"Time enough for desserts" (Doctor Who / Queen of Swords)
note: this written before the Simms edition of The Master came on tv on either side of the Pond.
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Title: Time enough for Desserts.
Author: Keenir.
Crossover: The Queen of Swords / Doctor Who
Summary: The Doctor finds the Master is alive and well…in a pueblo with a ghost from his past controlling more than it should.
Characters: The Doctor, Ace, The Master, Luis Montoya, Marta, Tessa Alvarado, Marcus Grisham, Susan, Robert Helm, a whole lot of soldiers & kids & villagers.
with thanks to Brig and everyone for their help with the Tarot...any errors and assumptions are entirely my own.
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Late 1816:
The dreams again. The Lieutenant downed another bottle. First one today or second? Bah, it's a small bottle anyway. Dreams full of voices, voices telling him what he should do, what needed to be done, what he was tasked with doing. "Like life's not tough enough already," he grumbled. He was here because he'd ran. Trouble on the battlefield had sent him running. Trouble was trouble. Conniving and plots, he could deal with. But not that. Different kettle of fish altogether. Mix dreams with a mess of things in the field, and there was trouble enough to get any man a'running. Like him.
Now he's here, drinking in a bar in the middle of a desert. Maybe not the middle middle, but still plenty dry. Dry and the place the dreams told him to go - they were annoyingly specific - though he didn't relish the idea of staying here for as long as he lived…though that was what the dreams instructed.
As he washed his throat with the contents of his latest glass of - was that whiskey or rum? - the doors to the bar opened, and there was an agitated mob at the door. A small mob, more of a gang, but still enough to handle him in his present state. "You're coming with us, Lieutenant," one of the gang told him as they rushed him.
As he was being grabbed, his foremost regret was that the glass was knocked from his hand…the bastards didn't even grant him the honor of setting it down on the counter.
They hauled him off the barstool and outside, across the short street to a horse trough. Great, just frickin' great he thought to himself in the time it took for him to be bent double and -
With a splash that registered in his mind only as the *clap* of both ears being thrust underwater, breaking surface tension, they held him down, not letting him pull his head out of the trough. He couldn't move, not with his arms firmly held in place, his head kept still.
And he found he could still breathe. This realization sparked memories, recollections surfacing after a year of he having gone without knowing those things were there. He was… he knew… He is patient, counting a minute, two, and three minutes when the gang let go, fully expecting that he would collapse when they let go.
He stood up on his own, a wicked grin on his face as he watched the looks on their faces. As much as it dirtied his hands, he beat them all up, found he was still good at it, even with his old memories back. He was, after all, himself, and that include all this past year.
Looking over the bodies, the Master smiled.
A smile interrupted only by the thought that his lifetime was eternity.
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1818:
The tardis appeared in the center of the ruins where Antonio had unmasked the Queen of Swords. "Professor, can we eat now?" Ace asked.
"Of course," the Doctor said. "There should be a nice fish shop not far from here.
Opening the door, Ace looked outside. "Are you sure?" not sure why the Doctor didn't want to eat in the Tardis, but he no doubt had a good reason for this.
"I am," joining her at the door. "Can't you smell the sea air?"
Ace refrained from a sigh. Either he was entirely serious, or it was one of his more elaborate jokes. If the latter, she'd learned by now to let him play things out to their punchline. If the former, well, fish was always a good thing. Preferably fried and drizzled with vinegar. "So where're we going?"
He smiled at her, the sort of smile that made traveling companions very nervous. It wasn't a common one, for which all were grateful. "After you."
"Me?"
"You."
"Why me? You're the one who's smelling the sea!"
"You're not trying, Ace."
Reluctantly, Ace lifted her nose in the air, and took a deep sniff.
"Not a word," the Doctor said when she opened her mouth. "After you," and locked the tardis once the door was clear.
Having found a breeze-odor that didn't simply smell like dust, ants - or cats! - or the baked waxy leaves of desert plants, Ace started walking. If the Doctor were human, she mused, all this might be put down to him just not wanting to re-park the tardis. She smiled at the image, not ridding herself of the grin for a while. A grin that grew as she heard something… a thudding, a rumbling. "I hear horses," she told the Professor.
"Excellent," he said and they clambered up the hill to look for the horses - horses usually tending to indicate humans in the general neighborhood far better than random ruins did.
"Grass!" Ace groaned, seeing no horses; only clouds of dust were visible - and those were on every horizon! She didn't collapse to sit on the ground, nor kneel nor sit on her haunches; but she did put her hands on her knees. "Well, Professor, what now?"
"I'd say we resume what we were doing before being so rudely interrupted by the hooves."
"But there's nothing there," waving one hand out at all the desert scrub before them. "See?"
Leaning back on his umbrella, "If you're not really hungry, Ace, I understand. In fact, I think sightseeing would be -"
How does he do it? she asked herself. So often, so very often… "Alright," and sniffed again, feeling silly and too catlike for comfort. Pointing in one direction, she led the way as they resumed travel.
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ALVARADO HACIENDA:
She had just returned from standing by the fireside, staring at Capitan Grisham's boot. She'd helped Tessa remove the boot, had gone to check the cards…and the results had sent her back to make sure the boot was still there. It was, so she returned to her tarot. Marta was running the cards again, seeing if they gave the same result as a minute ago.
The =Hanged Man= was back, with a =Death= keeping it company. "Let us see who you are," Marta said quietly, dealing more tarot. "You are friends with…" and shook her head, looking at the =King of Swords= which sat there almost with a smirk on his face.
Also in association with the Hanged Man, it seemed, was a =Queen of Pentacles= positioned upside-down. "A woman without roots," Marta observed. The =Knight of Wands= kept the Queen company. "One and the same."
"Marta?" Tessa asked.
"Yes?" not looking up.
"What do they say?"
"Nothing good. The King of Swords is on your trail, and…" and the cards said nothing more about Tessa. "And there will be two travelers arriving in town soon." Very soon. Shortly indeed. "You must be careful of them." Tessa had, Marta observed with gratitude, finally changed out of Grisham's clothes.
"What sort of travelers?" Tessa asked. "The Hanged Man?"
"Yes, but mind that this is not a man who has been given a second chance," Marta said. "There is the air of death about him."
"Doctor Helm?"
"No. The King of Swords is his ally, not him himself." That and, Marta said, being honest with herself, we do not know if Dr. Helm is any good at plotting anything. "The cards around *this* Hanged Man bode worse than did the last time I drew that card."
"I see," Tessa said, remembering Krane.
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PART TWO:
The Next Day:
The Queen of Swords was racing across the scrub - a shortcut to catch up to the latest coach bound for Monterrey - when Chico reared up, taking Tessa by surprise and almost unseating her. Almost, but not quite. "Easy," Tessa said to calm him down. "Easy. Good boy," when Chico was still. "What it is?" she asked.
Chico whickered, flinging his head first left, then right.
From the saddle, Tessa looked at the spots to their left and right. Left had a freshly-dead grasshopper mouse, with an approaching rattlesnake. Right had a shallow gully, barely knee-height, overgrown with wide-leaved weeds. "Feel better now?" she asked.
Chico whickered again, but let her get him galloping again.
As the rattler swallowed the mouse, a light breeze began blowing. The broad leaves fluttered like the wings of baby birds, exposing glimpses of white bone. A skull, more specifically, a fish skull. Not two feet down the gully was the fish's foot bone.
By the time the snake was done gulping down the mouse, which always is a most methodical practice, Marcus Grisham had arrived and dismounted. Looking at the Queen of Swords racing towards the horizon and the taxes beyond, Grisham reached down into the leaves and pulled out the fish skull. "So, you too, eh?" he asked the dead Silurian, and received no answer. Heading back to Equilateral, {his horse}, he hurled the skull at a nearby boulder. For an armored fish, the boned sure broke easily enough. "Failed," he muttered at the scattering shards.
Mounting up, "Okay, lets see if we can get the red ribbon today," and brought his horse back up to speed. He knew what lay beneath this land. Not in a spiritual sense, that is; but in a very real sense, a flesh-and-blood sense. Knew it needed to stay right where it was.
If it got loose, it could all too easily repeat the madness and the atrocity for which it was imprisoned.
Deep down, under several tones of rock, the prisoner sat in her hand-carved throne, looking her accusers in the eyes. This wasn't hard to do, as every square foot of wall space had the etched-in image of a different alien species. Even the Daleks were present, both as Dals and Daleks.
She had been a Goddess, a Motivator, a Savior and Rescuer. If not for her, that star would have exploded, taking two life-bearing worlds with it - and each of those two worlds had native intelligences at the time of the threat from their sun. She'd fired hordes of carbon into the star, stabilizing it. "And for my troubles…" she said neutrally; grumbling and muttering were behind her now. Now she had a way out of here. Soon.
And in shambled the keypiece of her plan. "Mi'lady, Sacred One," it said, "I am honoured to be the summoned." It was one of a dozen survivors from the incident with that star. "What loyalty may I demonstrate?"
"Young Alvarado," she told it, "needs another dream. Have her father's image demand my jailer's blood." Unspoken was the implicit *go*. Away it shambled, obedient to the hilt.
Soon.
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In Early Afternoon:
If he says `sniff' or any of that rot one more time, Ace thought to herself midway through the ascent of yet another hill, I'll bloody well kill him, myself. Maybe (even) twice. Her legs ached, her feet so sore she suspected a callus or somesuch sat within at least one shoe, and her throat was dry - almost as dry as her mouth. "Professor," she said as best she could.
He held up one hand - not the one holding his umbrella.
Don't say it! Don't even say it!
"Listen."
Okay.
The sounds were faint, but clearly on the other side of the hill - *this* hill. "It's the queen!" many were shouting. Children's voices, playing…but also repeating something they'd heard adults saying many times before.
"'Queen'?" the Doctor puzzled. "This is northern Mexico. Neither Mexico nor her neighbors have queens, and none of the Spanish queens ever came out this way."
"So who is it?" Ace asked him.
"Haven't a clue. Let's go and find out, shall we?"
With a sigh from tired lungs and trudging with pained feet, "After you."
Nothing interrupted them on the rest of the way up, but when Ace caught sight of what lay in the center of this dusty town in a dusty land, she cried, "Meet you at the fountain, Professor!" and bolted down the hill, having every intention of a long soak. This town *does* have a bathhouse and-or running water… don't they?
Darting past a tall and rather fetching man in a side street, "Sorry!" Ace said as she managed to avoid knocking him over, though she didn't stop herself from brushing against him.
She only stopped running when she got to the fountain, where she shut her eyes and dunked her head under for a moment, then brought it back up, opening her eyes -
And seeing a uniformed officer standing almost opposite of her at the fountain {for directly opposite was obscured by part of the fountain itself. Ace's tired body took a while before she interrupted her silent gazing upon this man, saying "Hi."
"Good day, senorita," Luis Montoya said, wondering who exactly this nyad was. Had a ship docked and nobody told him? If a carriage from the other directions… Where was it? "Are you a traveler?"
With a broad, secretive grin, "Yep." It was easy to be secretive when the truth needed only vague answers like that.
"And your means of transport?"
"Its safe," Ace said.
"Surely it would be safer here in my pueblo."
If it needs to be moved, the Professor'll get the job done, "Hold on - *your* pueblo?"
"Si. I am Colonel Luis Ramirez Montoya, Commander of this garrison, Sheppard of the people of this land."
"I'm Dorothy," Ace said, the words having tumbled out before she could stop them. "But you can call me Ace if you like."
Luis nodded. "I shall keep it under advisement, senorita."
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A Little While Later:
Grisham sighed. Yet. Again. Yet again La Reina'd gotten away, elu
Ded the men under his command. Maybe that's the problem, he mused. They're only human. God knows there's plenty of decent hunters and trackers in the universe. But that was all Out There, the vastness of space which is closed off to him now. "Damnit!"
"Capitan?" one of his men asked, all while trying to look like he wasn't regretting having pulled up closer to Grisham than the others had.
"Take the men back, Rodriguez; and I expect everyone to be in full uniform and running drills by the time I get back."
"Yes, Capitan Grisham," Rodriguez said, and herded the men back to Santa Ilona.
Once they were all gone, "May as well, eh?" he asked Equilateral, who whinneyed. "Yeah, I know," and headed over to something that would've made a terrifically-imposing mountain -- if only it was more than thirty feet tall. Once by the entrance, Grisham dismounted and walked towards the door that opened for him. Entering was easy; it was leaving which required the password. Walked down the corridor of raw, unshaped rock, continued as the passageways began to be filled by more and more writing.
At last, after a good clip of walking, he arrived in the Chamber Of Faces. Rather than ask if his own visage was anywhere, he hollered, "Hey!" I know she's down here, but why shouldn't I interrupt whatever she's doing? If I have to be stuck in this blink territory, she doesn't get to ignore my visits. "Come out, come out, wherever you are."
She showed up, crawling out from one of this room's narrower tunnels, one so narrow even Vera would've had trouble with it. But the prisoner was short and slight enough that there was no trouble for her with it. Standing up, "Does your visit have a point this time?" she asked, heading for her throne, hoping he wasn't here just to mock her present state and ultimate fate…again.
"Checking you're still here."
No rolling of eyes -- that was a human thing. And while she'd spent much long time amongst humans, she was never human. "There are many places I would go, if I were not a captive of Them."
Grisham smirked. "Like where?"
"Places of my concern."
"Like…?"
"Nowhere you'd go."
Again a smirk. "Ya never know where I'd go."
"I have no reason to concern myself with your habits."
No smirk. "Your loss."
"I have suffered one lost in my life, and it did not involve you, of that, you may be certain."
"The day you were captured?"
"No."
"Then when?"
"Before."
"Past, present, future?"
"Before."
"C'mon, you can tell me."
"No."
"Sure you can. Who'm I gonna tell?"
"That is a concern, to be sure."
"What, you don't trust me?"
"No."
"Pity."
"I have that, though not for you."
Grisham clapped one hand to his chest in mock pain. "You wound me."
"Not as yet."
Chuckling, he turned his back on her. She wouldn't do anything, he knew -- even if she tried and succeeded in killing him, he'd regenerate, and she'd still be trapped in this chamber and it's tunnels -- and she knew it. Plans within short-term plans didn't work too well here in this cage.
The chamber - the cage - worked and was sufficient for short-term.
That was what it'd been designed and constructed for.
The Master was here for everything else.
"Adios," Grisham said, walking back to the entrance.
"Scram," she said, recalling what'd happened the last time she'd followed him to the entrance-and-exit: he'd stood in one place, not going near the equipment that controlled the door, the equipment which was tamper-proof even to those of her intellect. He'd outwaited her, pure and simple.
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And In That Night:
Tessa was dreaming. She knew she was dreaming: she was kneeling beside her mothe's grave, and the dirt atop both graves was fresh, having been there for less than a day by the look of it.
"Hello, Tessa."
Tessa stood up to see her father, who was standing behind her. "Papa!" and noticed the sad look on his face. "Papa?"
"You have done so well, my little angel," he said. "The people are better off now. But there is more you can do. I speak of the man who deemed my death necessary."
She nodded. "I try, Papa, but Colonel Montoya -"
"No."
"'No'?"
"Montoya is powerful, yes, and wicked. But he is easily distracted. Tessa, my death was orchestrated by the very same man who fired the fatal shot into me. My daughter, to ease my spirit, to free me from Purgatory, you must…"
She might've not always paid the utmost attention to services whilst growing up, but Maria Theresa most certainly knew what Purgatory was, and how essential it is to escape that realm for the better place. "Yes, Papa? What do I need to do? I'll do it!" How many Ave Marias and pilgrimages are needed? No number can be too high.
"You must kill Captain Grisham."
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Part 3
While Tessa was dreaming, Marta was tossing and turning.
Circles. Concentric circles, one within another within another within… on and on. All of them are ridges, like the whorls of a fingerpad, only no finger leaves a mark like this. A feeling of *big*ness to it. Not vast nor huge, but certainly very big. And all of it hanging over their heads.
Marta opened her eyes and sat up, catching her breath, willing her pulse to return to normal. "Madre Dios," she breathed. All the circles, the entire dream… it had carried with it the feel of danger, of impending problems… "Tessa!" and got out of bed, tossing on a robe as she headed for the door, went down the hall, and knocked on Tessa's door. No answer. "Tessa?" and still no answer was forthcoming.
Marta opened the door, and found Tessa's room empty.
On checking the likely places of the house, Marta found Tessa's sword also absent. As was the clothing of the Queen of Swords.
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SOON AFTER:
COMMANDANCIA:
The Doctor and Ace had accepted the Colonel's offer of putting them up in his place, at least for their first night in this land.
Now, having found herself unable to sleep, Ace had accepted Colonel Montoya's offer of a game of chess while the Doctor slept, hat tucked over his face, umbrella nestled alongside him on the bench where he slept. "I must say," Luis said as Ace moved her remaining knight, "you are more accomplished at this game than most women are."
This' the past, Ace reminded herself. "Had a lot of practice."
"Playing chess?"
"Fighting battles." Against all sorts of enemies.
"Have you ever met Napoleon, or Wellington."
"Not that I recall," trying to remember. "Nope, don't think I did." The Doctor might've met `em, but not with me. "Met some other famous people, though."
"Is that so?" Franklin? Jefferson? Murat?
"Yup. How `bout you? Ever met famous people?"
"Before I had become a man, I had the opportunity, by chance, to meet the Emperor's brother."
A chill went down Ace's spine when she heard that, and it took an effort to try to think he meant someone *other* than the Emperor Dalek. There's lotsa other emperors out there… "Which emperor?"
"At the time, he held that title. Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte."
"Oh. Him. Think I started to read a book about him once."
Luis just looked at her, not sure how to respond to that. So, to fill the silence, he seized her rook with his bishop. "I believe this is Check."
Ace looked at the board, eyes slightly narrowing, then returning to normal. Running her own bishop between his bishop and his king, "An' so's this."
Like the Queen of Swords, you seem to always have a surprise for me. However, I believe you could have chosen better. His bishop abducted hers. "And once more." And noticed she was grinning. I suspect I may have missed two things rather than the one of just before now.
"Last one," Ace said, her queen doing away with his bishop.
"I see that you do not have me in Check, senorita," Luis said.
"What? Sure I do!"
"To the contrary, you have delivered a Checkmate," and tipped his head to her, conceding defeat for this round…and heard a window in the other room knocking against its windowframe. The wind is blowing, but that the window is open to begin with… It did not take a tactician to deduce who his new guest was. "If you would excuse me," standing up and heading to the next room.
"Anything I can do to help?"
"I will let you know shortly," Luis said, figuring La Reina just wanted to harass him some more - again - and would leave shortly thereafter. He walked to the next room, opening the intervening doors for himself, and two-handed drawing them closed behind him - though they didn't shut all the way. The flash of movement that occurred next was barely visible to the naked eye.
La Reina stood there, her sword's tip now inches away from Montoya's throat. "Where is he?"
"He who, senora?" Montoya asked. Are you after this doctor now, rather than Dr Helm?
"Grisham."
Normally, I might say that your standards are slipping, La Reina; or that I am shocked, shocked I say, and a bit hurt, that I am your second visit, and not your first.
"I was just at his place."
I would remark that words fail me, save that she has her sword where she has it.
"He's not there," the Queen of Swords said. "Where is he?"
"I do not know."
An inch closer now. Not yet touching hair or skin, but still closer than it had been. "You know everything that goes on in Santa Ilona."
So nice to hear someone admit that.
"So where is he?"
"According to my soldiers," Montoya said, "he remained out in the scrub, continuing to look for you."
"Then I'll go looking." A-grisham-hunting I go.
"Where would you look?" curious.
"Everywhere I need to."
"'Need''s a funny word," Ace said, standing in the doorway in a nightgown and one of the Doctor's sweaters. "Lotsa people use it, not so many know what it means. Where're you gonna look?" reiterating Montoya's question.
It took Tessa a moment to recover from the sight of someone in a nightgown *in Montoya's quarters*. "As I said, everywhere I need to."
Ace bore an amused look. "Do ya know where you're needing to look?"
"No."
"Then where're you going to look?"
Pulling her sword away from Montoya's neck, "Who are you?" she asked Ace.
"I'm Ace. Who're you?" I've been all through time and space, but I've never seen anybody with as little fashion sense as… cripes, even *I* know better than to wear that sorta thing.
"This," Montoya said, "is the Queen of Swords."
Ace chuckled. "You're joking."
"Something funny?" La Reina asked.
"Yeah. What kinda name is `queen of swords'?" *This* is who the kids were talking about when we arrived in town??
"I have my reasons for chosing this name."
Even in light this poor, you could see the skepticism on Ace's face.
"I should go," La Reina said, heading for the ledge, not taking her eyes off Montoya. "Word of advice, Colonel - start looking for a new Captain of the Guard."
"I take your advice under advisement," Montoya said, "though perhaps it will not be you who is victorious this time."
"Keep dreaming, Colonel."
"Every night," he assured her.
"How comforting," and leaped off the ledge, onto Chico, and rode off.
As Ace walked up to him, curiosity on her face, and her watching La Reina ride off, "Invariably," Montoya said to Ace, "this sort of thing happens. She comes here, sword to my throat, and leaves when I tell her what she wanted to hear."
"'Invariably'? This happens a lot `round here?"
"With greater frequency than I would prefer, certainly."
"Then let's get her."
Luis weighed the options. On one hand, tracking someone in the dead of night was not easy by any measure. On the other hand, he definitely liked her enthusiasm. "And what of your companion?"
Weird. Usually I'm the one called a companion. "He can always find me," assuming he doesn't want to come with us right now.
"Very well," bowing and sweeping one arm towards the nearest stairs; knowing there's no way he'd win an argument against her…he just had a hunch about that. "Let us go."
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MEANWHILES:
Rau was of a race not yet even as old as humanity, though the first krirau had been born millions of years ago - an appearant paradox solved easily when time travel is invoked. The krirau had arisen on a world which was mostly oceans and swamps…but the habitat of the krirau was in fact the precious and rare mountain ranges that remained dry.
When scaling cliffs and descending down slopes, a krirau was reasonably graceful.
But here on flat ground, Rau could do nothing better than a graceless shuffle.
Taking a shortcut through the town, he was going unseen by anyone. Krirau had no camouflage, no coloration or shape that enabled them to blend in with *any* environment…but they had a weapon which served them just as well. Returning from his latest assignment, Rau was full of pride at how well he'd served the Sacred One yet again. She had saved the last dozen krirau, and every one of the dozen was committed to proving themselves just as obedient as all the other - now-dead - krirau.
Even with as slow as he was going, Rau tripped, and held out one arm to catch himself with - for Krirau paws had no digits to them, but gripping was still possible for them - but the door was not as solid or as grounded as other things were, resulting in Rau crashing through the door, the door shredded from its hinges.
Awoken by the clamour, "Who's there?" Doctor Helm called out to the room, and got out of bed, reaching for his gun. His mind immediately dismissed three candidates of whom it could be: La Reina, Grisham, and Montoya make their presences known in a lot better - and certainly quieter - ways than that. So who was it?
"Thank you, Robert," Camilla told him, her voice full of gratitude and love for him.
Helm spun around, not seeing her anywhere. Next, he embarked on a search of his entire residence, and still could not find her…nor did he ever notice the broken door or its now-empty doorway.
Rau, who had projected Camilla's voice into Helm's head once again, ambled away slowly as ever. He had done something similar before - making Helm believe that real life was imitating a dream, thereby ensuring that Helm would not leave before he had served the Sacred One's interests.
Now…now was perhaps another matter.
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HALF AN HOUR LATER:
Tessa found Grisham (out in the middle of nowhere) sitting around a controlled fire, the fire being surrounded by a row of encircling stones. "What *are* you doing?" La Reina asked, stopping a safe distance from the fire, though close enough they could talk without shouting. They weren't on directly opposite sides of the fire, more of alongside and *then* across.
"What, its not obvious?" Grisham asked.
"That's right."
With a sigh of regret for the poor deprived girl, "I'm camping."
"You're what?"
"Camping." Its a very human thing.
"Why?"
"Why?"
"Yes, why?"
"I don't know…to watch the stars," all those things out of bounds to me now, "keep an eye on the fire here," fire never repeats itself, yet never breaks the rules of its existence. "How `bout you?"
La Reina drew her sword.
Never one for subtlety. "What'cha planning to do?" Grisham asked.
"I'm going to kill you," La Reina said stonily.
Without batting an eye, "And then?"
"I'll spit on your grave."
"No," Grisham said, though it puzzled Tessa that he wasn't using a tone that said he objected to it. "I mean, what're you going to do after you kill me."
"Spit on your grave. Comprende Espanol, Capitan?"
"Oh si si, I comprende. But I'm not sure you're following along too well."
"How so?"
"Well, you …wait, its my fault."
"Naturally."
He made a face at the interruption. "I asked the wrong thing of you. I should've asked - how many times are you planning to kill me?"
"Once will be enough." And then Papa's soul can escape Purgatory, and ascend to Heaven where he belongs.
"I see. Thanks for letting me get away," Marcus said, tipping his hat to her.
"I just said you'll be dead."
A shrug. "That's minor…momentary, whatever the word is."
"What?"
"I said its not a problem. Don't worry about it."
"Are you suggesting you wouldn't die if I killed you?"
Grisham snorted. "Of course I'd die." Then there'd be a new me.
"Good," and charged at him, her sword leading the way.
Marcus Grisham didn't get out of her way.
Chico's feet pounded the earth beneath him as he plunged forward.
El Capitan still refused to budge.
In the back of her mind, Tessa could hear her father, how he would heap praise upon her for doing this. In the physical world, her outstretched sword was almost upon Grisham. Almost --
And abruptly, Marcus swung to the side, pivoting on one foot, and reached up and swung La Reina off her horse, kissing her as soon as her lips were within reach. No knocking my skull this time.
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Making sure her arms were pinned to her sides, while he continued to kiss her, Grisham pressed the nerves that would open her fists, releasing her sword to the ground. Don't plan on dying anytime soon, he said to himself.
After a bit of time - less than a minute, he estimated - he let go, ending the kiss as well. Tessa stumbled backwards, gasping for breath. I keep forgetting they don't have back-up respiratory passages, he thought with a grin.
"I'll wipe that smirk off your face," Tessa said once she had caught her breath, stomping towards him.
Stepping on her sword before she could get to it, "It's a smile," he told her. In answer, she tried to punch him. The part of him that'd learned these things while his older self had had amnesia, ducked and weaved expertly, and all without stepping off the sword. "Look, either I can knock you out, and take you where we're going…or I can walk with you to that same spot. Personally, I know which I'd rather do." You don't look like you weigh much, Tessa, but I never did like carrying people.
"I'll walk," Tessa said, figuring it gave her a better chance to kill him while his attention was elsewhere.
He nodded. "Great. By the way, I carry the swords," abruptly picking hers up once he stepped off it.
"So where are we going?"
"Underground."
"Again?" thinking of the mine.
"I've been underground a lot," and not every instance in this part of the world, or even this world at all.
Tessa snorted.
"Wha? You don't believe me?"
"That should be a given by now in our relationship."
"Oh, but you admit we've got a relationship." So there's hope, after all.
"Yes, and it goes as far as you trying to fight, and me knocking you senseless."
You might not survive past tonight, Alvarado. So what the heck? "You're welcome to try."
"Excuse me?"
"Hard of hearing now?"
"I think so - I thought you actually invited me to hit you."
"Yep - you're welcome to try."
"Give me back my sword."
"Nope."
"Give it. Back."
"What, can't hit a barn without your sword?"
La Reina shrugged. "There's no farm implements handy."
"That was you?"
"Pig flesh needs to be aired out."
Grisham whistled. "Didn't think you liked pork - long *or* short."
"Do I *look* Jewish?"
"Doesn't matter."
"What?"
"You heard me…so, are you stalling so you don't have to hit me?"
She swung - and Marcus caught her hand - and caught her other hand when she swung that too.
"You might want to ask for a refund on your fighting lessons. Now, you ready to go where you were heading when you came across me?"
"I was looking for you."
"Sweet as that is, I doubt it."
"If I didn't find you, I couldn't kill you."
"True, and internally consistant. But that's not what brought you out here."
"What're you talking about? Of course it is."
"It's the rationale you're using, sure, but that doesn't make it the whole truth."
"What would you know of the truth?"
"That its very handy."
Tessa snorted.
"Fine. Tessa Alvarado, you going to walk or not?"
La Reina raised a hand, and felt that her mask and the rest of her disguise was all still in place. So how…? "How?"
"Nobody else recognized you in that get-up, so why should I single myself out?"
---------------------------
"I wantto thank you by the way," Ace said once they were a ways away from the pueblo, the night sky overhead. Ace made a point of not looking at the stars glaring down at her."
"Thank me? For what, senorita?" Luis asked.
"For the dinner you shared with me an' the Doctor."
"De nada in that case. It was my pleasure to do so." It has been a very long time since I had a shared dinner with anyone. The last one was, I do believe, Kami.
"I mean, we dropped in without an invite, a by-the-way, or anything."
"I had some extra food on hand." Thank goodness La Reina has not discovered how to invade food pantries and cellars. "A shared meal is always a delight."
Ace was thankful she had a high collar, given that her neck was feeling a little warm(ish) at the moment. He's no Professor, she told herself. "I'm sure the Doctor appreciates it."
Montoya shrugged. "I feel I must apologize - given that our dinner conversation seemed to focus on myself," much as I kept trying to deflect the conversation, that Doctor repeatedly returned conversation to the topic of me. "And during our chess, neither of us said a great deal."
"No worries," Ace said.
"Gracias. But I am," rather "curious about you. What brings you to my pueblo?"
Ace shrugged. "I came with the Professor."
Like Kami came with her master. "You said you had a traveling device. Surely you could have stayed there, while the Doctor came to the pueblo."
Looking a little guilty. "I was hungry, and I didn't feel like having the food we have aboard ship." Granted the TARDIS can make anything, I felt like having some real real food. Not just food that tastes like food.
"Ah, then I have your stomach to thank," Luis said with humour.
"Yeah, guess so," Ace said, appreciating the joke.
"So, when you are exhausted with exploring my pueblo, where will you and your Doctor go next."
Too right he's my Doctor, Ace thought to himself. Then again, he's probably been other gals' Doctor too…like I'd've been the first human to learn the clinging secrets of Gallifreyan intimacy. "Oh, we'll find someplace. We generally go to places neither of us've been to before." Except for Perivale…but the Doctor was teaching me a lesson there. Ace fought against the logical outgrowth of that thought, mentally struggled against the idea that - that there were places and things the Doctor had taught lessons to other companions, just as he'd done with Ace. He's mine…mine…
But Ace knew that she would age and age and one day die, and that would be all, that that would be the end of her.
The Doctor, meanwhile, wouldn't age at all. He'd simply die and come back. The Doctor…
He never kept a companion for very long, never more than a few decades. By that time, if they hadn't been killed in the course of adventures, he'd find a good home for them… And go off, finding new traveling companions and new adventures.
Before Montoya could even ask `and then where will you go?' curious to know the answer, Ace dropped hear head, and Luis could hear - through her hair - muffled and choked-back sobs. Not a torrent of regret, but more a long trickle of fear - and he well knew the sound of fear. "Senorita Ace?"
Without a word, she came over to him, her long legs gulping down distance before Montoya was aware she'd done it. And she was close to him now, very close, her eyes veiled by the dampness of tears. "Senorita?" Luis asked, not objecting, but not sure she knew what she was doing.
"I…just want to see…" something, Ace thought as she leaned over and kissed Luis, right between his cheek and his lips.
The tableau held for several moments, neither of them moving.
As they separated, something grabbed them from behind, lifting them like limp kittens, the both of them finding themselves unable to move, unable to struggle or fight.
------------------------
"What are you doing all this for, Grisham?" Tessa asked.
"You asking to pass the time, or because you want to know?" Not gonna ask if she thinks I'm about to lower my guard…'sides, what if she said Yes to that?
"I want to know."
"Well, at least you're asking the right way…unlike your pop."
"You killed my father because he asked a question the wrong way?!!?"
"He didn't ask me at all, actually. Your dear papa just blindly trusted the word of someone I've been sitting guard over."
"And what was this person imprisoned for?" sure it would be `tax evasion' or something like that.
"It's a bit of a tale to tell."
"Are we there yet?"
"No."
"Then we have time for you to tell me," Tessa said.
Marcus sighed from his mouth and his secondary system - the same secondary system that all Time Lords have. "You're familiar with heliocentric theory, right?"
"Si, but what does that have to do -?"
"It's the right theory for most worlds…but picture in your mind, a place where the sun orbits around a planet, a planet in the middle of the universe," not sure if the term `solar system' had reached any educational system hereabouts or in Madrid. "Two suns revolve around that world." And another world precariously orbits around the three of them. Both the central and the outer world had life.
"Okay," Tessa said, visualizing it as a painting…not trying to see two suns in her mind's eye.
"My prisoner went to that world," that central orb, "and…what she did there got her believed in by the people who lived there - they thought of her as a prophet or a deity…they didn't draw the line as cleanly as people around here," referring to all of Earth by that. "She led the entire population on a journey…and sat by and watched as all but ten of the people died." Swallowed up by their sun; of all the unpleasant ways to go… And going in because they were asked to, and shuddered.
Despite herself, Tessa shuddered as well. She'd heard stories of the perfidy of the Jews and the Mahammodeans, but what El Capitan was describing, it was beyond the evils of either of them. "How was he captured?"
"With great difficulty. For a long time, she was always one step ahead of the law."
'She'? A flesh-and-blood Jezebel, or more like a Lillith? "But she *was* captured, right?" Must've been, if you have her captive here. A thought occurred to her. Or is she as yet uncaptured, and you're her accomplice not her jailer?
"She's captive," Grisham confirmed. Caught in the future, but I don't want to break innocent Spanish verbs.
"So where is she?"
"Underground." I already said as much. "Weren't you listening?"
"I believe," the Doctor said, stepping out of the darkness, "you had the young lady captivated by other aspects of yourself."
Tessa did her best to snort at the very idea of that. It wasn't much of a snort.
Marcus chuckled. "We meet again."
"Is that so?"
"I've come and gone a few times since we last met regarding those cheetah people, Doctor."
"You're a doctor?" Tessa asked. "What's your name? Doctor who?"
Both the Doctor and the Master groaned. "Like you've never heard that before," Grisham muttered.
"Not for a long time," the Doctor said, "and it still wasn't long enough."
"But what's your name?" Tessa asked.
"And how exactly is this pertinent to the present happenstances?"
"Wha- I don't…it's not."
"Then `the Doctor' will suffice." You're far from being Ace, or on par with any of my other companions. To Grisham, "Now, shall we see this prisoner of yours, or shall we stand in the dark, watching the young lady catch a chill?"
"Not in the slightest. She may enjoy braining me, and we have fisticuffs now and again and again, but I don't let her get sick."
You sick little… Tessa thought to herself for the sake of thinking it. "But where's the prison?"
"Right here."
"We're next to a hill, Capitan."
"We don't think small," with a smirk.
"Must be compensation."
To break up the thing that was on that line between UST and angst, the Doctor said something entirely true: "Not every species requires them."
Grisham chuckled.
"Jails?" Tessa asked.
The Doctor didn't dignify that with an answer.
Instead, Grisham opened the doorway to the prison. "Lady first?" he invited.
"You first," La Reina instructed. "That way the traps get you."
There's only one trap in the place. "And since I know where they are, I can step right past them." The one trap was the entrance/exit.
"Fine. Then you go, doctor…doctor."
"You have the swords," the Doctor observed to Grisham. "I have my umbrella and my hat. What device does she possess?"
"A right hook," he said in English so the pun would work.
"I see; very well," and walked in first.
In the beginning, the corridor was raw stone, unchiseled and unsmoothed even by nothing more than human skin. When the writing appeared, Tessa found she could read none of it. "What does it say?"
"Legal niceties," Grisham said under his breath. "We're a very legalistic people."
"'We'?"
"Yes," the Doctor said.
"Guess you thought I was one of a kind, eh?" Grisham asked Tessa.
"Oh you!" and started to storm off, walking in front of the Doctor, who didn't try to stop her.
Tessa stopped only when she came to the Chamber, surrounded by what looked like endless rows of faces - some more human than others, some more alien than others. And there, sitting on the ground in the midst - in the middle - in the center - of all those faces, there was a throne. And in the throne -
"Hello there, child," the Doctor said.
"Oh hello, Grandfather," Susan replied.
"You know each other?" Tessa asked, rather surprised, yet after everything that'd happened, not entirely startled.
--------------tbc
"Of course we do. Tell me," Susan asked of Tessa, "if you could, right now, would you kill your father's murderer?"
"Gladly," La Reina confirmed.
To Grisham, "Give her back her sword."
"Nope."
"Spoilsport."
"Only when you call it a sport."
"Its entertainment."
"Dying hurts."
"Like its permanent," with great sarcasm.
"Still hurts." The Doctor nodded.
"What're you - all of you," Tessa asked, "talking about? Death's permanent."
"For you," Susan said.
"She's got a point there," Grisham said. Another nod from the Doctor, who was watching them all with great interest, chin on the back of his hand which was on the curve of his umbrella handle.
"And what are you, a bunch of angels?" At Grisham's grin, "Yeah right. Immortality?"
"Near enough that your kind can't distinguish," Susan said. To Grisham, "Hand her your sword now, or simply prolong your end. I will see this occur either way."
"Translation," Marcus said, "makes no-nevermind to you. "Glad to know you're not in a rush."
"Never am."
"Good," the Doctor said.
"Though I'm wondering," Grisham said.
"That's a first," Tessa said.
"If you're not going to force me to relinquish -"
"Did you hurt yourself with that word?"
"- my sword, how exactly is she here supposed to kill me even once?"
"Colonel Montoya will loan her his sword."
Tessa noticed that Susan didn't say `I'm sure that' or `I feel certain that'… "Are we supposed to walk all the way back to the pueblo, just to kill Captain Grisham?" I could do it here.
"Unneccessarily dramatic, I agree."
"And how will you solve this puzzle?" the Doctor asked Susan and Tessa.
"With Colonel Montoya." And into the chamber shuffled the krirau, which held in its fingerless palms Montoya and Ace. "As humans
say - ta, da."
"That's `tahdah!', Susan."
"They can't even come to an agreement on how to drink tea, and you attempt to persuade me that they can all agree on a sound of
display?"
"Puzzling, aren't they?" with a grin. Lifting himself from his umbrella without letting go of it, he glanced over at Ace. The krirau had stopped - still carrying the pair - close but not near enough for anything involving proximity.
"Colonel?" Tessa asked, also looking back at them.
"I imagine they can both hear us," the Doctor said. "They just can't move, and that means they also cannot speak."
"Quite so," Susan agreed.
With a grin, the Doctor looked from her back to Ace again, and said, "Its not belief here, Ace; it's the force of what you conjure in your mind."
The krirau was keeping the engripped humans from moving about or speaking, but you could still see the twinkle - glimmer? - in Ace's eyes as she thought up the best destructive force she knew.
Tessa reeled, unconsciously taking a step back as her mind was filled with a magnificent cannon, top of the line, only used twicein battle and still in mint condition. This image was in the krirau's mind as well - as the Doctor had said `the force of what you conjure in your mind'.
With the explosion of that image - with the detonation of the cannon - Tessa stepped back again, tripping over herself at the same time the krirau let go of the stunned Ace and Luis.
Grisham shrugged and looked at himself, the Doctor, and Susan; all of whom were unaffected by the krirau. Or rather, at what the krirau had broadcast.
"Wicked indeed," the Doctor said, approvingly, taking a step forward to help Ace up.
Ace was grinning, once she'd gotten control of her facial muscles again. "Too right."
"That was you?" Luis asked her, shocked and astonished.
"Yep. Always good ta have some Nitro 9 handy."
"My cannon," Luis said, agog. "You blew up my cannon."
"These things happen," the Doctor said, "even to mental constructs."
Susan chuckled with agreement.
Montoya looked up at her laugh, looked at her, and drew himself up. "You!"
Before Montoya could even brace his legs to begin running, Susan said, "I'd advise against charging at me, or even raising your hand. The beast behind you," the krirau, "is loyal to me. With a casual thought, it can return you to the paralyzed state you were in when you arrived in my chamber."
Montoya didn't attack, but the hostility didn't leave his face.
Under his breath, Grisham said to Tessa, "That's the people from the world between two suns."
"And *she's* their murderer?" Tessa asked.
"'Murderer'?" Susan repeated, more amused than offended. "Is that what your lover's been whispering in your ear," watching Tessa's hackles rise, "between your paltry attempts to kill him?"
"'Paltry'?"
"Which one succeeded?"
"None of them, yet."
"I rest my case. Unlike you, I have successes to my name. Both the krirau here, and the ognui who resided upon the world which orbited around both suns and the krirau world, I saved from extinction."
Yes, you added carbon and heavy elements to stabilize the star, the Doctor knew. It only took 99% of an entire species. "So you managed to save them," the Doctor said dismissively, referring by `them' to the krirau, "so what? Big deal, as Ace would say. "The survivors will be bred and rebred by our fellow Time Lords," until the krirau no longer look like krirau, until there is almost nothing distinguishably krirau about them, "into proper tools."
"Oh," Susan said, "so you aren't using humans as chess pieces any more?" and noted with interest the look on Ace's face - I hit close to home, I see, Susan noted.
"Not where it can be avoided."
"I see. You're still the same, Grandfather."
"As have you."
"Only just enough."
"Mindsets in orbit about a central gravity well?"
Susan nodded. "The old Gallifreyan poet described it well," which was only natural, given that it was the inherent biological nature of *every* Gallifreyan. "Personalities shift and sway with each regeneration, but the underlying Self remains."
Grisham yawned. He knew, just as the Doctor did, that the modified descendants of the krirau would be used to amnesia the both of them at various points in their lives - such as earlier Doctors.
Her blank expression telling how much she wasn't quite sure of, Tessa said, "What?"
"Free will is tempered by foreknowledge," Susan said, accustomed to it.
"That's not true," Tessa said. "We have free will, pure and simple."
"Coming from one whom is simple and not pure, the statement's understandable."
Tessa huffed.
"We know what's going to happen," Grisham said to Tessa, "and we also have free will….but we also have to keep paradoxes to a dull roar. There are times we know what is going to happen, and not the details; other times, we know the details, and not what is about to happen."
"That's impossible," Tessa said with great certainty.
"You sure?" the Doctor asked.
"Absolutely."
"Great," Grisham said. "I'm standing out in a field with doc Helm. What just happened?"
"What?"
"Exactly."
"Join the club," Ace said to Tessa. "There's a bit o' a learning curve."
"I think I'll stay home and knit instead," Tessa said, which just got Ace laughing.
Grisham laughed too, though he - unlike Ace - was laughing at the image of Tessa knitting.
Trying to ignore them both, Tessa turned to Susan and asked, "You said you know this man…this doctor here - whatever his name is," having never gotten a straight answer on the matter.
"That is so," Susan confirmed.
"Where do you know him from?"
"I used to travel with him."
"Yes, I remember," the Doctor said. "I also recall you had a singular crush on Ian Chesterton." One of your teachers, and among the first of my companions.
Were she human, she would've leveled a burning gaze at him, withering and lethal. But, being a Time Lord, she remained as aloof as one imprisoned for as long as she'd been could be. "I, at least, never slept with your pets."
"Good," Tessa said, "because that's a sin."
Ace coughed. "She means us."
"What?"
"Humans," the Doctor said to clarify.
"What??"
Ace chuckled at the look on Tessa's face…what of her face was visible behind the mask.
"Then…what're you?"
"I'm the Doctor," he said.
"And…" Tessa asked, turning back to Susan, "and you?"
"I'm his granddaughter."
"But - but - you're barely ten years his junior!"
Ace rolled her eyes. "Cripes, you think *that* matters?"
Tessa choked, and Luis nearly hurt himself twisting his neck around to look wide-eyed at her.
"Blunt, but hardly succinct," Susan said. "Don't worry, even I started somewhere."
"How many times'd you die?"
Susan narrowed her eyes. "Tell me how that is your concern, human child."
"I'm not a child!" hefting the bat in her hands, getting ready to swing it.
"Then chose better questions, so I can revise my opinion. As it is, you're scarce better than her," a nod of her head towards Tessa. "Did you enjoy your dream?"
Kill Capitan Grisham resonated in Tessa's head. "That…that was you?"
"One of her minions," Marcus said. "Specifically, this one," swinging one arm in the direction of the krirau, which was still sprawled on the floor…_Probably asleep by now. "Congratulations, you've been puppetmastered," though he didn't particularly care for
those parasitic aliens.
"I've what?" Tessa asked him.
"Manipulated," Ace said, enunciating for her, taking her place at the Doctor's side. To Luis, "Sorry."
Luis nodded numbly, telling himself that he could never be sure how long he could survive - how long he could last - with a cannon-killer. "I wish you well," he said charitably.
The Doctor looked to Ace. "You're sure?"
She nodded vigorously.
Now that Susan was distracted by the drama going on with that lot, Grisham seized the opportunity: he slammed his palms against Susan's
side, bowling her to the ground. More to the dazed prisoner than to everyone else (who were all watching him now), "One good thing about getting beaten up and thrown around by everybody," Marcus Grisham (aka the Master) said, "is that you learn a lot of new moves that way."
Tessa snorted…but she had to admit (to herself) that Grisham had a point, this time.
Handing Tessa her sword, Grisham said, "You want to kill somebody, go right ahead. Question - do you want to stab the person who shot your father dead, or do you want to stab the person who left no option but your father's death?"
Face determined, Tessa took the sword, and used it on Susan -
And was hurled back several meters - coming to a stop against the gut of the krirau - hurled by the force of the regeneration engulfing Susan.
"Blank, beast, blank!" Grisham commanded the krirau. After this, I won't need to be a guard anymore. Finally!
While not as masterful as its descendants would be, the krirau could blot and bury pieces of a person's mind…which it did, as commanded: blotting and burying parts of Susan's mind.
When the regeneration was complete, Susan looked up at everyone, her clothes baggy against her new body (just as human as before, simply thinner now). "I'm hungry."
"Excellent," the Doctor said. "Let's all go out and get you something to eat."
"Thank you, Grandfather."
-----------------------------------------
The End
-------------------------------------
Title: Time enough for Desserts.
Author: Keenir.
Crossover: The Queen of Swords / Doctor Who
Summary: The Doctor finds the Master is alive and well…in a pueblo with a ghost from his past controlling more than it should.
Characters: The Doctor, Ace, The Master, Luis Montoya, Marta, Tessa Alvarado, Marcus Grisham, Susan, Robert Helm, a whole lot of soldiers & kids & villagers.
with thanks to Brig and everyone for their help with the Tarot...any errors and assumptions are entirely my own.
--------------------------
Late 1816:
The dreams again. The Lieutenant downed another bottle. First one today or second? Bah, it's a small bottle anyway. Dreams full of voices, voices telling him what he should do, what needed to be done, what he was tasked with doing. "Like life's not tough enough already," he grumbled. He was here because he'd ran. Trouble on the battlefield had sent him running. Trouble was trouble. Conniving and plots, he could deal with. But not that. Different kettle of fish altogether. Mix dreams with a mess of things in the field, and there was trouble enough to get any man a'running. Like him.
Now he's here, drinking in a bar in the middle of a desert. Maybe not the middle middle, but still plenty dry. Dry and the place the dreams told him to go - they were annoyingly specific - though he didn't relish the idea of staying here for as long as he lived…though that was what the dreams instructed.
As he washed his throat with the contents of his latest glass of - was that whiskey or rum? - the doors to the bar opened, and there was an agitated mob at the door. A small mob, more of a gang, but still enough to handle him in his present state. "You're coming with us, Lieutenant," one of the gang told him as they rushed him.
As he was being grabbed, his foremost regret was that the glass was knocked from his hand…the bastards didn't even grant him the honor of setting it down on the counter.
They hauled him off the barstool and outside, across the short street to a horse trough. Great, just frickin' great he thought to himself in the time it took for him to be bent double and -
With a splash that registered in his mind only as the *clap* of both ears being thrust underwater, breaking surface tension, they held him down, not letting him pull his head out of the trough. He couldn't move, not with his arms firmly held in place, his head kept still.
And he found he could still breathe. This realization sparked memories, recollections surfacing after a year of he having gone without knowing those things were there. He was… he knew… He is patient, counting a minute, two, and three minutes when the gang let go, fully expecting that he would collapse when they let go.
He stood up on his own, a wicked grin on his face as he watched the looks on their faces. As much as it dirtied his hands, he beat them all up, found he was still good at it, even with his old memories back. He was, after all, himself, and that include all this past year.
Looking over the bodies, the Master smiled.
A smile interrupted only by the thought that his lifetime was eternity.
----------
1818:
The tardis appeared in the center of the ruins where Antonio had unmasked the Queen of Swords. "Professor, can we eat now?" Ace asked.
"Of course," the Doctor said. "There should be a nice fish shop not far from here.
Opening the door, Ace looked outside. "Are you sure?" not sure why the Doctor didn't want to eat in the Tardis, but he no doubt had a good reason for this.
"I am," joining her at the door. "Can't you smell the sea air?"
Ace refrained from a sigh. Either he was entirely serious, or it was one of his more elaborate jokes. If the latter, she'd learned by now to let him play things out to their punchline. If the former, well, fish was always a good thing. Preferably fried and drizzled with vinegar. "So where're we going?"
He smiled at her, the sort of smile that made traveling companions very nervous. It wasn't a common one, for which all were grateful. "After you."
"Me?"
"You."
"Why me? You're the one who's smelling the sea!"
"You're not trying, Ace."
Reluctantly, Ace lifted her nose in the air, and took a deep sniff.
"Not a word," the Doctor said when she opened her mouth. "After you," and locked the tardis once the door was clear.
Having found a breeze-odor that didn't simply smell like dust, ants - or cats! - or the baked waxy leaves of desert plants, Ace started walking. If the Doctor were human, she mused, all this might be put down to him just not wanting to re-park the tardis. She smiled at the image, not ridding herself of the grin for a while. A grin that grew as she heard something… a thudding, a rumbling. "I hear horses," she told the Professor.
"Excellent," he said and they clambered up the hill to look for the horses - horses usually tending to indicate humans in the general neighborhood far better than random ruins did.
"Grass!" Ace groaned, seeing no horses; only clouds of dust were visible - and those were on every horizon! She didn't collapse to sit on the ground, nor kneel nor sit on her haunches; but she did put her hands on her knees. "Well, Professor, what now?"
"I'd say we resume what we were doing before being so rudely interrupted by the hooves."
"But there's nothing there," waving one hand out at all the desert scrub before them. "See?"
Leaning back on his umbrella, "If you're not really hungry, Ace, I understand. In fact, I think sightseeing would be -"
How does he do it? she asked herself. So often, so very often… "Alright," and sniffed again, feeling silly and too catlike for comfort. Pointing in one direction, she led the way as they resumed travel.
-----------------------------------
ALVARADO HACIENDA:
She had just returned from standing by the fireside, staring at Capitan Grisham's boot. She'd helped Tessa remove the boot, had gone to check the cards…and the results had sent her back to make sure the boot was still there. It was, so she returned to her tarot. Marta was running the cards again, seeing if they gave the same result as a minute ago.
The =Hanged Man= was back, with a =Death= keeping it company. "Let us see who you are," Marta said quietly, dealing more tarot. "You are friends with…" and shook her head, looking at the =King of Swords= which sat there almost with a smirk on his face.
Also in association with the Hanged Man, it seemed, was a =Queen of Pentacles= positioned upside-down. "A woman without roots," Marta observed. The =Knight of Wands= kept the Queen company. "One and the same."
"Marta?" Tessa asked.
"Yes?" not looking up.
"What do they say?"
"Nothing good. The King of Swords is on your trail, and…" and the cards said nothing more about Tessa. "And there will be two travelers arriving in town soon." Very soon. Shortly indeed. "You must be careful of them." Tessa had, Marta observed with gratitude, finally changed out of Grisham's clothes.
"What sort of travelers?" Tessa asked. "The Hanged Man?"
"Yes, but mind that this is not a man who has been given a second chance," Marta said. "There is the air of death about him."
"Doctor Helm?"
"No. The King of Swords is his ally, not him himself." That and, Marta said, being honest with herself, we do not know if Dr. Helm is any good at plotting anything. "The cards around *this* Hanged Man bode worse than did the last time I drew that card."
"I see," Tessa said, remembering Krane.
----------------------
PART TWO:
The Next Day:
The Queen of Swords was racing across the scrub - a shortcut to catch up to the latest coach bound for Monterrey - when Chico reared up, taking Tessa by surprise and almost unseating her. Almost, but not quite. "Easy," Tessa said to calm him down. "Easy. Good boy," when Chico was still. "What it is?" she asked.
Chico whickered, flinging his head first left, then right.
From the saddle, Tessa looked at the spots to their left and right. Left had a freshly-dead grasshopper mouse, with an approaching rattlesnake. Right had a shallow gully, barely knee-height, overgrown with wide-leaved weeds. "Feel better now?" she asked.
Chico whickered again, but let her get him galloping again.
As the rattler swallowed the mouse, a light breeze began blowing. The broad leaves fluttered like the wings of baby birds, exposing glimpses of white bone. A skull, more specifically, a fish skull. Not two feet down the gully was the fish's foot bone.
By the time the snake was done gulping down the mouse, which always is a most methodical practice, Marcus Grisham had arrived and dismounted. Looking at the Queen of Swords racing towards the horizon and the taxes beyond, Grisham reached down into the leaves and pulled out the fish skull. "So, you too, eh?" he asked the dead Silurian, and received no answer. Heading back to Equilateral, {his horse}, he hurled the skull at a nearby boulder. For an armored fish, the boned sure broke easily enough. "Failed," he muttered at the scattering shards.
Mounting up, "Okay, lets see if we can get the red ribbon today," and brought his horse back up to speed. He knew what lay beneath this land. Not in a spiritual sense, that is; but in a very real sense, a flesh-and-blood sense. Knew it needed to stay right where it was.
If it got loose, it could all too easily repeat the madness and the atrocity for which it was imprisoned.
Deep down, under several tones of rock, the prisoner sat in her hand-carved throne, looking her accusers in the eyes. This wasn't hard to do, as every square foot of wall space had the etched-in image of a different alien species. Even the Daleks were present, both as Dals and Daleks.
She had been a Goddess, a Motivator, a Savior and Rescuer. If not for her, that star would have exploded, taking two life-bearing worlds with it - and each of those two worlds had native intelligences at the time of the threat from their sun. She'd fired hordes of carbon into the star, stabilizing it. "And for my troubles…" she said neutrally; grumbling and muttering were behind her now. Now she had a way out of here. Soon.
And in shambled the keypiece of her plan. "Mi'lady, Sacred One," it said, "I am honoured to be the summoned." It was one of a dozen survivors from the incident with that star. "What loyalty may I demonstrate?"
"Young Alvarado," she told it, "needs another dream. Have her father's image demand my jailer's blood." Unspoken was the implicit *go*. Away it shambled, obedient to the hilt.
Soon.
--------------------------------------
In Early Afternoon:
If he says `sniff' or any of that rot one more time, Ace thought to herself midway through the ascent of yet another hill, I'll bloody well kill him, myself. Maybe (even) twice. Her legs ached, her feet so sore she suspected a callus or somesuch sat within at least one shoe, and her throat was dry - almost as dry as her mouth. "Professor," she said as best she could.
He held up one hand - not the one holding his umbrella.
Don't say it! Don't even say it!
"Listen."
Okay.
The sounds were faint, but clearly on the other side of the hill - *this* hill. "It's the queen!" many were shouting. Children's voices, playing…but also repeating something they'd heard adults saying many times before.
"'Queen'?" the Doctor puzzled. "This is northern Mexico. Neither Mexico nor her neighbors have queens, and none of the Spanish queens ever came out this way."
"So who is it?" Ace asked him.
"Haven't a clue. Let's go and find out, shall we?"
With a sigh from tired lungs and trudging with pained feet, "After you."
Nothing interrupted them on the rest of the way up, but when Ace caught sight of what lay in the center of this dusty town in a dusty land, she cried, "Meet you at the fountain, Professor!" and bolted down the hill, having every intention of a long soak. This town *does* have a bathhouse and-or running water… don't they?
Darting past a tall and rather fetching man in a side street, "Sorry!" Ace said as she managed to avoid knocking him over, though she didn't stop herself from brushing against him.
She only stopped running when she got to the fountain, where she shut her eyes and dunked her head under for a moment, then brought it back up, opening her eyes -
And seeing a uniformed officer standing almost opposite of her at the fountain {for directly opposite was obscured by part of the fountain itself. Ace's tired body took a while before she interrupted her silent gazing upon this man, saying "Hi."
"Good day, senorita," Luis Montoya said, wondering who exactly this nyad was. Had a ship docked and nobody told him? If a carriage from the other directions… Where was it? "Are you a traveler?"
With a broad, secretive grin, "Yep." It was easy to be secretive when the truth needed only vague answers like that.
"And your means of transport?"
"Its safe," Ace said.
"Surely it would be safer here in my pueblo."
If it needs to be moved, the Professor'll get the job done, "Hold on - *your* pueblo?"
"Si. I am Colonel Luis Ramirez Montoya, Commander of this garrison, Sheppard of the people of this land."
"I'm Dorothy," Ace said, the words having tumbled out before she could stop them. "But you can call me Ace if you like."
Luis nodded. "I shall keep it under advisement, senorita."
--------------------------------------
A Little While Later:
Grisham sighed. Yet. Again. Yet again La Reina'd gotten away, elu
Ded the men under his command. Maybe that's the problem, he mused. They're only human. God knows there's plenty of decent hunters and trackers in the universe. But that was all Out There, the vastness of space which is closed off to him now. "Damnit!"
"Capitan?" one of his men asked, all while trying to look like he wasn't regretting having pulled up closer to Grisham than the others had.
"Take the men back, Rodriguez; and I expect everyone to be in full uniform and running drills by the time I get back."
"Yes, Capitan Grisham," Rodriguez said, and herded the men back to Santa Ilona.
Once they were all gone, "May as well, eh?" he asked Equilateral, who whinneyed. "Yeah, I know," and headed over to something that would've made a terrifically-imposing mountain -- if only it was more than thirty feet tall. Once by the entrance, Grisham dismounted and walked towards the door that opened for him. Entering was easy; it was leaving which required the password. Walked down the corridor of raw, unshaped rock, continued as the passageways began to be filled by more and more writing.
At last, after a good clip of walking, he arrived in the Chamber Of Faces. Rather than ask if his own visage was anywhere, he hollered, "Hey!" I know she's down here, but why shouldn't I interrupt whatever she's doing? If I have to be stuck in this blink territory, she doesn't get to ignore my visits. "Come out, come out, wherever you are."
She showed up, crawling out from one of this room's narrower tunnels, one so narrow even Vera would've had trouble with it. But the prisoner was short and slight enough that there was no trouble for her with it. Standing up, "Does your visit have a point this time?" she asked, heading for her throne, hoping he wasn't here just to mock her present state and ultimate fate…again.
"Checking you're still here."
No rolling of eyes -- that was a human thing. And while she'd spent much long time amongst humans, she was never human. "There are many places I would go, if I were not a captive of Them."
Grisham smirked. "Like where?"
"Places of my concern."
"Like…?"
"Nowhere you'd go."
Again a smirk. "Ya never know where I'd go."
"I have no reason to concern myself with your habits."
No smirk. "Your loss."
"I have suffered one lost in my life, and it did not involve you, of that, you may be certain."
"The day you were captured?"
"No."
"Then when?"
"Before."
"Past, present, future?"
"Before."
"C'mon, you can tell me."
"No."
"Sure you can. Who'm I gonna tell?"
"That is a concern, to be sure."
"What, you don't trust me?"
"No."
"Pity."
"I have that, though not for you."
Grisham clapped one hand to his chest in mock pain. "You wound me."
"Not as yet."
Chuckling, he turned his back on her. She wouldn't do anything, he knew -- even if she tried and succeeded in killing him, he'd regenerate, and she'd still be trapped in this chamber and it's tunnels -- and she knew it. Plans within short-term plans didn't work too well here in this cage.
The chamber - the cage - worked and was sufficient for short-term.
That was what it'd been designed and constructed for.
The Master was here for everything else.
"Adios," Grisham said, walking back to the entrance.
"Scram," she said, recalling what'd happened the last time she'd followed him to the entrance-and-exit: he'd stood in one place, not going near the equipment that controlled the door, the equipment which was tamper-proof even to those of her intellect. He'd outwaited her, pure and simple.
------------------------------
And In That Night:
Tessa was dreaming. She knew she was dreaming: she was kneeling beside her mothe's grave, and the dirt atop both graves was fresh, having been there for less than a day by the look of it.
"Hello, Tessa."
Tessa stood up to see her father, who was standing behind her. "Papa!" and noticed the sad look on his face. "Papa?"
"You have done so well, my little angel," he said. "The people are better off now. But there is more you can do. I speak of the man who deemed my death necessary."
She nodded. "I try, Papa, but Colonel Montoya -"
"No."
"'No'?"
"Montoya is powerful, yes, and wicked. But he is easily distracted. Tessa, my death was orchestrated by the very same man who fired the fatal shot into me. My daughter, to ease my spirit, to free me from Purgatory, you must…"
She might've not always paid the utmost attention to services whilst growing up, but Maria Theresa most certainly knew what Purgatory was, and how essential it is to escape that realm for the better place. "Yes, Papa? What do I need to do? I'll do it!" How many Ave Marias and pilgrimages are needed? No number can be too high.
"You must kill Captain Grisham."
------------------------------------------
Part 3
While Tessa was dreaming, Marta was tossing and turning.
Circles. Concentric circles, one within another within another within… on and on. All of them are ridges, like the whorls of a fingerpad, only no finger leaves a mark like this. A feeling of *big*ness to it. Not vast nor huge, but certainly very big. And all of it hanging over their heads.
Marta opened her eyes and sat up, catching her breath, willing her pulse to return to normal. "Madre Dios," she breathed. All the circles, the entire dream… it had carried with it the feel of danger, of impending problems… "Tessa!" and got out of bed, tossing on a robe as she headed for the door, went down the hall, and knocked on Tessa's door. No answer. "Tessa?" and still no answer was forthcoming.
Marta opened the door, and found Tessa's room empty.
On checking the likely places of the house, Marta found Tessa's sword also absent. As was the clothing of the Queen of Swords.
---------------------------------
SOON AFTER:
COMMANDANCIA:
The Doctor and Ace had accepted the Colonel's offer of putting them up in his place, at least for their first night in this land.
Now, having found herself unable to sleep, Ace had accepted Colonel Montoya's offer of a game of chess while the Doctor slept, hat tucked over his face, umbrella nestled alongside him on the bench where he slept. "I must say," Luis said as Ace moved her remaining knight, "you are more accomplished at this game than most women are."
This' the past, Ace reminded herself. "Had a lot of practice."
"Playing chess?"
"Fighting battles." Against all sorts of enemies.
"Have you ever met Napoleon, or Wellington."
"Not that I recall," trying to remember. "Nope, don't think I did." The Doctor might've met `em, but not with me. "Met some other famous people, though."
"Is that so?" Franklin? Jefferson? Murat?
"Yup. How `bout you? Ever met famous people?"
"Before I had become a man, I had the opportunity, by chance, to meet the Emperor's brother."
A chill went down Ace's spine when she heard that, and it took an effort to try to think he meant someone *other* than the Emperor Dalek. There's lotsa other emperors out there… "Which emperor?"
"At the time, he held that title. Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte."
"Oh. Him. Think I started to read a book about him once."
Luis just looked at her, not sure how to respond to that. So, to fill the silence, he seized her rook with his bishop. "I believe this is Check."
Ace looked at the board, eyes slightly narrowing, then returning to normal. Running her own bishop between his bishop and his king, "An' so's this."
Like the Queen of Swords, you seem to always have a surprise for me. However, I believe you could have chosen better. His bishop abducted hers. "And once more." And noticed she was grinning. I suspect I may have missed two things rather than the one of just before now.
"Last one," Ace said, her queen doing away with his bishop.
"I see that you do not have me in Check, senorita," Luis said.
"What? Sure I do!"
"To the contrary, you have delivered a Checkmate," and tipped his head to her, conceding defeat for this round…and heard a window in the other room knocking against its windowframe. The wind is blowing, but that the window is open to begin with… It did not take a tactician to deduce who his new guest was. "If you would excuse me," standing up and heading to the next room.
"Anything I can do to help?"
"I will let you know shortly," Luis said, figuring La Reina just wanted to harass him some more - again - and would leave shortly thereafter. He walked to the next room, opening the intervening doors for himself, and two-handed drawing them closed behind him - though they didn't shut all the way. The flash of movement that occurred next was barely visible to the naked eye.
La Reina stood there, her sword's tip now inches away from Montoya's throat. "Where is he?"
"He who, senora?" Montoya asked. Are you after this doctor now, rather than Dr Helm?
"Grisham."
Normally, I might say that your standards are slipping, La Reina; or that I am shocked, shocked I say, and a bit hurt, that I am your second visit, and not your first.
"I was just at his place."
I would remark that words fail me, save that she has her sword where she has it.
"He's not there," the Queen of Swords said. "Where is he?"
"I do not know."
An inch closer now. Not yet touching hair or skin, but still closer than it had been. "You know everything that goes on in Santa Ilona."
So nice to hear someone admit that.
"So where is he?"
"According to my soldiers," Montoya said, "he remained out in the scrub, continuing to look for you."
"Then I'll go looking." A-grisham-hunting I go.
"Where would you look?" curious.
"Everywhere I need to."
"'Need''s a funny word," Ace said, standing in the doorway in a nightgown and one of the Doctor's sweaters. "Lotsa people use it, not so many know what it means. Where're you gonna look?" reiterating Montoya's question.
It took Tessa a moment to recover from the sight of someone in a nightgown *in Montoya's quarters*. "As I said, everywhere I need to."
Ace bore an amused look. "Do ya know where you're needing to look?"
"No."
"Then where're you going to look?"
Pulling her sword away from Montoya's neck, "Who are you?" she asked Ace.
"I'm Ace. Who're you?" I've been all through time and space, but I've never seen anybody with as little fashion sense as… cripes, even *I* know better than to wear that sorta thing.
"This," Montoya said, "is the Queen of Swords."
Ace chuckled. "You're joking."
"Something funny?" La Reina asked.
"Yeah. What kinda name is `queen of swords'?" *This* is who the kids were talking about when we arrived in town??
"I have my reasons for chosing this name."
Even in light this poor, you could see the skepticism on Ace's face.
"I should go," La Reina said, heading for the ledge, not taking her eyes off Montoya. "Word of advice, Colonel - start looking for a new Captain of the Guard."
"I take your advice under advisement," Montoya said, "though perhaps it will not be you who is victorious this time."
"Keep dreaming, Colonel."
"Every night," he assured her.
"How comforting," and leaped off the ledge, onto Chico, and rode off.
As Ace walked up to him, curiosity on her face, and her watching La Reina ride off, "Invariably," Montoya said to Ace, "this sort of thing happens. She comes here, sword to my throat, and leaves when I tell her what she wanted to hear."
"'Invariably'? This happens a lot `round here?"
"With greater frequency than I would prefer, certainly."
"Then let's get her."
Luis weighed the options. On one hand, tracking someone in the dead of night was not easy by any measure. On the other hand, he definitely liked her enthusiasm. "And what of your companion?"
Weird. Usually I'm the one called a companion. "He can always find me," assuming he doesn't want to come with us right now.
"Very well," bowing and sweeping one arm towards the nearest stairs; knowing there's no way he'd win an argument against her…he just had a hunch about that. "Let us go."
----------------------------------------
MEANWHILES:
Rau was of a race not yet even as old as humanity, though the first krirau had been born millions of years ago - an appearant paradox solved easily when time travel is invoked. The krirau had arisen on a world which was mostly oceans and swamps…but the habitat of the krirau was in fact the precious and rare mountain ranges that remained dry.
When scaling cliffs and descending down slopes, a krirau was reasonably graceful.
But here on flat ground, Rau could do nothing better than a graceless shuffle.
Taking a shortcut through the town, he was going unseen by anyone. Krirau had no camouflage, no coloration or shape that enabled them to blend in with *any* environment…but they had a weapon which served them just as well. Returning from his latest assignment, Rau was full of pride at how well he'd served the Sacred One yet again. She had saved the last dozen krirau, and every one of the dozen was committed to proving themselves just as obedient as all the other - now-dead - krirau.
Even with as slow as he was going, Rau tripped, and held out one arm to catch himself with - for Krirau paws had no digits to them, but gripping was still possible for them - but the door was not as solid or as grounded as other things were, resulting in Rau crashing through the door, the door shredded from its hinges.
Awoken by the clamour, "Who's there?" Doctor Helm called out to the room, and got out of bed, reaching for his gun. His mind immediately dismissed three candidates of whom it could be: La Reina, Grisham, and Montoya make their presences known in a lot better - and certainly quieter - ways than that. So who was it?
"Thank you, Robert," Camilla told him, her voice full of gratitude and love for him.
Helm spun around, not seeing her anywhere. Next, he embarked on a search of his entire residence, and still could not find her…nor did he ever notice the broken door or its now-empty doorway.
Rau, who had projected Camilla's voice into Helm's head once again, ambled away slowly as ever. He had done something similar before - making Helm believe that real life was imitating a dream, thereby ensuring that Helm would not leave before he had served the Sacred One's interests.
Now…now was perhaps another matter.
--------------------------------------------
HALF AN HOUR LATER:
Tessa found Grisham (out in the middle of nowhere) sitting around a controlled fire, the fire being surrounded by a row of encircling stones. "What *are* you doing?" La Reina asked, stopping a safe distance from the fire, though close enough they could talk without shouting. They weren't on directly opposite sides of the fire, more of alongside and *then* across.
"What, its not obvious?" Grisham asked.
"That's right."
With a sigh of regret for the poor deprived girl, "I'm camping."
"You're what?"
"Camping." Its a very human thing.
"Why?"
"Why?"
"Yes, why?"
"I don't know…to watch the stars," all those things out of bounds to me now, "keep an eye on the fire here," fire never repeats itself, yet never breaks the rules of its existence. "How `bout you?"
La Reina drew her sword.
Never one for subtlety. "What'cha planning to do?" Grisham asked.
"I'm going to kill you," La Reina said stonily.
Without batting an eye, "And then?"
"I'll spit on your grave."
"No," Grisham said, though it puzzled Tessa that he wasn't using a tone that said he objected to it. "I mean, what're you going to do after you kill me."
"Spit on your grave. Comprende Espanol, Capitan?"
"Oh si si, I comprende. But I'm not sure you're following along too well."
"How so?"
"Well, you …wait, its my fault."
"Naturally."
He made a face at the interruption. "I asked the wrong thing of you. I should've asked - how many times are you planning to kill me?"
"Once will be enough." And then Papa's soul can escape Purgatory, and ascend to Heaven where he belongs.
"I see. Thanks for letting me get away," Marcus said, tipping his hat to her.
"I just said you'll be dead."
A shrug. "That's minor…momentary, whatever the word is."
"What?"
"I said its not a problem. Don't worry about it."
"Are you suggesting you wouldn't die if I killed you?"
Grisham snorted. "Of course I'd die." Then there'd be a new me.
"Good," and charged at him, her sword leading the way.
Marcus Grisham didn't get out of her way.
Chico's feet pounded the earth beneath him as he plunged forward.
El Capitan still refused to budge.
In the back of her mind, Tessa could hear her father, how he would heap praise upon her for doing this. In the physical world, her outstretched sword was almost upon Grisham. Almost --
And abruptly, Marcus swung to the side, pivoting on one foot, and reached up and swung La Reina off her horse, kissing her as soon as her lips were within reach. No knocking my skull this time.
-----------------------------
Making sure her arms were pinned to her sides, while he continued to kiss her, Grisham pressed the nerves that would open her fists, releasing her sword to the ground. Don't plan on dying anytime soon, he said to himself.
After a bit of time - less than a minute, he estimated - he let go, ending the kiss as well. Tessa stumbled backwards, gasping for breath. I keep forgetting they don't have back-up respiratory passages, he thought with a grin.
"I'll wipe that smirk off your face," Tessa said once she had caught her breath, stomping towards him.
Stepping on her sword before she could get to it, "It's a smile," he told her. In answer, she tried to punch him. The part of him that'd learned these things while his older self had had amnesia, ducked and weaved expertly, and all without stepping off the sword. "Look, either I can knock you out, and take you where we're going…or I can walk with you to that same spot. Personally, I know which I'd rather do." You don't look like you weigh much, Tessa, but I never did like carrying people.
"I'll walk," Tessa said, figuring it gave her a better chance to kill him while his attention was elsewhere.
He nodded. "Great. By the way, I carry the swords," abruptly picking hers up once he stepped off it.
"So where are we going?"
"Underground."
"Again?" thinking of the mine.
"I've been underground a lot," and not every instance in this part of the world, or even this world at all.
Tessa snorted.
"Wha? You don't believe me?"
"That should be a given by now in our relationship."
"Oh, but you admit we've got a relationship." So there's hope, after all.
"Yes, and it goes as far as you trying to fight, and me knocking you senseless."
You might not survive past tonight, Alvarado. So what the heck? "You're welcome to try."
"Excuse me?"
"Hard of hearing now?"
"I think so - I thought you actually invited me to hit you."
"Yep - you're welcome to try."
"Give me back my sword."
"Nope."
"Give it. Back."
"What, can't hit a barn without your sword?"
La Reina shrugged. "There's no farm implements handy."
"That was you?"
"Pig flesh needs to be aired out."
Grisham whistled. "Didn't think you liked pork - long *or* short."
"Do I *look* Jewish?"
"Doesn't matter."
"What?"
"You heard me…so, are you stalling so you don't have to hit me?"
She swung - and Marcus caught her hand - and caught her other hand when she swung that too.
"You might want to ask for a refund on your fighting lessons. Now, you ready to go where you were heading when you came across me?"
"I was looking for you."
"Sweet as that is, I doubt it."
"If I didn't find you, I couldn't kill you."
"True, and internally consistant. But that's not what brought you out here."
"What're you talking about? Of course it is."
"It's the rationale you're using, sure, but that doesn't make it the whole truth."
"What would you know of the truth?"
"That its very handy."
Tessa snorted.
"Fine. Tessa Alvarado, you going to walk or not?"
La Reina raised a hand, and felt that her mask and the rest of her disguise was all still in place. So how…? "How?"
"Nobody else recognized you in that get-up, so why should I single myself out?"
---------------------------
"I wantto thank you by the way," Ace said once they were a ways away from the pueblo, the night sky overhead. Ace made a point of not looking at the stars glaring down at her."
"Thank me? For what, senorita?" Luis asked.
"For the dinner you shared with me an' the Doctor."
"De nada in that case. It was my pleasure to do so." It has been a very long time since I had a shared dinner with anyone. The last one was, I do believe, Kami.
"I mean, we dropped in without an invite, a by-the-way, or anything."
"I had some extra food on hand." Thank goodness La Reina has not discovered how to invade food pantries and cellars. "A shared meal is always a delight."
Ace was thankful she had a high collar, given that her neck was feeling a little warm(ish) at the moment. He's no Professor, she told herself. "I'm sure the Doctor appreciates it."
Montoya shrugged. "I feel I must apologize - given that our dinner conversation seemed to focus on myself," much as I kept trying to deflect the conversation, that Doctor repeatedly returned conversation to the topic of me. "And during our chess, neither of us said a great deal."
"No worries," Ace said.
"Gracias. But I am," rather "curious about you. What brings you to my pueblo?"
Ace shrugged. "I came with the Professor."
Like Kami came with her master. "You said you had a traveling device. Surely you could have stayed there, while the Doctor came to the pueblo."
Looking a little guilty. "I was hungry, and I didn't feel like having the food we have aboard ship." Granted the TARDIS can make anything, I felt like having some real real food. Not just food that tastes like food.
"Ah, then I have your stomach to thank," Luis said with humour.
"Yeah, guess so," Ace said, appreciating the joke.
"So, when you are exhausted with exploring my pueblo, where will you and your Doctor go next."
Too right he's my Doctor, Ace thought to himself. Then again, he's probably been other gals' Doctor too…like I'd've been the first human to learn the clinging secrets of Gallifreyan intimacy. "Oh, we'll find someplace. We generally go to places neither of us've been to before." Except for Perivale…but the Doctor was teaching me a lesson there. Ace fought against the logical outgrowth of that thought, mentally struggled against the idea that - that there were places and things the Doctor had taught lessons to other companions, just as he'd done with Ace. He's mine…mine…
But Ace knew that she would age and age and one day die, and that would be all, that that would be the end of her.
The Doctor, meanwhile, wouldn't age at all. He'd simply die and come back. The Doctor…
He never kept a companion for very long, never more than a few decades. By that time, if they hadn't been killed in the course of adventures, he'd find a good home for them… And go off, finding new traveling companions and new adventures.
Before Montoya could even ask `and then where will you go?' curious to know the answer, Ace dropped hear head, and Luis could hear - through her hair - muffled and choked-back sobs. Not a torrent of regret, but more a long trickle of fear - and he well knew the sound of fear. "Senorita Ace?"
Without a word, she came over to him, her long legs gulping down distance before Montoya was aware she'd done it. And she was close to him now, very close, her eyes veiled by the dampness of tears. "Senorita?" Luis asked, not objecting, but not sure she knew what she was doing.
"I…just want to see…" something, Ace thought as she leaned over and kissed Luis, right between his cheek and his lips.
The tableau held for several moments, neither of them moving.
As they separated, something grabbed them from behind, lifting them like limp kittens, the both of them finding themselves unable to move, unable to struggle or fight.
------------------------
"What are you doing all this for, Grisham?" Tessa asked.
"You asking to pass the time, or because you want to know?" Not gonna ask if she thinks I'm about to lower my guard…'sides, what if she said Yes to that?
"I want to know."
"Well, at least you're asking the right way…unlike your pop."
"You killed my father because he asked a question the wrong way?!!?"
"He didn't ask me at all, actually. Your dear papa just blindly trusted the word of someone I've been sitting guard over."
"And what was this person imprisoned for?" sure it would be `tax evasion' or something like that.
"It's a bit of a tale to tell."
"Are we there yet?"
"No."
"Then we have time for you to tell me," Tessa said.
Marcus sighed from his mouth and his secondary system - the same secondary system that all Time Lords have. "You're familiar with heliocentric theory, right?"
"Si, but what does that have to do -?"
"It's the right theory for most worlds…but picture in your mind, a place where the sun orbits around a planet, a planet in the middle of the universe," not sure if the term `solar system' had reached any educational system hereabouts or in Madrid. "Two suns revolve around that world." And another world precariously orbits around the three of them. Both the central and the outer world had life.
"Okay," Tessa said, visualizing it as a painting…not trying to see two suns in her mind's eye.
"My prisoner went to that world," that central orb, "and…what she did there got her believed in by the people who lived there - they thought of her as a prophet or a deity…they didn't draw the line as cleanly as people around here," referring to all of Earth by that. "She led the entire population on a journey…and sat by and watched as all but ten of the people died." Swallowed up by their sun; of all the unpleasant ways to go… And going in because they were asked to, and shuddered.
Despite herself, Tessa shuddered as well. She'd heard stories of the perfidy of the Jews and the Mahammodeans, but what El Capitan was describing, it was beyond the evils of either of them. "How was he captured?"
"With great difficulty. For a long time, she was always one step ahead of the law."
'She'? A flesh-and-blood Jezebel, or more like a Lillith? "But she *was* captured, right?" Must've been, if you have her captive here. A thought occurred to her. Or is she as yet uncaptured, and you're her accomplice not her jailer?
"She's captive," Grisham confirmed. Caught in the future, but I don't want to break innocent Spanish verbs.
"So where is she?"
"Underground." I already said as much. "Weren't you listening?"
"I believe," the Doctor said, stepping out of the darkness, "you had the young lady captivated by other aspects of yourself."
Tessa did her best to snort at the very idea of that. It wasn't much of a snort.
Marcus chuckled. "We meet again."
"Is that so?"
"I've come and gone a few times since we last met regarding those cheetah people, Doctor."
"You're a doctor?" Tessa asked. "What's your name? Doctor who?"
Both the Doctor and the Master groaned. "Like you've never heard that before," Grisham muttered.
"Not for a long time," the Doctor said, "and it still wasn't long enough."
"But what's your name?" Tessa asked.
"And how exactly is this pertinent to the present happenstances?"
"Wha- I don't…it's not."
"Then `the Doctor' will suffice." You're far from being Ace, or on par with any of my other companions. To Grisham, "Now, shall we see this prisoner of yours, or shall we stand in the dark, watching the young lady catch a chill?"
"Not in the slightest. She may enjoy braining me, and we have fisticuffs now and again and again, but I don't let her get sick."
You sick little… Tessa thought to herself for the sake of thinking it. "But where's the prison?"
"Right here."
"We're next to a hill, Capitan."
"We don't think small," with a smirk.
"Must be compensation."
To break up the thing that was on that line between UST and angst, the Doctor said something entirely true: "Not every species requires them."
Grisham chuckled.
"Jails?" Tessa asked.
The Doctor didn't dignify that with an answer.
Instead, Grisham opened the doorway to the prison. "Lady first?" he invited.
"You first," La Reina instructed. "That way the traps get you."
There's only one trap in the place. "And since I know where they are, I can step right past them." The one trap was the entrance/exit.
"Fine. Then you go, doctor…doctor."
"You have the swords," the Doctor observed to Grisham. "I have my umbrella and my hat. What device does she possess?"
"A right hook," he said in English so the pun would work.
"I see; very well," and walked in first.
In the beginning, the corridor was raw stone, unchiseled and unsmoothed even by nothing more than human skin. When the writing appeared, Tessa found she could read none of it. "What does it say?"
"Legal niceties," Grisham said under his breath. "We're a very legalistic people."
"'We'?"
"Yes," the Doctor said.
"Guess you thought I was one of a kind, eh?" Grisham asked Tessa.
"Oh you!" and started to storm off, walking in front of the Doctor, who didn't try to stop her.
Tessa stopped only when she came to the Chamber, surrounded by what looked like endless rows of faces - some more human than others, some more alien than others. And there, sitting on the ground in the midst - in the middle - in the center - of all those faces, there was a throne. And in the throne -
"Hello there, child," the Doctor said.
"Oh hello, Grandfather," Susan replied.
"You know each other?" Tessa asked, rather surprised, yet after everything that'd happened, not entirely startled.
--------------tbc
"Of course we do. Tell me," Susan asked of Tessa, "if you could, right now, would you kill your father's murderer?"
"Gladly," La Reina confirmed.
To Grisham, "Give her back her sword."
"Nope."
"Spoilsport."
"Only when you call it a sport."
"Its entertainment."
"Dying hurts."
"Like its permanent," with great sarcasm.
"Still hurts." The Doctor nodded.
"What're you - all of you," Tessa asked, "talking about? Death's permanent."
"For you," Susan said.
"She's got a point there," Grisham said. Another nod from the Doctor, who was watching them all with great interest, chin on the back of his hand which was on the curve of his umbrella handle.
"And what are you, a bunch of angels?" At Grisham's grin, "Yeah right. Immortality?"
"Near enough that your kind can't distinguish," Susan said. To Grisham, "Hand her your sword now, or simply prolong your end. I will see this occur either way."
"Translation," Marcus said, "makes no-nevermind to you. "Glad to know you're not in a rush."
"Never am."
"Good," the Doctor said.
"Though I'm wondering," Grisham said.
"That's a first," Tessa said.
"If you're not going to force me to relinquish -"
"Did you hurt yourself with that word?"
"- my sword, how exactly is she here supposed to kill me even once?"
"Colonel Montoya will loan her his sword."
Tessa noticed that Susan didn't say `I'm sure that' or `I feel certain that'… "Are we supposed to walk all the way back to the pueblo, just to kill Captain Grisham?" I could do it here.
"Unneccessarily dramatic, I agree."
"And how will you solve this puzzle?" the Doctor asked Susan and Tessa.
"With Colonel Montoya." And into the chamber shuffled the krirau, which held in its fingerless palms Montoya and Ace. "As humans
say - ta, da."
"That's `tahdah!', Susan."
"They can't even come to an agreement on how to drink tea, and you attempt to persuade me that they can all agree on a sound of
display?"
"Puzzling, aren't they?" with a grin. Lifting himself from his umbrella without letting go of it, he glanced over at Ace. The krirau had stopped - still carrying the pair - close but not near enough for anything involving proximity.
"Colonel?" Tessa asked, also looking back at them.
"I imagine they can both hear us," the Doctor said. "They just can't move, and that means they also cannot speak."
"Quite so," Susan agreed.
With a grin, the Doctor looked from her back to Ace again, and said, "Its not belief here, Ace; it's the force of what you conjure in your mind."
The krirau was keeping the engripped humans from moving about or speaking, but you could still see the twinkle - glimmer? - in Ace's eyes as she thought up the best destructive force she knew.
Tessa reeled, unconsciously taking a step back as her mind was filled with a magnificent cannon, top of the line, only used twicein battle and still in mint condition. This image was in the krirau's mind as well - as the Doctor had said `the force of what you conjure in your mind'.
With the explosion of that image - with the detonation of the cannon - Tessa stepped back again, tripping over herself at the same time the krirau let go of the stunned Ace and Luis.
Grisham shrugged and looked at himself, the Doctor, and Susan; all of whom were unaffected by the krirau. Or rather, at what the krirau had broadcast.
"Wicked indeed," the Doctor said, approvingly, taking a step forward to help Ace up.
Ace was grinning, once she'd gotten control of her facial muscles again. "Too right."
"That was you?" Luis asked her, shocked and astonished.
"Yep. Always good ta have some Nitro 9 handy."
"My cannon," Luis said, agog. "You blew up my cannon."
"These things happen," the Doctor said, "even to mental constructs."
Susan chuckled with agreement.
Montoya looked up at her laugh, looked at her, and drew himself up. "You!"
Before Montoya could even brace his legs to begin running, Susan said, "I'd advise against charging at me, or even raising your hand. The beast behind you," the krirau, "is loyal to me. With a casual thought, it can return you to the paralyzed state you were in when you arrived in my chamber."
Montoya didn't attack, but the hostility didn't leave his face.
Under his breath, Grisham said to Tessa, "That's the people from the world between two suns."
"And *she's* their murderer?" Tessa asked.
"'Murderer'?" Susan repeated, more amused than offended. "Is that what your lover's been whispering in your ear," watching Tessa's hackles rise, "between your paltry attempts to kill him?"
"'Paltry'?"
"Which one succeeded?"
"None of them, yet."
"I rest my case. Unlike you, I have successes to my name. Both the krirau here, and the ognui who resided upon the world which orbited around both suns and the krirau world, I saved from extinction."
Yes, you added carbon and heavy elements to stabilize the star, the Doctor knew. It only took 99% of an entire species. "So you managed to save them," the Doctor said dismissively, referring by `them' to the krirau, "so what? Big deal, as Ace would say. "The survivors will be bred and rebred by our fellow Time Lords," until the krirau no longer look like krirau, until there is almost nothing distinguishably krirau about them, "into proper tools."
"Oh," Susan said, "so you aren't using humans as chess pieces any more?" and noted with interest the look on Ace's face - I hit close to home, I see, Susan noted.
"Not where it can be avoided."
"I see. You're still the same, Grandfather."
"As have you."
"Only just enough."
"Mindsets in orbit about a central gravity well?"
Susan nodded. "The old Gallifreyan poet described it well," which was only natural, given that it was the inherent biological nature of *every* Gallifreyan. "Personalities shift and sway with each regeneration, but the underlying Self remains."
Grisham yawned. He knew, just as the Doctor did, that the modified descendants of the krirau would be used to amnesia the both of them at various points in their lives - such as earlier Doctors.
Her blank expression telling how much she wasn't quite sure of, Tessa said, "What?"
"Free will is tempered by foreknowledge," Susan said, accustomed to it.
"That's not true," Tessa said. "We have free will, pure and simple."
"Coming from one whom is simple and not pure, the statement's understandable."
Tessa huffed.
"We know what's going to happen," Grisham said to Tessa, "and we also have free will….but we also have to keep paradoxes to a dull roar. There are times we know what is going to happen, and not the details; other times, we know the details, and not what is about to happen."
"That's impossible," Tessa said with great certainty.
"You sure?" the Doctor asked.
"Absolutely."
"Great," Grisham said. "I'm standing out in a field with doc Helm. What just happened?"
"What?"
"Exactly."
"Join the club," Ace said to Tessa. "There's a bit o' a learning curve."
"I think I'll stay home and knit instead," Tessa said, which just got Ace laughing.
Grisham laughed too, though he - unlike Ace - was laughing at the image of Tessa knitting.
Trying to ignore them both, Tessa turned to Susan and asked, "You said you know this man…this doctor here - whatever his name is," having never gotten a straight answer on the matter.
"That is so," Susan confirmed.
"Where do you know him from?"
"I used to travel with him."
"Yes, I remember," the Doctor said. "I also recall you had a singular crush on Ian Chesterton." One of your teachers, and among the first of my companions.
Were she human, she would've leveled a burning gaze at him, withering and lethal. But, being a Time Lord, she remained as aloof as one imprisoned for as long as she'd been could be. "I, at least, never slept with your pets."
"Good," Tessa said, "because that's a sin."
Ace coughed. "She means us."
"What?"
"Humans," the Doctor said to clarify.
"What??"
Ace chuckled at the look on Tessa's face…what of her face was visible behind the mask.
"Then…what're you?"
"I'm the Doctor," he said.
"And…" Tessa asked, turning back to Susan, "and you?"
"I'm his granddaughter."
"But - but - you're barely ten years his junior!"
Ace rolled her eyes. "Cripes, you think *that* matters?"
Tessa choked, and Luis nearly hurt himself twisting his neck around to look wide-eyed at her.
"Blunt, but hardly succinct," Susan said. "Don't worry, even I started somewhere."
"How many times'd you die?"
Susan narrowed her eyes. "Tell me how that is your concern, human child."
"I'm not a child!" hefting the bat in her hands, getting ready to swing it.
"Then chose better questions, so I can revise my opinion. As it is, you're scarce better than her," a nod of her head towards Tessa. "Did you enjoy your dream?"
Kill Capitan Grisham resonated in Tessa's head. "That…that was you?"
"One of her minions," Marcus said. "Specifically, this one," swinging one arm in the direction of the krirau, which was still sprawled on the floor…_Probably asleep by now. "Congratulations, you've been puppetmastered," though he didn't particularly care for
those parasitic aliens.
"I've what?" Tessa asked him.
"Manipulated," Ace said, enunciating for her, taking her place at the Doctor's side. To Luis, "Sorry."
Luis nodded numbly, telling himself that he could never be sure how long he could survive - how long he could last - with a cannon-killer. "I wish you well," he said charitably.
The Doctor looked to Ace. "You're sure?"
She nodded vigorously.
Now that Susan was distracted by the drama going on with that lot, Grisham seized the opportunity: he slammed his palms against Susan's
side, bowling her to the ground. More to the dazed prisoner than to everyone else (who were all watching him now), "One good thing about getting beaten up and thrown around by everybody," Marcus Grisham (aka the Master) said, "is that you learn a lot of new moves that way."
Tessa snorted…but she had to admit (to herself) that Grisham had a point, this time.
Handing Tessa her sword, Grisham said, "You want to kill somebody, go right ahead. Question - do you want to stab the person who shot your father dead, or do you want to stab the person who left no option but your father's death?"
Face determined, Tessa took the sword, and used it on Susan -
And was hurled back several meters - coming to a stop against the gut of the krirau - hurled by the force of the regeneration engulfing Susan.
"Blank, beast, blank!" Grisham commanded the krirau. After this, I won't need to be a guard anymore. Finally!
While not as masterful as its descendants would be, the krirau could blot and bury pieces of a person's mind…which it did, as commanded: blotting and burying parts of Susan's mind.
When the regeneration was complete, Susan looked up at everyone, her clothes baggy against her new body (just as human as before, simply thinner now). "I'm hungry."
"Excellent," the Doctor said. "Let's all go out and get you something to eat."
"Thank you, Grandfather."
-----------------------------------------
The End