Ahoj. By the time you are reading this, the school year will have started, and most likely, chapter 66 will be done and I will have started to write chapter 67. This means that I can guarantee monthly chapters up until January. After that. Well. February is a possibility. But I don't know if I'm going to have enough time on my hands to write up March and April's chapters before March and April hit.

Still, a 2-3 month hiatus isn't THAT bad, all things considered, And there'll be side stories in between.

Speaking of side stories. I posted the first chapter of "Death was a Temporary Inconvenience" which is the title of the side story fic as voted for by people on tumblr.

The first side story involves an Ian, Barbara, Vicki era First Doctor thinking about Marion and whether or not her actions (being fiercely protective and kind) outweigh the fact he's seen how comfortable she is with lying at the drop of a hat.

(Although she might be lying about less than he thinks).

Here are some quick acknowledgments

thanks to the following for favoriting: wolfren-hy, iiKikiRocksii, SilentDeath0123

thanks to the following for following and favoriting: danielh646646, emilynotarianni

thanks to the following for reviewing: Emrys Akayuki, Lady Shalpha, andre-papushi, iHateFridays

Dymond greeted them with a pair of guards standing behind him. The guards were wearing all-black military-style uniforms and black caps while Dymond was wearing one of the smuggest expressions Marion had ever seen.

Marion was unaware if he "knew" that they were narcotics officers, but Tryst knew so it was likely.

Dymond clearly thought that he was one step ahead of them. Unfortunate.

"Ah, Doctor," Dymond greeted and gestured to his two men, "This is Waterguard Fisk and Landing Officer Costa of the Azurian Excise. I've been telling them-"

"Good, good. Now-"

"Doctor."

Marion cut off the Doctor. It was important that she said her thing before either of the guards had a chance to say their thing.

"Excuse me officers," Marion held her wallet case in her hand. She fidgeted with it, opening and closing it. They could see it, and a brief flash of ID, but not the ID itself. "You won't mind if I asked for your identification would you?"

Marion asked firmly, but professionally.

If she asked for identification, before they asked for identification, then maybe she could spin things around in a way that worked better. It seemed like it might work. Fisk reached for his pocket while Costa didn't. The other held out his hand to stop them.

Before he could open his mouth to say anything, she continued to talk. "Because my team and I have been investigating drug smuggling on these ships ever since the-," Marion cut herself off. It was less about spoilers. Her main thought process was the idea of making it seem like she had almost slipped up and said something important. "-nevermind that. It's just awfully odd to me that the pair of you show up right in the middle of the investigation. So I'm going to need to see your identification please."

The man who had been willing to show him his from the start retrieved it and held it for Marion to look at.

She had the added motive of wanting to get at least some idea of how early-century IDs looked. So that she could make her psychic paper lie all the more realistic. She didn't know if she really needed to do all that. But like…

Still, she examined the first man's ID, and then handed it back to him. With a little nudge from his partner, Costa showed her his ID.

Marion nodded as if she'd be able to tell at a glance if those IDs had been fake or not. "Lovely to meet you, gentlemen. I'm Inspector Marion Henson." She flashed her psychic paper at the man. Long enough for him to look, but not long enough for him to notice any of the inconsistencies that were no doubt there.

The men seemed satisfied with her, and he turned to look at the Doctor and Romana. Marion subtly passed the wallet case to the Doctor.

"And your identification?" The Doctor flashed him the same card.

"And hers,"

"Yes, Romana." Marion said, "Could you please show them your ID? It should be in that pocket of your dress."

"Marion?"

"Remember what we talked about…" Marion did her best to assume the tone of someone who was tired of their coworker forgetting something important in order to disguise her actual intentions. Romana was an incredibly intelligent woman. She'd figure it out. The other woman's eyes widened and she pat at the pocket of her dress, slowly at first, and then frantically. She was a good actress.

"It's gone!"

"What do you mean 'it's gone.'" Marion asked, trying to sound confused and horrified.

"I mean it's gone. I don't have it!"

"You just-" Marion closed her eyes and opened them again. She pointedly took a deep breath in and out. "Ok." she sighed, "Okay. When is the last time you saw it? Was it before, or after you got bit by whatever was near in the lounge and got knocked out."

Romana seemed to catch her goal. "Before."

Marion summoned the loudest and most long-suffering groan that she could manage. She closed her eyes and pinched her nose. "Okay. Well, we'll have to report that as stolen I guess," She summoned the largest "Holy fuck I'm going to have to fill out so much paperwork about this. Jesus Christ." exasperated sigh and expression. "We'll worry about that later after we've found the source of the Vraxion. I suppose."

"Vraxion?" asked Fisk.

"Yes!" the Doctor chimed in, "Vraxoin is the biggest killer drug in existence and it's on this ship!"

"We have reason to believe that the reason why this incident occurred in the first place was due to the navigator taking Vraxion." She gestured her head towards the Doctor, "He found some in one of the storage lockers. Someone stunned him and stole it from him."

"Hmph," remarked Costa. "That seems to happen to you and your colleagues an awful lot."

"Yup." Marion remarked. She put as much annoyance and frustration in that single syllable as she could manage. "This happens far too often, it's very… I'm thinking of putting an order in for locked bags. Something like that. But I don't know if the main office'll spring for them." Marion trailed off. "Anyway. Dymond." Marion looked directly at Dymond and how disappointed he looked. "Did you just call us here just to meet these gentlemen, or did you need something."

Already, things were going far differently than they had in the show.

In this series of events, there is someone with a psychic-powered fake ID and no qualms about lying if it means avoiding a dumb and ultimately pointless chase, a case of mistaken identity, or false imprisonment.

Dymond's goal was to get them arrested, then it was a good effort. Unfortunately, not good enough.

Marion did her best to resist the temptation to grin at him cheekily. The man glared at him and Marion pretended not to notice.

"Just thought that since you were helping to separate the ships, you ought to be informed about them."

"Thank you," Marion replied. She looked away from him and towards Fisk. "Enjoy your investigation. Etcetera, Etcetera. Oh, and be careful what you eat and drink/ I have reason to believe that the smugglers might attempt to slip people Vraxion in order to keep them from being taken seriously and also to get rid of them entirely. It wouldn't shock me if that's what happened to poor Mr. Secker. So be careful." What Marion was about to say was something that she knew she probably shouldn't say, but couldn't resist saying anyway. "Oh, Dymond. That goes for you too."

"Me?" the man froze.

"Yes of course," Marion smiled. "You were drinking earlier. It would be terrible if someone slipped something into your drink. Such a terrible thing to do to another person."

She looked away from them and towards Romana and the Doctor. "Shall we leave, I want to get a good look at that machine of Trysts."

"What would have happened if you hadn't said anything?" the Doctor asked as they walked back to the first-class lounge.

"Nothing catastrophic," Marion explained, "Just annoying. They ask for identification, you don't have identification, they ask for names and days of birth. You don't give them. They get mad. Doctor, do you even know when your birthday is?"

"Not in a human sense," he replied.

It occurred to Marion, that the Doctor would have no way of knowing when his true birthday was but, the more she knew the Doctor, the angrier thinking anything related to the Timeless Child made her feel angry. So she decided to push that down. Perhaps until she set foot on Gallifrey and needed to punch someone.

"Why? If you don't mind me asking. Is it because you're old?"

"Marion, I'll have you know that by Time Lord standards, I'm barely middle-aged!"

"On Gallifrey. After a certain span of time coincidentally more or less the same amount of time as a typical Earth year the suns and the moons align and then everyone is considered a year older." Romana seemed to be doing some quick mental calculations, "By your calendar, it's sometime in late November.".

"Oh!" Marion nodded, "I think they do something like that in South Korea. In South Korea, you aren't a year older until New Year's, but they do celebrate the exact day with cake and gifts and stuff."

"Most people don't know the exact day on Gallifrey." Romana explained "I suppose you could check the archives to find out how many days before the eclipse you drew your first breath, but it's just not a thing one does. It's not forbidden or anything. It's just not a common thing to search unless you need the information for some reason. Now, Marion, back on topic. What would happen after failed to reveal our day of birth."

"They'd scan you two over for Vraxion. They spot residue in the Doctor's coat, they put you two under arrest. You make a distraction and then the two of you make a run for it, you go inside of the Eden projection to hide."

"So what should we do now?" Romana asked.

"Go inside the Eden projection. Not to hide, but we do need to be there right now." Marion said without missing a beat as they entered back into the lounge.

She stood next to CET machine for a moment, hoping that just by looking at it, she could figure out what button did what, what each switch was for, and which little notch by the dial pointed to whatever it was aiming at the same way that she had always been able to figure out how a shower worked.

She couldn't.

"Romana, do you know how to get that thing working?"

"The Eden projection. We need to get inside of it. I just said that we needed to get inside of it."

Romana looked up at her. "Marion, we'll be torn apart."

"Romana, we won't. And if you want to get to the bottom of what's going on, we need to go there."

"Marion-"

"Romana. Trust me. I know what I'm talking about. This is the only way, and it'll be fine. The projection is stable enough for us to walk inside, and if any creatures come after you two, I'll handle it. I promise."

"Come on."

Romana pressed a button. The way to Eden opened.

Marion lept over the side of the panel and landed safely on the other side. She would've been able to notice something was different even if she had been blindfolded. The air felt different, muggier. If the air got any more humid, it was going to rain, but the air was going to stay at the same level of uncomfortably thick. She was suddenly surrounded by new and unfamiliar smells that were strong enough that you'd think she'd have been able to smell them from the lounge if it had just been a normal open window. Marion could hear creatures chirping and churring and rustling the breeze.

Marion turned around and looked back to the first-class lounge and gestured beckoned them inside.

Romana and the Doctor looked at each other and then joined her on the other side.

Marion looked at the Doctor's outfit and wondered how he wasn't dying in this humidity. Her romper was lightweight and breathable, but even she was feeling stifled. And a little bit dizzy.

But then again, Marion wasn't positive if that was the humidity or something else.

"Well," the Doctor asked them both, "how do you like Eden?"

"I don't," said Romana.

"It's very humid," said Marion. "Still, it's where we've got to be right now."

"Which way should we go, Marion,"

Marion shrugged. "I don't know Doctor. Just pick a way and go."

The Doctor nodded and looked around the area. He pointed straight ahead. "East."

"How do you know that way is East?" Romana questioned.

"I don't. We'll go that way and we'll call it east."

"Why not call it north?"

"All right," the Doctor nodded, "we'll call it north"

"North-east?"

In the distance, something loud and terrible roared loudly. Marion jumped. She rummaged through her bag for her knife and held it gently in the palm of her hand. Romana and the Doctor hunched down.

"Can we go," he whispered loudly, "Please?"

Romana and Marion nodded and they walked deeper into the forest. With Marion in front with her knife out. Her knife was doing an alright job at clearing away the foliage, but she was starting to wish that she had a bigger knife.

Maybe if she had thrown something else at the Bishop to distract him, she could keep that huge ass kitchen knife that he'd stabbed her in the back with.

"Be careful where you step," Marion murmured.

"How did you know we could get into the projection?" Romana asked.

"Same way I know most things," Marion replied. "But if you want to get specific with it. I knew it because the Doctor knew it the same way that he knows that he can walk inside of the TARDIS."

"A relative dimensional field?"

Marion shrugged. "I suppose. If that's what it's called Romana. I don't know much about that."

"Hmm." the Doctor murmured. "You see Marion, All this is recorded on laser crystal. When it's played back-"

"It's restructured on an intradimensional matrix." Romana finished.

"Well, roughly speaking."

"So without the dimensional osmosis damper, everything gets mixed up together and we can just walk straight into the projection."

"On all sides." Marion finished. "That's how the monsters from earlier got out."

Marion continued to walk until she was suddenly stopped, nearly tripping and falling on the ground. The sudden stumble made her vision spin, but that could've just been the hea-

"Oh." Marion said, looking down, "Speaking of monsters."

A vine was slowly creeping up her leg from one of the nearby plants.

She was so thankful that she was wearing clothes that covered her whole leg. Eden had an animal that could explode into cloud of dust that was mostly composed of what was essentially the unholy lovechild of weed and heroin.

She didn't want to know what sort of nonsense chemicals those plants would get into her bare skin.

Marion knelt down with her knife and sliced through it. Instantly, the vine part that was around her leg went limp. She kicked it away from her.

"Marion!" the Doctor called. "A little help?"

Another one of the vines had grabbed hold of the Doctor and was trying to drag him down.

Marion sliced at another one of the vines, but there were far too many of them.

"Marion!" Marion looked down at the vine she was sawing at. She looked up. She felt another vine wrapping around her wrist. She quickly swapped the knife from her right hand to her left.

"Root!"

Marion knew what the Doctor was looking for. Her eyes scanned the ground. She leaned down to reach for it but was stopped but the vine that was creeping further up her shoulder. She could've tried stabbing at it, but the vines wouldn't be gone until the root was gone.

"Marion!" shouted Romana. Marion quickly turned her head to her. "This is the root isn't it?"

Marion figured that Romana could recognize it better than she could. She lunged down at it with her knife. The plant's grip loosened enough on her right arm that she could yank it away, and she added her right hand to her grip and stabbed down at the root over and over again. Something green gushed out of it. Marion continued to stab it until she heard a gasp from a venus flytrap-like mouth and its grip on the Doctor slackened. Marion pocketed the knife and helped the Doctor pull the rest of the vines off him. She looked to Romana, who was kicking even more vines off her legs.

Her hands felt weirdly tingly, probably from whatever sap was on the vines, but that feeling was fading fast.

"Are you alright?" Marion asked. The Doctor leaned down and Marion helped him lift the vine that had coiled around his neck like a noose off him. She dropped it to the ground.

"Yes," said Romana.

Marion crouched down and helped to snip away the vines around her legs as well. She helped her pull those away. Marion stood back up and stretched.

"Good thinking with that knife." the Doctor remarked. He pat her on the shoulder. "We should go now."

Marion nodded.

"Yes. I'll keep in front."

She carefully gripped the knife and held it in front of her. Her eyes scanned back and forth. She knew something was close. Her vision wouldn't be spinning the way that it was otherwise. The spinning was making the search more difficult.

Marion heard a loud growl. Much louder than the one before. Much closer.

Marion and the Doctor made eye contact for a moment and then jumped. The Doctor crouched down behind a rock, pulling Romana with her.

"Doctor?" Romana asked.

"SHHHH" Marion hushed. She crouched down in front of the two of them, doing her best to breathe a little as possible. She held the knife and positioned her legs so that she could easily jump up and lunge at the monster if something got weird and the monster got too close. It was a big enough target. So hopefully, despite the fact that her vision was spinning, she'd be able to get a good shot at it. A good enough one for Romana and the Doctor to run off and get Stott.

The monster was huge, and slowly lumbered past. Marion's eyes tracked it.

"It's gone," whispered the Doctor. "Now take care."

The moment the Doctor went to get up, Marion felt a dull ache in her arm.

Marion started to shake her head and visibly winced. Bad idea.

"Marion?" Romana whispered. "Are you alright"

"Bad idea."

Marion slowly raised her feet. Her knife is loosely in her hands. She thought about the last time she had held this knife this way and knowingly walked towards what she thought was a threat.

Her neck didn't twinge with phantom pain, but the memory caused her to lightly rub at it. When her arm stopped hurting, she knew that she had made the right move.

Marion looked behind her towards the Doctor and Romana held out her hand. She looked back at them just long enough to put a finger to her lips. She slowly turned her head back around. She wasn't getting any dizzier. So that was a good thing.

Marion slowly crept around until she heard a loud growl and something jump up at her. Another one of those monsters. She was about to jump back, and then she realized that the Doctor and Romana were behind her. And if she moved, the monster might see them and get to them before Stott could.

The monster growled again and Marion didn't flinch.

She didn't want to move.

Where the hell was Stott?

The monster growled again. It swung its arm as Marion swung her knife.

Here are some of the sounds that could be heard in the next few seconds in the little pocket of Eden that Tryst had sucked up in his machine.

The wet sound of claws tearing flesh.

A scream from one person.

A shout from a second.

And loud, violent swearing from a third.

And then the repetitive blasting of a futuristic laser pistol.

The monster fled and Marion looked down at her arm.

"-fucking hell." Marion hissed. Far softer than her previous exclamations. She wished that she hadn't looked down. She was so thankful that her romper had short sleeves. She quite liked it. She held it away from her body trying to get the blood away from her clothes.

The good news was that Marion's vision stopped spinning!

"You can come out now!" Marion called over to the Doctor and Romana. She would've told them not to look at her arm, but she was pretty sure that she heard Romana screaming and the Doctor shouting which meant that that ship had sailed.

The wounds were healing. She could feel it. The blood felt weird and the spot felt itchy. She congratulated herself on resisting the urge to scratch. She turned to look at Stott. She followed his eyes to her arm. Marion blinked and then moved it behind her back where it could heal the rest of the way without prying eyes. She held out her left hand to shake.

"Hello again. Thank you for your help."

Marion had hoped that Stott would simply shake her hand and stop asking questions.

"Give me your arm."

"I am!"

"Your other arm. I saw that! You were injured."

"I'm fine actually."

"You're going into shock."

"No."

Marion held the hand in question to show him. There were three shallow scratch marks and a teardrop's worth of blood. It slowly crept back up her arm and then the wound closed the rest of the way. She waved her arm back and forth.

"See? Fine! Thanks for driving that thing off. Though. It might've gotten past me. I'm Marion, and you are?"

Marion knew, but it still was polite to ask.

"Stott." His eyes flickered between Marion's eyes and her arm. Marion hid it back behind her.

"Stott!" Marion jumped. She hadn't realized that the Doctor was standing so close behind her. When had he gotten there? "Stott of the Tryst expedition?"

"Yes."

The Doctor reached into his coat pocket and retrieved the little radiation band Marion had taken off the man while in that intersection.

"You've already met Marion. I'm the Doctor, this is Romana. We're travellers and-"

The Doctor was interrupted by a loud growl. Marion quickly crouched down and retrieved her knife.

"Come on, this way-"

The Doctor went to grab Romana and tug her in the opposite direction. But Stott grabbed his wrist.

"I know a safe place," he said, "Follow me."

Tryst's home base was a large plastic-looking building with diamond-shaped windows. It looked large enough for multiple people to walk around and live in comfortably. There were bunks against the wall, although only one of them had any bedding on it.

Stott closed the door behind them and slid a bolt into place.

"Not bad," the Doctor remarked, looking around. He sat down on one of the nearby stools. "not bad at all. How long have you been here,"

"A hundred and eighty-three days," he said it too quickly for it to not be something he was counting off day after day. "They left me for dead on Eden. I tried to get back here to call the ship, and I got caught up in the event transmuter."

Marion felt bad for the man. Nothing Marion could remember about the man suggested that he deserved this.

"How did you get those marks?" Romana asked, rubbing at the side of her cheek. That seemed like the sort of question that you didn't ask, but Stott didn't seem as offended by the question as one would expect.

Marion wondered how much of that was due to him spending a little over half a year alone.

"A mandrel." he replied, "The thing I saved her from. Wasn't as lucky as she was. Do you have nanogenes under your skin or something?"

"Or something."

"Mandrel," Romana whispered to the Doctor, "Doctor, they're called mandrels"

The Doctor who had been staring out the window, turned around. " Well, Stott, you've got some explaining to do. A hundred and eighty-three days here?"

"Yes. I thought I was going to be stuck here for the rest of my life. There were a few times when I felt like blowing my brains out," Stott said this a bit too casually for Marion's taste. And Marion wasn't the biggest fan of the way he fidgeted with his raygun afterward either. "The hardest thing was being able to look out and see Della."

Marion clicked her tongue sympathetically. "Well I'm glad you didn't-" Marion trailed off realizing that she didn't know how she wanted to end that sentence. "Well, at least you found a way to leave the projection now."

"Tell me," asked the Doctor, "when did you first discover you could get out of the projection?"

"After the accident. Something must have gone wrong with the CET machine. The edge of the projection was shimmering."

"So you decided to walk towards it." Marion sat down on a chair with her legs crossed.

"I decided I had nothing to lose, so I walked straight through it and found myself on the Empress. Then I took one of the passenger coveralls so I could walk about unnoticed."

"Why didn't you tell Tryst and Della you'd got out?" the Doctor asked.

"Because of what I am and what I'm doing."

"Really?"

Stott reached into his pocket and pulled out a clear plastic card. "I'm a Major in the Intelligence section of Space Corps, on a special assignment to find out who's drug running."

Marion got a look at that card. Her own fake ID had been solid, like the guard's but it was good to get a view of what a proper Space Corps ID looked like. Just on the off chance she ever had to be one.

Marion passed the card over to the Doctor who looked at it for a moment and then passed it back to Stott.

"You thought it was us. Didn't you." the Doctor remarked.

"For a while," the man nodded, "Then I overheard you three talking in the lounge. You're also investigating drug smuggling, right? Did they send you after I disappeared.?"

Ah.

So the thing about lying was that it was only good for as long as it was useful, and she wasn't sure how much more use she could get out of this particular lie in this particular situation.

On one hand, Marion could continue to lie to Stott and tell them that they were working for the Narcotics Investigation Bureau or whatever thing that Riggs had suggested that she went along with it. But the downside was that if they were spending time with Stott, he might have questions.

Telling a few lies and half-truths and leaving the room was fine. It was easy. But Stott, Stott might eventually see through them. Or Fisk or Costa might search something on the computer the same way that Riggs had looked up and found out that the Salvage Company the Doctor had mentioned had shut down years ago.

It didn't really matter if Fisk and Costa didn't trust them. Well, it's not that it didn't matter. It just didn't matter that much in the grand scheme of things.

Them not waving around their guns and threatening to shoot people would be ideal. But in the show, that had happened regardless and Romana and the Doctor had been fine.

Marion wasn't thinking about the fact that the Doctor should have been fine earlier today, because just thinking about that was making her feel like her breathing was going a little funny.

What wouldn't be fine is STOTT not trusting them. And if he found out that she was lying to one of them, then they might have a third person trying to kill them.

These thoughts all flashed by until Marion finally realized that he hadn't asked them if they were narcotics agents. He asked them if they were investigating drug smuggling and he asked if the agency had sent them to look for him.

Sure he had MEANT to ask if they were narcotics officers working for the agency. But what he had asked was if the agency had sent them to look for him.

Those were two different things if you were willing to bend the truth.

"No." Marion said with a shake of her head, "I'm sorry. I'm sure that if they knew that you were still alive, they'd be looking for you. But Tryst told everyone that you were dead. We came here because we got a May Day signal. Not from you. From the Hecate. We arrived on this ship to investigate and then got mixed up in this whole monster mess. And now, there's drug smuggling to deal with. Do you have any other idea who's responsible?"

"Tryst thought it was you, and now he thinks it's Della," remarked Romana.

Marion knew that Tryst didn't think any of that. He was just trying to point the people who he thought were close to investigating him in the opposite direction.

"Tryst's a fool," scoffed Stott. "He knows nothing. He didn't even realise his expedition was being used to transport a new sort of Vrax that someone had found."

Marion's mouth flattened into a line.

"Yes," Romana nodded, "if you store it in on crystal in the CET machine, it can't possibly show up on a molecular scan."

She wasn't sure why everything about the CET machine made her so irrationally angry but there was something about her that made her want to scream into a pillow.

Marion wondered if she could go through the TARDIS library and find a science textbook targeted at elementary schoolers. Something from at least a couple hundred centuries in the future. Just so that she could get an okay grasp of this. Maybe that would make her feel less angry.

But then again judging from the way the Doctor and Romana had reacted to it, maybe not.

"If the Vraxion's anywhere in the Eden projection I haven't found it. The smugglers must have arranged somewhere along the line for a pick-up. They'd have to get the stuff out of the projection and pass it on."

"Yeah." the Doctor looked up at Stott, "You've got the stuff I had?"

"Just a tiny sample. Secker must have found it. He may even have been involved himself."

"We don't know that for sure." Marion remarked, "Last I checked he's still in the medbay."

"He might be too far out of it to get any kind of a straight answer." the Doctor replied.

"A curvy one is better than nothing."

The Doctor made a light noise of acknowledgment. "All he would have access to would be a small personal supply. We need to know where the main supply is hidden and where it comes from."

If Marion was remembering correctly, those were the same places.

"All I know is that it's in Eden somewhere. I've been searching all this time. No result."

"Maybe it's hiding in plain sight."

"However it's hiding, if it's here, we've got to get the dimension projection sealed off again, which means doing what we first came to do."

"And what's that?"

"We got a Mayday call and as soon as we got here, we found a pair of ships intersecting together in a way that they shouldn't. And this whole time, we've been trying to separate them."

"Then how did you start investigating drug smuggling?"

"It's been A Day," Marion replied in a very tired tone of voice. She didn't even have to fake it.

The Doctor stood up. "Tell me, if we go out of the projection in that direction," he pointed somewhere off to the side. Marion wasn't sure how he picked that direction, her whole sense of direction had gotten mixed up after passing the dozenth identical-looking tree. "Do we come to the power unit?"

"Yes," Stott replied, "you can get out of the projection any way you want."

"Good, Good," the Doctor nodded, "Then that's what we'll do. Come on." The Doctor unlocked and opened the door. Marion followed after him with her knife resting lightly in her hand. Romana joined them next and Stott took a few moments to take his gun, turn out the lights, and then relock the door so that if he ever got back there wouldn't be any "fun" surprises.

They walked until they came to a point where the forest just stopped and where the rest of it should have been was fog and blue wavy air.

"What was here before?" Marion asked, gesturing towards the intersection. "Did it just drop off into nothing or…"

"The fog was there," replied Stott. "When I walked inside of it, I just ended up walking back out the same spot I came in."

Marion hummed. "Let's go."

Marion thought that she was getting used to the feeling of the fog. At first, it made her feel heavy, and then she felt normal again. She walked a few steps further and then she was abruptly back out and standing in the middle of a corridor. She felt light on her feet, and then gradually like she was coming back down.

She shook off the feeling and glanced to the side. Bold yellow text labeled it as the Power Unit.

"Boss?"

Marion crouched down in front of the robotic dog.

"Hello K9. The Doctor and Romana'll be right behind me."

Marion turned around just to see Stott, the Doctor, and Romana emerge after her. It was weird to watch. They weren't there, and then they were half there, and then they were fully there. That explained how Stott had suddenly been inside of the storeroom without Marion seeing him come in.

It occurred to Marion that the Mandrels could therefore ALSO emerge from any wall at any time and Marion's eyes flickered towards the wall.

Stott pulled his gun from his hip and pointed it at K9.

"Identify yourself."

"Stott, lower the gun," Marion said firmly. "It's just K9."

"What is it?"

"It's just a perfectly ordinary electric dog"

"Master, I have located the power unit."

"Good, good. Now listen, K9." the Doctor pat the man twice on the shoulder, "This is Stott. He's a friend. All right?"

K9 moved closer to Stott and reached out the part of his nose where lasers normally came from and Marion heard a sniffing noise.

Marion didn't realize that K9 did that. But he was originally a medical aid dog. So she supposed that it tracked.

"Affirmative"

"Good." said the Doctor with a nod, "Let's get to work."

The power room was warm, and it was even warmer near the large rectangles. Marion stood near large rectangles covered in brightly colored squares, rectangles, switches, and knobs and pressed her palm against them. It was warm, but not so hot that it burned her; a bit like the keyboard of an older laptop playing a game with graphics slightly higher than they should be. Marion took her hand away from it before she pressed something that she shouldn't.

The Doctor started pointing to different things around the room. "Liquid hydrogen, turbopump exhaust, reactor core, pressure shell. Right."

"Doctor," Romana asked. "Do you really know how to get this thing going?"

"Of course I do. I can start anything from a steam engine to a TARDIS. Can't I Marion?"

"I'm sure you could manage it."

"I appreciate your confidence in me. Tell me, have you got a match in that bag of yours?"

Marion didn't remember why the Doctor needed that. "Well no, but I've got a lighter somewhere in here. Why? What do you need to burn?"

"Oh nothing," replied the Doctor, "I just need to hold this switch down."

"Check your pockets"

"What for- ah. Thank you, Marion."

The Doctor retrieved a toothpick from one of his inner pockets and started to fidget with something on the side of the machine. He stepped away from the machine with his hands held up.

"Perfect!"

"Boss. During your absence, my sensors detected the presence of alien creatures in this area. Large ferocious beasts of limited intelligence."

"Yes." Marion nodded. "Mandrels."

"Name noted."

The Doctor leaned down to look at the dog. "You'd better guard the door, K9. How many were there?"

"Five units, Master."

"Five!" the Doctor exclaimed. He turned back around to look at the machinery he'd been fidgeting with. "I'd better get a move on or they'll be all over the ship."

"Hadn't we better deal with them first?"

"Romana, there's so many of them. And if the ships are still stuck together, then they'll just keep coming. I could maybe knock down one of them."

"Marion, they've swiped at you twice."

"Twice!" Romana glared at Marion who shrugged.

"Neither of them count."

"Marion…"

"Doctor… Did I die? No! Was I maimed?"

"No!" "Yes!"

"She was what?"

Marion ignored Stott. "Five-minute rule!"

"Marion!"

"If that damage doesn't last more than five minutes, it doesn't count!"

"Marion!"

"Wait! Maiming is a permanent injury. I wasn't permanently injured. Anyway, it's not like I'm saying that I can take them all out on my own or anything. The point is that I can knock down one of them. Maybe distract a group and lure them away. But if they're going to keep coming and coming and coming."

"It'd be like trying to bail out a small boat with a-"

"Sieve?"

"Yes?"

The Doctor started doing something with the panel with his sonic screwdriver on the control unit and continued to do something. He pulled another panel out and started to work around with a set of wires, meanwhile, Romana went off following some power cable to make sure that the Doctor was working with the correct machine.

"Marion, could you hold this." The Doctor shrugged off his coat and his scarf revealing a button-up and vest and put them in her arms.

"Sure."

Marion wondered what the Doctor and Romana's heat tolerance was like. Time Lords had a lower body temperature. But she wasn't sure if that would make them better than heat or worse. Marion was pretty good with heat. Not in like a supernatural way (although she hadn't really been anywhere with extreme cold or extreme heat and was kinda curious how she would fair there, but not curious enough to actively seek out such places) but in a "grew up in a place with regular 85+ Fahrenheit summers and insisted on wearing long dark colored pants no matter the time of year" sort of way.

The coat and scarf were heavier than she expected. And also bulkier. Not enough to knock her over obviously, but enough for her to feel off guard for a moment.

"How do you walk around in this?"

"By wearing it?"

"Doesn't it weigh you down?"

"Long coats, long scarves, high shelves. There are many things that are easier to use when you aren't…" Marion could hear a smile in the Doctor's voice even though his head was turned away from her as he flitted from one panel to another.

"When you aren't what?"

The Doctor turned to look at Marion, cheekily brought his hand to just below his collarbone, and then turned back around.

"HE-," Marion stopped. She draped the coat and scarf over a nearby rack and looked around.

"Marion?"

Marion felt worried and then dizzy.

"Doct-"

Marion heard a growl and then-

"MANDREL-"

Romana ran in screaming closely pursued by the monster.

She ran to the Doctor who moved in front of her with his arms out and Marion stood in front of them. She reached into her pocket quickly, her shaking hands accidentally cutting herself on the side of the knife and healing just as quickly. She brought the knife up and pointed it outwards as it got closer.

The mandral lunged at her and caught her in a bear hug, impaling himself on her knife in the process. You'd think that that would make it let her go, but it only grabbed her tighter. Marion pushed forward with the knife and twisted it until she felt something painful in her pinned forearm and then its grip loosened and it fell to the ground. Marion stepped to the side and K9 fired at it twice. Marion looked down at her knife. It was covered in something light pale green that seemed to get crystalized and flakey as it met with the air. Marion put her knife in her other hand and lightly shook her wrist until the feeling faded. She went to wipe the knife on the side of her romper and then she paused and considered that if she was correct then the powder on her knife was Vraxion. She still wiped it off, but more hesitantly.

She lightly kicked at the monster's side. It didn't move or groan.

"Would've been easier if I had a longer knife…" Marion paused, "Or a sword."

"You don't have a sword?" the Doctor asked curiously.

"Why would I have a sword!"

"I've met yous that had a sword."

Marion blinked. "Whe-where do I get a sword?"

"That's spoilers I believe."

Few times had Marion heard an off-handed comment about something a future version of her would do or get a hold of that filled her with such excitement. A sword! Casually pulling a sword out of her messenger bag would look so cool. She wondered if it would be a sword she "found", one she was given, or she'd get stabbed by someone and decide that they'd lost their cool blade privileges.

"Doctor, they're coming from both ways," Stott shouted.

Okay, there were still monsters to deal with but the fact that there was a version of the Associate with a sword in her bag was significantly raising her mood.

The Doctor looked down at the Mandrel and then at the doorway where Stott stood, and then back at the machine he was messing with.

"I've got to get this finished. Romana," he looked back, "did you check the cable to the reactor?"

"Yes," she pointed somewhere off to the side, "I'm pretty sure it was that one."

"Well, check it. I need to be absolutely sure."

Romana jumped over the monster's body and to a panel on the other side of the room. He put his hand on a knob and looked over his shoulder at the other Time Lord.

"Was it the one?"

"No, sorry. It's the one below."

"It's a good thing you checked. I could have caused a spectacular explosion."

Marion thought that her dizziness was because of the Mandrel that was outside but judging from the fact that it was fading despite the fact that the growling was not suggested it might be due to the fact that Doctor had come that close to blowing himself up.

Marion wondered how she would go about teaching herself enough about this stuff to be able to notice them herself. Mechanical engineering had not been her strong suit, but she didn't want a lapse in her knowledge in that department to be the reason that the Doctor got killed and that was worth at least trying to learn something.

Romana jumped back over the mandrel and looked closely at the part of the machine that the Doctor was looking carefully at.

"All ready to go now?" she asked.

"Nearly. Two things." The Doctor hunched over so that his head was level with Romana's and he was looking her in the eye and started to count off on his fingers. "One, I need to know whether the power on the bridge is on maximum. Two, the demat has to be switched on from the TARDIS at exactly the same time I switch on this old gas oven. All right"

"Alright."

"Good."

The Doctor moved another couple of wires into place and then slowly stepped back. He held his hands out towards it and then lowered them slowly. He quickly turned around his head to look at them.

"Marion, you stay with me. Stott I want you and Romana to go back through the jungle. K9, I want you to go back the way you came."

"Negative, master. Blurred zone still operative. These zones are matter interfaces."

"Oh, it'll be fine K9," Marion assured.

"Stott, Marion, and I came through one. It's perfectly all right if it's on the edge of a hull. All you need is a little determination."

"Determination: fixed purpose; firmness of character. Affirmative, Master!"

"Good. Now, when you get through, I want you to go back to the demat machine set up near the TARDIS, and when I whistle, you switch it on. Right?"

"Affirmative!"

"Good."

"What about you?" asked Romana, "You're not going to be here when the power unit comes on, are you?"

"Of course, he's not!" Marion said quickly, "You think I would let him?"

"I'm going to rig myself a little time device. Could I borrow your watch, please?"

"Certainly" Stott replied as the Doctor was already in the process of taking it off his arm.

"Good. Is that on ship's time? Right. Now, I'll give you till 20:30 to reach the bridge and put the power on. I'll set my device so I can escape in good time."

"What about the mandrels? You won't have K9 or a gun. Marion, I know you downed the one but are you sure?"

"I mean, worst case scenario, I can distract them and get them to run the other way or barring that, occupy them long enough for the Doctor to get away. But I'm sure that it won't need to come to that?"

"Distract them?" asked Stott, "But what about you? You get them to run after you instead of the Doctor, what are you going to do next?"

Marion pointed to the wrist that the mandrel in the jungle had clawed at. She pointedly brushed her fingers against the smooth and unmarred skin where she knew that Stott had seen her get clawed.

"That," she said simply. "And more if I have to."

"They'll kill you!"

"They'll try. I'll be fine."

"But-"

"Off you go." the Doctor said looking at the two of them with a grin. "Take care."

The moment that they left through the door, the Doctor tossed the watch at Marion who fumbled with it for a moment before holding it gently in her palms. He had already turned to walk back to the panel on the wall.

The watch reminded Marion of a fitbit or an apple watch but with a band that was twice as wide and a screen that was twice as big. Marion experimentally tapped the screen at the front and it lit up.

"Marion!" the Doctor called over his shoulder. "What time is it?"

"Twenty-oh-seven."

"Twenty-oh-seven…Twenty-oh-seven." the Doctor murmured. "Twenty-three minutes. I can do it in that time, can't I."

Marion was pretty sure that he was talking to himself. But she still answered. "Of course." She tucked the watch into her pocket.

Marion crouched down so that she could keep an eye on the mandrel. She was pretty sure that it was dead. But the way her anxiety had shifted into dizziness and then went back to being anxiety when she got closer to the mandrel made her suspicious.

She kept an eye on the body and she saw its hand twitch. She raised up and turned her head away from the monster.

"Doctor?"

"Yes Marion?" the Doctor said, not looking up.

"I think the Mandral's waking up."

Marion saw the Doctor still. He turned to look at her.

"What?"

"I think the Mandral's wak- AAAAA" Marion swung herself sharply to the left only barely keeping herself from getting swiped in the neck. Her vision spun so hard she was afraid she was going to throw up on the floor. She scooted back again and got herself to her feet; her knife back in her hand. The sudden rise was awful.

"Doctor?"

"Marion?"

"Get in behind the machines."

"What?"

"Behind the machines. Get there. Now."

Marion didn't know where to go. On one hand, she wanted to try to lead the mandrel away from the Doctor, on the other hand, the Doctor was basically right behind her and the room wasn't that big and if she moved out of the way to try to guide the monster away, she would no longer be directly shielding the Doctor and the mandrel might attack.

But on the other hand, it was getting close and if she didn't move, it might knock her down and then go after the Doctor. The good news is that it didn't seem to want to move its left arm that much. Probably on account of its shoulder getting stabbed there a couple of times.

But anyway, none of that mattered if the Doctor was in between the machines out of reach of the mandrel's hands. Then it didn't matter if Marion was up close or far away. The Doctor would be out of range regardless.

Marion didn't have to turn around to know that he had done what she had asked. The mandrel swiped at her again and the way she had ducked back would have made her barrel right into the Doctor had he still been standing there. The monster went for a third swing and Marion didn't have to dodge. She felt a hand tightly grip the back of her clothes and yank her backward and between the two machines and just out of the range of the claws. They swiped back and forth just in front of her nose. She moved to take another step back and stumbled. The hand that had grabbed her flattened and helpfully steadied her. She backed up further and found her back pressed against the Doctor's chest and she stilled.

Marion held up her left hand and carefully pointed to the opposite side.

"I'll keep it occupied," she whispered, not taking her eyes off the mandrel or its sharp claws.

She hadn't forgotten what they felt like in her flesh. It hadn't been anywhere near as painful as being shot by a Dalek. But it hurt. It hurt a lot and now the Doctor was mostly out of danger so she could focus on how little she wanted claws digging into her again.

"I think I can trick it." the Doctor said back. "It shouldn't take me too long. And I'll still have time to finish wiring the rest of it." Marion could feel his voice rumbling against her back. Marion shifted upward. She felt him slowly moving past leaving her with the mandrel. Marion had been worried that it would follow after the Doctor, but it seemed very much occupied with trying to reach her. She moved herself back. Just out of range. Just far enough away that he couldn't get at her but just close enough that it would feel like it could. Marion looked down in the direction that the Doctor had gone and he gave her a thumbs up. And gestured with his head to the side. Marion stared at him questioningly. He gestured again. Marion took a step forward towards him and the Doctor nodded enthusiastically.

The Doctor ducked away and around the corner and a few moments later, she heard the sound of a sonic screwdriver buzzing over and over and over again. And then a few moments later she heard a loud and deep thrumming. She saw the shadow of the mandrel move closer and closer to the source of the sound. She heard the Doctor shout and then she heard sparks and smelt burning paper and the sound of something large collapsing to the ground.

Marion emerged through two machines. The Doctor was staring down at what was left of the mandrel. The creature's chest crumbled and caved in leaving behind greenish-white powder. It reminded Marion of a time-lapse mold on rotting fruit. And it continued to rot away until there was a roughly humanoid-shaped pile of white chunky powder.

The Doctor couched down to look closer at it. He reached for it, paused, and then looked up at her. "Vraxion? So that's when you said that it might be from an animal. It's from the mandrels. Something in the organic composition of the planet's soil, absorbed into the Mandrel's body, transmuted, rendered up into its final form when the Mandrel was destroyed by intense heat."

"That sounds about right."

The Doctor looked down at the pile of Vraxion and jumped up and practically ran the couple of steps back to the panel.

"What time is it?"

Marion took the watch out of her pocket.

"Twenty twenty-six."

"Twenty twenty-six? Twenty twenty-six. Four minutes. I have four minutes."

"You can do it."

"Well, if you say that I can." the Doctor took a deep breath and did something with something inside of the cubbyhole, "Marion? Could you hold this in place for me? Your hands are smaller than mine."

"Sure."

Marion reached into the small cubby hole and held down part of the electronics where the Doctor's fingers were. The moment it was in place, the Doctor let go and started working on another thing. Marion heard a click and then the Doctor looked at the machine, took a step back, and then visibly relaxed.

"Marion, could you pass me my coat and scarf?"

Marion took the clothing off the rack and shrugged them over his shoulder. He watched the clock and just as the digital clock went from displaying 20:24 to 20:25 he reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a silver dog whistle. He brought it to his lips and blew.

There was a difference in the air. It smelled like ozone.

"Let's go." the Doctor said.

The two of them ran out of the power room and Marion could feel something shift and change in the space they occupied. She looked over and she could see through the Doctor's head and she looked down and she couldn't see through her hands And they were both tinted with the same color as the wiggly air around the interface. Then her vision went blue and she was falling.

Next Chapter: Yes, It's A Good Plan. Yes, I Hate It

Stott, who watched her get swiped by a mandrel, heal instantly, walk it off, and learned that this isn't the first time this happened, and also that part of her plan for dealing with the mandrels is to have them chase after her with no real step two: Hey is there something wrong Marion?

Romana: …possibly.

Stott, believing Marion is a narcotics officer who would by nature of her job have access to narcotics: Is it drugs?

Romana, thinking back to every interaction she's had with the woman since the White Guardian made the three of them work together: As far as I can tell, she's just like that.

A friend of mine wrote a cool fic. You should check it out mayhaps. She's partial_bouquet on AO3 and the fic series is "Attorney What"

Also, I couldn't get it to work, but in an early draft, when the mandrel woke up, Marion wasn't going to dodge in time, and would end up getting hit in the side of the neck, snapping it.

I couldn't word it right, so I settled for her dodging at the last moment instead.