It's always strange when you write a fic with admittedly buckwild OC lore and then the show you're writing the fic for introduces buckwild worldbuilding lore and you're left going "huh" because not only does the lore not contradict yours but it gives language to describe said lore.

Me saying that TECHNICALLY counts as a major hint I suppose, but if this fic had come out today, it would have been something you sleuths would have kept in mind so I'm saying it now.

I'm just going to say Marion forgor about the thing in the TARDIS and it's very good at staying hidden. That's like the only major detail that doesn't quite work. There's a minor detail connected to the major detail, but I honestly don't have to change it much and frankly, it happening was probably far off writing wise.

Bookworm/Morgan/Liz (if you have a name preference please tell me) did more art.

superwholocked2016 [PUT A DOT HERE] tumblr [PUT A DOT HERE] com/post/754316898478538752/cozy-t-shirt-marion-lunammoon


Marion landed weird in the TARDIS and found herself having to pinwheel her arms to keep from falling face-first into a wall. She fell forward and rested her head against the side of the wall for a moment.

She knew that she wasn't too far from the console room. The TARDIS she was inside of looked familiar. It was definitely one of the classic ones. She was fairly certain that it was Two's but she couldn't be positive one way or the other-

"Isn't it beautiful?"

Oh, that was Zoe's voice. Never mind then. That confirmed it quite nicely.

"Eh."

Marion followed the sounds of their voices around a corner.

"The volcanic eruption." Zoe's voice repeated. "It's beautiful!"

"Beautiful?" Jamie shot back, "A great river of molten lava rolling, any minute-"

"Shush, Jamie, a minute. Quiet! Oh! Oh dear!" and that was more certainly Two's voice, "Of all the times for Marion to disappear, she had to do it right now!"

Marion peaked her head in through the opening of the hallway. Jamie noticed her and nodded his head in her direction to call attention to her."

"Well, she's back now." Jamie and Zoe quickly moved away from the monitor and stood next to the console. "Something wrong?"

Marion waved lightly and joined the Doctor on the other side. The Doctor's eyes flickered up towards her and then he looked back down at the console with a sign of relief.

"Well, this sort of thing happened before. The fluid links don't seem to be able to take the load."

The TARDIS buzzed under Marion's fingertips for a moment, and Marion leaned back just as silvery smoke emerged from a crack in the seams of how the console fit together. Marion coughed heavily. She took a step back and waved her hand in front of her face. She pulled up the collar of the sweater to cover her nose and mouth.

"Mercury vapour." Zoe shouted.

"Yup." Marion was muffled by the shirt collar that had been brought up to guard her face. "Don't breathe it in."

Marion circled the console with her hands hovering above the console. "Honey, is there an exhaust vent or a fan or something somewhere?" A switch near Marion's hand suddenly felt warmer than the others. Marion lightly flicked it, and the TARDIS gave off a loud hum. Within moments, most of the Mercury was gone.

"That should deal with most of it," Marion remarked.

"The fluids are still overheating."

"Well, yeah Doctor, but at least we won't be breathing in mercury anymore."

"Well, we can't stay here." Jamie shouted, "We'll be buried by that lava. It's nearly on us. Look!"

Marion looked up at the TARDIS scanner. The images on the screen were distinctive as the only non-living things in the console room that weren't in greyscale.

"Woah!" Marion whispered. "Cool!"

Lava flowed rapidly on the hills wherever the hills moved.

The Doctor and Zoe stopped to stare also.

"Oh, my word, what a wonderful sight."

"Fantastic!"

Jamie stared at the three of them in exasperation.

"Listen, will you three stop gaping at that and get us out of here."

"Don't worry, Jamie. We're safe in the TARDIS-"

"Are you sure?"

"Well-"

Jamie cut the Doctor off. "I mean, has the TARDIS ever been buried up to its neck in lava before?"

"Well, no."

"Well, how can you be so sure we're going to be alright?"

"I- Marion."

"Because I just am. And also, the TARDIS regularly travels through the vacuum of space. I'm not sure why the pressure of a lava river should be that much different,"

"But Marion," said Zoe, "The vacuum of space is cold isn't it."

"Well, yeah, but I think the vacuum of space is much more inhospitable."

"I think the fluid leaks have cooled down." the Doctor remarked moving back to the console, "That's a bit more power. Zoe, can you read off what that meter is registering, please?" The Doctor pressed some buttons and the TARDIS made a weirdly bubbly noise that sounded like it was trying to materialize underwater.

Zoe went around the other side of the TARDIS and started looking down at a mirror.

"Reading nine eight seven point three."

"Yes."

"Point four."

"Ah."

"Five."

"Oh no."

"Six." Zoe looked up, "It's jumped to nine nine one point. No, it's going up by numerals!"

The Doctor pulled at something on the TARDIS console. "Oh! This darn thing's stuck!" he shouted, "Of all the stupid, idiotic-"

"Marion!" Jamie exclaimed, "The lava's up to the TARDIS!"

"It's Fine Jamie-" Marion said carefully. "I mean, it's not great. I'll give you that. Certainly less than ideal, but it's not like the exterior's real wood. But it's fine!"

"It's reached the thousand danger mark, Doctor!"

"Still fine Marion?"

Marion gripped Jamie's shoulders.

"Jamie, Jamie, my friend. My pal. My guy. Do you want to see me panic? Because I'm feeling pretty calm right now." Marion lied. In truth, the TARDIS felt kind of weird, and Marion was doing her best to pretend that it didn't. It wasn't that it felt like it was being controlled. But it felt discordant somehow. "But if you want me to freak out, I'm sure I can manage something."

Still, Marion couldn't hear the cloister bells. So she knew that it could only be so bad.

The Doctor, meanwhile, was wrestling with something on the console.

"Have you done it?-"

"No, but I've-"

Zoe cut him off again.

"Are we on our way?"

"I've stopped the fluid links from vapourising."

"So we won't end up in danger trying to get more. No Daleks this time."

"Daleks?"

"Don't worry about it Jamie." the Doctor said quickly, "Marion is just reminiscing about the past."

"Well, isn't there any way we can get away?" Zoe asked.

"Well there is an emergency unit, but- oh no, I can't possibly use that."

"Oh sure you can!" Marion replied. "It's quite simple!"

"Marion! It moves the TARDIS out of the time-space dimension. Out of reality!"

"You can't really move out of reality. Not really. It's more- reality a bit to the left."

"A bit to the left!"

"Or the right. Or up. Or down. It doesn't really matter. Point is, it's fine!"

"Well I-"

"Oh come on Doctor!" Jamie exclaimed, "Marion said it was alright, didn't she? She'd know if it wasn't, wouldn't she?"

"Oh, I- oh all right."

The Doctor leaned down under the console. There was a panel there that Marion hadn't put much mind to before. The Doctor retrieved a small box from the panel. It was black and fit in the palm of his hand and had two white switches on either end.

"Here we are." the Doctor stared down at it, "Now then, which end was it?" the Doctor pressed the box down on an indent in the TARDIS. It clicked. "Yes- No, look, I can't possibly use this. We don't know what will happen."

"Look, will you stop your jabbering and get on with it? Marion said using it would be fine. So it'll be fine."

"But Jamie," replied Zoe, "Marion's awfully reckless,"

"Hey!"

"She's reckless with HER safety. Not ours and certainly not the Doctor's."

"I'm standing right here!"

"So you are!"

Jamie put his hand over the Doctor's and pressed down on the console.

The TARDIS started to shake (although it was unclear if that was because of what Jamie had done or because of the magma brushing against the sides of the ship). Marion, Zoe, and the Doctor braced themselves against the console while Jamie chose to instead wrap his hands around the man himself.

Typical.

Bright grey light began to repeatedly flash throughout the console room and the TARDIS began to make a piercing sort of synth noise on top of the watery materialization sound, Marion could feel something in the TARDIS shift in a way that she could only compare to how when you move an opaque bottle back and forth you don't need to see the liquid inside to figure out how full it is.

Finally, the TARDIS stilled. The odd feeling the ship had been giving off in waves was gone. It felt weirdly normal. Like, there should have been something different and there wasn't. Marion hummed thoughtfully and carefully raised up her hands.

"You good Honey?" Marion asked out loud.

"Honey?"

"She's talking to the TARDIS Zoe. She's asking if everything is alright." The Doctor explained.

"Is it?" Jamie asked.

Marion held up a hand, "I'm trying to figure it out." The TARDIS buzzed in circles under her feet. "I think so," she said finally.

"Why do you call it Honey?" Zoe asked. "Does it stand for something? Like how TARDIS stands for Time And Relative Dimension In Space"

"No, I call her that because I needed something to call it and she's a sweetie," Marion said, lightly drumming on the console with her fingertips.

"Yes…quite." The Doctor said slowly. He looked back towards a wall of various meters that had stopped.

"Is there any reading on the meter, Zoe?" the Doctor asked.

"Yes it's-" the young girl stopped, she stared down at the TARDIS meter. She tapped on it. "Well, that's funny. There's no reading at all."

"No." the Doctor said walking around the console room, "None of the meters are registering. Not one."

"Ah, but we're safe, aren't we?" Jamie brought up, "I mean, we're out of that lava stuff and we're all right here."

"And the TARDIS feels fine."

"What do you mean feels fine?" Zoe asked.

"She means it feels fine!"

"But what does that mean Jamie!"

Marion shrugged. "It means I know how the TARDIS is supposed to feel. And I know how it's not supposed to feel. I don't know how to explain it better than that." Marion really didn't. Figuring things out about the TARDIS was really a lot of trial and error but without any error.

She wondered if it was because the TARDIS was a Fourth Dimensional being that knew how Marion would instinctively react to things and acted accordingly.

"I'd better get working on the TARDIS controls right away." the Doctor said after a moment.

"Marion," Zoe asked, "we're not in flight, are we?"

"No," Marion pointed to the temporal column in the middle of the room, "If we were in flight, then even if you didn't hear take-off noises, you'd see that moving up and down. We're very stationary right now."

"Well, then presumably we've landed. So why isn't the scanner showing anything?"

Marion glanced up toward the screen in question. It was a blank blinding white.

"Because there's nothing to show I reckon."

"We're nowhere. It's as simple as that. I'll be in the power room, Jamie." with that the Doctor turned and left. He walked around the corner to a corridor that Marion hadn't seen on her way in and that she honestly wasn't certain had always been there.

"What does he mean, we're nowhere?"

Marion hummed. "Imagine the universe is like a painting on a huge canvas. The painting isn't done yet. So some parts of the canvas are still blank. We're in a blank bit. Also, the painting's never going to be truly done and the canvas is infinite. Does that make sense?"

That part of the end was genuine and not rhetorical. It made sense to her. She wasn't sure why it made sense to her. But it did. But she had no idea if it could make sense to anyone else.

The way that Jamie had nodded and said "Aye" suggested the negative for him but Zoe had a thoughtful expression that gave her some confidence.

"So we're on the outskirts of the universe then. So out of the way that nothing's here."

"Well, no. The universe is infinite, but it does have an edge. We're not there. We're still in the universe, just a blank bit of canvas. To continue the metaphor, there might be a splatter of paint here or there. Or a part where a dirty hand brushed against the side to be painted over later. But other than that, yeah. There's nothing out there…"

"That sounds like something."

"Well, there's not Nothing. It does, doesn't it. Anyway, it's not the nothing you've got to worry about. The canvas can't hurt you the way that the paint can."

Jamie looked back and forth between the two of them.

"Well," Jamie looked up at the scanner. It was still blank, "I'm away to change, and I suggest you do the same, Zoe. You look like a wee McLarty."

"A what?"

"A ragamuffin, a- Oh, never mind."

Jamie and Zoe left the TARDIS console room and Marion, not really having much better to do, decided to see if she could find the power room the Doctor had run off to. She walked off in the direction that the Doctor had gone and came across a doorway. The Doctor was whistling softly to himself.

Marion didn't realize that you could so obviously stress whistle like that.

Marion hadn't seen the Doctor come in here pretty much ever. Most of the time, when the Doctor had to do any kind of TARDIS repair, it was focused on the console and not the outsides. Marion wondered if that was normal or not. She wouldn't put it past the TARDIS to rearrange itself so that her thief could have everything he needed in one place.

The power room as it was reminded Marion of a basement boiler room. She found the Doctor with an oil rag and examining various parts in a sort of frantic way. Like he didn't know what he was looking for, but he was hoping that he would find it anyway. Or he was hoping that he wouldn't find it. One or the other.

"You good?" Marion asked, "What're you looking for."

"If I told you exactly which parts of the power room I was checking, and where to find the readings would you understand any of what I was talking about?"

"I- okay that's a fair question. No, I would not."

"Marion. It's a wonder how despite lacking fourth and fifth-dimensional knowledge-" "Fair" "You still manage to know when something's wrong with the TARDIS. And you manage to pilot it on occasion. It's remarkable."

"It's less of a knowing and more of a feeling. It's like-" Marion rotated her wrist, "Like if there's a food you've eaten so often you know by heart. Someone makes it for you one day and it tastes different, you might not know for sure what was added or what was left out or whatever, but you know something is off. Or like a song when someone plays the wrong note might be a better example. I don't know how to play the piano, but if someone tried to play ode to joy and missed a bunch of notes, I'd still notice."

"Does something taste off? Or sound off? If there's something wrong you don't want to say in front of Jamie or Zoe, you can say it now."

Marion hummed thoughtfully. She pressed her hands against the walls. "No, I'm pretty sure the TARDIS is fine right now. I think if she wasn't she'd tell me when I asked. Speaking of telling me. I ask again. You good?"

"Marion the TARDIS is currently stuck outside of time and space. We are nowhere. There is nothing outside of the TARDIS. Quite literally nothing. And you ask me if 'I'm Good'."

Marion didn't mention the fact that they weren't technically Nowhere. Mostly because she wasn't sure how she knew that or why she was so sure about it.

"We aren't in a soap bubble. If you're worried about that. The wherever we are is pretty stable. Just like, as long as we stay inside of the TARDIS we can just sort of float out eventually."

Honestly, Marion was fairly certain that as long as they all stayed inside and chilled out, things should continue as normal and they could go off and do something else.

Oh. Oh but wait. No, she remembered now. The incident with Vaugh and the Cybermen was supposed to happen right after the incident with the Land of Fiction. And she knew for certain that it would happen because she'd seen the aftermath.

Marion groaned lightly in her throat.

Fuck so she couldn't firmly demand that everyone stay in the TARDIS and not move. Huh.

"Doctor, do you have an envelope?" The Doctor dug through his far too deep pockets and retrieved one. It looked familiar, it was the right size. Marion took the envelope from him and then rummaged through her bag until she found a notebook and one of her normal pens. She handed them both to the Doctor.

"Marion, what's wrong?"

"Something just occurred to me. Real quick, I need you to write something down on this paper, and don't let me see it."

"Can I ask why?"

"You can." Marion said in a tone of voice that suggested that she would be unlikely to answer.

"I see."

The Doctor scribbled something down Marion didn't look at, and folded the paper and handed it back to her and then went back to examining the TARDIS console. Without looking, Marion slid the note into the envelope, sealed it, and then tucked it into her bag.

"Is something wrong?" the Doctor asked, looking up from the circuit board he was fidgeting with.

"I wouldn't say wrong. Nothing to do with the envelope that's just a thing for-" Marion stopped, "I was going to say future me. But I think it's past me really. I just realized something less than ideal you see."

"Marion I've seen what you refer to as 'less than ideal'. 'Less than ideal' from you means 'bad but I'm trying not to worry about it',"

"You recognizing that is less than ideal."

"What's less than ideal."

Zoe joined them in the room dressed in something familiar, purple, and sparkly.

"Oh nothing…" "Oh everything!"

Marion and the Doctor stared at each other.

"Zoe," the Doctor asked quickly, "Has anything happened?"

"Oh, nothing." the girl replied," It's all exactly the same."

"Oh good, good."

"You two are worried about something. What is it?"

"Me? Worried?" the Doctor said quickly, "No. No. It's only the unknown that worries me, Zoe."

Marion's eyes flicked towards the Doctor.

"No, he's very worried."

"But if there's nothing outside the TARDIS and we're nowhere, then what is there to worry about?"

"I don't know. But you see, the emergency unit is limited to a certain time simply because it's-"

"Because it's dangerous to stay where we are for any longer, yes. But we must be safe at the moment, otherwise the unit wouldn't let us stay here, would it?"

"You're interested in what's outside the TARDIS now, aren't you?" the Doctor asked Zoe.

"Well, curious, yes."

"Zoe," Marion said clearly, "Let's not worry about that right now."

"But Marion, I thought you said that outside was a blank canvas."

"Well-" Marion said slowly, "I said that it was blank, but that doesn't mean there's not paint splatters and smudges here and there. The fact that we were able to get here and didn't get killed instantly upon landing-"

"That was a possibility-"

"Possi-" Marion turned to stare at the Doctor, "No Doctor. Of course not. But the point is the fact that we can be here, means that something."

"What does it mean?"

"It means that there might be something else out there. It's like- uh," it suddenly occurred to Marion that Zoe largely grew up on a space station sometime in the example that she was about to give might not mean anything to her. "Well we're here, that means something else could be here. And they might not be as nice as we are."

"If we move outside the TARDIS, we step into a dimension about which we know nothing. We should be at the mercy of the forces outside time and space as we know it."

"But Doctor, I still think we should go out and see."

"I think you ought to listen to the Doctor and stay put for now."

"Marion, I thought you loved adventure." Zoe tried.

"Oh I do, but I also love the warm and fuzzy feeling that I get in my tummy with the knowledge that I've successfully avoided getting involved in some fu- some nonsense." Marion put a hand on Zoe's shoulder, "How about you just go back to the console room and tell Jamie that we're staying put, and then when the Doctor's done here we can leave and do something interesting."

Zoe stared at Marion for a moment, and then turned around and left.

"Do you think she's going to listen?"

"Zoe's a smart girl," Marion said carefully.

"Yes," the Doctor nodded, "Of course, like many geniuses, she's awfully curious."

"Yes…but she's got a lot of common sense. Plus she's had a long day, and she's going to be tired. So me prompting her to stay put might encourage her to just take a nap instead of going outside into the mists."

"Now Marion," the Doctor asked carefully, "Are you trying to convince yourself or me?"

"A little bit of column A and a little bit of column B. Now is there something here that I could help you with? Something you need held in place, a monitor you want me to look over. Anything?"

"I-well if you could," The Doctor produced a small screwdriver from inside of his sleeve and handed it to her along with four small screws. "If you could screw these back into place- right here, that would save me some time and I could check over here while you're doing that."

"Oh yeah, for sure," Marion replied, crouching down.

"You're worried about something." The Doctor said, "How bad is it?"

"I mean, on a scale of one to ten it's like a three, maybe a four? How do you know it's something bad?"

"Because you're fidgeting, but not talking. Which means you're full of energy, but don't have anything to talk about. So you're nervous." the Doctor paused, "I'm sorry I know you don't like when I do that."

"Hasn't stopped you before and won't stop you in the future. It's fine. I'm not mad when you do it, I just-"

Marion was neither an open book nor a living rock. But she didn't like someone knowing her mannerisms enough to call her out on them. Sometimes she liked to express things like sadness and anger and frustration without anyone but her realizing that that was what she was doing.

"Just what."

"To be frank Doc, I'm not quite sure how I wanted to finish that sentence."


Marion continued to move around the power room screwing the various pieces that the Doctor had taken apart back together. The two of them didn't talk much, outside of the Doctor telling Marion where she needed to go next and Marion going there.

Marion heard footsteps coming from the corridor. She turned around to see Jamie rushing into the room. Her expression evened out into a tight line.

"Marion, I thought you said that there wasn't anything out there! A blank canvas!"

"That's about half of what I said," Marion replied.

"Marion! Scotland's out there! We landed in Scotland."

Marion stood up and set the screwdriver down.

"You saw Scotland in the TARDIS scanner?" The Doctor asked slowly, "You couldn't have! There's nothing out there, let alone somewhere on Earth!"

"Well, we saw something!" Jamie insisted. "Zoe said she saw something else, but I know it was Scotland."

"Jamie, it's not poss-" the Doctor stopped, "You say you both saw different things?"

"No! It was definitely Scotland. Zoe thought she saw something else, her. home city or something, but no, it was very misty and she couldnae have seen right."

"And you left Zoe alone in the console room," Marion said quickly.

"Aye but what's that got to do with-"

Marion the Doctor were already leaving the power room and heading straight towards the console room with Marion ahead of him.

"Zoe!" Marion called, "Zoe where are- ah,"

The door to the console room was wide open, and Marion could see out into the whitish-grey fog. It was thick and seemingly impenetrable. It was white in all directions.

She didn't see Zoe anywhere or anything else more than a couple feet from her face. "Ah f-"

"Oh, my word!" the Doctor shouted. He called out to the girl. She didn't answer.

Jamie didn't seem to catch the way they reacted the way that they did.

"Och, I told her to wait. I'll go and get her." The Doctor reached out an arm to grab the younger man by the shoulders and keep him from moving forward and out the door.

"But who by?"

"I don't know, but there's someone or something out there that wants us to go out of the TARDIS."

"You mean some kind of danger?" Jamie asked.

"I could have sworn I told her that she needed to stay put but noooo."

Marion felt a shift on the back of her heels and she turned around to look at the TARDIS console. Something was beeping and flashing.

"Oh, no!" the Doctor exclaimed, "That's the first warning. There isn't much more time."

"What about Zoe?" Jamie said, "We can't leave her out there."

"I'll go get her," Marion said, already heading towards the TARDIS entrance. "I haven't seen anything on the scanners, I'll be fine. You stay put and keep the Doctor safe."

"I will," Jamie said at the same time the Doctor insisted that he didn't need a babysitter.

"And no matter what you hear, don't leave the TARDIS."


The fog surrounded her in every direction and the way the ground felt under her made Marion suspect that the only reason that the "ground" existed was because she was certain that it should. But as she actually entered it, she realized that it wasn't nearly as thick as it should have been. She could feel it everywhere in every direction yes, but as she got further and further away, she could still see the TARDIS off in the distance. Like the mist's opacity had been turned down significantly.

She still felt incredibly uneasy and wanted to leave as soon as she possibly could.

She could see a purplish smudge in the distance and she ran towards it. As fast as she could towards it. The closer she got, the louder the shouting she could hear.

"ZOE" Marion shouted out towards the figure.

"MARION!" the voice shouted back. "MARION WHERE ARE YOU!"

"ZOE JUST STAY PUT FOR ME"

"MARION WHERE ARE YOU?"

"I'M COMING ZOE. I'M ALMOST THERE"

Marion ran the rest of the way to her. Zoe turned around.

"Oh, Marion, I thought I was lost for good. I'm sorry I didn't listen."

"Oh? No, it's fine. Honestly, I can't say I expected you to listen. Not because you're childish or stupid or anything." Marion quickly added, "I can't even trust the Doctor not to go places he's explicitly been told not to. Even when I tell him that they're dangerous. Sometimes especially when I tell him that they're dangerous…" Marion trailed off. An idea occurred to her. "Maybe I should start telling him that dangerous places are dull and boring places instead. Hmm…anyway, we should head back to the TARDIS."

Zoe looked around. Her eyes passed right over the distant blue rectangle that was the ship.

"Oh but Marion! Where is it! There's nothing but fog!"

Hmm. That was…hmm.

Marion grabbed Zoe's hand and pointed it in the direction of the TARDIS.

"See where you're pointing. It's right there. That blue. It stands out rather well I'd say."

"I don't-," Zoe paused, "Oh I see it! But it's so hard to focus on." Zoe was silent for a moment, and then she exclaimed again, "Oh Marion! The fog is covering it."

Well, Marion would agree with Zoe that the fog was getting thicker, but she wouldn't have said it was COVERING the TARDIS persay. The fog was too see-through for that.

"Zoe, you can't see through the fog?"

"Are you saying that you can Marion?"

"Yeah?" Marion blinked again, "Yeah." Marion lowered her hand with Zoe still holding hers. "Well Zoe, just don't let go of my hand. Whatever weird mind games they're trying to play aren't working on me. So just follow my lead-"

"MARION!" Zoe was now turned in the opposite direction from the TARDIS and jerking at her hand. "Look! It's my home."

"Zoe-" Marion was reluctant to physically drag the girl, but she'd done a good many things that she'd been reluctant to do. "We both saw the TARDIS, so we know that's real. But I'm not seeing your home anywhere. We need to get back to the TARDIS. If you're that homesick-I'll see if we can get the Doctor to pilot the TARDIS there. But to do that, we need to get to the TARDIS."

"But Marion-"

"Zoe, it's an illusion and if I have to pick you up in order to get you into the TARDIS I will. But we need to go."

Marion was starting to get a headache. She wasn't sure that it was just because of Zoe, but she was most certainly getting a bit of a headache.

Zoe stared off into space for a little bit longer and then tightened her grip on Marion's hand.

"Ok."

Marion began marching towards the TARDIS. A part of her had been worried that the TARDIS was some kind of mirage started to fade the closer they got to the TARDIS. It was getting closer and closer instead of remaining the same distance, so she was fairly certain that it was real.

Every now and again, she felt a burning headache. But the headache didn't do much other than make her feel sort of agitated and angry in a way that she couldn't quite put her finger on.

In the distance, Marion saw several white robots staring at them pass.

"Marion, what are those?"

"Yet another reason for us to get into the ship!"

Marion pushed Zoe inside and instantly, her headache lessened. She blinked once or twice and pinched at her nose.

"Marion!" Jamie exclaimed. "Zoe!"

"Yes, we're back. Close the door." Marion tugged her sweater off her torso leaving her in just a black undershirt and tossed it over top of the scanner.

"Marion-"

She tossed it over top of the screen.

"There now it's all-"

"Marion!" Jamie shouted again.

"What?"

"The Doctor!"

"What about the-" Marion turned her head. The Doctor was sitting in a chair near the console. He was staring straight ahead with his eyes screwed tight.

"What's wrong with him?"

Marion looked around, for a moment and the light flashed in through the door.

"Why is the door still open!" Marion demanded, "Zoe? Jamie, one of you close the door."

Marion couldn't tell which one did it, but she could hear the sound of the door closing and that was enough. Marion rested her hand on top of one of the Doctor's and his eyes opened. He stared at her for a moment, and then he stood back up. Marion realized that he was still holding onto her hand and showed no sign of letting go until he was standing in front of the TARDIS console. And even then, he stayed close.

"Marion?" the Doctor asked, "Did you see anything?"

Ok, if the Doctor wasn't going to mention it, then she wasn't going to either. Marion could read a room.

"See anything?" Marion asked.

"Your home!" Jamie asked. "Like how I saw Scotland."

"Oh? No, actually." Marion wasn't sure what her mental state would be if she had seen her childhood home but it wasn't great. She didn't really want to think about it either. "I couldn't really see much of anything,"

"Because of the fog?"

"No…" Marion trailed off. "No. I mean I could see the fog but it felt- well looked, pretty transparent."

"Hmm…" the Doctor mused, "It must affect you differently," The Doctor looked up from the levers he was messing with, "Have you noticed anything at all."

"Not really. Can we go now?"

"Oh-oh alright. Yes."

Marion flicked a switch. The TARDIS started to go into motion but made a noise like a flock of metallic birds. Marion could feel something swirling under her feet uneasily.

"What's that?"

"I-I-I don't know"

"Oh, it's not the TARDIS going wrong again?"

"I'm not sure." Marion replied, "Doesn't feel normal though."

"How does it feel?"

"I don't know Jamie. It's hard to put into words. Whatever's going on, I think the TARDIS is worried. Not worried enough to trigger the cloister bells but, you know…worried."

"We're on our way all right," the Doctor said quickly in a way that sounded very much like he was trying to convince himself of this rather than them. "but the trouble is I don't know where to."

"Well, that's not unusual. Look, just tell me when we get there, eh?" Jamie walked away from the TARDIS. He sat down, leaned against the side of the console, and closed his eyes.

Zoe moved closer to the Doctor and sighed. " I'm sorry, Doctor. It was my fault. I shouldn't have gone outside."

"That's all right, Zoe. I don't think you could help it."

"Why not?"

"Well, I think whoever it was that was tempting you outside made it irresistible. Who knows? If Marion hadn't brought you back when she did, I might've given into the voice when-" The Doctor cut himself off.

Marion was no stranger to realizing that she was saying things that she shouldn't be saying and cutting herself off. This wasn't that. This was like the Doctor had started to say something, and then realized that he didn't know he knew that. Like the voice (which, if Marion was remembering correctly, was called "the Master", but not THAT Master) had tried to wipe away the memory of him speaking but had done so improperly.

"What voice?"

"I-I don't know. Perhaps there wasn't one. Perhaps it was just illusion,"

"You heard a voice," Marion said carefully.

"But we are safe now?"

"Eh!" Marion shook her hand.

"Marion, that's reassuring!" Zoe replied in a tone that suggested anything but.

"That's fair."

The Doctor looked down at the console. "Well, Marion's odd feelings aside. The TARDIS is performing quite normally-" the Doctor was suddenly staring very closely at something, "Oh, that's odd."

"What?"

"Well, this meter's dropped below a thousand."

"Well, is that critical?"

"No." the Doctor quickly moved around the other side, "It just means that we're using more power than we're storing, but don't worry. We've got an emergency power booster unit here somewhere, if I can find the switch. Now. No. Oh dear. It's here somewhere. Marion do you have any idea where the switch is."

"I'm looking," Marion replied.

She looked around the side of the console. "Honey?" Marion asked, looking around, "Honey, could you tell me where the-"

The TARDIS hummed, but not anywhere on the console. Marion turned her head and in the process, she saw Jamie. He was clearly asleep but the sleep didn't look restful.

The TARDIS hummed louder.

And Marion was pretty sure that the Doctor, and Zoe, two people who in theory, actually understood how the TARDIS worked better than she could.

They actually knew where stuff was and didn't need the TARDIS to point things out to her.

Marion crouched down next to the man, put a hand on his shoulder, and started to shake him. "Hey Jamie? Jamie wake up, you're dre-"

Jamie suddenly sat up nearly hitting Marion in the nose as he did.

"Do keep it down over there!" the Doctor remarked.

"Yeah-yeah!" Marion waved her hand.

"Oh. What's been happening?" Jamie asked.

"Oh, not much. You weren't asleep for long."

Somewhere back towards the console, the Doctor and Zoe were moving around the console and reading off various numbers. Marion leaned back to let Jamie get to his feet.

"I just had the most peculiar dream."

"Oh, I don't doubt it. It sure sounded like it."

"There was this big white horse with a horn right in the middle of his head, and-"

"A unicorn?" Zoe questioned.

"Hey? Aye, probably. He was charging straight towards me."

"They're the official animal of Scotland," Marion remarked, "Maybe he just wanted to say hello!"

"Say hello? Marion, it looked ready for the kill! I thought any moment-"

"Oh really, Jamie." Zoe admonished, "Your imagination is-" the young girl stopped talking abruptly.

Marion followed her gaze and saw that the Doctor's brow had furrowed, his eyes had closed, and the palm of his hand was pressed onto his forehead.

Marion moved away from Jamie and Zoe and closer to the Doctor. "Doc?"

"Doctor?"

"Hmm?"

"What's up?"

"Quiet, Jamie, quiet."

The Doctor's hand was pressed into his forehead.

"That sound. That vibration. It's alien."

"Sound?" Marion looked around, "What sound?"

The TARDIS hummed uncomfortably under her feet. She didn't hear the cloisters, but she felt worried regardless. It was like she was on a boat and it made her feel vaguely seasick. Not in the way that the Doctor being in danger made her feel. It felt different.

Although, now that Marion was thinking about it, she probably should be feeling anxious and nauseous right about now. Maybe even a touch of vertigo, but she wasn't.

"I can feel it too. In my head." Zoe's hands were clamped over her ears.

"Doc"

"I don't seem to be able to concentrate. Concentrate. All three of you, concentrate on something!"

"I can't!"

"What is it?" Jamie asked, "Marion, what are they hearing?"

"Loud noise? Some kind of psychic attack? I can't hear any of it."

"Read out the figures to me," the Doctor said quickly, "Zoe, aloud. Go on."

Zoe looked down.

"Nine nine one."

"Louder! All of you, read them off!"

"Two!"

"Oh, it's getting stronger."

Zoe, Jamie, and Marion continued to read off the numbers. Marion stopped and moved around the side of the console to grab ahold of the Doctor. One of her hands pressed down on the console and she froze.

The TARDIS felt wrong. Really wrong.

When the Rani and the Time Lords had taken over the TARDIS it had felt like standing on a platform made invisible by fog. Now the TARDIS felt like there was no fog and no platform. Her stomach dropped.

She knew that the Doctor and Zoe were hearing some kind of noise, but Marion could hear nothing other than the Doctor, Zoe, and Jamie reading off numbers.

"Honey?" Marion asked aloud. No buzz. The TARDIS fell silent. Not muffled. Silent. Like she wasn't even there.

And then, Marion could see the outer walls of the TARDIS. The blue police box interior slowly manifesting around the console and then falling apart like a doll house. Leaving the four of them around the console floating in a black nightmarish void.

Jamie and Zoe climbed on top of the console. Marion gripped the other side with one hand and reached out for the Doctor with her other hand. Her fingers just barely grazed the Doctor's coat and then Marion watched him slip away. His eyes were shut.

Suddenly, Marion was overcome with nausea.

"Oh no."

She reached out for the Doctor, and then in the process, both missed the Doctor and accidentally lost her grip on the console as well and she too was sent tumbling out into space. Her stomach dropped, it felt difficult to breathe, and she wished that Zoe would stop screaming.

At least she was pretty sure that Zoe was the one who was screaming.

Her head hurt and her chest was in pain and once her brain realized the similarities between the way she was floating in endless darkness with no way of knowing which way was up and those nightmares that she had been having.

Sounds like she was close to where Zoe was.

The screaming had petered out when Zoe had disappeared but it was back again. And weirdly enough, Marion's throat was hurting for some reason.

Funny that.


(Next Chapter: llɒW ɘʜt nO ɿoɿɿiM ɿoɿɿiM)


Marion: Is there a term for being doomed by the narrative only instead of it being death or whatever, it's inconvenience?


Based on what I've got so far, after Mind Robber I'm doing Paradise Towers (as of posting I'm almost done part three). After that it'll be either Black Orchid, the Deadly Assassin, or something with Amy and Rory.

Leaning a bit towards something with Amy and Rory but who knows what I'll be thinking in like 2-3 weeks.