who fic: "Revel with a Queen" (Eight, Peri, Gen)
title: Revel with a Queen
author: fannishliss
pairing, none
rating, PG, Gen
warning: hint of past non-con
words: 2600
summary: The Doctor finally catches up with Peri on Krontep.
Written for the who@50 fanficathon-athon. This story is about the Sixth Doctor, but told from the point of view of Eight and Peri.
###
The Tardis materialized in just the right place, for once: the crossroads outside the Krontep capital.
"Take me to your leader," the Doctor said with relish.
The Krontep warriors, recognizing a fellow soldier not just by his accoutrements and bearing, but by his level stare, did as they were requested.
Krontep instruments blared a fanfare amidst the banging of gongs and drums as the Doctor entered the royal hall. Runners had gone before to announce his presence.
"Welcome, Doctor, to the hall of Yrcanos, King of Krontep!" At home, the King was magnanimous and easy with his favor.
The royal roar was echoed back by a general masculine hurrah from the King's retinue.
And there, on the throne of the warrior queen of Krontep, was Peri, all in furs, fairly dripping with gold and resplendent gems. She frowned, peering at him - of course, he had changed.
He gazed back at her, drinking her in. She was just as lovely as he remembered: her penchant for skimpy clothing was apparently in line with royal fashion, and her body was as fit and lithe as ever.
By now, he had reached the royal dais and Yrcanos stood, beckoning him forward. Peri remained seated.
"Doctor! We are delighted to find that you live!" Yrcanos roared with pleasure, slapping the Doctor heartily on the upper arms.
"Yes, delighted," echoed Peri, but without much emphasis.
"The feeling, I must say, is mutual," the Doctor declared. "Peri! More beautiful than ever!"
Peri's frown deepened at the compliment, and the Doctor remembered how prickly he had been in the incarnation she'd last known. But surely, she remembered his previous self? -the youngest and sweetest tempered he'd been, up till now.
"You look so different," Peri acknowledged, glancing up and down at his leathers and shorn hair.
"Yes, yes," the Doctor acknowledged. "My friend Fitz assures me that clothes make the man."
Yrcanos followed their exchange closely but without comprehension. When they paused, the big warrior clapped the Doctor's shoulder.
"You have become a warrior! I salute you!"
The Doctor smiled tightly. "By necessity. A terrible war is breaking across the universe, and my people have chosen me to spearhead their campaign."
"A great honor!" roared Yrcanos, and his nobles stomped and shouted their agreement from the feasting table.
The Doctor merely shook his head slightly, but said, "I hope I'll be able to live up to their trust in me."
"I hope so too," Peri said.
The Doctor darted a look at her, but her tone and voice remained mild, queenly and in control.
"Wine for our honored guest!" the Queen commanded, and her handmaidens fluttered amongst themselves until they'd received an appropriate vintage from the Steward.
"My queen has improved the quality of our vineyards, orchards and gardens by a thousandfold!" Yrcanos announced, to general approval.
"I have no doubt," the Doctor nodded. The wine indeed was excellent.
Peri just looked away.
The evening continued along the same vein. Yrcanos laughed and feasted and roared, obviously delighted with his visitor's survival of what had seemed at the time to be certain death, and the Doctor tried to relax and enjoy the party. Peri however, seemed miserable, while at the same time making sure to reward Yrcanos for his every solicitous impulse. The King and Queen loosely held hands across the heavy arms of their thrones, their linked fingers sinking down into soft, luxurious furs.
It was not the custom at the court of Yrcanos for nobility to dance. Musicians did play, and dancers came out for entertainment, but the royals stuck to their thrones. Peri looked tired and more than a bit stifled. Was she really so unhappy? She seemed to care about Yrcanos, smiling at him and laughing at his jokes.
The night grew long, and nobles drifted away, till only the Steward stood at attention in the corner near the door to the kitchen, and all but one of Peri's maids had retired.
Finally Yrcanos stood. "Our court may seem crude or barbaric to you, Doctor, but we are a civilized people, though bold in our manners. I can see that you and my fair queen have much to discuss. She has missed you greatly, and spoken of you often."
Turning to Peri, he grasped her face gently in his hands, dwarfing her petite visage with his mighty fists. "Laugh loudly this night, my love, for tomorrow?"
Peri responded with a wan smile, "Tomorrow we may die."
"Too right!" roared the King. "But not if my arm can prevent it! Doctor, good night!"
Yrcanos kissed Peri tenderly on the lips, then swept his Steward with him on the way out, leaving the Doctor and Peri alone in the vast, shadowy, deserted feasting hall.
The Doctor felt the soft emotions of this incarnation swelling up inside him. "Peri!" he said, smiling broadly, reaching for her hands.
"Oh, Doctor!" Peri said, and burst into tears.
Helplessly, the Doctor gathered Peri to his shoulder and patted her back as well as he could, hushing and attempting to soothe her.
She sat down in her throne, and the Doctor perched on the arm until she regained her composure.
"Peri, are you really so miserable? What can I do?" the Doctor said.
Peri stared at him, her brown eyes red and her face tear-stained.
"I'm really not," she said, trying to smile. "I was at first. I felt so trapped. But then, I always did - feel trapped - no matter where I was. No matter where in the universe you took me, all the wonders you tried to show me - I was always miserable."
"I'm so sorry, Peri - I should have taken you home," the Doctor said, grasping her hand.
"No! No, that's just it! I would have been miserable no matter where you took me - home most of all. I hated them, really. I hated them for what they let him do to me," Peri whispered, tears again flooding her eyes.
"Oh, Peri," the Doctor said, squeezing her hand in sympathy. She'd hinted, once or twice, but never really admitted all she'd suffered.
"I remember how we used to bicker and fight," Peri whispered. "But you know what? I adored you. Truly."
"I wish," the Doctor began, but then he took a bigger breath, and let it out. "I'm sorry I wasn't better to you. I'm so sorry I attacked you after I regenerated. It wasn't your fault, I just hope you know that."
Peri laughed, sadly. "I used to think, sometimes, that if I was better, stronger somehow, that people wouldn't target me. That you wouldn't have gone after me that way, your hands around my neck."
"I'm so, so sorry," the Doctor repeated, squeezing her hands with both of his.
"But it took Yrcanos to make me understand," she said.
"Tell me," the Doctor begged.
"I mean, he seemed so ludicrous at first. Didn't he? All his roaring! He seemed like such a fool!" Peri laughed, wiping her eyes. "But then I saw how fully he embraced everything about his life. A warrior? - he'd be the mightiest warrior who ever lived! A buffoon? -he'd spare no thought of himself to lift the spirits of his friends. A lover? - he'd be the tenderest, gentlest, most passionate lover ever to woo a tender maiden."
Peri smiled, and the Doctor saw at last, true joy behind her tears. "A tender maiden - me! No matter how moody or cross I was, no matter how sharp my tongue, Yrcanos wooed me. And not, you know, with presents and stuff-" she gestured at the costly jewels that dangled from every part of her costume, and around the hall at the royal finery that surrounded them. "He wooed me with tenderness. He made me open up, and tell him what I liked, instead of allowing me to constantly complain about everything that worried me or put me out. It took years, Doctor. Years."
"How long has it been, Peri?" the Doctor asked softly.
"Since you disappeared? Seven years - well, Krontep years. I'm no mathematician."
"So then - you're happy?" the Doctor wondered. She didn't seem happy, not really.
Peri looked down at their joined hands. "I loved you, Doctor, and I loved traveling with you. But you didn't make me better. You put up with me - and I put up with you - and we just kept each other going round and round the same old track. It wasn't till I came here that Yrcanos made me a warrior queen and taught me how to become one."
"Warrior queen," the Doctor repeated, smiling broadly.
"I can fight!" Peri exclaimed. "He taught me how to fight! With my hands, my body, a knife, a sword - I can hit a target with every arrow at 200 paces!"
Peri's face was alight with pride. The Doctor realized he'd never seen her look that way.
"That's wonderful, Peri - good for you!" he exclaimed.
"I never thought it was possible, you know, for me to fight. I never felt strong. I was always afraid."
"You were always strong, Peri," the Doctor said, but had he made her feel that way? Apparently not.
"And here, I have important things to do. I help them develop their agriculture, like Yrcanos said. And I do, you know, Queen things, like, feasting and celebrations. They seem to like me."
"Of course they do! Peri, they must adore you!" the Doctor said, smiling wide. This face, how it loved to smile!
"But you - you never came back for me. You left me. You left me!" And just like that, she was sobbing again. She pulled her hands back and scrubbed at her face, trying to get her breathing under control, but the sobs kept coming, and her reddened eyes stabbed the Doctor with accusatory glares.
"I'm here, Peri. I did come back. Look at me." The Doctor sat and patiently waited until Peri was able to make eye contact with him again. It took a little while, but her sobs dwindled away. She wiped at her face one last time with a hanky the Doctor gave her, then he took her hand again.
"I swear to you, Peri - I couldn't come until now. It's hard to explain. But sometimes, there are pockets of Time that are closed to me. I never would have left you here deliberately."
"I don't understand," Peri whispered.
"I don't either, not really - and I came first at temporal mechanics," the Doctor said. "Tell me all that you remember about when I disappeared."
"Well, I remember that we were under surveillance, and you had to act perfectly horrid to me, tying me up on the beach and all."
"You knew it was an act then!" the Doctor breathed, relieved.
"Of course! We cooked that up, remember?"
"The Time Lords tampered with my memories," the Doctor muttered, vexed that he hadn't even been sure of what Peri might remember.
"Time Lords, ha!" Peri exclaimed with bitterness. "If you were a Lord of Time it shouldn't have taken you seven years to get here."
"Granted," the Doctor allowed with a sigh of regret. Temporal mechanics were at their very worst when they made you seem to abandon your friends.
"Anyway, then they were going to try and put that awful slug man inside my head - but Yrcanos rescued me! He'd destroyed the machines!"
"Thank heavens!" the Doctor exclaimed. "They made me believe the machines had been repaired, that you'd been replaced, and your mind destroyed!"
"How horrible!" Peri said, eyes wide.
"Please - don't imagine it," the Doctor said. "Because of the way they tampered with my memories, I couldn't pilot the Tardis correctly."
"You told me about that," Peri recalled. "The true test of a Time Lord is the strength of his bond with his Tardis."
"Or her," the Doctor corrected absently. "But yes - the Tardis helps me navigate through the vortex, but our mental bond is crucial to helping her target our destination with pinpoint accuracy. She has essentially an entire universe, all of space and time, to pilot through - and many different possible realities that are just slightly out of synch with the main flow of space/time. She has to target the reality that I live within - the stream I inhabit - otherwise, I'd always be in danger of destroying the universe through paradox."
"The butterfly effect," Peri responded. "I'd always wondered about that."
"That's the miracle of the Tardis, and one of the reasons she's so necessary for time travel. Because of her bond with me, her lock on my time stream, and her calculations, she's able to help me avoid most danger of paradox."
"Didn't you tell me the TT capsules were originally designed for six pilots?" Peri asked. "Wouldn't that make it that much harder for her to avoid paradox?"
"Yes, it would have, if Time Lords ever bothered to go anywhere - but the difficulty was precisely what kept them at home. Even in dire necessity, they could hardly be persuaded to travel, because of the paradoxes."
"You traveled with your friend, Romana," Peri pointed out.
"She was young, and brilliant, and full of herself. Still is," the Doctor smiled. "Put a paradox up against Romana? She'd win, every time."
"So, you really couldn't come back for me?" Peri said after a moment.
"I couldn't. I'd seen you - destroyed," the Doctor shuddered in horror. "Peri, you must believe me. Part of me died when you ... I mean, when I saw you ... ruined... even when they told me it wasn't true, I couldn't shake the lie. It was hardwired into that brain - a deep trauma. This regeneration is a bit, hm, cheerier, you know?"
"Yes," Peri laughed. "I can see that."
Her smile was like the sun, and the Doctor basked in it. "Oh Peri, how wonderful it is to see you smile, really smile. Thanks for that!"
"You're welcome, Doctor!" Peri laughed, just a little bit embarrassed. She really had grown, so much more confident and open than he ever remembered. She never would have been able to speak of these intimate questions in the days when he'd known her.
"Anyway," he went on, "I'm a new man. Now I'm able to sort through what was real, and what wasn't, and I was able to bring the Tardis this close - seven years. Not wonderful, as piloting goes, but it could have been worse."
"I still have an arm to fight," Peri said loudly, and blushed as she realized how Krontep she'd become.
"Yes, you do - a strong arm, a sharp mind, the soul of a warrior queen," the Doctor stated.
Peri stared at him. "Do you really - do you really think so, Doctor?" she asked.
"Absolutely," the Doctor said.
Peri let out a breath and shook her head. "I didn't even realize how much I wanted to hear you say that. Thanks!"
They smiled at each other brilliantly and burst out laughing.
"How long can you stay?" Peri asked, after they'd calmed down.
"A while," he answered. "There's a war on. A Time War. It's always already begun."
"Then stay as long as you can," Peri said, decisively. "A warrior needs must revel before the battle!"
"As you wish, my Queen," the Doctor said.
Peri looked at him sharply at that, but smiled back when she saw his smile.
"My Queen," he repeated, with all his sincerity, "as you wish."
***
author: fannishliss
pairing, none
rating, PG, Gen
warning: hint of past non-con
words: 2600
summary: The Doctor finally catches up with Peri on Krontep.
Written for the who@50 fanficathon-athon. This story is about the Sixth Doctor, but told from the point of view of Eight and Peri.
###
The Tardis materialized in just the right place, for once: the crossroads outside the Krontep capital.
"Take me to your leader," the Doctor said with relish.
The Krontep warriors, recognizing a fellow soldier not just by his accoutrements and bearing, but by his level stare, did as they were requested.
Krontep instruments blared a fanfare amidst the banging of gongs and drums as the Doctor entered the royal hall. Runners had gone before to announce his presence.
"Welcome, Doctor, to the hall of Yrcanos, King of Krontep!" At home, the King was magnanimous and easy with his favor.
The royal roar was echoed back by a general masculine hurrah from the King's retinue.
And there, on the throne of the warrior queen of Krontep, was Peri, all in furs, fairly dripping with gold and resplendent gems. She frowned, peering at him - of course, he had changed.
He gazed back at her, drinking her in. She was just as lovely as he remembered: her penchant for skimpy clothing was apparently in line with royal fashion, and her body was as fit and lithe as ever.
By now, he had reached the royal dais and Yrcanos stood, beckoning him forward. Peri remained seated.
"Doctor! We are delighted to find that you live!" Yrcanos roared with pleasure, slapping the Doctor heartily on the upper arms.
"Yes, delighted," echoed Peri, but without much emphasis.
"The feeling, I must say, is mutual," the Doctor declared. "Peri! More beautiful than ever!"
Peri's frown deepened at the compliment, and the Doctor remembered how prickly he had been in the incarnation she'd last known. But surely, she remembered his previous self? -the youngest and sweetest tempered he'd been, up till now.
"You look so different," Peri acknowledged, glancing up and down at his leathers and shorn hair.
"Yes, yes," the Doctor acknowledged. "My friend Fitz assures me that clothes make the man."
Yrcanos followed their exchange closely but without comprehension. When they paused, the big warrior clapped the Doctor's shoulder.
"You have become a warrior! I salute you!"
The Doctor smiled tightly. "By necessity. A terrible war is breaking across the universe, and my people have chosen me to spearhead their campaign."
"A great honor!" roared Yrcanos, and his nobles stomped and shouted their agreement from the feasting table.
The Doctor merely shook his head slightly, but said, "I hope I'll be able to live up to their trust in me."
"I hope so too," Peri said.
The Doctor darted a look at her, but her tone and voice remained mild, queenly and in control.
"Wine for our honored guest!" the Queen commanded, and her handmaidens fluttered amongst themselves until they'd received an appropriate vintage from the Steward.
"My queen has improved the quality of our vineyards, orchards and gardens by a thousandfold!" Yrcanos announced, to general approval.
"I have no doubt," the Doctor nodded. The wine indeed was excellent.
Peri just looked away.
The evening continued along the same vein. Yrcanos laughed and feasted and roared, obviously delighted with his visitor's survival of what had seemed at the time to be certain death, and the Doctor tried to relax and enjoy the party. Peri however, seemed miserable, while at the same time making sure to reward Yrcanos for his every solicitous impulse. The King and Queen loosely held hands across the heavy arms of their thrones, their linked fingers sinking down into soft, luxurious furs.
It was not the custom at the court of Yrcanos for nobility to dance. Musicians did play, and dancers came out for entertainment, but the royals stuck to their thrones. Peri looked tired and more than a bit stifled. Was she really so unhappy? She seemed to care about Yrcanos, smiling at him and laughing at his jokes.
The night grew long, and nobles drifted away, till only the Steward stood at attention in the corner near the door to the kitchen, and all but one of Peri's maids had retired.
Finally Yrcanos stood. "Our court may seem crude or barbaric to you, Doctor, but we are a civilized people, though bold in our manners. I can see that you and my fair queen have much to discuss. She has missed you greatly, and spoken of you often."
Turning to Peri, he grasped her face gently in his hands, dwarfing her petite visage with his mighty fists. "Laugh loudly this night, my love, for tomorrow?"
Peri responded with a wan smile, "Tomorrow we may die."
"Too right!" roared the King. "But not if my arm can prevent it! Doctor, good night!"
Yrcanos kissed Peri tenderly on the lips, then swept his Steward with him on the way out, leaving the Doctor and Peri alone in the vast, shadowy, deserted feasting hall.
The Doctor felt the soft emotions of this incarnation swelling up inside him. "Peri!" he said, smiling broadly, reaching for her hands.
"Oh, Doctor!" Peri said, and burst into tears.
Helplessly, the Doctor gathered Peri to his shoulder and patted her back as well as he could, hushing and attempting to soothe her.
She sat down in her throne, and the Doctor perched on the arm until she regained her composure.
"Peri, are you really so miserable? What can I do?" the Doctor said.
Peri stared at him, her brown eyes red and her face tear-stained.
"I'm really not," she said, trying to smile. "I was at first. I felt so trapped. But then, I always did - feel trapped - no matter where I was. No matter where in the universe you took me, all the wonders you tried to show me - I was always miserable."
"I'm so sorry, Peri - I should have taken you home," the Doctor said, grasping her hand.
"No! No, that's just it! I would have been miserable no matter where you took me - home most of all. I hated them, really. I hated them for what they let him do to me," Peri whispered, tears again flooding her eyes.
"Oh, Peri," the Doctor said, squeezing her hand in sympathy. She'd hinted, once or twice, but never really admitted all she'd suffered.
"I remember how we used to bicker and fight," Peri whispered. "But you know what? I adored you. Truly."
"I wish," the Doctor began, but then he took a bigger breath, and let it out. "I'm sorry I wasn't better to you. I'm so sorry I attacked you after I regenerated. It wasn't your fault, I just hope you know that."
Peri laughed, sadly. "I used to think, sometimes, that if I was better, stronger somehow, that people wouldn't target me. That you wouldn't have gone after me that way, your hands around my neck."
"I'm so, so sorry," the Doctor repeated, squeezing her hands with both of his.
"But it took Yrcanos to make me understand," she said.
"Tell me," the Doctor begged.
"I mean, he seemed so ludicrous at first. Didn't he? All his roaring! He seemed like such a fool!" Peri laughed, wiping her eyes. "But then I saw how fully he embraced everything about his life. A warrior? - he'd be the mightiest warrior who ever lived! A buffoon? -he'd spare no thought of himself to lift the spirits of his friends. A lover? - he'd be the tenderest, gentlest, most passionate lover ever to woo a tender maiden."
Peri smiled, and the Doctor saw at last, true joy behind her tears. "A tender maiden - me! No matter how moody or cross I was, no matter how sharp my tongue, Yrcanos wooed me. And not, you know, with presents and stuff-" she gestured at the costly jewels that dangled from every part of her costume, and around the hall at the royal finery that surrounded them. "He wooed me with tenderness. He made me open up, and tell him what I liked, instead of allowing me to constantly complain about everything that worried me or put me out. It took years, Doctor. Years."
"How long has it been, Peri?" the Doctor asked softly.
"Since you disappeared? Seven years - well, Krontep years. I'm no mathematician."
"So then - you're happy?" the Doctor wondered. She didn't seem happy, not really.
Peri looked down at their joined hands. "I loved you, Doctor, and I loved traveling with you. But you didn't make me better. You put up with me - and I put up with you - and we just kept each other going round and round the same old track. It wasn't till I came here that Yrcanos made me a warrior queen and taught me how to become one."
"Warrior queen," the Doctor repeated, smiling broadly.
"I can fight!" Peri exclaimed. "He taught me how to fight! With my hands, my body, a knife, a sword - I can hit a target with every arrow at 200 paces!"
Peri's face was alight with pride. The Doctor realized he'd never seen her look that way.
"That's wonderful, Peri - good for you!" he exclaimed.
"I never thought it was possible, you know, for me to fight. I never felt strong. I was always afraid."
"You were always strong, Peri," the Doctor said, but had he made her feel that way? Apparently not.
"And here, I have important things to do. I help them develop their agriculture, like Yrcanos said. And I do, you know, Queen things, like, feasting and celebrations. They seem to like me."
"Of course they do! Peri, they must adore you!" the Doctor said, smiling wide. This face, how it loved to smile!
"But you - you never came back for me. You left me. You left me!" And just like that, she was sobbing again. She pulled her hands back and scrubbed at her face, trying to get her breathing under control, but the sobs kept coming, and her reddened eyes stabbed the Doctor with accusatory glares.
"I'm here, Peri. I did come back. Look at me." The Doctor sat and patiently waited until Peri was able to make eye contact with him again. It took a little while, but her sobs dwindled away. She wiped at her face one last time with a hanky the Doctor gave her, then he took her hand again.
"I swear to you, Peri - I couldn't come until now. It's hard to explain. But sometimes, there are pockets of Time that are closed to me. I never would have left you here deliberately."
"I don't understand," Peri whispered.
"I don't either, not really - and I came first at temporal mechanics," the Doctor said. "Tell me all that you remember about when I disappeared."
"Well, I remember that we were under surveillance, and you had to act perfectly horrid to me, tying me up on the beach and all."
"You knew it was an act then!" the Doctor breathed, relieved.
"Of course! We cooked that up, remember?"
"The Time Lords tampered with my memories," the Doctor muttered, vexed that he hadn't even been sure of what Peri might remember.
"Time Lords, ha!" Peri exclaimed with bitterness. "If you were a Lord of Time it shouldn't have taken you seven years to get here."
"Granted," the Doctor allowed with a sigh of regret. Temporal mechanics were at their very worst when they made you seem to abandon your friends.
"Anyway, then they were going to try and put that awful slug man inside my head - but Yrcanos rescued me! He'd destroyed the machines!"
"Thank heavens!" the Doctor exclaimed. "They made me believe the machines had been repaired, that you'd been replaced, and your mind destroyed!"
"How horrible!" Peri said, eyes wide.
"Please - don't imagine it," the Doctor said. "Because of the way they tampered with my memories, I couldn't pilot the Tardis correctly."
"You told me about that," Peri recalled. "The true test of a Time Lord is the strength of his bond with his Tardis."
"Or her," the Doctor corrected absently. "But yes - the Tardis helps me navigate through the vortex, but our mental bond is crucial to helping her target our destination with pinpoint accuracy. She has essentially an entire universe, all of space and time, to pilot through - and many different possible realities that are just slightly out of synch with the main flow of space/time. She has to target the reality that I live within - the stream I inhabit - otherwise, I'd always be in danger of destroying the universe through paradox."
"The butterfly effect," Peri responded. "I'd always wondered about that."
"That's the miracle of the Tardis, and one of the reasons she's so necessary for time travel. Because of her bond with me, her lock on my time stream, and her calculations, she's able to help me avoid most danger of paradox."
"Didn't you tell me the TT capsules were originally designed for six pilots?" Peri asked. "Wouldn't that make it that much harder for her to avoid paradox?"
"Yes, it would have, if Time Lords ever bothered to go anywhere - but the difficulty was precisely what kept them at home. Even in dire necessity, they could hardly be persuaded to travel, because of the paradoxes."
"You traveled with your friend, Romana," Peri pointed out.
"She was young, and brilliant, and full of herself. Still is," the Doctor smiled. "Put a paradox up against Romana? She'd win, every time."
"So, you really couldn't come back for me?" Peri said after a moment.
"I couldn't. I'd seen you - destroyed," the Doctor shuddered in horror. "Peri, you must believe me. Part of me died when you ... I mean, when I saw you ... ruined... even when they told me it wasn't true, I couldn't shake the lie. It was hardwired into that brain - a deep trauma. This regeneration is a bit, hm, cheerier, you know?"
"Yes," Peri laughed. "I can see that."
Her smile was like the sun, and the Doctor basked in it. "Oh Peri, how wonderful it is to see you smile, really smile. Thanks for that!"
"You're welcome, Doctor!" Peri laughed, just a little bit embarrassed. She really had grown, so much more confident and open than he ever remembered. She never would have been able to speak of these intimate questions in the days when he'd known her.
"Anyway," he went on, "I'm a new man. Now I'm able to sort through what was real, and what wasn't, and I was able to bring the Tardis this close - seven years. Not wonderful, as piloting goes, but it could have been worse."
"I still have an arm to fight," Peri said loudly, and blushed as she realized how Krontep she'd become.
"Yes, you do - a strong arm, a sharp mind, the soul of a warrior queen," the Doctor stated.
Peri stared at him. "Do you really - do you really think so, Doctor?" she asked.
"Absolutely," the Doctor said.
Peri let out a breath and shook her head. "I didn't even realize how much I wanted to hear you say that. Thanks!"
They smiled at each other brilliantly and burst out laughing.
"How long can you stay?" Peri asked, after they'd calmed down.
"A while," he answered. "There's a war on. A Time War. It's always already begun."
"Then stay as long as you can," Peri said, decisively. "A warrior needs must revel before the battle!"
"As you wish, my Queen," the Doctor said.
Peri looked at him sharply at that, but smiled back when she saw his smile.
"My Queen," he repeated, with all his sincerity, "as you wish."
***