A Tourist's Nightmare

This day wasn't meant to go this way. 

Romania seemed like an alright planet to visit. Quiet, peaceful, and featured on many tourist sites - something Chris had been looking over in the time period when she'd lost Theta. Her Theta, anyway. Funny thing, though - none of the reviews ever mentioned a vampiric plague. 

Then again, it was probably their fault for going to the wrong time period. 

It wasn't long after they'd touched down that they figured something was horribly awry. The whole day they were there, there was barely a soul on the street. Those who were seemed very timid. Either that, or battle scarred. They seemed rather surprised that they'd arrived there and had chosen to stay a while. It wasn't until nightfall that they knew why.

Now they were running for their lives - or at least Theta was. Chris wasn't very fast on her feet anymore - she was flying just above him, heart pounding rapidly in her chest as the hoard of bloodlusting aliens raced after them. "This actually clears a lot of things up!" She shouted down to the Time Lord, trying to make light of the situation. She couldn't help but wonder why all those seemingly unaffected people were staying here when they knew the dangers that lurked in the night. Maybe they couldn't leave - who would dare send a rescue vehicle to a place like this? 

It was her time spent in her thoughts that became her downfall. Quite literally. Chris yelped as a cold hand grasped at her ankle, tugging her out of the air and slamming her on the concrete below. It was fight or flight, and it seemed the latter wasn't going to work. That left her one option. Chris flapped her wings roughly against the ground, trying to bat away the surrounding vampires, while she kicked viciously at her assailant. It seemed unphased by the lashes she inflicted, crawling hungrily towards her neck. 

"Theta!" Chris shouted, eyes wide and arms trying to shove them away. The others were closing in, and it was about to be a feeding frenzy. Originally she was hoping Theta'd gone back to the TARDIS to save himself, thinking she could get away from this alive. Now she wasn't sure she could, and she hoped to whatever the hell was out there that he hadn't abandoned her. "Theta please! No!" She cried, hands gripping the shoulders of the alien pouncing for her neck. She wasn't strong enough to restrain his primal thirst. He wasted no time digging into her neck, and Chris was left howling in pain. 

Blood was dribbling down her skin and she shuddered in fear of it. That fear - that adrenaline - that was all she had to use against him now. It, maybe. It didn't seem like it had much of a conscious mind left. Perhaps it was even slightly satiated now, having gorged itself on her blood. With a grunt of effort, Chris launched the vampire off of her neck and slid back from beneath him. The rest of the hoard was ready for their turn, though. Her feet scrambled to get a grip on the concrete and she was almost immediately taking off, leaving a group of what seemed like saddened piranhas below her. She wasn't taking any chances this time - Chris was flying at roof level now, right hand grasping at the wound on her neck. At least she'd given her friend a couple extra seconds. 

She hurried to catch up with Theta, diving down towards Lady once they were close enough. Chris was panting as she pulled her hand away, examining the blood that coated it before putting it back on her injury. "Thiiiissss isn't good," she laughed without humor, silently willing the doors to open faster so they could get out of trouble.

This was a really Nice to meet you, Rose. Now run for your life! day, Theta couldn't help but think as he ran from a mob of bloodthirsty aliens infected with the vampire plague.

He'd at least been in good mind that Robin would be safe, since she could fly above the mobs of mindless infectees. Well, at least until he reached the TARDIS, hearts pounding, and Robin hadn't come flying in after him right away. He flicked a few energy disks at the significantly smaller mob (what where had they gone?), stunning them until Robin would be able to come flying in so he could shut the door securely behind them.

Except that she didn't.

"Robin??" Theta was getting increasingly concerned, she ought to have been here by now! Then he heard her scream, and, well, that cleared things up, even if the clarification only made things worse.

He stunned his way through the stragglers that weren't centered around where he assumed Robin was, and, to his relief, Robin was able to break free and fly up and away from them. He didn't get a very good glimpse of her, but, he thought with worry, her flying looked a little off. She hadn't gotten bit had she?

Wait, ok, so those vampires that had been after Robin? They noticed him again. And, would you look at that, there were vampires that had followed him from the TARDIS over here. That all came down to the fact that he was surrounded. Insert curse word hereeee.

There wasn't much else he could do other than back against a wall and extend the braclet's energy shielding over himself; they couldn't get through, but oh mannnn too close too close too close. He extended the shield's reach a bit, but still, that wasn't much. They still bit and hissed at the wall like demonic sucker fish on a fish tank.

He could wait them out till morning, couldn't he? Probably.

...what had happened to Robin, though?

Chris stood, panting and tired, leaning against the TARDIS with concern. God, she needed water. Her throat was so damn dry after all that flying - she felt like she was wheezing, rather than breathing. She couldn't wait to get inside and down a nice, cool glass of ice water. Only thing, where the hell was Theta?

She was about to peek inside just to make sure he hadn't gone in without her, but she noticed the mob wasn't after her anymore. In fact, it didn't really seem to be moving at all. All the vampires were flooding towards one spot up against a building and...

Her heart sank. Theta.

Chris couldn't leave him there like that. She had high hopes that he was safe, and that he hadn't already been downed like she had. She took off yet again, hurrying towards the hoard with a half baked plan to get them away from him, just to make sure he'd survive this. How she'd survive this, she hadn't exactly worked out yet. She landed haphazardly, stumbling before regaining her balance and whistling out to the bloodlusting aliens. 

"Hey! You want blood? Come and get it!" Chris shouted, face full of determination as she held up her blood soaked palm to the crowd, as well as exposing her dripping neck. Unsurprisingly, the notion of an easy meal was enough to attract at least a good portion of the infected away from her friend, if not all of them. Now, however, she was screwed. She could take off, of course, and leave them in the dust, but she had a feeling that once she took the blood away, Theta was the next best thing. And that sort of defeated the whole purpose of this suicide mission, didn't it? "Theta, get the hell out of here!"

Theta's eyes widened, and seeing a gap in the hordes of vampires, got the hell out of there.

He ran towards the TARDIS, skidding in the doors and setting out a semicircle shaped wall/shield, so that the vampires couldn't get in but Robin could just fly over. Even with that, though, he was still concerned for Robin; what the hell was she doing, and why did the vampires immediately go after her? Granted, it wasn't that far off from what he'd just done, but still.

He watched after the form of Robin running with the vampires following behind like baby ducks and tried to get her attention, waving his arms in a flapping motion.

"C'mon, fly, fly, dammit, get out of there!"

Chris panted heavily, nearly stumbling over herself as the horde of vamps closed in on her. Her eyes found the waving form of Theta in the distance, and her heart swelled with relief. Immediately, she was flapping her wings, taking off to the height of the buildings once again, both hands clenched firmly on her neck. She could feel sweat drip down her forehead and found her arms were trembling, but she wasn't about to let exhaustion take her now.

Chris soared over the barrier Theta'd created, swiveling her body to lessen the landing. Nevertheless, she slid into the base of the console on her back, eyes clenched shut as she groaned in pain. "Sh-Shut the door," she rasped, gasping for air and trying to calm herself down from that insane adrenaline rush. It wasn't just her arms that were trembling, she realized, but her whole body - and she felt insanely thirsty. Chris, keeping her hands pressed into her wound, tried to get to her feet to get to the kitchen for some water, but couldn't get a grip on the floor. She huffed in defeat, fidgeting her wings until they were in a more comfortable position while pinned behind her. As far as luck went, she was convinced she had none.

Theta sighed in relief, closing the doors fully and trudging over to Robin. God, he could use a good nap and shower after this.

"That was... crazy. Please, never do that again-" mid sentence, his eyes caught onto the splatters of red on her hands, pressed to her neck, hiding the wound there. Theta scrambled to help but not quite sure how to, searching for a towel or band aid or something else that just wasn't there.

"That's- oh. We need to get you into the medbay, please, don't just lay there like that..." Theta attempted to help Robin up from the floor, not quite thinking of the consequences that might result.

Chris accepted the help graciously, reaching out to take his hand with the one that was less bloody. As soon as her hand was on his, though, she froze. It was like an instinct was kicking in. Her mouth felt so, so dry, and her eyes lingered on Theta's exposed wrist. Chris was going into some sort of trance, fingers pressing into her friend's pulse point, being drawn closer and closer with every double heartbeat. It was tantalizing, and she couldn't shake herself out of it. 

Her eyes couldn't leave his veins. They just looked so... appetizing. Chris took a shaky breath, unable to stop thinking about it. To stop thinking about how thirsty she was. Her hand shifted to his wrist, gripping him tightly. She could just imagine the blood coursing through his hand, just below the surface of his skin. Warm and thick, and dark, dark red. Or perhaps it wasn't red at all, and that left her with an interesting thought. 

What did Time Lord blood taste like?


She gulped.

"Uhh..." Theta attempted to pull his hand away, and after a few tries, he was able to tug it out of Robin's strange vice grip. What was wrong with her? She seemed to just be... out of it.

Oh. Wait. Wait. crap, Vampiric Plauge was spread by fluid contact. And if Robin had been bitten in a vein...

Double crap.

How long did it take for all the symptoms to take effect? There had to be a cure, right? She wouldn't become like the vampires they found outside, it was just, just inconceivable.

Theta stopped short in his mental ramblings, remembering that Robin was right there. He knew his expression probably resembled that of a deer in the headlights, but he had reason to be worried. Probably. Hopefully not.

"Okay, so... uh, I'm going to need to handcuff you. Then we need to stop that bleeding. Or maybe the other way around...?"

Nice way of going about it, Theta, why don't you sound like a bigger creep while you're at it?

Chris kept staring at the space his wrist had just been in, arm now held against her chest. It seemed she was coming back out of her trance state, but just barely. Her thoughts felt less foggy, but she couldn't kick that lingering need for...

"... Yes. Please. Handcuff me," She murmured, pushing herself up to lean against the console with her one clean hand, trying not to get bloody hand prints on the ship's floor. Lady didn't deserve that. Theta didn't exactly deserve this either. Her thoughts were very quickly turning to self sacrifice - just throwing herself back out of the ship and letting them tear her to shreds, or else become one of them and turn the town to shreds instead. She had a distinct feeling that a flying vampire would probably be unnecessarily hard to avoid. If Theta was bent on having her stay around while she drove herself to madness, he'd better lock her up.

"Do you...." Chris cleared her throat awkwardly - which was a bad decision, because it just made the dry burning feel even worse. "Do you think... you can cure this?" She was scared of what might have to be done if the answer was no.

Theta gingerly handcuffed Robin's hand to the console, taking out a towel and pressing it down on Robin's wound until she took it for herself.

"Of course we're going to find a cure" he stepped back, rubbing at the back of his neck, hoping she wouldn't freak out at the fact that no, he didn't have a cure yet "Anyways, not all the symptoms have manifested yet, so the virus hasn't had time to settle in. You're going to be fine"

And of course she would be fine, if he had to travel all of time and space to find someone who had synthesized a cure for this thing. The question was how long that would take.

Chris sighed, nodding, bloodied hand pressed firmly against the towel and the other dangling above her head. It wasn't exactly a comfortable position, but it was the safest, and that meant it was the best. She was scared, of course. She was scared out of her mind. She was already starting to feel the bloodlust, so who knew how fast she'd be affected by the rest this virus had to offer? 

Theta looked confident, though. Sure, his body language didn't show it, but she could tell he wasn't just going to let her die like this. That was another thing she was afraid of. It wasn't something either of them would be confronting, she was sure, but it was lingering over her head. If they couldn't find a cure... she was dead. Whether that meant losing her conscious mind to the disease or quite literally being struck down so she wouldn't hurt anyone....

In all honesty, she was thinking more fondly of the latter.

"Could you get me some water, though? I'm parched," Chris laughed without humor, knowing full well it wasn't water she was thirsty for. She didn't even know if it would help. But it was killing her having her throat feel so dry, so she was going to try it.

"Yeah, yeah, of course. Just stay there for a second" Not like she could go anywhere, anyways. Wow, you're just on a rude streak today, aren't you?

Theta hurried into the halls, ducking in and out of rooms to get what he needed. A couple of minutes later, he returned, arms full of stuff. Sitting down just out of Robin's reach, he set down a glass, a jug of water, a red orange-shaped fruit, reading material (both war and peace and picture books, he didn't know what she liked), and some science... stuff. More like a few tubes, a needle, and a boxy thing with an indescribable purpose.

"You're not bad with needles, are you?" he quickly poked her with one before she could respond, getting immediately to work "The fruit's a patacheire, it's got a lot of flavor and is usually used to satiate appetites for people on diets. I mean, not that you're on a diet" he cleared this throat awkwardly, placing the blood he'd drawn from Robin into the box thing "Just... try it, maybe it'll help for now with the, uh, blood. Thing."

Chris nodded, barely holding herself back as Theta drew her blood before she dove for the cup and pitcher. She poured herself a glass, shaking hand spilling a bit onto the floor, and chugged the whole thing in a matter of seconds. She lowered the glass from her lips, trying to catch her breath, and quickly realized that it didn't do anything. She groaned in displeasure, setting the cup next to herself and retrieving the forgotten towel. Her throat still felt dry - as if the water just slid right off it like it was laminated. Maybe it was laminated. Who the heck knew what vampires were like, anyway?

Chris almost reached for the fruit, but was pretty put off by the failure of the water, and decided to just sit there and suffer. "... Sorry, thanks..." She scowled, eyes lingering on his neck and unable to force them to make eye contact. It was just so tempting. The reminder of the threat to her friend was enough for her to bully herself into trying the fruit.

"Got any ideas?" Chris looked back down towards her hand, frowning when her nails picking at the rough skin wasn't enough to break it. "And, uh... Can you open this?" She held it out towards him, keeping her eyes down to keep the bloodlust at bay. It was ever so slightly easier to ignore the thirst when you weren't staring right at the waterfall.

Theta waited for the box to finish aging the disease, glancing up concernedly when the water didn't seem to work. It was kind of silly to think mere water would keep the disease at bay, but still, there had been a silly little hope at the back of his mind that it would.

"Ok, so, umm" Theta reached out and took the fruit quickly, peeling at it's skin and trying not to breathe through his nose; the scent it radiated was pretty strong, and from experience, the flavor was even more so "it looks like we've got three days before the disease takes full effect?? That's good, right?" not really. Theta had been hoping for at least, say, a week before Robin was totally out of commission. It was fine, though, it was more than just a few hours, they could work with this.

"Oh, yeah, and here" he handed the fruit back over, a little too lost in worrying to do the action as quickly as before.

Three days. That's all she had - three days. It was concerning, to say the least, to be told when you were going to die. Chris wasn't really ready for that. She took a deep breath to calm herself, and the smell of the fruit punched her right in the face. She coughed, holding her hand in front of her mouth as if to filter out the air before she inhaled it. That was an ungodly smell - extremely unappetizing and unbearably strong. 

Scowl clear on her face, she reached out to take the fruit back from Theta, contemplating if it was a good idea to try to eat this or not. On the bright side, it certainly was strong. Maybe with luck she could stop being handcuffed uncomfortably to the console. With a grimace already present, Chris bit into the fruit, struggling as the juice flowed over her tongue and down her throat. She couldn't even bear to eat the flesh - the juice was all she was getting down. She gagged, struggling to hold it in before dropping the fruit in defeat, and holding her hand over her mouth. 

"I hate you," came a muffled sigh.

Theta blinked in surprise. No one, no one he had ever met had refused a patacheire; it satisfied cravings for just about anything sweet or addictive for a reason. That meant the plague changed the victim's taste buds, the very things making sure you got the nutrients you needed and didn't put toxic stuff in your mouth. Not exactly a good sign.

Wait. Theta started with an idea, taking the vial of blood and making a few little dots on the surface of the box. He then picked up a piece of the dropped fruit and squeezed some of the juice onto one of the dots; the two substances, instead of mixing like would have been normal, separated into two different dots. He tried it with water. The same thing. And, scooting a little bit away from Robin (just in case) he took a thumb-poker and squeezed a little drop of orange-red blood onto the final drop.

They mixed.

Sitting back, Theta was dumbfounded. That explained everything, why the water didn't work, a little bit why the fruit didn't work. They weren't just unappetizing, they were inedible; like trying to mix water and oil, vampire-infected cells just wouldn't take in proteins, water, calories, anything.

Unless it was from blood.

Chris watched, intrigued, from behind the hand covering her mouth, as Theta experimented with a few drops of her blood. She couldn't exactly tell what was going on or what any of it meant, but about a third of the way through, she got quite disoriented.

His blood.

The sight alone was dizzying. Even though it didn't quite look like hers, and she probably wouldn't have recognized it if she didn't just watch it come out, she knew it was blood. It was like an instinct flipped on. Like her body just recognized the only food source in the room, and it was available.


Chris was suddenly thankful for the strongly scented fruit at her feet - if her nose wasn't so preoccupied, she had a feeling the scent of his blood would be enough to send her into a frenzy. Still, her nose would become numb to the extreme stimulus of the fruit in a few minutes, and she was afraid of what would happen next.

Eyes fluttering lazily, Chris scooted herself back, still staring intently at Theta's finger. "C-Can you put a.... A bandaid on that or... something..." She stuttered out, shutting her eyes tightly.

Theta froze, looking back at Robin then down at his finger, no longer with a drop of blood on its pad but wound not quite closed. Well that was stupid.

"Oh- sorry, sorry" he pulled out a band aid from his jacket, slapping the smiley face covering onto the poke. Seeing the way her face scrunched up, he also rubbed a little bit of patacheire juice on it, to mask the scent of blood that she could apparently smell.

"Look, I'm going to need to run down to the med bay to try something out real quick. Uhh, I'm not sure you're going to like it, but-" Theta cut himself off there and gathered up the few supplies he'd brought, looking with a worried gaze over at Robin as he took a step towards the hall "Are you going to be OK here for a few minutes? You don't need to lay down, or have a stress ball, or anything?"

Chris sighed, hunching in on herself as best she could with one arm still dangling over her head. She'd be lying if she didn't think it was getting sore. Still, what other options did they have? Uncuffing her was a terrible idea. Even if they were just to move her to another room, how would he keep her away from him? She wanted to restrain herself - she didn't want to bite him - but it seemed like every time she was confronted with the ability to feed, her body took over and her mind flew out the window. It wouldn't be safe to do anything with her yet, not unless Theta sprinted straight for the lab the very second he let her free. Maybe a little help from Lady and he'd make it out alright. But that was way more trouble than she was worth.

".... I-I'll be f-fine," Chris stuttered, doing her best to keep her expression from giving up her discomfort.

Theta frowned, but none the less took her advice, vowing to himself that he'd at least bring a pillow back in case his solution didn't work and she was stuck there for longer.

He spent several minutes in the interiors of the TARDIS, dashing around and turning on the artificial blood maker in the med bay and fetching several different boxes of fruit juice and vitamin powder from the kitchen. The concoction when he mixed the two together looked and smelled odd, even awful, but (hopefully) it would be a solution; if she couldn't have food by itself, then maybe mixing vitamins with the general stuff found in blood would be enough.

When he was done, he poured it all into a large carton, the substance gross and pouring inlike the consistency of watery mud. He barely could keep from gagging at the bloody smell that was NOT supposed to be mixed with fruit juice and various vitamins.

Boy, hopefully her taste buds had changed enough towards vampire, otherwise she'd never let him near the kitchen again.

"Robin?" Theta cautiously entered the room, pillow and throw blanket under one arm and the "juice" carton in the opposite hand. Could she smell it from here? Considering her reaction to him pricking his finger, probably.

Chris sat slumped against the console, taking deep breaths to keep the tears from falling from her eyes. She couldn't help it, she was terrified. Her life was quickly slipping out of her control and she couldn't do anything about it. She sniffled, quickly wiping away the moisture accumulating in her eyelids. The longer she thought about her situation, the harder it became to hold back. Her breaths quickly became strained and ragged with her silent sobbing, and she shook her head at herself in disappointment. Chris trusted Theta. He knew what he was doing, probably. At the very least, he would give all he had to try and save her from this - she was sure of that. She needed to pull it together.

A series of deep, calming breaths later, and she noticed a change in the air. Closing her eyes, she inhaled the scent, becoming stronger the more the tried to make it out. She knew what it was. Or what it must have been, anyway. Her arms trembled as she kept herself still, willing herself not to sprint after it. She knew she was stuck here, but her newfound instincts didn't care. She'd break her arm if she had to - anything to get to the blood.


Chris opened her eyes again to be greeted by the sight of Theta, carrying an assortment of bedding and a jug - the thing she was nearly certain that fantastic scent was coming from. At this point, she didn't have the consciousness to wonder where he got all of it - she just knew she needed it. She sat, staring intently at the container and breathing heavily in anticipation. She couldn't even form the words to ask for it - she was hypnotized by its presence.

Robin looked absolutely transfixed by the jug he was holding. He didn't think it was possible to feel that strongly about something that (to him) smelled and looked god awful, but you know. Vampiric Plauge did crazy stuff to you.

Almost like someone trying not to scare away a frightened dog or cat, Theta crept over, noticing how Robin's eyes remained transfixed on the jug. Once close enough, he slid it over to her, then stepped back with the bedding tucked just a little more tightly at his side, hoping that it would work.

He felt awful for feeding this stuff to her when she was so out of it, but if she hated him afterwards, so be it. This had to be done.

Chris' breaths were slow, eyes locked onto the carton as it was slid in her direction. Her thoughts felt muffled and foggy and she couldn't understand what was happening anymore. 

No, don't drink it, it's bad, it's dangerous.


It's lifesaving.


It'll hurt him.


Hurt who?


Don't.


Drink it.


Chris lunged for the carton, trembling as she brought it swiftly to her lips. She closed her eyes and chugged as much as she could, small amounts dribbling from the sides of her mouth in her uncontrolled frenzy. It was so bitter, but so sweet. She couldn't describe it - it was like a horrible, horrible metal, but at the same time, it was the best thing she'd ever tasted. Before she knew it, the carton was empty, and she dropped it haphazardly onto the floor. That couldn't have been it, she needed more.

She needed more.


Chris looked towards Theta, face completely void of concern. He had blood. He had blood and she needed it so badly.

At first, when Robin started to gulp down the concoction, Theta was relieved; she was able to drink it and wouldn't starve, or dehydrate, or whatever happened to vampires when they didn't have enough blood. But then that was gone, and she didn't look satisfied; no, she looked even hungrier than before, if that was possible. He leaned side to side, as if to shake off her animistic gaze, but it remained stubbornly fixed on not the empty jug, but him.

Well, that plan backfired.

Despite the fact that she was securely handcuffed, Theta took a few instinctual steps back from what his subconscious was insisting wasn't his sick friend, but an honest threat. It was screaming at him to 'run, run!', although he insisted back that that would be entirely unnecessary, and only serve to hurt Robin's confidence once she got better.

'If she gets better' the back of his mind sneered. He mentally brushed the taunt away with a tinge of unease, continuing to wait to see what Robin would do.

Chris knew something was wrong. In the tiny shred of her mind that wasn't being consumed by her animalistic hunger, she could tell that something was very, very wrong. What, though, she had no idea. It was like wading through an entire lake of thick tomato soup, and she'd have to cross the whole thing to get her own thoughts back. In the mean time, she couldn't comprehend much of anything but the painful emptiness in her stomach. All Theta was to her right now was another carton.

At first, she made an attempt to go after him. Chris tried flapping her wings to swoop in for the kill, but that plan was halted as her muddled brain remembered the cuffs holding her wrist to the console. Breaths heaving, she spun around to try to break herself free. In this crazed state, she only had two options, and it was a matter of which was more important - her hand, or the blood?

Chris decided that she could live without her hand.

She immediately began trying to tug her arm out of the cuffs in hope that either they would break, or she would. Something would have to eventually, right?