Chapter 9:

POV: Mara

Date: Uknown

I blinked sluggishly as slowly I regained consciousness. My limbs felt like jelly and my head was pounding. Had I made it out of the dial? I tested my limbs. I certainly felt like I had, but then again, that could all be part of the next illusion. And besides, I'd felt Ozul clawing at me. Would escape have been worth it if he'd followed me out? Or worse, had he made it out and left me behind?

I shuddered to think of what the consequences of that scenario might be.

I couldn't be sure where I was until I looked around. So, despite my reluctance, I pulled in a deep breath and steeled myself. There was only really one way to find out if I'd escaped. I was going to have to let this—whatever scenario this was—play out.

When I finally looked up, my eyes met Ohila's. She smiled at me, but it was anything except warm. "Welcome back, miss Tyler."

I looked down at myself, and immediately noticed the device attached to my chest. "I was certain you'd burned me like you did my mum."

Ohila scoffed. "Do you take us for fools? We learned a great deal from imprisoning your mother, and the data from doctor Sumara was most helpful." She held up her wrist to show me a bracelet that matched the device on my chest. "I'm afraid that, because of his work, you are much more trapped than your mother ever was."

I raised an eyebrow. "Oh? And how is that?"

"This device—the Time Wielder, we're thinking of calling it—is not only lodged on the outside of your chest, no, it's wrapped up deeply around your hearts and nervous system. Capable of disengaging when your body is being transported within it, and with many a failsafe to ensure no one else is able to retrieve you from it."

I sighed heavily, and for once felt every ounce of my age. Of course they had made such a difficult device. I straightened and tipped my head. That thought brought forth another important question to my mind. "If you had this wonderful new device all along, then why bother with trapping me in a confession dial? Why torment me into believing I'm powerless?"

Ohila stood straighter. "We needed you not to fight your destiny, and to understand your place. You are Quo, girl, and more dangerous than your mother ever was. You are also the daughter of an unknown. Your father may call himself Time Lord, but he is something more." She waved a dismissive hand. "No matter. Whatever he might be, it makes you even more dangerous than predicted."

I rolled my eyes at her. "Destiny, huh? I'm a time traveler, Ohila, I point and laugh at destiny. It's usually some kind of time event anyway." I cocked my head to the side when, somewhere outside of this dark room we were in, you could hear the wind howling.

Ohila took a step back from me with widened eyes.

I laughed mirthlessly at her reaction. "If I were superstitious as you, I'd say that sound is my mum agreeing with me." I leaned forward when she didn't answer. "What's the matter, Ohila? Are you afraid of the big Bad Wolf?"

Ohila narrowed her eyes at me and pressed a button on her bracelet.

I cried out when a shock shot through my chest and squeezed at my hearts. I panted and glared up at her. She tutted at me. "We've never had a Quo enter a confession dial before. We did not know what to expect, so we made a failsafe in case you found a way to get around our conditions for release as your father did." She spun on her heel and marched away until a door opened to reveal a bright hallway beyond what I could clearly now see was a small, dark cell. "Perhaps some time alone to reflect on your position would be valuable."

"Hardly," I grumbled. "You couldn't break me in the dial, what makes you think you could do it now?"

She chuckled. "Oh, miss Tyler." She turned then and pressed another button on her bracelet. "It may take longer without it, but who says we ever needed the dial for that?"

Sooner than I could blink, everything went black.

POV: Jenny

Date: October 10, 2025

"I don't like this," I grumbled for the hundredth time as I paced back and forth across the console room. "She's never been late for check-in, what could possibly be keeping her?"

Dad followed my movements with his eyes from his place leaning against the railing. "We know that Ohila tightened security after her last teleport. She's probably just looking for a way around the sensors."

Quietly, cautiously, Ruby approached me until she could place a hand on my arm to still my movements. "It'll be okay, Jen. Remember, she told us last time that she was making in-roads? Sounded like Ohila was really beginning to trust her."

I stared at her, unblinking, for a long moment. She was so very young. "That just makes this all the more dangerous." I turned toward the TARDIS console. "I should go retrieve her."

Faeter stepped in my path with wide arms. "You do that, and you might get her discovered, or worse, and you know it." He brought his arms around to place his hands on my shoulders. "Take a deep breath. Access those techniques doctor Lochlan taught you so well. It's going to be fine."

I swallowed, but nodded as I obediently took in a deep breath and counted down from 100. I turned back into my pacing and began to fiddle with my sonic. I never did like waiting. I was a doer—it was a deeply ingrained Tyler trait. We never did sit still. We ran toward something, we fixed things, we ran away even so we could regroup, but we did not sit still. Not even when I was born did I sit still, and I'd only gotten worse with age.

Remembering the last time I'd seen Neeklet before she left wasn't helping, either.

We had been left alone in the kitchen after dinner. The five of us had spent the whole meal meticulously planning out this spy mission. Every passing minute had made my muscles tense up all the more, and more than once I'd had to make myself breathe after my respiratory bypass kicked in. I'd had to remind myself constantly that I'd agreed to this plan, that there was no other way to save my sister from a fate similar to Mum's, and that I did—somewhere deep, deep down—trust that Neeklet could take care of herself.

"It will not be for long," she had said with a smile as we finished clearing away the last of the dishes. "You know me well. You know better than the rest of them that when I am determined, nothing stands in my way."

I hadn't been able to meet her eyes as I took one of her hands. The physical contact sent a jolt through me and reminded me of all the time I wished we had to have a proper reunion. Time to at least sort out the wild mess of emotions she had been evoking within me since her arrival.

"I just don't like it. They already have Mara—if they discover your true reason for being there, the consequences would be…"

Neeklet had tapped my chin until I met her eyes. They somehow filled me with the determination she was already channeling. She had always been good at that. "They will not discover me."

I had nodded, and she had lifted my hand to her lips to give my knuckles a kiss. "Promise me you'll come back," I pleaded, and hated how desperate I sounded.

She had grinned at me then and turned away with a wink. "If you think escape from me would be so easy, Legend, then you are sorely mistaken. I searched for you for a long time. I will come back, and when I do, you had better be ready for that talk you have been avoiding."

I opened my eyes as I brought myself back into the present moment and shook my head to clear it. I whipped back around toward the console. "That's it—"

With a flash and a bang, Neeklet appeared before us. My eyes widened with panic as she collapsed to the floor.

"Neeklet!" Faeter shouted as we all rushed forward. Well—the rest of them did. I was frozen on the spot. Neeklet was wounded in her abdomen, and though she was desperately clutching at the wound with one hand, she held up an object in the other in triumph.

Her smile was pained as she passed Ohila's bracelet off to Dad. Her eyes moved to mine, and it was only then that I realized I was hovering above her. When my body had forced itself to move, I didn't know. "I told you I would come back," she sputtered.

"What do we do?" Ruby cried out, and her words rang in my ears. I was still frozen with one of my hands intertwined with Neeklet's.

Thankfully, Faeter and Dad had sprung into action. "Move, Jenny."

I shuffled aside as Faeter rushed in with medical supplies from the med bay, but I refused to let go of Neeklet's hand. My hearts sputtered at the thought that it wouldn't be enough. That the wound was too deep. She wasn't human, Neeklet's people were more durable than humans, but she was still breakable. Still, both Dad and Faeter frantically used any instrument available to them to stop the bleeding from what appeared to be a cut.

"She stabbed me," Neeklet spat out. "Can you believe that? Who stabs anyone when blaster technology is available?" I couldn't help but smile a little at her outrage over the quality of Ohila's weapon. She panted. "I got it though. Jenny—"

"Right here." I came into her view and squeezed her hand.

"Press the—press the red button on the bracelet. It will call her—Mara. It will call her." Neeklet's eyelids fluttered.

"No, no!" Faeter shouted as he frantically continued to hook her up to what looked like a blood transfusion device. "No, you don't, miss princess of Ceolia. I don't intend to let my daughter-in-law die on my watch."

His acknowledgment of Neeklet as his daughter-in-law did all sorts of strange things to my hearts, but I chose to ignore that in favor of keeping her eyes on me. "You heard him," I told her. "You're not allowed to die on me yet, your Highness."

Behind me, I heard a gasp. "Jenny."

I blinked, and only then noticed the golden regeneration energy beginning to form around the hand that was still holding Neeklet's. My desperation to save her must have triggered my own instincts. I looked up at Dad with desperation. "Could it work?"

He seemed at a loss for words. "I don't know. She's not a Time Lady."

"But she's not human, either," I pointed out.

"It will use up one of your regenerations. Possibly more than one," Faeter said. "Whether it works or not, you will still lose a part of your life."

I shook my head. "I don't care about that." I turned my eyes back to Neeklet. "It's going to be fine. I'm going to heal you. I promise."

Her eyes widened as all around us, the room began to turn gold with tendrils of regeneration energy. I could feel the process wanting to move forward—wanting to change my own form, but I held it back. Instead, I leaned forward to place one hand over her wound.

She flinched at my touch but otherwise somehow managed to remain still. "Jenny, don't, you can't do this. Even if it works—"

"I can," I said in a tone that allowed no room for argument.

Neeklet's breathing was labored, and though it pained me to do it, I closed my eyes to focus inward. I had to do this just right if I wanted it to work. When I felt like I had a handle on what needed to happen next, I opened my eyes. All around me, I could feel everyone holding their breath.

As a final way to center me, I let out a slow breath of my own.

"Well," I said. "Here we go."

And with that, I let go of everything I had been holding back, and prayed to whoever might be listening that this would work.