Some Time Lords can manipulate the energy of the universe so as to "increase their luck". I don't think I need to tell you that the Doctor is unable to do that, but in case I do, he can't. I'm pretty sure if the Doctor could do that, each episode would be like 5 minutes long and that includes the beginning and end credits.
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The Hyperion's blast had been aiming at the ground. It made the ground under them shake and collapse and break up into huge chunks floating along a magma sea. Even though the decently thick soles of her boots, Marion could feel the heat as if she was standing on the beach in a thin pair of flip flops.
For some reason, it hadn't aimed directly at them. Marion knew that he hadn't, because if he had been aiming directly at them, they would've been vaporized. Period. As if trying to prove her right, a bit of magma (or was it lava? It was still underground which would make it magma, but then again, it was exposed in this cave so would that make it lava) splashed onto her singing her skin and setting her skirt on fire.
Marion shouted in surprise and patted it out. Her skin stung for a moment or two, but then before her eyes, slowly became less and less red as whatever was making her heal so quickly did its job. The same couldn't be said of her skirt.
They all held out their arms and waved trying to keep from falling over as the chunks moved to be closer together. Marion had ended up on a chunk with the Doctor and Orange Jumpsuit. Behind her and to the left stood Dr. Scorfolus and to the right of her stood Clara and Spector.
Clara lost her balance and fell to her knees. "Clara, are you-".He crouched down and reached out a hand to help her up. Marion grabbed the Doctor's other arm and braced him to keep him from falling face-first into the molten lake.
Speaking of the lake, something began rising from the molten lake.
One could call this "something" humanoid, but only if they were especially generous with their definition of human.
It was made of rock but something glowed through the cracks of its body. It was like someone had made a coal sculpture based on the nightmare they had had about a monster with the legs of a goat, the torso of a penguin, and the head of a stag beetle and lit it from the inside. Strands of flame wisped around it like hellish ribbons. The air warped around it from the heat and Marion could feel it on her face. Looking at it gave Marion a sinking feeling in her gut.
"HYPERIOS RISES AND THE UNIVERSE FALLS," the being said. Its voice sounded like what would happen if a group of people attempted to accurately dub Zalgo text while standing in a forest fire: many voices broadcasting from the depths of hell.
"What's that thing!" Clara asked in horror.
"It's a Hyperion," Marion had to shout to be heard of the loud sizzle of the monster, "Long story short, they used to be really chill and go around helping people. Then they decided that they were tired of being nice and wanted to go apeshit. They went around enslaving civilizations, setting them on fire. All that fun megalomaniac stuff. They stole the energy from suns and then left solar systems to freeze when they ran out. A bunch of powerful races got together, and they beat them,"
"Didn't beat them good enough then," said the man in the orange jumpsuit.
"Don't blame me, I wasn't there,"
Marion moved towards the man, ready to grab him and pull him out of the way when needed. But the Doctor stopped her.
"Don't move," the Doctor said blocking Marion and calling out to Orange Jumpsuit, "Stay exactly where you are,"
"If you move," Marion said, "you'll make yourself a target and it will kill you. You didn't listen to me before when I told you not to touch anything, for your sake, it's best that you listen to me now,"
"Yeah right!" the man said, "If your advice is SO great, how'd we end up down here in the first place. And like I'm going to listen to a guy who's idea of a rescue was to dump us someplace even more dangerous,"
The man started to run anyway. Marion had no idea where he planned to go off to but it's not like it mattered much. In seconds, the man in the orange jumpsuit was engulfed in flames. He didn't even have to time scream. He was simply there one moment, and ash the next.
"Nice one! Bravo! Well done!" the Doctor said. He sounded both sarcastic and angry. "A bit of indiscriminate killing, always the best way to introduce yourself,"
"HIS EXISTENCE WAS INSIGNIFICANT. YOUR EXISTENCE IS INSIGNIFICANT. RESIST ME AND YOU WILL BURN. YOU WILL BURN. YOUR FAMILIES WILL BURN. YOUR CITIES WILL BURN. YOUR WORLDS WILL BURN. YOU ARE NOTHING BUT FUEL FOR THE FIRES OF HYPERIOS,"
It was heating up. The rocky patches along its frame heated up and more of the molten core was visible. The only places that remained fully rocky were its stag beetle-like horns. The stone floes the group stood on grew closer together. It made the area look less like an extreme game of "the floor is lava" and more like a crazy-paved pathway made up of huge stones only with magma instead of dirt or cement.
"The fires of Hyperious were extinguished a thousand years ago," the Doctor shouted "Your world is cold and dark! Dead. The Hyperions are no more. Ashes in the wind. A bad memory,"
"And you have nothing but your greed, wrath, and pride to blame for it all," Marion condemned.
"HOW IS IT THAT YOU KNOW THIS,"
"Because, it was my people who destroyed them,"
"Oh very diplomatic," Clara said sarcastically, "That'll go down well," "Well maybe don't say that," Marion said at the same time.
The cavern got hotter as the Hyperion got angry. Marion wondered how Clara was able to remain in her ski suit without kneeling over but she somehow managed it.
"TIME LORD," the Hyperion said. It sounded furious, "MY APOLOGIES. YOU ARE FAR FROM INSIGNIFICANT. KILLING TIME LORDS IS ONE OF THE GREATEST IMPORTANCE. THE GREATEST PLEASURE. WHERE IS YOUR ARMY? SURELY NOT, EVEN A TIME LORD WOULD HAVE THE HUBRIS TO FACE ME ALONE,"
"They followed the signal," Marion said, waving her hand in a way she hoped looked dismissive enough "Didn't even know that you were here,"
"Besides, I'm the Doctor, I don't need an army. I have plans, plans within plans,"
"Dozens of plans!" Marion added, "Hundreds even. Every time you doubt the number of plans we've got, Mr. Plans over here makes a hundred and one more!"
The Doctor retrieved his screwdriver from his inner pocket. "A hundred different ways to destroy you,"
Hyperion didn't sound threatened by the angry Scottish sounding man.
"AND THAT IS THE ONE YOU CHOOSE FIRST?" The Hyperion made a noise that might've been a laugh, "WHAT IS THIS TERRIFYING INSTRUMENT MAY I ASK?"
"Sonic Screwdriver. It scans and analyses to a subatomic level, accesses all known computer systems, cracks every lock in the universe-"
"Apart from my flat that time I got locked out and didn't want Marion to break the door down. Dead loss against deadbolts,"
"And!" the Doctor said, acting like Clara hadn't spoken, "it unscrews,"
Marion glanced upward at the danger sign on the side panel of the ship. The ship somehow hadn't sunk into the magma. She could see the bottom screws begin to loosen.
Rann-Korr clearly could not.
"A FEARSOME WEAPON INDEED," there was that "laugh" again. "A VERITABLE DOOMSDAY DEVICE,"
It waddled closer to them.
"I AM RANN-KORR OF HYPERIOS. AS LONG AS FIRE RAGES WITHIN ME, THE HYPERION STILL LIVE. I SHALL BURN YOU SLOWLY TIMELORD. YOU WILL BEG ME TO END YOUR TIME IN THIS UNIVERSE, TO TAKE THE TIME THAT YOU HOLD SO DEAR"
"Sometimes, it's not the weapons that counts. It's who's holding it," The Doctor said, undaunted.
The last of the screws fell to the ground with a "ding".
Rann-Koor screamed in anger as steam from the ship's coolant system filled the room. The Doctor placed a hand on the small of their backs and pushed them forward.
"Now, we move!"
While Rann-Koor was distracted, the five of them took the opportunity to try to get as far away as possible.
"You released the tower's coolant gases!" Professor Spector said, impressed.
"Well spotted Professor," the Doctor lept from one floe to the next, "Rann-Korr may have seized control of the terra-sphere, but he has to maintain the operating systems. To protect the tower this close to Isen VI's core-"
"-You need a vast amount of cooling agents!"
"Exactly!" Marion said, "Of course, you'd have to screw something into place if you didn't want that coolant to get everywhere. Fortunately, the Doctor's sonic can unscrew things from far away,"
The Hyperion roared.
"But. I doubt that it's a trick that'll work twice. We should get back to TARDIS. Like, now,"
It was amazing how cool a cave system full of small lava pools could feel when you'd just left a cavern with an angry lava monster that forced you to play an extreme version of the floor in lava. It was like the difference between sitting in a hot car in 85-degree weather and getting out of said car into the 85-degree weather. Marion took a deep breath of the (slightly) cooler air.
"What's his story Doctor? He doesn't like you," Clara asked.
"It's not like that hasn't happened before," Marion mused.
"Ah," said the Doctor, "But I'm hated by all the right people. Marion summed it up pretty well. The Hyperions were a bunch of sentient suns. Nice bunch actually, before they turned mad, bad and dangerous to know,"
They were getting closer to the TARDIS. Marion started racing a little bit ahead of them. Just because the cave that they were in was comparatively cooler than the inside of the cavern that they had just been inside of, didn't mean that it wasn't still hot. Marion just wanted to get there and maybe drink a glass of something cold. As Marion considered this, the Doctor continued explaining the Hyperion's history.
"They were wiped out in the Great Inferno; a war between them and an intergalactic alliance led by the Time Lords. There were rumors that some had survived, scattered throughout the universe in suspended animation. Sleeper cells that were one day-,"
"Hyperios Rises!"
"OW FUCK!"
Whatever the Doctor was about to say was cut off by an expletive shout of pain from Marion followed by the sound of her hitting the floor.
'I should've stolen that thing's shockstick when I had a chance,'
Marion had forgotten about "ERIC" and how he was controlled by Rann-Korr. She hadn't thought about it and now she was paying the price. The thing jabbed itself into her chest and she fell on her back. Her chest stung and she felt the muscles in her body seize. Not to mention the pain in her arm from the way she fell. Marion could see Clara standing in front of her holding her ski pole defensively.
Professor Spector moved to help lift her up and to her feet but the Doctor waved her away before she could touch her.
"Doctor?" Professor Spector said in confusion.
Marion could see the Doctor leaning over her.
"Are you okay Marion?"
As the Doctor spoke, Marion could feel her muscles relax and she was able to sit up. The pain in her arm faded as it came.
"Marion, did it...did you just-?"
"Get killed?" Marion finished.
She thought about it for a moment. She'd heard the sound of a clock ticking followed by that same clock in reverse at the Sandminder (when her neck got snapped outside of the Commander's office) and she'd heard the same noise when she'd fallen from the bell room and down to the cathedral floor (and broke her skull).
She hadn't heard that noise just now though. And besides. The Doctor had been the one hit in the comic. The Doctor hadn't gone from grey and Scottish to blonde and Northern after being zapped in the chest. She was probably fine.
"Nah!" she said. She looked down at her blouse. "Scorched my blouse something awful though. 'Least it didn't get my waistcoat. I was beginning to enjoy that look. Matches my skirt now though,"
The Doctor pulled her to her feet.
'I'm never going to be able to wear this shirt or this skirt again, am I?'
"Rann-Korr's plugged into the mainframe," Professor Spector said in horror, "He's controlling the security drones!"
"Really," said Marion sarcastically, "What gave it away? Was it how it screamed 'HYPERIOS RISES' right before it jabbed me in the chest or was it something else,"
"Keep moving," said Clara, "Get to the TARDIS,"
"What're you going to do?" the Professor asked.
In lieu of a response, Clara held out her ski pole like a fencing foil.
"Marion, make sure that Doctor gets into the TARDIS"
"Oh, certainly! Come on Doctor,"
Marion pushed the Doctor towards the TARDIS.
"Clara no! The Hyperions were amongst the greatest warriors of their age,"
"Big deal," Clara said, thrusting her makeshift foil at "ERIC", "I'm a teacher in Shoreditch,"
"She'll be fine Doctor," Marion assured, "But Clara," Marion called to the teacher, "as soon as you knock him down you need to run as fast as you can to the TARDIS. Not a second later,"
"Got it!"
"ERIC" swung his shock stick down at Clara. She blocked him each time with her ski pole. She repeatedly pushed him back towards the lava pool. Marion stood at the entrance of the TARDIS where she could see Clara, the robot that she was fighting, and the cavern behind them.
"Hyperios Rises!"
It swiped at her and she dove out of the way. It looked around in confusion trying to see where she went. She shoved it in the back and it tumbled into the pool of lava the group had had to shimmy past earlier. It fell into the lake.
"One-Nil to Coal Hill,"
"Bravo Clara!" Marion said, "Now come on!"
Clara ran towards the TARDIS.
"NO ONE ESCAPES THE FIRES OF HYPERIOS!" a voice roared. Clara began running faster, a fireball following her.
"Marion, you know where the door lever is right?"
Marion glanced at the console, "Yes?"
"Be ready to close the door,"
Clara raced towards the TARDIS entrance lit from behind by a fireball bigger than she was. The Doctor leaned out and reached out a hand to her. She grabbed ahold of it and he pulled her into the TARDIS and out of range of the ship's inward closing doors. The moment they were out of range, Marion quickly pulled the lever down and the doors closed just before the fires of Hyperios could roast them. She flipped the dematerialization switch while she was at it.
"For a race that was wiped out," Professor Spector observed, "He looked very much alive,"
"And positively livid. Temper like a mega-tsunami," Dr. Scorfolus added.
"Your terraforming machine woke it back up. I don't know if you can 'kill' a sun," Marion put the word "kill" in air quotes. "The best thing that you can do is, oh I don't know, get rid of their fuel and shove them deep underground in the nearest frozen wasteland that you can find. Everything would've been fine is he had been left undisturbed but NOOOOO your boss just HAAAD to warm things up instead of going to literally any other planet for his wedding,"
"Hyperion ships are semi-sentient, designed to evolve, and adapt," the Doctor explained, "It superseded your control and manipulated the terraforming of Isen VI in Rann-Korr's favor. That's why you're suffering from coast-to-coast environmental upheaval and why your 'harmless' new species tried to devour Clara. He's turning your own world against you. It's quite clever. Might even do the same myself if I was an intergalactic mass-murderer,"
"Well, 'least we have a plan to beat him!" said Clara.
"We do? Great! What's the plan!"
"Your plan Doctor! You know the plan! The ones you mentioned back there? Plans within plans?"
"Oh. I was bluffing shamelessly. I don't have the slightest semblance of a plan. Yet. But what about you Marion? What was that about 'dozens, hundreds even'?"
"Oh! I was just yes-anding. I do have an idea though!"
"Well..." asked Profesor Spector.
"It's basically made of fire and molten rock, right? What if we got it super wet!"
"Well," said Dr. Scorfolus in disbelief, "That certainly is an idea,"
The TARDIS made its telltale whooshing noise as it landed in the middle of the aisle between the bride and groom's family. In front of the TARDIS's passengers at the other end of a long carpet stood Kano Dollar and a woman with long black hair, a beaded crown, and an armored green and white dress. That paired with the crossbow on her back made her look like she was ready and willing to get married and then fight someone after the reception. Further ahead was the minister who looked a bit like Dr. Beaker the muppet and further behind them in the distance, a volcano worked together with the yellow and orange sky to make a lovely backdrop.
Or at least it might've been lovely if it weren't for the fiery hell monster lurking just below the surface of the planet.
"-let them speak now or forever hold their-" the minister intoned.
"Excuse me!" the Doctor all but shouted, "Did I inadvertently step back in time, or are you all just daft? When I warn people about an impending global cataclysm, I don't expect them to swan about in their Sunday best waiting for it to happen!"
A man stood up holding up a weapon that made Marion curious about the threshold upon which a knife was considered a sword. Based on how he spoke and the way he dressed, she figured that he was either the bride's dad or her brother.
"You dare attempt to break up this union, little man? Thannagrrr, Emperor of the Horde will split your skull and sup on your-"
Clara waved him off, "Sorry, no offense, but your scary face is positively cute compared to the pit of hell we've been staring into,"
"Besides," Marion added, "If we don't all die in a fire and they still want to get married, we can do it somewhere that isn't a hellscape!"
Moments after Marion said, there was a loud booming noise and Rann-Korr burst from the mouth of the volcano.
"HYPERIOS RISES. AND THE UNIVERSE FALLS"
"Okay so," Marion pointed at the large tower/ship thing that it was clear that the people attending the wedding had obviously come from seeing as it's doorway opened directly out to the wedding pavilion. She cupped her mouth in her hands.
"EVERYONE, GET TO THE TOWER!"
Everyone crowded into the tower be it Dollar employees, people in what Marion assumed would have to be 25th ish century human formal wear or people in what Marion could tell was the formal warrior garb of the Horde. The only people who weren't in the main control room was Princess Thanna who was standing at a landing on the deck of the open-air hanger, and Clara who was looking to see if Rann-Korr was approaching.
"Get us off the planet. Activate the escape pods," the Professor said to one of the employees sitting at one of the navigation computers.
"Yes ma'am," They tapped at the computer for a moment. They paused and began to type more frantically.
"Ma'am it's not working!"
Professor Spector looked at the man's screen and cursed.
"Damn it! Rann-Korr's put terra-sphere control into lock-down. The escape pods aren't responding! Kano, how many can your private ship hold?"
There was a bit of static and then.
"The clue's in the word 'Private' Professor,"
"Jeez," Marion said, "It's not like I expected anything else out of you. And yet you've still managed to disappoint me. Bravo!"
"In business, it pays to recognize when a deal's about to turn sour. Sorry Thanna, darling, suddenly, getting into bed with the Gothgolka Horde doesn't seem like an attractive prospective. And cramming my ship with deadweight would only be a drag on my escape velocity,"
It baffled Marion how a man could change his mind so quickly about wanting to marry someone. Especially when that someone told you that part of their wedding ritual involved the two of you having a sword fight.
Like, that was literally the ideal!
Some people didn't have any taste.
Princess Thanna took her crossbow off her back and aimed it up at the private escape pod.
"Hah," she said without any humor in her voice, "So our honeymoon is over before it even began? Good,"
She fired the crossbow. The projectile that shot out showed that the weapon was even cooler than Marion had thought at first glance. It was less like a bow and more like a rocket launcher. It flung a flaming ball of something at the back of the ship and sent it crashing to the ground.
Marion knew that Kano Dollar was going to be FINE relatively speaking so she felt no shame in thinking.
'Good for her,'
"Clara, Princess Thanna, you might want to get back inside," she said.
The ground began to shake.
"Right now would be great! Unless you want to fall off the edge. That's got to be at least a 200-meter drop! Get in, get in,"
Marion ushered the two women back inside and not a moment too soon. There was a shaking sensation as the four main "legs" that were holding up the ship began to wobble. Then everyone was flung sideways.
"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH,"
It's been established that if there is one thing that's able to kill Marion Horatia Henson, it's certainly not falling from a great height. But how will everyone else survive the fall?
Short answer, by law, all ships are required to have airbags. But that just begs the question, how exactly is an airbag helpful in any way, shape, or form?
Let's do another quick Physics Lesson.
Q: How is slamming into a standard-issue health and safety airbag different from slamming into the marble floor of a catholic cathedral.
A: Slamming into the marble floor of a cathedral can and will result in your death unless you're either very lucky or very unkillable. Slamming into a standard-issue health and safety airbag will only kill you if you're very unlucky and land on your neck.
Where is the difference coming from? You fall just as far either way!
As we discussed earlier, the part of the fall that kills you is the sudden stop. The purpose of an airbag is to increase the time it takes for one to stop falling to something that won't end with your internal organs going "whoopsie" and you being forcibly shuffled off the mortal coil. At the same time, it redistributes the force of your landing along the surface area of the airbag. This further prevents your internal organs from going "smush".
To make a long story short, why was Marion not the only survivor of the tower collapsing like jenga blocks on a massage chair?
Space-OSHA!
Marion pushed herself off the yellow cushiony airbag and shakily got to her feet.
"I'll never moan about health and safety again," Professor Spector got to her feet, "Air-bags: Intergalactic Regulations state that any construction on worlds with gravity of 9 G or above be fitted with them,"
"Did you know that?" Clara asked the two of them.
"I did!" Marion piped in.
"Of course you did Marion, what about you Doctor?"
"Of course!"
"Of course!" mocked Clara, "That's why you were screaming even louder than me,"
"If I might interrupt," piped Dr. Scrofolus, "Our systems are operating at 54% and rising as the back-up power kicks in,"
"But?" asked Marion. She could tell just by the way that he spoke there was a "but" coming on. She didn't need her knowledge of the future.
"We've fallen into the path of the Aurora-,"
"The Aurora," asked the Doctor, "Those are the ocean cyclones right?"
"Right. And the Aurora is going to be on us in less than half an hour!"
"Plenty of time if everyone does what I say. Bringing down the tower is sure to have disrupted Rann-Korr's connection to the Terrasphere. Marion said something earlier, and that's giving me an idea," the Doctor turned to the Professor. "Professor Spector, I need you to re-establish as much control as possible and prepare to hardwire the TARDIS into your mainframe,"
"Understood!"
"Dr. Scrofolus, I'm assuming you're our expert on all things amphibious. I want concise details about aurora. Size, temperature, speed, everything,"
"I'll write up a brief report for you,"
"Clara, Marion,"
"Yes," "Yes,"
"To the blackboard,"
The Doctor's plan was quite simple. Clara would help Professor Spector hook the terraforming equipment to the TARDIS. The Doctor would lure Rann-Koor to his location right in the path of the Aurora. Dr. Scrofolus would tell them where and when to spring the trap. Once he was wet and weakened, they'd activate the Terraformer on the Aurora and freeze the sucker in a block of Ice. Easy. There was just one tiny hiccup.
"That's all well and good Doc," Marion said, "But what do you want me to do? You've given everyone a job but me!"
Marion hoped that she didn't sound whiny as she spoke. She wouldn't've said anything. Especially since a tiny (but still loud) part of her was hoping that he'd just tell her to stay in the TARDIS, take a shower, and maybe change into something that hadn't been worn for two days straight and/or been scorched by fire.
But a much larger part of her didn't want to leave the Doctor to deal with Rann-Korr alone and the idea of doing so made that part of her body scream in protest. It wasn't that she didn't think that he wouldn't be able to handle it. He looked more than two-and-a-half times her age and was in fact much much much much older than that. He didn't need her help with this and she knew this 100%.
Well, 95% according to what Ten had told her.
This train of thought wasn't making her feel any better actually.
Before she could think too much harder, the TARDIS landed and the Doctor flipped a switch and magnetized the TARDIS to the tower.
The Doctor opened the door.
"Marion you're with me!"
"Oh!" Marion said. "Great. What do you need me to do?"
"Two things,"
"Yes?"
"I need you to help me distract Rann-Korr long enough for the Aurora to get there. If there's one thing you're great at talking people's ear off until their too irritated to pay attention to what's going on around them,"
"Gee, thanks. What's the other thing,"
"If you start feeling nauseous or dizzy. You need to let me know. Quickly,"
"What?"
"Just let me know,"
Marion looked at the Doctor in confusion. It wasn't that it was out of character to care about people who weren't themself. But it seemed a bit odd that he'd mention that specifically. On the other hand, she had been minding her own- well she'd been minding other people's business when she out of nowhere started to feel like someone had strapped her to a "Tilt-a-Whirl" made it randomly stop and start again at different speeds, and then gone out for a lunch break leaving her there.
Marion nodded.
"Alright. Let's go antagonize a giant rock monster made of fire that wants to kill us! Fantastic! Let's go!"
There was a moment of pure and complete stillness. Then, there was an eruption and from the volcano burst Rann-Korr. He had recovered from the coolant shower the Doctor had hit him with and despite the fact that he didn't have a face, Marion could tell that he was very, very, very, very angry.
Which did mean that he was easy to distract so...win?
"HAVE YOU COME TO BEG, TIME LORD?"
"Sorry to deny you the ego boost," the Doctor replied, "but begging's not really my style. This is what they call a last stand. We just have to work out whose,"
"It's yours by the way," Marion piped in, "Your last stand. We'll have several stands after this one,"
The Hyperion hopped onto the broken part of the tower. It shook. Marion could feel the heat coming from him on her face.
"WHERE ARE YOUR ARMIES? I ONLY SEE THE GIRL. IS SHE ALL THAT YOU HAVE? IS THAT ALL THE FORCE BROUGHT TO FIGHT ME? A SINGLE TIME LORD AND A," Rann-Korr seemed to examine her. Because he either didn't have eyes or had eyes that simply were invisible, Marion couldn't tell for sure, but she felt like she was being scrutinized,
"HUMAN?"
Marion didn't know what it was about humanity that made him so incredulous. There had to be plenty of stories about what happens when a Time Lord travels with one or more humans. Either great things or terrible things depending on where you were standing and whether or not you were a megalomaniac.
"YOU'VE HAD AMPLE TIME TO ALERT GALLIFREY. THEIR TARDISES WOULD HAVE BROUGHT THEM HERE IN A HEARTBEAT...UNLESS TIME HAS NOT BEEN KIND TO THE TIME LORDS AND GALLIFREY HAS FALLEN. ARE YOU THE LAST OF YOUR KIND DOCTOR?"
"Why would I need Time Lords? If you think I need Time Lords you clearly haven't seen what Marion's capable of when she's having a bad day,"
'What's that supposed to mean!' Marion thought confused. The Doctor said that in such a way that it didn't seem much like a bluff. He said it flippantly sure, but there was something else there.
'I'll have to unpack that later,'
"YOU TALK SO MUCH! AND ALL TO HIDE THE FACT THAT YOU ARE ALONE? HOW SAD, HOW PATHETIC. A TIME LORD WHOSE TIME IS RUNNING OUT. FOR I SHALL BURN YOU TO THE BONE AND SCATTER YOUR ASHES TO THE WIND,"
"NO!" Marion shouted, "What's sad is you! Your whole people! Y'all spent millennia going around and helping people. Everyone loved you! Everyone was grateful to you! When your people needed help, you could've asked for help. It would've been given willingly if you had just asked," Marion's hands were flying about as she spoke, "But you didn't! You either burned them to the ground or enslaved them and left them to freeze to death. There was no need to be cruel and yet you were anyway. What happened because of that was your own fault,"
"LESSER RACES ARE INSIGNIFICANT. IT WAS OUR RIGHT TO SURVIVE! TO TAKE THE POWERS OF THEIR SUNS!"
"You gave into hatred," the Doctor condemned, "And hate drove you mad. Your entire race. Stark, raving, pants-on-your-head mad! Not that a being with your physiology understands the concept of pants,"
Marion could see the swirling Aurora in the distance. Marion felt a sense of dread in her stomach.
"YOU SHOULD HAVE RUN WHEN YOU HAD THE CHANCE TIME LORD. YOU MIGHT HAVE KNOWN PEACE. BUT NOW YOU AND YOUR PET YOU BE TURNED TO CINDERS,"
"Ah, But then we wouldn't be here to stop you," the Doctor replied, "I like to think of myself as a pacifist, but sometimes peace is the thing you have to fight the hardest for,"
"ALSO," Marion shouted, what Rann-Korr had called her sunk in, "This is off topic but what the FUCK do you mean 'pet'!"
She was ignored.
"TIME LORDS ARE THE ENEMIES OF HYPERIOUS. EVERYTHING ELSE IS NOT EVEN WORTHY OF THAT TITLE! MERE VERMIN. BUT IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT YOU ARE, NO ONE CAN FIGHT THE FIRES OF HYPERIOUS. AS YOUR CORPSES SMOULDER I WILL TAKE YOUR TARDIS AND BURN MY WAY THROUGH TIME,"
The Hyperius made a noise that might've been a laugh but sounded more like the noise a wooden beam makes right before it burns away and causes the roof to cave in with people still inside. The noise was cut off by a noise of confusion.
Marion's stomach did flips. She almost brushed it off, but she remembered what the Doctor had told her. She tugged on his shoulder.
"You told me to tell you if I was feeling nauseous?"
The Doctor nodded.
"Wel..."
"We need to get to the TARDIS then!"
They ran and Marion could hear a "hissing" noise behind them as the Aurora crashed into Rann-Korr and was just moments from overtaking them. Marion was ahead of the Doctor somehow. She reached behind her and grabbed the Doctor by the hand as they raced. Marion wondered if she should have encouraged the Doctor to leave sooner or kept a better eye on the Aurora. The water was lifting them off their feet and away from the TARDIS. Clara held out one of her ski poles for them to grab.
Marion held onto the Doctor's hand, kicked forward, and grabbed onto the ski pole. Clara yanked backward and Marion and the Doctor went tumbling into the TARDIS.
"Hey, Doctor?"
"Yes, Marion?"
"Please get off me. I think I'm losing feeling in my arm,"
When Clara had yanked Marion inside the TARDIS and Marion had yanked the Doctor after her, and he landed on her, pinning her arm to her chest and making it hard for her to move. The Doctor rolled off her and pushed himself to his feet. The Doctor helped her up.
"Well done Clara. Just as well I told you to hold onto that ski pole,"
"Eh, oh no you don't get to take credit for that. Marion's the one who told me to keep it on me and I would've kept it with me anyway. Not all the good ideas are yours- even if you seem to think that they are,"
Marion attempted to wring out her hair seeing as both she and the Doctor were soaking wet.
'Oh, man! I've lost my hat!'
A light on the TARDIS blinked twice and then Professor Spector's voice chimed through.
"Doctor? DOCTOR? Are you there? The tower can't take this pressure much longer,"
The other scientist's voice chimed, "We have to engage the Terraformer! Now!"
The Doctor grabbed a lever and yanked.
"Fetch your parkas ladies! It's about to get a whole lot colder in here,"
The TARDIS made the dematerialization noise, but there was something else to it. Something that Marion couldn't place. They were obviously dematerializing of course. Marion wasn't sure how she knew this, but she did. She felt that if the TARDIS wasn't dematerializing she would know it.
She did not know why she felt that she knew this.
"Doctor, it's working!" Dr. Scrofolus exclaimed. As far as she could remember, this was the first time that she'd heard him speak in a tone that wasn't nervous, "The temperatures are dropping at a phenomenal rate!"
"It's working!"
"What's working?"
"You'll see once we've landed,"
The Doctor landed the TARDIS and opened the door.
"Marion, are you coming?"
Marion shook her head.
"I'd love too, but on the off chance that whatever's taking me places decides to take me right after this adventure," Marion gestured to herself, "The last thing I want is to end up in Antarctica or something and finding out the hard way whether I can freeze to death,"
Something about the Doctor's expression twitched when Marion said that.
"I wonder what happens when I get super cold? Does my body maintain heat? Can I freeze and survive? Do I do that thing that reptiles do? Do I- Oh," Marion paused, "I suppose you can't tell me that can you. Well, tell Professor Spector it was nice to meet her. Dr. Scrofolus too. I'm going to take the time to change into something unlikely to produce hypothermia if I land anywhere that's not sunny. If I'm not back in the console room in like, twenty minutes assume that I ended up elsewhere,"
With that, Marion walked to her room. She hadn't been there in a bit, but she still knew the way. The hallway to it hadn't changed. (Or if it had changed, the TARDIS had changed it back. because she was the best!)
Marion looked at the bulletin board above her bed. She thought about the sketch that she'd done of the OK Corral. Marion took out her notebook and ripped out the page. She found a cluster of thumbtacks to the side of the board and she pinned the drawing to it. When she stepped back, she found that she was able to look at the board without getting cross-eyed. Only, there was one odd bit. No matter what she did, her eyes focused on the simple pencil sketch. She couldn't see or focus on anything else on the board other than the fact she was kind of aware of the fact that she was pretty sure that a good portion of them were photos.
It was kind of neat actually.
Marion didn't focus on that, she didn't know how much time she had before she was taken elsewhere. She wanted to take a shower and if "the Bitch Force" (the name that she had just now decided to use for the force that saw fit to drag her around time and space and drop her wherever and whenever it saw fit) decide to grab while she was in the shower, she'd have no choice but to figure out once and for all if she was REALLY immortal.
Marion looked through the drawers at the foot of her bed. She found what she thought was a normal jacket but when she pulled it up and shook it, it was revealed to be a longer coat. She shook it out. It was a long coat that went just down to her ankles. It was a light brown and had decently deep pockets that seemed like it would be easy to put her hands in. The style of the coat wasn't too, too different from the one that the Tenth Doctor had worn (Marion had decided to just use the numbers that were used officially. Counting War, the fact that Ten was Ten twice and the many incarnations of the Timeless child was complicated and took too much thought and effort for thoughts that were really just going to be going on inside of her head) but this coat was obviously smaller and didn't have any buttons along the edges.
Marion continued to look through the drawers. She found a pair of loose and comfortable pants. They were that greenish color that khaki pants sometimes came in. Her high school had really cracked down on people wearing those for some reason. Kids were skipping class to make out in the hallway and making it next to impossible for Marion to film stuff for a group project, but the school failed to care or do anything about it unless the students were wearing green pants instead of the county mandated tan.
Marion found a black turtleneck sweater with a collar high enough to cover the mark around her neck. It was soft so she picked it out as well.
Marion didn't know what it said about her that her requirements for clothes basically consisted of "soft and comfortable" and pretty much nothing else, but that was neither here nor there.
As a last-minute thought, she grabbed a red stretchy headband, a pair of dark brown boots and some socks and the like and put it in a bundle to take with her to the shower. She grabbed a hairbrush as well. Then she realized that she hadn't checked The Drawers in a while. What was the point of The Drawer if she didn't open it?
There continued to be nothing inside of the "A" drawer, but in the "M" drawer was a folded note resting atop a coil of rope. Marion was about to open the note, but then she read the outside of it.
"DON'T OPEN! Give to the next Doctor that you see that isn't Scottish. It's important that he gets it and it's IMPORTANT that this letter is unopened and SEALED,"
What followed this note was a series of exclamation points adding emphasis to the message.
Marion figured that she'd find out what the note said eventually, and so she tucked it into the inner pocket of the coat she'd planned to eventually wear and placed the rope inside of her bag.
The bag was kind of weird in the sense that it didn't seem that big looking inside of it. No matter what she put inside of it, the bag looked only just big enough to carry it all.
The TARDIS guided Marion to the bathroom. Marion hung her bag on the doorknob and quickly changed out of her wet and soaking clothes and stepped into the shower. She didn't know whether she would have time to wash her hair or not, so she instead wet it thoroughly and brushed through it. She washed the dirt and ash off her body and she finally felt a bit cleaner than she had previously. She got out the shower, dried off, and toweled her hair. She looked in the mirror.
'Ah geez,'
She could tell that she had toweled her hair a bit too hard and when she brushed it out, it was going to look a bit frizzy.
"Can't be helped I guess," Marion murmured as she took out her hairbrush and brushed it out a bit. She changed into the pants and sweater she picked out and adjusted the turtleneck to properly cover the discolored patch around her neck. She put the headband around her head and pushed it up. Once again, Marion's dirty clothes were nowhere to be seen. She shrugged on the jacket and popped the collar a bit. She slung her bag over her shoulder and walked out of the room. Marion was almost to the console room when she stopped. It wasn't that she couldn't move but she could hear talking. Marion decided to be a little bit nosy and listen in.
"-rion's a whole lot different, isn't she?" that was Clara speaking.
"Of course she is Clara. Just look at her, she's so young!"
"I knew that Doctor. I've only seen her eyes like that a handful of times. But why is she so different? She seemed I don't know..."
"Different somehow?"
"That's it! That's exactly it,"
Marion heard a sigh, followed by the Doctor saying:
"Something happened Clara. I don't know what happened, but it did. The best thing I can do, is-,"
He suddenly stopped talking.
"Oh Marion, you're done washing up!"
'Ah geez he spotted me!'
"Clara and I were just talking about,"
"Paintings!"
"Paintings?" the Doctor asked.
"Yes, paintings. We were wondering if you've done any lately,"
"You two were talking with each other about whether or not I had painted anything new recently,"
"Yes," "Yes,"
Marion knew that if she asked what they had REALLY been talking about, it was unlikely that they would tell her. So rather than even offering an attempt she said, "Well, I don't have a painting to show you, but I did complete a sketch of the OK Corral! Would you like to see it?"
Marion retrieved the sketch and the sketchbook from her room and met them in the kitchen. Marion knew that they knew that she knew what they were talking about, but rather than call them out on it, she decided to drop the topic. There wasn't much of a point in doing otherwise now was there?
Marion showed them the drawing that she had done and looked through the TARDIS fridge. She found a brown bag. On the side of it in black sharpie was written, 'Marion's. Do not eat. I made this sandwich especially for me and if I find out that you ate it Doctor then I show Clara whatever I can find that I think'll embarrass you most. This is both A Promise and A Threat -M,'
Marion wasn't the Doctor, she was Marion and she was hungry. And besides, even if this was a sandwich the Associate made for herself well, wasn't she the Associate as well? If she didn't want her past self to eat it, she should've specified.
Marion opened the bag and found a tasty looking sandwich that somehow was still warm. She held it in one hand as she ate it and adjusted the band around her arm to reflect that she had eaten something.
Marion was showing Clara a sketch that she had done a while ago of a flower when she felt the tugging around her waist. Marion stuffed the rest of the sandwich into her mouth.
"We'll have to talk later Clara," Marion said, "I think I'm about to go soon?"
Marion turned to the Doctor, "I don't suppose you'll offer me any hints to where I'm headed will you?"
"Well," the Doctor said, "You don't exactly have enough variety in your wardrobe for me to be able to look at you and tell,"
"That's rich, coming from you,"
The Doctor continued as if she hadn't spoken.
"But if I'm right, based on something you said, I think you'll end up somewhere decently far back. Not the farthest you've gone back though,"
"Well," Marion felt the tugging sensation get stronger like it did just before it did a final "yank".
"I'll see you s-!"
The Bitch Force tugged Marion sideways like she was a bad comedian in a Vaudeville comedy.
What a Bitch.
(Next Chapter: Plans That Work & Ones That Don't)
Marion: And then everyone was like "Yikes! Those vibes are cringe and their whole species got canceled,"
Everyone Else: Listen, I get the information that you are trying to convey to us, but please would do it in literally any other way.
So, Marion's outfit might sound familiar to you. That is because it's one of the outfits I drew her in for that "Marion Character sheet thing". You can find it on deviant art (my name is Lunammoon). It's the first one on the bottom. Other outfits in that drawing have appeared too. The largest drawing is what Marion was wearing when she ended up in the Doctor Who universe. The green dress is what she wore in Chapters 2-4. The one with the bandana is what she wore in chapters 4-7. The brown shirt is the one she wore in chapters 7-14. I don't have a picture of her wild west outfit yet. The other four outfits in the drawing will appear eventually.
In case you didn't know, my deviant art also has a high-res version of this story's cover and a drawing of what Marion's room looks like. Other stuff will appear on there as I see fit.
Also, as you may or may not know, this story is cross-posted on AO3. On AO3 the chapters titles can be long enough for me to both include my original chapter titles and the episode that they were based on. I have no intention of getting rid of my Chapter titles on here, but do you think I should put a key on my profile if someone, for some reason, only wants to see my take on a specific episode?