Chapter Text
Tara walked down the hall to her Escape Room. She smiled a little when she saw it, she turned the handle and walked inside. As the door closed behind her, Tara noticed something was wrong. The room was structured around Central London, the sun always showed and people were always moving about. Normally Catherine would be with Tara as well. The room was still Central London, but it was in ruins, the sky was a burnt orange, no one was around, and Catherine was nowhere to be seen.
“No.” Tara mumbled. “Please no.” She took off down the street, where more buildings had collapsed and the concrete split in certain places. Tara rounded a corner, she found Catherine.
“Catherine!” Tara shouted. Once she reached her, Tara dropped to her knees and shook her sister’s shoulder. “Catherine, get up please get up.” Tara felt like a five year old child with her pleas.
When Catherine didn’t get up, tears streamed down Tara’s face. She covered her eyes, she didn’t want accept what happened. She stopped crying when she heard a familiar, deadly voice.
“Exterminate! Exterminate!”
Tara looked up and saw a small group of Daleks about thirty feet away from her. They hadn’t noticed her yet, but she wasn’t going to take her chances, she got up and took off further down the road. Four blocks down, she started hearing something moving in the shadows. She stopped and turned each time she heard something. A pair of yellow eyes stopped, and focused on her. Tara’s breathing quickened as she heard a low rumble growl. She started to back up as it stepped out. The creature had a snarling wolflike head, with a black fur mane, a muscular catlike body with wickedly sharp claws, and long curved canines, it growled once more at Tara before moving in her direction. Tara backed up more, then took off and screamed.
The Doctor was in the library, it was quiet through out the Tardis until a high pitched, blood curdling scream split the air.
“Daddy help!”
The Doctor knew all too well who was calling him, he took off down the hall to Tara’s room. The Doctor opened her door and saw Tara trying to fight something in her sleep. He quickly moved to sit beside her and bring her out of her nightmare.
“Tara.” He said in a low tone. “It’s okay, open your eyes.”
Tara was running as fast as she could down the road. She felt a paw grab her ankle and she let a yelp as she fell. She turned, and the creature pinned her to the ground. She tried to get it off of her, but was unsuccessful. The Doctor was trying to hold Tara still as he tried to get her to wake up. He held her down by the shoulder, which caused Tara to lash out. In her dream, Tara believed she was being attacked, and kicked out against the thing holding her down. The Doctor felt Tara’s hard kick in the stomach. He winced in pain a bit, but told himself not to be upset with her.
After a few more attempts, The Doctor was able get Tara to open her eyes. When Tara saw a more friendly face, she sat up as quickly as she could, wrapped her arms around him, and started crying on his shoulder. The Doctor didn’t ask for her to explain what went on inside her head. The screaming, lashing out, and now crying said it all to him. The Doctor pulled back and moved a little bit of hair away from Tara’s left eye, he gave a small smile and told her.
“It’s okay, you’re fine now.” He stood to leave. “If you need me just holler.”
“No don’t leave.” Tara begged. “Please, don’t leave me alone.”
The Doctor gave her another small smile, remembering how she was like that when she was little. He nodded and sat down next to her again. The Doctor waited about an hour before leaving Tara. He carefully stood up, brushed a bit of Tara’s hair back, and kissed her forehead before he left. A small smile tugged at the corners of Tara’s mouth. The parasite had watched events play out from a distance, and learned Tara’s limits when it came to fear. Once The Doctor left, the parasite took on a less friendlier form to Tara.
Tara wasn’t quite asleep yet when she heard. “Aw…that’s adorable.”
Her eyes snapped open and she turned around to Harold Saxon. “No.” She said, she slowly backed up until she hit the floor.
“Careful.” He told her.
Tara quickly stood up. “You’re supposed to be gone. I watched you go back into the time lock, you can't be back.”
Saxon smiled, then flickered back into Catherine.
“Oh, fuck you.” Tara said in an annoyed tone.
“What did I tell you about swearing?”
Tara narrowed her eyes. “I don’t care what you have to say. Also, I don’t think it’s a good idea to mess with a tired Time Lord.”
“Really? Because I found that quite entertaining.”
“Not from my perspective. How did you find them? They were locked away in the…” Tara trailed off.
“Oh yes, I found your little hideaway. Did you enjoy my animalistic form? I sure did.” She smiled.
“That area was locked. There were at least ten locks, last I counted.”
“Like I’ve said before, I’m good at locks.”
“Worst enemies in the entire universe I thought would never have to deal with again. Brought back by you. You were probably standing there when dad came in. Why didn’t he see you?”
“Because I’m in your head, not his.”
“Right, I’m stupid. Well, there’s no point in trying to go back to bed now.”
“Not at all.”
“Two reasons, I feel wide awake now, and I don’t want to risk another nightmare and accidentally kick dad again.” Tara grimaced and placed her hand over her own midsection.
The parasite had a small smile. “You could just give up.”
“This soon? Sorry, I’m not easy to crack. There’s no way I’m letting you take control. You can have my body when I’m dead.”
She shrugged. “That’s fine with me. I’m very patient.”
“I don’t think you understand though. Time Lords can live for awhile, our life span is longer than a human’s. I mean, take my dad for example, he’s nine hundred and three years old. And we can cheat death, so you’re in for a very long wait.”
“I’m very patient, but I can assure, you will break. One way or another.”
“You can try, but it won’t be easy.”
“If you insist.”
“Oh, I do. You’re tricks will become nothing but routine for me.”
She just smiled, then flickered and disappeared.