Authors Notes: Just a reminder to keep in mind, I'm just trying to be true to the fictional characters I'm adding to the story. The opinions and thoughts held by these characters do not necessarily reflect my own.
Chapter 44
Ravens Rival.
The keel had beached on something, and whatever it was it was large enough to bring the ship to a crashing halt. Through the still mist Raven could see what looked like two large, flat boulders that the ship had wedged itself between.
The Pirate crew and the lost boys had swung over the side and were making an attempt to push the boat off again. They asked the strong boy, Ed to push it since he seemed infinitely strong, but Ed was either too strong or the hull wedged too well because all it resulted in was Ed pushing an Ed shaped hole in the hull, further wrecking the ship.
"You could've asked me to push the boat off." Raven commented as she joined the Doctor on this spit of land.
The Doctor, Raven, Captain Hook, Alice and now the space monk Barriss were assembled. As Raven landed she noted that the floor felt as hard as stone and yet slippery at the same time.
Captain Hook and Alice surveyed the ship while the Doctor knelt down, picked up some dust in his hand and rubbed it between his fingers, a thoughtful look on his face.
Raven stood and watched but didn't interrupt his thought pattern.
"What are you thinking about, Doctor?" Asked Barriss of the Time Lord.
"There's something about this soil that doesn't sit right." He said clapping his hands together to clean them off.
"Looks like dirt to me." Barriss said.
"The devil is in the detail." He replied and moved off.
Raven stared at Barriss for a little as she walked off to join the Doctor. The demon daughter found that watching Barriss interact with the Doctor just irritated her.
"Think you can clear this fog for me?" The Doctor asked Barriss, and Barriss responded by waving her arms and using her own powers to push the fog back. It was like a sphere ballooned out from her, clearing the fog from around them. "Thank you."
He looked around the area which had been cleared. The fog was slowly s tarting to flow back over the fifty foot radius of space she had cleared. Barriss walked ahead to clear more fog, and while she was ahead of them Raven came and stood next to the Doctor and out of Barriss's earshot she asked him.
"What did you ask her for?" She said trying and failing to keep her emotions from her voice. "I'll do it."
"You know, that's a good idea. Why don't you go help your friend." The Doctor said as he examined the ground again. "Try to find something that'll help us get our bearings."
"What bearings?" Raven asked.
"This may be the Land of Fiction, but I'm banking on the laws of seafaring navigation to hold up." The Doctor replied.
"Just like physics does?" Raven rolled her eyes.
She walked past him and joined Barriss. Activating her own powers and saying her chimes she waved her hands and a large bubble of dark energy sprouted from her fingers and expanded to push the fog away. The more they worked the further the fog was pushed away.
"I see why you respect the Doctor." Barriss said to her as they worked. "He's such a wise and gentle man. Yet underneath there is a power to him."
Raven remained silent. There were so many emotions floating through her head now and she needed to focus and concentrate.
"Are you finding it easier to meditate?" Barriss asked. The answer was no, she was still having trouble. But she didn't want to speak.
After a little longer with the silence Barriss spoke up again. "If I have offended you..."
"Just shut up, and let me work." Raven said sharply looking at her. She didn't know why, but looking at Barriss now made her feel very irritated. Watching her work her powers like Raven does, watching her interact with the Doctor. It was... upsetting her. She got the feeling she knew why, but some part of her would not acknowledge that thought.
"I know we both look similar, but rest assured you are still a unique individual and..." Barriss started saying.
"I said shut up!" Raven felt her eyes flash red. Something which startled Barriss and made her shrink away. Quickly Raven shut her eyes, looked away and rubbed her eyes with her fingers while pulling up her hood over her face.
"Whatever I did. I am sorry." Raven didn't respond. Barriss didn't do anything wrong. She was just being helpful to them. She was just a fiction. It wasn't as if the Doctor would ask her to come with them in the TARDIS, right?
You could have her all wrong. She might just be helping him. Raven didn't know what that thought was talking about. Raven felt she was within inches of understanding what she was feeling, but not wanting to face nor consider it she just pushed it away. It couldn't hurt her if she didn't acknowledge she felt that way.
She had started off liking Barriss, but that like was fast becoming dislike. For some reason her brain was telling her the alien girl was a threat to her. Like she was going to steal something from her, but she couldn't put those thoughts into context. It couldn't hurt her if she didn't acknowledge she felt that way.
Her mind kept going around and around in those circles, not reaching a conclusion until her own frustration in her mind billowed out and energy escaped her. The fog cleared from all around her from much further than Barriss had managed. Unfortunately her emotional and energetic outburst had also pushed both Barriss and the Doctor over onto the hard floor.
A little bashfully she looked to the Doctor and said in a small voice. "Sorry." She looked to Barriss and just gave her a cold look.
You stay away from him! Her mind said. If she was a threat to her, maybe she was a threat to him too.
Or maybe you're just jealous.
Shut up! She told that thought before it had a chance of being expressed. The Doctor won't abandon me. And like that all thoughts relating to this stopped. It couldn't hurt her if she didn't acknowledge she felt that way. Yet the feeling still lingered.
"Curious composition." The Doctor said, "This stone and these rocks."
"What are they? Precious minerals?" Barriss asked. Raven turned and approached the Doctor as he held the stones up for them too see.
"In a purely geological sense they are more precious then diamond." He licked one of the stones.
Eww. Raven felt disgusted.
"I think the ground is made of Keratin." The Doctor summarised.
"What?" Raven asked trying to get ahead of Barriss.
"You mean the stuff our hair, finger nails and skin are made from?" Barriss piped up. Of course a healer would know what that stuff was, and it just ground Ravens gears that she didn't know it.
"Exactly," The Doctor said smiling clearly pleased with Barriss.
I hate you. Said a stray thought in Ravens mind as she looked at Barriss.
"So, we're standing on a giant finger nail?" Barriss asked, a note of concern in her voice as she looked around.
"Or a claw maybe?" The Doctor suggested, "or maybe there is a legend of an island made of toe nails that I'm not aware of, but enough people believe to make it real."
That's stupid! Raven wanted to say, but she found herself biting her tongue.
"I'm not aware of any such legend." Barriss added.
"No, but I suppose coming from a fictional Galaxy far, far away means you don't get to hear many genuine legends that aren't made up." The Doctor shrugged.
"People believe many strange things." Raven added.
"Exactly. You should come to Earth some time. A marvellous place, very inventive, but some of the falsehoods people are willing to believe boggles the mind." The Doctor said, talking to Barriss.
"I would love to." Barriss smiled a charming, yet mysterious smile.
I really hate you. Raven thought and her eyes became darker as they looked at Barriss.
The Doctor clicked his fingers and pointed up into the sky. The two girls looked and they could see poking out of the edge of the fog what looked like a cliff edge.
"Rae Rae, go up there, clear the fog and tell me what you can see." The Doctor said and Raven felt her spirit lift at being given something she could do that Barriss could not. Fly.
"Oh yes sir." Raven said with a little attitude, but obeyed. She floated up off the ground and up towards the edge of the cliff. Crossing her arms and activating her powers she cleared the fog away within seconds.
But there was literally nothing to see, just more of the strangely shaped ground. There was a pattern on it, she noted, of dark and brown, and it looked like the ground had been built up as layers that were pushed outwards.
Raven turned back to the Doctor to relay this information. But she faced nothing but whiteness. The fog had closed over them and Raven couldn't see them.
She reached out with her telepathic powers to feel for the Doctors brain, but... no that was fogged up too.
Raven dropped to the foot of the cliff again and began to realise.
"Doc.. Doctor!" she called into the fog, "Doctor, can you hear me? Doctor?! Barriss?!"
She was lost.
Raven wandered in the fog for what felt like forever. Following the slope of the ground down she hoped she'd find the sea and could follow it around to the ship. She was aware a flaw in this plan meant if she chose the wrong direction when she reached the sea she might end up walking further away from the ship, not closer to it.
She did consider flying above the fog, but what good would that do? And she was concerned if she tried to return to land, she'd miss it and get lost in the open ocean waiting for her concentration to falter and she'd fall into the sea.
"Doctor! Barriss! Alice! Hook!" She cried out, but no response.
"I'm a good person, I'm a good person, I'm a good person." Said a voice in the fog. The words sent a shiver up her spine like she'd heard a ghost, but the voice didn't belong to anyone she knew. She calmed down but watched with bewilderment as two men crossed her vision. One smashing his fist down onto the second who had his arms up in a defensive posture and was making no effort to fight back. The one hitting the other man was saying, "I'm a good person, I'm a good person. This man is a bad man you see, see?! I'm attacking a bad man, that makes me a good person. I'm a good person." The semi-ghostly figure stopped, spotted Raven and moved towards her on his hands and knees. "I'm a good person, aren't I a good person? Please like me, please tell me I'm a good person."
Raven was instantly creeped out by this guy and shrieked, "Get the hell away from me!"
"But I'm a good person!" He shuffled on his knees towards her as if begging for forgiveness for a transgression that wasn't obvious. "Please, tell me I'm a good person."
"Are you another parody the Mistress doesn't like?" Raven asked. She looked at the second figure who, despite having a black eye and a bloody nose was trying to limp away from this creepy man.
"Someone good doesn't like me? Oh the shame, what must I do to prove my goodness to people?!" and instantly he got up and ran back at his victim and tried to pound his fist into his head again. The other man retreated as the first continued his assault. "I'm attacking a bad man! I'm a good person. Please like me, someone please tell me I'm a good person." and the two vanished into the fog with the assaulting man screaming. "I'm a good person, the world is full of so many bad people. Everyone is bad, every one is evil!... Except me! Please, like me!" Then the voice was gone.
Raven thought what she had seen before was disturbing but this was a whole new level. That 'parody' can't be talking about a real person, surely. It wasn't even funny, it was more disturbing than anything else. Could someone want to be liked so badly and become so desperate to prove it that they'd attack people? To proclaim them to be bad and attack them?
Of course they would, she realised, you're an example of the 'bad guy' people make up and fight.
A few more steps and another 'parody' appeared in the fog. A boy was sitting in the sand playing sandcastles. Suddenly a little girl with innocent looking eyes approached. Sat at the boys back and began poking him over and over and over with a stick. "Quit it." Said the boy, trying to shrug it off. "Stop it!" He said sharply when the girl wouldn't stop. After a while the girl looked like she was getting annoyed. She looked around as if to check if someone was looking. The girl looked straight through Raven as if she wasn't there. Then the girl picked up a hand full of sand and tossed it into the boys eyes. Finally fed up the boy reared up, drew back his fist and smacked the girl. "GO AWAY! He shouted. Just before impact the girl had an odd expression on her face, it was fear mixed in with anticipation, as if this is what she wanted to happen.
The girl then ran away with a clear red mark across her face, and she was screaming "Wahhh! Mummy, Daddy, I'm being bullied." The two kids vanished into the fog.
A metaphor of the children of Azarath. Raven thought.
After a long while walking the goth girl decided to call out into the fog again.
"HELLO!" Raven called out into the fog in the hopes of anyone hearing her.
"You don't believe, do you?" said a weak voice from somewhere, and Raven decided to follow.
"Surprised?" Said a rough sounding voice, "I would've thought God would've warned you I was coming."
As Raven approached this figure in the fog he began to become more distinct. He was quite tall and lanky with greying hair and a thin beard. He wore a cheap looking suit over a T-shirt both of which looked unkempt and dishevelled. He seemed to have a manner of superiority, arrogance and indifference. He was also leaning on a cane and limped along like his right leg was in some considerable pain.
"We're usually not informed of our trials before they happen. Or else they wouldn't be trials. My faith is clearly being tested."
The taller man hobbled around a bed which looked like it had a sick person in it.
"Faith, it's another word for 'Ignorance' isn't it?" The tall man stated. "I never understood how someone could believe in something with no evidence at all, or in the face of evidence to the contrary. Like its something to be celebrated."
"He asks for our trust. You can't love someone and not trust them." The man in the bed said.
"Yes, but trust has to be earnt. It can't just be given away free like a packet of skittles." The man said in a condescending tone. "How can you trust someone who doesn't want to be found? Someone so good at it he could be considered the worlds greatest hide and seek player?"
"I help people." The man in the bed said.
"No. You make them 'believe' you're helping them, when all you're doing is providing a placebo effect." The taller man said. "I don't know if you truly believe you're a faith healer or if its all some elaborate act. Either way, you clearly enjoy what you do."
"And why wouldn't I?" The ill man said. "I see the smile on their faces, I see people happy, and free."
"Until the medication wears off, and they're miles away in another state when they realise it wasn't the faith that releaved the pain. But the hundreds of years of medical science." He paused and looked the man straight in the eye. "Maybe they even come back. They want you to work your voodoo again, make them feel better. At some price or profit for yourself I'm guessing."
"All my work is done charitably." The man shot back.
"Oh, I never said the profit was monetary." He grinned and limped over to the side of the bed. "You enjoy the pats on the back. The 'well dones'. The tearful 'thank yous'. It's addictive isn't it?" He leaned over the bed and his voice had an edge to it like a hypnotising snake, clearly mocking the man. "A quick shot of dopamine to the system. It's like crack cocaine for your mind. So you keep doing it, thinking 'What harm am I causing people if I'm making them happy? If I'm making them secure?'" His voice took on a dark edge. "And then you convince one of my patience that she's healed, and she doesn't need medical treatment. She steps outside the hospital. On the drive home she suffers a brain seizure and crashes, killing not only herself, but a mother and child on the side walk."
The mans expression softened and almost looked horrified at this news. "I... I can't be held responsible for that!"
"No, that is true. You got me there. She was totally responsible for her own actions. After all, stupid people do stupid things. But stupid people are usually led by idiots, whether well meaning or not, into walking towards a mirage instead of their canteen because you've convinced them there's more water over there, by the palm trees where Elvis is preforming live on stage."
The man fell silent and looked like he was contemplating what he had done. Whatever that was.
Suddenly the taller man turned and faced Raven.
"Ah, another patience."
"What?" Raven said startled at being addressed. Unlike the other people banished to this place this man was the most solid and self aware.
"Let me guess. Limited sun exposure. Understandable given the fog. Malnourished going by how skinny you are and the darkness around the edges of your eyes." Raven sighed at this man. "You're also contemplating your position in the universe and society. You feel a weight on your shoulders and you've contemplated suicide over it."
Ravens position shifted and she crossed her arms over her chest.
"oooh, a defensive move. Have I rattled the demons cage?" He mocked.
"And you are?" Raven asked.
"Doctor Gregory House, MD. Unlike your Doctor friend I do have a medical degree, also I'm less naive and have better hair." He was very relaxed, with great arrogance yet also with an edge of humour to it.
"I can see why you're here." Raven shot back.
"So I'm frequently told." House said. "The Mistress doesn't like 'fictions' talking back to her."
"I know the feeling." Raven said, and looked around again for the Doctor.
"Did your mother abuse you?" House asked.
"What?" Raven asked.
"The answer is yes. But not by your mother. Do you hate your father?" Raven was about to speak again when the old man cut her off. "Yes, you do hate your father. Trust me when I tell you dads are over-rated. But that's not the cause of your abuse. No. Any brothers or sisters? No. So school chums then? Children on the street? You were both isolated and bullied as a child going by your stellar social skills. You had no one to 'big you up'. Make you stand up and take on the bullies. To make them pay. Or you had the ability, but not the willingness to use it."
He must be getting it from reading her mind! So she tried to close it, wall it off so he couldn't read it.
"You look at the Doctor longingly. But not lustfully. Which indicates a parental rather than a sexual attachment. But going by the horrified look on your face it tells me you've at least thought about it, even if you have dismissed it."
He was reading her emotions through her face! Quickly Raven flipped her hood up and tried to hide her face within it. Doctor House looked smug.
"Shut up." She spat.
"Deep down you fear you're growing attached to him, and you fear what it'd feel like to lose him."
"Shut up!" She spat louder.
"You think the taller hooded girl is a threat. You're jealous that she and your Doctor get along so well, and you think she'd be a better 'companion' than you."
"SHUT UP!"
"You want gratification from him. But you don't just want it given. No, you want to earn it. So you try your hardest to earn his approval, while at the same time pretending to be as nonchalant and uninterested as possible to not give the game away that behind his back you secretly call him daddy."
"I SAID SHUT UP!" She screamed, and Doctor Houses cane suddenly snapped in two and he fell to the ground in a heap.
Despite laying on the floor in pain he still sounded collected. "Not the worst reaction I've ever gotten. You clearly have powers and you're scared of them. A God, a Giant, a Titan among the mortal men, its so easy to mangle, injure and kill with a swipe of your hand; and with all the angst, anger and turmoil of being a teenager to boot."
Silence passed between them.
"Well, I will say you're holding your nerve better than I expected, Little Miss Teen Titan."
She really didn't like this Doctor House, he was scary, arrogant, condescending and he seemed to be able to sniff out a falsehood a mile away, even through her body language. He carried himself like someone who had such an experience of how people work that he could predict what people were like at a glance. But what kind of scared her is that she could see reflections of herself in him. She hated that.
"Hey, no need to be scared of me." That didn't reassure her. "I'm happy enough." He said on the floor as he popped the cap off a pill bottle and shoved a couple into his mouth. "We're both freaks, and outsiders. Trust me, I tried fitting in, it's never all its cracked up to be. To be accepted you have to sacrifice who you are." His cane was now strangely back as one piece as he got up. "It's better to be respected for who you are. Than to sell yourself for social rewards and privileges, such as the privilege of talking to other idiots who also have to mind their speech to maintain such privileges."
"You're an asshole." Raven shot at him.
"I'm also right."
"I'm sure that's really comforting to you." said Raven sarcastic tongue.
Gregory House smiled. "But at least you now know 'Who' I am, instead of what I choose to hide behind." He dusted himself down. "Sadly, the all powerful and wise Mistress of this land would rather hide herself behind a mask. She was right about one thing in her god awful long spiel to me before she banished me here. She feels oppressed because she is oppressed, but it's not by who she thinks it is. Some prefer to be among sheep with the security of a Shepard, than a wolf comfortable to have it both ways."
"Why are you even talking to me?" Raven asked as Doctor House tried to hobble away.
He stopped, looked deep into her eyes and shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe I'm just an asshole who gets a rush of enjoyment ripping off peoples masks." And he pulled back Ravens hood to see her face. "Now that I see you, I can now judge if you can be trusted."
"And what if I don't want to be judged?" Raven bit back.
"People are always going to judge you." House said starting to hobble backwards away from her. "It might as well be 'you' and your actions and words that they judge, and not the mask you hide behind." And he vanished into the fog.
"And what if I'm comfortable hiding behind a mask?!" Raven shouted after him, she didn't know why but she was angry at all this.
From the fog came Houses voice, mimicking a noise. "Baa!" came his sheep impression.
Again Raven was reaching through the fog. Her eyes were useless so she settled for listening. Trying to hear foot steps or voices, anything that'd give her a clue where to go.
It was getting cold, and slowly it was getting darker. She really didn't want to be out here at night.
She never realised how vulnerable she was. This was like the first time she stepped from the TARDIS, fighting those Shaydes. She had felt invincible because of her intense powers, but the more she travelled with the Doctor; the more and more like a mortal she began to feel. She could certainly die and from the most mundane of things. The cold, from drowning, trauma and injury. Her powers weren't the protective shield she thought they were, and they were certainly no use to her now.
"HALT!" cried a booming voice and Raven was so startled her hair stood up on end as power escaped her, it all fell back into place once she calmed down. "Who approaches my domain?!"
"It..." she cleared her throat and stood tall, all five foot of her. "I am Raven." She said in her raspy voice trying to add some intensity and menace to it.
"Go away!" Cried the voice. "I am a great and powerful wizard, and I do not welcome you to my domain!" What looked like powerful lights were shining here and there, whizzes and bangs to show off his power. Raven kept her cool, at least externally.
"In the Censored Zone?" she questioned.
The voice fell silent. "Ye...yes! I am the Master of the Censored Zone!"
Considering the Doctor had named it the 'Censored Zone' himself, it was unlikely anyone here knew it was called that. Something didn't smell right.
Raven took a step forwards and prepared to defend from an attack.
"GO AWAY, Come no closer!" The voice cried. "Or I shall attack!"
She got the sense this person couldn't hurt her even if he wanted to. It was all a bluff.
Raising her hand she used a little power and parted the fog in front of her.
There was a large, hot air balloon sitting on the ground, the balloon still high in the air with the words 'State Fair, Omaha' printed on the balloon. The magical lights appeared to be just fire works that were being set off by a man in old fashioned clothes. He was facing away from her and his booming voice was coming from some mechanical device he held up to his mouth, amplifying it through a speaker grill.
This guy was a fraud. He was also fully solid and substantial. Like she, or Captain Hook were.
"I have spoken. Come no further forwards, or feel the wrought of the great and powerful...!" He turned and was so startled to see her he dropped his microphone. "...Wizard of Oz." He finished in a weaker voice.
Raven rolled her eyes. "Of course you are."
To Be Continued...
Authors Notes: Other names for this chapter I had considered where, "Masks we hide behind." "We're always hiding ourselves." "Uncomfortable Characters" and "The joys of ripping another's mask off." Titles which more deal with the meat the chapter is cutting into. But I settled on Ravens Rival, which was shorter, punchier and caught the eye better, and still technically deals with themes in the chapter.
I felt making Barriss and Raven rivals for the Doctors attention, (at least in Ravens mind.) would mirror a similar rivalry that happens to Raven later between her and Terra.
The scene from House M.D. is similar to a scene I watched recently on the show, and I thought fitted perfectly. I modified the scene mostly so it can't be claimed I'm stealing from the episode. Copyright has gone bananas in recent years.