Doctor Who: A Deal with Time

[ArlequineLunaire]

Did I think it'd be that easy? How it could be, I mean I and I suppose the valet are the only two captives of Oterne who've even really met The Doctor, everyone else knows nothing about her. So when she offers everyone the chance to finally escape this place in her TARDIS, all she's, we're, met with in return are the servants' blank stares.

The Doctor then breathes deep before she tries another approach. "Listen, it is not simply that you can leave, you have to," she calls out to the servants, "Do you all wish to have your eyes taken from you? To remain ever afraid of feeling an emotion or remembering anything from beyond Oterne again else face Their wrath? I am offering you a means of escape, to show you that Oterne's Lords do not have to be your Lords, that a life of fear is all your kidnappers Above have to offer you, but not me."

But this different tact is still met with the other servants stepping back. One of them, the gardener I passed on those stairs, has to shout out, "How can we trust you? We don't even know you!"

"Y-You were the one who set us up against those above with that book of yours!" the cook, or who I think is the cook anyway with his humanoid form having melted off, then says, "If they really do come for our eyes, who's to say it won't be your fault?"

The mutterings among the servants reach a fiercer pitch, so in return The Doctor looks down and asks of me… what I was fearing she would. "Lavinia, they know you, so perhaps you can get through to-" she begins, but I just freeze up. They're my fellow servants, I know, but I've still got no idea of what to even say to them. How can I change the minds of so many people, when I was just as loyal to Oterne not that long ago? What can someone like me say that'll make them want to leave, not just fear to stay? She sees I'm shrinking back, so The Doctor then says, "No, it's okay. If it's all too much, you don't have to say to anything at all, or at least I can't make you."

Though wait, what about the valet, I can't imagine he'd want to stay here? But then I hear him announce, whilst he insists on standing on top of a nearby podium, "Oh no, you think I'm just gonna run away? Nah, this is only the first blow! I'll take the fight to Those Above directly; I won't rest till they pay!"

"Well, that's certainly commendable," The Doctor begins, but her smile soon starts to slip down, "but you of all people here should know what you're up against. Facing the transcendental beings of Oterne all on your own may be tantamount to suicide. Escaping their world however would allow you a chance to properly prepare."

As I should have expected by now, the valet doesn't budge. "Even if I have to do this alone, like I said, I ain't running. Not after what they've done to me," he hisses, brandishing his knife. "And who's to say they won't come and recapture me?"

I can see The Doctor open her mouth about to protest, but she pauses instead, and then only says, "…Then suit yourself, if bravado over precaution be your desire. Come along now, Lavinia."

I'm about to follow The Doctor into the TARDIS but feel I can't leave without taking one last look at the other servants, no, the other captives. I need to remind myself that's what we truly are, no matter how Those Above phrase it. Yet I see them still quaking in fear, and not just fear of what Those Above could do to my former peers. Do they- do they still see me as their fellow servant? W-would they just prefer me gone now? Do they have a right to think that, since seconds earlier I couldn't think of anything to say to them?

I run right back into the TARDIS; my last look back taken because I can't bear to take another. I hear the doors close behind me, but before The Doctor can say anything to me or even touch the console, another voice suddenly rings out through the TARDIS. "Doctor, do you seriously think I'll relent and let you drag my TARDIS wherever you please?" The Rani's voice echoes, the problem of the two TARDISes having gotten meshed together still not being solved. Her voice then gets all staticky as she hisses, "If we're going anywhere, I'll be the one in the driver's seat. And I have a very special location in mind for you," I hear her spitting those last words out.

"I think not, Rani," The Doctor says out loud, before she turns to me and sighs, "Tricky business pulling two TARDISes apart what with their dimensions overlapping, but naturally that is the price our people pay for inventing travel to anywhere in time and space. You may want to hold tight to something, Lavinia."

The Doctor then takes out some strange tool that looks like a long needle or sharpened baton, then crouches right underneath the console. I grab onto the closest thing near me that's the slightest bit sturdy, one of the twisting pillars coiling around the TARDIS, and the instant I do the whole timeship rumbles and quakes. My hands hurt from how tightly I need to hold on, my one heart starts beating as fast as a runaway train while the rest of my body turns cold, and my sight gets clouded by visions of both The Doctor's and The Rani's TARDISes, and even the image of Oterne again, ricocheting back and forth.

After a searing streak of blue light pierces my eyes, my grip gives way and I fall with a crash onto the TARDIS floor, I've no idea how I remain conscious after the impact. Still, I… I see The Doctor's TARDIS, so it looks like she did it, we really escaped The Rani. "We did escape, right?" I manage to murmur out.

"We indeed did. No more Rani and no more Oterne, well for our own foreseeable futures anyway. Now come, up you get," The Doctor smiles as she walks over to help me up, only for me to embarrass her when I find myself barely able to stand upright. She then has to sit me down in a swivel chair, from where she points to the TARDIS scanner and says, "See, what did I tell you? Nothing but us as the vastness of the universe as far as the scanner can see. Welcome home, young Lavinia, to your universe if not Britain exactly. Hmm, I was about to say we should go check just which corner of creation we've landed in, but…" she then eyes a small portion of one of the pillars that, I tense when I see it, looks like a leftover fragment of The Rani's TARDIS instead, "I must apologise, it seems the separation of our TARDISes may not have gone as smoothly as I'd hoped."

As the Doctor sonically scans that patch of wall here from The Rani's TARDIS, my eyes dart around for fear any other part of it may've gotten caught up, or worse, a part of Oterne. At first I only see bits and pieces of what might be parts of that crimson laboratory, my throat starts to clench up at the thought, but then I lurch back in my chair when I see something I thought would've been gone. Tucked into an alcove is none other than that armour I donned back in Oterne; the armour that was the whole reason I hadn't been crushed by that moving statue. "You-you brought that on board?" I manage to say.

"Ah, you've finally noticed. It'll take a while, but I ought to be able to get it back into its original shape," The Doctor says on turning around. "It seemed you took a liking to it back there, and it may prove useful for you again in a scrap. Not me though, I tend to value agility over defence, plus it's not even my size."

"B-But the armour's made from dead, ground-up souls!" I shout out, the valet's words leaping back into my mind. "I mean, that's what we were told…"

"Again, we still don't have proof what this armour's made of," The Doctor says, previous chirpiness gone, "Although with what we've seen since in Oterne, sadly I wouldn't put the dark arts of soul-melding past Those Above. Still, if that theory's true then it makes no difference having the armour here, I'd go as far to say that taking them out of Oterne is the most we can do for these poor, tortured souls. But if the possibility of wearing immobilised souls bothers you, hmm, would be it better if you thought of them as a keepsake instead, dear Lavinia?"

I don't know how to respond to that at first, but I then mumble, "I suppose thinking of it- them that way couldn't be worse."

"Well, with that sorted, for the time being at least, I ought to inspect the rest of the TARDIS, which let me tell you could take up the rest of the trans-temporal afternoon. Still, have to make sure just how badly The Rani's TARDIS got tangled up with the old girl, or scarier to think, how much of her is now with The Rani," The Doctor says before it occurs to her, "Ooh, which would be the perfect excuse, not that I'd need one, to show you around! I figure seeing the TARDIS should be a breath of fresh air, fresh timestream 'air' anyway, from those endless Oterne corridors for you, hmm?"

I try standing up again, and it does feel like my heart's beating normally enough again so that I can judge I'll be able to walk without falling back down. Not like that stops me from holding my hands out in the air for balance just in case. "While I'm here, sure, guess it couldn't hurt," I say. "Er, po-ye-kha-li, right?"

"My, you do catch on fast," The Doctor beams at me, only adding "Shoes off at the door though, Lavinia, show your respects to the old girl," before we both set off deeper into the TARDIS.
First, she leads me about halfway up the spiral stairway till we reach a hexagon-shaped door, which opens on its own to reveal a dark, candlelit hall, vines creeping along its ceiling. I suppose a low light setting can certainly be charming when it comes to reading books, but well, it doesn't seem practical for spotting the tangled parts of another TARDIS. And I don't think The Doctor using her screwdriver as an impromptu torch helps that much, though she's able to make one door out in the darkness. "Ah, the TARDIS library should right through here, if The Rani didn't mess around with her dimensions while pulling that stunt. Wait, are libraries okay with you, Lavinia dear? No lingering unease about being forced to serve in one?"

"…Just as long as it isn't the Oterne library, I should be fine. Should," I say. Stepping into the TARDIS' main library, other than the bookshelves around the console, I do have to twinge when I do see some immediate similarities with the Oterne library. The size for one thing, for while not quite as endless as that library, it must still be several storeys high, and the low lighting does leave whole swathes of it in darkness.
On closer inspection there are differences, as compared to the straight and structured Oterne library, the bookshelves here curve and flow up and down, like cursive instead of print I could say. This is most apparent with the spiralling tower in the centre that forms the bookcase. The other big difference I notice is that there's little rhyme or reason to where any of the books are placed, authors' surnames will spring back and forth along the alphabet, while autobiographies will be wedged in between repair manuals and cookbooks.

My instinctive urge is to take out a few books and rearrange them more sensibly, but then I stop as I worry whether I've just conditioned by Oterne into doing that? Either way, The Doctor has to say, "Nonono, leave those right where they are, thank you. Believe me, I can pinpoint where every single book is in this library, you start reordering them and I could lose track entirely of where they are." Guess that sidesteps my worry for me, though it makes me dread to see the Doctor's bedroom, since it could look like a total pigsty if that's her way.
She later comes to me with a lofty stack of books that I'm impressed she can still balance and says, "Right, these should be all The Rani's books that got mixed up in here. With such dry titles as Advanced Chronophysical Mechanisms Vol 26 Part 12 and A Summation of Quantum Neurological Processes in Perpendicular Dimensions, how could they not be? Ah, though pity poor old The Eighteen Carnivals of the Ferris Galaxy, now stuck with her. I know, I could just pick up a replacement copy, but I've had that book for several regenerations you see."

I nod at first, but then I think out loud, "That argument about science and the humanities you had with The Rani back at the altar, was it the sort of thing you talked about with her all the time back when you were, er, friends?" The Doctor ever being friends with someone like The Rani I still couldn't process.

The Doctor sighs and says, "The Rani indeed brought up those same talking points way back at the Academy, difference was back then my younger self just let her talk, arguing back was too much trouble. My little spat with her back in Oterne was me saying what I felt I should've said to her all those years ago, well, it feels that way in hindsight. Wouldn't have swayed her over back then either, but still…"

Spoiler: TARDIS Insides BGM

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOQduQqQoXM

We then move onto one of the TARDIS' many storerooms, where before opening its door, The Doctor gestures at me to hold my breath. Given all the dust that then came pouring out, am I glad I did. The storeroom was very 'earthen' I could say, with a ton of boxes piled on top of straw and bamboo flooring. But what sends me stumbling back is a massive, furred creature leaning against the back wall, said fur even reminding me of a spider's which got me wondering if this thing had spun all the cobwebs in the TARDIS- no, I'm being silly, there's already an easier explanation. "That-that thing has to be from The Rani's TARDIS, right?" I squeak out.

"'Thing'? I'll have you watch your tongue, my girl. No, this here is a robotic Yeti," the Doctor waltzed right up to the creature, "Don't worry, I've removed its control sphere, it's entirely harmless. Hmm, though speaking of robots, that reminds me. I must make time to track where exactly the TARDIS food machine has run off to." Wait, yetis are robots now, and a 'food machine' can just wander off like that?

The search for anything of The Rani's in here leads us mostly to an array of clawed and needly metal implements, which on instinct I'd really rather not know the intended purposes for. Still, while I knew it was bigger on the inside from the start, just how big the TARDIS is showing itself to be does back up The Doctor saying she could've fit all those servants in here to get them back to their home planets. The extra numbers could've helped speed up the search too. It even backs up The Rani's theory that Oterne itself could've been a TARDIS, but no, The Doctor would never accept that.

Out of the storeroom and a few doors along, a smile suddenly comes over The Doctor's face. "Oh, this room, I remember! Lavinia dear, you absolutely must see this," she says as the doors opens to a reveal, wait, a grassy hill inside the TARDIS? It's blue and sunny inside too, even though I thought we were floating in space. The moment I step inside, whole clouds of butterflies fly up and start circling around the place. Amid my staring at such a sight, The Doctor eventually asks me, "Now, why don't we hit the light switch, let me show you how much more there is to the Butterfly Room?" The bright day contained within this one room is hit with a sudden sunset, then replaced with a glittering night which makes the butterflies give way to a swarm of moths. I have to shudder a little when the moth camouflage starts to remind me of the eyes of Oterne though.

"Er, so none of these are The Rani's, are they?" I ask.

The Doctor then seems to take that rather personally. "Now really, Lavinia, I show you no less than the butterfly room, and that's all you can think of?" she says to me, before she breathes out and goes, "Sorry, do forgive my rudeness, you are right to keep vigilant. Suppose I just expected more of a reaction, the butterfly's room usually good at that."

"I-I don't mean to sound like I'm underwhelmed by this room, or the TARDIS, I'm not!" I try to say to her, "A whole library filled with books I've never read, a storeroom whose contents are from all different planets and periods, it's better than I could imagine, more than anyone's ever done for me… and almost like it's too much for me to take in." I retreat into my thoughts for a while, before I wonder, "Am I just too exhausted right now, I mean I only just got out of a place I thought I'd never leave, or scared that more of The Rani's work will come after me here?"

"Ah, can't quite say I know the feeling, but I can see what you mean," The Doctor says, "Now, with the TARDIS scouted out for all things Rani, perhaps we should check up on your home, make sure your friends and family are doing alright… and that Those Above haven't tried to cover their tracks over them. Not that we have to go back right away of course, perks of having a time machine and whatnot. Ooh, any point in human history that interests you? Any point in alien history? All I ask in return is that you honour a 'deal with time' as any time traveller should, that we are but time's guests and not the masters of its house. For instance, you wouldn't go around causing paradoxes now, would you dear?"

"What? No, never!" I say on instinct. But to go anywhere and anytime… it's so intimidating that I want to default to just going home, especially after so long in Oterne, but can I just turn down an offer like this? While I'm left wondering, for a second it looks like I can spot that jackalope-like 'TARDIS fairy' from before over in the corner, who nods at me before quickly disappearing back into the shadows.

"No rush, we literally have all time," The Doctor says, "But have you any thoughts yet?"

 

[ArlequineLunaire]

Spoiler: Opening Theme

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85tgIKqd3h8

The Necromancer's Wife​

"Gallifrey!" is the answer I end up giving, after dwelling for the longest time on where in all time and space I'd like to go. "It's the name of your homeworld, isn't it?"

As I say that, any joy and eagerness on The Doctor's face melts into a suppressed sourness. "Perhaps I should have clarified, any point in time and space except Gallifrey. Yes, you have the planet's name correct, good job, but I would most prefer to call it my 'planet of birth' instead," she tells me, her voice sinking lower, "'Homeworld' is too generous."

I'm left jittering on hearing The Doctor snarl like that, so I rush to say, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry! I-I didn't know, I didn't mean to get you angry like that!" Something I leave unsaid is how I assumed The Doctor's people would be just like her, an assumption I should've known was wrong from The Rani alone.

"No, dear Lavinia, of course you didn't," The Doctor sighs out before adding, "You couldn't have known. And I'll admit I was taken by surprise, most of those I invite into the TARDIS don't tend to inquire about Gallifrey much. It's more, well, somewhere that inevitably gets comes up whether anyone asked or not."

I relax a little as The Doctor's tone soothes, before I say, "Guess I thought of Gallifrey so we could conclusively prove your people couldn't be Those Above, show The Rani she's wrong."

"My child, I already know Those Above have but a tangential connection to the Time Lords at most," The Doctor says, "Oterne has given me enough evidence of that. Besides, there are also practical reasons why we can't go to Gallifrey, the planet's all bunkered up right now, still healing from a rather nasty invasion. Oh, we could get around that by travelling to Gallifrey's past, but let's just say the Time Lords don't take kindly to those who do."

"Your planet was invaded?!" I blurt out, before I realise my bluntness try to politely ask, "Ah, if you're okay with saying anything more about that, Doctor?"

"It's okay, I suppose for your own safety I'm obliged to tell you," The Doctor says, her face going grave, "The invasion was led by a madwoman calling herself 'Atropos Nikephoros'. I highly doubt she is the cutter of lives of Greek myth fame, yet she is more than powerful enough to pass for her. She rules from what I can only call a 'Timeline of the Dead', a whole universe turned underworld. It was back when my prior incarnation thought to retire on Gallifrey that she attacked, us only barely fending her and her army of ghosts off. All Time Lords save us rogues were forced to turtle up within the vast virtual reality called the Matrix, which naturally they'll keep on insisting is entirely unlike the Celestis fleeing from existence by becoming pure concepts."

I keep nodding as I take all that in, reminding myself to find out what 'virtual reality' is. But as obscure as The Doctor's diatribe is, one thing is absolutely clear, it's a most dangerous universe out there. No, more than that, she talks like this isn't even the only universe, which I suppose shouldn't surprise me since I've seen Oterne.
But if things are so dangerous, then being with The Doctor is the best place to be, right? For instance, I can't imagine Oterne would have ever been able to kidnap me in the first place if she'd already been looking out for me, I'm… sure of that. I consider telling The Doctor all those thoughts I just had, but my whole face goes pink, I just feel I'd make a total fool of myself if I did say that.

"But apart from Gallifrey, hmm, or Skaro, or Mondas, or Sontar, apart from all those places, yes, absolutely anywhere in time and space you wish," The Doctor says.

Still embarrassed over my unthinking suggestion of Gallifrey, I'm about to default to just asking The Doctor if I can check up on home. Then I predictably hesitate again, I mean checking up on my home is something I know I should do, yet… I'm getting anxious. What if something's happened since I've been gone, what if I'll just be walking into Oterne's clutches again? I don't even have all my memories of home back yet, so what if there are things there that I forgot for good reason?

While all these worries are circling around in my head, I gasp as the whole TARDIS suddenly shakes. The Doctor rushes over to the scanner, where something makes her go all wide-eyed. "Lavinia, come look, you won't want to miss this!" she says.

I slowly inch over to see it sure is an eyes-widening sight. It's a whole spaceship, the first I've ever seen! Well, er, I remember the TARDIS is one too, I guess that's a bit easy to forget from how it looks. But this spaceship just out the window looks like it's leapt straight out of the pages of Verne or Wells, which I should know since I can remember reading both extensively. Okay, it's not exactly bullet or tripod-shaped, but its glassy windows, thatch-patterned underbelly, and what look like 'smokestacks' and a giant 'balloon' coming out of it can't help but remind me of late Victorian visions of the space age.

"Do you think it's okay if we board it?" I find myself asking in all my giddiness, before I have to restrain myself and add, "Um, if it's safe to do so, of course?"

"Well, if we can go traipsing around a dismal sub-dimension like Oterne and still make it out in one piece, then I doubt we have much to fear from this ship," The Doctor says, before she turns to grin at me, "And if no visitors are wanted, little matter, my own invitation is the only one I've ever needed. But dear Lavinia," she leans in conspiratorially, "I do believe we are in fact wanted here, if not by anyone aboard this ship, then at least by the TARDIS."

"Wait, what makes you think that?" I ask.

"Think, Lavinia. I don't know if astronomy's your strong suit, but in such an endless universe as ours, you should be aware the chances of us just casually teleporting right up to another ship are the most miniscule of miniscule," The Doctor tells me, "There are no coincidences with the TARDIS, wherever we land it is because she wills it. Clearly she could tell something was afoot here."

"Wait, she could do that from all the way in Oterne?" I ask again, giving the main rotor another glance over on instinct, "And with parts of The Rani's TARDIS stuck to her?"

"Why not? She's picked up things from across greater distances before," The Doctor says then smirks, "Well then Lavinia, looks like your first destination came to us for you. Oh, and after we head in, do remind me to ask anyone aboard if Lavender Castle was at all an inspiration on the ship's design."

"…Lavender Castle?" I'm left asking, "I guess that's a book, right? From the future or another planet?"

"Hmm, how to put it? You've heard of Gerry Anderson, haven't you, 'supermarionation' and all that?" The Doctor's now the one to ask me. I nod, and she then says, "It's a stop-motion show he'll produce, hmm, roughly thirty years from your present day, so you got the 'future' part right. Ah right, stop-motion, you know Ray Harryhausen?" I nod again, though I think she's overestimating my knowledge of modern- er, 60s culture, "Point being, Lavender Castle has a somewhat similar-looking ship, hence me bringing it up."

Spoiler: Boarding the Ship BGM

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7wRcIRPYuQ

With that, er, aside over with, The Doctor then goes to pilot down the TARDIS, without teleporting this time, into one of this ship's airlocks. I'm told that's the term; I think people also use the word for the entrances to submarines. Anyway, the TARDIS touches down inside this ship, and I don't think I would've even been able to tell this was a spaceship had I not first seen it from inside. If not for that, I would've thought I was in a mansion from all the way back in the Victorian age, or possibly Regency or Edwardian times, most of what I know about old houses coming from novels.
It's a cosy-looking place, quite soothing really, compared to the unending starkness of Oterne. The wood panels (imitation wood panels?) on the floor and stairs appear a gleaming bronze in colour, both covered by a rich red carpet lined with gold tassels, there's even candlelight and a fireplace. "Er, guess they're not really candles and a fireplace though," I say out loud, "We're way in the future, aren't we? I figure they'd just be done up to look that way." Maybe I really am a square, I stop to reflect, if the first thing I comment on upon boarding a storybook spaceship is the light fixtures…

"You mean like through holograms? Oh right, 'holograms', think an illusion spell but cast through science. They should only now be becoming a thing back in your 1960s with Gabor Denes and co, but that's another story for another time," The Doctor tells me, before she approaches the nearest candle, scans it with her sonic and goes, "No, seems these candles are the real deal, just a most futuristic version of them. Well, futuristic to you and me, but modern for when we've landed.
However, Lavinia," her tone lowers again, "The real question you should be asking right now is: Who just let us in? There wasn't anyone there operating the airlock, such security doesn't so carelessly let the any old passer-by in."

"That was me," a crackling radio voice suddenly says, coming up from all around. It sounds like a man's voice this time, so that luckily rules out The Rani, at least the incarnation of her I know. Then on cue, the flames from the candles and fireplace all start to contort, till all in a line they spell out 'Welcome, Doctor'.

---

Author's Note: Experimenting with a slightly shorter length, should hopefully make for quicker updates and less daunting chapter lengths, since I think more people will read say ten 1.5K word chapters than five 3K word chapters

 

[ArlequineLunaire]

With this overly elaborate welcome sprung on us out of nowhere, even as I move to shrink back towards the TARDIS, The Doctor stills acts unfazed. "Well then, unidentified voice, if we are so welcome then why have you not simply bothered to come down and greet us in person?" she asks with a smirk, "Up close introductions not your style? Or I could go so far to say that you have a trap set up for us and can't risk hoisting yourself by your own petard, but that would be assuming of me, wouldn't it now?"

"I have my work to complete," the mysterious voice crackles out, "and don't have the luxury of attending to guests, especially uninvited ones. Not when what is most important is on the line."

"'Uninvited'? B-but you left the airlock active," I wonder out loud.

"Because I knew you would've only warped yourselves in anyway," the voice says. Wait, does that mean he knows about-

"You know about the TARDIS?" The Doctor asks him for me, "Or more likely, you were tipped off about it by something else, since I don't recognise your voice, taking you've not filtered it."

"Not just your TARDIS, I know much about Time Lords overall," the voice says, those words making me flinch and The Doctor narrow her eyes. "I doubt you and your people will appreciate what I am about to do, and yet my work would not be possible without them."

Before either of us can prod whoever this is further, we're cut off by a sudden rumbling sound coming from one of the lower decks. I'm almost knocked backwards again, but The Doctor only briefly falters before she stands back upright and says, "Progress. This has given away just where our discourteous host's 'work' is being performed, and if he won't meet us in person, now we can do that favour for him. See all the homework this stranger has copying from the Time Lords ourselves, why don't we?"

We weren't met with another radio reply from this stranger, I take it because he had to attend to whatever made that rumbling noise. Guess if he really has important work to be getting to, he wouldn't have that much time to stay around addressing us, would he? "He's probably got a bunch more traps rigged up for us, like you said. I guess that's what you'd do if you knew your home was going to be broken into. He could've alerted the authorities too, wait no, he'd be worried doing that would risk them finding out about his work, wouldn't it?" I ask.

"My, you catch on quick," The Doctor smiles at me. "That reminds me, it might serve us well to gather up a few disposable objects, I'd say stones and twigs but obviously there are none of those here. With them, we could maybe activate any traps before we waltz right into them, not find ourselves on the receiving end of a laser web or bladed pendulum."

"I should go back to the TARDIS," I say at first, but then quickly clarify, "Ah, to gather up any trap-setters in there, that's all. Not because I want to, er, want to…" I'm left stumbling over my own words, not wanting to say the obvious.

"Return to its safety?" The Doctor catches on. I get the impression she's about to scold me for cowardice, but instead she says, "Lavinia, if you wish you may go back to the TARDIS at any time, I wouldn't want to force anyone unwilling to remain on the front lines. Trust me, whoever this crackling recluse is, I can more than deal with him on my own."

"No, it's okay, I'll come with you!" I race to tell her. "I-It's okay, I got out of Oterne with you, I can handle this, I know it."

"Can you, my dear? If I may be blunt, your tone of voice and repeated 'It's okay's doesn't sound like you can," The Doctor says, as I feel her eyes looking right into me. Still, I vigorously nod at her, which feels easier for me right now than vocalising anything, not that my throat hurts that much anymore. "Oh, you do insist on coming? Splendid then, let's scrounge up some trap-setters and we'll be off!"

Hearing The Doctor talk like that, part of me starts to wonder whether she told me I could go back to the TARDIS as a form of reverse psychology, provoke me into wanting to come with her. No, the rest of my mind then thinks, that's unfair, I really must be assuming. How could I think that about The Doctor based on but a few words…?

We do quickly head back into the TARDIS to get a few trap disarming trinkets, where I'm able to scoop up a few stones off the floor of the earthen storeroom. Well, I think they're stones; they could be fossilised time for all I know. The Doctor though comes back with, er, what looks like a series of paper slips that she's tying around the end of her sonic screwdriver, with strange, circular 'writing' on each slip.

"These are ofuda, my dear, don't you recognise them?" she asks me upon noticing how I've been looking at them. She goes on to say, "They're Shinto amulets bearing the name of their shrine, claimed to ward away evil spirits. Might prove useful in detecting any unfortunate traps that voice has prepared for us. Of course, I have Gallifreyan writing on mine along with the usual kanji, spells out 'TARDIS' as you'd expect."

Putting two and two together, it's then I infer, "Wait, by extension, you're saying the TARDIS is a shrine?"

"Hmm, I do suppose it is, now that you bring it up," The Doctor then says. She then chortles, "Oh dear me no, not to myself, even I wouldn't go that far. Rather, I'd call the TARDIS a Shrine to Space and Time, yes, that sounds far more appropriate. Wouldn't you agree, old girl?" She then pats the console, and I do hear a slight whirring.

Shinto, Kanji, those are Japanese, aren't they? But wait, "Er, we were told Shinto was abolished, wasn't it? Unless it's been reinstated in the future, I suppose?"

The Doctor tilts her head at me for a second, before she mutters, "Right, 60s Britain. Sorry my dear, I haven't travelled with anyone from your own time and place for, oh my, it'd be centuries now. No, Shinto is very much alive and well in your modern day, I believe you've gotten it mixed up with State Shinto specifically, abolished however unwillingly at the end of WWII. Not that there aren't future periods where State Shinto hasn't made a nasty comeback, but that's another story for another time."

I try to take all of that in, as I tell The Doctor, "Most of what I know of Japan comes from a few books I read way back, no idea how good they would've been as sources. For most of my life, I think I've only known Japan as-"

"-Caricatures in Warner Bros shorts and Tintin comics?" The Doctor finishes for me, which is becoming a bit of a habit of hers. "To think the cinematic blight that is You Only Live Twice will be Britain's foremost image of Japan in your decade. Oh wait, Yoko Ono also, almost forgot."

"I-I was just going to say they were one of the Axis, that's all," I tell her.

"And believe me, I am not apologising for that. The occupying US does more than that once they decide Japan can be useful to them in their little Cold War. Ahem, what I'm saying, Lavinia, is you don't solve nationalism and imperialism with stereotypes and misinformation," The Doctor says.

I'm about to protest, I may have gotten mixed up about Shinto, but when did I ever believe that stereotypes about Japan were true? But then I recall I've never gone anywhere near Japan, let alone spoke to someone Japanese, so… am I the right person to make that call? Well, The Doctor looks Japanese, maybe Chinese, but that's just 'looks' because she's alien.

"What are you talking about?" that voice from the ship now crackles from… right here within the TARDIS, "I know well you're time travellers, but what relevance does 20th century Earth history have to do with you disrupting my work? And a few paper amulets, are you mocking me?"

"Paper amulets with a long and fabled history and cultural significance," The Doctor says back. By now I'd expect a more flippant tone from her, but she delivers that line and the following with more of a snarl, and for clear reason. "Now you tell me, how is your voice here inside my TARDIS and why? This is a dimensional barrier, I'll have you know."

"You cross my boundaries, I cross yours," is all the voice says back.

I'm left looking all around the TARDIS for how this person, whoever this is, could've possibly gotten in. The Doctor however keeps fiddling with the console until a bright red X flashes on one of its screens, before she says to me, "Right, I've disabled the TARDIS controls, that should keep this intruder from being able to do anything in here, else he cast his fool self into the Time Vortex perhaps." Only then does The Doctor's smile return, "Well now Lavinia, as you're more than up to date on what on ofuda is after such an aside from me, let us commence the hunt for the owner of this strange voice."

We walk back out into the Verne-like ship, though I keep looking back all the while just to make sure the TARDIS really is that secure. First, we try to find stairs, a lift, or given the era even a teleporter leading down below. What we find further into the ship is… something else entirely.

I gasp as I'm met with the sight of a scrap heap of mangled robots scattered across the floor. "Maintenance droids…" The Doctor identifies them. "Now, why would our oh-so mysterious voice want his ship's own maintenance destroyed? Either that," she says the same moment another rumbling breaks out from down below, "or we're not the only ones here…"

 

[ArlequineLunaire]

And it wasn't just a rumbling noise from below either. I step back, prepared to rush to The Doctor for safety, when the pile of maintenance droids starts to shake. It's then someone pushes their way right out of the heap, as I see a sandy-haired, beige-coated stranger suddenly before me.

Spoiler: Georgiy Nikitich BGM

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ay0svtxsRvw

"Sheesh, and I thought this ship was deserted," this stranger says, before he grins at us and wastes no time introducing myself, "Hiya, Georgiy Nikitich, ghost ship spelunker and star photographer of Space to Shore monthly." He then stops to fiddle with what looks like a watch, which then produces a 'hologram', think that's what The Doctor called them, showing a magazine but in three dimensions. I'm seeing a spaceship, a much more advanced one I think, being a lot less Verne-looking, on its three-dimensional cover.
It's foolish of me, this could be a trap for all I know, but I can't help but reach forward to touch the hologram, I've never seen anything like it after all. But Georgiy then says, "No, no, that's just this week's cover. I photo ghost ships, so let me show you some of my own work."

Like a future version of a book flipping open, I see the cover replaced with a cloud of holograms showing spaceships now left derelict. Am I… really that far in the future that even spaceships can now be left to rust? "Yes, all rather impressive," The Doctor mutters, with her putting a hand on my shoulder and narrowing her eyes at Georgiy, "but unfortunately for you, young man, this is one ghost ship that isn't so abandoned. Oh, not that Lavinia and I have any residence here, but surely you would've heard a voice from above, or tremors from below?"

"Huh, 'voice from above'? No idea what you mean," Georgiy says with a shrug, much as he can shrug with most his body beneath a pile of robots. He then shudders, "Tremors from below though, yeah, know for sure what you mean. Like, I ain't stupid, y'know, a bunch of broken droids like these couldn't have all gotten wrecked on their own. It's why I stayed under here, had to make sure you lot weren't that whatever-it-is. Well, that and to rummage for droid parts, not that I found anything interesting under here."

"My, fancy yourself a 'treasure hunter', do you?" The Doctor says with a chill to her tone. She steps forward and somehow brushes aside the spaceship holograms, which is a shame since I was really getting into seeing more of them, and asks Georgiy directly, "How can you honestly say you've never heard that voice, does he somehow not see a random spelunker as an intruder? And our 'host' doesn't seem like the sort who'd appreciate a photoshoot. Hmm, or is he not bothered, simply seeing you as food for whichever pet he's got roaming around in here?"

"Hey, meant what I said, you're the first voice I've heard since I got here," Georgiy says, then eyes The Doctor up and down, "As for you, dollface, guess you don't look like you're from any rival mag out to steal my find. Hmm, unless you're from some annual on antiques that I somehow haven't heard of. Don't look like police either, Human or Draconian, which eh is kind of a shame. Telling everyone I had to leg it from the cops would make for one hell of a story if nothing else."

"Police? Oh no, we just have the box," The Doctor grins at him, though certainly not warmly. "And 'dollface', honestly? Aren't we in an anachronistic mood, hmm?"

"I mean, you do look rather doll-like at first glance, Doctor," I find myself commenting, before I hasten to add, "Ah, just an observation, that's all." It's then though that something else Georgiy said stands out to me. "Wait, Draconian?" I ask, "Because either 'Human or Draconian' is referring to their means of justice, or, or their species..."

"Some would argue both interpretations," The Doctor says, then adds, "Sorry, bit of a kneejerk response on my part. It's just, ahem, after being imprisoned by their Empire multiple times over, one does develop a bit of a grudge. The Draconians, Lavinia dear, are reptilian aliens who've built an intergalactic Empire rivalling Earth's, and I've little patience for imperialists either way. Ooh, they do make remarkable sake though."

"Of course. The little lady finally gets a chance to speak, and you gotta barge back in," Georgiy says right back to The Doctor. I guess he's trying to stick up for me, that's… good, but does he have to antagonise The Doctor while doing so? "And hold on, how can she not know what a Draconian is? What, did you have her cooped up her whole life in a basement or something? Yeah, I know you're apparently the Draconians' jailbird, real interesting, but why you gotta take it out on her?"

"Like with this ship, you are charging into a matter that's of no business to you," The Doctor says. Drawing me even closer, she tells him, "Lavinia here is still in recovery from a nasty mind-wipe, and because I know you'll accuse me of it, no I was not the one who delivered it to her. Were that true, I wouldn't have just told you it was a mind-wipe, now would I?"

Georgiy opens his mouth, but then pauses. He's left to say, "Well, got me there I guess. Okay, so you two are Lavinia and, uh, The Doctor? Don't think I caught your name, which on top of the jailbird stuff, hardly makes you look so innocent, does it?"

"To you, 'The Doctor' will suffice," she says, but with him just glaring at that answer, she then smirks, "Alright. Jane Smith."

Georgiy groans at that, "Fine, I'll drop the name issue, since it's clear you think I was born yesterday." I take it The Doctor has to restrain herself from saying something like 'To me, everyone's born yesterday'.

What she does say is, "Anyway given your inquisitive nature, to put it mildly, I do suspect were I anyone else, you'd be over the moon about getting to meet a former jailbreaker out of Draconia. Still, if you're going to be so cavalier in how you treat ghost ships, the least you can do young man is tell us anything you may know about this one. I've already divulged both my time in jail and Lavinia's mindwipe, so it's right and proper you share what you know too."

"Wait, aren't we being just as cavalier as him?" I have to bring up. In private The Doctor would probably tell me it's okay if we intrude since the TARDIS brought us here, but I don't think that's something she'd just tell Georgiy, even if she alluded to a police box before.

"Nonsense, Lavinia dear. I am a veteran in these affairs, not a mere upstart who treats these vessels as but a way to make money," The Doctor says, "We just stumbled upon this ship and started getting accosted by that strange voice our Pudding and Pie here says he hasn't heard."

"…You're a veteran and you 'just stumbled upon' this ship?" Georgiy asks with a stare.

"Yes, a veteran in stumbling upon things, that suits me quite fine," The Doctor says, sounding pleased with herself.

Rather than talk directly to The Doctor anymore, Georgiy turns to me of all people and says, "Okay Lavinia, real old-fashioned name you got there but er, not like that's a bad thing ot anything. Ahem, so since you're already a fan of my work, I'll tell ya what I've gathered on this place. This ship's gone by a few names, the Star Pearl being the best known, but I've also heard the Eizariya. Its last known owner was one Professor Urataro Ikari, worked in Chronophysics. And yeah, that's about it," he finishes that soon.

"Why, how little research from one who went and waltzed right in here," The Doctor says, again I have to keep myself from bringing up that the exact same thing could be said about us. "Still, this at least narrows down a likely identity for the voice, one Urataro Ikari I presume, or someone with connections to him anyway."

"Yeah, but that little research you still needed me to tell you," Georgiy says, turning back to face The Doctor, "Like, you didn't even know the name and owner of this ship before you got here, so who's 'waltzing in', huh?"

"L-look, shouldn't we get to exploring more of this ship? I mean, that's what we're all here for, isn't it?" I speak up with my feeble attempt at peacemaking.

Or, ah, not so feeble, for it's then the Doctor says, "Right you are, Lavinia dear. Well now," she then turns back to Georgiy and pulls him out of the droid wreckage, her grip being surprisingly strong, "If you, dear boy, are going to be here snooping around, then the least you can do is make yourself useful, hmm? Safety in numbers you know, so let's be off!"

"Suppose so," Georgiy shrugs, then glances at me and says, "Hey Lavinia, got way more holo-photos to show once we get time. Glad to see you at least appreciate my work around here." I just nod in response.

Georgiy now in tow, we head out of the Victorian corridors and into… what looks like a shopping arcade, though one that looks like its walls were made from green scales, with pearls and precious jewels embedded in at intervals. That house just before looked normal if old-fashioned, while Oterne looked human in style if with everything oversized, but this… I really should ask The Doctor before I start making assumptions.
Thing is, there's no shopkeepers or customers though, and I soon notice everything on sale looks oddly prop-like, such as food meant more to be seen than ever eaten. Bright blue skies overhead too, which throws me for a loop until I notice that some darker cracks on the ceiling show that we are still in space. Wait no, on second thought the ceiling isn't painted to look like the sky, but … the sea, like we're underwater!

"Someone put a whole street in a ghost ship? Now this is a find!" Georgiy goes and says, "Makes a nice change from creaky boards."

"Yes, a Draconian arcade and a Human house side by side, rather inspired," The Doctor mutters, which kinda answers some questions I had about this architecture. She then lowers her voice, I guess to keep Georgiy from hearing anything of the future, "Not that the two species will never collaborate on spaceship design, but that doesn't happen till a fair while after the war. Oh my," she then turns around, "and speaking of Draconians, here's one now."

 

[ArlequineLunaire]

Spoiler: Professor Baskoro BGM

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=or-so1VgLPg

This is a Draconian? I mean, if any species could fit the image that comes to mind when I hear the word 'Draconian', I'd suppose this would be it. I'm met with an alien covered in jagged coppery scales, fins jutting out along the ears and head, and clad in flowing dark green robes. Less 'dragon'-like, he also sports a bushy, wavy moustache below glasses shaped to fit atop his scales, glasses that look like they'd pierce my human skin if I tried to wear them. To think this is the first alien I'm seeing, ah, alien-looking alien that is, that's not under the control of Those Above. If Oterne's the stuff of nightmares, this- this encounter is what people back home could only dream of! And of all people, I'm the one blessed to-

"I do beg your pardon, young lady! Do you have the indignity to gawk like that at everyone?!" the Draconian snaps at me, his tone leaving me feeling like I've gone and put my hand on a stove.

"I'm sorry, it's just I'm not used to, ah, seeing people like you," I say as I go all fidgety, with The Doctor then suddenly sighing at me.

"'People like you'? You do realise, Lavinia dear, how using terminology like that makes you sound, don't you?" The Doctor asks me, though does remark, "Ahem, abrupt as this gentlemen just was."

"I… said something wrong? Ah, sorry again, I didn't know such language was frowned upon in the future-" I start saying, only to stop myself on realising my second blunder, "I mean, frowned upon in this part of space?" I'm relieved I caught that.

"Do forgive the awkward introduction, good sir," The Doctor says, now addressing the Draconian, "Lavinia means well, I assure you, but she like many Earth maidens has far to go in the realm of social graces. Anyway, I take it we are in the presence of a draconian of learning, assuming one's moustache and spectacles aren't just for show," she smirks. Wait, didn't she say I was the one being impolite a second ago?

"Indeed, you have the company of Baskoro, the renowned draconian professor," he says, puffing his chest up. "Perhaps not a name the layman will know, but if you run in academic circles you'll no doubt feel a ping of familiarity. Now, who might you be, my good woman? Not an Earth maiden yourself, judging from your choice of words." He then puts his hands up and says, "Not that I'd begrudge you if you were. I'm not stuck on past wars, many of my academic peers are human."

"Hmm, so you say. Well then, I'm The Doctor," she says, extending a hand, "If you run in space and time circles, no doubt you'll feel more than a mere ping."

"Doctor 'Jane Smith', she tells me," Georgiy says. Already he's narrowed his gaze at Baskoro, one foot hovering back like he's already planning a getaway.

"Why Georgiy, you've just reminded me. I do possess another name throughout the Draconian Empire, maybe it'll strike more of a chord, my good Draconian? The Karshtakavarr, your people call me," The Doctor says.

"Karshtakavarr?" Baskoro stops to ponder that word, before he realises. "Ah, that does ring a bell. That was our name for a frequent prisoner of ours some time back, humans also imprisoned them a lot too. Huh, small universe, it would seem."

The Doctor's serene expression begins to break on hearing that, her then saying, "I think you'll find I contributed significantly more to Draconian society than that, Baskoro dear. Like stopping a war."

"Hey, it's his society. If he says you're a jailbird, you're a jailbird," Georgiy says, "Huh, 'Karshtakavarr'. You Draconians sure got some fancy jail names, I'll give you that. Us humans are still stuck on numbers and a letter or two. Er, so I'm told, anyway," he then tugs his collar.

"Ah yes, Karshtakavarr Jane Smith, do tell me who these two others are," Baskoro says. I feel relieved when his glare falls mainly on Georgiy, self-serving of me as I guess that sounds. But I do feel a chill when Baskoro then adds, "Because, pleasantries aside, all three of you are trespassing aboard my dear colleague's laboratory ship!"

"Nonsense, my good Baskoro, I'm The Doctor. It's not trespassing when I do it," The Doctor says, before she puts her hand on my shoulder and says, "And this maiden of Earth goes by Lavinia Mortlake." Part of me feels I would've at least liked the chance to introduce myself, but another part just worries I'd mess up that introduction without The Doctor. Whose voice I now hear growing colder. "So Baskoro, you know our Urataro Ikari then? Naturally he would've spoken to you by now, with all these speakers installed here."

"W-what? No, my esteemed colleague Professor Ikari hasn't contacted me in, well, ages now, and certainly not over any intercom," Baskoro says, "Hasn't said a word since, well, a certain event which is very much a private matter between Ikari and myself. Now tell me, how did you all know this was his ship? My colleague would never have the gauche to go around advertising her everywhere he went."

"Hah, they've got me to thank for that," Georgiy says, stepping up to confront Baskoro, as if things weren't already getting tense. "Georgiy Nikitich I am, ghost ship photographer for Space to Shore. It was my research that turned up that the Star Pearl here was the last known location of your 'esteemed colleague'."

"What?!" Baskoro says, starting to fume. "This is Professor Ikari's private vehicle, how dare your unacademic magazine think it's there's to so heedlessly plunder!"

"Georgiy…" I turn to look at the photographer, feeling I have to say something before this gets worse, "Please, don't antagonise him, we've got-" I recall the crashing and bashing from downstairs, "-problems enough as it is."

"Yeah, I know. Though sheesh, you sound like my mother," Georgiy says to me, before he glares at the draconian, "I was just getting sick of this guy acting like someone magically appointed him Head Honcho, I already got enough of that from your Doctor. 'Sides, worst comes to worst, I've got longer legs than this professor guy, perfect for hightailing it outta here."

"What insolence! If anything, the owner of this very ship appointed me 'Head Honcho' as it were, given I'm the only one here who's even met him and-" Baskoro says, but then takes a while to admit, "-and he is my son-in-law."

Marriage between human and alien is a thought that takes me aback at first, but when I think of it… maybe it really shouldn't? It does sound kind of like the sort of thing that would happen if humans and aliens were to know each other for long enough, to make even interracial marriage look of little issue, something it's, er, certainly not in my time. Still, it's something Baskoro was clearly struggling to admit their childwas part of, so human-alien marriage I guess still takes people in the future aback as it did a time traveller from the 60s like me.

"Ooh boy," Georgiy says, almost as if to confirm. "You're lucky I'm a photographer and not a reporter, 'cause one of our human professors marrying a draconian girl would be one hell of a scoop."

"Thank you, Mr. Nikitich, that will be quite enough of that," The Doctor says, stepping right in between Georgiy and Baskoro, with way more presence than I ever did. "And as if I've ever needed anyone's permission to appoint myself Head Honcho. Now, if it's all in our interests to track down one Urataro Ikari, then it would be most efficient to work together to do so, rather than waste time squabbling amongst ourselves."

"Hey, he started it," Georgiy had to say, The Doctor paying that comment no mind.

"Now Baskoro, you claim that your dear friend and son-in-law Urataro has not contacted you once upon you boarding his ship?" The Doctor asks, "Because he's been all too eager to contact me. Isn't that right, Urataro Ikari?!" she then raises her voice as she turns to look straight up at the ceiling.

"What are you even saying?" that voice on the intercom comes right back on, "I have received no sign that my colleague and father-in-law is anywhere aboard this ship."

"W-what? But Baskoro's right here!" I call out on instinct, before I look up at the ceiling then back at Baskoro to make sure I really am looking at 'Baskoro'. "Unless…" I mumble.

"Ikari, my good man, it's me! Professor Baskoro, your own father-in-law!" Baskoro says, but gets no reply from the voice, making him huff and go, "Honestly, what are you playing at? This is hardly time for fooling around!"

"Oh, I'd wager this voice of ours ain't fooling," Georgiy chuckles and grins, "Lavinia may be onto something, 'cause maybe, just maybe, you're not the real Professor Baskoro."

"Preposterous! My credentials-" Baskoro tries to say.

"-Could be forged, we got all sorts of perception tech these days," Georgiy says, with only The Doctor keeping him from glaring right at Baskoro. Though he does give The Doctor an idea.

"Alright then, Ikari, what about one Georgiy Nikitich, photographer for Space to Shore? Surely you would've noticed him by now?" she says up at the ceiling.

"I don't know the name, most likely he's a fake personage you've gone and crafted to try and deceive me," the voice, Urataro Ikari it would appear, crackles.

"F-Fake? Crafted? I'm right here!" Georgiy, any of his usual swagger gone, shouts upwards, but like with Baskoro the voice gives him no reply.

"Ohoho, now whose credentials are in doubt?" Baskoro says, staring down at Georgiy. So did the voice have something happen in their scanning of the ship, or… Baskoro and Georgiy really aren't who they say they are?

A pulsing tremor then runs along the floor, sending us all stumbling back before anyone has time to think that question through. The moment I can stand without shaking, I look to see, at the very end of this street-like corridor, a monster has appeared. A multi-headed, glimmering, almost mirage-like monster that I'm quick to judge has been the source of all this ship's tremors, and quick to hope the 'mirage-like' part is just a coincidence. A monster that's heading right for us…

 

[ArlequineLunaire]

Another Omake I wrote this time for a Bleach Quest, that being MauganRa's Transfix Creation (a follow-up to We Stand in Awe). It was quite a while since I was into Bleach, but I was told my only mischaracterization was the Quest's protagonist Makoto being a little too aggressive.

---

The mission you'd chosen to accept was... unique, to say the least, and high-paying too. You had hesitated beforehand though, as from the sound of it the challenge would be more in confirming your targets' existence, rather than any physical threat they could pose to you.

Namely, two living humans had somehow made their way into the Soul Society. Well, one living human anyway, going by the readings of her spiritual energy. From the sketches of her you'd been handed, this apparently full human did not look like much if anything, your prey was but some mousy pigtailed bookworm apparently. But who knew? Maybe there was more to her if she'd been able to wander around the Soul Society this long. Quincy maybe? No, for even if they were somehow still in existence, the energy readings on this girl would've long given that away.

Or perhaps she'd wandered around the Soul Society this long due to the second 'living human' she was with, who at least looked more imposing. A pale, ebon-haired figure who looked like the walking corpse of a noblewoman, dressed darkly yet extravagantly, going by those sketches anyway. Readings on her had been even more unusual, indicating she was somehow alive yet had died at the same time. A Bount was the only answer you could think of, but that still didn't feel quite right. Well, if either of these two could provide a real challenge, it'd be her.

It took your sweet time to finally track them down, including having to pester locals and passersby for any info they had, but you finally took sight of the two walking alongside a lake ringed by cherry blossom trees. That the two had managed to avoid any high-ranking Shinigami for this long raised two possibilities to you, that either they were that much of a threat, or that the Shinigami were so couped up with their own power struggles and politics that even two living humans in the Soul Society had slipped their notice. The thought of some mercenary like you dealing with them before any true Shinigami got to couldn't help bring a smile to your face.

Your impulse was to immediately draw your sword, but you then steadied yourself, as you thought it might still benefit you to at least eavesdrop on these two before charging in. Only for a minute or two though, with you deciding that your patience couldn't hold out any longer. What you then heard, however, only made you want into charge into battle even more.

"So, could this really be the afterlife, Doctor?" the bookworm-like girl asked, "I mean, since the TARDIS readings kept saying this place is Earth, but you say these people really aren't, well, 'alive'? But if it is, it's not really Heaven or Hell, not how I was ever taught about them, so... is this place Purgatory?"

"I may be convinced to meet this 'Soul Society' halfway on this afterlife business, Lavinia dear," the pale noblewoman that Lavinia had called 'Doctor' said, "All evidence points to this being an afterlife, but I wouldn't say for sure it's the afterlife. I've come across many other claimants to that title in my travels, like all those mutterings I've heard about a 'City of the Saved' at the end of the universe. Oh, and I do forget if I've told you this, but all of us Time Lords have our biodata re-loomed once our regenerations are gone, so afterlives just aren't our style. Usually."

The Lavinia girl had to breathe deep before she asked, "Then, we aren't dead, are we, after the TARDIS got pulled in here? No, everyone we've met here says we aren't, and you would've regenerated-"

City of the Saved? Biodata re-loomed? Time Lord regeneration? You'd never heard such inane blathering, in fact you started to wonder if this was all some elaborate prank. Patience tested enough, you then yelled out as you unsheathed your blade in a single motion, this 'Doctor' directly in your sights. The Lavinia girl was quick to scurry back, barely escaping being a sitting duck, but The Doctor, your real prey you'd figured, simply smirked at you and side-stepped your charge.

"About time you made your presence known, dear girl. Didn't anyone tell you know how rude it is to eavesdrop?" The Doctor then said directly to you. Not being in the mood to humour her, you turned around and swung again, only for her to keep on dodging any blow you tried to land.

"How can you know Hohou footwork?!" you eventually had to ask her. "It's impossible, all your talk made you sound you'd just stumbled into the Soul Society, so how could you ever learn a core Shinigami technique?"

"Really, simply moving fast is a 'Shinigami technique' now? Why, I never knew," this Doctor said, "As for how I know, it's no big secret, dear girl. I've simply had a lot of practice running about, that's all."

Again with the 'dear girl'. Your annoyance did motivate you to accelerate your flurry of strikes, but still The Doctor kept on dodging without launching a single strike back at you. "Stop dodging and fight!" you roared out, before you dropped your voice to hiss, "Coward."

"Oh, a coward, am I?" The Doctor said, hardly looking fazed. "The way I see it, giving into your demands to fight back would if anything be the weaker-willed thing to do. Now my dear, hold still would you?" She then made another step right towards to you, and with some glowing metal wand she was pointing at your sword's hilt, activated a whirring noise that made your sword's blade suddenly reverse itself, the sharp edge now pointing back at you. "A little reminder for you, violence has a nasty way of coming back to bite its own wielder."

"You don't think I've gotten that same little speech from a bunch of elders before you?" you hissed. Your instinct was to keep on lunging at this Doctor... but by now you had to wonder what'd even be the use? Either you'd be hitting her with the blunt end of the blade, if at all, or you'd be limiting your range by attacking her unarmed. "You do know if I had a real Zanpakuto, that little whirring wand of yours would've been done nothing to its blade."

"Whirring wand? I believe the term you're looking for is 'sonic screwdriver'," The Doctor said, "And clearly you needed me to give you that little speech again, as it didn't stick with you those previous times.
Alright, Lavinia, you can come out now," she then turned to call, "Our would-be assailant here has been neutralised."

"I will be anything but 'neutralised' once I get this sword the right way round again," you muttered, as you fidgeted with the hilt only to find it'd been turned around surprisingly tight. "And what even is a 'Time Lord' anyway?"

"Well, what even is a 'Shingami', when you put it like that?" The Doctor said, only then being more straightforward with, "It's what my species calls themselves. Can't blame you for not hearing of us, my people ever so pride themselves on avoiding death. We're able to regenerate when we die, then be loomed once again when we're out of regenerations. Mind you, all this is assuming of course your Soul Society's jurisdiction expands outwards from just the Earth."

"...You're seriously claiming to be an alien?" you asked.

"Your people seriously claim to be spirits. Fair's fair," The Doctor said.

"Not just spirits, Grim Reapers," the Lavinia girl said as she walked one step at a time back over to you, "Ah, if I've understood the term 'Shinigami' correctly. The Doctor says the TARDIS comes with translation circuits, but I feel it doesn't hurt to double check."

"Then you've understood wrong," you told her, then snarled, "Only the elites among the Soul Society get to be Shinigami. Though that'll be me, one day..."

"Yet from the tone of your voice, sounds like you have little fondness for these elites," The Doctor said. "Not that I don't get where you're coming from, I had little patience for my own society's elites. So little patience that I ran off instead, for I knew how fruitless it'd be to try saving a stagnant hierarchy like that from within."

"Ran off?" you picked up on, then glared at The Doctor. "I knew it, you are a coward. You got me wrong too; I don't want to save or redeem the Soul Society or anything like that. I want glory, I want to rise through its ranks till even its utmost authority kneels before my blade. And before you go accusing me, I know you will, that's no different to what anyone else in the Soul Society wants! What else is there to want?"

You anticipated The Doctor to snap back, but she instead said, "...I see, I did misjudge you. Tell me, dear girl, what would you have everyone call you should you succeed in slaughtering your way through your whole Society? 'Master', perhaps? In my travels, I've seen all too many who've gone down the same glory-seeking, self-destructive path as you, so I say with full authority that it brings them little but humiliation and misery."

At first you didn't respond to that, you weren't even sure how to. In the end you just remarked, "Some company you keep then, Doctor."

"Indeed, my dear. Oh, you've just reminded me," The Doctor said, her voice suddenly lightening, "You would've heard that this is Lavinia, not the first girl I've travelled with to call herself 'Lavinia' curiously enough, and that I'm The Doctor, but we still haven't had the pleasure of learning your name." By now you couldn't help but take the word 'pleasure' to be anything but sarcasm.

"Kobayashi Makoto," you said, as it wasn't like knowing that alone would give them much power over you. "And what are you talking about? Just 'The Doctor', how is that a name? I know full well you're hiding something."

"A mite ungrateful, are we? For most I meet, just 'The Doctor' works perfectly fine," she said. Your unamused expression plain to see, The Doctor then added, "Alright, if that won't satisfy you, call me 'Naotake Kaguya' then. Yes, that'll do." You're left rolling your eyes, wondering why you ever pressed the issue.

"So, ah, you mentioned something called a 'Zanpakuto' then?" Lavinia asked you, but she then switched and stepped back, "Assuming it's not classified knowledge or anything."

"No, it's common knowledge. Well, unless you're an alien, apparently," you said.

"Lavinia is very much from Earth, I assure you," The Doctor said, like she was pretending not to know who you meant by that.

"A Zanpakuto is the sword of a Shinigami, forged from their very soul," you said, getting back on track, before you smirked back at The Doctor, "Whereas nobody's ever heard of a Shinigami with a Soul Screwdriver."

"Pity, perhaps they would've raised a less warlike society had they gone down that route instead," The Doctor gazed down at you.

"We've had to fight Hollows, Quincy, even ourselves. Were we any less warlike, 'Doctor Kaguya', there would be no Soul Society!" you stood up and snarled right at The Doctor.

"A mindset like that can only fail to see peace when it presents itself," The Doctor said back, not flinching at your gaze.

"Hold on, there's something else I wanted to say!" Lavinia had to raise her voice, despite looking like the sort of girl who never would. She flinched as you turned to look at her, but found it within herself to say, "Listen, I'm a stranger to the Soul Society, but... this isn't the first time I've heard about Soul-Forging. There's this place, a sub-dimension just like I think the Soul Society is. It's called, it's called..." her face grew paler and paler the more she tried to bring it up.

"Castle Oterne. The powers who run the place use Soul-Forging to punish even the slightest dissidence, making you spend the rest of your next life as a brick, or a support beam, or a book, whatever they fancy," The Doctor had to fill in for her. "The TARDIS, my timeship, once got sucked into there too, much like now with your Soul Society. It's there Lavinia and I met, and we had the good fortune to escape."

"'Oterne'? Never heard of it, but not like the Soul Society then. We would never use anything as powerful as Soul-Forging so cavalierly," you said... crucially leaving out that was as far as you knew. "A Zanpakuto is an achievement, not a punishment. Anyway, if this Oterne is a threat to us, then the more powerful they are, the more glorious it shall be when it's crushed by Shinigami might!" Also, 'timeship'?

"Rather bold thing to say about a threat you only learned even existed a few seconds ago, Makoto dear," The Doctor said, her arms crossed at you.

"But isn't that what we were looking for, Doctor?" Lavinia then asked. "People who could take on Oterne, so someone like me would never- would never have to fear getting kidnapped by them again."

"It's not just whether this Soul Society could take on Oterne that I'm worried about, or even if they'd agree to do it," The Doctor said and sighed, "It's what they'd risk leaving in their wake."

"Whatever. Since you seriously needed proof that the Soul Society was in fact the afterlife, I should ask what proof you have that this 'Oterne' even exists? I've got nothing for it but your word, y'know," you said.

You expected The Doctor to get dismissive again, but your eyes widened when she actually smiled at you. "Good on you, Makoto dear. Asking questions, finally putting your brain to use instead of just your brawn.
But now, there does appear to be one vital question we've overlooked," she said, then leaned in at you. "What made you attack us? Looking to test your new blade on some unsuspecting passersby, hmm?"

"I'm a mercenary, I was paid to track you down," you told them, then pulled out their Wanted profiles. "You two were asking for attention, walking around here alive and... dead and alive at the same time, guess that's what that 'regeneration' thing read as."

"A mercenary, why does that not surprise me? But anyway, easily solved. Whatever your mission's asking price, I'll double it!" The Doctor said, but had to ask, "How do you feel about accepting psychic currency, my dear? Don't worry, to anyone not in the know, it'll read as yen... or whatever the Soul Society uses, not quite sure yet."

"'Spose I'll take it," you mumbled out, "It's not like my income's that stable to begin with."

Lavinia then smiled, her whole body starting to relax. It was then she asked you, if not without some hesitance, "Makoto, oh, is it alright if you call you that? Miss Kobayashi then, we really weren't planning to stay in the Soul Society long, just till The Doctor got the TARDIS fixed. But um, you said 'What else is there?' a while back, didn't you? There's-there's always something else out there, hundreds of 'something else's you could say. I used to think there was nothing but the Castle of Oterne, then The Doctor showed me there was a whole universe out there. So please, you don't have to act like your path's set in stone."

"...Makoto's fine, 'Miss Kobayashi' sounds all weird," was all you said in response to her.

"Couldn't have said it better myself, Lavinia," The Doctor had to rub it in.

Hearing only that from you, Lavinia then added, "Also, The Doctor said something about having a picnic while we're here, since this lake by the cherry blossoms looked like a good place for one. What I'm asking is, do you, ah, would you like to-"

"-Join you?" You finished for her, having sensed she asked that just to placate you, rather than it being any honest invite.

"Why yes, I was wondering when we'd get back to that, Lavinia dear. I brought along quite the collection of Draconian sake just for the occasion," The Doctor said, before she then whispered to you, "I've only just introduced Lavinia to the drink, pity she's such a lightweight. She collapses with one drop of anything stronger than Junmai."

"You brought booze? Guess I'm in then," you said, giving more of a smile than you ever thought you could around this Doctor.
"Just one more thing, 'Doctor Kaguya'," you had to add, as you leaned right into the Doctor's ear, "Should I see you again after achieving my Zanpakuto, there'll be no holding back, no psychic bribes, no blossom-viewing truce."

"...So be it, since you've so locked yourself into your fate," The Doctor said, then smirked, "Suppose I'll have to practice my footwork then."

 

[ArlequineLunaire]

Spoiler: Quantum Monster BGM

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=go_qj2g8mRw

"Nobody run," The Doctor says, drawing a breath as she does so, "Not for now at least." She doesn't need to tell me; I'm already paralysed just from looking at this- this- whatever this is.

"'Nobody run'? Have you gone mad?" Georgiy belts out, at which The Doctor puts her hand over his mouth before he can say another word.

"Now now, we can do without needless antagonism, Mr. Nikitich," The Doctor says, before she then steps forward and does something I'd never think to do. She extends a hand right out to this mirage-like monster and says, "Hello my dear, don't believe we've had the pleasure. I'm The Doctor, and I assure you I am no intruder, for it was by time and space themselves that I was summoned here. Now then, let's have a look at you, shall we?"

She scans the creature with the sonic screwdriver in a circular motion, all the while I'm resisting the urge to scream 'Doctor, look out!' and try pulling her out of the way. Yet it turns out maybe I am being too jumpy, for this creature, far as I can understand it, doesn't strike back against The Doctor. Instead, the creature says something… something I can't make out at all, it sounds like four wholly unlike voices all speaking different words at the time. The only thing I can really understand is that "Those voices sound like they're… all in pain," I say.

"And at least one of those voices, no, it can't be," Baskoro then mutters, which leads to him gasping, "Shesha! Is that you? Are you in there?"

"Looks like quite a few are 'in here'," The Doctor says, before she stares upwards and goes "Almost like someone has been messing around with quantum superposition, I take it?"

"You will stay away from her!" Ikari's voice crackles again from above, "Unless you obey my instructions, I will not have anyone interfere with my wife's condition!"

"Your wife, Ikari? Then, that is my Shesha," Baskoro says, his face growing the Draconian version of pale.

"And if I am to obey whatever your 'instructions' are, you've done a miserable job of ever convincing me to do so," The Doctor says back at the voice.

That's all any of us can say, as it's then the mirage-like monster, the 'quantum Shesha', lashes right out at The Doctor with, ah, what appears as a claw slash and a human punch at the same time. The Doctor cries out as she collapses, clutching a wound that's glowing and glimmering just like Shesha. "Doctor!" I call out as I try to pick her up, but I only get swatted by Shesha's simultaneously scaly and fleshy backhand. My whole head throbs with burning pain as I'm sent crashing into a wall for my hastiness, like that quantum backhand wasn't enough for me.

"All of you, run!" The Doctor says as she struggles to get back on her feet.

"Oh, so now you say that? Huh, so much for negotiations," Georgiy just has to say as he takes off. Shesha, all her voices still roaring from some unknown pain, instantly chases after him.

As The Doctor now has to come to my side and keep me from fainting, she looks back at Baskoro and says, "What are you waiting for? If this is your daughter, you won't simply let Georgiy end up her prey, would you?"

For a moment Baskoro opens his mouth to say something, but then he just nods, his head then turning to face his 'daughter'. Yet he's blocked before he can run after Shesha by… Shesha. Or another one of her 'quantum' selves, I vaguely remember being in multiple places at once being part of quantum physics, split off and ready to pounce on her own father. "Shesha! Don't you recognise me?" he pleads.

"I doubt anyone in superposition like her recognises any one reality," The Doctor tells him, while she repairs my shattered glasses almost instantaneously with her sonic screwdriver.

"My good woman, I have taught Chronophysics at the finest institutions in our galaxy," Baskoro says back, all while barely dodging any of his own daughter's attacks on him, "What do you take me for?"

"The heat of the moment has a habit of making the most learned minds go blank, that's what I take you for," The Doctor says to him. I mean, he'd still know more than me, I want to say I've read tomes on quantum physics cover to cover and everything from Planck to Schrödinger to Everett, but… I think the most I seriously got into quantum physics was with A Wrinkle in Time.
I'm still barely able to stand after, well, being smashed into a wall. The Doctor then has to pull me along while telling Baskoro, "Focus on Georgiy first, you owe it to him, then we'll try to see what's the matter with your daughter. If we even can anymore."

But us going one way and Baskoro going another just has Shesha splitting off yet another self to go after us. Wait, this next copy of her is distinctly not a Draconian, I can see she's- "She's human?" Was she human in another universe? Then again, with how I'm told quantum physics works, everyone's everything in at least one universe, aren't they? I know, I shouldn't be speculating right now, just running, but every time I try to run on my own, my wounded head gets so dizzy that The Doctor has to catch me. I don't want to think this, but I'm being a burden, aren't I? I really should've just stayed in the TARDIS…

"Lavinia, the ofuda- the amulet! Hold it up!" The Doctor then tells me, slipping me one of those paper tags she brought along.

"But I," I begin only to blurt out, "I thought they were just placebos!"

A statement as careless as that from me makes The Doctor groan. "Well, if you see them as 'just placebos', they won't do us any good, now will they? Listen Lavinia, there must still be some repressed psychic power left in you after everything with Oterne, so I need you to focus all your faith into that ofuda right now. Here, I'll go first," she says as she then holds up another ofuda herself.

I do try to have faith, I just… don't know what to have faith in. I guess I must have faith in The Doctor, since she's the only person I can put my faith in, by default. No, there's something else, my home, my real home. I have to have faith we'll get off this spaceship, have the TARDIS take me back in one piece to where I used to live, before Oterne.

And it, it works? That self of Shesha is still lunging right at us, but slower now, like there's a gust of wind or a little gravity well barely holding her back. "See, Lavinia dear, what did I tell you?" The Doctor grins down at me, some lightness in her tone a relief for me to hear again.

We've bought enough time for The Doctor to reach an open door, seconds before the human Shesha can grab onto me. Even in a chase like this though, The Doctor knows better than to just run through it, instead first scattering some of the stones we picked up to reveal, surely enough, that this entrance is criss-crossed by hidden lasers.

"Alright, now!" The Doctor says as she then uses her strength to swing me around, and through me swing the human Shesha tackling me around, until our pursuer is tossed right into the lasers.

Two of Shesha's voices shrieking in agony, she splits herself in two again, with what must be her fourth self by now appearing on the other side of the lasers. "Sorry about that, Shesha dear, but I'm afraid I was left with few other options, given what your husband appears to have done to you. Now that you can't be in any more places at once and don't have all those entangled thoughts in your brains right now, perhaps we can finally talk?"

"Tell them nothing!" Ikari's voice immediately projects itself, before he from wherever he is disables the lasers, letting the two Sheshas before us join back up together. I wince and brace for another attack, but this time they simply scurry away, to no end of my relief. Suppose I would too, were I struck by all those lasers.

"Typical, that our Urataro Ikari would have to be like that," The Doctor scowls. She then looks at me and that scowl shifts to a smile, "You did wonderful back there, Lavinia. Well, if I must criticise, your psychic powers are still a little rusty, but we're all inexperienced once. Especially as this place isn't as conducive to them as a certain castle was."

"I'm… psychic now?" I ask, which just leaves me clutching my head. Well, for that and for the throbbing bruise I've been left with, my eyes widening as I only now notice that it's glowing with the same light as that wound Shesha gave The Doctor.

"All humans are psychic, my dear. Even if they do need an outside power to give them a boost, but ahem, we may have to return to this topic another time. We have more pressing matters afoot," she says, also inspecting that glowing bruise Shesha gave me. Her voice lowered, she mutters, "Is this… regeneration energy? No, absolutely not, I of all people can spot the real thing from fakery. But it sure resembles some quack quantum physicist's attempt at it, A for Effort to be charitable, which our Shesha's gone and infected us with."

"Regeneration?" I gasp. After taking a few deep breaths, I then ask, "you said that was something Time Lords could do, so is that why Ikari's so focused on you?"

But before The Doctor has any time to answer, there comes the sound of several footsteps racing right towards us.

 

[ArlequineLunaire]

A third Omake, this one I wrote for Shadell's original story A Little Vice, since revised from my original version for entry into my own SV Underdogs Summerfest Freeform Jam. Though it's funny that a Crossover Sidestory will be where no less than the Daleks first make their entrance here.

---

Crossover Special! Wrath of the Daleks​

The Angelic Saints, Castitas, Diligentia, and now Temperentia, were three young maidens chosen by the angels to be the champions of Virtue against the forces of Sin!

Already the Saints were dashing deep into the thorny labyrinth that was stronghold of Sin, the Abyssal Forest, till at last they set eyes upon the twisted and gargantuan castle of Superbia at its core. Their mission couldn't be more urgent, for the Archangel Michael's premonitions and their foe Avaritia's boasting had alerted them to the anointing of the Beast of Wrath being imminent.

"Does seem counter-productive," the dark skinned blonde Diligentia had to remark, "Outright telling us they've found the perfect Candidate with enough time to stop them."

"Heh, that's Avaritia for you," the bluenette Temperentia said, referencing the shadowy wolf who was the Beast of Greed.

"Yeah, I can tell," the redhead Castitas chimed in, "Ey're the sort who lives for that kind of moustache-twirling showboating. Er, metaphorical moustache-twirling in this case, don't know how ey'd look with facial hair."
Castitas of course couldn't resist engaging in her own form of showboating as her petite physique kicked the iron gates flying open. Fiery bow already at hand, she proclaimed "FINIS, MALEFACTOR!" (a term she totally didn't use Google Translate to look up)... only to then see that said malefactors were already finishing off each other.

"Sheesh, I thought you were just gonna be the screaming, brutish type," Avaritia said in-between having to dodge beam blasts that the very Candidate for the Sin of Wrath ey'd brought in was firing at em, "But no, you just had to pull this big brain subterfuge bullsh-" a near hit cut em off.
While eir lupine leaps were swift enough to keep em from getting blasted, the entourage of minions she had with her, 'Resinners' they were called, weren't so lucky. One by one they were disintegrated by this Candidate's beams. Soon enough, Avarita was left to fend for herself.

Spoiler: Dalek BGM

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Xe88zNPgjg

"YOU-HAVE-OUTLIVED-YOUR-PURPOSE!" the Ira Candidate's inhuman voice blared at Avaritia. "NOW-THAT-WE-HAVE-INFILTRATED-YOUR-BASE, YOU-WILL-HAND-THE-REMAINING-SEEDS-OVER-TO-US-TO-POWER-OUR-WEAPONS-OR-BE-EXTERMINATED!"

The Angelic Saints only now getting a good look at the Ira Candidate, Castitas' first thought was that 'Candidate' was no longer the word. He(?) no longer looked like a human or even humanoid, but instead like...
"A saltshaker, whisk, and plunger?" Diligentia said, scratching her head.

"More like a trashcan," Temperentia said, her stoic face allowing itself the slightest smirk, "Fitting for Avaritia to bring in."

"W-Whatever it is, it's too late. They've already taken his humanity and made him the Beast of Wrath!" Castitas gasped. For a moment it looked like all the warmth and brightness had been sucked out of her face, but no, a Saint like her would not sink to defeatism so easily. She then shook her head, clenched her fists, and said, "No, it's never too late! If us Saints can purify a Resinner, then there's nothing stopping us from purifying a Beast!" The thought of a certain someone she once called friend, and still would if possible, flashed in her mind with those words. "It'll just take, ah, a little more firepower, that's all!"

While the Saints took heed of what was going down, Avaritia had already sped eir way behind this 'Beast of Wrath', then pounced to wrench his metal plating off with eir claws. "More like 'AND-BE-EXTERMINATED'. I'm not Superbia, I can already tell what you'd pull if we for whatever reason did give you the Seeds, Dalek," she said, only for this Ira to dodge her attack as he levitated straight upwards. "And what's this 'we' and 'us', you never said you were plural? You're the only one here!"

"INCORRECT! THE-DALEK-RACE-IS-INNUMERABLE!" Ira, or 'Dalek', bleated back down at em, then levitated further out of her reach, pointed what could only be called his 'eyestalk' upwards, and announced, "CO-ORDINATES-OF-CASTLE-IDENTIFIED! ACTIVATING-MASS-TELEPORT!"

The crimson skies above the Abyss were then filled by a swarm of shimmering lights, with metal monsters identical to the Beast of Wrath materialising. "Wait, uh, it can call on clones of itself?" Castitas had to wonder, "Not sure what that has to do with Wrath? Incitement thing, Zerg Rush deal?"

"Won't be doing that for long," Temperentia said, as she took the moment to shoot a sniper-like water jet right at Ira's eyestalk.
The sudden shot sent that stalk of his swiveling, which forced him to halt his summoning ability less than halfway through.

"TELEPORTATION-HALTED!" Ira announced, before he observed, "YOU-HAVE-REINFORCEMENTS. THAT-MEANS-NOTHING, A-DIMINISHED-ARMY-OF-DALEKS-IS-STILL-MORE-THAN-ENOUGH-TO-EXTERMINATE-YOU-ALL!"

"Guess again, Beast of Wrath!" Castitas called forth, her cover already having been blown anyway. The three Saints striking poses, Castitas lead with, "Cleansing with the flames of purity-"

"Can it, goody-goods," Avaritia cut the three off. "When our would-be infiltrator here said 'reinforcements', he didn't mean you."

The instant all the summoned 'Daleks' had materialised, they were ambushed from behind by a flock of flying Resinners, this flock taking the shape of balloons, plane engines, helicopter blades, even a flying car. All random objects throughout the city that had been infused with Sin, just like the Saints had fought time and time again. Leading this flock was none other than the one Beast whose Castitas' heart sank at the sight of.

"Yep, did you seriously think we'd have no defence against an airborne attack?" Avaritia laughed, not just at the first Dalek but also with one eye on the Saints. "Just because Old Man Superbia was so out of touch he fell for your 'creator' pulling a Nigerian Prince on him, Dalek, doesn't mean you can do a thing to rest of us!"

Not that the aerial ambush was going as smoothly as Avaritia made it sound. With the remaining 'Daleks' now having the chance to react, the sky became a lightshow as they fired beam blast after beam blast. Both Resinner and Dalek then crashed to the ground in fiery wrecks.

"Please, hang in there," Castitas found herself muttering as she stared up at the Beast of Envy still fighting, even in spite of what that Beast had just put her through. The Beast Invidia wielded a copy of her own bow to fire identical laser blasts right back at the Daleks. Seeing the fight Envy put up, Castitas in turn said, "Alright Saints, let's show the Abyss that even a Beast can be purified! Focus on the summoner, all as one!"

"YOU-ARE-DELUDED!" Ira the Beast of Wrath, or a Dalek as he called himself, bleated out, this time definitely addressing the Saints, "THE-DALEK-RACE-ARE-THE-ONLY-PURE-RACE!"

He then shot not only a single blast, but rapid-fire blasts down at the Saints, but these were all met with another eagled-eyed water snipe by Temperentia, an entire statue picked up and thrown by Diligentia, and a firestorm of arrows from Castitas.

The inevitable outcome was an explosion that left this Dalek Ira spinning and shrieking, at which Castitas pulled out one last arrow and said, "Michael by my right hand, let's draw out the Heart Amber!" What followed was not an arrow of fire, but one of pure, shining love stronger than all her target's hate. This eternal love struck the Dalek Ira...
...And made it drop down full force onto the courtyard. Its metal shell was blown open, revealing what the girls could only call a 'cyclopean squid' inside. Or rather the corpse of one.

"What? No!" Castitas gasped and ran forth, as what she may have done dawned on her. "This, this has to be a Heart Amber, just extra-corrupted from the seed, right? C'mon now, purify! Purify!" But minutes later and no purification, just that corpse still lying there, denial was no longer possible.

"Castitas, it's... hard to believe. Seeing a Saint not just purify someone, but kill them outright," Avaritia said, in an oddly tender tone of voice coming from their enemy. "It's hard to admit, but that kinda scares me, y'know? Oh, not that I have any sympathy for this 'Dalek' thing here. Sneaky as he thought he was, it's clear he was nothing but a supremacist, mindless killer, the exact same thing people call me. But I suppose a monstrous life is still a life to you, huh Castitas?"

"Regardless, that's your Beast of Wrath all gone," Diligentia said, trying to hide any devastation behind a rock-hard facade.

"Pfft, no it's not," Avaritia laughed back at her, eir arms folded, "Big-brain super-strategist trashcan here attacked the instant we reached the castle, before we could bestow the seed of Ira upon him. He and his pals thought they were oh so much the superior beinga that they could make us hand over all our Seeds at once."

"That does track," Temperentia said, also keeping her feelings about what Castitas just did to herself.

"This 'Dalek' said he wanted the Seeds to power his race's technology, not to plant it in himself. Would directly absorbing the Seed be an 'impurity' to him?" Diligentia asked.

"Guess so. Us forces of Sin couldn't care what is or isn't 'impure', that's something you Virtue types tend to yammer on about," Avaritia had to remark as ey side eyed Temperentia. "Something I suppose you're having to put up with now, huh?" ey remarked, with Temperentia choosing not to respond. "Okay okay, comparing even Saints and Angels to that genocidal traschcan is a low blow from me, I confess."

Castitas, slumped over with tears streaming down her face, only then look up to see the airborne Invidia glare down at her. Like that glare said it all, the new Beast of Envy flew away without a word, leaving Castitas to her desolation...

---

The next morning, Castitas or rather her civilian identity of Inessa was... fine, just fine. She got dressed, ate breakfast, greeted her parents good morning before she left for school, all with the brightest smile on her face. Well, the brightest smile she could possibly manage, in her current state.

Spoiler: Everyday School BGM

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCbYkNmvi0w

While on her usual route to school, she had the chance to bump into someone brand new to her. A woman not that much older than her if far meeker in looks, given her glasses and brownish-black hair kept together by braids. The two not diverging in their paths, Inessa tried to keep up her cheer by saying, "Hi there! I'm Inessa Brandt, nice to meetcha! Ah, you'd be a new transfer student, did I get that right?"

"Huh?" the woman said like she'd been ambushed. But as Inessa of course posed little threat, she then composed herself and said, "Actually no, I've graduated. My name's Lavinia Mortlake, I've been Assistant Librarian for about a week now. Wait, I do think I've seen you around school, you're the one dashing between classes, aren't you? Ah, no offence, I didn't mean to sound accusatory," she gulped, her glasses almost slipping.

"Hey, none taken. And yep, that'd be me," Inessa said with a smile, "And I've really been meaning to study more at the library, but y'know, life gets in the way," which was the technical truth for her. Then she paused as it occurred to her, "Huh, your accent- Ooh, you're British, aren't you? I mean, 'Lavinia Mortlake' sounds all British-y too."

"Ah yes, yes I am, and I guess it does," Lavinia nodded, "I'm from Alderley Edge, that's near Manchester, and I'm here across the pond due to- well, it's complicated. Shortest I can put it is I have this friend who's here on... business, and she invited me to come along. She was a bit concerned when I applied for library work, since I've had, er, previous bad experience in the job. But I said it was fine, it's what I'm used to."

"Wow! Friends are the greatest, aren't they?" Inessa grinned and twirled around, even as inside her heart felt numbed. But she continued not to show that as she said, "Oh hey, I can see some of mine now. Hey, Ida! Temperance!" She then spun back around and asked, "You wanna come meet them, Lavinia? Though I guess you've got library stuff to attend to, huh?"

"I'm afraid I do. Plus, I'm... really not the best in group conservations, that's more my friend's field of expertise. But thanks for the offer, Miss Brandt, it was nice to meet you too," Lavinia said, managed a smile herself, and waved goodbye.

Inessa waved goodbye even harder, before Ida and Temperance, aka Diligentia and Temperentia, both approached their leader. Ida then asked her, "Everything alright after, well, how last night went down?"

For a few seconds Inessa was able to maintain her smile. But finally, she broke down and forced herself to say, "No, no I'm not. Look, I get it, that 'Dalek' was clearly not a good guy, whatever it was, talking about 'extermination' and the 'superior race'. But even if we're talking total evil, it- it doesn't matter. I killed someone! I'm an Angelic Saint and I killed a living, thinking being! With my friend gone too, I... I don't know if I can even call myself a magical girl anymore."

"Inessa, you didn't know," Ida told her, placing her hands on Inessa's shoulders, "You didn't mean to kill, you truly thought you were purifying them."

"And even if you do have murder's stain, along with Invidia's corruption, upon your soul," it was the Archangel Michael who now spoke, her truncated form popping up out of Inessa's schoolbag, "The Angelic Saints still need you. Could you truly just leave Diligentia and Temperentia to fight back the Abyss on their own? Not just anyone can become Castitas."

"Hmm, maybe we just need to take your mind off all that, give you something to focus on. Ah, we've got just the thing," Temperance said, as she then pointed over to a gaggle of staff members talking, a mysterious woman among them.

"That right there's our new Guidance Counselor," Ida said, "Yeah, we've got one already, she came in just last week. Says her name's 'Kaguya Naotake', a pseudonym more obvious than 'Mr. Noir' since it sounds straight out of Sailor Moon, and she up and appeared out of nowhere."

"Straight out of one of Sailor Moon's inspirations, actually," Inessa couldn't help but correct, "Like, you can tell from the S movie- ah sorry, go on."

"Anyway, we're thinking we should snoop around her office the moment she's out," Temperentia said.

"Make sure there's no Abyssal business going on," Ida added.

"Huh, 'last week'? That was when Lavinia, uh the girl I was talking to, said she became Assistant Librarian," Inessa mumbled, but shook her head and said, "nah, I'm sounding all paranoid, probably just coincidence." She eyed this 'Kaguya Naotake' closer, seeing she was clad in extravagant yet gothic finery, her flowing black hair and lipstick contrasting her ghostly skin which looked like the sun had never touched it, and her piercing scarlet eyes. But perhaps what you'd expect from someone called 'Kaguya Naotake'.
"Wow, she kinda does look like an older Lupin- er, Avaritia, now I think about it. Less punkish and more ladylike though," Inessa said. "Stealth mission, eh? Sounds good, means we try and avoid combat, avoid... you know what. Should we sneak in this afternoon, that alright with you?"

Ida and Temperance both nodded. Before they all went into class however, Temperance turned to Inessa and suddenly said, "Look, you know me. I was... one of them, so it shouldn't be a surprise that I have killed people." Despite already knowing that about 'Gula', Inessa still had to stumble back hearing those words.

Ida however was quick to fill in for her friend, "Listen, you know Temperance killing people has done. It's just made her more determined not to kill any more. Like the heroes in those anime we watch, that's how they soldier on when they've got on their conscience, don't they?"

Inessa stood still as those words sunk in, but slowly smiled and said, "Yeah. Just like them. Ida, Temperance... thanks."

---

Much later that day, the untransformed Angelic Saints finally had the chance to sneak into the new Guidance Counselor's Office. Turned out Ms. Naotake had been doing some serious redecorating after her predecessor Mr. Noir's untimely exit. The giant box at one end of the room covered by a heavy sheet was the first thing to stand out, but that was far from it.

"The Possibilities of Chronophysics, The Peoples Beneath the Earth, Intergalactic Diplomacy, Guide to Pocket Dimensions, er, not the sort of books I'd expect a Guidance Counselor to have," Ida said on scanning the bookshelf.

"At least none of them sound too Abyssal-y," Temperance said, but shrugged and added, "Well, 'Peoples Beneath the Earth' does a little. 'Pocket Dimensions', definitely."

Inessa then pulled down the giant sheet in a single swipe, to see it hid... "Huh? Says this thing's a 'Police Box'," she said, with no idea what to think of this big blue rectangle. "Wait, could the Abyss be in league with the cops? Hmm, that does make sense actually."

The doors on the box however were shut tight, as were most of the office's drawers and cupboards. Then they all heard footsteps approaching, with Inessa then scrambling to cover up the blue box again, and all three girls then ducking behind the desk. As Inessa snuck a peek, her stomach dropped on seeing both Kaguya and Lavinia entering at once, like they really were working together.

"Well, no more sign of any Daleks since yesterday, Doctor," Lavinia said, her words confirming Inessa's paranoia about the two. "Not that we can just go and check, since it looks like we need a portal to even get into that Forest."

"Though from all the scrap metal we've found, I'd say someone's done a remarkable job fighting us for them," 'Kaguya Naotake' said, or 'Doctor' as Lavinia called her. "Why, at this rate the universe will hardly have any need for a daft old bat like me.
Still, Lavinia, do not get your guard down," her voice dropped, "I've been fighting these things through all my regenerations. Much as I'd love to go sauntering off again, I can't take that risk till I know for certain the Daleks have been vanquished here. Nothing from that Forest of Sin can fall into their plungers."

Inessa twitched. While it was a relief that Lavinia and 'Kaguya' didn't sound like they served the Abyss, there was definitely something supernatural about them. "Angels, maybe?" she whispered down at Michael in her bag, only for her to shake her head.

"So sorry to involve you in yet another pocket dimension, Lavinia dear," Doctor Kaguya said, "At least the place didn't look to be Oterne-related, well not till that castle showed up anyway. Again, it's a lovely old castle, just a godforsaken shame about the occupants. And its new Dalek neighbours."

"Don't worry Doctor, if it really was Oterne," Lavinia said but had to pause, then just managed to say, "If it was, I'd know."

"True, but there's always the annoyance of getting stranded in one of them again, that's what bothersome about pocket dimensions. Anyway," The Doctor said, a wide grin suddenly covering her face, "This upstanding institution may forbid alcohol on its grounds, but my TARDIS my rules. Just popped over a few centuries to nab us the most exquisite collection of Draconian sake. Come, come!"

"Wait, 'popped over'? Doctor, didn't you say you were staying here till we'd dealt with the Daleks?" Lavinia had to ask.

"A few short trips won't hurt, timeship and whatnot. Besides, it's not like I ever drank and drove, Lavinia dear, just what do you take me for?" The Doctor said.

"They're... time travellers?" Inessa gasped, straining to keep quiet. Given her profession and interests, someone like Sailor Pluto was who she initially thought of. No, not quite, this Kaguya Naotake already came off way too cavalier for Setsuna's standards. Though Lavinia did have a little bit of Mercury in her, she figured. With both Doctor Kaguya and Lavinia heading into that cramped box, Inessa said on impulse, "Alright, let's corner them!"

Inessa, Ida, and Temperance sprang out and dashed towards the door in the box... only to come to a halt when they saw it was far, far bigger inside than out. "Get a hold of yourself, it's just another portal," Temperance said in Inessa's ear as the girl remained gobsmacked, even if she'd seen things way weirder than this. Still, any continued attempt at secrecy went nowhere.

"You know, you three have a lot to learn when it comes to stealth, Misses Brandt, Montgomery, and Atwater," Doctor Kaguya said without needing to turn around, making the girls, Ida even, sweatdrop. When she did, she knelt to meet the three at eye level and told them, "Really, if you were so anxious to meet me, all you had to do was book an appointment. Oh my, but that wouldn't be exciting now, would it?"

"This confirms it," Michael then spoke out of nowhere, as her crystal eyes scoured the TARDIS' dark, shrine-like interior, "We have a Time Lady before us. But how? Your people abhor interference."

"'My' people? Honestly, do you greet everyone like that?" The Doctor said as she took out some sort of metal wand and scanned Michael with it. "Hmm, an Angel I take it? Afraid you may have a bit of a branding problem; I've met quite a few sorts across the universe calling themselves 'angels'."

Inessa snatched Michael back up and went, "What did you just do to her?!"

"Oh, The Doctor scans everyone like that. Don't worry, it's harmless," Lavinia said, but then said less casually to Inessa, "Listen, I know you're worried about what's going on, but please, you have to stay out of this. What we're doing, it's not safe."

"I am afraid, Lavinia, that Miss Brandt and her friends have not stayed out of this at all. Really, they appear to have been on the scene longer than we have, if they're walking around with no less than an Archangel," The Doctor said.

"Huh, the librarian's calling you 'The Doctor' like Kaguya Naotake's not your real name," Temperance picked up on.

"Because it isn't," The Doctor said, then had to chuckle, "Honestly, can you imagine me being the Moon princess of old, was anyone ever fooled? My real name is strictly my own business, but for you three aspiring Nancy Drews, 'The Doctor' will suffice."

"Wait, so you're a magical girl? 'Cause you gotta be!" Inessa then said, her eyes widening, "I know you can't be an Angelic Saint, but with what Michael called you, you have to be something, if you really can travel in time."

"Travel in time and space, my dear. Not that the distinction need be made, I trust your Science classes have delved into relativity," The Doctor said, but then furrowed her brows. "Magical 'Girl' though, really? Do I look like anything less than a Woman to you? I can accept 'magical' if I must, for what does and doesn't count as magic is all a matter of perspective, is it not?"

"And those 'Daleks'? Sounds like you really know them," Temperance said.

"...All too well," The Doctor muttered.

"What about this girl you're with, 'Lavinia' right?" Ida asked as she eyed the Doctor's companion, "There has to be something special about her, if you've chosen her to bring along through time and space, so you say."

Lavinia shrank at this attention, but The Doctor then stood in and said, "No, there's absolutely nothing special about Miss Lavinia Mortlake at all. Nor does there need to be. It's not 'special' that matters to me, it's people. I invited Lavinia along with me just because she's her, simple as that." Lavinia herself didn't reply but couldn't help but blush.

"Just because she's her..." Inessa muttered. "Ah, sorry, it's just there's someone I know who I- I really should've said that to. I mean, I did say that to them, but I really should've said that to them more, y'know?"

"I can tell you there's a fair few people across the universe who really do need to hear those words more," The Doctor said, then grinned and clasped her hands, "Right, you've learned quite your fair share about me, only fair that in exchange I learn some things from you. Tell me, how much do you know about this 'Abyssal Forest'?"

Spoiler: DW Credits BGM

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6s-bH_G-TlA

 

[ArlequineLunaire]

Another crossover omake, this one originally written for SillyLittleCoffe's Something Wicked (Villainous Magical Boy Quest).

---

The Estil Invasion of Earth​

"Coast is clear, Lavinia," a woman called in a singsong tone to her companion after stepping out of what looked like an old police box, "If the TARDIS scanner didn't convince you of that, a walk outside ought to." This woman herself however looked nothing like any police new or old, instead her dark coat and dress more resembled a cross between a Heian noble and an undertaker, complimented by her pale, ashy skin and long, raven black hair.

Her companion Lavinia, a much meeker girl with glasses and braids, more gradually stepped outside of the box called the TARDIS and onto the vast spaceship the two had found themselves in. "I guess I can only think of the last time we stepped onto a spaceship we thought was deserted, it... well you remember how it went, Doctor," she muttered.

"Well then, that should make us all the more prepared for whatever may lurk on this ship, a chance to learn from our mistakes," said the raven-haired woman only identified as Doctor. "Besides," she added as she took out a metal wand and aimed it at some sort of security camera, "I never said we had this whole place to ourselves, now did I? Just that there was nobody in the immediate area. Oh, and as for 'ship', could be a moonbase for all we know, given its proximity to your home."

Lavinia only looked so reassured by the Doctor's words, but then her face lit up as she took in the design of this place, particularly the large window from which, as The Doctor had said, she could see Earth from above. "You said we landed in the 2020s, right Doctor? Then could this be... how far human technology has come? I'd guess I'd be in my eighties by now down there, if well, everything between me and you hadn't happened," Lavinia mused.

Those words made The Doctor smile, but then sigh. "Afraid to burst your bubble, Lavinia dear, but human spaceflight hasn't advanced that far yet. They'll need another thousand or so years in the future for that, ah, I should jot down a reminder for our next trip," she said.
Lavinia nodded and smiled as within her heart sank.
The Doctor however went on, "No, what we have here is an alien craft, or no, perhaps an Earthling ship after all. Of 'heretical' Estil make, I presume."

"Wait, heretical? Earthling?" Lavinia's brows raised as she asked. "Doctor, you're not suggesting we're aboard a demon spaceship? I... honestly wouldn't put one past the universe at this point."

"Believe me, Lavinia, were we on a Daemon ship you wouldn't need me to tell you. No, there's nothing demonic about the Estil, for as many criticisms I may have of their civilisation," The Doctor said. "'Heretic' is a little Gallifreyan joke of mine. Growing up on my planet, you have it drilled into your head from the moment you're loomed that our people drove all magic out of their universe at the dawn of time. The Estil, who proclaim themselves magic users, fiercely disagree."

"So they don't use magic, do they?" Lavinia asked. Getting lost in thought for a second, she then said, "I guess magic has always sounded wonderful to me, but when you take it out of storybooks and into real life, it sounds like it could get pretty scary. I've seen that time travel, psychic powers, and other worlds all exist, but can be really scary when they're not just a tale you're being told."

"Cautious as ever, Lavinia, not that I can blame you for that. But as for if the Estil do in fact have magic, I was about to say 'I believe it when I have the proof', but I feel that rather goes against the spirit of magic, wouldn't you agree?" The Doctor said, lifting her companion's chin. "Now, as for me saying Earthling-"

"Halt, who goes there?!" barked a piercing voice with a surprisingly pint-sized owner, a young redhead alien. "You face Rins Es Talis, weapon specialist of the Estil armada! I don't know how you got here, but you've trespassed right into the heart of the Estil fleet! expect no mercy- no wait, did Zaiyu bring you here without telling us? Sure sounds like him."

"Well, first off," The Doctor glared at Rins alien and walked forward, "Not only do you so rudely interrupt me, but you further insult me by brandishing a gun while doing so." Heavy as the gun that Rins carried may have looked, The Doctor was able to swiftly pull it away, but only for the Estil to immediately pull out another gun.

"Yeah, Zaiyu's definitely up to something with you. Mitl wouldn't bring anyone that wasn't a corpse or freaky plant on board, and now way would the Captain let people just wander off," Rins said, nodding all the while. "He told us he met these girls on Earth, and one of them with long black hair and another who'd mutilated her hair into braids. Hah, 'Tomoe' and 'Suzune' he called you, I remember! See, already I've found you two out."

Lavinia was about to say otherwise, but The Doctor pre-emptively whispered to her, "Now, we can't turn down a good alias when it presents itself." She turned back to Rins and said, "Why, you're a sharp young Estil aren't you? Shame about all your firearms. Indeed, Tomoe and Suzune, that's us."

"B-but I'm not even Japanese," Lavinia now whispered in The Doctor's ear, "And what does he mean, 'mutilated my hair'?"

"And I'm not even Earthling. Point is, these Estil don't know that" The Doctor whispered back, but then said at her normal volume, "As for mutilation, Suzune dear, Estil biology is unique in that they have sensory organs in their hair, though certain castes undertake the endurance rites of cutting or braiding theirs. Our Rins must think of you as getting above your station. All of which Mr. Zaiyu so graciously told us," she smirked, like the pieces were coming into place.

Rins then had to glare as their eyes scanned The Doctor. "Looks like that's not all he shared with you, 'cause that's looks like a sonic screwdriver! That's space-tech, well, very basic space-tech, every alien society has them, nothing on my sonic-proof weapons. But yeah, nothing humans should've developed by now," they said, then added after thinking a little more, "Wait, he said you were heir to the 'Sa-ku-ra-zu-ka' megacorp, so the only answer is you already developing space-tech."

"Trade secret, Rins darling," The Doctor smirked again, touching her nose, "but I'll at least credit Zaiyu with being kind enough to give us a few pointers."

Rins twitched, at not only Zaiyu but also Doctor 'Tomoe', they could tell when they were being talked down to. "Meeting room, now. The Captain will hear about you two," they said, tapping out an electronic message while doing so.

"Alright, alright. But I would not rate you highly on hospitality if this is how you treat all your guests," The Doctor said, holding Lavinia's arm as an incensed Rins had them march.

As they entered into the base's spacious meeting room, another Estil suddenly joined them, a slumped over scientist whose shaggy hair looked about to swallow him. "Another meeting's no surprise," he mumbled, "but while Zaiyu's still on Earth? Not that I'm concerned with him, I'd rather get back to my plants. But still, unusual."

"Zaiyu shall be dealt with, for Rins has reported evidence that he has both smuggled humans aboard our base and given them technology without our approval," the Captain said, him being tall and with his hair in a floor-length braid per his station. "Now human, I am Captain Shayin Es Talis. Would I be addressing Tomoe of the Sakurazuka corporation and her affiliate Suzune Takao?"

"The very same. We are multi-millionaires!" The Doctor said, with Lavinia thinking she was now a little too into the act.

"Really? Then let us see if that holds up to a bio-scan," Shayin said, with The Doctor and Lavinia being met with a sudden flash of green light. Before The Doctor could reply something like 'How invasive', Shayin's eyes widened on seeing the scan's results.
"This 'Suzune' is normal for what we've been told of her species, but the one calling herself 'Tomoe' possesses... two hearts."

"Actually," Lavinia spoke up to keep the cover story going, "Most humans have two hearts, I... had to have surgery to remove one when I was younger. It's been a while though, so the scar's hard to make out."

"Only way we can be sure is if we send someone other than Zaiyu down to check," Shayin said, with Mitl instantly raising his hand at the chance of getting to dissect human corpses. "Although there is another explanation, that you are the only species universally known for having two hearts: a Gallifreyan."

Rins gave another glare at The Doctor. "Ooh, if you're Gallifreyan then no way would Zaiyu want anything to do with you. You're the ones that say magic isn't real, aren't you?"

"Gallifreyans, hmm, aren't those are the people who can 'regenerate'? Because them not staying dead just makes us necromancers' jobs even harder," Mitl said.

"Yeah, us Estil only get one life," Rins said while overlooking that a necromancer was right there, "so we can't afford to get soft like you Gallifreyans."

"But if you are Gallifreyan, then why are you with a human girl? Your kind doesn't associate with other races unless they violate the Laws of Time," Shayin asked as he peered closer, then insisted "Which I have not, as a Pilot of the Estil I always take utmost caution when it comes to weaving time's fabrics."

The Doctor hesitated for a moment, but tried to turn the situation around with, "Hmhm, very good, but you're overlooking something. Not all of 'my kind' are shackled to Gallifrey, quite a number of us have gone rogue. It's a surprise more haven't, given how stifling the place is. Anyway, it's perfectly possible that I can be both Tomoe Sakurazuka and a Gallifreyan who's settled on Earth, or the daughter of one, granddaughter even."

Shayin had to think that over. "Again, we have no proof, but if there are rogue Gallifreyans on Earth, then..." he muttered, "then that complicates matters. In fact, I can recall one rogue Gallifreyan whose title is infamous throughout the cosmos."

"My, do tell," The Doctor smirked.

Shayin took a deep breath and spoke, "...The Master. Could they be the one behind the Sakurazuka?"

That wiped the smirk immediately off the Doctor's face. "The Master, really? Out of all rogue Time Lords to title drop..." she sighed.

"Just as long as it's not The Rani again," Lavinia said.

The Doctor's usual smirk then came back as she said, "Oh, but humans and Gallifreyans aren't the only ones you face," with her peering right back at Shayin.

"It's not the Daleks, is it?" Mitl then groaned, "Such a one-note species. At least Cybermen are technically zombies, oh yes, and the Krynoids, i like those."

"Do not dare make light of the Daleks in front of your Captain," Shayin then scolded Mitl, "You haven't faced them in battle as I have."

"Ahem, I believe I was the one talking," The Doctor said, then went on, "As I was saying, Estil and humans aren't the only species to have been the dominant civilisations of Earth. There was another in between you, the Silurians, who fled underground just as you fled to the stars. If you invade Earth, you also face them. Suppose the three of you will just have to learn to share, won't you, Shayin dear?"

Shayin had clutched his head a lot throughout this meeting like his braid was giving him a headache, but now he clutched even harder. "Alright then, Suzune, 'Tomoe'. We'll let you head back down to Earth, but under the supervision of one of us, that way we can have hard evidence that all your claims are true. Zaiyu's loyalties are in doubt, and Mitl is... always best kept under close watch, so you shall accompany these two, Rins."

The Doctor had to groan. "To be saddled with the gun-nut soldier instead of the scientist, just my luck," she said.

"Oi, I heard that!" Rins piped up.

"Meeting adjourned," Shayin proclaimed, before any more complaints could be made.

Rins then led The Doctor and Lavinia back the way they came. But while the soldier was just out of earshot, The Doctor then whispered to Lavinia, "And that's how you thwart an invasion, my dear, or at least how you begin to. Spreading false intel is key."

"You sure do make it look easy," Lavinia said. "Like you've done this before, even."

The Doctor grinned wide. "My dear, I could go on all day. But that's another story for another time, perhaps?"

 

[ArlequineLunaire]

Georgiy and Baskoro now come running the other way down the Draconian pseudo-street right towards us, like they've circled around the entire ship, or this one part of it anyway. When they catch up to us, both are so winded and gasping for breath that having run around the whole ship could be exactly what happened. I can't spot any of sign of a glowing wound on Georgiy like the ones Shesha gave to The Doctor and… me, but Baskoro isn't so fortunate, having one right down the side of his scaly face. Before anyone can say anything, already the two quantum quarters of Shesha that went after them catch up to us.

"Everyone, behind me," The Doctor says. The three of us do as she says, with Georgiy I doubt having the time or breath to protest her again. The Doctor then uses her sonic screwdriver to reactivate the laser gateway, with us on the opposite side this time, as these selves of Shesha ran into the lasers just as her others did. All four of her now having felt the same pain, it occurs to me.

Again Shesha splits, with the quarter of her that's free of the lasers stumbling down in front of us. Baskoro as her father swoops in instantaneously to catch her, looking her in the eyes and saying, "Shesha, it's me, your father! Whatever's happened to you, stay- stay strong, we shall fix this!"

"I'm afraid that may be wishful thinking," The Doctor mutters. Per her words, I get a closer look at this self of Shesha… and my whole soul shivers as I see what looks like a corpse long rotted, I can even see bone. Yet for a second, it looks like she's moving on her own.

"Oh, what would you know, you meddling bat?!" Baskoro then roars back at The Doctor, nostrils fuming and tail twitching. "If she's dead, then I have every right to accuse you of her murder! You leapt at the chance to spring all those lasers on her, on my very daughter!"

"Professor Baskoro, you of all people know more than enough about quantum physics to know what happens when a so-called genius forces atomic laws and structures onto our classical realm," The Doctor glares down at him, her voice like ice against his fire, "After whatever experiment her husband put her through, your daughter if anything was 'undead', and I use that word charitably, before I even got here."

"No, that can't be," Baskoro says, shaking his head, "My dear Urataro Ikari was my peer in Chronophysics, and he never would've done… this to his own wife, my daughter! Yes, I had concerns about the marriage as any father would have, let alone one with a human son-in-law, but I gave it my blessing for I knew Ikari was not that sort of man."

"Ikari may not have been that sort of man," The Doctor says, looking down at Shesha's corpse self, "back when Shesha was alive, or at least not dying. But not everyone takes gracefully to mourning. Baskoro, did your daughter have any health problems? Any, ahem, targeted attacks on her, Human-Draconian tensions being what they are?"

Baskoro at first shakes his head, "No, my Shesha was always as fit as a fiddle, but targeted attacks…" he pauses, but then says, "It can't be! If my daughter was a hate crime victim I would've heard, I- well wouldn't have I?" It's then he stands up almost triumphantly and says, "I've got it! She was kidnapped and experimented on by some ne'er-do-well pretending to be Ikari. Think, good woman, we've only heard his voice, which could easily be faked, and said voice refuses to acknowledge I'm here. It can't be Ikari, I know it!"

Having heard the voice question whether the real Baskoro could be on this ship at all, I get the idea in the back of my mind that this theory could be him projecting. No, this must be the real Baskoro, no pretender would get that torn up over their daughter's death. Well, maybe someone Shakespearian-trained I guess, if Shakespeare's still a thing this far into the future. No, he of all writers would have to be- ah, I'm getting sidetracked.

"We can't be sure till we find whoever the voice is in person," The Doctor says, starting to fume herself, "Till then, your assertion only has so much evidence. By the way, my good Draconian, is 'Doctor' honestly too hard for you to say, hmm?"

All the while, I see Georgiy looking back and forth at both Baskoro and The Doctor. With how he's got on with both before, I'd take it he instinctively wants to disagree with them both… but wouldn't know how to without it looking like he's on the other's side. Er, I might be psychoanalysing too much there, maybe he's just confused by all the quantum physics talk? Even I'm struggling to keep up with it too.

"Hey, um, maybe we should just leave them to talk it out, maybe we can scout out the ship a bit more?" I suggest to him. "Though er, not too far as to lose them, of course."

"Oh, I'd be happy with losing those two," Georgiy has to say, before he glances at the wto quarters of Shesha, "And putting as much distance between me and her as possible before she comes after us again. Think my legs are gonna snap in two, er in four, if I have to do any more running, so sneaking away's a fine alternative by me."

I really wish he hadn't put it like that, but I nod at him before we head up the stairs. We then find ourselves not in an old mansion or a Draconian market street, but what looks like a university lecture room. One clearly from the future of course, with a giant floating sphere instead of a projector, and the weird translucent look of all the seats.

"Wait, Shesha's husband and father were professors, and The Doctor said we were just on a Draconian street…" I get to pondering, "That Victorian room by the airlock, maybe that was where Shesha and Ikari used to live? Because if so," I push up my glasses as I smile, "then maybe the ship's rooms are all modelled on places from Shesha's memories! Ah, um, you think that's a good theory?" I ask. Were The Doctor in earshot, I hope she'd compliment me for my initiative, but she could just as well scold me for leaping to conclusions like Baskoro. Or The Rani.

Instead, Georgiy shrugs and says, "Yeah, sounds like that checks out. That monster- ah Shesha, one of the rooms she sent us running through was some old Earth manor-type deal, plus one that Professor said was a Draconian grotto. Huh, y'know that could slot in with either of those theories," he then grins as he scratches his chin, "If this is that Ikari behind this, then the ship's room designs are him getting all nostalgic. If it's some impostor who kidnapped Shesha, then we've got one serious stalker on our hands. Guess either one could've thought the room designs could help to placate her quantumised, er quantumified self, but hah, fat lot of good that's done."

I'm starting to see why the Doctor's so skeptical of Georgiy. I mean yes, he's had a real facetious streak since we met, but he can't be this way all the time, can he? "You're, er, quite cavalier sounding about this, given we just got attacked. You saw The Doctor, she still got serious about things by this point," is how I put it to him, wondering whether I should've been more confrontational or not?

"Huh, 'cavalier'?" Georgiy asks me, before he sighs. "Lavinia, Vinnie, can I call you that? Believe me, I'm freakin' terrified. Like yeah, you always expect danger when sneaking aboard a ghost ship, but… not 'inch of your life' danger, not 'there's this quantum zombie dragon' danger. Adventures stop being fun and exciting once you realise how high the stakes are, and that it's your head that could be on them, ya know?" As he lets all of that out, I see his once vivacious face look utterly drained.

I know the feeling. "Georgiy, before I met The Doctor, I was whisked away from my mundane life off to an otherworldly castle, watched over by godlike beings and with statues and suits of armour walking around. It sounds like a fantasy, really you may think I'm just spouting nonsense, but my point is… I've seen a dream come true only for it to be a waking nightmare. I, I know how you feel."

I knew it I might've said too much, as Georgiy just stares at me not knowing what to say to that. Still, he breathes out and says, "That's one elaborate metaphor, but I kinda get what you're saying. That stories are only fun to us 'cause we're the audience, not the main characters. And everyone thinks they wanna be that main character, but they really don't. Gotcha."

I smile back at him, then say, "That's why as soon as this is over, The Doctor says she'll take me home. I mean, I'd love to explore the universe, I really would, just," my head tilts down, "not if this is what it's like."

With those words, with that name even, my getting through to Georgiy is swiftly annulled. "Really, you gotta bring up The Doctor again? Other than springing that trap, what makes you so sure she's gonna solve this, that some jailbird like her can get you home in anything but a coffin? You wanna warn me about stories come true, well what does that say about you hyping The Doctor up as some great and noble hero?"

"S-She was the one who saved me from that castle!" I blurt out at him without once considering my words.

"Oh, not a metaphor then, you genuinely believe in walking statues and extradimensional castles," Georgiy groans at me, hands thrown up.

"You live in a galaxy of dragon aliens and ghost ships, don't tell me what is or isn't true!" I yell back at him, any thought of being non-confrontational long gone. I know, everyone has different standards for what's 'normal' and 'reality', but not everyone puts it like Georgiy just did!

But then we both stop, as suddenly that glowing wound Shesha dealt me starts flaring up. I wince, but it's not like it's the worst pain I've felt, even on this ship. After that comes this weird sensation like… I'm in two places at once, that's the only way I can describe it. Then as I stand here in this replicated lecture hall, I see something before me that very much bears the mark of Castle Oterne…