Chapter 79

A Monster After All.

The wheeze and groans of the arriving Time Capsule halted and the doors of the police box were pulled open instantly.

From within emerged the Doctor, still with his Christmas hat on.

"We wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry… oh…"

Stepping out of the TARDIS behind him was Raven, her boots and wintery attire sank into the sandy beach they had landed on.

"I'm certainly going to catch my death out here." Raven said as the heat assaulted her. She had changed into a wintery version of her own attire. Still in her favourite colours of black and blue, except what she wore were more like thermals that hugged her form tightly. The top had white frills around it's hem which hung around her hips. She also now wore blue, thermal gloves and boots to keep her hands and feet warm. It had all just appeared in her room when she'd returned to it. The Doctor hadn't given it to her, so she assumed it was another gift from the TARDIS itself. Over all that she wore her usual cloak, hood up.

Obviously, she was now over dressed for this blistering heat.

"Maybe global warming caught up with them." The Doctor said, trying to excuse his mistake. Clearly, he'd screwed up again.

"Admit it, you screwed up." Raven challenged him.

"I… ah… the TARDIS got the flight wrong." Raven rolled her eyes.

"The TARDIS my foot, don't blame that machine for your bad driving." Raven said turning to the Doctor.

"Bad driving? Excuse me…"

"You're excused." Raven challenged, "A trip to the store for milk turns into a galactic quest with you."

"Well, would you prefer it any other way?" The Doctor asked.

Raven opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out, not even a lie. Sighing she made her head fall forward onto his chest in a defeated posture.

"I fickin' hate you, Time Lord."

"So you keep telling me." The Doctor laughed, pushing her off him. "Anyway, come on. Let's pop in and try again."

"Try again? You're not going to explore?" That was so unlike the Doctor.

"Beach tomorrow, today Christmas, come on." The Doctor said disappearing into the TARDIS doors. Sighing, Raven followed, closing the door behind her.

The TARDIS began to wheeze and groan as it faded out, the light on top flashing as it went.

Silence for just a few seconds.

A wheeze and a groan started up again and the TARDIS materialised in exactly the same spot. The sound halted and the door was pulled open.

"Dashing through the snow, On a one-horse open sleigh, Over the fields we go, Laughing all the… way." The Doctor stopped when he realised the TARDIS had not moved.

"Ha, ha, ha, ha." Raven said sarcastically and smugly behind him.

The Doctor looked at Raven, then the TARDIS, then at his surroundings.

"Something is keeping us here, dragging us down." The Doctor concluded.

"Of course it is." Raven said smugly.

"Wipe that look off your face, it doesn't suit it." The Doctor said without even looking at her face. Raven's face dropped into more of a pout, then she stuck her tongue out at him behind his back.

The dark interior of the TARDIS was freezing when compared to the scorching sun outside. A whistle signalled the approach of an oncoming toy train, and Raven smoothly stepped off the track to let it rattle past before stepping back on it again.

Again, the time rotor moved up and down, and crashed to a stop, and yet again the TARDIS had failed to move. The Doctor adjusted some controls and tried to take off again. More moans and groans as the TARDIS took off. Then the time rotor froze with the sound of a snapping spring. The Doctor brought his fist down on the console and it roared back into life again, only to rematerialize again. Still, going by the scanner they had not moved.

"I guess we could have an Australian Christmas." The Doctor mused.

"The TARDIS is broken, again." Raven stated with raised eyebrows and a bored look on her face.

"No, no, no, no, no." The Doctor said, she was getting a little irritated when he did that. Repeat the same word over and over. It literally meant, 'shut up while I think'. "The TARDIS is a complex machine, it's not just a matter of programming it, it's being able to communicate, being able to talk to it, persuade it, encourage it." Again, the Time Rotor jammed and he smacked the console to get it moving, and again, landed exactly where they tried to leave.

"Oh yeah, she sounds so convinced." Raven said dryly in a mocking tone, though inside she enjoyed the Doctor's scowling face. He looked adorable when he did that.

"Well, I'd like to see the Daughter of Trigon try any better." He challenged, stepping off the console dais, his hands indicating that he was relinquishing the controls to her.

"You know I don't know how to fly the TARDIS." Raven said back.

"Alright, a quick crash course." The Doctor pointed out controls. "That is the real world interface, you'll want to carefully disengage that, NEVER take off with it engaged. Next you vent the thermal buffer or risk overheating the time rotor, adjust the helmic regulator to minus ten points. Make sure the jouls meter doesn't drop below one thousand, or else we're using more power than we're storing. Then activate the dematerialision circuits. Do not, I repeat do not disengage the brakes."

"Why?"

"Because I like the noise." The Doctor smiled, "Romana always told me to get the brakes serviced. Luckily, I always won that argument. I mean, can you imagine the TARDIS without the noise?"

"I could live with it." Raven dismissed, "and that's how you fly the TARDIS?" He'd said it all so fast that she barely grasped it.

"No, that's just how you take off. Flying is much more difficult."

"Sure it is." Raven sighed. The Doctor motioned for her to take his place at the helm, and she did so. Staring at the controls she was regretting this challenge. Half of what he'd told her had gone in one ear and out the other. Her hands hovered over the controls for a second thinking until she realised something.

Logically, everything should be set up, all she needed do was activate the dematerialisation circuit. But if she did that all that would happen was that the TARDIS would take off and land again. Gingerly, she adjusted controls. Raven glanced at the Doctor's reflection in the Time Rotor to judge form his reactions if she was pressing the right buttons and turning the correct dials. She took the helmic regulator and pushed it to minus eleven points just to make it look like she knew what she was doing.

Then she grasped the take off lever. She took a deep breath and pulled it down. The TARDIS began its dematerialisation cycle, wheezing and groaning as it vanished into the time vortex. Then the time rotor stopped.

The Doctors playful and yet smug face was reflected in the time rotor. Raven looked at her fist, but she didn't whack the base of the Time Rotor like he did. Instead, she stood back, reached into her powers, and quickly said her chimes and waved her hands.

"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" Her eyes glowed and she reached out with both hands for the upper and lower parts of the time rotor. Both crowns of crystals were shrouded in darkness as Raven forced them to move. The TARDIS shuddered. The mechanism was so worn down that a little help from Raven was useful to it. It needed space oil, or whatever the Doctor would use to lubricate it.

The demon girl helped the mechanism along a little before dropping her powers and letting the TARDIS fly itself. But then came the sound of materialisation, followed by the ka'chud of landing.

The Doctor laughed, "Nice try, Rae-Rae." He looked so smug, Raven was considering doing something to wipe that annoying look from his face. Maybe she should trap him in her hand held mirror for a few hours. But she didn't need to wipe that look off his face herself, because he took one look at the TARDIS console and his smug face became a frown almost instantly.

The Doctor's grey eyes looked up at her as if she'd played some kind of cruel trick on him. He looked down at the console, then up at the teenage sorceress.

"Beginners luck." He accused. His face went darker when a smirk played across Raven's face. She had no idea what she did, but it had ruffled the Doctors feathers. That was good enough for her.

The TARDIS doors opened and the Doctor and Raven stepped from the Police Box.

The TARDIS had materialised in a room. A large, metallic room painted in gun metal grey. It was clearly a storage cupboard of some kind going by the mops, buckets and brooms.

"We've landed on a space ship." The Doctor said as he played with a yo-yo he'd picked out of his frock coat pocket. "The gravity fluctuates once every pico-second. Very telling of artificial gravity generators, and by the feeling of motion this ship will carry us outside the range of whatever is dragging us back, and hey presto, we'll be on our way to London in no time."

He then turned to Raven and said sternly. "Wipe that look off your face." There wasn't a look on her face. "I don't buy for one moment that your flight was intentional."

"Funny you should say that." Raven said coolly maintaining eye contact. "I often say that about your piloting."

They held the gaze for a few moments, until the tension gave way. The Doctor burst out laughing and Raven expressed herself by looking down as a very slight smile appeared on her pale face.

"While we're here let's explore the craft." The Doctor was out of the broom cupboard in a heartbeat and he was strolling towards heaven knows where.

"It's not wise to wander around someone else's ship." Raven said as she hurried to catch him up.

"You stowed aboard the TARDIS." The Doctor reminded her. Raven's face dropped a little.

"Smart ass!" was all she could think to say.

"I know you are, but what am I?" The Doctor said in a childish tone. The two came to a stop when they heard a voice shout.

"Halt! Stay where you are!" What looked like some kind of soldier or guard was coming up towards them. The Doctor turned and whispered to Raven in a quick, hushed tone.

"Here goes the usual rigmaroll. Get taken to their leader, we don't provide an adequate explanation for our presence. We get locked up, we escape…."

"… yeah, then you find something you want to investigate, we get caught up in it, accused of being the problem, maybe even murder, probably…" Raven added.

"…Then we sort it out, put on a pot of tea, have a bit of a chat and head back to the TARDIS with a job well done."

"Sounds like every other day while I'm around you." Raven said, her tone framing it as a complaint.

"You know, now that you mention it, I've never considered how formulaic my adventures actually are." The Doctor mused. The soldier stopped in front of them. "Oh, hello. We were just taking a turn on the deck with my friend here, and we'd thought we'd pop down here to get out of the dreadful weather."

"Space weather?" Raven asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, a dreadful draft up there from the solar winds and all that." The Doctor smiled. "Now, if you could just point us in the direction of the promenade deck we'll be out of your hair." The words had barely left his mouth when the guard raised his gun up so the barrel pointed under the Doctor's nose. "Oh, sorry, but I don't need a nasal trim, thank you. I take it, the promenade deck is out of bounds?" The soldier didn't answer, it was like his steely look was permanently affixed to his face. "Or it doesn't exist? We're in deep trouble aren't we?" The Doctor asked.

Slowly the Doctor raised his hands. He then glanced at Raven and motioned with his arms for her to raise them. Sighing and rolling her eyes Raven slowly, as if bored, raised her hands up. The Doctor then turned back to the soldier and said. "Alright, let's try it like this. Take me to your leader."

"Sometimes I'm so embarrassed to be with you." Raven muttered.

Raven was tempted to unleash her powers, but the Doctor motioned her to hold back. She could very easily take this guard down. She wanted to hypnotise him and make him drop his gun, it would've been so easy. But she followed the Doctor's instructions.

As they were led through the ship there were noticeable scorch marks here and there. They both had to stop when they were about to step over a dead body. They were both going to protest that they had nothing to do with it, but the soldier poked his gun into their backs and made them walk on.

"Have you noticed anything funny about our little trigger happy friend?" The Doctor asked Raven.

"You mean the fact he hasn't shot us yet for being insane?" Raven quipped.

"His weapon, his armour, helmet, tunic and so on all don't match, and they're poorly maintained. Unlike the ship we're walking through." The Doctor pointed out. "I don't think he's a member of this ships crew."

"Scorch marks on the walls." Raven added, "and dead bodies."

"Well spotted."

"We can hardly miss them." Raven sighed.

"Space pirates?" The Doctor asked turning to look at their soldier.

"Eye's forward!" The soldier commanded. "And don't you dare call us Space Pirates. You flew your ship into our territory, without authorisation. We treated you like any other invasion force."

"I thought standard procedure would've been to blow it up. Not that I'm complaining." The Doctor said. "Yet you choose to board it instead. Curious isn't it?"

The soldier forced his gun into the Doctor's back. "Move it!"

Raven gave the soldier a warning look, but he clearly didn't take the short, goth girl seriously.

The pair were led out into a large loading bay where more Space Pirates had the actual crew of the ship surrounded. The crew were dressed in clean, grey uniforms with an emblem on the breast of a planet in a circle.

Raven and the Doctor were led to this group of people and both were forcibly pushed into the crew.

"Who the hell are you?" Asked an official looking member of the crew with a big, white moustache.

"Would you believe we're time travellers who just so happened to fall into this mess?" The Doctor asked, the guy didn't look convinced. "Then just call us stowaways, if it makes things easier."

"Do you know the penalty for stowaways?" Raven guessed this guy was the captain or something.

"A quick pot of tea followed by a slap on the wrists and a hefty fine of five million pounds?" The Doctor suggested.

"No, a long pot of tea followed by trial and execution." The man said.

"Really? How efficient. Oh well, that was my next guess." The Doctor looked to Raven and smiled, he wasn't worried about being stuck here and neither was she.

All around the pirates were loading metallic crates on hovering platforms into smaller shuttle craft. Despite not wanting to be called Space Pirates they certainly were acting like pirates.

Raven frowned, she knew what was about to happen. Wait for it, wait for it. Oh goodie, there was the TARDIS, loaded into one of those hover slays and being loaded into one of the shuttle craft. The Doctor noticed too.

"We've got to get on that shuttle." The Doctor whispered.

"The thought had crossed my mind." Raven whispered back. "I could hypnotise them all to give it back." She suggested.

Without prompting she focused on one of the soldiers and stared into his eyes. Her consciousness reached out and tried to push his mind aside to accept and obey her as his master.

You will obey me. She projected into his mind through her purple eyes. You will obey me. You will order your men to bring that box back. Obey me.

The man stared at Raven and came closer as Raven repeated her instructions. The closer he came, the easier this should be.

You will obey… Then she felt pain as the soldier punched her in the stomach and she keeled over. The Doctor was at her side in a second checking she was okay.

"Now that wasn't very gentlemanly." The Doctor fumed his eyes fixing the solider with an intense look.

"Oh, I'm sorry." The soldier bit sharply, "next time she tries to hypnotise me I'll do the gentlemanly thing and shoot her in the head!"

"That shouldn't be necessary." The Doctor said as Raven caught her breath and the pain in her ribs subsided. She clenched her fists and held her anger back. She so wanted to snap that guys neck. Snap his neck, crush his body to a pulp, and squash his brain in his skull. Feeling the Doctor's parental like attention made her calm down. But she was going to remember that guy and make him pay, later.

Another shuttle entered the hanger through a hazy force field in the side of the hull and landed on the deck. This one looked a little grander than the others, but still old and beaten up.

The loading ramp lowered, but nothing went up it, instead someone came down. A heavy set man, his large boots sharply impacting the deck as he stepped off. He was a tall, imposing figure. His gait suggested a false leg. He wore a large trench coat with the collar up, the coat covered his larger physique of well over six foot. His craggy face showed a battle weary person. The look was completed by his trimmed beard, unkept, thinning hair and an eye patch across his right eye.

Raven's blood ran cold. She nudged the Doctor, despite knowing he won't know who the hell that was. He'd been more preoccupied with the Cybermen at the time. The giant was the murderer, the butcher. Raven had asked, pleaded with him as a child to be good. But it seems he still walked the path of war, slaughter and destruction. Despite not being his mother Raven weirdly felt disappointed by him.

It was little Corentin. He'd become the monster after all.

To Be Continued…

Authors notes: Nothing really much to add, other than this was really fun to write and I hope you all enjoyed it.

Oh, for those who don't remember Corentin. We met him before as a baby in the Cybermen arc.