Chapter 25

Yssgaroth

"Raven, your father's coming!" The Doctor shouted, and Raven lost concentration as fear flooded her. Instantly the Doctor was free as the power went. The atmosphere to Raven suddenly felt very, very cold. In her hypnotic state she fell to the ground and onto her hands and knees. Her father? Her father is coming?! No! NO!

"No, what are you doing girl?!" Marya said viciously, "Go claim your toy!"

"I need my toy..." Raven murmured and got up, but rather than force the Doctor towards her she began to take steps towards the Doctor.

"STOP!" Marya commanded, and Raven stopped. "What's wrong with you, you stupid girl?!" and Marya turned and look fiercely at the Doctor.

"Right, lets sort this out." The Doctor said dusting down his coat. "Who exactly are you? You're some kind of Vampire I take it?"

"I am a Yssgaroth!" Marya said, the look she gave the Doctor made her look like a demon hell spawn, much more so than Raven. Her features were vicious, her teeth sharp, and the skin around her eyes had turned a scarlet red.

"That's not possible." The Doctor said, his brow furrowing, "They were all destroyed."

"You should know, 'Doctor'!" she spat the word. "You murdered my father!" First confusion crossed the Doctors face, then understanding.

"The King Vampire?" The Doctor said, a fearful edge to his voice. "The one who fled into Exo-Space?"

"What in the name of the Lord is going on?" Stoker asked. "What is a Yssgaroth?"

"What does the name of the Lord have to do with it?" The Doctor asked, "The Yssgaroth? Yes, they were once a charming race of Vampires, so long as you managed to avoid them at mealtimes, of course." There was heavy sarcasm in his voice. "Also known as the Great Vampires. They were said to be the cause of all vampire legends and vampire like creatures throughout the universe."

The Doctor looked at Marya. "But you can't be a Yssgaroth. They were all killed millions of years ago, relatively speaking, in the 'Eternal War'."

"You Time Lords only counted the bodies you knew of. I was conceived in secret by the Great Lord of Vampires." Marya said. "The one you murdered in cold blood, without giving a chance; before he had a chance to rise again!"

The Doctor seemed to be considering her, as if pondering how to proceed. Suddenly he snapped his fingers and looked around excitedly like a child who had finished a puzzle. "Of course! You're half Yssgaroth, half human. I had read you were into cross breeding with other species to make your conquests of local populations easier. Hence why you don't look like a fifty foot tall bat like creature."

"I was my fathers means of breaking back into this Universe from E-Space." Marya said. This echoed in Ravens mind. More so when the Doctor clapped his hands and laughed.

"Raven, you've found a friend you can relate to. Though personally I'd find Marya's father more terrifying. That's if I hadn't found his resting place and drove, what was effectively, a giant, steel steak straight through his dark heart."

"Enough of this!" Marya's temper flared up. "Rae-Rae, bring the Doctor to me!"

Raven raised her arms to force the Doctor towards herself. "Raven, your father's coming!" The Doctor called and her powers failed as fear flooded her again. "Unlike you, Raven doesn't much care for her biological parent."

"Why doesn't this devil-spawn creature just come and get us, Doctor?" Stoker spoke up at last.

"Simple." The Doctor said, pointing down. "Running water. For some reason, reasons my people could never find out, the Yssgaroth seem to dislike running water. It acts like a barrier to them." He turned to Marya. "Kind of makes a stroll in the countryside a pain, doesn't it? Especially if you have to walk around a small creek you could easily step over."

"James, Barry. Bring the Doctor to me!" Marya cried.

"Unfortunately, 'they' are not full Vampires." the Doctor said to Stoker. "When I say run, 'run'... RIGHT RUN!" The two men turned on their heels and ran back, up into Whitby town, James and Barry following.

Angrily Marya turned to Raven, fire in her eyes. "I'll deal with you later! Come!"

Raven hesitated as Marya moved off. Her body was frozen with fear. Her father was coming, her father was coming for her! Where is her toy? She wants her toy! She needs her toy!

"Raven!" Marya called and Raven finally obeyed.

Marya led Raven up something called the 'One hundred and ninety nine steps' up towards the abbey. While her body followed Marya, her mind had followed the Doctor and Stoker. They were still on the other side of the river where Marya was powerless, and running from two Vampire like creatures.

The Doctor had tried running into a building and slamming the door shut. Testing the theory that a Vampire couldn't come in unless invited. Unfortunately Raven knew that theory to be wrong having chased James through peoples houses.

The Doctor had wanted to try out garlic, but unfortunately they couldn't get any, not at this time of night.

Eventually the Doctor and Stoker were cornered in a back alley while trying to go up the steps towards the small, short tunnel that'd lead them back to the guesthouse. But Barry stopped them on one side of the tunnel, while James appeared on the other. They were both trapped.

From where Raven was, on step one hundred and forty four of the one hundred and ninety nine she could see the tunnel set into the opposite cliff face and could see James' back as he approached the Doctor.

"Alright, alright. I can tell when I'm bested." The Doctor said. What was he doing with his hands? He turned around as he did something. He went towards the big brute Barry and held out his hand to shake his. "I surrender." Usually when you surrender you hold your hands up. Unfortunately Barry didn't know this as he reached out for the Doctors arm. The Doctor took his hand in his right, but then clamped down upon it with his left.

Barry screamed in agony. Smoke or steam erupted from his hand as he struggled to pull himself free from the Doctors grasp. James stood, wary of what kind of magic this was.

The Doctor released Barry and showed what was in his right hand. His silver pocket watch from his waistcoat. "I guess Vampires are allergic to silver too." And the two men retreated again while Barry moaned at his burns. James hesitated to go after them, probably fearing what it'd feel like to hold Silver, but also feared Marya's wrath.

Now in the ruins of the abbey, Marya was deeply upset that James and Barry had returned without the Doctor.

"Fools! Idiots!" She shouted at them, before turning to Raven shouting at her. "And you are useless! If I didn't need your powers so badly I'd bite your neck and make you one of us!"

For Raven to use her powers her soul had to be intact. To become a Vampire meant her soul would be destroyed, and no soul, no powers.

Raven just stood still. Her expression now blank. When were they going to have fun again? She wanted to have fun again. Why weren't they having fun anymore?

"Oi, oi. It weren't our fault!" James said to Marya, "You didn't tell us nowt about how silver burns us."

"And look where that belief has gotten you!" Marya said, "Would you have gone after the Doctor if you knew that piffling little watch could hurt you?"

"Send the pretty lass after them." James said, "it were funny how she made the Doctor move all like a marionette."

Marya looked at Raven, considering. "No, because the Doctor knows how to shut her down too easily. I don't know which demon fathered her, but she fears him, greatly."

Her father? Where?! Where is her toy?

Marya stared into Raven's eyes and she felt this Vampire girl dive into her mind.

"What do you know of the Yssgaroth and the Time Lords?" Marya asked, "Very little I imagine, or whatever lies the Doctor has polluted your mind with." Marya spat, "How do you see the Time Lords? Powerful beings who guard the Web of Time? As ancient, dusty senators who are so frightened of change?" Marya eyes burrowed into Raven soul. "I see them as controlling monsters, much like your own father."

Raven was powerless as Marya spoke to her. "When the Time Lords were experimenting with their Black Holes they opened up the home dimension of the Yssgaroth. We began to colonise this universe peacefully. We fed on blood, but only of our cattle. We left the rest of the Universe alone. But our power grew, and we eventually came to the attention of the Time Lords. They saw our rival power as a threat to themselves, and once they were powerful enough they spread lies about our ways, turned us into their bogeymen. Starting a five hundred long year war of extermination to eradicate us. I was conceived just as the war ended, and my father fled to Exo-Space to escape the Time Lords wrath."

Raven tried to think about it, something about that didn't ring true, things like, 'if they could peacefully feed on cattle then why did Marya feed on the man she tempted into a back alley earlier?' But Raven felt pressured into coming to one conclusion. 'The Time Lords were Monsters, all Time Lords were monsters.'

"And the Doctor followed my father into E-Space, found him while he was still recovering, and like all his bigoted kind he destroyed him. The Doctor committed genocide. He is more a monster than any of the Yssgaroth! His people started all this. Which is why the Doctor 'must' pay for his crimes. It is not just revenge, it is justice for me and my species."

Again Raven wasn't given a chance to think about it. Instead the thought felt like it was implanted into her brain under pressure. 'The Doctor is evil, the Doctor is a monster, the Doctor must die. The Doctor must die. The Doctor must die!'

Marya rested on the ground, in the nearby church cemetery, surrounded by the headstones of the dead. Her eyes were closed and her hands were crossed over her chest. She was completely still and if Raven didn't know better she'd say she was dead. But she was just resting, gathering her power and thinking.

James, Barry and herself stood and just watched over her as she slept. When where they going to have fun? When were they going to play again? Raven wanted to play. This was no fun. She wanted her toy. Raven felt like the reason she joined the Children of the Night no longer existed. Why did she actually join the Children of the Night? She couldn't remember. She kind of felt like she was forced into it. Her head was so foggy.

She looked over to James and Barry. They were standing like guards, obedient guards. There was no fun in them anymore. Even James didn't give her cheeky glances anymore. Deep within her mind Raven felt something struggling, twisting this way and that, wanting to be released. But it was fought down. Raven even felt something even deeper and stronger than that. It felt angry, very angry and wanted to break free just as bad as the other thing in her mind.

They had been ordered to stand guard, but they hadn't been ordered to be silent.

"Why did you join the Children of the Night?" Raven asked Barry and James, hoping this could lead to something fun. The two looked up like they were just puppets.

"Our Marya here saved my life." James said. "It were a long time ago. Up river at Briggswath. A girl I fancied lured me to the river one bright summers day. She was such a beautiful lassy, her smile was enough to rival the smile of every pretty lass in England. I was just a poor uneducated fishermans apprentice, she was a right posh farmers lass. I never thought I was good enough for anyone, but she took an interest in me. I were over the moon." His voice sounded distant and dreamy. "'till we entered the forest and she led me to a clearing." His voice started to drop as did his face. "There were a gang of them. Trouble makers from me school. They grabbed me." He stopped at what was obviously a painful memory. "They gave the lassy back her teady-bear and she ran off without looking back at me." The boy swallowed. "They were rough..." he said, not describing it. "Very, very rough."

Raven felt sad. Why did she feel sad? She wanted to have fun, not listen to sad stories. Someone make the sadness go away.

"I was left in the mud after they'd wrestled with me. I were bleedin' and I could not get up. But then as darkness fell an angel appeared before me. Marya. She said she had been watching me and said she could help me." He waved his arms a little, "so she turned me into this."

Now his voice became darker, so much darker. "and I had fun... oh so much fun... as I chased down those trouble makers and made each and every one of them 'disappear'. Glug, Glug, Glug..." He smiled, and now Raven could see his incisors were a lot more pointy than they should be. "The lass. I came for her for what she did. I led her out into the night, pretending to be an angel, just like she had done to me. I made sure she brought her teady bear with her. I led her to Marya. She took her bear and ripped its head off, and burnt it in a fire as she watched. I made sure she couldn't run away as Marya 'played' with her. Once the girl were near the end, only then did Marya feed. But she didn't give her the gift of life after. It felt so good."

Raven just stared at him for a long time. Why did another's story hurt? Why did she think both more and less of him at the same time? He'd led her a merry chase through the town, and into a trap. For some reason she had to ask. "You did the same to me, as you did the 'lassy'."

"Yes." He said coldly.

"Why?" She asked.

"Because pretty lasses are always so heartless and horrible." He said. There was an emptiness to him.

"I'm... I'm... sorry." She forced herself to say. What could she say to that? The part of her that was suppressed seemed to empathise with it, but also found it horrifying at the same time. She also thought she hated him at the same time.

"Leave me alone..." James said slowly in a low voice. Raven looked away.

"So what's your story?" Raven asked Barry, cocking her head to one side, hoping to get a better tale.

"I were thrown overboard by my sea-mates, because my mate got drunk and thought I were sleeping with their misses." His accent was much thicker than James' but she understood it. "I washed up on shore and here I am. Got back at the arse-holes though, afterwards. Funny thing was, I really were sleeping with his misses."

"That's nice..." Raven said dreamily, and yet sadly as if she didn't understand it. Why was she surrounded by sadness? Why did she join the Children of the Night? It felt like both James and Barry became what they were against their will because they had little other choice. She felt like she had more to think, but the fog in her mind made it difficult. Why had she joined the Children of the Night...?

Where was that little voice that reminded her of this stuff? The voice that told her what to do? Why was she here? She deeply missed something. She wanted to go home, she really, really wanted to go home, to that funny box; But she couldn't, she was a Child of the Night now.

Raven really, really wanted her toy now.

To Be Continued...

Authors notes: Part 25? Bloody hell, I never realised this story would get so long. I just want to thank everyone who is still following the narrative. You guys are fantastic! Absolutely fantastic! And to those who left comments and reviews. Thanks very much, you guys are awesome. :D

I'm upgrading the rating to a T because of some of the things I might end up presenting in a chapter or two.

Oddly I'm finding it difficult to write Raven as hypnotised than I am writing the real Raven. lol. I tried to make it her, but a lot more relaxed and clueless with the internal struggle in her mind between two aspects of herself that want to break free. Guess who two they are. :P

The 199 steps are actually something in Whitby and they lead up to the church and the abbey.

Technically the Yssgaroth are classic Doctor Who monsters who appeared first in the Doctor Who story 'State of Decay' where the Doctor did battle with the King Vampire and his minions.

The interpretation that the Time Lords were prejudice towards all Vampire kind, and that the Vampires were once peaceful was first expressed briefly in the Big Finish audio Zagreus. However, its never stated if this was just the Time Lord Vampire Tepesh just fibbing, or just reciting the Yssgaroth's own brand of propaganda.

Raven's powers do come from her soul-self, so I reasoned that Marya would not turn Raven into a vampire in case it risked destroying her powers. So she hypnotised her, and numbed her mind instead to make it more suggestible.