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The Doctor pushed open the door and made his way back into the Auderly house's study holding a cheese tray, a bottle of wine, and two glasses. The glasses were for the Doctor and Jo clearly, Marion didn't drink.
"You know, one thing you can be certain of with politicians, is that whatever their political ideas, they always keep a well-stocked larder. Not to mention the cellar."
"Doctor, ought you just to help yourself like that?"
"Who cares?" Marion remarked, taking a piece of cheese off the platter as the Doctor sat down and popping it into her mouth.
"And, you heard what Miss Paget said, Jo. We were to treat the place as our own,"
"I wish you hadn't called all the servants away,"
"That's common sense. You can't expect a ghost to walk in a house full of people, can you?
"Plus, our 'ghosts' are potentially violent. We want as few potential victims as possible."
"Victims?"
"Victims." Marion nodded. She took another piece of cheese and tossed it into her mouth.
Marion vaguely remembered two soldiers patrolling outside early in the morning getting shot.
"You should probably eat something too," the Doctor said, holding the plate out to Jo.
"Well, I'm not really hungry, thank you, Doctor."
"Well, you ought to eat something, you know. This is likely to be a very long night."
Jo jumped as the grandfather clock situated just behind her began to chime loudly.
"What's that?"
"Clock."
Raised her fingers to count the number of chimes. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine.
Marion glanced down at the band around her upper arm and grimaced.
"I'm going to go to sleep now actually," Marion said, slipping her phone out of her bag. She glanced at a nearby grandfather clock and then back at the time on her phone. Maybe a minute or so off, but all in all, the phone had synced to this timezone just fine.
"This early?"
"Time is relative Jo. I've been bebopping around here and there constantly. It might as well be 3 am for me. I've been up for a while. Not to mention, I'm going to need to be up around Dawn-ish"
Marion set an alarm to wake her up at 6:30 am. Just after the sun rose this time of year if she remembered correctly.
"Why?"
"To relieve the gentleman patrolling the front of their post before the 'ghosts' make a couple of ghosts."
Marion said simply. She stretched out on the couch, put her hands behind her head, and closed her eyes.
The problem wasn't that she was getting weaker or slower or less willing.
The problem was that It was learning. And that didn't matter yet. It didn't matter if it knew exactly how she was going to rip it apart for daring to come near Her and daring to try to destroy Her creations, because she was going to rip It to shreds and scatter It regardless of how well it anticipated her. Because she would not allow any harm to come to Her because she loved Her so, so, so much and They had trusted her to keep Her safe and keep Her and Her creations from meeting the same fate as those who came before Her.
The problem was that slowly but surely, It was getting stronger and it was clear that in few short eons, the two of them might be evenly matched and perhaps in a few more, it might surpass her and if that happens she would cease to exist and She would die.
She needed to think of something new.
Perhaps she could hide. Not like a child under the bed, but like a beast in a bush. Or perhaps she could appear to be one place when actually she was another. Make It unable to know where she was or where she was coming from until It dared to come close to Her and then she would strike. Or perhaps she could do both!
She would have to ask Them. The ones who had felt her call back when she Wasn't for help.
Because she couldn't-
Marion woke to the feeling of her phone buzzing loudly under her ear. For a moment, she thought it was a phone call, but she remembered the alarm. At some point during the night, someone had thrown a blanket over her as she slept. She sat up and cracked her neck this way and that with a soft noise.
"Ah, Marion, you're awake!"
"Good morning, Doc," Marion said softly, her voice still filled with sleep. She blindly reached into her bag and retrieved one of her food bars. She unwrapped and took a bite.
"Marion, wouldn't you rather eat something else rather than?"
"These are incredibly efficient." She took another bite.
"I'll be right back and might be followed by specters when I do. Stay away from the windows."
The Doctor looked up from what Marion now realized was the time device.
"And do be careful with that."
The three freedom fighters were currently hiding out in the tunnel where they had found the unconscious man. If Marion was remembering correctly, a pair of nameless soldiers were going to walk there on patrol and get themselves killed.
But the thing is that there's no such thing as a nameless soldier. Those were two real people whose deaths were something she might be able to do something about..
She knew where the tunnel was. She was pretty sure. And she was also pretty sure that she had woken up in plenty of time to intercept the soldiers so she started running.
Running felt weird.
Marion hadn't been out of shape before. She hadn't been a gym nut or anything like that, but she did jog fairly often.
But running here was different and she hadn't noticed the difference until she had been running for a while. This wasn't the first time she'd run while traveling with the Doctor, but it was the first time she'd been running like this: alone instead of keeping pace with another person and to somewhere rather than away from somewhere.
Before, she'd run for a bit, get winded, have to slow to a jog or a walk for a while until she had caught her breath enough to run again. That's what pretty much everyone except for famous athletes did.
But Marion wasn't slowing down and she didn't feel like slowing down. She could feel the tall dewey glass brushing against her ankles as she ran and ran.
There was no burning in her lungs and there was no soreness in her feet.
There was just her running and it felt great. Was this why people took up running as a hobby? God she felt great. The next time she arrived at St. Lukes's, maybe she'd run around the grounds a bit.
Marion was about halfway to the tunnel when she finally spotted two soldiers ahead of her on the path and heading in the direction of the hidden guerillas. The two of them heard her and turned as Marion slowed down and nearly tripped. She swung her arms to steady herself.
"Who-," started the one on the left.
"Miss Henson!" said the one on the right. It was hard for Marion to tell if that was a greeting or an answer.
"Hi," Marion waved stiffly.
She had run for that long and that far and she didn't even need to stop to catch her breath before she could begin talking.
"Good morning, you two need to leave," she said quickly. Best to get the important parts out of the way first. "And, if there's anyone else patrolling nearby, they should also leave. And stay away from the main house for a little bit."
"I don't think we can do that Miss." said the man on the left. The man on the right shook his head.
"That's Marion Henson," he said, pointing at her.
"And what about it?"
"What about- it's- she's Marion Henson. THE Marion Henson. If she tells you you shouldn't be somewhere then you shouldn't be there."
"But-"
The man on the right put his hand on the man on the left's shoulder. He looked serious.
"We tell Brigadier why we left and then he'll talk to Marion and confirm it. If Miss Henson says we need to leave,"
"And I do say!"
"Then we need to leave."
Marion nodded enthusiastically. "You should go like, now. For the time being, stay away from the tunnels and away from the Auderly house."
The man on the left seemed hesitant, but the man on the right seemed insistent that his partner come with him and that seemed enough.
The two of them started to walk in the opposite direction that had been before. Marion gave them a thumbs up and started to run again..
Marion was rapidly approaching the lake or the river or the body of water or whatever it was and the bricks on the tunnel wall.
Marion wondered if she could make the Doctor get a cell phone of their own sometime earlier than Nine or Ten or Eleven or whomever got ahold of it first so she could send him a text. Something like "If I'm not back in like, 10 minutes, hide"
Marion slowed down to a jog, and then a walk, and then stood still. A couple more steps and a turn to the left and she'd be looking inside of the tunnel and straight at a group of three justifiably angry individuals who- might shoot first and ask questions later with rayguns that caused anything they shot at to turn into smoking rubble.
Huh.
Well, if it was that bad of an idea, the Associate would've left a note telling her not to do it along with the clothes. That's how time travel worked. Probably. Maybe.
…
Maybe Five had a point when he accused her of being impulsive.
Marion took a deep breath, a few steps forward, and turned in view of the tunnel.
"DON'T SHOOT!" she said loudly. Her hands up in the air showing she was unarmed. "Please don't shoot. I just want to talk."
"Then talk."
There were three people. A man with a mustache, a man without a mustache, and a woman. The man in the mustache was holding the raygun at her face with his finger resting on the trigger ready to pull. The woman was the one who spoke.
"I- right. I know why you're here. And don't get me wrong, I get why you're here. I'm not here to give you some lecture about how you should be the bigger person and I'm sure you're under the idea that this is the most effective way to fix the 22nd century, and given the-"
"Get to the point." The man with the gun said sharply.
Ah yes. She was rambling. Not everyone was as patient with her anxious rambling. That's right.
"Sir Reginald Styles isn't your enemy. He's not the one who'll set that bomb that'll blow up all the world leaders and give the- them the opportunity to take over"
Marion didn't remember if the average everyday person knew that the Daleks were in control and not those cavemen looking guys and now was not the time where giving extra information that she shouldn't know was useful. It might make them even more suspicious of her which she didn't need right now.
The woman stared at her.
"And how would you know that?"
Marion pointed at herself.
"Marion Henson, 21st century."
This was both the truth, and not the answer to their question.
"She's lying." said the man without the beard. He pointed his gun at her face. "I saw her talking with Styles earlier. Just before he closed the blinds. She's working for him. If she is telling the truth about being from the 21st century, I bet they send her back from the 21st century to stop us."
"I'm not- I don't work for Reginald Styles."
"You looked quite chummy with him last night."
"That's not Sir Styles. That's the Doctor."
Did that name mean anything to them? Probably not. It would be nice if it had.
Now all three of them had their guns trained on her. As far as social interactions went, this one was not her best work.
"She's clearly there as a distraction. We've only got one shot at this, we can't afford to screw up." said the man without a beard to the man with the beard.
And they were no longer talking to her. Super. Super Duper.
"She's a traitor to humanity." he replied back.
Wow, awesome. Amazing. This was going so well.
Maybe, Marion should've just turned around and headed back to the manor after talking with the two soldiers.
Moment to moment, what happened next was like this.
Marion saw a bright light and she heard a high-pitched noise and she smelled ozone and she felt like she was on fire and then she felt nothing at all.
Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock
'Well, that hurt.' Marion thought. Nowhere near as much as getting stabbed, or hit by a cyberman blast or even wearing a sweater that was on fire. It was more painful than getting decapitated though. That was something she knew first hand. There were few people who could say a thing like that.
But, considering how little change her talking to the trio had done in the long run, it might have been a better idea to follow after two soldiers and wait for the group to come with to the manor since they were going to already. I mean, what did she expect to happen? Them to realize that Marion had their best interest at heart, trust her without question, and thus avoid this whole fiasco from the start?
It would've been nice. It would be marvelous. Instead, she simply got shot. With a ray gun that disintegrated everything it shot.
Wait.
Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick
The sound of the clocks ticking abruptly faded and was replaced with the sound of running water and rustling grass. She was sprawled out on the ground and she could feel wet dew under her palms and the nape of her neck and thankfully nowhere else.
Marion hesitated for a moment, and then lifted a hand up. Her arm wasn't bare. She was looking at fabric, not skin.
Thank God.
She turned her head to the side. She could see the three soldiers walking away with a purpose. They weren't looking back at her, which, fair enough. They had shot her with a gun that disintegrated people.
Once they were far enough away that she couldn't see them and she was sure that they weren't going to turn around, Marion sat up and examined herself carefully.
She could see where she'd gotten shot. There was a large dark grey smudge on her shirt and she could feel a warm spot that was quickly getting cooler. She rubbed the fabric between her fingers. It felt slightly thinner than the rest of the shirt.
The shirt was ruined, at least she wasn't lying naked in the moor. She had a change of clothes in her bag…which she had left on the couch where she'd been sleeping.
Okay, so it was really for the best that she'd been wearing clothes made of whatever this material was.
Marion carefully rolled from her back and got into a low crouch. She was thankful that the grasses on the grounds were so overgrown. There was more cover that way.
So now, she just had to get back to the manor. Without the soldiers seeing her and shooting her again.
The soldiers that were between her and the manor and walking along the path Marion knew for sure led to the manor. As in there was no way to follow that path herself without them finding her.
Oh. Boy.
The good thing was that the three of them mostly stuck together and were therefore on side of the building. The other good thing was the fact that they had no reason to look for them. And yet another positive thing was the fact that she could get there faster than them on the grounds that once she started running, she could keep running indefinitely without needing to stop to catch her breath.
Marion took a long roundabout way, keeping in mind roughly where the direction of the manor was. She wanted to make a wide circle and then come through the other side. Marion could see the manor in the distance by the time Marion started to feel an impending sense of doom and had managed to make it through a fortunately unlocked back door just as the sense of doom turned into vertigo.
She hadn't seen any UNIT soldiers, but she figured that maybe the two that she had met had told people to clear out? Or maybe it had only been the two this early in the morning and no one else had arrived yet.
Either way, Marion saw no one when she made her first few steps into the manor house and she continued to hear nothing but her own footsteps she heard the loud shouts of the Doctor fighting (and Marion wondered why Three seemed to be capable of fighting while Four just got his ass repeatedly handed to them), the loud beeping of the Time Machine and the sound of one of the soldiers begging the Doctor to turn the machine off.
Marion decided to move a little bit faster, she ducked into the room from a side entrance.
"What the hell!"
Marion heard a woman's voice say as Marion leaned down to the machine and flipped the switch. She hoped that she had gotten to it quick enough that the Daleks didn't know their location, but she doubted her luck.
She looked up to see the woman from before holding her gun up at the Doctor and the man without the beard holding Jo in an armlock. The Doctor had gotten up off the couch where he'd been holding down the man with the mustache when he'd seen Jo. It was the same couch that Marion had slept on early, and she knew because there was her bag, resting on top of the arm rest. All three of the soldiers stared at Marion in shock as she threw the bag over her shoulders and not so subtly stood in between the Doctor and the people with guns.
"Let go of Jo!"
"You were killed on the moor!" the man said in disbelief.
"Clearly I wasn't and clearly, you didn't hear me. Let go of Jo."
Neither of them lowered their guns, the woman stared at her in recognition. As if a complicated puzzle had finally slid into place.
"Let the girl go." the woman ordered. After a moment of silent communication, Jo was let go and she stared between the four of them.
"Twenty-First century, female, curly brown hair…" Marion heard the woman mutter under her breath.
Maybe something was ringing a bell and she had realized that she'd made a terrible mistake.
"I'm sorry to say this, but you've been deceived. I don't blame you," the woman continued. Marion was still standing in front of the Doctor. The woman simply had her gun aimed at the Doctor's head rather than his chest. "Look at him. Outwardly so innocent looking but capable of such crimes. Who would ever know?"
Oh definitely not.
"My dear young lady," the Doctor rebutted, "I'm afraid I haven't the slightest idea what you're talking about."
"You have said and done enough," the woman replied sharply, "The time has come for your execution."
"Execution?"
"Those are our orders."
"And they're not going to be carried out." Marion said, trying to sound like the room wasn't spinning. There were two people pointing guns at the Doctor. She was fairly certain that she could tackle one of them. And since Three was Three, he'd naturally go to tackle the other one.
"May I ask who's orders?" the Doctor asked.
"It is no concern of yours. Shura." The woman nodded her head towards the man with the mustache. Marion pivoted her foot in case things went' differently and she had to launch herself at him.
"But he hasn't done anything! He's a scientist!" Jo insisted.
"No last words of repentance, Sir Reginald? Not even for deceiving those two."
"I have nothing to apologize for. You're the one who's making a fundamental mistake."
"And that is?"
"I literally told you in the moor. Right before you Shot Me."
Technically, it wasn't that big of a deal. But she was going to continue bringing it up.
"A question of mistaken identity. I am not Sir Reginald Styles."
"Is that the best you can do. The same lie you told these two."
Holy shit. Marion knew that people tended to twist the facts around to suit their theory rather than twisting theories to suit the facts but this was fucking ridiculous. Listening to this woman deny reality like this was genuinely more painful than getting decapitated.
"But it's true! Sir Reginald-" Jo tried to say until the man without a beard turned his gun toward her.
"HEY!" Marion said sharply. "DON'T YO-"
"Sir Reginald-" the Doctor finished where Jo left off and cutting Marion off before she could properly start or finish her threat. "is at this moment many thousands of miles away. In Peking, to be precise."
"You're still lying!"
"No, I'm not," the Doctor insisted, "He flew there yesterday."
"I do not believe you."
The Doctor gestured with his head towards the copy of the financial times on the table. The woman looked at it for a moment, and then passed it to the man with th- Shura. That was the man with the mustache's name. He took it from her, and nodded.
"I'm sorry to disappoint you," the Doctor said quietly as if they had traveled back in time to meet someone who they thought was a celebrity but turned out to be a random nobody and a historical figure they wanted to assassinate. "By the way," the Doctor gestured towards the machine, "that machine of yours is a bit antiquated, isn't it? Do you mind if I suggest some improvements and-"
"Shut. Up."
The man held up his gun again.
Nausea hadn't increased at all the entire time she stood there and her arm hadn't started to hurt. The danger was present, but it wasn't elevating. That was good. But Marion was getting, well, sick of it.
"It's a trick," said the man without a beard, "Kill him now."
"If you're going to do that, I'd recommend you shoot me too and give yourself a head start.". Marion said in a cheerful tone of voice that didn't match her expression.
It was an empty threat, but only because if he DID shoot the Doctor, time would reset and bring the Doctor back to life and there would be no way to attack the man without either looking like she'd lost it, or explaining to the Doctor about her funky relationship with the passage of time.
"If you are not Sir Reginald Styles," the woman demanded, "who are you and what are you doing in his house?"
"Well, believe it or believe it not, I came here to see you."
"We're wasting time, Anat," said the man without the beard, "Here, I'll do it."
The nausea was turning to dizziness and that wouldn't do. Marion's hand shot out and grabbed the man's wrist tight and moved his hand so his gun was pointing at the ground. The room stopped spinning marginally. The woman- Anat, turned her gun at Marion, although Marion couldn't fathom what she expected to be doing with it.
"Are you trying to give your friend a head start, Miss Anat." Marion asked, a sharp bite to her words.
These three weren't evil. As far as they knew, they were doing good. They thought they were saving their world.
But there was a part of her that felt angry. So, so, so angry.
For a moment, the study seemed silent. The man without a beard attempted to yank his hand out of her grip. Naturally, that attempt at movement did nothing. Marion didn't stop smiling.
For a moment, she felt like she could squeeze tighter. There was something stopping her, sure, but surely if she just- the man's bones. That resistance was the man's bones. She didn't wa-.
She shouldn't break the man's wrist. As far as the man believed, he was staring the the man who's more or less led to the end of the world. He wasn't a bad person.
"Let go of him."
"Is he going to shoot my friend?"
The two woman stared at each other.
"No…"
Marion slowly let go of the man's wrist. She might've left a bruise. The man moved to raise his gun again, but Anat elbowed him.
"Who is in command of this mission!" she said sharply, "We are soldiers, not murderers. Keep guard outside, I'll deal with these three." she ordered the man without the beard, "I said out!" she ordered once more.
"Now then," Anat said as the more trigger happy of her group had left. "answer my question. Who are you and what are you doing here?"
"Well I'm the Doctor," the Doctor said. His tone never wavering. These are my colleagues Marion Henson and Jo Grant."
"We've met." Marion deadpanned.
"And we're here, because you're here."
"Answer my question sensibly. How could you know we were coming?"
Anat seemed significantly less trigger happy than her friend. She still had her gun pointing towards the Doctor, which Marion didn't exactly like, but she was aiming more at chest level where any shots would be intercepted by Marion rather than up at the Doctor's head. So Marion didn't have the urge to tackle her the way she had felt with the man without a mustache.
Helping Anat's case was the fact that once she had ordered the man without a mustache to leave the room, the last of the nausea was gone and Marion was left with just the steady sense of dread.
Not ideal, but an improvement.
"Because" the Doctor said, crossing his arms, "you've already tried to kill Styles once and failed. It was logical that you would try again."
"And you deliberately took his place."
"That's right," the Doctor nodded, "I wanted to talk to you."
"Why?"
"To find out where you came from. And more to the point when."
"A likely-"
From Marion's bag, her phone started to loudly buzz. Anat's gun pointed at her which, again, what the hell did she think that that was going to do?
"What's that?"
"My phone. Someone's calling me."
In another world, two soldiers are asked to patrol the moor near the tunnels. They find the three travelers from the 22nd century. They are never able to report what they've seen because moments later, the travelers see them too and they're shot.
Benton and Yates are concerned about the fact that their men are missing and go inside of the house to investigate. This spooks the travelers and they send the Doctor (who they are pretty sure doomed their future) and his single assistant down to the cellar.
However, this is not that world. In this world, the Doctor's odd Associate woke up just as the sun was rising and raced out to the moor to intercept them and ask them to leave. And luckily, one of them has worked at UNIT long enough to listen.
The phone continued to buzz.
The only people who had access to this number and would call her in this timezone were the Brigadier and MAYBE the Doctor. And she doubted that Twelve or whomever would be calling her at this time.
"It's probably the Brigadier-" Marion noticed Shura start to speak and continued to talk as if he hadn't. "And if I don't answer it, he's probably going to set soldiers down to the manor to see why."
"Answer it then. And trying anything or…" Shura pointed the gun at Jo.
"Head. Start."
She tapped the button to answer and held the phone up to her ear.
"Hello Hello!"
"Miss Henson!"
"Brigadier"
Whatever microphone he was using managed to sound worse than the one he had by Robot. Marion could understand it just fine obviously, but whatever receiver he was using was compressing his voice to hell and back.
"Are you, Jo, and the Doctor still in the manor?"
"Yes we are."
"Did you talk to Corporal Cahill and Private Stevens?"
"If that was their names, then yes."
"Cahill radioed us and said you told him and Stevens to leave the grounds and to tell everyone else to stand clear of the tunnels and Auderly house."
"I did."
"Auderly house is where the three of you are."
"Yes."
"The place you told my soldiers to stay clear of?"
"Well, it's fine if we're here."
"Is it the soldiers from before?"
"Yeah, Brigadier. Just the Three of us are here."
"There's three of them?"
"Got it!"
"Are they listening,"
"Why of course Brigadier!"
"So you're limited in what you can say."
"Yes!"
"Do you need backup at the manor.."
"Well not now. Maybe a little bit later."
"Are you sure Marion? How long?"
"Oh," Marion made a point of glancing towards the grandfather clock. "I woke up a couple of hours ago."
"Two hours from now?"
"Give or take. Anyway, the three of us are a bit busy Brigadier. Do you need anything else?"
"No…"
"That's great!"
Marion hung up the phone
"What were you talking about?" Anat asked Marion sharply, "What did he say"
"Oh, he was just wondering how we were doing. We've been here for a while. Naturally, the Brigadier was concerned and he wanted a heads up."
"Why did you talk about how long you'd been awake?"
"My sleep schedule is very bad because I travel so much I'm basically in a constant state of jetlag. The Brigadier was making sure I hadn't overslept, again.."
Anat stared at Marion.
"Boaz is patrolling the perimeter. If you're lying, he'll know soon enough. But if it's all the same to you, I'd rather you three follow us. Just in case."
Process of elimination says that Boaz was the name of the man without the beard. That's neat. What wasn't so neat was the fact that the three were still marching them towards the cellar. They shoved the Doctor and Jo towards a wall. Instead of letting her join them, Anat grabbed ahold of Marion's arm.
"Not you."
"What?"
The woman sharply jabbed Marion in the chest. Right, where her shirt had been scorched.
"Boaz shot you."
Marion blinked.
"You don't say."
"And you're alive."
"That's the current series of events, yes. Didn't we go over this "
"And according to you, you're from the 21st century. And that phone of yours confirms it."
"Yes…"
Marion didn't know where the woman was going with this. She didn't know Anat chose to focus on those specific details again.
"You can join your friends over there." the woman said finally.
"Okay…"
Marion turned her back to the woman then the following events happened in this order.
First, Marion heard Jo scream her name. And then she heard a loud noise, the sharp smell of ozone, and a terrible burning pain in the small of her back.
"Goddamnit"
Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock
Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick.
"-ON"
Marion wasn't in the clock zone for long this time. But when she woke up, the world was moving. Was it an earthquake of some kind?
"-RION"
Was the cellar collapsing?
"MARION!"
No. Someone shaking her.
"Now, Jo just give her a moment."
Marion sat up and rubbed the back of her neck.
Anat and Shura were standing at the entrance of the cellar, blocking the exit.
"Why though?" Marion asked quietly.
"We had to be sure!" said Shura.
"S-"
"Sure of what!" Jo shouted. "You didn't need to shoot her!"
"I'm alright Jo." Marion said plainly.
"But what if you weren't?"
First Five, now Jo.
"What if the streets were made of pudding?"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Don't worry."
"Yes," Shura called over. "Listen to her, she's fine. She's the Woman Who Won't Die!"
He said that it was a title that Marion should recognize. It was technically a true way to refer to her, but the way that woman said it had sort of an emphasis to it. Like it was as much a title as it was a name.
The woman down at her wrist. She said something to Shura that Marion couldn't pick up.
"We'll be back in a moment," she said as she and her companion went up.
"Marion, would you like to join us in the study."
"No thanks."
"Then you can keep these two from leaving the cellar then."
Marion blinked. That had turned so much it felt like whiplash.
"I'll be outside of the door." said Boaz. "If you change your mind, you're more than welcome to join us."
"What?"
"Of course, if you try to open the door, I'll have to make sure that it's you, you understand. And if it's not-" the man gestured with his gun.
"Ah. Okay." A threat.
Great, things had stopped being so confusing.
And then the two of them left.
So, they were still stuck in the cellar, but at least they weren't tied up this time.
Marion felt Jo's arms wrap around her in a tight hug.
"Why Jo, was that the first time I died around you?"
"No. But I hate it when you do that. You're so still! Not to mention the fact that you don't even seem to care! It worries me."
Now seemed like as good a time as any to attempt some good old-fashioned deflection.
"Oh of course I care Jo. What'd it look like,"
"Marion-"
"I'm curious! I got hit by a disintegration ray! What'd it look like-"
"Oh, it was awful!"
"Doctor, what did it look like," Marion tried.
"The gun just went off and you were on the ground. The light blinded us for a moment and the next, you were on the ground. If you're asking about the gory details, we didn't see any of them."
Marion thought for a moment. "Ah. I hope that it looked cool."
"Marion, I'm not sure that looking 'cool' should be your main priority when it comes to nearly getting yourself killed. Your main priority should be keeping that from happening."
"Oh don't worry about that Jo. It is!" That was a lie but it was what Jo wanted to hear and it was the statement that would cause the least chaos and drama so it might as well have been the truth, Marion figured. "But if that option is unavailable, I would like to at the very least look cool."
Jo glared at her.
"Okay. Not funny. I can take the hint. Doctor, do you know anything about what they were talking about. I mean, with what they called me. The Woman Who Won't Die"
"It's an accurate way of referring to you. I'll be it simple."
"No, but you heard the way she said it." Marion began pacing, "She said it like a title. Like something I'd be known by."
"Well, it wouldn't surprise me if you were well known. I mean you and I haven't exactly been inconspicuous as we travel."
"But why wouldn't you recognize you then? Why wouldn't the Doctor ring a bell?"
"Well, I've changed quite a bit over the years." The Doctor replied. "And I'll probably change in the future. Hopefully not for a long while yet of course,"
"Yeah." Marion said, hoping that she had managed to sound just cheerful enough to not sound fake.
Had the Doctor lied. Did he know that she knew what his current face would look like when he breathed his last and was just fucking with her?
Marion just didn't think that Three would do something like that.
"So wherever they came from, they must know you or at the very least, know about you. Enough to know that you're from the 21st century and are unkillable."
"Where'd they come from, anyway."
"Well, technologically speaking, that gun of theirs is about two hundred years ahead of its time. Your time, that is," the Doctor pointed to Jo, "The twenty-second century visiting the twentieth. A planned expedition through time to meet and kill an important politician. Now, why?"
"It's because they think Style is the reason why the future sucks."
"Why?"
"Because they think Style is the reason why the future sucks."
"That's what you just said Marion."
"I know. It's a paradox"
The Doctor rubbed his chin in thought. "He's obviously not only important to us, he's also important to them. Or history, their history, must talk a lot about Sir Reginald Styles, I think. Is that right Marion?"
The woman nodded.
"You mean, they traveled back in our time to try and change history?"
"That's the long and short of it. What they're trying to change is bad enough that they're willing to kill over it."
"Is it really that bad?" Jo asked.
Marion nodded.
Jo sighed. "You know, I just don't get it, that changing history theory-"
"It's not a theory, it's what's happening."
"It just doesn't fit them. They seem more like a bunch of thugs to me. I mean they killed Marion! And then if once wasn't enough, they did it again just to prove a point."
Jo was still on about that? It was a good thing Marion hadn't ended up in this time after the incident with the Malus. If Jo freaked out about that, Marion
"Fanatics Jo," the Doctor corrected, "Not thugs. Changing history is a fanatical idea you know."
"And it's rarely anyone's plan A. The times are desperate and so are the measures. They're trying to-" Marion's phone buzzed again.
Marion didn't know what Thirteen had done to her phone, but she was amazed that she was getting a signal in a wine cellar of all places.
Marion gestured to the door where there was presumably Shura still on the other side.
"Keep Talking" Marion mouthed.
She stepped further way from the door.
"Hello Hello! Brigadier!" Marion said, lowering her voice.
"Should we send the troops over now?"
"Oh you can I suppose. But, like, they're this other group of soldiers coming that's armed and it'll take you several machine gun rounds to take one down and they're all armed with those instant kill guns so it would be better if you told your men to avoid and sneak around them rather than attack them head on."
The Brigadier's voice became even more muffled, like he'd moved slightly away from the receiver so that he could repeat what she'd said.
"Is there anything else?"
"I'd appreciate it if you hung up the phone and called the Auderly House instead."
"The three people you mentioned would be able to listen in, wouldn't they?"
"Well, yes,"
"Then why call the house instead."
"Because being sent upstairs to answer the phone is the path of least resistance to getting out of the cellar without the Doctor or Jo getting killed."
"Or Marion getting shot for a third time!" Jo said, leaning close to the phone.
"Or that. But mostly the thing with Jo and the Doctor."
"MARION!"
The Brigadier was silent for a moment. Marin would've thought that the phone had given out if not for the fact that Marion could still faintly hear fuzzy chatter from the other end of the line.
"Brigadier?"
The man hung up.
A few moments later, Marion could hear a faint ringing sound from somewhere above them. Marion could hear the sound of the cellar door opening, and she moved away from the corner and closer to the door.
Boaz was standing at the top of the stairs looking down at them.
"The phone's ringing. Anat is worried that they might send over someone after all if Marion's the only one answering them. Get up here and don't try anything funny."
Anat held the phone out for the Doctor this time. The Doctor and the Brigadier spoke for a while. Anat's hand never left her gun, but she also wasn't pointing it directly at Doctor's while he made his call, so there was that.
Marion couldn't hear more than a light mumble, but Boaz and Anat were standing far closer to the Doctor than she was. She could barely make out the low sounds of the Brigaider's voice, although it wasn't enough for her to piece together the words. However, she was confident that Anat and Boaz could hear them just fine.
"Hello? Hello?"
"Yes?"
"Ah!"
"Yes, fine, Brigadier. Yes, things couldn't be better."
"Well, Styles does have a fine selection of wines in the cellar! Marion and I went down and I suppose that her phone couldn't get a strong enough signal."
"You'd have to ask Marion about that, but I don't think that sounds very wise."
"No, she's fine."
"Yes, well, you tell Captain Yates not to worry. Everything's fine. And tell old Styles too, and the Prime Minister."
"Oh, and Brigadier? Don't forget to tell it to the Marines. Goodbye."
Anat hung the phone back up.
She and Boaz looked at each other and grinned.
"He's coming!" she exclaimed "Sir Reginald Styles is coming here."
"Well, that surprises you?" the Doctor remarked, "I should have thought with your insight into the future… he trailed off. "Oh no, in your case, it'd be the past, wouldn't it."
"The conference tomorrow night. Our dates were right after all!" Boaz exclaimed.
"All we have to do is to wait here until he returns and then-"
Marion heard rapid movement somewhere behind her and quick footsteps. She along with everyone else turned their heads sharply towards the source of the noise and, right on cue, there was Jo Grant, holding up the black time machine box and glaring daggers at Anat and Boaz.
She held it, as if she was moments from slamming it on the ground as hard as she could.
The two pointed their raygun towards the woman. Marion turned her back to Jo and moved in between the soldiers and Jo.
"Right!" Marion could hear Jo order from behind her.. "Drop your guns! If you don't, I'll smash this to pieces."
"Jo, be careful with that," Marion whispered over her shoulder.
"I've only just got it in working order!"
Jo lowered her voice to what was almost a hiss.
"I mean it!"
"Stupid child!" Anat's voice went down to a whisper, but it sounded panicked. "You do not know what you are doing."
"Oh yes I do. You're going to let us both out or you'll be stranded here forever. That's right, isn't it Marion?"
Before Marion could reply, Boaz cut her off. "We don't need that machine. We have another one."
"The man who owned that machine is dead. His body is back in our time zone." Anat added.
And that answered Marion's question about the guy from before.
"You're bluffing!" Jo retorted.
"Put it down, don't be silly."
"Jo-" Marion heard a buzzy synth noise, felt warmth, and smelled something like paint.
She turned around just in time to get one final look at Jo Grant as she was engulfed by a sphere of golden light and vanished without a trace.
Next Chapter: Of Highs and Lows
Jo: Marion, there's nothing funny about them firing their rayguns at you. Twice.
Marion: Sure there is, if you're willing to give it a shot.
Jo:…
Jo: DOCTOR!
I know I say every semester that I might have time to write despite the fact that that hasn't really been true since Fall of 2020, but apparently, this semester is supposed to be more chill than previous semesters and the only Gen Ed course I have left is a physical fitness one that's not going to have me doing like, essays and worksheets and stuff so honestly, there might be a chance this time.