Because all of the chapters that weren't 1&2 were at minimum, 4k, I've combined chapters 1&2. This is a new chapter. I'm likely not going to be entering my highschool again as a student ever so you should be able to expect a minimum 4,000-word chapter every Thursday.

Thanks to the following people for following: Lyanna Potter, TheLordOfTheSea1

Thanks to the following people for reviewing: BobbyThecat26, notwritten

In Marion's humble opinion, spiders were objectively pretty rad. They ate bugs that messed with crops, made cool webs, and (for the most part) were harmless. Their only real flaw was that subjectively they were fucking awful to look at and the prospect of having to deal with a giant spider at ANY point filled her with a sense of terror. But… 'I trust future me, and if she says to stay with the Doctor, then I'm going to stay with her.'

Taking a deep breath to mentally prepare herself for what was to come, Marion left the TARDIS and walked to the apartment building she had seen the Doctor, Yaz, and Ryan go into. She checked the address on the note "Number 27 on the seventh floor. Seventh floor as in the British seventh floor. You'd call it the eighth floor. Because words don't mean anything,"

She could see the Doctor, Yaz, and Ryan on the balcony walk into an apartment block that wasn't too far ahead and so she jogged a little bit faster. She pressed the open elevator button and hit the number 7.

"Number 27 right?" she thought to herself. She noticed an oversized cobweb in the corner of the wall and walked just a little bit faster. She made it to number 27, but before she could knock on the door, Yaz beat her to it.

"Sorry I'm a bit late Yaz, I had to grab a couple of things," Marion said apologetically.

"It's not a problem," she could hear Yaz's dad say from the kitchen, "You're one of Yaz's friends, aren't you. She rarely brings friends around you know,"

"Dad, don't," Yaz called back, stepping aside to let Marion in.

Yaz pulled her aside, "My mom just called me and told me I had to meet her at work. Do I need a note? Is she going to be okay?"

"A note?"

"A note, you know, like the ones you...The Associate keeps pressing into our hands like this one. She gave me this one to give to you in fact,"

Yaz handed Marion a folded note in the familiar paper, she unfolded it part of the way and saw that it said, "Folded notes work great to give information bit by bit," She unfolded it a little bit more. "Give Yaz the garlic powder so she can protect herself,"

She took the note and placed it in her pocket. "One moment Yaz," She grabbed the spiral notebook from the bag and her pen, ripped out a page from the notebook and folded it in fourths. Easily visible she wrote, "Your mom is going to be fine," When the note was unfolded a little bit more, it read, "Brace yourself when you see the bedroom,", and fully unfolded, the note read, "Spiders won't want to cross garlic powder. Make sure everyone sticks together,"

She refolded the note. "Here," she said, handing the note to Yaz, "and here," she said, giving her garlic powder. Yaz looked like she wanted to question why she would need garlic powder, but decided to just put the note in her pocket and keep the powder on hand.

Marion walked into the apartment to overhear the tail end of the Doctor talking. "...turned out to be a training camp for the Quiston Calcium Assassins. Marion tried to warn me about that one but I wasn't the kind of person to turn down a fun hat," she trailed off, noticing a package on the couch side table.

"Going off on one again," Ryan said with the tone of someone who was used to hearing the Doctor go on tangents.

The Doctor seemingly ignored him, instead, focusing on the red postage slip. "Ooo, you've got a parcel to pick up. Left with a neighbor,"

"Yeah, I've been trying to get that for days. Couple of doors down. No reply," Yaz's dad called from the kitchen.

"Do you want me to go get it while you make your terrible pakora?" The Doctor said gesturing to herself and the door with the slip.

"Oi. Doctor that's a bit rude isn't it!" Marion looked at Hakim, "I'm sorry. I'm sure you make great pakora,"

"He doesn't," Yaz's sister said, not missing a beat.

"Let's go to the neighbors about that package," Ryan said, getting up from off the couch as if he was anxious to leave.

As they walked out the door Ryan checked his phone over and over again. 'Probably trying to see if he has a text from Graham.'

"As far as I know, Graham's fine," Marion assured Ryan, "and I don't mean fine in the sense that he's technically in danger, but I know it turns out okay, he's properly fine,"

Jade was of course, still at the door when they got to number 34. "We work together at the uni. She hasn't been in for a few days. Didn't call in sick, isn't answering her messages. Thought I'd drop by, see if she's okay," the Doctor crouched down to look into the mail slot. "I'm Jade," Jade introduced herself.

"I'm Ryan, that's the Doctor, and that's Marion,"

"Hello there!" Marion said.

"Hello, Anna? It's next door but one. Have you got a parcel for us?" the Doctor called into the mailslot before standing up and reaching into her hip bag, "I mean, I could open the door,"

"What? Like, break it in?"

"No, just sort the lock. If you thought it was appropriate. If you're worried about her,"

"I am,"

The Doctor waved her sonic over the door until it clicked and the door opened to reveal huge, monstrous cobwebs all over the wall. The only lighting in the house was coming from the closed blinds which were covered in cobwebs.

'Cool. Cool, this is great. I love how this is a dark spooky room with cobwebs and at least one giant spider. A giant spider that's killed a woman who is in the basement. That's just. Super.' Marion thought to herself as she followed Ryan inside. She took the bandana from inside her bag and tied it around her hair to cover it. "Here's to hoping that I don't get this nonsense in my hair," Marion's hair was thick and curly and she knew that if she got any web in it, she'd look like a bush outside a family home on Halloween.

"Anna? How long did you say it'd been since you'd seen her?" the Doctor asked, noting the plethora of cobwebs.

Ryan attempted to flick the switch to turn on some light to no avail. "Don't bother Ryan. The power's out," Marion said.

"A few days," Jade said, answering the Doctor's question.

"Lot of cobwebs for a few days," Ryan said looking around.

"Yeah, that's what I was thinking," the Doctor said.

They made their way into the living room/kitchen. The fridge, the plant, the window, the sofa, were all covered in cobwebs.

'I fucking hate this,' Marion thought, trying to make sure not to touch ANYTHING.

Jade walked towards the spiderwebs against the window and pulled it towards her to examine it.

"Did Anna ever mention she had a problem with spiders?" the Doctor asked.

"Personally, if I had a spider problem this bad, I would move. And also torch the place," Marion said, trying to listen for the sound of spider scuttling. It should be under the bed, but just in case...

"Should we look downstairs?" the Doctor asked, seeming to glance at Marion as she did.

"Let's go," she said, looking at a small flight of stairs. They came to a closed-door at the bottom of the stairs. The Doctor opened it. 'Anna's body is in there.' Marion thought. 'There is a dead woman in here wrapped in cobwebs.' The Doctor noticed the figure on the bed. "Anna, you okay?", she asked.

Ryan opened the curtains to let some light in the room revealing the dead body of Anna. He turned around and jumped, "Oh, my days," he exclaimed.

"Oh my god, Anna,"

Marion, knowing what was under the bed, made sure to move carefully as she approached the body and used the pocket knife to cut away some of the webbing around her face. She put her hand above the woman's nose and mouth in hopes that maybe, Anna was still alive, just severely dehydrated. Nothing. She shook her head.

"She's dead," she pronounced.

"Spiders don't do that. Do they?" Ryan said.

"Normally? No. No, they don't. But one clearly did and based on the fact that we didn't see it upstairs..." she trailed off.

"Is it still here?"

"Ninety-five percent sure it is.."

The Doctor and Ryan moved towards the wardrobe. "One...two..three…." They threw open the thing to reveal mostly nothing but clothes and a pair of shoes.

Ryan turned away from the wardrobe and looked under the bed. The spider that was under it made a sort of a churring sound and walked out from under the bed. It took basically everything in Marion's body to turn tail and run. Seeing a spider the size of an adult suitcase come out from under a bed from the other side of a tv screen? Scary, but fine. Seeing one in real life? Blood chilling. The four of them moved slowly to the door, facing the spider, not wanting to turn their backs to it for even a second.

"Look at the size of it," Ryan hissed.

"No sudden moves," The Doctor said in a calm and even voice.

"It's domestic but it's way too big. It's not harmful," Jade tried to assure them.

"Your friend Anna might disagree, you know...if the spider hadn't gotten to her," Marion snarked back.

Sarcasm was one of many things Marion did when faced with stressful situations. Sarcasm, messing with her hair, and/or filing the problem away to deal with later.

"Let's put a door between us," the Doctor said slowly, "When I say now, quick as you can,". She put her hand on the knob and slowly opened the door.

"Go, go, go... GO!" the Doctor ushered the three of them out and shut the door behind them.

"Ryan, keep it in there be back in a sec.," the Doctor said. By then, Marion was already halfway up the stairs, and in the kitchen. She shivered slightly as her fingers brushed against a spiderweb as she moved it out of the way. She grabbed a kitchen chair and moved it in front of the counters so she would be able to do more than just feel around in the cabinets.

"Garlic and vinegar, Garlic and vinegar," she said under her breath, "I know you've got vinegar SOMEWHERE! Where is it?"

"IT'S COMING THROUGH", Ryan yelled up the stairs.

Jade began to join in the search, "Can't keep it in the bedroom..." she noticed the trash chute against the wall, "Rubbish chute. Maybe that's how it got in. Could we drive it out through there?"

Marion finally found a bottle of white vinegar and passed it down to the Doctor wordlessly before hopping back off the chair as the Doctor retrieved a small green tube of garlic puree from inside the fridge.

"And set it loose across the city? No, we need to keep it isolated here," the Doctor replied quickly, she called down the stairs for Ryan to get back up there.

The Doctor surrounded the perimeter of the walkway with a thin layer of garlic and dowsed the area with vinegar splashing Ryan in the process. She passed the half-full bottle of vinegar to Marion, who, not knowing what much else to do with it, put it in her bag.

"Oi, you just covered me in vinegar,"

"Means you won't have any spiders crawling on you. They don't much like acetic acid and vinegar is full of it," Marion said, considering if perhaps, it might be worth it to take the remaining bottle of vinegar out of her bag and splash it on herself.

"Also, spiders' feet are their noses and they hate the smell of garlic. They won't be crossing that line," the Doctor elaborated.

The Doctor scrunched her face up a bit and leaned down. From downstairs, the group heard the sound of the bedroom door give in. I don't think you need another physics lesson to know that spiders, typically, are not and should not be, able to knock a door down.

"Where is it?" Ryan asked.

Marion, knowing where it was and not wanting to look or even think about a spider the size of an adult male torso on the ceiling, averted her gaze away from the scene and pointed upwards towards it. She could still see the Doctor crouching down in front of it out of the corner of her eye.

"Hi. We don't mean you any harm. You're not supposed to be this big and you're definitely not supposed to attack humans. You stay here, until I figure this out. Deal?". The Doctor turned from the spider to them, "Let's go,"

The group couldn't seem to get out of the apartment fast enough and as soon as they were out, the Doctor Soniced the door closed.

"Oh, I did not like that," Ryan said, his voice trembling slightly.

"I think I can still feel cobwebs on my hands. Urgh," Marion said, shivering.

The Doctor got up from looking into the mail slot and turned to face Jade.

"Jade McIntyre, who are you exactly? I saw you check those cobwebs and you weren't surprised,"

Before the Doctor could continue her interrogation, Graham ran up to them. "Hey! You'll never guess what I just found in the loft room,"

"It better not be a massive spider," Ryan said, already knowing and fearing what was up.

"Yeah. Like a big spider had just shed its skin,"

"A woman has died, and I think you know more than you're telling," the Doctor said sharply, continuing her interrogation.

"This isn't the first incident. Something's happening with the spiders in the city. They're out of control," Jade said seriously.

The Sheffield Hallam University Biology Lab was about the size of a well funded high school science classroom with terrariums full of live spiders and dead ones sealed in resin. One the side of the wall there were shelves filled with chemicals and reagents, likely for testing. There was a desk towards the back of the room with a few computers. On the walls behind the desks were posters of spider anatomy. Marion looked around a bit, trying not to be creeped out by spiders. 'Giant spiders are the only ones that can hurt you remember. Normal-sized ones are FINE.' she thought over and over again.

"We reckon there could be around 21 quadrillion spiders on the planet in total," Jade said in that tone that research students get when they finally get a chance to talk about a topic that excites them.

"So what sort of research are you doing here?" the Doctor said turning around from a Tarantula in a terrarium she had been looking at.

"We're interested in utilizing the genetic strengths of arachnids. Ordinary spider silk is as strong as steel or as tough as Kevlar," Jade replied.

"Still doesn't make me like them," Graham responded with a snort.

"I'll be honest, spiders terrify me, but they are interesting and helpful creatures for the most part," Marion said still looking away from the arachnid filled walls.

"Ooo, fun fact, if you weave dragline spider silk as thick as a pencil, it's strong enough to stop a plane in flight," the Doctor said.

"You're kidding," Graham said in disbelief.

"I'm not. I've had to deal with it. Well, me and Amelia Earhart. You'd like her, she's a right laugh,"

"Where was I for that?" Marion asked curiously.

"Taking a nap. I decided to kip out for a bit. Took a wrong turn and ended up in 1937. I tried to wake you up to take you along, but you shooed me off,"

"Huh," Marion turned to Jade, "You're studying something having to do with the lifespan of spiders right? Most domestic ones live for what? A couple of years?"

"I've been working on an enzyme to increase the lifespan. Spiders can keep growing for as long as they live,"

"That spider in Anna's flat was way bigger than a normal household spider"

"Yeah," Jade said almost apologetically.

"Did Anna have access to your experiments?" the Doctor asked.

"No, she was on the admin team. Everything we do here is secure. We discard all carcasses responsibly through a specialist company," Jade paused for a second as if an idea had come to her, "Unless... she was taking things without us knowing, but... she's not that kind of person. I should notify the police," she said looking down.

"You wanted to show us something right Jade?" Marion asked.

"Reports of unusual spider activity in Sheffield over the last three months, from the police, pest controllers, and to us here," as Jade spoke, she walked towards a rotating whiteboard covered in diagrams of spiders and flipped it to reveal a map of Sheffield. The map was covered in green, yellow, and red pins making the different odd arachnid phenomena. Marion noticed that there were a lot more pins than she thought there would be.

"Rare sightings, an increase in numbers, spiders you don't normally see at this time of year," Jade explained.

"Something's wrong with the spider ecosystem in South Yorkshire,"

"Exactly. We started investigating when we got a call a few months ago telling us to look into reports about spiders in the area. We weren't sure where the call came from, but we checked into it anyway and something is clearly wrong, but we don't know what. The spiders have nothing in common. Different species, different quantities. Some are large massings, some have been a profusion of web-building. I can't work out if they're confused, or angry or scared.," Jade gestured to the board.

"Or trying to send a message," The Doctor said, taking a marker pen. She drew lines connecting the dots to each other until she ended up with something that looked like a very messy web with an opening in the center.

The Doctor pointed the pen at the center. "Where's that"

"It's a newly constructed hotel. Also, it's where Yaz's mum works," Marion said, "We should go there and investigate,"

"Marion, I have a Question," Marion could feel the capital letter in the word. "What's making the spiders like this?" the Doctor asked. Marion tried to figure out how to answer that wouldn't spoil. Already, she had noticed, a phone call had been placed to the lab that she did not remember having happened. She supposed that that was a positive change, but she had no idea if she might accidentally say something that caused a negative one. How could explaining the issue in-depth cause a negative change? Marion had no idea but somehow, the thought of saying too much made her feel like she had only eaten breakfast, skipped lunch, and dinner was in another hour; slightly nauseous with a major headache.

"The hotel was built on a bad spot", she paused trying to figure out how to end the hint, "It's the owner's fault that it's bad,"

"You can't tell me any more than that," the Doctor said it less like a question, and more like a statement of fact.

"Not without spoilers no,"

They made it to the under-construction hotel to find that the doors were locked. The Doctor patted at her coat before looking to Marion.

"Let me see your phone," the Doctor said holding out her hand. "I doubt that it'll work, but sure," Marion reached into her bag and found her phone way at the bottom. She unlocked it and handed it to the Doctor, not noticing Jade's look of confusion at the fact that she had clearly gone up to her shoulder in the back when the bag itself seemed barely deeper than her elbow. The Doctor took out her screwdriver fidgeted with it for a few seconds before handing it back to her. "Call Yaz and ask her to open the door, I fixed your phone to work here,"

Marion looked at her phone. It looked the same except, where the five connection bars had once been was a white infinity sign, "What's the number?"

Ryan seemed to remember something and reached into his pocket retrieving a folded sheet of paper. Marion looked at it and sighed, "Let me guess. The Associate gave you that note?"

Ryan shrugged and handed it to her. 'Jesus. Why am I giving myself so much stuff to keep track of for later.' Marion called the number and waited for someone to pick up.

"Marion? You aren't gonna believe this,"

"Giant cobwebs? I think I might. Yaz I need you to do two things for me if you can,"

"What?"

"Remember the garlic powder that I gave you? Spiders hate garlic and won't want to cross a line of it. Keep it on hand and don't set it down,"

"What's the other thing?"

"We're outside the hotel, can you let us in?"

After a few minutes, Marion saw Yaz and her Mom enter the unfinished lobby. The Doctor cheerfully waved to them and Marion tapped on the glass a few times to get their attention. Yaz turned and made eye contact with them before speed walking over to the door and opening it. Marion, Ryan, Graham, Jade, and the Doctor went through the door and to the other side of the large plastic curtains keeping the public from being inside.

The Doctor made eye contact with the woman with Yaz and gave her a brief hug. "Hi, Yaz's mum,"

"Najia," the woman introduced before turning to her daughter, "Yaz, they can't be here,"

"Najia, you made a very awesome human. Something is going on with this hotel,"

They heard the sound of screaming and gunshots. Marion, realizing that she had forgotten about yet ANOTHER person, took off in the direction of the bathroom.

"What that gunshots?" Ryan asked.

"YES" Marion yelled without turning around, "NOW LET'S GET A MOVE ON!"

'Okay, okay, okay. Even if I was too late, spiders eat their prey alive right? So there's a chance that he might be physically fine. Traumatized? Sure. But fine.'

Marion heard Kevin's scream and managed to turn the corner just as Jack Robertson fled the room and slammed the door behind him. The Doctor and co were just behind her.

"You're joking!"

"No way!"

Ryan and Graham said as they realized who they had just bumped into.

"Oh no," Jade said, also realizing who they had bumped into.

The Doctor grabbed two leather wallets shaped things out of her coat pocket and tossed one to Marion and flashed the other one in front of Robertson's face.

"Crisis investigators. You just ran really quickly out of a room looking really scared. Tell me exactly what's going on, omitting no detail, no matter how strange," she said quickly, only flashing the psychic paper for a moment.

"A giant spider just smashed through my bathtub and took out my bodyguard, Kevin," the man said in near hysterics.

"Well," Marion said, "that certainly does sound like a crisis. Luckily, that's our jurisdiction. Shall we check the bathroom?" Marion flashed the psychic paper herself and tried to think as many official crisis investigator-esque thoughts as she could before closing it again and putting it into her jean pocket for quick access. Marion opened the door that Robertson walked out of and gestured for Yaz and the Doctor to follow her. The Doctor and Yaz looked around while Marion attempted to keep the bathtub in constant view.

"The room next door is covered in cobwebs, top to bottom," Yaz explained to the Doctor.

'Come to think of it, isn't it a bit odd that this room isn't?' Marion thought to herself.

"Just like your neighbor's house," the Doctor replied to Yaz.

"What?"

"We went to drop off a package at your neighbors. Everything was utterly covered in cobwebs,"

'Including your neighbor' Marion only thought that last bit.

"Big spider problem in this city right now, Yaz. Glad to be home?" the Doctor said creeping towards the destroyed bathtub. The Doctor waved her sonic screwdriver over the huge hole and got a reading that she clearly didn't like. The kind of reading that comes when you pick up a giant and possibly murderous spider. She gestured towards Yaz and Marion to be quite before leaning forward far enough to get her head down into the pipe for a closer look. Marion moved closer to the Doctor in case she had to pull her away in a hurry or something. Marion heard a hissing sound and the Doctor say, "Hi. I'm looking for Kevin,"

After a second or two, the Doctor shot back up backed away from the tub.

"Did you see it?" Yaz asked.

"Really close,"

Marion splashed a bit of vinegar on the ground in front of the tub and quickly left with Yaz and the Doctor.

(Next Chapter: Not Sure If That's Legal, But Go Off)

Marion: Spiders are harmless and beneficial creatures.

Marion, upon seeing an actual spider: Gross. Disgusting. Awful. Heinous. Bad.

Yes, I'm implying that it was the Second Doctor who went to an aqua-hospital not realizing that it was a front for an assassins guild. You can't tell me that that doesn't sound like the kind of nonsense he'd get up to.

I'll be honest, I'm still not 100% sure which 4th Doctor serial will be next, if you guys could slam a suggestion for me from 14, 15, or probably 16 that'd be groovy.

Also, I'm not super happy about this chapter, but I'm sure that the next chapter will go a lot better and will likely have either the conclusion to Arachnids in the UK or The Chapter After the next will have the conclusion and be a bit like "A Lesson in Physics" with the end of one story, the beginning of another, and bit in between.

As always R&R and let me know if you'd like a cookie recipe.

Also, let me know if you see a typo? I looked over the story, but it's 1:17 AM where I am so who knows what I might miss lol