was so distracted by the Malus's eyes and the strong sense of, well, Malice that rolled off of it in waves so thick Marion could practically taste it that she didn't notice the Doctor stepping away from her and stepping closer to the crack until moments before the acrid smoke engulfed him.
Hampton screamed. Marion took a deep breath and then started to cough. Moving closer to the source of the smoke wasn't helping that cough, but what could she do? Not step closer and leave the Doctor to it? Not a chance.
Through the smoke, Marion could just make out that the Doctor's hands were pressed over his ears. Marion carefully grabbed ahold of the Doctor's elbow and lightly tugged him away from the wall. The levels of smoke billowing out from the crack gradually started to fade from several cubes of dry ice being recklessly hurled into a kiddie pool to that of the lawn of a suburban family who's really into Halloween.
The Doctor stumbled for a moment as if it wasn't until she started to move that he realized she had even grabbed him, and then walked along with her towards a pew and away from the remaining smoke. Marion put her hand to the Doctor's chest for a moment. She didn't feel any humming, so he was breathing properly.
Hampton took her shawl from around her shoulders and placed it over the Doctor.
"Doctor, are you alright?" the woman asked.
The Doctor nodded. He wasn't looking directly at her, but his head was kinda turned in her direction. So that was something at least.
Marion leaned forward and lightly touched the Doctor's cheek with her hand. The Doctor turned to look at her, his eyes still slightly glazed over.
Marion repeated the question. "Doctor, your eyes seem a little glazed. Are you sure you're alright?"
It took a few seconds for the Doctor to respond, but when he finally did, his eyes had focused enough for him to look at her properly.
"Yes,"
"Good, good,"
Marion turned around to face Will whose face was also pale.
"Are you alright?"
Marion was given a shaky nod in return.
The last of the smoke faded away and Marion could finally see more than just the eyes and a bit of the nose of the Malus and Marion wished that she hadn't. It looked like it had been carved from stone but subtly shifted and moved as if it were breathing in a way stone could not. Marion could see the nostrils shift and its face lightly swell as it pushed itself further through the hole and Marion wondered how big the rift it was inside would have to be in order for it to fit the rest of a body that had to be immensely massive to go with ahead of that size.
Hampton looked away from the Doctor and to the stone face and she slowly made her way to the other side of the room, as if she was trying to get a better look at it, barely dodging another fallen piece of plaster.
"It's a face," Hampton said in a harsh whisper turning to face away from it as if looking indirectly at it would make it real.
"It is a face!" Marion said, with a smile that was much more of a grimace, "And I hate it!"
"Look at it." the Doctor said, "Does it look familiar?"
"Yes," her voice was shaking heavily with terror. "I-I've seen it before."
"The carving," Marion said, gesturing to behind the woman. "Check it out,"
"But that's a representation of the devil!"
"Yes, and the devil's a huge loser, so that's a point in our favor isn't it!"
Marion heard a loud creaking noise somewhere off to the side. Everyone else in the room heard it too. They all turned to look at them. A man stood there. The same man under the church and the dude who had slammed into her on the street. He was dressed in all black and Tegan's purse rested under his arm.
"So there you are!"
The figure stared at them for a moment and then stopped. He stood still as a statue, and blue lights started to flicker around him like square fireflies and fill the air with an odd twinkling sound.
"What's that?" Hampton asked.
"Psychic projection," the Doctor said, getting up from the pew and pulling Marion with him. "Over here, Will,"
Will quickly got up from where he was sitting and stood behind the Doctor with Marion standing in front of the both of them.
"It looks so real!" Hampton gasped.
"Well, to all intents and purposes he is,"
In the distance, Marion heard loud and repetitive gunfire.
"It were like that before," Will looked around the room, as any moment, soldiers were going to burst through the doors. "Battle's coming." And then the young man took off.
"No, Will, come back!" the Doctor called after him.
"I'm not going to war again!" Will ran to the door and started to tug it open. The man in the black cloak turned to look at the young man and the square fireflies were there again. That was all that Will needed to be fully out of there. He swung open the church door and was gone.
The lights around the man continued to flicker until in the man's place was a fancy-looking knight with pale blonde hair, skin that somehow managed to be paler than it, and blue armor that only made the being look more ghostly.
The knight began to walk towards them, followed by eerie blue light. Every step it made was punctuated by the sound of clinking chainmail and a strong sense of vertigo.
"Stand perfectly still," the Doctor said.
"Actually, we should leave now,"
"What is it?" Hampton asked.
"I told you. It's a psychic projection," "We should leave now,"
"It pains me to say it, but I'm sorry I ever doubted you."
The Doctor returned Hampton's shawl to her.
"We all learn by our mistakes."
The faint draft in the room began to pick up. Moved behind Hampton and the Doctor, planted her hands against their back, and helped to brace both them and herself.
"Now what?" Hampton asked.
"More psychic disturbance,"
"We should leave!" Marion repeated.
And then, as if trying to back Marion up and say "Yes, you should leave now," the knight drew his sword. Marion didn't need the room getting spinny to know he was well within stabbing distance of the three of them.
"Ah," the Doctor said with a firm nod, "You see your point, Marion. It does seem he intends to kill us. Make for the underground passage,"
The knight raised his sword.
"RUN!"
Next Chapter: A Quick Head's Up Would Be Appreciated
Marion, to Sir George and his men: Holy shit, you guys are fucking nerds.
I said this on tumblr, but after talking it out, I've decided to make the stylistic choice that whenever Tegan would say "for heaven's sake" or "rabbits" she gets to say "fuck" instead. I'm only doing this for Tegan, because of all the shit she's gone through, she fucking deserves it!
Everything I say about LARPers is light-hearted mockery, and I mean no ill will towards any of you who enjoy it. The only LARPers that genuinely piss me off are like, people who LARP as Nazis and Confederate Soldiers and what not. I normally don't have an issue with most LARPers unless they're doing what they're doing in order to give power to an ancient and evil god.
There's a line at the beginning of this chapter that I'm both very proud of and not proud of at all. I literally imagined you lot throwing tomatoes at my face.