Oh Ghouls and Girls (Open Halloween RP)

(Before I start, I know that Halloween is two months away. This'll mainly be centered around the central theme of fear, and what scares your character the most. Be creative, be detailed. Leave no stone un-feared.

While joining this RP, think along the lines of The God Complex or the Maze in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. These are your character's worst fears coming to life before their eyes, exploit them. How your character gets here is completely up to you, but this place is completely unknown to start. It exists.

POSTING ORDER
-TC
-Emma
-Treela
-Eric
-Candy
-Romana II

Feel free to join in, anybody! You'll fall in after the last person, then I'll update the list! )

ThWUMP-THWUMP-THWUMP-THWUMP

THWUMP-THWUMP-THWUMP-THWUMP

The Doctor's hearts were pounding in his chest. The sound of dalek gun fire was close behind, but was quickly overshadowed by cyberman battle sirens. The air was permeated with smoke and the bitter ting of burnt flesh and hair. His scarf had suffered tremendous damage in the cross-fire, but he was lucky that was the only thing.

He quickly patted down his frock coat, searching every pocket for anything valuable enough to help him get out of this mess. His sonic screwdriver, although covered in dirt and black soot, proved useless to him at this time. The TARDIS key, a small metallic spade with raised dots on one side, dangled helplessly around his neck. Pulling out pockets full of empty waxed bags, broken gears, a pocket watch, a yellow yo-yo, and a dictionary on learning Tibetan Sanskrit, his scavenging proved pointless.

The Doctor quickly assessed his situation. He was in a wooded area where one could easily hide for a short while, but he needed to leave. And fast. But this wasn't the time or place. He could feel his energy slowly depleting, losing energy and consciousness, and he could feel his eyes closing. He was losing hope...

It felt like centuries had passed him by....

The Citadel at Gallifrey....

The Presidential robes bearing down on his aged body....

The voice of Rassilon echoing through his ears....

This was the end of the Doctor...

With a gasp Treela sat up from where she had woken. The first thing she asked to herself was where was she? Follow that came the obvious like what had happened to her and who had done this to her. She looked around, seeing she was inside some sort of warehouse. She didn't remember being in one when she slept. But then she wasn't sure if she'd fallen asleep either.

In her mind she recounted what she could remember before waking up here. The only thoughts she could muster were finding a handsome boy she went home with and spending the night. But after that she was drawing blanks.

She gasped when she hadn't realized how much time had passed and checked her watch, only to see it wasn't there. She was starting to panic at the thought of not knowing how much time had passed. An hour? Two? Did she need to recharge? She wasn't sure and that was what made her so afraid right now.

Suddenly the sound of a door opening made her jump to her feet. She stood and waited before seeing a group of men, all looking like workers in the warehouse, coming walking in from different corners of the room and stopping once they saw here. They were all looking at her oddly, obviously because she was a stranger to them.

"Where am I?" she asked, not getting an answer straight away. "Please, I don't know where I am but I know I'm lost." She waited for them to answer but no one did, making her say "Can't you help me at all?"

"You're not supposed to be here." one said.

Before she could confirm this another said "You don't belong here."

They way they said it sounded so harsh. Not so much an indication but a threat that she wasn't supposed to be here. She wondered what she'd done to deserve this before they advanced towards her, Treela taking steps back from them.

"You're not one of us." another said. "You just pretend to be."

Another suddenly shouted "Monster! That's what you are! Just another monster!"

Treela kept backing up and saying "No. No....no, please...I...I'm not..." but stopped when she bumped into something.

She turned and realized there were canisters of carnosine lying in a great big pile. There was fluid leaking from the canisters and onto the floor. Knowing what it was made Treela back away in fear, her hand starting to shake. She stopped when she realized she was cornered between the men and the pile of carnosine.

Suddenly one produced a lighter that made Treela shout "NO! Please don't!" but he didn't listen and lite it before tossing it over head.

The lighter went over Treela's head, she ducking down out of fear, and landed in the pile of carnosine which sent it blazing instantly. She screamed and backed away before tripping to the ground. As she watched the fire grow her hand started to twitch before she looked down and realized what was happening.

Suckers began to grow on her arm before she looked down and realized it was happening on her legs too. Her clothes were starting to form into leathery orange skin and she could feel her face starting to break from it's human shape as well. She was shouting and screaming for it to stop while the men kept shouting things at her.

"Monster!"

"Freak!"

"Evil!"

"Alien!"

Eric awoke, unable to recall even the vaguest hint as to why or how he was wherever he was. He sat up slightly, rubbing his head and letting out a groan as he felt a coin-sized lump near the top of his scalp. He looked around, the room he was currently in being completely darkened, save for a single column of light near what he assumed was the room's center. He got up gingerly, his legs unsteady at first; he gradually got used to them again, walking towards the column of light.

As he neared it, he noticed a metal chair in the light's exact center, and something slowly dripping from one of the chair's arms; something that looked uncomfortably like.....blood. He finally stood only a few yards away from the chair, currently looking at it's back he slowly moved in a small circle around it. Something was wrong, something in his gut was telling him, pleading with him not to get a closer look at the chair, to leave it alone and never come back to it again. Unfortunately, his own innate curiosity won out, and Eric found himself at last facing the chair's front.

The sight that met him almost made him vomit, it made his knees buckle and his breathing ragged. For there, in that harsh metal chair, there was a figure. Slender and fragile, golden hair stained with red. His love, his wife....Goldine. He tried to back away, to get away from the gruesome sight, but his feet didn't obey him. He found himself rooted to the spot, unable to move, unable to stop himself from staring at her almost unrecognisable form.

Goldine's clothes were torn and stained, her face bruised and battered by god knows what. Suddenly, Eric heard a voice, cold and emotionless. "Well, well, well...What do we have here?" it said. Eric finally regained control of his feet, he turned slowly and saw a woman standing behind him, staring intently, almost gleefully at him, then looking over to Goldine with the same expression. Eric's features clouded with hatred for this woman, he had never seen her face, but he knew her name.

"You'll want to stick around for this part, Eric." said Yvonne Hartman, before turning to Goldine and smiling coldly. "Now, from the top. Who do you work for?" Goldine's seemingly lifeless body suddenly made what seemed to be an attempt at communication. Despite being little more than a hoarse whisper, Eric was still somehow able to hear it. "Go. To H-hell..." spat Goldine, even in her weakened state, there was venom in her voice.

At this Hartman smiled, clicking her fingers. Two men, dressed in black kevlar and combat trousers appeared beside her, a logo reading "Torchwood" clearly visible on their jackets. "She's had her chance to talk, terminate her." she whispered, one of the men drew a handgun, aiming it at Goldine and pulling the trigger.

Eric screamed, as if in slow-motion he watched the muzzle flash like a miniature explosion, the bullet beginning it's trajectory and it causing an explosion of blood as it hit Goldine, she sunk low in her chair; her head lolling and her eyes glassy and still open. Eric felt his knees finally give out, he dropped to a kneeling position and sobbed, it had happened again. She had died and he was powerless to stop it, he wept for her, his love, his Goldine.

Candalynne woke up in an odd area, it was pitch black and she didn't like the lack of light. She slowly arose and saw a small light ahead in the distance. She slowly and carefully eased towards the light, hoping she was just in a dark, undone room in her TARDIS. She walked into the light and her eyes widened at the sight; blood everywhere.

A blood-curling scream echoed around and Candalynne's eyes widened as she recognized the scream. "T-theo!" She called as she ran around the blocked off room that only had one bright light in the center of it. The walls were stained in blood but she could see they were designed like an Asylum's white room for the most insane patients. Candalynne began to shake, she really feared the thought of being in a white room and being classed as insane (even though she had episodes where she would have hallucinations).

"Oh Rassilon," She mumbled under her breath as she sat down in the center. "What has happened?" She sniffled as tears entered her dark eyes. More blood-curling screams echoed around and Candalynne shrunk into a shaky ball and she cried, for the first time in a long time, she actually cried.

"I-I need to get out, I can't be in here! I don't deserve to be in here!" She shouted and her shouts echoed in her head and around the blood-stained room, nobody hearing her pleas. "Get me out! Get me out!" She screamed louder, her tears falling freely. "Get me out, NOW!" She shot up and ran to what looked like the door and she banged her fists against it. "GET ME OUT!" She repeated as she slammed her fists against the door, hard enough to draw blood from her knuckles.

After minutes of screaming she began to hallucinate without hesitation, her hope fading. Theodora walked in from the corner of the room and she was pale and anorexic. "How could you leave me to die?!" She shouted at Candalynne and Candalynne's eyes widened and her pupils dilated as she began her episodes of insanity. "I-I didn't..." She murmured as Theodora's pale, skinny form slowly melted back into the shadows.

"EXTERMINATE!"

The cries of a Dalek sounded around the room and Candalynne yelped and whimpered as she sat down in the corner of the blood-covered room, slowly rocking as she mumbled: "I'm completely fine... I'm completely fine."

"I'm completely fine."

The Doctor caught his breath, feeling the icy chill of the sombre night penetrate his lungs, sending pins of pain bouncing through his chest. The tree he was hiding behind was big, but not big enough to hide him from the ever looming presence of the Daleks and Cybermen.

Feeling curious, the Doctor peeked around the tree towards the direction he came. The Daleks and cybermen seemed to have vanished from thin air, leaving nothing but darkness in between tall, mossy trees. A light fog had begun to settle on the floor of the forest, only adding to the chill that anything could be lurking.

Trying to collect himself, the Doctor took a deep breath and began to take in his surroundings. The night sky was clear, twinkling with bits and bobs of stars that hung in the night sky, as if someone took a handful of glitter and threw it up in the air. The moon was pale, yellow, and hung largely in the sky.

The forest life seemed almost nonexistent, but this didn't surprise the Doctor. Animals often kept quiet in the presence of predators, and these metallic fiends were the predators. It seemed to make sense. Everything here seemed to make sense. That was until the Doctor had looked closer at his location...

There were poles of various shapes and sizes scattered about the way. Although it was too dark for the Doctor to see at first, the closer he got to the shapes, the more clearer they became. And to the Doctor's deepest and darkest fears, they were exactly what he thought they were: heads. Impaled, bloodied, and disembodied heads. The color had drained from all of the faces, their eyes had become lifeless, pale, cloudy grey disks, blood and dirt had speckled all of their faces. Not even a proper execution, the Doctor thought, treated like animals and common criminals. Worse than that even.

As the Doctor approached the heads closer and closer, the faces began to morph into more recognizable features. Sarah Jane Smith, impaled and bloodied, limp. The Brigadier with Mike Yates and Sgt. Benton, tongues out, mouths permanently affixed open. The mangled remains of Liz Shaw and Jo Grant laid further off on a rock.

As the Doctor walked through the patches of staked remains, the wind began to howl in the night, whistling and moaning through the trees. The wind's howling began to grow louder and louder, even beginning to form words in the night. But what the Doctor thought was odd was the fact that the night was still calm, and the trees weren't moving....

The voices began to morph into more familiar sounds. The Doctor looked about. The heads and mangled remains began to move and turn towards him. The mouths of the Brigadier, Yates, and Benton began to audibly voice out....

"Why did you leave us, Doctor? Why did you do this to us?

We TRUSTED you!"

Backing away from the heads, he ran into something. Turning around lightning fast, the Doctor stared directly into the face of Jamie McCrimmon.

"Doct'r, I troosted you. You let me die. You let us all die..."

All of the voices started to overwhelm the Doctor. He began to run in circles, realizing that he was in the middle of everybody whom he ever loved and trusted, dead and mangled, staring at him and accusing him of their deaths. The Doctor fell to his knees, hands on his ears, and began to sob.

"I'm sorry..I shouldn't have left you! I'm sorry! Just leave me alone. You're not here.

LEAVE ME ALONE!"

Treela couldn't stand the constant noise as her form continued to break. They kept shouting at her and calling her names while the flames went higher and higher. She could feel the heat all around her as if she was on fire herself. Despite this Treela tried to keep her current form.

"I know who I am...." she said to herself while closing her eyes. "I know who I am..."

As she kept saying this she could feel herself growing a little more stable. Her human form was starting to stay instant but there was still features of her Zygon self sticking out. She knew she couldn't stay here, with the fire and the men shouting at her, so she did her best to pick herself up.

Quickly she ran towards the men, pushing her past two of them while they still called her out as a monsters. She needed to get away from the heat most of all, the fire that felt like it was following her. Even as she started to run down the hall it didn't help. She could hear the voices echoing and the heat building all around her. It was as if the fire was outside and consuming the building itself.

"No!" she kept saying, covering her ears "I know who I am! Leave....just leave me alone!"

It was starting to become disorienting to the point of dizziness. Treela stumbled as she tried to stay human while also trying to run. She kept feeling herself swaying from one wall of the hall to the other. She didn't know where she was going but just prayed it was somewhere better.

Eric sat there, kneeling in front of the corpse of his wife for what seemed like an eternity. Where the hell was he? Had he time-travelled to Torchwood HQ before it's destruction? Was he dreaming? Or was it something else entirely? He got up, each movement feeling like a great effort to him, he turned around, expecting to see Yvonne Hartman and her two guards behind him. Instead he was met with nothing but the same dark and featureless landscape as there was behind him.

Wiping his eyes and trying to mentally motivate himself, he began to walk, where and why he did not know; but walk he did. Away from Goldine's body, away from whatever awful place this was. Initially he was met with nothing but the inky blackness of this vast and cavernous place, over time he noticed the formerly smooth and untouched floor becoming rough and dense and almost....muddy. No, wait...the floor was becoming soil before his eyes, as he kept walking he noticed trees and other plants, tiny in scale at first. Eventually becoming bigger and bigger, until he found himself in a dark forest of great oaks and evergreens; as silent as the grave.

Continuing his aimless wandering through this new landscape, he began to see thing out of the corner of his eye, grey and stiff, unmoving when he caught a glimpse of them, but when he looked away...the sound of a cracking twig or harsh claws against bark and wood. Eric prayed to every god of every civilisation he knew of, he hoped against hope that the beings following him weren't what he thought they were.

Deciding to risk it, to look behind himself just to confirm whether or not it was them. He turned his head, and saw something he really wasn't in any mood to see. Weeping Angels, scores and scores of them currently stalking him through the woods, stopping and becoming stone as they always did when seen every time Eric caught so much as a stray glimpse of one. As if he was being stalked by stop-motion monsters.

He turned 360 degrees to see them in all directions but straight ahead, he began to walk faster, still periodically turning in all directions. Eric noticed after a while that the number of Angels was multiplying, meanwhile he was still turning in a way that made it seem as if he was practicing for ballet. Faster and faster he ran, the rustling of leaves starting up and then stopping again as soon as he turned in a different direction.

Eric's breathing began to get more and more laboured and quicker as time went on, not knowing how long he could keep this act up for and starting to panic until he tripped over a large tree branch, landing face first in the soil. He scrambled to his feet, looking around for any hint of his pursuers and saw....nothing. The Angels had disappeared, seemingly having given up on chasing him, something he had never known them to do...especially in such large numbers.

He slowly steadied his heart-rate and breathing, continuing to walk forward until he reached a forest clearing. Looking around for a potential ambush of some sort, he saw nothing at first. That is, he saw nothing until his eyes registered two figures, one sitting and one kneeling on the forest floor. "Um....hello? A-are you two alright down there?" he inquired, hoping that: A. they had heard him and B. They weren't Weeping Angels.

Candalynne was losing hope fast, she didn't know what to do. She looked around the white room and noticed an air vent, she smiled in relief as she spotted it. She slowly stood up from the corner and eased towards the air vent. She jumped up and grasped onto the bottom of it, she was surprised the thing had no grate on it, well... it was less trouble for her.

She crawled through the air vent and she slipped and fell through into a hallway, she groaned and whimpered in pain before slowly standing up and rubbing her head as she began to feel dizzy. She slowly swayed through the halls towards a big door that seemed to lead outside, she tried to pry it open with her bare hands but it wouldn't budge very well, only enough for her to peek outside. "Oh there's a forest!" She said out loud in surprise.

She heard distant footsteps and Candalynne took no chances as she hid around the corner from the door until she saw a female figure coming towards her location. "It isn't an hallucination... I know that. Hallucinations always know where I am, whether I'm hiding or not." She mumbled to herself before stepping out.

"Hello there, miss. Are you lost here too?" She asked the female but noticed her state, she was stumbling and breathing in an odd manner. She placed a hand on the female's shoulder. "Are you alright, miss? You seem a bit... hurt?"

The Doctor held his head in agony, a rare form for him to be in. He felt the quiet chill of the night seep through his sweat-soaked vest and torn shirt. All was quiet. The voices had stopped, the familiarity of the forest once again became alien as the quiet rustling of leaves stirred up in the distance. When at last, a quiet voice broke the silence. "S-sorry..."

The Doctor looked up from his cradle, eyes adjusting to the dim darkle of the moonlit forest. His deep purple eyes, usually friendly and inviting, were now fierce as they held back fire and storms. They spotted a figure in the darkness, slightly lit by the pale moonshine through trees. The figure hesitantly approached the Doctor, taking baby steps.

"And who are you supposed to be? The Ghost of Christmas Past?"

The Doctor seethed in ire and anger, letting his words pour out of his mouth like venom. The Doctor stumbled to his feet, feeling exhaustion and pain trickle through his body and legs. He started to approach the girl when he heard the second voice. "A-are you two alright down there?"

The Doctor, startled, turned around, letting the matted pouf atop his head briefly flip. The figure now standing yonder was a man, contrary to this female counterpart who had startled him not only five minutes ago. "And you...let me guess: Michael the Archangel?"

A President's work was never done.

Not that Romana minded, really. Her people needed her, and she was good at governing their world. But as she glanced out the window to watch the second sun set, she felt very tired of politics. One of the few saving graces was the people she associated with. K-9, Leela, Braxiatel, and the Doctor (on the rare occasions he decided to answer her summons, and on the few occasions when he'd just turned up unannounced in her office).

Speaking of her friends, had they gone back to their homes yet? Leela was unlikely to leave without her, but she hadn't even seen Braxiatel exit his office. In fact, she hadn't seen him all day... Romana frowned, wondering about his absence.

She didn't have to wonder long. Suddenly, a soft thump could be heard through the door to his office.

"Brax?" No answer. She tried again. "Irving Braxiatel, are you alright?" She got up to put an ear to his door, but could hear nothing more. "Brax, I'm coming in."

She opened the door just an inch before seeing what was wrong. "Brax!" She flung the door wide as she ran to where Braxiatel lay, face down. She rolled him to his back, only to be greeted with dead eyes.

"Brax?" She could feel no pulse nor breath, but he wasn't regenerating. "Brax! Brax can you hear me!?" She tried in vain, shaking his head, but Irving Braxiatel remained deceased.

"What happened to you?" She whispered, pain filling her hearts. Her answer came in the form of a voice.

"HE HAS BEEN EXTERMINATED."

Romana's body turned cold, her breath caught in her throat, and she began to shake. Slowly, she turned her head towards the horrible voice. There were three of them. They had been behind the door she had stupidly flung open.

'Stupid! Stupid! Brax lays here dead and you don't think to look around to see what killed him!?'

"YOU WILL RISE."

Romana obeyed, holding out her hands to show that she was unarmed. 20 years of imprisonment and torture at the hands of the Daleks flew through her mind in the space of a second.

"YOU WILL ORDER YOUR PEOPLE TO SURRENDER TO DALEK CONTROL OR YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!"

"No." She tried to sound confident, but her voice audibly shook. "No I won't. We will never surrender to you!"

"THEN YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!" The Dalek fired, but Romana ducked just in time. The others followed suit, and Romana dodged her way back through Brax's door, then shut it.

'Right, like that's going to hold them.' She chided herself.

A Dalek's energy beam burst through the door just centimeters away from her head. She crouched down, holding her head and screaming for her bodyguard.

"Leela! LEELA!!"

But from outside her own office door, she heard Dalek energy weapons firing. Leela would not come. Romana looked around her office, so useless with it's books and papers. She had no weapons.

But she had a window. It was the only other way out of the room.

She ran to it, pushing it open and stepping out onto the ledge. The wind outside was strong. It whipped her hair and billowed her robes. But if she could just climb down a few floors, surely she would be able to escape the Daleks. Surely she could warn someone...

Romana hugged the smooth outer wall of the Presidential tower as she crept along. She didn't dare to look down. Slowly, carefully, she inched herself to the edge of the ledge. From there it was a short drop onto the next ledge.

Romana was prepared herself to jump, slowing her breath and rapidly beating hearts in an attempt to calm herself down, when she heard it.

"EXTERMINATE!!"

Romana whipped her head around to see a Dalek flying towards her. It fired, missing her by inches, but it was enough to shake her loose.

Romana slipped, and shrieked, and then Romanadvoratrelundar, Lady President of Gallifrey, plummeted to what was sure to be her death.

Treela didn't realize where she was going at this point. The heat was dazing her thoughts and her vision, as if she were on the verge of an actual heatstroke. And the voices ringing in her head were constant and vibrant. She'd finally stopped and slid down against the wall, trying to breath as best she could.

Looking down at her hands and legs Treela saw suckers still poking through her false form. She didn't know how much longer she could keep this up before whatever it was that was doing this to her would finally get what it wanted. Treela would likely die of fright before anything else but she would never know who or why this was happening.

Feeling someone touch her Treela jumped before seeing it was a girl, and not someone who was calling her a monster or alien. At first she wasn't sure if she was real or not, but the fact she wasn't calling her anything meant that she was friendly; even more so despite the suckers on her skin still showing. In any case she needed help and this girl, whoever she was, was the closest thing she had.

Grabbing her arm Treela pleaded "Help me. Please..." her voice sounding weak. "I...I need to get out of the heat. They...won't stop screaming at me....please help me. I need some water..."

Candalynne noticed the slight sucker-looking things poking out of the girl's skin but she knew the female was real and she didn't care if they were an alien or whatever they were, she was going to help them and the female sure looked like she needed it.

"Who won't stop screaming at you?" She blinked, almost feeling somewhat less lonely with the fact people were also screaming at this female like the voices inside her head were doing to her. "Right, water. Okay... we should probably get outside and find a lake or something, because I haven't got water on me, sorry. To be honest, I don't know how I got here." She murmured.

Her gaze went from the female to the door and she grabbed one of the handles and pulled with all her strength and it budged enough for her to slip through, and seeing as she was slightly taller than the female she was helping, she was sure she would fit through too.

"Come on, the forest must have a lake or a river to give you some water." She said as she ushered the female to follow. She walked slowly and cautiously before her eyes laid on a figure in the forest and she stiffened at the sight of the angry male figure in the background.

"Oh no... he can't be here. He can't be. He'll kill me!" She held her head and silently muttered soothing things to herself as she tried to calm down but she noticed the figure easing towards her and she glanced back at the woman. "We should run, now!" She said before taking off.

All Romana could hear was the sound of wind rushing past her ears. She tried to reach out for a ledge, but her fingers just slipped past them.

'I'm going to die. I'm going to die and the Daleks are going to take over Gallifrey and there's nothing I can do about it.'

Seemingly out of nowhere, a pair of impossibly strong arms caught her around the middle. She grabbed at the person who caught her, and together they managed to get Romana back into the building. She looked at her savior with shock, but the shock quickly turned to glee.

"Leela!" She embraced the savage woman hard, and Leela returned it. "I thought you were dead!"

"I escaped, with K-9's help."

K-9 himself rolled up, ears twirling.

"Oh, good boy, K-9!" Romana gushed.

"Negative, Mistress," said the robot dog.

Romana frowned. "What do you mean, K-9? You saved Leela."

"Affirmative, Mistress," the dog nodded. "Mistress Leela was to be kept alive in the event that the Daleks did not exterminate you."

Leela and Romana looked at each other, confusion plain upon their faces.

"Why?" Demanded Leela. "Why keep me alive only if the Daleks did not kill Lady Romana?"

K-9's ears whirred. "To force the Mistress to watch." From K-9's nose, a small tube extended, and from it a laser shot out, hitting Leela directly in the heart.

"LEELA!!" Romana shrieked, catching her friend's body before it could fall to the ground. "Leela no! NO!"

Romana began to cry, sinking to the ground with the weight of the warrior woman - her best friend. She held the dead warrior protectively.

"Why!?" She screamed at the dog. "Why, K-9!?"

"It was in my programming," he answered simply.

"Who programmed that into you? WHO!?" She was beginning to shake with the grief. First Brax, now Leela... Two of the three people she cared most about in the universe. The only one left was-

"The Doctor Master."

"W.... w-what!?" Romana's hearts caught in her throat. Her world was spinning with the information.

"The Doctor Master programmed me to kill Mistress Leela and Mistress Romana."

"Since when!?"

"A short time before he left you in E-Space, Mistress." The dog paused, his ears whirring and his tail wagging. "Any further information is forbidden to you, Mistress. You will die now."

From Leela's hip, Romana pulled a staser and aimed it at K-9. "I don't believe you," she said before firing on the robot dog.

It had been on its highest setting. The robot dog didn't have a chance. A small explosion erupted from the dog, several panels flying off to give way to smoke and sparks. Romana sniffed before laying the staser down. Someone had tampered with K-9, but they had done it in a very clever way. They had made the robot dog believe that the Doctor had programmed him, and that was impossible. The Doctor wouldn't want her or Leela dead.

Leela...

Romana looked down at the woman who had been her friend and protector for such a long time. "I'm so sorry, Leela." She hugged the woman's body to her, tears streaking down her face freely. "I'm so sorry."

With hearts that felt like they might explode from fear and anguish, Romana gently laid Leela on the ground and again picked up the staser.

"I'm sorry, Leela. I have to go warn the others." Romana wiped her tears away in a gesture that was far braver than she felt, then ran down the hall in search of help.

"And you....let me guess: Michael The Archangel?"

Eric frowned at this, he got closer, trying to get a better look at these two new people. He heard a quiet but persistent beeping sound, looking down at his Vortex Manipulator, two bio-scan readouts. One subject human, the other.....Time-Lord. Eric's eyes widened slightly, scarcely able to believe what he was seeing. He kept his hand wrapped around the grip of his still holstered Blaster, moving ever closer to them.

Eric noticed his eyes beginning to finally adjust to the dark forest that spread out in all directions, he peered down at the source of the cynical voice that had spoken only moments earlier. The first thing he noticed was a ridiculously gaudy scarf, all yarn and colours, no style. "Who are you people anyways? More importantly, how did I get here?" he inquired, taking notice of a rotund curly mop of hair and the slightly hook-nosed face beneath it.

"My readouts say you're Gallifreyan, would you by any chance know a man..well...two men really, who go by the name "The Doctor"? One's a skinny sort of fella, spiky hair and a big ol' suit jacket and overcoat. The other wears a sort of...tweed jacket...horrible bow-tie....sometimes a fez?" he asked, not waiting for an answer to his first questions.

It was at this moment that he looked over at the other figure out of the corner of his eye, he saw only dark hair and similarly dark clothes at first, until..."Emma....Emma Morgan....is that you?" he asked, cocking his head slightly as if in an attempt to see her better.

"One second...if I can just...tinker with the settings.." he said, fiddling with his Vortex Manipulator. The Manipulator's screen lit up, creating an effect not unlike that of a torch's beam. He clearly saw the man sprawled on the floor, his elaborately curled hair and ostentatious choice of neckwear in plain view. Then there was Emma, also on the ground, exactly as he remembered her from the fiasco in Scotland. Eric tried to suppress a smile at the sight of at least one familiar face. He looked back over to the apparent time-lord, and made a mental note to try and discover what his identity and motives  might be....as well as the reason for his criminal lack of fashion sense.

The girl approached the Doctor menacingly, and with great ferocity, accusing the Doctor of murdering her sister or something to that extent. She began to pound on his chest and force him to lose his ground, but the Doctor stood strong. He staggered as she hit him. "Hush! You don't know what could be lurking here. Besides, look at me. LOOK AT ME! Do I look like the type who would go around murdering young and innocent people?"

The Doctor held the girl in his arms as they both collapsed to the ground. Seeing the new man coming into the moonlight, revealing a vortex manipulator. His queries involving the Doctor spiked his interest, but his descriptions of them sounded vague and unlike anything he's heard of. Then again, stranger things HAVE happened.

The Doctor arose to meet him. "Yes, I'm the Doctor. I don't know of anybody with a long trenchcoat who also goes by the Doctor, but I know in my youth I did dawn a bowtie and atrocious coat. But that was several centuries ago." The Doctor held his hand out in typical meet-and-greet fashion, but was met with cold reception. "As for how we got here, well, I'm still trying to figure that one out myself. I've lost all sort of direction, all sort of hints as to where I am. I don't know anymore."

The Doctor looked around the small glen that the trio inhabited, studying every detail with ultimate possibilities in his brain. He looked up into the sky. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small brass telescope, extended it, and scanned the sky. Although it was evident that the telescope had been dented and damaged in the crossfire of whatever the Doctor was running from, it appeared to work successfully.

After a while of being totally oblivious to his companions, he put the telescope away and turned to the man. "Look, I don't know who you are, I don't know why we're here. But if you can get me and my friend here out of this forest alive, I guarantee you I will take you back wherever you need to be and in what time."

If Treela had the strength to she would've smiled when this red haired girl agreed to help. If not for the burning feeling and the voices ringing inside her head she would've done something to show her appreciation. For right now all she could do was follow, breathing heavily while still trying to maintain her form.

It was a little easier once they'd come through and out into the forest. Everything was more open and Treela could feel a slight breeze. At the very least she knew there was no fire, but the voices were still calling out at her. She kept looking around even as the red haired girl talked about finding out where to go next, thinking the men she'd seen were coming for her from somewhere.

Treela however looked when the girl claimed to see someone who was going to kill them. When she looked she saw nothing. No one was there and yet the girl looked convinced there was. She looked as she ran, looking back to see not see any man present, before hurrying to follow.

"But....but I didn't see....anything." she tried to say while hurrying to catch up to her. A little ways more before she started saying "...water...need....water.."

Candalynne glanced behind her as she slowly slowed down for the poor girl who was breathing heavily. "S-sorry for running, but that man I saw... he wants me dead." She sighed before she turned to the left and her grey, dark eyes rested on a small pond in the distance. "Oh! Look! A pond!" She said as she rushed to it. She glanced around when she reached it, seeing small, moving dots from around ten metres away.

Candalynne looked to the girl she was helping. "You do what you need to do, while I try and figure out who they are." She said before running towards the three figures, once she got closer the light that was blaring off one of the man's wrists helped her make out who everyone was. She hadn't met the girl before... well, she thought she didn't know the female figure. She looked at the man with the light and her eyes widened. "E-Eric?" She stuttered out before her eyes met on her old friend from the Academy, The Doctor. "D-d-doctor?" She blinked, a surprised expression stuck on her face. Her head tingled a little, the familiar feeling of being near another Time Lord.

"H-how are you both here? I-I mean, I don't even know how I got here... but how are you...h-here?"

Candalynne's surprise look changed to one of fear as she gasped at the sight of the male, young figure she had seen before, the light coming from Eric's vortex manipulator made his figure more obvious in the dark. It was a figure of someone she knew from her dreams and hallucinations... someone who shouldn't exist, not yet, not just yet.

((I'm sorry this took so long. Life got busy.))

The halls were eerily quiet. Romana expected the halls to be filled with the dead, but instead they were filled with the complete absence of life. Somehow that made the situation worse. She jogged relatively calmly at first, but the more emptiness she found, the faster she ran. By the time she heard his voice, she was sprinting as fast as she could, calling out for someone, anyone.

"Romaaana..."

She stopped dead in her tracks, her hearts lifting. "Doctor!?"

"Romaaana..." It was definitely the Doctor, calling for her. It wasn't the panicked call of someone who was in trouble or injured. It was the call of someone calmly searching for another. She followed his voice.

Down the empty halls she ran, following his calls. She found him at the end of one hall that was darker than the rest. A single overhead light played above his head, his floppy hat casting an eerie shadow across his face.

"Doctor!" Romana ran to him, smiling. He smiled back at her, his large teeth glinting in the single light.

"There you are, Romana. I was wondering what had happened to you..." He took a step towards her.

"Never mind what happened to me. The Daleks have taken over Gallifrey!"

"Yes, I know."

'Of course he knew. He must be responding to a distress call someone was able to send out.' "They also reprogramed K-9. He killed Leela, and tried to kill me. But they tampered with him in such a way that he believed it was you who reprogramed him."

"Really?" His voice was so placid, so calming. "Oh you poor thing. Come here." He spread out his arms, inviting her into a hug.

She went to him, wrapping her arms around his middle (and keepin the staser pointed away from him). She felt his arms heavily snake around her back and neck, and for a brief second she felt comforted and safe. The Doctor was here now! Together they could free Gallifrey!

"Oh, poor Romana. Poor, foolish Romana. You really are an idiot, aren't you?"

Romana immediately recoiled and pushed him back. "Excuse you!?" She frowned at him angrily.

The Doctor chuckled. It was a grating noise that sent a shiver down her spine. He grinned at her, but it wasn't the grin of the man she had called her friend. There was malice in his smile and hatred in his eyes.

"Not just anybody could reprogram K-9 like that." He took another step towards her, and Romana took one back, suddenly loath to let him touch her. He didn't care. He took another step. "Are you really so stupid as to think the Daleks could have reprogramed K-9 so efficiently? You foolish girl, K-9 was telling you the truth!"

Romana's hearts dropped into her stomach. Was she breathing? She wasn't sure. "W-why!? You killed Leela! And your brother!"

"Do you really think I cared about that savage, about you, about any of them!? DO YOU!?" He yelled and Romana jumped. He was walking steadily towards her now, and she was matching his steps back.

"But our people... they'll all be killed!" Her voice was beginning to shake.

"Good." His wasn't. "Let them burn."

Romana raised her staser and pointed it at his chest. The Doctor stopped his advance, but didn't look worried.

"You won't shoot me," he told her. "Yout don't have it in you to kill me... But I have it in me to kill you." He smiled at her one last time. "You should start running."

She did.