Within, Without and Inside Out

"Sure it was! It was just like a game of hide and go seek, just the seekers have swords"

Theta started up the TARDIS as he talked, and turned to grin at Sonya "Anyways, Avos, here we come!"

He pressed a button, and the time rotor glowed with white light. Underneath them, above them, and anywhere behind a surface of the room, the water sparkled. The fish danced in the water, glowing joyfully. This was the scene that happened whenever they travelled. Most of the time, it kind of faded into the background, but every so often he took notice of it. He allowed himself a smile, and clung to the railing as the box they were in spun through the vortex.

---

It was a warm Summer day on Avos when the TARDIS materialized upon a hill within the Planet's Capitol; Furie. The exterior shimmered, turning into a bright white from the black and green she had been, so that she wouldn't get too hot on the tropical planet. Lady stood in the shade of the Greek Styled Government Building that took up most of the hill. A rocky path, edged with flowers, winded downwards into the city from where they were. Most of the buildings in the large city were made of a white stone and greek themed, and if it weren't for the space port in the distance you would have never thought that this was a technologically advanced civilization. Bird people wandered around in the city, their feathers ranging from a dull gray to a bright green, speaking in a language very similar to Greek. When Theta opened the doors, the sweet scent of the flowers wafted over and into the box.

"Mmm, Jama flowers. There are tons of them around here; they're yellow and have tube shaped petals. A really popular export. Not only do they smell good, but their nectar makes a really good juice, from what I've heard. Never tried it, though." he stepped out, breathing in the smell and just letting himself enjoy the feel of the planet spinning beneath them. The air was heavy and humid, and three blue dwarf suns beat down. Luckily it was only morning; Avos could get really hot in the Summer. Theta had been aiming for Spring, but oh well. At least he landed in the right place and in the right year.

Sonya stepped out behind Thet, gaping at the city before them in astonishment. "Oh! It's really... Wow. Just..." She fell silent, unable to find the proper words to explain the emotion she got from looking at the image. "This is brilliant, Thet." She grinned over at him and grabbed his hand, eager to take a look around before they managed to get themselves into trouble again. "Come on! I want to see what they have here." She coaxed, her grin practically glowing as she turned back towards the path, pulling him along behind her in her rush. Unable to focus on just one thing, her head twisted from side to side, studying the buildings that rose up around them in wonder. She loved Greece every time she visited, the people, the food, the language itself. Most of all, she loved looking at the buildings they created. Works of art for people to live in! Who wouldn't love that?

As they walked along the path, a large fountain came into view towards the center of the city, making Sonya pick up her pace once more in her eagerness to see it up close, almost breaking into a run as she did. "Oh wow! Look at that, the water is blue, not clear. That is just wonderful." She gasped softly when she came to a stop next to the stones lining the pool at the bottom. Reaching up, she twisted the one of the earrings in her ear as she studied the architecture with a broad grin.

Theta followed after Sonya happily, unable to contain a smile at how awestruck she seemed to be. He remembered the first time he went to Avos; he had been much the same way, looking up and down and around like an excitable puppy. He was, what, twenty three then? Avos was the first non-Gallifrey planet he had visited after getting his TARDIS license. From his own experience, it was a very peaceful planet, with few troubles. He had stayed three days and not a single thing went wrong! Theta thought it must still hold the record for 'days without trouble'. Well, that was in his old universe, atleast. This Avos might be a little bit different; for all he knew they had a corrupt government that did not allow any outsiders to land on the planet. Then again, judging by the lack of looks they were getting, that probably wasn't the case.

Looking over at Thet, she flung her arms around his neck suddenly, hugging him tightly. "Thank you so much! I couldn't have thought of a better place." She giggled before letting go and spinning around in a circle, wondering what they should do before stopping and looking back over at him again. "Well? You're the guide here, guide me through this place." Sonya poked him in the chest with a teasing grin on her face. Her eyes shining with excitement as she waved a hand out at the city around them. "Where shall we go first?"

Theta blushed at the hug, a warm feeling filling his hearts, much like the feeling when you drink hot cocoa on a cold day. In a even better mood than he was in before, he span towards the path that led towards the market. He grabbed Sonya's hand, staring down that way, and dragging the Timelady with.

"C'mon, let's get some food. Haven't had anything for more than 24 hours, I'm starving. Anyways, the Six Seasons park is near there, and that's pretty cool. Winter, Spring, Incipe, Summer, Aureus, and Fall, all in one park simultaneously. I bet we could do a picnic in Aureus, it'd be a nice way to cool off without leaves or snow everywhere"

"I don't think I've heard of Incipe and Aureus before." Sonya said curiously, allowing Thet to drag her along behind him. Honestly the only thing that stood out to her was the fact that he had mentioned food. Once he said the magic word her stomach had given a loud growl in protest to being so empty. "Never mind explaining it, we'll get some food and I'll experience it myself." She grinned, picking up her pace and walking beside him with a wide grin on her face. "Come on, I wanna see what kind of food they have on this planet."

Theta nodded, eager to have some Avosian food; there was a large range of seeds (though that was expected since the people were part bird) and fruits. In Theta's own experience, Avosian fruit was one of the sweetest and juiciest types of fruit in the Cygnus Arm.

"They take credits here, if I'm not mistaken" with his free hand Theta rummaged in his pockets, looking down and just hoping that he wouldn't run into anyone while he was distracted. During that time, they finally reached the marketplace. A sweet aroma filled the air, like a mixture of honey and oranges. There were numerous wooden carts where Avosians sold goods that ranged from a bright red juice labeled Jama Juice to shiny bracelets that small fledglings couldn't help but poke at as they passed by, only continuing past that cart because of their parents dragging them along. Theta looked up from his pocket, smiling at the sight he had only seen once before, but none the less was familiar.

"Ah; this is the marketplace, cool huh?" he pulled out the credits that he had finally found "so what do you want?"

"Something to eat..." Sonya said in a distracted tone, her eyes catching sight of a flash of light on metal, drawing her towards the cart loaded down with various bits of jewelry fashioned into shapes she had never seen before. Reaching over, she ran a finger over a small band of silver that she suspected was meant to be a bracelet. A scrolling script was inscribed on the polished surface that caught her eye. 'See two suns, die happy, see the universe of suns, die knowing you lived.' Looking over at Thet, she flashed him a smile and held the bracelet up for him to read himself. "Sounds like us, always running around, seeing everything there is to see here."

Theta laughed, nodding and coming over to stand next to the redhead.

"Yeah, it does. Though I thought you were hungry? I don't think you can eat that..." he gave her a grin and nudged her with an elbow, letting her know that he was joking "anyways, if you want that we can get it. Though maybe we should get food before we run out of money buying souvenirs, yeah?"

"Yeah, I guess your right." Sonya murmured, putting it back down carefully and shoving her hands into her pockets as she slowly made her way over to one of the stalls sending out tantalizing odors that caused her mouth to water. "Oh... That smells wonderful, who would have thought bird people could make such good smelling food." She whispered to Thet, careful to be sure none of the creatures around them actually heard her as she lead him over to the stall.

Theta made like he was following along, though after a split second decision, slid some credits to the owner of the small cart, snatching the bracelet afterwards and putting it in his pocket to give to Sonya later. He jogged to catch up, falling into step with her as if he were there the whole time. He nodded at her comment.

"Yeah...it does look delicious" the food cart they were looking at was filled to the brim with fruits of all shapes and colors.There were pear like fruits, grapefruits that were all the colors of the rainbow, and an assortment of large orange melons. He handed some of the credits over to Sonya.

"Get what you like...well, food item wise. I'm going to go get some Jama Juice for us"

Jogging off, Theta looked around for the Jama Juice stand. Huh, he thought he had seen it earlier. Off to the right somewhere? Shrugging, Theta headed in the direction he thought had seen it. But when he turned the corner, he saw no stand selling red juice. Though there was the entrance to the four seasons park.

Not being able to help himself, Theta wandered over into what he knew was the Winter side. Snow feel from above the park, almost like magic, though in reality it was a type of weather control chemical you sprayed in the air that made water droplets condense but not make clouds at all. That plus a temperature control system, then voila! You had snow. But while Theta could appreciate that, all he really cared about at the moment was that there was a park with snow in it. He wandered it, picking up a handful of snow and shivering at how some of it melted in his hands, making them slightly numb.He laughed joyfully, letting the fluffy white substance fall back to the ground.

clunk

Theta froze as something hit the back of his neck...hard. The whiteness in his vision started to fade to black, and though he tried, not even Timelords could stay conscious after getting whacked with a pole. He fell to his knees, then face first into the snow, revealing a man behind him holding a pole, a few scales visible through the tight bundling of scarves he had. The man looked down apologetically, mumbling a 'sorry' and bending down to grab a hold of the now-unconscious Theta. A press of a device on his wrist and they were beamed up with a, how Craig had put once, 'Beam me up Scotty, Star Trek Teleport'.

Sonya turned around, a basket of fruits and bread-like disks held out in front of her with both hands, searching for Thet with a slight frown on her face. Now where did he get off to, he was right behind me I thought... Her eyes wandered over to the garden entrance where she saw a flash of snow on the ground. "Oh, he has to be there. No matter who you are, snow is brilliant." She murmured, a smile on her face as she strode over and into the garden with a slight laugh as a small pile of snow fell off of a tree branch and landed on her head as she walked inside. "Thet! I got the food, where the hell are you?" She called, turning around in a circle, trying to spot the familiar Time Lord playing in the snow. "Come on, seriously, I'm starving and about to start eating without you."

Far above the planet Avos, on the other side of the third moon, there was a base. Metal corridors winded around like a maze, and at the center of it all was a dome like structure, the top half made of a glass-like material.

On a small platform that was pushed against the wall of the dome area, a man materialized into exsistance, one scaly hand clutching the back of Theta's jacket. Around him, on similar pads, there were other scaled-aliens, bringing in others, these ones conscious but still looking quite panicked. The scaled creature, name Morushi, used his free hand and slid the scarves down so that they weren't covering his face anymore. He looked much like a young Silurian, just with harder scales, dark green and diamond shaped, with a bright green crest on his head. Well, not only that, but a tail poked it's way out from under his jacket, swishing back and forth slowly. A similar looking Agreel (for that was the species name) ran over, his claws clicking against the stone floors. They could have been twins, if it weren't for the second one's blue crest instead of green.

"Morushi! What are you doing?? You have to stop 'saving' these people, you might bring the disease back here! The planet is on a quarantine for a reason" Morushi rolled his eyes, and adjusted his grip on Theta so that he was only holding his arms. The other one took the Timelord's legs, and they began to carry him over to the testing ward, where the doctors tested for Ocario, a disease that could be deadly to species that weren't immune, namely any species rather than Avosians. A few days before, Avos had been put on quarantine after a tourist had developed the disease. Since then, many Agreel had been beaming down to the space port, getting people out. The disease had yet to reach the port, but within a day or so it was set to spread that far, ending the rescuing process. The teleports only held a maximum of two people, so it was a slow process, beaming in, grabbing one person, then beaming out.

However, one Agreel had been beaming down to save any non-natives on the planet, aside from in the space port, before they could develop the disease, clad in a jacket and scarves in order to protect himself. There hadn't been many left, though two dots had randomly appeared in Furie. He, of course, had ignored all caution and gone down to the planet to save them, despite Furie being a designated 'infected city'.

"You worry too much Aasee, they only showed up a few minutes ago. Must have used a teleport to get here I doubt they even knew about the quarantine. I can't just leave them"

The two Agreel reached the medical bay, carrying the still unconscious Theta inside. Doctor's hurried about, purple and blue vials in their hands. Basically, they drew some blood then put it in a special serum. If they didn't have the disease, then it would turn purple. If they did, it would turn orange.

"Anyways, you take care of this one, test him out. I'm heading back to find the other one!" Maruchi covered his face up with the scarves again, sprinting out and back to the teleport. Aasee shook his head, handing Theta off to the doctors and watching his brother go.

"He's going to get himself killed one of these days, I know it"

Sonya scowled slightly after several minutes of searching the park. The young Time Lord was no where to be found. On top of that, she had somehow managed to get herself lost in the spring area for about five minutes in total as she searched for a way out. All the flowers putting off those exotic scents sent her head for a spin, making it hard to focus as she wandered through them.

Plopping herself down next to the basket, she cast a glare around the area, daring Thet to jump out at her and frighten her the way she thought he was planning on doing. But after he didn't appear out of nowhere, she began to worry. It wasn't like him to up and vanish on her, no matter how bad a situation was. He would always go back and tell Sonya that something was going on. The only plausible thing she could think of was that something bad happened to him. Much like when she was kidnapped on DaMure. Jumping back to her feet, she began to pace back and forth, glaring down at the grass below her feet as she tried to think of every scenario where he might have been hurt. "Damn it, Thet..."

Maruchi arrived back on the surface of the planet with no troubles, not too far from where the signal was coming from. In reality, he had landed in the Autumn park, startling a few Avosians with his sudden appearance. There was only two seasons between Autumn and Spring (when you took six seasons into account), so he wouldn't have to go far to reach the Spring park, where the signal originated from. It also helped that he had been to Furie before, so he knew his way around the parks.

Leaves crunched underfoot as he walked, and Maruchi was glad for trimming his claws, otherwise they'd be getting stuck on them like leaves got stuck on a rake. This park smelt faintly of pumpkin spice. Autumn had to be one of his favorite parks.

Past a white-picket-fence arch and there was the next season, Winter. He could feel himself getting sleepy as he wandered through the white wonderland, and he forced himself to trudge faster through the snow before he feel alseep. Being reptilian had it's disadvantages. Luckily his jacket and scarves helped keep him somewhat warm.

And then there was spring. Another fence-archway beckoned people in, bright yellow flowers interwoven between the wood. As he stepped into the park he became a little warmer, and as a result, less drowsy. He padded in. Here, the grass was green and a multitude of colorful flowers released scents that permeated through the air.

And there she was; the other signal. The beeping white device on his wrist confirmed her presence. He had knocked out Theta so that he wouldn't run (and therefore make it more likely for both of them to get the disease) but there was no way of sneaking up on the redhead. He'd just have to take his chances, then, and grab her if she tried running. He came to stand right in front of her.

"Hello, miss? I'm Maruchi, and I'm here to take you to the Agreel Salvation Base; this planet has recently been put under quarantine"

"Quarantine?" Sonya raised an eyebrow at him, studying the man for a moment before she sniffed the air and a sudden cross expression appeared on her face. "You've been around Thet. Where the hell is he?" She snapped, her temper rising up once more from the small place just below the surface where it always seemed to sit, her arms crossing over her chest as she narrowed her eyes. "Where is he, and don't tell me the quartine story again, because I don't honestly care. I don't get sick very easily, he wouldn't just leave me here even if there was a sickness, he would have came to tell me." She added, her eyes flicking down from his face and down his hands... Claws? then back up again with the same irritated expression fixed there.

"Explain."

Maruchi took a step back, knowing that the redhead might get mad, but still intimidated by her anger. Though his eyes softed realising it was just concern. He was sure that he would be just as mad if anyone took Aasee away.

"Y-your friend? He was taken to the base, to be tested for the disease, as you will be. He should be awake by now, so once it is confirmed that both of you don't have the disease you will be able to continue on your way" his eyes turned pleading, and his ears folded back in concern under his scarves "please, the longer we stay on this planet the more of a chance we have of picking up the disease"

Sonya remained silent as she listened, forcing the anger that rose up in her back the best she could as she shut her eyes and took a deep breath before focusing them on the creature with a forced grin on her face. "Right then, might as well get going. There is a black and green box here though, our ship of sorts, if you could bring that up with, it would be much easier to leave when we are allowed to." She stated through the sudden headrush of worry that flew through her mind.

It would be just her luck, to catch some disese and end up being quartined. She wouldn't blame Thet if he were to leave her there while being cared for, it would be pretty boring to sit around while someone was healed over a course of days. Taking a deep breath, she mentally chastized herself for even breathing the contaminated air.

The Agreel sighed in relief, tentatively taking Sonya's hand then using the other to press the transporter button. The two disappeared from the park in a flash of blue light.

They reappeared on the Quarantine Base on one of the teleportation pads. Maruchi removed his scarves, and gesturing for Mal to follow him, he started towards the Medical Bay. While still keeping an eye on the Timelady, he pressed the communicator button on his wrist-device.

'What is it now?'

"I've got the second signature. Though she mentioned something about a black and green box, if you could beam down and get it?"

'dang it, Maruchi, life-threatening risks is your category, not mine!' Aasee sounded irritated, though Maruchi was sure his brother was more irritated at him than anything. The communication feed closed with a small click. He sighed and shook his head, focusing back on the task at hand. As they walked into the Med Bay, he noticed something was...off. His ears quickly found it, originating from the back of the room; a heated argument. He pushed past various aliens and Agreel in order to see what was going on.

"I'm telling you, I just have orange blood!"

Theta was sitting on one of the beds, arguing with a what looked to be Human doctor. There was an IV standing next to the bed, and the doctor was fruitlessly trying to get it into the Timelord's arm, despite his struggles.

"It won't hurt, I promise you! And the antidote won't have any affect if you don't have the disease, we just have to make sure..." Theta looked away from the doctor and stopped in his efforts, seeing Sonya.

"Sonya! Please tell him that...OW!"

The doctor had used the distraction to slip the IV in, riveting Theta's attention back on him.

"I thought you said it wouldn't hurt??"

"It's just in your head, the tip melds into the skin without brushing against any major nerves. It's as painless as getting a shot"

"Which isn't painless!"

Sonya rushed forward, pushing them aside and gently pulling the IV out to place on the table before spinning around and pinning each of the creatures there with a glare. "We aren't human, our blood is orange, a dark orange. Not red." She hissed between clenched teeth as she clenched her fists tightly. "Now if you would actually listen to the people you treat, you probably would get a better reaction." She added with a scowl, her eyes flashing gold for a moment before fading back to blue once more. "Don't touch him again."

Turning back to Thet, she placed a hand on his head gently, the other already healing the prick in his arm with a small burst of energy. "You alright? Feels like you have a sizeable lump on your head there..." She said with a wry smile on her face as her fingers brushed over the bump on the back of his head softly.