Raven's Descent

The Gemini Archives Book 2
by Jill D'Entremont

The time-travelling trio of Gemini, James, and The Doctor enjoy a jovial jaunt to Baltimore, Maryland, only to run into an old acquaintance of The Doctor's. But when the TARDIS is hijacked by a vengeful Time Lady, the seemingly mysterious Raven's true identity is revealed.

Originally written & illustrated February 2012
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Chapter 1

My eyes looked up from my hand.  Glaring piercingly back at me were a pair of hazel-green eyes and an emotionless face.

Blinking, I continued to keep my eyes straight ahead.  I slid two coins into the center of the table with a steady slip of one gloved hand.

The eyes across from me averted for just long enough to see the coins, and then they were back upon my face.  A small clink alerted the two of us that the bet had been matched.

With the smallest of nods, I made it clear that I was staying put now.

A smirk spread across my opponent's face.  He lowered the five cards of his hand and placed them, face up, on the table.

"Not bad," I finally spoke.  "But not good enough."

"Oh—fishsticks and custard!!"

A man wearing a navy blue bowtie huffed and crossed his arms as he leaned back in his chair.  My five cards were a full-house of Kings and Jacks.  This blew away the three-of-a-kind Queens in his own hand.

"Don't be a sore loser, Doctor." I smirked.  "We can give it another go if you'd like to try again."

The Doctor shook his head and started to get up.  "No, I've already lost all the currency I picked up around here thanks to you..."

"Hey, we didn't have to play with real money; I gave you the option when we started!" I got up after him, sliding the coins into my hand to slip into my pocket.

"Ah, but you gotta have real steaks on the line or it's not as fun... I'll get over it."  He grinned at me.   "Maybe."

"Let's hope so," I smiled back.

We walked back into the vacant, dark living room of the Edwards' home.  Everyone else had gone to bed or had retired to their rooms, leaving the two of us alone.  The Doctor had been coming to visit me almost every day since Dorian was healed; but every night, he would leave again.  He would always appear the next day, but that didn't make his departing every night any easier.  And every night, there was always a question that arose—and one way or another, he would deflect it.

"So... when am I going to get to come with you?" I asked more directly this time.

He shook his head with a smile.  "Every night..."

"Yes, every night," I repeated, "as much as I love you being here and experiencing me and my friends' daily life, I want to go with you and experience yours!"

"What makes you think my life is so extraordinary?" He put his hands in his pockets.

I raised an eyebrow.  "'All of time and space'?" I quoted his words.

Expecting this answer, he rocked on his heels.  "You'll get to come with me when it's time."

"And when's that?"

He gave me a bit of a defeated smirk.  "Soon."

I huffed, making it clear I was not particularly happy with the answer. "All right..."

"Gemini, listen," he took hold of my shoulder, "You need to spend time being normal with your friends; I need to finish a few things and get your TARDIS back in order.  Pretty soon it will be very hard for you to be normal..." He slid one arm further around my back and gave me a small hug.  "You'll thank me for this later—trust me."

"If you say so..." I hugged back.

"Right, then."  He let his arm drop.  "I'll see you in the morning."

"See you in the morning," I smiled, shifting my weight on my feet.

In his usual awkward style, he rocked back and forth for a moment with a puzzled look on his face before finally bending down and lightly kissing my cheek.  He then turned and opened the door.  I watched as he closed it behind him, and a few moments later, the familiar whooshing of his TARDIS disappearing from this dimension rose up outside the window.

I turned away when the sound faded, and I found James standing in the hallway.

My face flushed.  "Hey," I said, wondering how much he had heard.  The Doctor and I had done a fairly good job at hiding my newfound half-Time Lord identity from the rest of my friends, mostly because there was a lot we hadn't figured out yet.

"H-hi," he said in reply.  "I—I didn't mean to walk i-in on you... and—and the Doctor,"

I could tell James was nervous by the way he was speaking.  I smiled as warmly as I could and walked over to him.  "Oh it's okay; he was just headed off..."

James followed me into the kitchen.  As I scooped up the playing cards and watched as he went to the cupboard for a glass, I could tell he really wanted to ask me something.  Surprisingly, he filled up his glass with water and never spoke another word on the matter.  It was clear as he wished me goodnight, however, that his brotherly senses were on alert.  Apparently he had seen as much as he had heard.

I sighed and sat down at the table.  I felt terrible hiding things from James.  I really didn't like hiding any of what I was up to from any of my friends, but brothers add a new level of trust—and disappointment—to the equation.  In another time, The Doctor, James, and I had traveled together, but when our time streams were merged back to our old ones, James forgot everything he had experienced.  I nearly forgot as well, but the Time Lord side of my consciousness remembered before the rest of me did.

I looked toward the door where The Doctor had left minutes before.  I think it was about time for a change.

- - -

The Doctor opened the door to the TARDIS.  He shrunk back suddenly when he found me standing just outside.

"Well!  Good morning, Gem!" he said cheerfully, though it was apparent he was still surprised to see me.

"Morning, hey—quick question—"

"No," he brushed off, stepping around me to walk towards the Edwards' house.

"But—"

"It's not finished, you can't come this evening, and I will not play poker with you again." He spouted off.

I rolled my eyes and sprinted in front of him to stand between him and the door.  "I was going to ask if we could tell James about what's been going on."

The Doctor stopped at last, looking at me curiously.  "What's been going on?  As in..."

"As in why you call me Gemini."

He frowned.  "I thought I saw James standing in the hallway when I was leaving...  He didn't confront you, did he?  Course, that's a silly question; James isn't exactly one to confront someone—"

I cleared my throat and looked at him disapprovingly.

"...Right, sorry." The Doctor glanced aside.

"He didn't," I proceeded to answer his question, "But he sure wanted to."

The Doctor was still turned away.  "If he finds out, would he be more likely to tell your friends?  I'm not sure if we want to explain the ordeal to everyone just yet... there's too much we don't have figured out."

"I know, and I understand that," I said, glancing to the door.  "But James will definitely keep it between us."  I turned back to The Doctor when he tried to move again, "And he's my brother—I hate to lie to him.  Maybe he'll remember since he's been traveling with us before,"

The Doctor shook his head.  "If he remembers anything at all it would merely seem to be déjà vu."

"So can we tell him?"

The Time Lord smiled lightly.  "All right, all right... you persistent person, you..."

"Thanks!" I hugged him briefly and then opened the door to go inside.  He huffed and shook his head as he followed.

Chapter 2

James and I stood in the middle of a very large control-room, filled with electronic wires, knobs, screens, and levers on varying levels of metallic walkways.  James was in complete awe, and probably mild shock, as he surveyed his surroundings.

"This... is all inside... the box thing?" James managed to say, his eyes wide.

"The TARDIS, yes." The Doctor stepped over to us.

"B-but... it's..."

"Bigger on the inside." I nodded, looking at James.  The Doctor glanced at me and smiled.

"So—so I know The D-Doctor is a time-traveler..." James started, still unable to pull his eyes away from the ceiling.  "B-but what does this have to do with Ace?"

I glanced at The Doctor, who was obviously trying to formulate the best explanation in his head.

He started by stepping in the general area of James' sight.  "Well, you see, I'm more than a time-traveler; I'm what they call a Time Lord.  I'm not really sure exactly how the name came about, other than the fact our race has always had a sort of inclination towards time and its workings.  Actually—"

"One of the things Time Lords do is regenerate when they die," I stepped in before The Doctor could run us completely off-topic.

The Doctor eyed me with a frown, and James finally turned his attention to me as well.  "Reg—regenerate, like a rebirth?  A ...phoenix?" James tilted his head.

"Yes," The Doctor started pacing the floor.  "In fact, very much like a phoenix.  I like that metaphor..."

"But a Time Lord can also send his or her regenerative energy into someone else," I interrupted again.  

The Doctor raised his hands in exasperation.  "And that's what happened to Ace." He concluded simply.

James grew quiet, trying to process the information.  It was easy to see he was confused and almost afraid of what the statement could mean.  He eyed The Doctor warily, unable to find a question to start with.

"It's not a bad thing—at least not yet," The Doctor added quietly.

"That's not helping." I sneered at him from the corner of my eye.

"What it does mean is Ace is still human, but she possesses certain Time Lord attributes, such as the ability to control a TARDIS, the ability to regenerate—though we're not sure how many times—and of course, the ever-present Time Lord charm..." He smirked at me.

James still showed a deep concern and almost distrust of The Doctor.  "Gemini?" He spoke carefully.

"Yes.  She has two consciousness—es.  Sesss." The Doctor tilted his head.

"So—so you... did that to...?" My brother directed one of his hands toward me.

"Oh!" The Doctor held up his own hands in defense.  "Oh, no!  I'm sorry, that should have been said by now.  I am not the Time Lord that merged with your sister.  If I was, I wouldn't be here.  I'd merely be a tiny voice in her head—ah, wouldn't that be hilarious..."

"So—"

"We don't know who the other Time Lord is yet," I said.  "That's something I believe The Doctor has been trying to figure out,"

For the first time that day, The Doctor's face had dimmed considerably.  He scratched his head and started to turn around.  "Yes," he said at last, leaving it at that.

I now stood between two brooding figures, wondering if I really had made the wrong move by letting James into our circle of knowledge.

"Well," James finally piped up.  "C-can I look around?"

A spark lit back inside The Doctor's eyes.  "Of course."  The Doctor smiled a little and stepped back over to the control panel.  I followed him as James began to wander, and he caught me around the waist with his arm.

"I wouldn't flirt with me too much with James here," I whispered quietly.

"What flirting?" He grinned, finally releasing me and stepping over to the railing.  "Feeling any déjà vu, James?" he asked.

James, however, did not reply.  The look of wonder had returned to his face, and his eyes followed the orange-hued arches, beams, and panels as he stepped around.

"Sorry, Gem, I tried."

I smiled.  "It's fine.  I understood there was a slim chance he'd—"

"I've seen this before!"

We turned and looked at James as he stood at the foot of a hallway, leading to rooms we once used in another time stream.  

"You were saying?" The Doctor laughed and almost leapt over the railing to chase James down before he got too far.  When I ran after him, The Doctor had caught James standing in front of the room I had used before.  The tall young man gazed inside with an odd expression.

"I—I can't un-understand why... I f-feel like I've been here..." James touched the door frame curiously.

I glanced at The Doctor, wondering how he would explain the situation to him.

"Odd, feeling, eh.  That's the TARDIS for you.  Always somehow seems familiar.  Now!"  He turned and started back towards the main room.  "Since we're all here, let's find out where we want to go!"

I had to sigh a little, though I suppose I agreed with The Doctor's decision to not explain the alternate time stream ordeal with James—at least not yet.  It was enough for my brother to process what he had been given already.  I took his arm and led him back to where The Doctor had gone.

"You... you're all right, aren't you?" he asked, concerned.

I nodded and squeezed his arm a little.  "I am.  Every so often I hear voices... that's been about all."

He nodded and finally smiled back, as if that was all he needed to hear.  We quickly turned our eyes forward when we reached the main room.

"All of time and space... where would you like to go first?" The Doctor proudly leaned against the center console with his arms crossed.  "Ancient Rome?  Twenty-first century England?  Kasterborous?  Five minutes ago?"

"How about nineteenth century Baltimore?" I suggested.

The Doctor's brows lowered.  "That was rather distinct."

"Edgar Allan Poe.  Need I say more?"

"Oh, right; your favorite person in the entire world–aside from me, of course."  The Doctor jabbed as he turned around to face the console.

"...Yeah, keep telling yourself that." I jabbed back.

James chuckled more than I expected.  There was a look in his eyes now that seemed to know he had part of this threesome before.  Perhaps the familiarity of being inside the TARDIS was helping more than I thought it would.

"Appropriately enough, I was in need of checking out this place myself," The Doctor had begun pulling levers and switches.  "There seem to be some interesting timey-wimey things going on."

"Timey-wimey as in wibbly-wobbly time stream things?" I joked.

"Exactly!  My brilliance is certainly wearing off on you..."

I shook my head and laughed as James continued to do the same.  "I told you this would be fun," I said, nudging him with my elbow.

"I—I don't doubt it," He smiled.

The TARDIS whirred and rose up as the mechanics in the central panel began to shift and move.  James watched the process in awe as I stood and smiled at The Doctor.  He was always so excitable when he was showing someone else how amazing time-travelling was.

We slowed and came to rest, and then The Doctor bounded towards the door to get there before we did.

"And I thought I was the one who was most excited to be here," I gave a snide remark as The Doctor flung open the door.  I was quickly silenced when I noticed the endless junkyard of Fortanya's future on the other side.  I shivered, perhaps more from the memories I had of the place than from the cold wind that thrust itself into the TARDIS.

"...Th-this can't be Baltimore..." James was frowning.

"No, but I wanted to show you and Gemini how her TARDIS is doing first." The Doctor turned back to us and smiled.

"You left it here?" I asked, stepping out into a pathway The Doctor had cleared through the rubble.

The Time Lord rested his elbow on the silver machine, still fairly dusty and rugged on the outside.  "Well obviously it's hard to move a broken time machine to another time or place.  Couldn't exactly fit it through the door of my TARDIS either..." The corner of his mouth pulled in an odd smirk.  "And to be honest, a junk yard may be the best place for working on it—unlimited supply of parts, after all!"

"Points taken." I grinned as he stepped around to open the door for me.

I was more than a little surprised when I saw the inside.  Lights were on, shining their warm orange glow on the much shinier control panel.  The screen wasn't on yet, and there were still panels on the wall that looked patched and unfinished, but I was already incredibly impressed with The Doctor's work.

My beloved TARDIS!  You look even better than how you used to be!

I had to smirk.  My Time Lord side was always excited inside my TARDIS.  There was always a distinct feeling of exhilaration, even when standing still among its bigger-on-the-inside walls.

"Still got a little mechanical fixing to do, and a lot more cleaning up... but how am I doing?" he leaned closer to me and asked, as if he didn't know the answer.

"You're doing great!" I replied.  I had to blush when he didn't move—keeping his face hovering beside mine with a playful grin on his face.  I nudged him and he finally chuckled and stepped away.  I had to glance at James out of instinct, but my brother hadn't noticed so far.  Thankfully, the architecture of my TARDIS was more exciting to look at.

"This one isn't as—as big," he commented, turning to look at us as he stood at the control panel.

"Its previous owner didn't see the need to add hundreds of rooms," The Doctor said matter-of-factly.  "Quite a pity... you can have a lot more fun when you add a swimming pool..."

As they spoke of my TARDIS's layout, I walked to the small room under the control panel to see what it looked like.  The arched doorway was still rather dirty from soot, and when I stepped inside, the smell of ash and smoke was still very present.

"Sorry, I haven't worked on this room yet," The Doctor had joined me a moment later.  "I've been trying to tidy up the main room first.  However..." He walked over to a small end table beside a rather disheveled bed and lifted something from it.  "I did find this."

He handed me a thin, clay raven feather, fitted with a chain on either end so it could be worn as a necklace.  I took it in my hands and held it, immediately feeling something familiar about it.

"It's pretty," I said simply, my head too far in thought to say more.

"Well, it is yours—was yours—is yours... something like that." He babbled, finally rubbing his forehead and giving up.

I reached behind my head and clasped it around my neck.  I looked to The Doctor as I lowered my arms, eager for his approval.

He smiled warmly.  "It suits you well." He said.

"Thanks." I replied, lightly touching it with my hand.

He turned away with a flushed face and started up to the main room.  "How about we get to where we were headed in the first place..." He spoke, not directing the words to anyone in particular.  It was cute how quickly he could melt with the right glances and words.

We joined James at the door and walked back over to the Doctor's TARDIS, closing the door to my silver TARDIS and leaving it behind us.  The Doctor quickly returned to his state of excitement as he piloted us onward to our destination.

United States.  Baltimore, Maryland.  Year 1833 A.D., Anno Domini, local time. Date, 19 October.

Chapter 3

The door to the TARDIS was flung open, and I stepped out into nineteenth century Baltimore with wide eyes.  It was incredible; the sights, the sounds, the people passing on the road just ahead of us—I almost couldn't believe that I was there.

"W-we're in a grave yard," James almost immediately pointed out, standing beside a small marble headstone.  Shortly after, his eyes caught a glimpse of a particularly intricate mausoleum, and his wide-eyed attention was averted.

"This is the Westminster Hall Burying Grounds..." The Doctor had his sonic screwdriver out, pointing it around.  "Though, at the moment, there is no hall.  I suppose it's not been built yet."

Standing on a tiny walkway between gravestones, I eyed him when I heard the familiar buzzing.  "Should you be doing that here?  You're going to scare someone!"

"Oh, like you being a woman wearing blue jeans from another century won't." He shot back, slipping the device into his inside coat pocket.

I had to think about this statement for a moment, which prompted The Doctor to ruffle my hair as he walked past me.  I combed my hair with my fingers as I followed him to an iron gate that led to the street.  James stood behind me as The Doctor pulled open the gate with a grainy creak.

"These old gravesites are... are hauntingly beautiful... The m-marble and granite is still new; white and clean and sturdy..."  James trailed off, almost dreamily.

"It's no surprise you two are related; you both have rather macabre tastes," The Doctor smirked.

"It's not weird to find beauty in a graveyard," I replied.

The three of us stepped into the street, garnering a small amount of attention due to our clothing.  Each carriage or passerby had to glance at us warily, but they slowly moved on without another look back.  All the while, I eagerly scanned the horizon, trying to find the smallest glimpse of Edgar Allan Poe.

We started down the road along the wall of the graveyard until we came to the corner.  The Doctor informed us that Edgar Allan Poe's home was a few blocks down the road, so we headed in that direction.  While we walked, I continued to inspect everyone on the street for the iconic face I had seen in photos and books.  I saw a man with dark hair and a dark suit, but as he came nearer, his face was too scruffy and rounded.  Another man caught my eye, but he, too, was not Poe.  Anxious, I walked a little faster.

The buzzing of The Doctor's sonic screwdriver came to my ears again, but before I turned to look at him, a man and a woman stepped around a corner up ahead.  The man, wearing a dark jacket and a gray scarf, glanced in our direction before nodding to the woman and crossing the street.  I almost stopped short when I noticed the man looked oddly familiar.

"Ohmigosh—that's—wait—is that—" I stammered worse than James.

"...Doctor??"

This time all three of us stopped, looking towards the woman who stood ahead of us.   A look of shock covered her face, and moments later, she was walking towards us at a fast pace.

"Do you know her?"  I stepped backwards until my shoulder met his arm.

He gazed ahead with a similar look of surprise on his face. "She's... still alive!"

The dark-haired woman wore a black bodice with a flowing, deep purple skirt that reached her ankles.  A white shawl was wrapped around her thin arms, and she held her elbows bent at her waist to keep it on.

"Rovenna!" he called, holding out his hands.  "I cannot believe I'm even seeing you!"

"Doctor!" she embraced him as soon as she reached us and lightly kissed his cheek in a greeting.  "We Time Lords are certainly unpredictable!  Speaking of, it's 'Raven' now."

"Raven, eh?" The Doctor rocked almost nervously on his heels.

"You're a Time Lord?" I asked.  For some reason, knowing she was a Time Lord didn't seem so stunning.  It was almost as if I had already known of her heritage.

Raven smiled at me, though her gaze did not stay long.  "Not unlike your friend The Doctor, here." She said.  "Though I'm much better at staying below the radar, so to speak."

The Doctor shrugged.   "Well obviously—but what are you doing here?  I thought... I thought all the rest of us were..."

"Again, we are unpredictable." Raven stepped in while The Doctor found himself at a loss for words.  She eyed me again, and then she looked up at James.  "Travelling with new companions, I see.  Other than your appearance, not much has changed about you so far," she said with a bit of a laugh.  She slowed when she noticed the raven feather necklace peeking from under my jacket.

The Doctor smirked.  "This is James and Gemini.  They're siblings."

"Ah, I thought so!"  Raven looked up quickly and clasped James' hand and nodded.  "A pleasure, James,"

James grinned bashfully in reply.

When she turned to me, I locked on to Raven's pale blue eyes as we clasped each others' hand.

At once I felt a weakness in my knees.  My head began to throb. A constant chatter, like a hundred voices speaking around me, rose into my mind.

It's me—oh no, look at me—I have no idea—warn me!  Warn me!  Don't just stand there, move!  Do something!  I have no idea what is coming—no, wait!  Don't do it!  If you stop me I won't be here!  I have no idea—don't just stand there!  Warn me!!

I staggered backwards into The Doctor as James grabbed my arm to steady me.   I winced and pressed my hand against my temple.  The Doctor took one look at me and his expression changed completely.

The young woman stepped back, also slightly shaken, though she remained focused enough to look towards the Doctor worriedly.  "What's... what's wrong?"

"James, take Gemini back to the TARDIS," he said suddenly.  "I've got something to discuss with Rov—Raven here."  He helped me stand and passed me over to my brother's steady arms.  "Go and wait for me there.  She's all right, just—keep her inside there until I come back!"

Utterly confused, James could only nod and carefully lead me back to the graveyard gate.  Still in a half-stupefied state, I could do nothing to retaliate.  I couldn't even glance back at The Doctor as part of me wondered what in the world was going on while the other part was screaming.

The Doctor turned around to face Raven again, his hands still held in a pushing motion.  His face displayed a peculiar emotion, like a protective anxiety with a hint of worried concern.

"There's something incredibly odd about her..." she began, though she straightened up a second later.  "Wait a moment... what's that expression?  It's a new one... one I've not seen before..." she smiled at The Doctor curiously.

"What are you talking about?" The Doctor said, almost too obviously.  This was made even more obvious with the redness of his face.

Raven put her hands on her hips, her shawl falling off her shoulders.  "You care about her."

The Doctor frowned nervously, swaying a little.  "I care about a lot of people,"

"Not like this one."

"Shut up."

Raven's blue eyes lit up.  "I knew it!  My goodness, could it be The Doctor is finally settling down?"

The Doctor immediately pointed his finger at her in opposition. "No one said anything about settling down."

"What, after seven-hundred years you're still not ready?"

The elder Time Lord mumbled a few beginnings of sentences but finally returned to, "It's nine-hundred and—shut up!  Why are we talking about this?  I'm here to talk to you about you, not me—what are you doing here?"  He talked quickly, as if trying to run away from his own words.

Raven rolled her eyes and folded her hands.  "I just felt like it was time to lay low; live among humans and not have to worry about being a Time Lord for a few decades or so."

"You say that, and yet you still wear the Seal of Rassilon," The Doctor pointed out.

She looked down at the silver medallion around her neck and huffed.  "At least I'm not whipping out my sonic screwdriver in nineteenth century Baltimore," she replied.  "They all know I'm not from here, though they assume I'm from England.  Apparently my accent sounds British."

"I've heard that one before," The Doctor shrugged.

"So what's with this girl—"

"Why nineteenth century Baltimore?" The Doctor interrupted.

Raven shot him a look.  "I find the life and works of Edgar Allan Poe fascinating.  I thought I might as well live in his time; in his town... get to know him as well as I could... that was him with me a moment ago."

A peculiar smile spread on The Doctor's face.  "Funny; Gemini is an enormous fan of Poe as well.  That's one of the reasons we're here..."  He stopped when he saw the grinning face of Raven.  "Oh come on!"

"No, no—keep going! I'd love to hear more about her..." She goaded.

The Doctor glared under his disheveled brown bangs.

The lady Time Lord merely smirked and crossed her arms.  "All right, whatever.  If she'd like to meet Edgar, we can wait for his return at his home.  He's actually off to pick up a copy of his short story just published today... MS Found in a Bottle... ah! The brilliance of that man... you know he's only twenty-four right now?"

The Doctor was only half-listening.  There was clearly something on his mind taking precedence over Raven's words.  "So how much longer are you planning on being here?" he asked after a moment.

Somewhat annoyed when she realized he hadn't been listening, Raven shook her head.  "At least until Edgar moves to Virginia in a few years... and then I'll follow him there."

"You're not getting too close to him, are you?" The Doctor asked carefully.

"Oh come on, Doctor; you'd honestly think I'd disrupt history?  I know my limits—I'm a Time Lord!"

"All right, all right," he replied hastily.  

"Now if anyone's getting too close to someone..."

The Doctor turned on his heels and started back to the graveyard gate.  "You can stop that right there."

Raven shook her head and started after him.  "Oh, Doctor—I don't see you in years and this is how you treat me? I hope it's not because I had that huge crush on yo—"

The Doctor stopped walking abruptly, causing Raven to narrowly miss running into him.  He said nothing as he eyed her with a fierce enough glance to silence her.  When he turned and started back on his path, the lady Time Lord merely rolled her eyes and followed farther behind.

- - -

James carefully helped me sit down on one the ramp near the control panel of the TARDIS.  I immediately curled up with my knees against my chest and winced.  "A—um—Gemini?" he asked.

"James, I swear, Raven is my Time Lord half," I said hypnotically, "I could hear her screaming in my head..."

"R-Raven—she—is your Time Lord half?" he repeated, as if he needed to say it himself to understand it better.

I rubbed my forehead.  "We must have hit her timeline before it happened.  But I remember her now... when I found her that first time—her last time—she looked up at me from the ground with her pale blue eyes... she was hurt so bad... bleeding and shaking..."  I had to shake out a tremble in my own body as I recalled the moment I had sworn was a dream.

James knelt beside me in concern.  "Is it... is it bad for you to have seen her?"

"I hope not," I frowned, "but I wonder if that's why the Doctor sent me away...?"  I had to ponder this question; what could change now that I met who I would become?  She obviously recognized herself from my vantage point due to the screaming I could hear, but I didn't think the present Raven could tell.

The screaming... all of the words I heard about warning and not knowing what I was in for... I had to shudder again.  The act that mortally wounded her was obviously not far from this point in time.

The door opened after a brief knock, and The Doctor stepped inside.  He promptly closed the door just as Raven was heard cooing at the TARDIS behind him.

"Listen—quickly—you cannot say anything to her about you being her, all right?" he said quietly.

I nodded slowly.  "So she is my Time Lord half—is that why my brain freaked out just then?"

"You touching Rovenna sparked something in your consciousness, you probably heard her speaking when you did, as well."

"I did," I began, "But what she was saying was—"

The Doctor waved his hands a bit. "We've got to be very careful.  I don't know what could happen if she finds out who you are, so just play it safe and try not to touch her or get too close to her—and let me know immediately if it becomes overwhelming and we've got to separate you two."  He was back to pacing the floor seconds later.  "I honestly don't know how to react to something like this—she's a friend and she knows Poe, but it could be extremely dangerous for both of you to be in contact with each other—and I can't just ignore her without giving her a reason, and I can't think up a good enough lie at the moment!"

"Okay—stop moving!" I grabbed him by the sleeve as he passed.  "We'll be fine.  I'll be all right; let's just go so I can meet Poe and then we'll figure out where to go from here."

He looked at me awkwardly.  "Right.  Okay."

I stood up and pushed him towards the door.  "Okay!" I repeated.

"James, this goes for you too—don't say anything," The Doctor tried to turn himself out of my grasp as we passed James, but I tugged him harder.

"Y—yes, Doctor," James replied, smirking quietly.

The Doctor scowled at me and opened the door.  Raven stood on the other side.  "Ah.  There you are.  Keeping him in line, I see. How are you feeling, Gemini?"

"Mostly better," I said as the Doctor grumbled and stepped between us.  "Just a little dizzy."

"Time-and-space sickness, perhaps?" Raven smiled, leaning around The Doctor.  "It's not quite motion sickness in a TARDIS, right?"

I chuckled.  "Yeah, that works."

The Doctor interrupted us just as quickly by extending his arms outward.  "All right, let's get on to Edgar Allan Poe's house—you know, he's only twenty-four right now..."

Raven shot him a glance as we started down the street.  "You really were listening?"

"Twenty-four??" My eyes grew wide.  "Gosh, I'm going to be older than he is... that's something I would have never thought I'd say..."

"Oh, he's splendid," Raven drew close to me again, "A terribly attractive young man, at least in my own opinion.  I've always preferred talented, smart, and well-dressed men..." She eyed the Doctor with a playful, scheming look in her eyes.

I'm not sure if the Doctor had heard her, or if he were merely ignoring her, but he somehow managed to lodge himself between us and eye us both sharply.  We could only smile innocently in response.

Chapter 4

Raven, The Doctor, James, and I walked up to a small three-story duplex in the midst of a quiet street.  Its orange bricks still looked new, and they reached up to a chimney on either side of the house. A front door, three windows, and one dormer window adorned half of the front, with the same arrangement mirrored for the other half.  When we approached, Raven led us to the right-hand side of the home.

We stood in the shadow of a tall tree as Raven lightly knocked on the door.  A woman in her mid-forties opened the door a moment later, and her warm face glowed further when she saw Raven.

"Oh—Ms. Raven!  So good to see you, my dear!" The woman stepped up to the lady Time Lord and embraced her.

"Maria, it's always splendid to see you," Raven beamed and stepped back.  "A few friends have made their way into town—would you mind if we wait here for Edgar to return?"

Maria folded her hands on her apron.  "Of course!  A friend of Raven's is a friend of ours.  It's a pleasure to welcome all of you to the Clemm and Poe household!"

We introduced ourselves to Mrs. Clemm as we stepped inside, and we were ushered into her kitchen for cups of hot tea and some freshly baked bread.  As I sat with warm cup in my hands, I had to keep reminding myself my hands really were warm; I really was sitting in the same kitchen Edgar Allan Poe would also sit at during his tenure in Baltimore.  I felt I was being awfully cliché in how giddy I was experiencing the mundane points of the life of someone I idolized.

A thin young girl with wavy black hair came into the room; she was no more than ten years old.  Shyly, she slipped past us and clung to Maria's dress, keeping her eyes fixed on us the entire time.

"Virginia, go check on Grandmother for me," the young girl was patted on the head.

"She's calling for you, mom," Virginia spoke softly.

"Would you like me to check on her, Maria?" Raven started to get up.

Maria, however, shook her hands.  "No, no—stay here and visit with your friends.  I'll go and be right back down.  Come on, Virginia, I'm sure you're not finished reading your books for today."

As the two left the room and were heard ascending the stairs, I turned to Raven with starry eyes.  "I can't believe I'm here.  I can't believe I'm sitting in his house—drinking tea and talking to his aunt!  And that was Virginia... oh my gosh," I rubbed my upper lip and picked up my cup of tea.

"You'd better watch when Edgar comes in," Raven smirked at The Doctor, "You may have to pick her up off the floor."

James chuckled.  The Doctor was too deep in thought to notice.

"Gemini," the lady Time Lord regained my attention.  When I turned to her, she was eyeing my necklace curiously.  "You know, I have a pendant just like that one," she mused.

I could feel my face flush.  It was just like hers because it was hers—but I couldn't say that.  "Really? That's cool," I said, smiling.

"I mean, it's exactly like that..." She continued to gaze at it.  "After all, it's a raven's feather."

"So it's fitting for you to have one, of course." I gestured to her.

She laughed and finally looked up.  "And I assume you have one because you're such a fan of our friend Edgar."

I grinned and looked aside.  "I sure hope he'd be friends with me; that would just be beyond amazing."

"Oh, he'll love you."

The Doctor finally looked up and met Raven's glance.  When she chuckled and bowed her head, The Doctor huffed and crossed his arms.

Light, fast footsteps shuffled down the stairs and Virginia raced through the kitchen.  "He's home!" she cried out, running to the door.  "He's coming up the walkway!"

I stood up, exhilaration building within my chest.  Edgar Allan Poe was on the other side of the door.  I would finally have the chance to meet him.

"Brace yourself, Gemini," Raven joked, stepping up behind me and putting her hand on my arm.

I didn't hear her words.  I could hear her voice, but it was crying out inaudibly in my head.  My vision blacked out as I was overcome with another wave of metal energy.  The Doctor caught me as I staggered backwards.  

This time Raven clearly felt something as well, and she stumbled into James.  "What was that??" she shouted.  After a moment, she shook her head and looked fearfully towards The Doctor as he settled me back on a chair.  "I—I was joking about you picking her up, I swear!" she said.

"Are you all right?" he whispered, a look of concern on his face.

I nodded gently.  This flare up was worse than the last, but I was trying harder to overcome it; especially when I noticed the young man with dark hair standing behind The Doctor.

The young man removed his hat and tugged at his gray scarf as he stood in the doorway.  "Raven," he spoke, his voice soft and clear.  "Is everything... all right?"

"Edgar," Raven took a step towards him, stepping out of James' arms.  "Yes!  We're fine—I apologize—these are some friends of mine who just traveled into town.  The young woman here is just—is—"

"Just a little light-headed is all; she'll be fine." The Doctor immediately interrupted and turned around to extend a hand towards him.  "Hullo, sir, I'm The Doctor."

The young Mr. Poe gave an odd smile as he took The Doctor's hand.  "Edgar," he said simply.  He tilted his head to one side to see me seated on the chair beside The Doctor.

Still recovering from the madness inside my head made seeing Edgar Allan Poe standing in front of me seem even more dreamlike and unbelievable.

"Hello," he said after a moment.

"...Hi," I managed to say.  I was completely useless otherwise; gazing at him like an idiot as he awkwardly smiled and turned towards James and Raven.

I watched quietly as he met James and spoke to Raven about his manuscript, which he held up in his hands.  I half understood what they were saying, but I was having a hard time snapping out of it.  It was as if I were watching from behind a screen or a piece of glass.

We retired to the sitting room, and together with Maria and Virginia, we sat together as Edgar recited his story directly from the Baltimore Saturday Visiter, a weekly literary newspaper.  He was proud to announce it had won an award for the best piece of fiction in a contest of nearly one hundred pieces.

I had been quiet for much of this time, but I almost needed to be to fully absorb all that was around me.  When Edgar began reading his own story, I was struck with complete awe.  He read the tale with such passion and vigor that only the writer of the piece would know.  The story itself, a tale of a man's fight against nature—and the unnatural—upon a sailing ship, lent itself to the excitement of his recitation.

"Oh, horror upon horror! the ice opens suddenly to the right, and to the left, and we are whirling dizzily, in immense concentric circles, round and round the borders of a gigantic amphitheatre, the summit of whose walls is lost in the darkness and the distance."  The young Mr. Poe paused for a dramatic effect, holding one hand in a half-clenched fist beside his face.

"But little time will be left me to ponder upon my destiny — the circles rapidly grow small — we are plunging madly within the grasp of the whirlpool — and amid a roaring, and bellowing, and shrieking of ocean and of tempest, the ship is quivering, oh God! and — going down."

He bowed his head and stayed in such a way before rising and setting down the paper.

All of us broke into applause, showering Edgar with praise for such an impressive story.

"Well it's no wonder you won—you have far outdone yourself with this one, Edgar!" Raven cooed.

The Doctor nodded in rejoinder.  "Brilliant indeed; I felt as if I were there on that ship."

"But it could even be a sort of mirror for any other fear or confusion," I mused, "when you find yourself stuck or lost and often feel like you're only slipping further and further down..."

Everyone turned and looked at me, and I uncomfortably shifted in my seat.  "Well you know me, I have to find something different..."

"No," Edgar said after a moment, "What you say is also true.  I feel it's up to the reader to decide how to interpret this piece.  You may read it that way if you wish."

My face flushed and I sat back against The Doctor, unable to find anything useful to say in reply.

"So which way did you write it?  Is it meant to be metaphor?" Raven asked, leaning forward.

Edgar smiled almost playfully.  "I'm not telling."

Maria Clemm chuckled to herself.  "Oh Edgar, be nice.  Gemini, can I get you anything, my dear?"

"No ma'am, thank you." I nodded.

The Doctor stood.  "We do appreciate your hospitality, Ms. Clemm and Mr. Poe; but  I do believe we need to get Gemini back to our—our room... at an inn—the inn."

I glanced up at The Doctor almost worriedly.  "I'm all righ—"

"Doctor, must you leave already?" Raven reached over from her chair and came very close to me.  Worriedly, I backed away and stood up beside The Doctor before she could touch me again.

Raven eyed me, a peculiar look in her eyes.  "Unless Gemini is ready to go after all..."

"Please do return if you can, before you leave town again," Maria got to her feet as well and stepped over to The Doctor and I.  She patted James on the shoulder.  "James may take a few more rolls with him if he needs to.  He's much too thin!"

"O—oh th-thank you, Ms. Clemm," James chuckled, nervously fumbling over his words.

Edgar stepped up to me and smiled lightly. It was at this point I could finally get a close look at him.  He stood slightly taller than me, though it was only by a few inches.  He didn't yet have the mustache he was so often pictured with, but he had a bit of scruff on his chin.  His dark hair was swept across his forehead and curled around his ears, and he wore a dark vest over his white shirt and a cloth tie at his collar.

For a brief moment I tried to picture him with a maroon coat with a few raven feathers pinned like a boutonnière—like the costume I wore when I portrayed him in my friends' musical—though I quickly stopped and took him for what he was now.

"It was... great to meet you, Edgar," I said finally, feeling like I was going to trip over my words worse than James.

"It was a pleasure to meet you as well," Edgar replied.  "I thank you for listening to my story.  Here—you may take this copy with you."

"Oh," I accepted the newspaper almost dazedly.  "Oh—thank you, this is great!  You're... you're a really talented writer.  I hope you know that..."

"Thank you, Gemini," he said genuinely.

I looked up at him with the paper in my hands and wavered for a moment.  Finally giving up and giving in, I took one arm and slid beside him for a half-hug.  I smiled wide when he hugged me in return, and the two of us chuckled to ourselves at our awkwardness.

"We'll be back again, I'm sure of it," The Doctor smiled at me as I stepped away from Edgar.

It was then Raven finally stood and started to the door with us.  Edgar didn't follow, and he stayed behind in the sitting room, watching us as we departed.

Chapter 5

"Well that was rather abrupt; what's the matter?" Raven was asking as we started back down the street to the graveyard where the TARDIS was parked.  "I would have thought for sure Gemini would require prying to get her out of the house once Edgar arrived."

"I'm... just not feeling well." I said, which was partly true.  "It may be all this excitement...  I don't know.  I really want to go back and spend more time when I don't feel so lightheaded."

Raven nodded.  "Well, that's all right." She said.  The look in her eyes made it clear she knew something more was going on.

"Actually, if you two want to go on ahead, Raven and I need to discuss... you know, time-travelley things." The Doctor said after a moment.  He stopped walking and looked at the three of us as we turned to face him.

James and I could do nothing more than nod and continue down the road as the two full-blooded Time Lords stayed behind.  I caught a glance from James that was somewhat worried, and I replied with a simple shrug.  As much as I wanted to hear what they were about to talk about, I suppressed my eavesdropping urges and continued back to the TARDIS with my brother.

"All right," Raven began when we were out of earshot.  "What's really going on here?"

"I should ask you that question," The Doctor tried.

"Me??" Raven quickly interjected.  "You and Gemini are the ones acting all mysterious!  What's going on with her?  Or should I say, what's really wrong with her?"

The Doctor stood firm.  "No, I need to ask you about your activities here, I picked up a lot of—"

"No!" Raven stood firmer, "What is wrong with her??"  After a pause, she took a deep breath and looked down.  After a longer pause, she looked up to see why The Doctor was not answering.  "And what's wrong with you?"

"She's a meta-crisis." He said plainly.

"A what?"

"She is both human and Time Lord."

"...You are not about to tell me she's your daughter."

The Doctor winced.  "No!  She's—she's you!"

Raven blinked.  "All right, you lost me."

"Technically only half you..." The Doctor mumbled.  "And technically a slightly older you... not... not much older though..." His eyes turned aside in thought.  "In fact... barely—"

"No, please, Doctor—you've got to explain this to me—don't think you can drop something like that and mutter your way out!" She grabbed him by the shoulders and turned him to face her.  "How is she me?  How can she be a meta-crisis with me if I'm right here??"

The Doctor remained unmoved.  "When you regenerate you pass your consciousness into her."

"But why would I do that??"  Raven released him and stepped away.  "I barely know who she is!"

"I'm not sure," he turned his eyes away again.  "I'm not sure if I should even have told you..."

Raven rolled her head along with her eyes.  "Well too late for that one, Doctor!  What—maybe now I'll decide not to!  We'll see what happens..." She huffed and grabbed her skirt as if she were going to walk briskly away, but she instead turned on her heels and ended up back in the Doctor's face.  "You know—I really shouldn't have been so excited to have run into you.  Every time I see you things just—they just get complicated."

The Doctor merely looked back at her in silence; his face a troubled expression.

She frowned when he made no reply.  "So that's all?  You came all the way here to tell me about how I'll be half your girlfriend in the near future?"

"No..." The Doctor shook his head and finally moved as he stepped back.  "We came for Gemini to meet Edgar Allan Poe, but I had also picked up some remnants of an awkward time stream that I wanted to check out as well.  I had no idea it could have been another Time Lord... no idea it could have been you."  He sighed slightly.  "I'm sorry.  This is not how I imagined finding you again."

Raven had her hands on her hips again, nodding slightly with her eyes downcast.  "Well, at least you didn't deny she was your girlfriend..."

The Doctor shot her a glance.  "...Shut up."

- - -

James and I had just walked up to the TARDIS when James stepped forward to grab the door for me.  He pulled on the latch, but it wouldn't move.  He tried pushing on the door, and it still refused to open.  Stepping back, he scratched his head.  

"Does this... lock?" he asked, puzzled.

I, too, was puzzled.  Stepping beside him, I was met with the same unsuccessful attempts at getting the door open.  I rolled my eyes and turned around to lean on it.  "I guess it does lock."

James shook his head with a slight smile.  "I'll s-see if they're on their way back."

"I'll wait here..." I said, stretching my arms over my head.  I watched as James started back to the street and disappeared on the other side of the gate.  I turned around a moment later and decided to try the door one more time for good measure.

Surprisingly, it opened with little trouble.  My brows lowered, and I glanced back to the gate.  I debated running after James to let him know everything was all right, but I figured James would be back shortly, regardless of whether or not The Doctor was with him.  

I stepped inside, leaving the door open behind me.  I sauntered over to the control panel and placed my copy of the Baltimore Saturday Visiter on it.  It sat among all the levers and buttons that somehow controlled the massive machine.  I never quite understood what I was doing when I piloted the TARDIS, but somehow or another my fingers would find their way.  Leaning backwards against the control panel, I proceeded to wait for my friends to return.

The TARDIS, however, had other plans.

A clicking sound, like the locking of a gear, was heard, and the usual whirring began to spring up.  I pushed away from the control panel and watched as the large monitor displayed "LOCKED ON" in flashing letters.  The door closed behind me with an abrupt slam.

"Uh oh..." I murmured.

- - -

The Doctor once again glanced aside, noticing James running towards him.  

"D—Doctor!!"

The Time Lord shook his head. "James, I've already told you, I'm nearly done—"

"She's—she's g-go—gone!!"

"Gone?" He turned completely around this time and took a hesitant step forward.  "Gemini??"

James was out of breath and too flustered to speak.  "With—th-the—T—T—"

"The TARDIS?!" The Doctor took a step back this time.

"You girlfriend just stole your TARDIS," Raven said gently, "Sounds like you two are made for each other."

"Not now, Rovenna!" The Doctor shot back as he started down the street.  "Did she tell you anything?" He asked as James caught up with him.

"N-no, sh—she—" James took a deep breath.  "The T-TARDIS was locked—like I told you!  She was waiting outside when I left!"

When they rounded the corner the Doctor went into a full sprint into the graveyard.  Sure enough, the TARDIS was gone.

"While you two were running to make sure it was gone, you could have run the other direction with me to my own TARDIS," Raven stood on the other side of the gate.

"Right!  Your TARDIS!" The Doctor spun around and ran past James to meet Raven.  "Well, come on!  Where is it?"

"You're so cute when you're worried." She grinned, her hands on her hips.

"Can you please stop making fun of me?!" he commanded, wringing his hands together.

The lady Time Lord laughed through her nose and started in the other direction.  "Well come on!" She goaded.  

James and the Doctor exchanged glances before starting after her.

Chapter 6

"No!!" I yelled, fighting against the lever of the TARDIS.  "Stop!!  I want to go back to Baltimore!!"

No matter what buttons I mashed or levers I pulled, control of the TARDIS would not be recovered.  It was as if an outside force had hijacked it, sending it to a time and place that wasn't even showing up on the screen.

When the TARDIS finally came to a stop, I raced to the door to see what had happened—praying that I wouldn't be stranded in another wasteland by myself.  Opening the door, I found myself amongst a thick fog on the top of a high building.  I tried to make out where I was, but the fog blanketed anything past the building's edge.  As I stepped out, my shoes squeaked from the moisture built up on the slick surface.  

"Okay... doesn't look too bad yet..."

This is not good...

Great. Thank you for ruining this.

Get back in the TARDIS!  Try to pilot it back!

I went to turn back inside, but it was then a small school of fish swam by.  I blinked and did a double-take.  I followed them around the TARDIS, fascinated.

"How in the world..." I muttered, watching the fish dart past as if they were contentedly in an open sea.  It was no less than captivating, and I watched them almost dreamily.  

Something had come up behind me quicker than I could notice, and I had barely turned around when an enormous shark hovered mere feet before where I stood.  Instinctively letting out a scream, I slipped around the TARDIS in an attempt to run back to the door.  The shark's mighty body bumped against the corner, startling me as the TARDIS rocked back and forth, and my shoes lost their traction.  I skidded across the surface of the building and less than gracefully landed onto a lower roof below.  I was now a good ten feet down from where the TARDIS sat; the floor and walls all slick from the mist in the air and all a washed-out metallic white.

The shark emerged from over the roof and pursued, and I got back to my feet as quickly as I could to race towards a vent shaft.  I had barely reached the shaft when the shark's blunt nose pushed into my back and forced me into it.

I slid down the shaft, curling my head against my chest as it curved, and I spun out like a child from a particularly slippery slide.  I remained in place, my knees bent and my shoes pressed firmly against the floor as I rested on my back and elbows, breathing hard and hoping I was free of the danger.

The mechanical whirring of two robots proved I would have no such luck.  I had landed squarely between them, and before I could get traction on my slippery shoes, two arms from either side of me swung out and held me back by my shoulders.  I was pulled upright, and the other two arms clasped my own arms in a tight lock.  I attempted to struggle from their grasp, but their mechanical joints would not be moved.  Sighing, I accepted my fate and walked slowly along with them as they started down the dim hallway.

The corridor was bare, made of white and gray panels that formed triangles.  Beyond a corner that lead in a different direction, the hallway continued its straight path until the lights grew too dim to see.  I squinted, as the hallway seemed to end in the shadows, but my robotic escorts turned me down the next hall instead.

"Halt!"

The two robots immediately froze, their legs rocking slightly to counter their abrupt lack of movement.

Gazing towards the owner of the demanding voice, I had to blink to make sure I was seeing things correctly.

A young woman, seemingly my age, began to step towards me.  She wore a long black coat over a green shirt and dark blue jeans.  She had long brown hair that hung in strands on the sides of her face and fell on her shoulders.  She seemed familiar, though it was still unnerving as her green eyes scanned me carefully.  When she noticed the black feather pendant I wore, her eyes seemed to spark with anticipation.

"Oh... it's you..." she muttered.  "Release her! Is that any way to treat our guest?" She barked at the robots holding my arms.

Immediately the robots unclenched their arms and mechanically stepped backwards, leaving me free to rub my arms in relief.

"I'm sorry," the young woman said as she paced a few feet away, "They're just programmed to do that.  Silly things, robots.  They always follow the orders they're given..."

Something didn't sit right about this young woman, even after the robots backed away.  There was something about her—the look in her eyes—that kept me on edge.

"Who are you?" I asked.

She turned back towards me with a coy smile.  "Hydra," she said.  "And they call you Gemini, don't they?"

"Yes." I said solidly.

She tapped her fingers together.  "And why is that?"

"I would assume you know considering you brought me here."

Hydra looked at me incredulously.  "I did nothing of the sort!  My robots are the ones who brought you to me!"

I found words coming to me easily.  "You just said your robots were programmed.  I wonder who was responsible for programming them..."

The young woman finally stopped pacing.  

"I'll bet it was you who hijacked the TARDIS, too!" I raised a hand.

With her head facing away from me, she spoke curiously.  "Well, you certainly picked up her rash personality..."

"Who?"

She turned quickly and looked at me piercingly.  "I would assume you know considering your status as a meta-crisis."

Silenced, I watched as she eased away and started pacing again.  

"Do you know the Time Lord who merged with you?" She asked, taking a slight pause as she glanced towards me.

"No," I lied.

A slight laugh came to her lips.  "Have you seen her visions?  Heard her thoughts?"

I hesitated.  "You make it sound like you knew her."

"Answer my question, Gemini." Hydra said sharply.

"Sometimes." I replied, "Now answer mine."

"You didn't ask a question,"

"Did you know her?"

"Who?"

"Raven!  Did you know her?" I almost shouted, exasperated.  Realizing I had just spoken her name, my face flushed as the coy smile returned to Hydra's face.

"Know her..." she said, "I've known Rovenna for almost two-hundred years..."

"Two-hundred," I repeated, shocked.  Then, it hit me.  "Wait—you're—"

"A Time Lord?  My goodness, you're slow..." She sauntered away again.  "I'll bet it's because your dominant side is human... for now..."

I lowered my brows and took a step forward. "What's that supposed to mean??"

"Tell me..." Hydra picked something up off of a nearby table and walked up to me. "Can you hear her thoughts now?"

I frowned, my fists clenching at my sides.  "No."

At once she pointed a sonic screwdriver at me.  It was bronze in color and built similarly to mine and The Doctor's, but it shone with an eerie red light as the buzzing ran in my ears.  "How about now?"

As my eyes focused on the light, thoughts again began to fill my head.  They rose up louder than ever, pounding into my brain.

That light... that bloody light!  She won't let anything go!  She thinks can worm her way into your mind too?  Fight her!! FIGHT HER BACK!!

I grit my teeth and faltered as my head began to throb.  I closed my eyes and tried to shield myself from her light.  "What—are you—what are you doing??" I managed to get out.

"Coaxing... just coaxing..." She said, grinning.

I went back to save you!  But you—

I groaned and clutched my head, falling to my knees.  I couldn't see, hear, or think.  The rising of the Time Lord's consciousness was overwhelming me.

She turned off her screwdriver and let her arm drop, eyeing me on the floor.  "Robots, pick her back up.  I think I'm finished with her for now."

Wincing as the two robots grabbed me by the arms and lifted me to my feet, I clenched my teeth and looked at her as straight as I could.  "What do you want with me??" I shouted weakly over the throbbing in my head.

"See, that's the thing." She said, grabbing my chin to look me straight in the eyes.  "I don't want you.  I want her..."  She let go of me and stepped back.  "It's a pity your human nature fighting back so hard...  Robots, take her to the pit.  Maybe that will... loosen her up..."

The two robots began walking backwards down the hallway, away from Hydra and down towards the dark end of the hall I had seen before.  I glanced over my shoulder and could see the hallway ended into the opening of a pit.  Though I had already tried it once, I drug my feet against the floor and struggled to free myself.

"You won't get away with this," I tried, "The Doctor will come for me!"

Hydra rolled her eyes.  "And there it is... The Doctor... always The Doctor!  Let me tell you something about him."

The robots stopped at the edge of the hallway.  Far below was a deep pit, hidden in shadow.

"The Doctor won't always come." She said.  "There will be a time when he'll stop coming.  One way or another, he always runs away from everyone he knows...  After all, he's already run away from her—from you—once..."

Fear in my eyes, I tried to shake my head.

"Release her!"

The robots threw me backwards, and I cried out as I fell into the darkness.

Chapter 7

I immediately fell into a mass of ropes that spanned the chute at varying heights.  I slipped through the ropes as I tried to both catch myself and brace myself for the fall, landing hard on my feet before I fell to my back.  My legs stung and the wind was knocked out of me, but as I opened my eyes to look where I had fallen from, I could only feel thankful for not hurting myself more than I did.

A grunt came to my ears.  I struggled to a sitting position and looked around, adjusting the glasses on my nose.  The only light came from the hallway high above, and I could barely make out shapes in the shadowed room.  Debris and other random scraps of metal and pipe were scattered across the ground, but there was something living nearby too.

The grunt turned into a growl.  The shadows to my right shifted and a figure rose in the darkness.

I scuffled backwards as I got to my feet, quickly glancing at a broken pipe on the ground near me.  The figure came closer to the shaft of light, and I grabbed the pipe in defense.

Almost as quickly as I had raised it, a clawed hand reached out and stopped it in mid-air.  He yanked the pipe from my hands as he held it high over his head, and with the light shining upon him, I immediately recognized him as a Kronolin.

His cold yellow eyes glared down at me, and, beneath his metal mask, he wrinkled his nose in disgust.  He let the pipe drop and grumbled at me.  "Not you again." He growled.

I blinked.  Looking the creature over, he resembled all of the other Kronolins I had seen; he was clearly not the General or his cohort, but either way, he knew exactly who I was.

"You're the bloody Half-Lord who left us stranded on a dying planet!"

I raised my hands slightly.  "Hey, you guys brought me there in the first place.  I had a way out and I was going to take it..."

The Kronolin huffed and turned around.

"...At least you got off," I tried, for some reason feeling compelled to at least remain on speaking terms with the only other living being in the pit we were trapped in.

"Only to have been veered off course thanks to a short in my vortex manipulator—and end up here in this renegade Time Lord's palace." He growled from the shadows.

"So... you can't leave here with the manipulator?"

"Would I still be here if I could?"

I frowned.  Apparently I would not be winning him over.  I sighed and started to look for an accessible way out.  Surely the opening five stories above us was not the only way into the pit.  Reaching into my jacket pocket, I pulled out my sonic screwdriver and began to use its beam for light.

I quickly discovered a large door on the ground level below the opening high above.

"It's locked." The Kronolin said dully.

I glanced at him with narrow eyes.  "...Thanks.  I kinda figured."

"You won't find a way out."

"Since you wouldn't still be here if there was; I get it." I decided to play his game.

His shadowed figure didn't move.  I didn't even hear a grunt or deep breath in rejoinder.  I had to smirk at myself as I pointed my sonic screwdriver around the door.  My eyes quickly caught something promising.  Almost ten feet up, right beside the top of the door, was a small control panel with buttons and a screen.

"It's broken." Came the Kronolins voice again.

"How do you know?  That's high up even for you."

"That pipe."

I glanced behind me at the tall pipe I had tried using to defend myself with.   With his broken sentence, I was able to piece together that he had tied to activate the panel using the pipe—or he had broken it with the pipe.  Sighing, and let the sonic screwdriver drop to my side.

Of course!  The sonic screwdriver!  You can fix it!

But it's so high up...  I stopped.  I took one look in the Kronolin's direction and had to ponder if what I was about to ask him would even fly with his pessimistic mood.

"So... I may be able to fix the control panel," I said carefully.

"How?  That's awfully high up for you."

I took a deep breath and started again.  "Well, if I could use your help..."

The Kronolin looked directly at me.  "What makes you think I would help some Half-Lord like you?"

"Because if you do, and it works, we'll both get out!"  I had him now.  The logic was simple; we work together, we both get out—at least if I really could get the control panel to work.

He huffed again.  "How will you fix it??"

"This," I held up the sonic screwdriver.

"That thing?  Please..."

I finally shrugged my shoulders and let my arms drop.  "Would it kill you to trust me even a little bit?"

"I have no reason to trust you!" He barked, a glint of light reflecting off his metallic mask.

"Then can you give me a chance to give you a reason??"

Silence.  I wasn't sure if I had spoken too sharply or if I had actually made it through to him.  Sure enough, he grumbled somewhat inaudibly and got to his feet.  His claws clicked against the metal ground and he again emerged into the light.

I looked up at him, my sonic screwdriver in hand, and then I gave another glance at the control panel.  "So, I—eeeh!"

His hands and grasped me around my waist and he lifted me up as if I weighed no more than a rag doll.  I squirmed uncomfortably and accidentally kicked him in the chest.  He bared his teeth but still managed to set me on the back of his neck with my knees on his shoulders.  Thankful I had something to rest on aside from his hands, I steadied myself and straightened my back.

"This is perfect," I said, noticing the control panel was easily within reach.  "...Thank you."

He huffed under his breath.  "Just hurry up."

I set to work quickly, pressing the sonic screwdriver up to the panel.  At once it lit up and began to blink the word 'LOCKED' on the screen.  In the same mindless manner that I controlled the TARDIS, I was able to push a variety of buttons using my screwdriver as a guide.  After a moment, a heavy clank was heard.  'UNLOCKED' appeared on the screen.

Almost as if he were surprised I had done it, the Kronolin immediately removed me from his shoulders and almost dropped me to the ground before he started towards the door.

"You're welcome," I said under my breath.   I was soon silenced when he clutched the door with his muscular arms and slid it inside the wall.  "...Thanks." I admitted again.

For the first time he looked down at me without anger in his eyes.  It was still a rather fierce glare, but he almost acted embarrassed when he turned away and murmured, "And to you."

I watched him bend down and grab the broken pipe and take a cautious look outside the door.  I couldn't help but smile even the slightest bit.  Time Lord charm... I guess that's as good a way as any to call your luck.  Getting a firmer grip on my sonic screwdriver, I started out into the hallway behind the Kronolin.

I followed closely behind the Kronolin as we crept down the pale, lighted halls of the complex.  The hallways looked exactly like those on the higher level, and so far, they were incredibly empty.

"So," I said softly as we stopped to peek carefully around a corner, "What's your name?"

He turned the corner and walked up to another sealed door at the end of the hall, eyeing me when I followed.  "Cain." He said after a moment.

"I'm Gemini,"

He nodded and turned back to the door.  He looked it over briefly before pounding it with his fists.

"Woah—hey—someone will hear that!" I tried grabbing his arm.

He snarled and turned on me.  "How else can we—" He stopped and took a deep breath.  "...Can you open this door?"

I turned to the door and found the control panel was thankfully on my level.  "I think so."  I brought my sonic screwdriver up to it and was able to unlock the door easily.  This time, it slid open on its own.

Cain gripped the pipe and started down the hallway at a fast pace.  I followed, almost running into him when he stopped short at another crossing.  He waved the pipe into the intersection and at once a laser shot at it from one side.

"Stay here!" He bellowed, racing down the hallway towards the wielder of the laser.   With two sharp cracks and the falling of metallic pieces onto the floor were heard moments later.  I poked my head around the corner to see Cain holding the midsection of a robot in his hands while the rest of the shards lay at his feet.

"Someone is bound to notice all of these door openings and the signals from these robots before long; we don't have much time." Cain muttered as he came back for me.  "You can't find a way out with that thing, can you?"

I shook my head as I pointed it around the room like a scanner.  Surprisingly, I could sense there were robots on the other side of the door in front of us, but past the large room on the other side seemed to be clear.  I related my findings to Cain, who looked at me fairly incredulously before cracking his knuckles and stepping up to the door.  I activated the door and he ran out before the robots had a chance to fire at him.  He ripped them to pieces and raced up a tall staircase to the next door.  I ran after him and got my sonic screwdriver into position.

A laser shot from behind us, and two robots were slowly walking their way towards us.  I turned my attention back to the control panel as Cain went after them, but I was having trouble unlocking the door.  When Cain ran up, I was still at work.

"What's wrong with that one?"

"I'm not sure, it's being more finicky than the others,"

"Well hurry—the robots know we're in here!"

On cue, another laser ricocheted off the wall beside us and two more robots had seemingly appeared from nowhere.  I shook my head and tried again, but after a moment, Cain pulled me away and thrust the pipe into the panel.

A piercing siren began to echo through the entire room.  I grabbed my ears as Cain's fur bristled on the back of his neck, but to our surprise, the door unlocked and slid open a few inches.  The Kronolin swung his arms at it and yanked it open.  His eyes grew wide, moments before a laser beam blasted him in the chest.

I shrieked as he fell at my feet, and I looked up to see Hydra flanked by four more robots.

"I must say I'm surprised; I would have never thought I'd see a Kronolin becoming allies with a Time Lord.  You sure are hard to predict." Hydra smirked.

I tensed up, unsure of what to do.  At my feet, Cain growled and shifted his position on the ground; more stunned than hurt.  He brought his hand his chest, displaying the leather-bound vortex manipulator on his arm.

I glanced back at Hydra.  Her look seemed to say that she had me now, but I had another trick up my sleeve—or better yet, on Cain's wrist.

I ducked to my knees and pressed my sonic screwdriver on his vortex manipulator.  I mashed a button almost as quickly, and before Hydra had a moment to speak, we were gone.

Chapter 8

The Doctor and James followed Raven into a horse stable not two blocks from Westminster; and, walking past the horses, they went to the furthest stall and stepped up to a tall wooden crate.  Before The Doctor could ask, Raven took the silver pendant she wore and inserted it into a crack in the wood.  The door opened, revealing the warm orange light of the inside of her TARDIS.

"Yes, it's amazing how well a TARDIS blends when one's Chameleon Circuit works—eh, Doctor?" Raven smirked, noting The Doctor's and James' expressions.  She stepped inside the wooden box and into the control room.

"...Right." The Doctor replied.  "Now see if you can trace—"

Raven held up her hand, stopping The Doctor in his tracks.  "Ah!  Doctor, this is my TARDIS, I'll drive it!"

James looked around at the interior as he closed the door behind him.  "Doctor, this looks like Gem—"

"Looks like you've been here before, right?" The Doctor quickly interrupted, "That's a TARDIS for you.  Always somehow seems familiar..."  He shot James a glance.  James bit his lip and nodded.

"I've tracked your TARDIS near the Horsehead Nebula... on the planet ...Ember," Raven said from behind the control panel.

The Doctor lowered his brows.  "Ember?  Why on earth would she go there?"

Raven seemed paler than usual.  "...Why on earth, indeed..." she muttered.

"Well, come on!"  The Doctor stepped beside her.  "Let's go!"

Silent, the lady Time Lord set the coordinates and sent the TARDIS on its way.  When it had arrived, The Doctor rushed to the door and ran out.  His shoes slipped on the moist surface and he slid to his knees.  He looked up at his police-box TARDIS standing on the other side of the building's roof, and he awkwardly stumbled towards it.  He leapt into its still-open door and emerged moments later.

Raven's TARDIS reverted to its silver, mechanical-looking exterior just as James stepped out.  Raven stood in the doorway with a very odd expression on her face.

"She's not in the TARDIS," The Doctor proclaimed.  "If Raven got her timing right, she shouldn't be far at all, so we'll start looking nearby."

"You two look," Raven said softly.  "I'll stay here."

The Doctor tilted his head.  "What's wrong?"

Raven held the doorframe with her hands.  "Just trust me on this one... I... DOCTOR!"

Her scream startled James and The Doctor, and they had barely turned around when the flying shark was upon them.

- - -

Cain and I hit the ground in a dark, dusty landscape.  With a sharp growl he flipped himself over and knocked me aside, getting to his feet clumsily.  When I looked back up, I immediately recognized the landscape as the planet Kronon.

I breathed hard.  This wasn't good.  It made sense, however; the last place Cain would have tried to go to before his manipulator shorted out would have been his home planet.  But for a "prized" half-Time Lord like me, this was not where I needed to be.

The Kronolin turned and looked at me seated on the ground.  He glanced around as he heard the distant voices of other Kronolins.  He bit his lip and grabbed at the vortex manipulator on his arm.  The device landed in my lap a moment later, and Cain bent down beside me.  

"Quickly, use that and get out of here." He said sharply under his breath.

Not wanting to waste any time asking why he was helping me escape, I quickly pressed my sonic screwdriver against the manipulator's control panel.  This time, however, the device would not start up.  The pressure of getting away before the other Kronolins found me wasn't helping, and I shook my head in frustration.

"Cain?"

I ducked my shoulders against my ears and tensed up as another Kronolin came into view.  The voice had been rather feminine, and sure enough, a female Kronolin stepped towards us.  She was not wearing a silver mask like the male Kronolins I had seen before, so her feline-like face was clearly visible.  She was built in a similar tall-yet-stocky way with white cloth wrapped around her like a tunic, tied with a leather belt at her waist.  

Cain's clawed feet gripped the ground as he nervously pulled me to my feet.  "Lucia—do not ask questions—stay quiet—we—we must hide this one!"

"A human?" Lucia eyed me incredulously, especially when she noticed the vortex manipulator in my hands.

Cain sneered uncomfortably.  "...A Time Lord,"

Though Lucia's expression had turned to mild shock, she did as she was told and took my hand.  The two of them led me to a small house across the dusty road we were on, and I was securely hidden inside.

I was almost surprised at the hospitality of Lucia, once she had seated me down at their table and offered me some water to drink.  I was also mildly surprised when she revealed she was Cain's mate—though I knew it was a horrible thing to be surprised at.  I had to have known Kronolins were not just the snarly creatures that had tried kidnapping me once; they had normal, daily lives just as I did.

"So, Time Lord, you assisted my mate to freedom?" Lucia said, standing beside the table with a cup of water in her hands.

"I could not escape on my own... she offered more than enough assistance..." Cain reported awkwardly.  "And her name is Gemini."

"Neither of us could do it on our own," I said modestly.  "I sure couldn't have done it without his help."

Lucia turned and looked kindly on Cain.  Her mate's ears laid back on his head and he huffed quietly.

"I'm just thankful you're still helping me," I added softly.

Lucia nodded.  "If you helped him, I cannot see why we should not help you."

"I tried giving her the manipulator, but it's shorted out... I haven't a clue as to how she got it working in the first place." Cain brushed his clawed hand against the manipulator on the table.

"She may have mine."  Lucia stepped away from the table and disappeared into the net room.  Cain still seemed uncomfortable, even when his wife retuned with a functional manipulator.  I didn't blame him; we were potential enemies this entire time, so it was indeed awkward to be helping each other out.

As I accepted the manipulator from Lucia, her feline-like face smiled at me.  "Gemini," she began, "I must admit my idea of Time Lords have always been of angry creatures who force time into ways that assist only themselves."  She averted her eyes, resting them on Cain.  "I was not expecting you to be as kind as to help Cain, and I apologize for thinking of everyone in your race in such a way."

"To be honest, with the little experience I had with Kronolins, I didn't have good thoughts of you guys either.  But you're both kind, I'm very thankful for the help—and for this," I held up the manipulator.  "If I ever get a chance to return it to you I will."

Lucia nodded and stepped aside.  She elbowed Cain, and her mate ruffled the hair on his neck.  "Don't worry about it.  And—thank you as well..."

I smiled and strapped the manipulator on my forearm.  I had lucked out once again.  Now it was time to get back to The Doctor and James before something else happened.  I set the coordinates to Ember to retrieve the TARDIS from the roof of Hydra's palace, and with a small wave, I disappeared from view.

- - -

When I arrived on Ember, I found myself at the base of the tall, geometric building that Hydra claimed as her own.  My feet squashed in the swampy, wet grass, and I looked up to see the building's tall façade disappearing into the fog.  I needed to get up there.  I decided to give the manipulator another try, and I adjusted the coordinates slightly so as to land on the top of the building instead.  I activated the manipulator and reappeared exactly where I had planned.

The shark was in my view moments later, hurrying towards me with powerful whips of its tail.  I threw myself at the blue TARDIS and ran inside.

"Gemini??" The Doctor shrieked.

I whipped around.  "Oh!  Hi!"

"What—what are you—"

The Doctor was cut off when the TARDIS shook suddenly, as if something had rammed into its side.

"There's a shark outside!" I said breathlessly.

"We're aware of that!" The Doctor replied, holding onto the control panel as we shook again.

"So let's get out of here!" I ran towards him.

The Doctor shook his head.  "Can't yet—I need to tell Raven you're here now—she brought us here to find you!"

"Yeah, sorry about that, the TARDIS sorta got hijacked..."

We all grew still.  The pounding had stopped.  The Doctor looked cautiously around before he crept slowly to the door and opened it.  He stepped out, looking all around, and saw nothing but Raven's silver TARDIS resting on the other side of the roof.  Glancing back at me and James for a moment, he started toward Raven's TARDIS.

The shark immediately emerged from below the roof and rammed into The Doctor, knocking him to the ground inches from the side of the roof.

"Doctor!!" I yelled, running out after him.  The shark turned and started towards me, and for a moment I had to wonder I was planning on doing next.

James grabbed my arm and pulled me down as the shark barreled past.  He stood over me as the shark turned and headed back, but The Doctor was back up and started waving his sonic screwdriver at it.  The shark found the sound and glow of the device more inviting than James, so it shot past him and went towards The Doctor.

A second sonic screwdriver alerted the shark just as The Doctor was about to lead it away, and it turned and started towards Raven.  Her sonic screwdriver was silver like her TARDIS, and it emitted a blue glow at its tip.

"Raven—we've got Gemini!" The Doctor called as the shark overheard my sonic screwdriver and started back in my direction.

"I noticed!  Now get out of here!" She replied, watching as the shark began to confusedly turn in the air between the three of us.  The Doctor slowly began to walk sideways towards the TARDIS, hoping the shark would be too puzzled to dive at us.

But just as The Doctor was nearing us, Hydra appeared in the center of the roof thanks to the vortex manipulator on her arm.  She held out her hand and the shark lowered itself to slowly circle her.  With the threat removed, the three of us held down our sonic screwdrivers.

"What a reunion!" Hydra said, turning around to see all of us.  "Not only has Gemini returned, but I've got The Doctor... and Rovenna herself in my presence!  Long time, no see..."

The Doctor glanced at me in a way that showed he did not recognize Hydra.  I suppose every Gallifreyan didn't have to know every other Gallifreyan, but I figured The Doctor would be fairly stunned to know yet another Time Lord was alive and well.

"We were just leaving," Raven said, still standing just outside her silver TARDIS.

"I don't think so." Hydra replied with a smirk.  "There's something you and I have to discuss first."

"Right, we'll be going then," The Doctor made a fast pace towards his own TARDIS, but with the slightly flick of her hand, the shark sped towards him until he stopped moving.

"No one is leaving here!" Hydra shouted.  She pointed her hand at The Doctor and slowly turned to direct it at each one of us.  "I want an audience for this!  I want everyone to hear what she's done."  She stopped on Raven, who scoffed at her in return.

"All right, tell them.  Let's hear what you think I did." Raven put her hands on her hips, the shawl falling off one of her arms.

The younger Time Lord sneered. "You killed me!!"

Chapter 9

"And there it is!" Raven took a casual step forward with her hand raised, throwing her shawl backwards into her TARDIS.  "The accusation!  Well, allow me to explain what really happened!"

The Doctor, James, and I felt severely out of place, but Hydra's shark continued to swim in a wide circle around all three of us, eyeing us with its beady eyes as it passed.  We could do nothing more than listen to the two Time Lords' arguments from the sidelines.

"We were here—right here." Raven pointed.  "You and I were breaking into this place to overtake it, since we thought we could use it better ourselves.  However, I was under the impression that there were a handful of humans here at the most—ones who left Sardicktown and established this as a rebel base.  I did not prepare for an ambush—but that's exactly what happened thanks to you trying to hide your real plan of wiping them all out—"

"Right, because you thought we could just take over a place like this and not hurt anyone." Hydra had her hands on her hips.  "No, go on.  Let's hear more."

Raven rolled her eyes.  "So we were ambushed and captured by a mob of people, but I managed to escape—I tried going back for you—"

"Like hell you did!" Hydra shot back.

"I did!!  What reason would I have had for leaving you??" The shark passed by again, and Raven gestured towards it.  "That thing had attacked one of the guards, and I was helping him to prove we weren't there to hurt them—or at least I wasn't, and–"

"So while you were helping our enemy, they put me to death!"

"I didn't think humans would be that cruel!!" Raven shouted.

"Oh, right, because you love humans so much it never crosses your mind how vile they can be!" Hydra was fuming.  "They killed me, Rovenna!!"

"I'm sorry!!  For the thousandth time, I'm sorry!  All it did was cost you a regeneration—you're standing here now to prove you weren't completely killed!"  Raven held her forehead and shook.  "I can't understand why you're so mad at me!"

"Because I trusted you and you abandoned me!!  You abandoned your own kind to help humans!! That was a regeneration lost in vain!!" Hydra angrily pulled out her sonic screwdriver.  Its eerie red light shone at Raven, and she stepped back and shielded her eyes from it.  The shark was quickening its pace, beginning to eye Raven now as it soared past.

Something was very different about Hydra's sonic screwdriver.  Even The Doctor was looking fairly shaken by it, but it was really starting to rattle against my brain.  It was obvious James was not affected, but he looked extremely uncomfortable being the only full-blooded human in the group.

"Don't worry, I'm not out to kill you completely... I just want to knock you down a few regenerations..." Hydra smirked and pointed it around to my direction.  "We can start with this one!"

"Stop that!" Raven called, starting towards Hydra.  "She isn't me; leave her out of this!"

"Ah, Rovenna, but she is you..."

Raven stopped walking, holding her temple against the constant buzzing of Hydra's sonic screwdriver.  "How—how did you know that?" She asked, a look of shock spreading across her face.

I fell to my knees in anguish.  I was fading out quickly.  My Time Lord consciousness—Raven—was fighting hard.  It wasn't long before everything blurred to black.

The Doctor began waving his hand at Hydra.  "Please, stop!"

"I wouldn't mind lumping you into my vengeance, Doctor, since you were the one who poisoned Raven's mind with the respect for humans."

The Doctor straightened up.  "...What??"

"Hydra!!"

Everyone froze except for me and Raven.  The two of us had shouted in unison, and as I stood up from the ground, Raven grabbed Hydra's arm and pulled the sonic screwdriver away.

The shark immediately turned on us, but I pulled out my sonic screwdriver and raced towards it.  With me as a distraction, the shark didn't notice that Raven and Hydra had broken out into a fist fight.  I neared the edge of the building and activated the vortex manipulator, shooting me back to the other side of the building.  The shark continued to swim away from the building, though it began floundering in the air when it finally realized it had lost me.

"Quickly—let's go!" The Doctor grabbed me and tried to pull me into the TARDIS.

Instead, I broke away from The Doctor's grasp and ran towards the two Time Lords.

"Gemini—Ace!! Stop!!" He yelled, trying any name he could.

"She's... she's not Ace anymore." James said softly.

The Doctor looked at him with wide eyes.

I threw myself into the scuffle, pulling Raven away from Hydra moments before she could land a kick to her side.  

"Gemini, get away—you don't need to be in this!" Raven shouted.

I didn't reply, and I turned on her and glared at Hydra.  "All right—you want me?  Here I am!  You already took care of one regeneration, but look what I did here!"

Hydra's eyes narrowed as she scowled at me.  "You're right." She hissed.  "It took me a while to find you; I bet you thought you'd be untraceable as a meta-crisis.  But I still found you."

"So kill me.  Watch what happens.  You'll never be satisfied as long as I come right back!" I sneered back, holding my hands open at my sides.  A strange golden energy was beginning to wisp from my hands, and a peculiar yellow sheen was building in my eyes.

"I'll kill you as many times as it takes... Rovenna."  She gave an evil grin and raised her hand.

"No—stop!!" Raven cried out.

The shark plowed into my back, knocking me far across the top of the building.  The jolt somehow knocked me out of the trance I was in, and I looked up with a look of utter confusion on my face.  The Doctor recognized what had happened and tried getting to me before the shark did.

Raven, however, was faster.  She grabbed the shark by the tail fins and disrupted its movement, but the force of its tail knocked her aside.  The shark then spun around and rammed its blunt nose into her chest and shoved her across the ground.  Her sonic screwdriver and the silver pendant she wore clattered across the ground.

"Finish her!!" Hydra yelled.

The shark darted into the air for a moment, only to rush back down and catch Raven by the arm.  It flung her across the roof of the building, and she slid to the base of her TARDIS as she cried out in pain.

"Raven!!" I yelled, looking over The Doctor's shoulder as he carried me into his TARDIS.

I could only watch as the shark went after her once more, pinning her against the silver TARDIS with its teeth around her.  Hydra stood a few feet away before she disappeared with the press of her vortex manipulator.  And then I lost sight behind the walls of the TARDIS as James ran in and closed the door behind us.

Chapter 10

The Doctor set me down on the ground as James stood against the closed door with his eyes held shut.  The Time Lord then raced to the control panel and sent the TARDIS away as quickly as he could.  Once the machine had left the planet Ember, he gave a heavy sigh and leaned forward.

I sat on the floor, utterly shocked.  I couldn't remember what had happened after Hydra pulled out her sonic screwdriver.  All I could remember was getting up from the cold, damp roof and watching Raven intercept the sky shark's attack before it could do to me what it did to her.  I still felt incredibly distant, but it wasn't a complete blank like moments before.

I looked up at The Doctor.  He was still hunched over the controls and had a fairly miserable expression on his face.  I was beginning to piece together what we had just witnessed... the death of Rovenna.

"That's how she was wounded so badly that she crash-landed on Fortanya..." I spoke quietly, more to myself than anyone in particular.  "She was mortally wounded saving me, only for her to pass on her consciousness into me later..."

The Doctor finally straightened up and slowly stepped over to me.  "It would appear so."

"So why did she do that...?" I asked, looking up at him.  "Was it because she knew she would?  You told her my true identity after all, didn't you? When you told James and I to go on to the TARDIS..."

"I did," The Doctor admitted, "I couldn't lie to her.  There are very few people I can't lie to and she's one of them..." He sat down heavily, letting out a deep breath.  "When I was speaking to her, I told her where you and James were from.  Perhaps that's why she chose to retreat there when she knew she was about to regenerate.  She may have thought Hydra would lose her trail if she regenerated into Ace."

"But she knew Hydra would find me since I was right there."  I looked down.  "...She found me and somehow hijacked the TARDIS with me inside of it."

The Doctor shook his head.  "That's that part that scares me about Hydra; she's got some serious technology in her hands for her to not only track you down, but to bring you to her... in my TARDIS!"  The Doctor rubbed his head.  "She also drastically modified the basic sonic screwdriver to be incredibly piercing to other Time Lords."

"Is that what happened?" James asked.  "I—I couldn't understand what was so bad about it."

"That was a good time to be glad you're human," said The Doctor.

James meekly turned his head.  "Not in her presence..."  

The Doctor gave a short sigh.  "No... I remember Rovenna would often speak of another Time Lord.  I remember because I used to wonder how a Time Lord could be so bent against humans..."

"So... we were the reason she found Hydra, and Hydra was the reason she got hurt and gave her c-consciousness to Ace ...If we hadn't been there, and—and told her, and brought her to Hydra—would Ace still have her consciousness?"  James asked.

The Doctor looked up at James.  "That is an excellent question that I'm not sure will ever be answered..."

"It turns into an endless loop," I said, my brows lowered in thought, "Hydra finds me because of Raven's consciousness; we reunite Raven and Hydra; Raven gets killed and gives me her consciousness... only for Hydra to find me because of Raven's consciousness..." I shook my head and closed my eyes.  "Some of this time stuff hurts my head..."

The Doctor merely shook his head silently, and the conversation soon died as well.  The three of us looked down, with one of us occasionally glancing up to see if anyone else was about to speak.

"Well," James finally spoke, "I grabbed these—before we left."  He then reached into the pocket of his pullover and pulled out Raven's sonic screwdriver and the silver pendant she wore.  "Th-they had fallen on the ground when she fell.  I'm... not sure why I took them."

"I'm glad you did; or else Hydra would have them."  The Doctor took them into his own hands.  He fingered the pendant in one hand.  "The Seal of Rassilon... an old mark to identify a Time Lord.  In ancient times, it was thought to have the power to ward off evil.  Now it would seem to be her TARDIS key."  He then looked at the sonic screwdriver.  "Silver!  Brilliant.  And a blue lighty thing!  I had a blue lighty thing once... in fact, I think she gave me the idea..."  He smiled to himself, remembering his memories with Raven fondly.

"How long had you known her?" I asked, finding myself smiling with him.

"I spent a good bit of time with her when I was much younger.  I'm actually quite surprised she recognized me like this—though I suppose I'm just that cool."

I hummed a short chuckle, though I stopped when he held the two items towards me.

"Well, they are yours, so... here."

I accepted the items and smiled.  "I'm just getting all kinds of cool stuff now..."  

"Yes; you're going to have to explain how you got that vortex manipulator..." The Doctor raised an eyebrow quizzically.

"...Would you believe a Kronolin gave it to me?"

The Time Lord paused.  "...Not without a proper explanation."

James got up rather suddenly and went to the door.  Just out the window, the darkness of space was in view, with thousands of stars dotting the sky.  He froze completely, looking out the window with an amazed look on his face.

"You know, you can open the door if you'd like..." The Doctor said.

James turned around incredulously.  "In—in s-space??"

"Go ahead!  You'll be fine as long as you don't jump out!"

The Doctor and I watched as James carefully, gently opened the door, and to his astonishment, an entire galaxy, bathed in red and white, spread out before him.  He bent down slowly to his knees, sitting on the edge of the TARDIS' floor with his legs tucked under him.  He breathed out, and I could imagine an awestruck smile spread wide across his face.

The Doctor put an arm around me.  "I love showing that to someone for the first time." He grinned softly.  "With me, I've seen space so many times that it's nothing new... but whenever I show someone like you or James..." He chuckled, "it's like seeing it for the first time all over again."

I smirked at him.  "Glad we can help."

He turned to me after a moment with a rosy flush to his cheeks.  "I'll admit, I was terribly worried about you when you'd been whisked off."

"I was worried too, especially when I figured out Hydra was not going to like me..."

"Did she hurt you?"

I looked at the silver sonic screwdriver in my lap.  "She used her sonic screwdriver on me when I was inside the complex.  It hurt my head more than anything.  She said she was 'coaxing'..."

"She knew it would awaken Rovenna's consciousness.  When we were on the building, you... completely switched for a moment there..."  He nervously rubbed the back of his neck.  "I was worried that... that it was going to overwhelm you..."

I looked up at him, and his eyes had drifted away.  He had a deep look of concern on his face, and when he finally met my eyes, he had to look away again.

"That's the real danger of you being a meta-crisis.  I worry one day you'll snap like that and the Time Lord's consciousness will be too great for your body to handle..."

I bit my lip, unsure of what to say.  The idea of being completely lost in my own mind wasn't a very pleasant outlook.  That, and I couldn't shake the words Hydra had spoken about The Doctor running away from everyone he knows.  I leaned against The Doctor and closed my eyes.

He wrapped his arms around me and looked out at James in the doorway.  "Let's not think any further of this for now.   Are you all right?" he asked quietly.

"I think so."  I paused; I had to clear my mind.  "You're not planning on leaving are you?"

His arms slid to my shoulders.  "Leaving?"

I nervously looked back at him.  "One of the things Hydra said was that you... you had run away from me—from Raven, before... and then you being all mysterious and not letting me go with you on your travels..."

The Doctor pulled the corner of his mouth askew.  "Gem... there were reasons I haven't been taking you with me, and I told you every time you asked why.  And what Hydra didn't say was that Rovenna and I simply decided to part ways.  It's not like we were ever a couple anyway; she was a friend, and a good one... Besides, she was always bothering me about settling down... she said I would never be ready to."  He looked up at me with a light smirk, still fairly embarrassed as he swayed slightly.  

I smiled gently back, holding up my arms to rest on his shoulders.  "What about now?"

He leaned forward and kissed my forehead.  Still close, he answered softly, "Perhaps."

He bent down and kissed my lips, and I held my hands on the back of his head.

Bloody showoff.

I broke into a laugh as The Doctor pulled away, surprised.  "What?"

I grinned, leaning against his shoulder.  "You should hear the commentary in my head."

The Doctor winced.  "Oh no..."

All the while, James looked out the door of the TARDIS, watching the scenery slowly change as the TARDIS drifted slowly along.  He had turned back once just as The Doctor and I shared another kiss, but with a smile and a flush on his cheeks, he redirected his gaze to the mysteries and wonders stretched out before us.

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Keep Reading! Book 3 - Matter of Trust >>