for magicalskeptic: A trip to the ocean

[rude_not_ginger]

"You wanted an ocean, have I got an ocean for you."

The Doctor darted around the console and scooped his jacket up from where it hung on one of the TARDIS pillars. He absolutely loved this bit. The first trip to an alien world with someone who didn't even believe in other worlds until now. Very little was more exciting.

"Now! We've got breathable atmosphere, low radiation, and a beautiful summer day. The waters of the Greeio Malgoon are purple in the summer, which is when they're the warmest and the safest. I'd have taken you to them in the winter when they're blue, but the water's acid content gets a bit high and ends up spewing out strange creatures with eyes that shoot lasers. Green lasers, they disintegrate you without much warning. Very technicolor world, the Greeo Malgoon."

He shrugged. "Still! In the summer, peak of tourist season, it's the most brilliant place for a visit."

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[magicalskeptic.livejournal.com]

Morgana's stubbornness has often caused her to blunder ahead, getting into trouble, but that's not something she's going to discuss with him, right now, or ever, if she has her way.

"She would have been better under the bed." The thought of the wasted life makes her angry. "Why would no one notice she was missing? Who was watching her and where did they go?" The anger might be accidentally redirected towards the Doctor, though it isn't him she's angry at.

She rubs her arms. She's going to have bruises from the fall.

Although, this does prove one thing. "Whatever happened here, happened a long time ago." Morgana's been around death; she knows it's smell. Not only is this child a skeleton, but there was no lingering odour of decay.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Or it started a long time ago," the Doctor replies. "I don't think it's finished."

If it was, the traps laid out so carefully for them wouldn't still be in place.

He nods ahead of her. "Go on," he says. "Let's find the heart of this maze, shall we?"

[magicalskeptic.livejournal.com]

Taking a moment to stand, Morgana has to pick up his jacked off the floor. It fell off when she fell, and she folds it over her arm.

She looks up from where she fell. "We need to get back up first." This would be a bad time to point out she is the reason they're stuck here in the first place.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"No way out that way," he says. "We'll try moving through the walls. Bit stronger than she is, and I might be able to loosen a few screws with the sonic if we end up stuck."

He places his hand on her shoulder. "Don't fancy tight spaces myself, but we're running out of options."

[magicalskeptic.livejournal.com]

That look the Doctor is receiving, might be a bit of disbelief, but as they have no other options, "Perhaps, this time, you might lead the way."

Not that she's wishing him to fall down holes, or run into phantoms, it's more, her luck in the matter has been atrocious.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

He nods. He'd be smug, he'd be pleased to be in the lead, but there's a little girl's skeleton near them and the unending feeling of wrong about this place. This is far too serious.

"Just stay close," he says.

The corridor is filthy and tight, with thick purple dust and strange cobwebs lining the sides. The Doctor pushes through them without concern.

[magicalskeptic.livejournal.com]

As it's not an order, and it's eminently sensible, Morgana follows only half a pace behind the Doctor.

The cobwebs catch on her arms, and her hair, but she can't take the time to pick them off, as the Doctor is moving quickly, "Watch your head." The ceilings are low enough that he might risk hitting his head, but it's fine, for Morgana.

She reaches out and snags onto his sleeve, to keep closer. The dull light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"It feels like we're going upwards," the Doctor says, ducking down to avoid hitting his head. "Maybe towards an attic, or a storeroom?"

It's getting closer, at least. He can almost make out what's at the end when he hears a sickening sort of crunch

"What was---"

Without warning, the walls at the end of the corridor from which they came begin to snap together. One after another.

"Run!"

[magicalskeptic.livejournal.com]

Morgana looks behind her at the noise. The sense of urgency is increased as each wall snaps together.

The corridor is skinny enough, that she cannot squeeze by the Doctor, still leaving her a pace behind, but that's all she is. There will not be any tripping, or inability to keep up from Morgana.

In fact, there are a couple times she puts her hand on the Doctor's back, to stop from running into him.

The faster they run, the faster the corridor shuts behind them, until they reach the light -- a slightly ajar door.

When they burst through, it's the opposite environment from whence they came. The room is large, and mostly windows, showing the dark outside of the planet. In the centre of the room is an oval table, with over a dozen chairs, all occupied with piles of bones -- skeletons unable to keep their shape.

The only wall that is not completely glass is a variety of technological (Morgana hates that words) instruments, none of which make any sense to her.

Instead, she's looking, in surprise, at the long-dead people who once sat around the table.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

He pulls Morgana through as he bursts through, just as the wall snaps closed. He takes a breath, but his relief doesn't last.

"Seems this is why they weren't looking for their daughter," the Doctor says. "But---"

He takes a step to the full table and runs a hand across his jaw.

"Something's wrong," he says. "Something's very wrong."

He counts. "All the seats are taken."

[magicalskeptic.livejournal.com]

These people are all long dead, and do not evoke the same pity as the little girl. "Doctor, would aliens not look different? These all look human." Granted, she's not planning on examining them too closely to confirm it.

There's another thought. "If the table is full, who is left to cause all of the havoc?" Then again, this looks like a room for powerful people. The eras may be different, but the subtle cues -- the large, solid table, the lush chairs, the cavernous nature of a glass room, all indicate power.

"Where are their servants?"

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The Doctor stalks around the chair and, without warning, bursts into a wide grin.

"Oh, I think we've been had, Morgana," he says. "Like the thing that scared you at the top of the stairs, like the sounds we've been hearing. We're being toyed with, frightened by the things that scare us."

[magicalskeptic.livejournal.com]

As to what that was at the top of the stairs, Morgana stays silent. "They have been playing tricks on us all along but," it might be ridiculous, but Morgana suggests it because she has little else to offer, "we have assumed there is someone." People like the ones at the table always have servants, yet no one else is around, just the little girl and the people at the table.

"I do not understand, Doctor, if this is supposed to be a place where people travel to, would not scaring them stop everyone from arriving? And how is it known what terrifies me? Why have you not been scared?"

Morgana turns to the wall of technology and touches what she does not realize is a screen. It turns on, taking her aback for a second, until she recognizes the scene. There is a view of the beach, where they landed. She's sure of it.

"Doctor, where is the TARDIS?"

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The Doctor steps behind her and looks at the screen. Terror shoots through his veins again.

"Just trying to scare us," he says, primarily to calm himself. "That's all it is. Just an illusion, a trick. Trying to get us to run back to the beach, to stay afraid."

There's a creak behind him and he turns. The piles of bones are now skeletons, solid and still.

"Oh no."

[magicalskeptic.livejournal.com]

Morgana has been around reanimated corpses, but at least they have had something -- rotting flesh, sinews, something to hold themselves together.

Thus, she reaches what she hopes is the truthful conclusion. "That must be an illusion as well." She almost says sorcery, but stops herself.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"We hope," the Doctor says, ominously.

The screech from the floor as the chairs are pushed back sounds real enough, and the Doctor steps between the skeletons and Morgana protectively.

"I think we should opt for running again. Door?"

[magicalskeptic.livejournal.com]

In an odd way, Morgana both recognizes and appreciates the subtlety with which he tries to protect her, but she's never been one to insist upon it, so steps beside him.

If that makes him angry, so be it, but he needs protection as much as she does. Besides, if her moving doesn't annoy him, her suggestion probably will.

"No. They do not want us here. They want us out. That means they're protecting something."

They are bones without real connections, so Morgana is literally hoping that they can only scare, not do any serious damage.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, and if these aren't illusions, that means they're probably going to kill us in order to protect whatever they're protecting. But what could it be?"

He looks around the room, but sees nothing. Nothing that could possibly incriminate anyone, nothing that the Doctor could possibly use to stop the slowly advancing skeleton gang.

Then, he looks up.

"Oh, there you are."

[magicalskeptic.livejournal.com]

Morgana is too busy staring at what she would have thought impossible: the skeletons are now standing, and making their way towards them.

She looks back to the screen, still not showing the TARDIS, and back tot he skeletons. She takes a step forward, and reaches into the pocket of his jacket, she still carries. It takes her a second, but she pulls out a small round fruit (she's seen that before, and why do his pockets always hold so much more than they should), and throws it at one of the skeletons.

Morgana doe have excellent aim. She literally knocks the head off one of them but she's too busy focusing on them to see what the Doctor is looking at. "Doctor, who?"

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"You," the Doctor says. "You're on telly, Morgana. The whole city is."

He points up to the ceiling, far higher than he expected it to be, covered in small televisions showing various parts of the city and various rooms in houses. Whatever camera is looking at this room has zoomed in on Morgana.

"There's nothing here but puppetering, is there?" he calls out to the skeletons. "That's what you don't want us to find. You don't want us to know that you've been watching, that you're planning this! You just want us to be afraid!"

[magicalskeptic.livejournal.com]

Morgana looks up at herself on the screen and is immediately taken aback. Under any other circumstances, she probably would have waved just to prove that it really is her, at this moment (being projected on anything, is a surreal experience for someone of her time).

While the Doctor has figured out that they are being watched -- something Morgana is tired of -- her last 6 months have been spent under close scrutiny, the skeletons have not stopped advancing.

Even the headless one keeps moving. They've already made it halfway across the room.

So, never let it be said Morgana does not acknowledge when she is wrong. "Doctor, do you remember what you said earlier, about running?"

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Yep," the Doctor says. "And now that we know what they're protecting, it's about time we made good on it. Come on!"

He bolts towards the door, stopping only long enough to pull out his sonic and wave it at the lock. It clicks and he throws the door open.

"In, Morgana, in!"

[magicalskeptic.livejournal.com]

There is no arguing, as Morgana runs out the door, the skeletons moving that much faster now that whatever is controlling them has now been noticed.

She pulls out her own might-be-a-screwdriver, which needs a cleaning from the crimson muck of earlier, ready to lock the door when the Doctor follows.

"Doctor, hurry!"

Underneath everything, the scraping of bones, the Doctor's footsteps, she hears something What is that noise she's hearing? It's an electronic beep, but what is it, and, more importantly, where is it coming from?

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The Doctor gets in and slams the door shut, waiting for her to lock it before he turns around.

The electronic beep is something the Doctor recognizes, and when it beeps again, he leaps forward, attempting to knock Morgana and himself to the ground as a spray of bullets comes from a large, distinctly 51st century turret at the end of the new hallway.

As he's landed rather awkwardly on top of her, he attempts to shield her from any debris raining down from where the bullets are lodging themselves into the walls.

"We must know something!" he says. "Something more than we realize, that's why they've given up on just scaring us!"

[magicalskeptic.livejournal.com]

If Morgana screams, it's because she's never heard the sound of bullets. It is loud, and destructive on a scale she's not used to. It makes her think of little bombs, as the debris falls.

She wraps her arms around him, as if holding him, will keep him out of the path of any bullets. She's silent until the volley stops, and then whispers, as if her voice might set off another round, "We know the water here is wrong. We know there is a monster in the underbelly of the building. We found the little girl no one is looking for, and that her father was supposed to take her to the beach and all of this happened a long time ago. What else is there?"

This might be awkward because he still shielding her from debris that's now settled.