Lost In Time: A Doctor Who Fanfiction

Chapter 37 - End Game

His expression lightened, fingers instinctively curling protectively over the metal. Then her words registered and he looked back up at her. "Did what?" he asked, brow furrowing.

It was her turn to frown. "The words on the ring. Carved on the inside," she reminded him, pointing at the ring. "They were still fresh when I found them."

He shook his head slowly. "I didn't carve anything. I never had the chance - he'd stolen it by the time I woke up."

"But..." she swallowed. "The ring lit up with the golden energy stuff when I held it, like I was about to jump. And that's when they showed up. They were still warm when I touched them. And - and I thought - but then, if it wasn't you, why would the Master have tried to encourage me?" she asked, fighting off a wave of nausea.

He shook his head. "Unless it was a trap, he wouldn't have. But if it appeared because it connected to the time stream in you... he shouldn't have been able to do that either. We're the only ones who share that connection, and no matter how hard he's tried, he's never been able to manipulate it."

He glanced down at the ring, tilting it slightly to read the words, and frowned. "That's not what -" He cut himself off, running his free hand through his hair and making it even wilder than before. "'Face your fears'?" he read aloud, furrowing his brow. "No, that doesn't make sense. That's not his style. Why would he write that?"

Lyssa bit her lip, wincing when it promptly stung. "Because... it gave me a push to go back inside. I'd made it outside, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't really the outside. Then he showed up, told me the exit was the way we'd come, and tossed the ring at me. I only picked it up after he left, and that's when I saw the words."

She swallowed hard. "It... I thought you'd written it, and the only way you could've done that was if you were alive to do so. And if he hadn't killed you, maybe he hadn't killed the others," she shrugged miserably. "I had to at least try - it's what you would've done. And if I could make it back out, then I could find the TARDIS, and maybe find a way to rescue you. Stop him somehow, if I could."

"Except then you found yourself here," he finished.

She nodded. "I tossed pebbles outside open doors to check if anything was in there. And then I reached the hallway outside this room and realized I didn't need to. They were all up on the stage, with the doors open wide," she shuddered, recalling how the blood had frozen in her veins at the sight. "The only other path had been blocked by rubble, and there was no point in going back."

She shrugged. "Not sure why the Master blocked the path when he specifically told me to go to the front, but... The only place to go was the stage. I figured... if you were all still alive, then if I let them take me, I'd either find you, or I'd at least be one step closer to getting there."

He... didn't look thrilled by her plan. "And if the animatronics really had killed us?" he asked heavily. "If Bria and Scott and I were all dead, what was your plan then?"

She looked up briefly, just long enough to meet his unhappy gaze, before dropping her eyes back to the floor. "I wasn't - I didn't think you were dead, I told you that," she said, voice just a little higher pitched than she would have liked. "If you die, so do I, that's what River said at the Pandorica, and I wasn't dying, so you had to be alive."

"Lyssa," he said slowly, voice cautious. "You never mentioned that earlier when you said why you thought I might not be dead. You said it was because you thought I'd written those words on the ring."

"Yeah? And?" She shrugged, not looking up and nervously fiddling with her fingers. "There was a lot I didn't say. A lot of things that didn't make sense, until I started to put them together when I was trying to work up the nerve to come back inside." She glanced down at her hand, twisting it over to reveal the splotchy stain. "Like Bria's blood landing on my hand."