"Eight," the Doctor muttered as he led the way through the small tunnel. "But there were only six of us. Why?"
"What are you jabbering on about, old man?" the Ranger called up in a low whisper.
"Numbers, you whippersnapper," the Doctor retorted, coming to a divided track and taking the left. "Numbers that don't add up."
"What about 'em?"
"There were six of us, correct?"
"Yeah, so?"
"So why were there eight atomic shredders?" He stopped and looked at the younger man, brows furrowed. "And why were there only five worms?" he whispered harshly.
"I'm sorry, what?"
"There were six of us in that room, Jamie. Only five worms. Why?"
"Well, didn't you say that Psi didn't need a worm, since he could manually delete the information?" Clara offered, pressing against the wall as she squeezed through a tight spot.
"Yes, but he was holding one when I saw him. We all were. Except for Lyssa." They both turned to look at her.
She waved sheepishly. "Hello."
"You didn't get your memory wiped?" Psi interrupted. "But then how's that work? I thought that was supposed to help keep us alive." He winced. "Not that it did Saibra any good."
Lyssa looked down. "No, I got my memory wiped same as you, I think. I just didn't use the worm. First thing I remember is the Doctor holding my temples. Told me my memories might be mixed up for a bit, and told me not to look ahead. Oh yeah!" She peered up ahead at the Doctor. "I have a paper I'm supposed to give you when all of this is over. Don't know what it says, though, so don't ask me."
"Wait. You didn't use the worm, but you still got your memories wiped?" Psi frowned. " But you're not like me. How did you get rid of them?"
"Of course!" The Doctor suddenly smacked himself in the forehead. "I'm so slow. I'm slowing down. I'm spending too much time with pudding brains, I'm missing the obvious."
"What's so obvious?" Psi snapped.
"Oh," the Ranger suddenly realized, eyes wide. "That - that makes sense."
"What makes sense?" Clara asked in exasperation. "Mind explaining it for the rest of us feeble-minded mortals?"
"Sorry, Clar," the Ranger apologized, fiddling with the brim of his hat. "The memory worm wouldn't have worked on Lyssa because it would only have wiped the events of the last hour from her memory. If she knew what was going to happen, she would have realized what was going on as soon as she recognized a familiar event. That would have given her a lot of guilt, and made her a lot more noticeable to the Teller."
"Okay, so, pretending I know what you're talking about, which I don't, if the memory worm didn't work on her, and she can't just wipe her own memories, how did she lose them then?" Psi interrupted impatiently. "And can you explain quickly? I really feel like we should keep moving."
"I wiped her memories," the Doctor said quietly. They all turned to look at him, Lyssa with wide eyes. "I wiped all her memories of the event, then told her not to look ahead. That's the only way she would have been able to avoid knowing what lay ahead."
"I'm sorry, but are you telling me that you know the future?" Psi closed his eyes. "That might have been nice to know beforehand."
"What would have been the point?" the Doctor asked dismissively, turning back around and starting to walk again. "She only knows the future sometimes, and apparently I wiped all of her knowledge of this event, so it would have been useless information."
"Useless?" Psi repeated incredulously, starting to sound angry. "Useless? Saibra's dead! If we'd known about that, we could have prevented it! You could have told us, and she'd still be alive right now! Couldn't she at least have written it down or something before you wiped her memories?"
"No." The Doctor's voice was as cold as ice.
The Ranger cast a warning look at Psi, but it was ignored as he stepped closer to the Doctor, glaring at him and Lyssa, who shrank behind the Doctor guiltily.
"No?"
"No." The Doctor returned his glare fiercely, stepping in front of Lyssa and blocking her from Psi's view. "For it to be of any use, she'd have to know the exact circumstances surrounding it, and where and when it occurred, as well as how to stop it. And I don't know if you missed this, but I didn't know how to stop the Teller, and I'm the one who's usually the expert in these sort of situations. Not her. Lyssa occasionally knows the future, not how it works. And for the record, I really don't like people who try to make Lyssa feel guilty for things that aren't her fault. Particularly in situations where that guilt puts her in danger. So I suggest you back off. Before. I. Make. You."
"Was that a threat?"
"Do you want it to be?"
"Okay, let's just all calm down here," Clara interrupted, pushing in between the two men and shoving them apart with her hands on their chests, the Ranger standing close behind her, ready to back her up if need be. "Doctor, I'm sure that Psi didn't mean to be so stupid and heartless as to imply that Lyssa was responsible for Saibra's death."
She turned to Psi. "And I'm sure the Doctor didn't mean to sound dismissive of Saibra's death. Look. We're all under a lot of pressure, and don't have much time. Maybe we can just... focus on getting out of here alive, without anyone else dying, and then go from there, yeah?"
The Doctor stared at Psi a moment longer, then coolly turned back towards the front of the group, taking Lyssa's hand in his and tugging her along. "I'm not the one who has a problem. Let's go. The sooner we're out of here, the better, as far as I'm concerned."
The rest of the group followed silently, although Lyssa's stomach was churning. Was Psi really right? Could she have been responsible for Saibra's death? She had no way of knowing until she had her memories back, but the possibility that she could have prevented this weighed heavily on her.
What if someone else was supposed to die? Maybe if she just looked ahead briefly, tried to look for deaths specifically, she could prevent something without drawing too much attention to herself. Letting the Doctor tug her forward, she closed her eyes, trying to find the timelines -
And found herself jerked abruptly back to reality by the Doctor's harsh whisper of her name. "Lyssa! Are you trying to get yourself killed?"
"More like trying to not get anyone else killed if it can be avoided," she grumbled, pulling her hand out of his and crossing her arms. "Or maybe even figure out what we're really here for."
"Yeah, or maybe you're just setting yourself up as the tastiest treat for the Teller," the Doctor rebuked her. "Past me told you not to look ahead, and he must have had an excellent reason in addition to the already excellent one of: Don't make yourself the biggest target. For all you know, no one else is going to die; except now you've just made yourself a heck of a lot guiltier, because you know what what we're going to steal. Then you get caught by the Teller, and that's how you end up like the man in the cage. Don't be stupid, Lyssa, it's not a good look on you."
Okay. That stung, and he likely had meant it to. She cast him a glare as he kept walking, but he didn't seem to notice. She dropped to the back of the group, choosing to stand by Clara and the Ranger instead of sticking close to His Royal Majesty Who Knows All And Must Be Obeyed. Clara cast her a sympathetic look, resting her hand on her arm before stepping up to the Doctor, while the Ranger stayed behind with her.
"You know he didn't mean it, right?" the Ranger asked quietly, looking down at her.
Lyssa scoffed, crossing her arms again. "No, I'm pretty sure he meant it. This him's a bit less impressed with us 'pudding brains'," she mocked sourly.
"I'd say less socially-aware, but yes, he's admittedly less impressed at times. But I know him, and he's never compared you to humans in any way but favorable. He doesn't think you're stupid, or anything like that. He's just worried, about the situation, and you, and it comes out as cross. That seems to be his default this time around, please don't take it personally."
Lyssa raised an eyebrow at him skeptically as they made their way to the grill. "He seemed to mean it personally."
The Ranger sighed. "That's because you made it personal. Saibra was unfortunate, but not the end of the world. But you conceivably put yourself in danger, and you mean a whole lot more to him than you think. That made it personal, and so he lashed out. It's what people do."
"I guess," Lyssa shrugged reluctantly. "It's just... he's never talked to me like that before. And I've been with him for over a year now. He's only really gotten cross with me once before, and that was because I pushed him in a conversation he was clearly uncomfortable with, and he apologized almost immediately afterwards."
"And he'll probably do the same here," the Ranger told her. "You're one of the few people he'll let go of his pride for right away. Just... give him a little grace, yeah? He's under a lot of pressure here, trying to keep us all safe. You know he takes each of our lives seriously, and each death weighs on him, even if he won't admit it."
"Yeah, I know," Lyssa admitted with a sigh, uncrossing her arms and letting them fall to her sides. "You're right."
"I always am," the Ranger cracked a grin. "Well, at least, sometimes I am. Come on, we should catch up with the others. I think we're getting close to an exit."
"And how do you know that?" she challenged him, but picked up her speed anyways.
He shrugged. "The air feels different."
She scoffed, but they came around a bend just then, and found the Doctor just pushing out a grill and stepping out into a corridor. The Ranger shot her a smug look, and she conceded defeat. He helped her over the lip into the corridor, which branched into three different hallways, and held a large, locked vault at the other end.
"Right, vault. That's clear. What's not clear is what we do now," the Doctor muttered, scanning the vault with his sonic screwdriver.
Clara walked up to him, tilting her head to the side concernedly as she watched him. "Hey, you okay?" she asked softly.
He scoffed, not looking at her. "No. I'm an amnesiac robbing a bank. Why would I be okay?"
"Because you just got cross with Lyssa, and you only do that if you're really worried. I've seen you stop mid-rant to check on her, then go straight back to scolding whoever roused your ire. And Saibra's dead, and now you're worried about the rest of us dying too."
"Saibra is dead, we are alive," the Doctor interrupted, not looking at her. "I suggest you prioritize if you want to stay that way."
Oh, is that why you call yourself the Doctor?" Psi asked angrily. "The professional detachment?"
The Doctor stopped scanning with a sigh and turned to him. "Listen. When we're done here, by all means, you go and find yourself a shoulder to cry on. You'll probably need that. Till then, what you need is me. And what I need to do, is focus on getting out of here. Preferably without anymore interruptions." He stopped scanning the vault and scowled when he saw the results, turning to study the wall until he found another computer access cove nearby.
"Underneath it all, he's really not like that," Clara tried to tell Psi.
He just scoffed. "It's very obvious you've been with him a long while."
"Why?"
"Because you're very good at making excuses for him," he told her bluntly.
"Hey!" Lyssa snapped, making them both turn to her in surprise. She flushed at the sudden attention, not quite having intended to actually say that out loud, but continued. "He really does care about every life taken, he just... doesn't really show it anymore. Because he's lost so many that he can't always grieve even when he should. And because he can't let it distract him, because that could mean more people die. And he never wants that to happen, no matter what he says."
Psi stared at her. "You must care about him an awful lot if you're still defending him so much even after he yelled at you."
The heat in her cheeks deepened and she looked away. "Because that's what we do. He's my best friend. Even when we're cross we look out for each other."
"I found another gift from our lovely benefactor," the Doctor called to them, interrupting Psi's response. He didn't sound like he'd been listening, but Lyssa suddenly hoped he hadn't been. It'd been embarrassing enough to admit to Psi even a small amount of how much she cared without the added factor of him overhearing it. "Shall we unwrap it?"
"Ooh, I hope it's another bomb!" the Ranger declared, bounding over to the Doctor's side eagerly. "I like blowing things up."
"Boys and their toys," Clara scoffed as they joined the Doctor as he opened the metal briefcase. "Let them set off a detonator one time, and they ask for another one for Christmas."
"And what a lovely Christmas it was," the Ranger sighed nostalgically. "My best girl, lots of hot chocolate and pretzels, wonderful gifts... It truly was the bomb."
Clara's face lost all expression. "Nope. I'm out. Sorry, Doctor. You're on your own with this one from here on out."
"Aw, but Clara," the Ranger pouted, draping an arm over her shoulders. "You always told me you were drawn to my explosive personality. Surely you couldn't leave that behind."
"Don't you start," she warned him, but it was too late.
"You already promised you would be mine this year."
"I never agreed to anything concerning bad puns!"
"Hey! I've made plenty of good puns C4."
"I'm breaking up with you," Clara deadpanned.
"Wow. Talk about a short fuse."
Lyssa snickered. She immediately clapped her hand over her mouth, but it was too late. The Ranger had heard her, and he pointed to her with glee. "Ha! See? Lyssa appreciates my puns! Why can't you?"
"Lyssa hangs out with you and the Doctor. Her taste is already questionable."
"Hey!" Both Lyssa and the Ranger objected to that one, looking indignantly at the short brunette, who just smirked at them.
"Well, if you lot are done jabbering, I've managed to patch myself into the system," Psi grunted, drawing their attention. His face was set in a grimace, and he held a small device in his hand that connected to wires from his palm.
He carried it over to the computer access cove and hooked himself into that, tapping at the device a few times before scowling. "Right, the system looks like it's time-delayed. There are twenty-four lock codes I need to break."
A low growl echoed through the halls into the corridor, silencing them all. A chill ran down Lyssa's spine as they all looked around for any sign of the Teller. It wasn't in sight, but it was close.
"Doctor, it's coming, and we're trapped here. What do we do?" Clara asked nervously, unconsciously seeking out the Ranger's hand and squeezing it.
"Psi, how long will that take?" the Doctor asked instead.
The augmented human shook his head. "As long as it takes."
The Doctor scowled, thinking. "It's locked onto one of our thought trails. We have to split up, minimize the brain signals."
"What happened to your professional detachment, Doctor?" Psi mocked him. He held out his hand, and the Doctor, understanding, placed one of the atomic shredders in his hand.
"Wait, no!" Clara tried to protest, stepping forward.
Psi just pocketed the device and looked at her calmly. "In case it finds me, it's my choice," he told her.
She scowled. "You don't use that. Promise me."
Another growl echoed through the area.
"Time to run," Psi said instead, sitting down on the floor.
"Separate!" the Doctor ordered, pulling Lyssa down one corridor and directing Clara and the Ranger down another. Running until they came to another branch, he stopped and took both her hands, looking down at her. "Lyssa, about earlier..."
"Hey, don't you be feeling guilty, now, spaceman," Lyssa interrupted warningly, smiling a little up at him. "I have it on good authority that that's a bad idea right now."
He didn't smile. "I stand by what I meant. It was dangerous, and I don't think you should have risked it, but I shouldn't have said it the way I did. I'm sorry."
She started to speak, but another growl, though slightly more distant, cut her off. Changing her mind, she stood up on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheeks, then dropped back down with red cheeks, backing up a few steps to the hallway on the left.
"I forgive you, you daft old man. I know you were worried. But now I think we'd better run. Stay safe!" she called over her shoulder, turning and darting down the corridor, hearing his footsteps disappearing in the other direction.
The basement area seemed to be a maze, with turns and new branches popping up with increasing frequency the further she ran. She didn't really focus on that, though, too occupied with her last interaction with the Doctor.
Why had she kissed him? All he'd done was apologize for being rude - which he had been - and then she'd gone and kissed him! Who knows what he was thinking of her now, but she hoped he didn't think she was too forward. It was just to thank him and show him she understood, right?
She rounded a corner and immediately collided with a warm body. She shrieked as she fell to the ground, and was hastily shushed. She sat up with a groan, rubbing her hip as she climbed back to her feet, glancing up at the person, then immediately did a double take.
"Clara?" she hissed incredulously at the brunette woman. "How did you get over here? You went in the opposite direction of us! And when did you change your clothes? And... why are you crying?" She looked the shorter woman up and down.
Clara had somehow changed out of her classy pantsuit into a dark red velvet floor-length dress that opened in the skirt to reveal a satin red underskirt, and was embroidered with gold swirls and runes. Her sheer sleeves widened at her elbows and fell down to the floor in waves. A large crown rested atop her curls, and tears glistened on her cheeks, though far paler than she had ever seen them.
"I'm - I need your help," Clara whispered in a pained voice.
"Clara? What's wrong?" Lyssa scrambled to get closer to the woman, but stopped when she offered a plain white card instead. She took it in confusion and looked it over. "Hist. 206?" she read aloud. "What is this?"
"That is the key to unlocking the box that contains the Abrit Unulj," Clara whispered, grimacing. "It is a historical artifact that was stolen from my people over two thousand years ago, and we have suffered for its loss ever since. It contains the cure to a plague that has devastated my people, and if I do not bring it back in time, my people will perish to the sickness. I was able to break in when the solar flares weakened the security, but I am not meant to return. I will die here, but I will not fail my people again. Please. Return it for me, and free my people."
Lyssa froze, eyes wide. "You're not Clara," she realized. "You don't know me, and I don't know you; why - why are you trusting me with this? How do you know I'll be able to bring it back or whatever? And you're dying? What?"
The woman smiled faintly. "My name is Clarel, Queen of the Abjuln. I came here to retrieve the device that was stolen from us, but as soon as I saw you here, I knew I would not leave alive. We are the keepers of history and legend in the universe. Long has legend foretold that the Doctor and his mate would save our people, but it would come at great cost. You have been targeted by the Teller. If you die, so do my people. I took your place."
She closed her eyes, another tear trickling down her cheek. "The healer of the universe must heal my people as has been foretold, and I must depart. Life and death. It is the way of the universe. A perfect balance, as it should be."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down a minute there, Thanos." Lyssa held up her hands, staring at the woman in horrified realization. "You mean to tell me that the Teller is killing you? Right now? And you did that on purpose? For me? Why? Why are you doing this? Why are you trusting me to fulfill the prophecy or whatever?"
Clarel drew in a shaky breath. "Perhaps you do not remember it, or perhaps you have not yet done it. I was but a little girl when you visited me. The Angel of time and her Doctor. I was lost, near death, and you saved me, and my people. You gave me hope when I had none, and now it is time for me to return the favor. You will save so many lives today, more than I could ever hope to touch, and - " she stopped, crying out. "Please. Promise me you will help my people," she pleaded weakly. "I am not long for this world, but I can rest easy knowing my Angel and my people are safe."
"Don't just give in!" Lyssa cried, tears coming to her eyes as she stared at the woman who wore Clara's face. "Please, try to fight it. Think of your people!"
A soft smile touched Clarel's lips. "I am. I trust you to look out for them, Angel." Then her face changed, all color fleeing completely as she raised her hands to her head and started to scream, her whole body shaking as pain racked through her.
"No!" Lyssa screamed, her hands covering her mouth. "Clarel, please!" she begged the woman, starting to sob in horror as Clarel continued to scream.
She tried to back up and tripped over her feet, falling to the ground and crawling backwards in horror and struggling not to vomit as clear liquid began to fall from Clarel's eyes and nose, and her forehead started to sink. "No, no, no, no!" she sobbed, tears blinding her vision as the screaming suddenly stopped and the corridor went silent.
Hands grabbed her shoulders and she screamed, fighting them off blindly until she was crushed into a chest, a double heartbeat that she immediately recognized filling one ear, hastily whispered murmurs of comfort filling the other. A hand stroked her hair, a bit too frantic to be soothing before she was lifted into the air and moving rapidly away from the scene.
Blinking back tears, she struggled to wipe at her eyes and grimaced as a headache started to form from the crying. "Doctor?" she sniffed weakly, peering up at the worried Time Lord as he ran. "How did you find me?"
"Followed the screaming," he said shortly. "Knew you were in trouble and ran for it."
"Clara died," she whispered, voice breaking again as her hand spasmed around the key the other woman had given her. "She said she took it to protect me because we needed to save her people. She died to protect me, and I didn't even know it until I ran into her."
"That wasn't Clara," the Doctor told her worriedly, glancing down at her briefly. "Clara went the opposite direction. There's no way she could have made it all the way over there in that time, and she was wearing the wrong clothes."
"No. Her face, it was Clara's," Lyssa insisted weakly, then started crying again when she remembered what had happened to the woman's face. "She died. The Teller killed her!" Her headache spiked again, and she whimpered in pain as a spike seemed to stab at her brain. "Ow."
The Doctor stopped immediately, staring down at her with frightened eyes. "Lyssa, what's wrong?"
"I have a headache," she complained, lifting up a hand to rub at her forehead and trying to hold back more tears. "It keeps getting worse." She felt her heart drop when his face paled. "What? What is it?"
"Lyssa, you were just standing next to a woman killed by the Teller. Which means it was close enough to feel your thoughts as well, it was just focused on her. When she died, you felt guilty. Guess who the Teller's next target is?"
"Me," Lyssa realized, drawing in a shaky breath. After a moment of panic, she started to struggle futilely in the Doctor's arms. "Let me go. If this is the Teller -" she stopped briefly when a wave of hot pain flashed through her head, "then you need to get out of here."
"I'm not leaving you to the Teller," the Doctor growled, lifting her closer to him and taking off again. He stopped when she cried out as the pain immediately deepened and she tensed in his arms.
"Doctor, please," she pleaded. "I don't want you to see me end up like her. And I don't want you to get caught because of me." She shuddered again, burying her head in his coat in an attempt to hide from the pain. It didn't work, and she whimpered. "Doctor, I'm scared."
His voice caught. "So am I. But it'll be a cold day in the Void before I let you die." He tried to move further away again, but had to stop when she tensed once more, hot pain flashing through her mind and digging into her memories, scattering them and blending her thoughts together. He growled, eyes wild as he scanned the corridor before he stopped, eyes boring into hers. "Lyssa, do you trust me?"
She sniffed, lip trembling as her head started to explode, but nodded.
He raised a hand to her head, stroking her hair back behind her ear gently before pressing two fingers to her temple. "Sleep."
And Lyssa slept, everything fading into a peaceful blackness as the world disappeared around her.
When the blackness started to lift, she felt herself being taken from the comforting warmth she had known, and she started to struggle, panicking a little, only to quiet as a familiar voice told her to hush, and she was snuggled back up against a warm chest, two heartbeats filling her ears once more. She sighed, tempted to drift off once more as even the thought of opening her eyes seemed a struggle to great to even contemplate right then.
She heard a door creak, and a familiar sounding wheeze, and smiled faintly, knowing the TARDIS was nearby. Time seemed hazy, and everything faded again as she drifted off once more.
This time when she woke up, she was reclined on a cushioned bench with something warm that smelled like the Doctor draped over her. She slowly pulled her eyes open and sat up with a yawn, her blanket falling off her shoulders to her lap and revealing itself to be the Doctor's jacket. Looking around slowly, she frowned when she realized that she was on the bench in the console room of the TARDIS.
"Ah, so the sleeping beauty finally awakes, does she?" the teasing voice came from her left, and she turned to see the Ranger smirking down at her. "Took you long enough. Psi and Saibra were just about to leave."
"What? Psi and who?" The last bits of sleepiness fell away as her memories came flooding back. "Saibra? But she died! And where - " She looked around in slow realization. "I'm in the TARDIS. How did I get here? When did I get here?"
"Uh, let me see," the Ranger paused to think. "Turns out the atomic shredders were just teleporters to a ship somewhere above the planet, which also held the TARDIS. Saibra, and later Psi, were transported up there, then disguised themselves as guards and freed us when we got captured by the Teller in the vault - which finally unlocked, by the way. Turns out Psi got a chip that restored all his memories, and Saibra got a gene suppressant that made her completely human. She'll be free to touch people all she wants, and she'll stay looking exactly the same."
"Oh, good." Lyssa smiled uncertainly, still confused. "What about us? What did we get to get us to agree?"
The Ranger shrugged. "For the Doctor, he helped out the last of a species. Turns out the Teller was being forced to help the Director - who was actually a lady with severe self-hatred and made clones of herself that she regularly incinerated. Anyways, the Director had the only other of the Teller's species, and used that to blackmail the Teller into working for her. The Doctor set her free when the Director ran away from the bank to escape from the solar flare that was going to destroy the bank, and set the Teller and its mate free on an uninhabited planet where they would be free to live together far from any sort of interference."
"Okay," Lyssa blinked, trying to take in all the new information. "I think I understood most of that. Did we ever find out who set us up for all this?"
"Oh, yeah!" the Ranger nodded. "It was the Director and the Doctor."
".... What?"
"Yeah, it was an older version of the Director who felt regret in her old age, and wanted to try and make at least one thing right by freeing the Teller, so she called the Doctor, because he gave her his number back at the bank when she was young, and he set it all up. He was the Architect by the way. He just disguised his voice. Oh, and he got his memories back by using the Teller to bring up all his old memories, then stopped him before it went too far."
"I... am so lost right now," Lyssa muttered. "What about me? How did I escape the Teller? The Doctor was so sure that it had latched onto me. If he didn't use an atomic shredder - or teleport thingy, I guess, then how did it leave me alone?"
"I took a chance. A very, very risky chance that I felt very fortunate paid off," the Doctor broke in, stepping into the console room. "The Teller had latched onto the memories and guilt in your mind. I sent you into a dreamless sleep and hid all your thoughts and memories behind an emergency wall. It lasted long enough for the Teller to lose its grasp on you."
"Oh. Wait." Lyssa frowned. "If you used that to fight off the Teller, then how come you didn't use it on the others?"
The Doctor raised his eyebrows at her. "I have to have a strong bond with someone to be able to do what I did. I didn't know Saibra or Psi well enough to do that. It wouldn't have worked, and would likely have just caused them more pain. I have a close bond with you, I just wasn't sure you'd have a strong enough bond with me for it to work. Lucky for us both, you did."
"Oh." Lyssa stared down at her hands, studying them intently rather than keep looking at the Doctor and what his admission might possibly have meant. Another unpleasant memory surfaced. "What about Clarel?"
The Ranger frowned. "Clarel? Who's that?"
The Doctor looked pained. "An echo of Clara's, would be my guess. She came here to steal an artifact for her people, but ended up distracting the Teller so it would focus on her and not Lyssa. She... died."
The Ranger sucked in a breath. "If you'll excuse me." He turned and swiftly left the TARDIS, hand in his pocket and head bowed low.
"Did we get the artifact?" Lyssa asked worriedly. She would feel awful if the poor woman had gone through all that suffering for nothing. Well... more awful, at any rate.
The Doctor nodded, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small golden relic, vaguely shaped like a cube within a sphere. He tucked it back into his pocket. "You were holding the paper with the box number to the artifact in your hand when I found you. We'll stop by the Abjulni planet after we drop off Psi and Saibra. Give them the bad news."
"Oh. And - speaking of papers, you gave me one to give you when this was all over," Lyssa remembered, reaching into her pocket and pulling out the slip of paper her had given her before all this started.
He unfolded the paper, reading the contents before nodding in understanding. "Lyssa, do you want me to bring your memories back, now?"
"You can do that?" she asked in surprise.
He nodded. "It'll take a minute, but I basically just locked them behind a door. Shouldn't take much to unlock it now that I've got the key."
"Oh. Then yeah, sure. Do you want me to stand, or...?"
"It'd probably be best if we both sat," the Doctor muttered, sitting down on the bench next to her. "Just close your eyes, and uh, close any doors you don't want opened. I won't go in them. I'm just here to bring back your memories."
Lyssa nodded, closing her eyes and startling when she felt his hands on her temples once more. This time, though, instead of sending her to sleep, she found herself back in the long hallway she had been in earlier.
"What?" she murmured, raising a hand that she only now realized was tinted with gold, turning it back and forth in awe. "What is this place?"
"This is how you see your mind," the Doctor's voice answered her. She turned to look, and saw him standing beside her, glowing a faint blue. "Remember what I said. Close any doors you don't want open, and I'll leave them be."
She nodded, stepping back as he began to glow a brighter blue, a blue line extending from him all the way up the wall and along the ceiling further down the hallway. Feeling curious, she followed him, smiling when she saw how it lit up the hallway as she went. The doors continued as she went down, some open, some closed, and she looked at them curiously.
One was labeled 'Doctor Who' and it was firmly shut, with a little 'Spoilers' sign below it. She smirked, knowing immediately why this one was blocked off. She blushed when she saw that the door labeled 'Celebrity Crushes' from her teenage years was open, and immediately pulled it shut, trying not to think about her awkward fangirl years. Come to think of it, they'd never really left. She grimaced at the thought and moved on.
Eventually, though, she got tired of exploring her mental hallway and focused on the blue light, following that until she looked around and realized that the hallway had changed until it looked like the TARDIS hallways from Twelve, a little bit darker and sleeker.
Colder. She shivered, and frowned when she felt warmth wrap around her, then blushed when she realized it was the blue light from the Doctor wrapped around her shoulders. She poked at it until it came off, trying to be gentle in case the Doctor could feel it.
"I don't know what you are, but thanks, I guess," she muttered sheepishly.
"It's my subconscious thought," the Doctor said suddenly as he appeared out of nowhere, scaring her and making her jump.
"Don't do that!" she scolded him, then added, more curiously, "What do you mean, subconscious?"
"Exactly that," he told her. "The gold light," he gestured to the golden light that streamed from her and wrapped around his ankle before continuing on, "is your subconscious thought, and the blue light is mine. You felt scared, and I could feel it because of where we are, and my instinctive response was to comfort you. Hence the blue light trying to comfort you. Part of your thoughts are focused on me, hence why your light is partially wrapped around me before it goes back off further."
"Oh," Lyssa said dumbly. Her cheeks pinked with embarrassment, and the Doctor chuckled.
"Mine's the same way. Why do you think it follows you everywhere?"
"Because you're a stalker," she grumbled, and then before he could speak, asked, "So did you fix my memories?"
He frowned. "Not yet. Hold that thought," he muttered, then vanished from beside her, but the blue light still remained.
"Hold that thought," she scoffed, shaking her head and continuing further down the hallway. "Irony, much?"
She frowned when she saw light coming from an open door up ahead, and wandered over to it curiously. It had her name on the doorway, and looked exactly the same as it did in the TARDIS, and she traced her name over it curiously.
"I have a room for myself? That's kind of weird," she muttered, stepping into the room. A wave of affection and protection washed over her, so strong that she nearly stumbled back a step. "What?"
She glanced around the room in confusion. A heavy curtain was drawn over part of it, but she could see the room go on for what seemed like miles behind it. The rest of it held boxes and mementos from past events she remembered with the Doctor. The blue light filled the room, winding around the ceiling before wrapping affectionately around her leg and trailing off again, the waves of affection never stopping.
"I'm still so confused. What is going on? I don't feel this affectionate about myself," she complained, still looking around the room. "Why did my mind make a room for me? I thought the whole point of this was that the entire hallway was me - " She froze. "Unless this room isn't mine. Unless it's the Doctor's."
A memory from the show sped through her mind.
A doorway can be traveled through both ways.
She was in the Doctor's mind, and he had a whole room devoted to her.
And she could feel how much he cared about her, the never-ending waves of affection a testament to that. She laughed, tears coming to her eyes as they washed over her, almost like a hug each time. She'd never felt so cared for before, even from her friends. Definitely not her mother. She'd never felt so loved.
This man cared about people so much, so deeply, and people had the nerve to call him cold and detached. But here she was, standing in the evidence of his ability to care so deeply that he had a whole room devoted just to her. And she loved him for it.
As soon as she had the thought, she froze. She loved him for it. She loved him for it. She loved the Doctor for caring about her. And she'd had that thought while the Doctor had direct access to her thoughts.
Panicking, having an instant mental shutdown, she scrambled out of the room and back down the hallway until she returned to the cream hallway where she slowed to a stop, trying to breathe.
She noticed a door that looked like the door to the TARDIS on her right, simply labeled, 'The Doctor,' and panicked again, shutting the door and pulling at her cheeks in wide-eyed agitation. She loved the Doctor and she did not know how to deal with that. What if he found out? What if he had heard her?
"Lyssa? Are you all right? I felt you panic, and - "
Lyssa shrieked and fell over when he suddenly appeared right next to her. "Stop doing that!" she complained.
"Sorry." He leaned over to help her up, but as soon as their hands touched, Lyssa felt her cheeks explode with heat and dropped his hand like it was hot lava as she scrambled to her feet. His hand dropped back to his side and he tried not to look hurt.
It might've worked if she hadn't felt his little thread of blue wrapped around her leg that gave off a slight pulse of hurt, and she blushed even deeper when she saw her gold light wind around his legs in an attempt to comfort him.
"Sorry," she squeaked, wincing when her voice came out an octave higher than it normally was. "Sorry," she tried again, trying to lower it without much success. "I just - there was - and I - and then you - and I -" She stopped and buried her face in her hands with a groan. "Just leave me here to die," she moaned.
He chuckled, and the amused sound wreaked havoc with her newly-discovered emotions. "Are you feeling all right, Lyssa? You seem a little... confused."
"Just thinking about how much I love stuff," she squeaked out, trying to shove her brain back into working order. Her eyes widened as it suddenly went into overdrive and started to make things worse. "Like donuts! I love donuts!"
"Donuts. Right." He eyed her strangely. "Are you sure you're feeling all right?"
"Positive!" Her voice came out too high and too fast, and she was probably grinning like a madwoman in her attempt to appear sane. She was starting to think that it might have been kinder to leave her to the Teller.
"Just, you know, feeling really hungry for donuts right now. Wasn't really expecting it, and it just came out of nowhere, but now I want donuts. Really bad. Like, you know, we should probably leave immediately and go get donuts. Like, right now. No asking questions. I am too hungry to think straight."
The Doctor shook his head, but smiled. "All right. Donuts it is. Never let it be said I denied my fairy-girl what she wanted." His look suddenly changed to one of concern. "Lyssa? Why are you banging your head against the floor?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~
A/N: In which I have way too much fun screwing with Lyssa in the ending. :D
Anyways, I am so, so sorry that this is late. To make a long story short, I had a major allergic reaction on Sunday that left me down for the count until today. (Nothing dangerous, but I basically lost all higher brain function and became a zombie until I slept it off, lol) Hopefully this extra long chapter makes up for the wait.
Clean up of loose ends should come next chapter along with the intro to the next episode. :)
Special thanks to everyone who's voted, followed, and commented. Your support is amazing!
Thank you all so much for reading, and I hope you liked it! :)
General Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who, just Lyssa.