Mind Games (2/3)
Title: Mind Games
Part: 2/3
Prompt: Hearing (oncoming_storms)
Rating: PG
Word Count: 3867
Other parts: Part 1, Part 3
Special thanks to brigadiertardis for the inspiration and encouragement she provided, as well as her fabulous beta help!
“What is it? What's wrong?”
C'rizz turned at the sound of the voice, finding Linda running up behind them. “We don't know. He just...fainted.”
“It was a little more than that, C'rizz,” Charley mumbled through clenched teeth. She picked up the Doctor's hand, checking for a pulse. “He’s definitely breathing,” she told Linda. “But he's unconscious.”
C'rizz winced, putting a hand to his head. “Does anyone else live around here?” he asked as Linda reached them.
“What, on the farm? Just my husband and my sons, but they're out in the fields. But I'm sure the three of us can carry him back to the house ourselves.”
The Doctor let out another cry then, his eyes snapping open. He sat up, stiffly, staring at nothing. “It's here!” he declared. His voice was triumphant but...not in its usual way. There was something eerie about it, as though something more than just the Doctor were speaking. “It's here; I can feel it! Find it. Find it, find it, find it...” His gaze focused on Charley then, and his mouth curved into a grin. “Let me have it! It's mine.”
And then he fell back against the grass and mud again, just as unconscious as he had been seconds before.
They were all silent for a moment, looking at each other in concern.
“What do you think it meant?” C’rizz finally asked.
“‘It’?” Linda repeated. If she had looked on edge before, she was far past that now. “What do you mean ‘it’? What is this? Some sort of joke?”
“Unfortunately, it isn’t.”
“It wasn’t him,” Charley explained, frowning with worry. “But I have no idea what it could have been...”
Linda took a few steps back. “There is something very wrong with all of you.”
Ignoring her, C’rizz stepped over to the Doctor, leaning down beside him. He came up holding the sonic screwdriver. “Whatever is happening, I’m sure the Doctor wouldn’t want us to just stand around.”
“But C’rizz,” Charley protested, “What are you planning to do? Neither of us knows how to use that.”
C’rizz pushed and poked at it a bit until it began to make a whirring sound. “Well, I’m assuming it’s still on whatever setting he was using. So we should be able to follow the energy back to the source with it somehow.” He passed it over the ground, watching and listening closely for any sign that he was going the right way. “It seems to hum differently right here. I’m going to follow it.”
“Look,” Linda interrupted. “Whatever is going on here, it isn’t funny. If he’s really unconscious, shouldn’t we bring him into the house? Instead of playing with a...whatever that is? And what are you people doing in my field in the first place? Where’s your truck?”
“It’s complicated,” Charley replied, sighing.
“And do you really think you’d want him in your house if he woke up again?” C’rizz added pointedly.
Linda blanched. “Okay. If you’re sure he’ll be all right.” She stayed several feet back but made no move to leave, watching them warily.
Charley was torn. “I guess...if you’re going, C’rizz, I’ll stay with him. And I’ll see what I can find out if he does wake up again.”
At that, Linda took a deep breath and walked over to C’rizz. “Then I’ll go with...um...you. And your glowing stick. What is it that you’re doing again?”
C’rizz rolled his eyes. He never had much luck with humans. “My name is C’rizz, and this is a sonic screwdriver. Something is making everyone around here feel on edge, and it seems to have done something to the Doctor. I’m going to find whatever it is so we can stop it.”
“Oh.” She was still pale.
“You can go home, if you’d rather,” C’rizz offered.
She shook her head. “I was thinking about that, but I won’t feel any better. I’m probably better off helping you all figure out what’s going on. I’m just going to pretend what you’re doing makes some sort of sense. So go ahead and get started with your...did you call that a screwdriver?”
“A sonic screwdriver.”
Linda’s expression told him the adjective hadn’t helped in the least. “Oh. Okay, then. Um...let’s go?”
C’rizz nodded, starting forward, screwdriver against the ground.
“C’rizz,” Charley called after them. “Be careful. You know that’s exactly what the Doctor was doing when something happened to him.”
“Don’t remind me.” He winced, putting his free hand to his head.
“Are you okay?” Linda asked, her wariness giving way slightly to concern.
“It’s not whatever happened to the Doctor, if that’s what you mean.”
“But you’re in pain.”
He shook his head. “It’s just the psychic field.”
“The what?”
“It’s whatever’s making everyone feel edgy.” He kept walking, sonic screwdriver held low. “I think we’re getting close to whatever it is we’re looking for.”
“FIND IT!”
Everyone jumped at the yell. C’rizz and Linda turned to find the Doctor surging to a sitting position. Except, unlike last time, he now moved to stand.
“Doctor!” Charley jumped to her feet beside him, visibly nervous. “What should I do?”
“Just watch him!” C’rizz called to her. “Don’t forget; it’s the field that’s making you feel so worried.”
“C’rizz, there is something inside him. That’s more worry than the field.”
In a sudden motion, the Doctor reached out and seized her arm.
“Hey! Let me go!” Charley struggled against him.
“Charley!” C’rizz started back toward her, but the Doctor immediately held up a hand to stop him.
“Don’t move,” he stated.
C’rizz stopped. “What are you doing to her?”
“Nothing. But if you don’t help me, I will tear her brain apart.” He raised a hand toward her face as he said it, twisting it with his last words to emulate plucking something out. Charley shook.
C’rizz froze. “Don’t hurt her.”
“Then take me to it. It’s mine.”
The Eutermesan didn’t even have to hesitate. “All right, I will. But let her go.”
He sneered at C’rizz’s request, giving a tug on Charley’s arm to pull her with him as he advanced. “Take me to it!” he repeated.
C’rizz scowled, but he knew there was nothing he could do without risking that Charley would be hurt. He started the screwdriver humming again, concentrating on the whirring signal. “We keep going that way.” He gestured ahead.
“Then go. Now.”
Charley let out a slight whimper as the Doctor twisted her arm, dragging her along with him. Linda watched in fear, hanging back. The Doctor didn’t seem to notice her.
C’rizz continued forawrd, glancing back at the Doctor and Charley every couple seconds as he went. If there were some way to distract the being and put himself between the Doctor and Charley... Since it seemed to be able to manipulate people mentally, he wasn’t sure exactly what that would accomplish, but it was worth a try, wasn’t it? He just needed an opportunity.
That train of thought was fairly destroyed when the Doctor abruptly collapsed again.
“Doctor!” Charley rather awkwardly caught him as he fell, lowering him to the ground with her.
C’rizz ran over to them, holding the sonic screwdriver tightly. “Charley, we probably shouldn’t be too close to him.”
“I know, but...” She frowned, standing and reluctantly backing away next to C’rizz. They were silent for a moment. “Do you think you could get him back to the TARDIS?”
C’rizz’s eyes widened. “Would it really be a good idea to bring whatever is inside him in there?”
“Good point.” She sighed. “Then what-”
She was interrupted by a very loud gasp from the Doctor. He didn’t move from where he was lying this time, but after a second, he began to speak. “Charley? C’rizz? Are you there?” He sounded strained and still didn’t sit up or even turn toward them.
Charley rushed right over to him, hovering. “Doctor? Doctor, we’re here!”
C’rizz was wary, but the last thing he wanted was to leave Charley alone next to him again, so he stepped up to him, too. “Both of us.”
“Charley, C’rizz, listen to me,” the Doctor said, urgently. “This is a hostile psychic creature. It can manipulate us, but I’m fairly certain that’s all it can do--and only one at a time. Or at least, I can keep it busy enough to contain it.”
“So it can’t hurt us?” C’rizz asked.
“Not our minds. But it’s very potent. I can’t block it for long.”
“What can we do? How do we stop it?” Charley pressed.
“Just don’t let it get...” The Doctor winced, squeezing his eyes shut. “C’rizz, you...can probably...” His voice cut off, and he sighed, his body relaxing as he passed out again.
C’rizz grabbed Charley’s arm. “Get back before he wakes up.”
Charley nodded numbly, stepping back. C’rizz, however, let her go as she moved. He stepped forward until he was standing over the Doctor.
“C’rizz!” Charley hissed. “What are you doing?”
“The Doctor said...whatever it is...can’t actually hurt us with its mind. And if it’s stuck in the Doctor’s body, then I should be able to stop him from hurting us at all.”
Charley’s eyes widened. “If you’re going to do that, please be careful!”
“Don’t worry. I know my own strength relative to humans by now, and I know the Doctor isn’t weaker than humans are.”
“Well, thanks a lot.”
“Shh! I think he’s waking up.”
After stirring for a few seconds, the Doctor surged to his feet again, just as abruptly as before. C’rizz was there to meet him, twisting an arm behind the Doctor’s back, much as the man had done to Charley, and holding him there with his other hand. “This time, you’re going to stay still.”
“I’ll kill the girl!” the being threatened, shrilly.
“We know you’re bluffing!” Charley declared, though she still kept her distance. “So mind telling us who you are and what you’re doing here?”
“And what you want with the Doctor,” C’rizz added.
“Yes. We’ll take your name for a start.” She eyed him, confident now.
The being stared back at her coldly. “I am Voric. I am energy. I will not be trapped!”
And without any further warning, the Doctor gave a shudder, going limp. C’rizz screamed, putting both hands to his head in pain and dropping the Doctor in the process.
It hardly mattered, as the Doctor’s eyes opened again seconds later, and he caught himself with a stumble, getting immediately back to his feet and turning on C’rizz.
“Take that!”
The frying pan hit with a smack, followed by a ringing, and the Doctor went right back down.
“There,” Linda declared, grinning. “He shouldn’t be any trouble for a while.”
“Is he all right?” Charley asked, hurrying over to him.
“He’s the one you’re worried about?” Linda asked incredulously.
“Well, he probably won’t appreciate it when he wakes up,” C’rizz mumbled, still holding a hand to his head.
“He’s just unconscious again,” Charley reported. “C’rizz, are you okay? What happened?”
“If that wasn’t a mind attack, I don’t know what it was.” The Eutermesan moaned.
Charley frowned, concerned now. “But the Doctor said he couldn’t do that.”
“Maybe the Doctor should tell him that.” C’rizz made a face. “Unless...”
“Unless?”
“Unless he wasn’t trying to hurt my mind. Maybe...he was trying to enter it.”
“Is that sort of thing really as normal as you’re making it sound?” Linda asked, still clutching her frying pan tightly and keeping a wary eye on the unconscious Doctor.
“You’d be surprised,” C’rizz admitted.
“But what stopped it?” Charley asked. “Why did it go back into the Doctor and try to really attack you?”
C’rizz’s gaze darkened. “I have a theory...”
“And what’s that?”
“What?”
“Your theory.”
“Oh. Um...maybe it can’t affect Eutermesans.”
“What’s a Eutermesan?”
“I am.”
“You’re an alien!? Is that why you...uh...”
“Anyway!” Charley interrupted. “Perhaps we should consider doing something before the Doctor--and that thing--wakes back up.”
“Agreed.” C’rizz pulled the sonic screwdriver from his pocket. “I think, for a start, I’m going to find the other end of the signal.”
“I’m sticking with the immune Euta...what-”
“Eutermesan,” C’rizz corrected, sighing.
“Right. Then I’ll stay with the Doctor again. With that frying pan, if you don’t mind, Linda.”
Linda looked rather reluctant, but after a moment of thought, she handed the weapon over.
“Will you be able to hit him?” C’rizz asked softly.
“Don’t worry about me,” Charley promised. “He almost broke my arm, after all.” She rubbed it, wincing.
C’rizz watched her for a moment and then nodded, trusting. “Come on, then, Linda. We have a...psychic field generator of some kind to find. Or I'm guessing that's the word, anyway.”
“The Doctor would be proud.”
“Maybe, when he's back and we tell him all about it.”
“So are we going?” Linda interrupted.
“Yes.” C’rizz turned the sonic screwdriver back on. “Be careful, Charley.”
“Look who's talking. You're the one going after an unknown device.”
C’rizz grinned. “Just like any other day.” And he turned, starting off toward the signal's source.
Charley frowned, watching as the two of them disappeared down a nearby hill. She looked down at the Doctor once they were gone, nudging him so that he was lying flat on his back instead of at the awkward angle at which he had landed. “Not just like,” she murmured. “We usually have someone else in the lead.”
***
“Linda, do you hear that? We must be getting close!” C’rizz picked up his pace, nearly hopping down the hill before them in his hurry. His human companion couldn’t keep up.
“C’rizz, would you...be careful? We don’t know... what we’ll find!”
“The field is just making you nervous!” the Eutermesan called behind him as he reached the bottom--a grassy inlet, filled with flowers. He tripped the moment he got there, one hand to his head and the other flailing in an attempt to catch his balance. “Yes,” he breathed through clenched teeth. “We’re close.”
Linda stopped, holding back nervously. “Is it that thing in your friend? Trying to attack you again?”
C’rizz shook his head. “No, this is something else. It just makes things...noisy.” He kept his hand to his head, starting forward. “I’m betting whatever this is, it’s right here. Somewhere. Maybe...”
He trailed off, as did the whirring of the sonic screwdriver. “Here!” he exclaimed, kneeling down in the grass.
“What is it? What did you find?” Linda called, her curiosity overcoming her nerves. She came rushing down the hill as well.
“It looks like...an animal.”
Linda stopped behind him, staring down at a ball of lavender fur, half-obscured by the surrounding flowers. It was shaking and making some sort of chittering noise. And while it was hard to tell without having seen its face before, it seemed to have its head down and its eyes squeezed shut somewhere within its long fur.
“Oh... Is this what the signal was about?” C’rizz asked, almost to himself. He reached down, picking up the creature. It was just a bit smaller than one of his hands. It shook as he cradled it between them, but then it seemed to relax. C’rizz let out a contented sigh. “That’s better. You can talk to just me now, okay?”
As Linda was staring in amazement, she felt a wave of calm pass over her. Or, she realized, it was more like she felt her worries flowing out of her. She sighed as well, then smiled. “You stopped it.”
C’rizz shook his head. “I just gave him someone to talk to.”
Linda raised an eyebrow. “You can understand him? He speaks Euterme-whatsit?”
“Eutermesan. And no, I don’t think it has anything to do with that. You can’t hear him from this close?”
“I hear squeaky noises.”
C’rizz frowned. “Oh. He’s singing to me.”
“Singing?”
“Yes.”
“Are you sure you didn’t get hit on the head, C’rizz?”
He gave her an exasperated look. “I’m sure.”
“Okay then. So um...now what?”
C’rizz blinked. “Now what?”
“Yeah. You’ve found a shaggy purple mouse that sings to you. What happens next?”
“Oh. I’m not sure.” He stroked the creature gently. “He wants to go home. He’s been trying to find someone to help him all this time.”
Linda’s eyes widened. “Wait. You mean the psychic thing--the field or whatever--that was actually just this little guy looking for someone all along?”
C’rizz nodded. “It was making everyone feel on edge, but it wasn’t trying to scare us. I think it was more meant to be...the feeling you get when you’ve lost something you need. It wanted us to find it, but we couldn’t understand what it was saying properly.”
“I still can’t. It’s all squeaking to me.”
“Well, I can understand it, but...it sounds like it’s been stranded here somehow. And has no idea how to get home.”
“So what do we do?” Linda pressed.
C’rizz shook his head. “I don’t know. I bet we can take it home in the TARDIS, but...”
“But?”
“We need the Doctor for that.”
“I take it the TARDIS isn’t a truck, then.”
C’rizz couldn’t help a laugh. “Not a truck, no.”
“Okay then. So...” She looked worriedly back the way they’d come. “If you can’t get the Doctor away from the mind thingy, are you sure this guy can’t help you with your TARDIS instead?”
The Eutermesan shook his head. “No. It doesn’t know anything about it. And neither do Charley and I, really. It’s the Doctor’s. But...” He stopped, stroking the creature, and Linda noticed that it was shaking again. “Oh no. It says it smells a voric.”
“A what?”
“A sort of mental predator. They feed on bogiloori--these small animals.”
“Oh.” Linda smiled, shaking her head incredulously. “I’m going to pretend that made sense. So, assuming one of these voric things are nearby--wait, is that what’s messing with your friend, then? So what do we do?”
“That’s what I don’t know,” C’rizz admitted. He winced, and Linda shuddered as she felt the worry sink into her again. “Just mentioning a voric is making the bogiloori very scared. It wants to run.” He held the creature tightly as it began squirming in his hands. “Shh. It’ll be okay. The Doctor will know what to do.”
“You do realize there’s an obvious problem with that idea?”
“Yes,” C’rizz replied, annoyed. “But it doesn’t need to know that.”
“Oh. It can understand me?”
The Eutermesan frowned. “I don’t think so. But it can understand me.”
“Are you sure it isn’t speaking Eutermesan?”
“Perfectly.” He blinked. “But that’s probably why I can understand it and you can’t. Whatever it is speaking, it’s something that the TARDIS has to translate for me.”
“What?”
“Nevermind. We need to take it back to the Doctor now.”
“You mean the voric.”
C’rizz’s eyes narrowed. “I mean the Doctor. He’ll break through again. Once he knows what we’re up against, I’m sure he’ll think of something.”
“Whatever you say. But can’t you calm the bogli down again?”
“Bogiloori,” C’rizz corrected. “And maybe...” He stroked it a bit more, murmuring to it. “The Doctor will help. Don’t worry. We’ll get you home.”
Linda sighed in relief as she felt the worry flow out of her again. “That’s better. All right, should we go?”
C’rizz nodded, holding the bogiloori tightly against him. “We should hurry. We don’t want to leave Charley alone with the Doctor for too long.”
Linda rolled her eyes. “At least she has a weapon,” she mumbled, “We have what---a furball?”
“Please hurry, Linda!”
“All right already. I’m coming!”
***
“Back already?” Charley called as they approached, a tinge of sarcasm in her voice.
“Charley!” C’rizz’s eyes widened at the sight of the current situation. The Doctor and Charley were advancing on them, although Charley was essentially being dragged, her arm twisted behind her back again. The Doctor had the frying pan in his hand, and from the looks of Charley’s arm, he’d been using it for a bit of persuasion.
The Doctor sneered as they approached, but the expression quickly shifted into a smirk when he saw what C’rizz had cuddled in his hands. “Give it to me!” he declared eagerly. “Or she gets it.” He raised the frying pan above Charley’s head to show his meaning.
“Not today!” Charley abruptly twisted, her arm popping with the movement, and came around to kick the Doctor hard in the ankles from behind. He kept his hold on her arm, swinging the frying pan at her with a yell of anger.
And then he stopped in the middle of the swing.
C’rizz seized the moment, dropping the bogiloori on the ground and lunging forward with a cry, tackling the Doctor. Charley came down with them, but her arm was freed, and she quickly got back up and away.
The Doctor swung the frying pan at C’rizz, but the Eutermesan stayed on top of him, the blow glancing off his exoskeleton. They struggled for several moments, wrestling on the grass, before the Eutermesan gained enough control to sit on the Doctor and pin his arms to his sides.
“Doctor!” he cried, staring down into the face of his opponent. “Doctor, can you hear me? What can we do? How do we free you?”
“I am Voric! Give it to me! Give me my meal!” the Doctor cried, fighting against the much-stronger Eutermesan.
“Doctor!” Charley called, coming up behind C’rizz with the shaking bogiloori held tightly in her hands. “Doctor, how can we help you?”
“Stay back,” C’rizz cautioned. “We can’t risk it hurting the bogiloori.”
Charley frowned but nodded, moving a few feet away so that Linda was between her and the Doctor.
“Are you sure that fuzzy thing can’t do anything?” Linda asked.
“I suppose it’s worth asking about,” C’rizz acknowledged. “Doctor? Doctor, it’s C’rizz. We found the bogiloori. It’s with us now. It’s safe. Can it help you? Can we help you?”
The Doctor kept up his struggle. “Give it to me! Give it! My meal! It’s mine!”
“Doctor,” Charley begged, “Please, say something.”
“GIVE IT TO-”
He cut off abruptly, and the Doctor went limp in C’rizz’s arms, nearly causing the Eutermesan to overbalance.
“Doctor!?” Charley and C’rizz gasped in unison.
The Doctor kept his eyes shut, but he began to speak. “TARDIS.” His voice was raspy, as though he were fighting something to get the words out.
“The TARDIS can help you?” Charley asked. “It’s safe to bring you in there?”
“No. No...TARDIS!”
“What about the TARDIS, Doctor?” C’rizz pressed. “We don’t know what you mean.”
“Bogiloori. TARDIS!”
“Ohhhh!”
“Hold him there. I’ll get the bogiloori to the TARDIS,” Charley said.
“Hurry!” C’rizz cried as the Doctor went limp and then came back fighting.
Charley took off across the field, bogiloori in her arms. “Which way did we come from? Oh, right. The cows!” She paused, listening for the sound of distant mooing, before setting off again, running as fast as she could.
“What do we do now?” Linda asked, coming up uncertainly behind C’rizz.
The Doctor went limp again.
“Doctor?” C’rizz asked.
His eyes snapped open. “C’rizz, behind you!”
“What?” the Eutermesan spun just in time to see Linda take off dashing after Charley. “Oh no.”
Part: 2/3
Prompt: Hearing (oncoming_storms)
Rating: PG
Word Count: 3867
Other parts: Part 1, Part 3
Special thanks to brigadiertardis for the inspiration and encouragement she provided, as well as her fabulous beta help!
“What is it? What's wrong?”
C'rizz turned at the sound of the voice, finding Linda running up behind them. “We don't know. He just...fainted.”
“It was a little more than that, C'rizz,” Charley mumbled through clenched teeth. She picked up the Doctor's hand, checking for a pulse. “He’s definitely breathing,” she told Linda. “But he's unconscious.”
C'rizz winced, putting a hand to his head. “Does anyone else live around here?” he asked as Linda reached them.
“What, on the farm? Just my husband and my sons, but they're out in the fields. But I'm sure the three of us can carry him back to the house ourselves.”
The Doctor let out another cry then, his eyes snapping open. He sat up, stiffly, staring at nothing. “It's here!” he declared. His voice was triumphant but...not in its usual way. There was something eerie about it, as though something more than just the Doctor were speaking. “It's here; I can feel it! Find it. Find it, find it, find it...” His gaze focused on Charley then, and his mouth curved into a grin. “Let me have it! It's mine.”
And then he fell back against the grass and mud again, just as unconscious as he had been seconds before.
They were all silent for a moment, looking at each other in concern.
“What do you think it meant?” C’rizz finally asked.
“‘It’?” Linda repeated. If she had looked on edge before, she was far past that now. “What do you mean ‘it’? What is this? Some sort of joke?”
“Unfortunately, it isn’t.”
“It wasn’t him,” Charley explained, frowning with worry. “But I have no idea what it could have been...”
Linda took a few steps back. “There is something very wrong with all of you.”
Ignoring her, C’rizz stepped over to the Doctor, leaning down beside him. He came up holding the sonic screwdriver. “Whatever is happening, I’m sure the Doctor wouldn’t want us to just stand around.”
“But C’rizz,” Charley protested, “What are you planning to do? Neither of us knows how to use that.”
C’rizz pushed and poked at it a bit until it began to make a whirring sound. “Well, I’m assuming it’s still on whatever setting he was using. So we should be able to follow the energy back to the source with it somehow.” He passed it over the ground, watching and listening closely for any sign that he was going the right way. “It seems to hum differently right here. I’m going to follow it.”
“Look,” Linda interrupted. “Whatever is going on here, it isn’t funny. If he’s really unconscious, shouldn’t we bring him into the house? Instead of playing with a...whatever that is? And what are you people doing in my field in the first place? Where’s your truck?”
“It’s complicated,” Charley replied, sighing.
“And do you really think you’d want him in your house if he woke up again?” C’rizz added pointedly.
Linda blanched. “Okay. If you’re sure he’ll be all right.” She stayed several feet back but made no move to leave, watching them warily.
Charley was torn. “I guess...if you’re going, C’rizz, I’ll stay with him. And I’ll see what I can find out if he does wake up again.”
At that, Linda took a deep breath and walked over to C’rizz. “Then I’ll go with...um...you. And your glowing stick. What is it that you’re doing again?”
C’rizz rolled his eyes. He never had much luck with humans. “My name is C’rizz, and this is a sonic screwdriver. Something is making everyone around here feel on edge, and it seems to have done something to the Doctor. I’m going to find whatever it is so we can stop it.”
“Oh.” She was still pale.
“You can go home, if you’d rather,” C’rizz offered.
She shook her head. “I was thinking about that, but I won’t feel any better. I’m probably better off helping you all figure out what’s going on. I’m just going to pretend what you’re doing makes some sort of sense. So go ahead and get started with your...did you call that a screwdriver?”
“A sonic screwdriver.”
Linda’s expression told him the adjective hadn’t helped in the least. “Oh. Okay, then. Um...let’s go?”
C’rizz nodded, starting forward, screwdriver against the ground.
“C’rizz,” Charley called after them. “Be careful. You know that’s exactly what the Doctor was doing when something happened to him.”
“Don’t remind me.” He winced, putting his free hand to his head.
“Are you okay?” Linda asked, her wariness giving way slightly to concern.
“It’s not whatever happened to the Doctor, if that’s what you mean.”
“But you’re in pain.”
He shook his head. “It’s just the psychic field.”
“The what?”
“It’s whatever’s making everyone feel edgy.” He kept walking, sonic screwdriver held low. “I think we’re getting close to whatever it is we’re looking for.”
“FIND IT!”
Everyone jumped at the yell. C’rizz and Linda turned to find the Doctor surging to a sitting position. Except, unlike last time, he now moved to stand.
“Doctor!” Charley jumped to her feet beside him, visibly nervous. “What should I do?”
“Just watch him!” C’rizz called to her. “Don’t forget; it’s the field that’s making you feel so worried.”
“C’rizz, there is something inside him. That’s more worry than the field.”
In a sudden motion, the Doctor reached out and seized her arm.
“Hey! Let me go!” Charley struggled against him.
“Charley!” C’rizz started back toward her, but the Doctor immediately held up a hand to stop him.
“Don’t move,” he stated.
C’rizz stopped. “What are you doing to her?”
“Nothing. But if you don’t help me, I will tear her brain apart.” He raised a hand toward her face as he said it, twisting it with his last words to emulate plucking something out. Charley shook.
C’rizz froze. “Don’t hurt her.”
“Then take me to it. It’s mine.”
The Eutermesan didn’t even have to hesitate. “All right, I will. But let her go.”
He sneered at C’rizz’s request, giving a tug on Charley’s arm to pull her with him as he advanced. “Take me to it!” he repeated.
C’rizz scowled, but he knew there was nothing he could do without risking that Charley would be hurt. He started the screwdriver humming again, concentrating on the whirring signal. “We keep going that way.” He gestured ahead.
“Then go. Now.”
Charley let out a slight whimper as the Doctor twisted her arm, dragging her along with him. Linda watched in fear, hanging back. The Doctor didn’t seem to notice her.
C’rizz continued forawrd, glancing back at the Doctor and Charley every couple seconds as he went. If there were some way to distract the being and put himself between the Doctor and Charley... Since it seemed to be able to manipulate people mentally, he wasn’t sure exactly what that would accomplish, but it was worth a try, wasn’t it? He just needed an opportunity.
That train of thought was fairly destroyed when the Doctor abruptly collapsed again.
“Doctor!” Charley rather awkwardly caught him as he fell, lowering him to the ground with her.
C’rizz ran over to them, holding the sonic screwdriver tightly. “Charley, we probably shouldn’t be too close to him.”
“I know, but...” She frowned, standing and reluctantly backing away next to C’rizz. They were silent for a moment. “Do you think you could get him back to the TARDIS?”
C’rizz’s eyes widened. “Would it really be a good idea to bring whatever is inside him in there?”
“Good point.” She sighed. “Then what-”
She was interrupted by a very loud gasp from the Doctor. He didn’t move from where he was lying this time, but after a second, he began to speak. “Charley? C’rizz? Are you there?” He sounded strained and still didn’t sit up or even turn toward them.
Charley rushed right over to him, hovering. “Doctor? Doctor, we’re here!”
C’rizz was wary, but the last thing he wanted was to leave Charley alone next to him again, so he stepped up to him, too. “Both of us.”
“Charley, C’rizz, listen to me,” the Doctor said, urgently. “This is a hostile psychic creature. It can manipulate us, but I’m fairly certain that’s all it can do--and only one at a time. Or at least, I can keep it busy enough to contain it.”
“So it can’t hurt us?” C’rizz asked.
“Not our minds. But it’s very potent. I can’t block it for long.”
“What can we do? How do we stop it?” Charley pressed.
“Just don’t let it get...” The Doctor winced, squeezing his eyes shut. “C’rizz, you...can probably...” His voice cut off, and he sighed, his body relaxing as he passed out again.
C’rizz grabbed Charley’s arm. “Get back before he wakes up.”
Charley nodded numbly, stepping back. C’rizz, however, let her go as she moved. He stepped forward until he was standing over the Doctor.
“C’rizz!” Charley hissed. “What are you doing?”
“The Doctor said...whatever it is...can’t actually hurt us with its mind. And if it’s stuck in the Doctor’s body, then I should be able to stop him from hurting us at all.”
Charley’s eyes widened. “If you’re going to do that, please be careful!”
“Don’t worry. I know my own strength relative to humans by now, and I know the Doctor isn’t weaker than humans are.”
“Well, thanks a lot.”
“Shh! I think he’s waking up.”
After stirring for a few seconds, the Doctor surged to his feet again, just as abruptly as before. C’rizz was there to meet him, twisting an arm behind the Doctor’s back, much as the man had done to Charley, and holding him there with his other hand. “This time, you’re going to stay still.”
“I’ll kill the girl!” the being threatened, shrilly.
“We know you’re bluffing!” Charley declared, though she still kept her distance. “So mind telling us who you are and what you’re doing here?”
“And what you want with the Doctor,” C’rizz added.
“Yes. We’ll take your name for a start.” She eyed him, confident now.
The being stared back at her coldly. “I am Voric. I am energy. I will not be trapped!”
And without any further warning, the Doctor gave a shudder, going limp. C’rizz screamed, putting both hands to his head in pain and dropping the Doctor in the process.
It hardly mattered, as the Doctor’s eyes opened again seconds later, and he caught himself with a stumble, getting immediately back to his feet and turning on C’rizz.
“Take that!”
The frying pan hit with a smack, followed by a ringing, and the Doctor went right back down.
“There,” Linda declared, grinning. “He shouldn’t be any trouble for a while.”
“Is he all right?” Charley asked, hurrying over to him.
“He’s the one you’re worried about?” Linda asked incredulously.
“Well, he probably won’t appreciate it when he wakes up,” C’rizz mumbled, still holding a hand to his head.
“He’s just unconscious again,” Charley reported. “C’rizz, are you okay? What happened?”
“If that wasn’t a mind attack, I don’t know what it was.” The Eutermesan moaned.
Charley frowned, concerned now. “But the Doctor said he couldn’t do that.”
“Maybe the Doctor should tell him that.” C’rizz made a face. “Unless...”
“Unless?”
“Unless he wasn’t trying to hurt my mind. Maybe...he was trying to enter it.”
“Is that sort of thing really as normal as you’re making it sound?” Linda asked, still clutching her frying pan tightly and keeping a wary eye on the unconscious Doctor.
“You’d be surprised,” C’rizz admitted.
“But what stopped it?” Charley asked. “Why did it go back into the Doctor and try to really attack you?”
C’rizz’s gaze darkened. “I have a theory...”
“And what’s that?”
“What?”
“Your theory.”
“Oh. Um...maybe it can’t affect Eutermesans.”
“What’s a Eutermesan?”
“I am.”
“You’re an alien!? Is that why you...uh...”
“Anyway!” Charley interrupted. “Perhaps we should consider doing something before the Doctor--and that thing--wakes back up.”
“Agreed.” C’rizz pulled the sonic screwdriver from his pocket. “I think, for a start, I’m going to find the other end of the signal.”
“I’m sticking with the immune Euta...what-”
“Eutermesan,” C’rizz corrected, sighing.
“Right. Then I’ll stay with the Doctor again. With that frying pan, if you don’t mind, Linda.”
Linda looked rather reluctant, but after a moment of thought, she handed the weapon over.
“Will you be able to hit him?” C’rizz asked softly.
“Don’t worry about me,” Charley promised. “He almost broke my arm, after all.” She rubbed it, wincing.
C’rizz watched her for a moment and then nodded, trusting. “Come on, then, Linda. We have a...psychic field generator of some kind to find. Or I'm guessing that's the word, anyway.”
“The Doctor would be proud.”
“Maybe, when he's back and we tell him all about it.”
“So are we going?” Linda interrupted.
“Yes.” C’rizz turned the sonic screwdriver back on. “Be careful, Charley.”
“Look who's talking. You're the one going after an unknown device.”
C’rizz grinned. “Just like any other day.” And he turned, starting off toward the signal's source.
Charley frowned, watching as the two of them disappeared down a nearby hill. She looked down at the Doctor once they were gone, nudging him so that he was lying flat on his back instead of at the awkward angle at which he had landed. “Not just like,” she murmured. “We usually have someone else in the lead.”
***
“Linda, do you hear that? We must be getting close!” C’rizz picked up his pace, nearly hopping down the hill before them in his hurry. His human companion couldn’t keep up.
“C’rizz, would you...be careful? We don’t know... what we’ll find!”
“The field is just making you nervous!” the Eutermesan called behind him as he reached the bottom--a grassy inlet, filled with flowers. He tripped the moment he got there, one hand to his head and the other flailing in an attempt to catch his balance. “Yes,” he breathed through clenched teeth. “We’re close.”
Linda stopped, holding back nervously. “Is it that thing in your friend? Trying to attack you again?”
C’rizz shook his head. “No, this is something else. It just makes things...noisy.” He kept his hand to his head, starting forward. “I’m betting whatever this is, it’s right here. Somewhere. Maybe...”
He trailed off, as did the whirring of the sonic screwdriver. “Here!” he exclaimed, kneeling down in the grass.
“What is it? What did you find?” Linda called, her curiosity overcoming her nerves. She came rushing down the hill as well.
“It looks like...an animal.”
Linda stopped behind him, staring down at a ball of lavender fur, half-obscured by the surrounding flowers. It was shaking and making some sort of chittering noise. And while it was hard to tell without having seen its face before, it seemed to have its head down and its eyes squeezed shut somewhere within its long fur.
“Oh... Is this what the signal was about?” C’rizz asked, almost to himself. He reached down, picking up the creature. It was just a bit smaller than one of his hands. It shook as he cradled it between them, but then it seemed to relax. C’rizz let out a contented sigh. “That’s better. You can talk to just me now, okay?”
As Linda was staring in amazement, she felt a wave of calm pass over her. Or, she realized, it was more like she felt her worries flowing out of her. She sighed as well, then smiled. “You stopped it.”
C’rizz shook his head. “I just gave him someone to talk to.”
Linda raised an eyebrow. “You can understand him? He speaks Euterme-whatsit?”
“Eutermesan. And no, I don’t think it has anything to do with that. You can’t hear him from this close?”
“I hear squeaky noises.”
C’rizz frowned. “Oh. He’s singing to me.”
“Singing?”
“Yes.”
“Are you sure you didn’t get hit on the head, C’rizz?”
He gave her an exasperated look. “I’m sure.”
“Okay then. So um...now what?”
C’rizz blinked. “Now what?”
“Yeah. You’ve found a shaggy purple mouse that sings to you. What happens next?”
“Oh. I’m not sure.” He stroked the creature gently. “He wants to go home. He’s been trying to find someone to help him all this time.”
Linda’s eyes widened. “Wait. You mean the psychic thing--the field or whatever--that was actually just this little guy looking for someone all along?”
C’rizz nodded. “It was making everyone feel on edge, but it wasn’t trying to scare us. I think it was more meant to be...the feeling you get when you’ve lost something you need. It wanted us to find it, but we couldn’t understand what it was saying properly.”
“I still can’t. It’s all squeaking to me.”
“Well, I can understand it, but...it sounds like it’s been stranded here somehow. And has no idea how to get home.”
“So what do we do?” Linda pressed.
C’rizz shook his head. “I don’t know. I bet we can take it home in the TARDIS, but...”
“But?”
“We need the Doctor for that.”
“I take it the TARDIS isn’t a truck, then.”
C’rizz couldn’t help a laugh. “Not a truck, no.”
“Okay then. So...” She looked worriedly back the way they’d come. “If you can’t get the Doctor away from the mind thingy, are you sure this guy can’t help you with your TARDIS instead?”
The Eutermesan shook his head. “No. It doesn’t know anything about it. And neither do Charley and I, really. It’s the Doctor’s. But...” He stopped, stroking the creature, and Linda noticed that it was shaking again. “Oh no. It says it smells a voric.”
“A what?”
“A sort of mental predator. They feed on bogiloori--these small animals.”
“Oh.” Linda smiled, shaking her head incredulously. “I’m going to pretend that made sense. So, assuming one of these voric things are nearby--wait, is that what’s messing with your friend, then? So what do we do?”
“That’s what I don’t know,” C’rizz admitted. He winced, and Linda shuddered as she felt the worry sink into her again. “Just mentioning a voric is making the bogiloori very scared. It wants to run.” He held the creature tightly as it began squirming in his hands. “Shh. It’ll be okay. The Doctor will know what to do.”
“You do realize there’s an obvious problem with that idea?”
“Yes,” C’rizz replied, annoyed. “But it doesn’t need to know that.”
“Oh. It can understand me?”
The Eutermesan frowned. “I don’t think so. But it can understand me.”
“Are you sure it isn’t speaking Eutermesan?”
“Perfectly.” He blinked. “But that’s probably why I can understand it and you can’t. Whatever it is speaking, it’s something that the TARDIS has to translate for me.”
“What?”
“Nevermind. We need to take it back to the Doctor now.”
“You mean the voric.”
C’rizz’s eyes narrowed. “I mean the Doctor. He’ll break through again. Once he knows what we’re up against, I’m sure he’ll think of something.”
“Whatever you say. But can’t you calm the bogli down again?”
“Bogiloori,” C’rizz corrected. “And maybe...” He stroked it a bit more, murmuring to it. “The Doctor will help. Don’t worry. We’ll get you home.”
Linda sighed in relief as she felt the worry flow out of her again. “That’s better. All right, should we go?”
C’rizz nodded, holding the bogiloori tightly against him. “We should hurry. We don’t want to leave Charley alone with the Doctor for too long.”
Linda rolled her eyes. “At least she has a weapon,” she mumbled, “We have what---a furball?”
“Please hurry, Linda!”
“All right already. I’m coming!”
***
“Back already?” Charley called as they approached, a tinge of sarcasm in her voice.
“Charley!” C’rizz’s eyes widened at the sight of the current situation. The Doctor and Charley were advancing on them, although Charley was essentially being dragged, her arm twisted behind her back again. The Doctor had the frying pan in his hand, and from the looks of Charley’s arm, he’d been using it for a bit of persuasion.
The Doctor sneered as they approached, but the expression quickly shifted into a smirk when he saw what C’rizz had cuddled in his hands. “Give it to me!” he declared eagerly. “Or she gets it.” He raised the frying pan above Charley’s head to show his meaning.
“Not today!” Charley abruptly twisted, her arm popping with the movement, and came around to kick the Doctor hard in the ankles from behind. He kept his hold on her arm, swinging the frying pan at her with a yell of anger.
And then he stopped in the middle of the swing.
C’rizz seized the moment, dropping the bogiloori on the ground and lunging forward with a cry, tackling the Doctor. Charley came down with them, but her arm was freed, and she quickly got back up and away.
The Doctor swung the frying pan at C’rizz, but the Eutermesan stayed on top of him, the blow glancing off his exoskeleton. They struggled for several moments, wrestling on the grass, before the Eutermesan gained enough control to sit on the Doctor and pin his arms to his sides.
“Doctor!” he cried, staring down into the face of his opponent. “Doctor, can you hear me? What can we do? How do we free you?”
“I am Voric! Give it to me! Give me my meal!” the Doctor cried, fighting against the much-stronger Eutermesan.
“Doctor!” Charley called, coming up behind C’rizz with the shaking bogiloori held tightly in her hands. “Doctor, how can we help you?”
“Stay back,” C’rizz cautioned. “We can’t risk it hurting the bogiloori.”
Charley frowned but nodded, moving a few feet away so that Linda was between her and the Doctor.
“Are you sure that fuzzy thing can’t do anything?” Linda asked.
“I suppose it’s worth asking about,” C’rizz acknowledged. “Doctor? Doctor, it’s C’rizz. We found the bogiloori. It’s with us now. It’s safe. Can it help you? Can we help you?”
The Doctor kept up his struggle. “Give it to me! Give it! My meal! It’s mine!”
“Doctor,” Charley begged, “Please, say something.”
“GIVE IT TO-”
He cut off abruptly, and the Doctor went limp in C’rizz’s arms, nearly causing the Eutermesan to overbalance.
“Doctor!?” Charley and C’rizz gasped in unison.
The Doctor kept his eyes shut, but he began to speak. “TARDIS.” His voice was raspy, as though he were fighting something to get the words out.
“The TARDIS can help you?” Charley asked. “It’s safe to bring you in there?”
“No. No...TARDIS!”
“What about the TARDIS, Doctor?” C’rizz pressed. “We don’t know what you mean.”
“Bogiloori. TARDIS!”
“Ohhhh!”
“Hold him there. I’ll get the bogiloori to the TARDIS,” Charley said.
“Hurry!” C’rizz cried as the Doctor went limp and then came back fighting.
Charley took off across the field, bogiloori in her arms. “Which way did we come from? Oh, right. The cows!” She paused, listening for the sound of distant mooing, before setting off again, running as fast as she could.
“What do we do now?” Linda asked, coming up uncertainly behind C’rizz.
The Doctor went limp again.
“Doctor?” C’rizz asked.
His eyes snapped open. “C’rizz, behind you!”
“What?” the Eutermesan spun just in time to see Linda take off dashing after Charley. “Oh no.”