"This makes no sense," the Doctor stated.  His hands landed heavily on the console and he bent over tiredly.  

Nyssa frowned and joined him at the navigational section.  She tapped out an inquiry and was answered by a low metallic whine from the TARDIS.  The printout was just as pitiful.  "Manussa?"

"Oh, it's not the name of the planet that has me worried, Nyssa," the Doctor said wearily.  He tapped his fingers on the edge of the console with definite agitation.  The girl watched his fidgeting with wary eyes.  "It's the history.  Look at this."  He held out a printout of information that Nyssa had to take and lower from her eyes to see it. 

Nyssa frowned as she scanned the words on the page.   After a few seconds she lowered the paper and gave the Doctor a searching look.  "Former homeworld of the Summaran Empire?  And Summaran holds certain trepidation for you?"

"What?!  Oh, I had forgotten," he sighed after a moment.  "You were asleep on Deva Loka."

Nyssa laid down the printout and leaned into the console.  "That paradise planet where you, Adric and Tegan wandered around in paradise?"

"The very one.  What has Tegan told you about Deva Loka?"  He asked, suddenly very curious. 

"That you met people and I believe she described that you 'stuck your oar in'."

"Hmmm.  She would," he answered.  "Much more happened, however, Nyssa.  Tegan was…possessed, for lack of a better word.  She was occupied by another entity…a Mara.  The Mara are an ancient race of very evil beings…"

Nyssa looked shocked, but immediately composed herself.  "I've heard of them.  Traken has had myths about the Mara for centuries, but I thought that they were only that…myths."

"I did too, Nyssa," the Doctor agreed, slowly.  "They aren't.   Remember: every myth and legend comes from a kernel of truth.  And this kernel is rather hard to swallow."

"You think that Tegan-"

"I don't think, my dear," the Doctor stated lowly as he leaned forward on the console.  There was too much pain in his eyes to hold his gaze for long.  "I know.  Tegan was the one who read the coordinates off for me to enter.  She brought us here."

"But she knew we were going to Theta Major-"

"Tegan did.  Tegan wanted to go to Theta Major.  The Mara…" the Doctor sighed and lowered his head.  "I've been a fool.  I should've known that a being as evil as the Mara would maintain a foothold in her.  She told me last week she had a dream with a large snake…a Mara.   There is a portion of the one that possessed her inside her mind, inside her psyche now.  I’m sure of it.  I should've purged her of it when I was in her mind before when we were…" he stopped.  To Nyssa, it appeared as if he had just realized to whom he was speaking.  "Yes, well…when she and I were completing Pantolia, Nyssa.  At that time, I could have sensed the Mara.  I could've helped her, taking it out before it could cause her harm…"

"It could harm her?" Nyssa grimaced.

The Doctor shook his head as if to say he didn't know.  "I wouldn't trust it not to, Nyssa.  She's partially empathetic, you'll remember.  It'll use the channels to open her mind for its uses.  Apparently the blow we dealt it before was enough to knock it back into her subconscious.  But if she's brought us here, then it is gaining strength."

Nyssa frowned.  "Where is Tegan now?"

"Asleep," the Doctor answered, suddenly active once more.  He darted around the console.  "Thankfully.  But I shall have to wake her.  When she's sleeping, she's out of harm's way.  Why fight if it can have her mind without a fight and it can when she is asleep…"

"…but it will gain strength that way, correct?" Nyssa's voice was harsh.  She understood the implications.  She herself had been possessed before, but she had mental barriers and had been trained to keep her own personality intact.  Tegan hadn't.

"True.  But when she is awake, it could reek havoc.  It would fight to have control especially now.  Especially here."

"Then?" Nyssa whispered.  "Then what do we do?  What can we do?"

"We need to get her somewhere safe, both mentally and physically.   And then-"

He stopped talking and Nyssa leaned forward on the console with contained irritation.

"And then?  What, Doctor?" she pressed.

He sighed, the breath puffing out his cheeks.  "Well…how are you with crash courses in mental shielding?  We'll have to watch her and you or I will have to connect with her when she sleeps.  And then…well…we'll have to see where we are and how that connects with her current mental state."

Nyssa raised her eyebrow and sighed.  This definitely was not good.

**

It was a lovely landscape, Tegan thought.  It was a cross between a seascape and the lovely English holiday afternoon.   The lake was lovely and warm in the way that a slightly stagnant pool would be under the unrelenting afternoon sun.  She lay, her hand tracing in the dark, black water.  It was so different from the water of Tyr. 

It was peaceful, warm and beautiful. 

"Idyllic, Tegan."

She started, her hand flying wide from the pool to spray water around her.   She opened her mouth to welcome the Doctor, but his current state of appearance made her stop. 

He glanced down at his body and sighed heavily.  She could practically hear his agitation as he stood in front of her.   She opened her mouth, but then glared around at her surroundings with distrust.  "Doctor?  This is my-"

"Dream.  Yes, Tegan, it is.   Regardless of our current fraternization, I'm not in the habit of constantly walking around naked.  Might you imagine some clothes please?"

She swallowed a smile, closed her eyes and put him in clothes.  His 'hmm' let her know she had been successful.  When she opened her eyes, her lover stood in front of her clad in a pair of jeans and a soft sweater. "Yes, well…" he sighed.

"Now, tell me what you are doing in my dream, Doc," she demanded.   She shook her hand out to clear the extra water.  "The sex dreams I've had before certainly never start out like this.  And usually you aren't in the mood for talking or clothing."

"Ah…" he took a deep breath. "No.  This isn't a 'sex dream'.  I'm in your dream, Tegan.  You aren't conjuring me here; I have mentally penetrated your dream."

Tegan frowned.  "I don't like the sound of that."

"I didn't suppose you would.  And I suppose that you'll want a straight answer."

"Yes," she said, exasperated.

"It's hard to explain without upsetting you, but there's nothing for it," he stated.  Before she could comment, he patted the air with his hand and joined her sitting next to the pool.  "We have ended up at a planet called Manussa.  It's the former homeworld of the Summaran Empire.  Does that ring a bell, dear heart? Summaran?"

She frowned, jumpy from his words.  "Summaran?  No.  I'm Terran, remember?  I'm not a galactic tour guide, like you.  It's like asking you about a Saturday cinema date…" she stopped and gave him an inquisitive look.  "Summaran?   Like…Mara?"

"The very one," he answered.  He shifted his hips and met her eyes. 

"But I read off the coordinates for…" she swallowed her agitation, barely.  "Rabbits.   What's going on?  How did we end up on Manussa?"

"I believe," he began.  He edged closer to her and reached out to catch her still wet hand in his.   "I believe that you still have a…well…a sliver of consciousness of the Mara in your mind.  It took control of your mind when you were calling out the coordinates to bring us here.  To bring you here.   Apparently it wanted to come home.  The theory also explains your dreams of late."

"Theory?!" She exploded.  "We were on Deva Loka almost 10 months ago.  You're saying that that snake thing I've been dreaming about is in my mind?  Has been in my mind almost a year?  Bloody hell!  You can't be serious."

"I'm perfectly serious, Tegan.  I'm not happy about it, but I am perfectly serious."

"Too right, you had better not be happy about it.  You said I was free of it."

"Yes, yes, I did.  But I think that when you asked it into you, you gave it a place…a foothold so to speak…in your psyche.  I'm sorry, Tegan."

She puffed a breath.  "Getting upset about it, I suppose, won't help.  I'm beginning to learn that.  So…what are we going to do about it?"

"We are going to keep it from taking over your conscious mind," he answered with conviction.   "And we are going to get it out of you…somehow."

"You don't know how?"  She sounded panicky and he squeezed her hand. 

"No, I don't.  But Nyssa and I are going to do this with you.  You aren't alone."

"Nys?"

"She's just as capable as I at initiating and maintaining mental connections," he explained. 

She nodded, frowning in thought.  "So what do we do?  How do we start?   You do have an idea how to start, don't you? I don't feel like I'm 'under siege'."

"I'm taking you somewhere physically safe and then Nyssa and I will begin by searching your mind."

Tegan groaned.  "I don't like that idea. But…"

"But?" he asked, gently.  "Tegan, it will be necessary.  I assure you of that."

"I'd rather have you two of you in there rather than that Mara."

He nodded and joined her looking at the pool of water.

**

She was lighter than when he had carried her previously.  "She's lost weight," he commented in agitation.  Nyssa frowned.  Tegan had never been heavy by any stretch of the imagination. 

The Doctor shifted his arms easily, shrugging his shoulders.  Tegan's hand rested against his chest and her mouth was tucked against the side of his neck, close to his Adam's Apple.  As he shifted, she hummed and nuzzled his skin.  His smile was gentle, but his stride increased.  He had to get her to the Inducement Room before he could allow any further contact with her mind.

Nyssa hazarded a glance at Tegan and saw her smile wistfully.  The Doctor grunted.  "Is she all right?" the girl asked quietly.

"Quite," the Doctor answered tightly.  "I engaged her in her dream.  It's rather beautiful and relaxing."

"Have you told her?"

The Doctor hummed and held his Yentria just a little closer.  It was several minutes before he answered his young companion.   "Ah, yes, Nyssa.  She's been rather upset about the idea, but has come round.  Please, if you would, open the door, Nyssa," he intoned as they approached an innocuous looking portal.  She rushed ahead and pressed on the door, opening it for the both of them.  It was plain, but peaceful.  Perfect, Nyssa agreed.  She, for one, would need the peace to help maintain her link with Tegan.  When she initiated it that was.  Keeping an eye on the Doctor as he gently laid Tegan on a small loungish type couch, she shut the door firmly against the world, whatever evil was attacking their friend, and the universe in general.  

**

Peaceful, sort of.  It wasn't peaceful in a Traken, love sort of way, but it was peaceful in what she supposed Tegan would find in a Terran, Earth woman on a Space/Time holiday way.  The room was large and hot.  Sunny.   The sky was white-blue out the window and was obscured by gently blowing white eyelet curtains.  Nyssa glanced down at her bright blue, yellow and red skirt.  The color was a shock in the otherwise washed out setting.

The young girl, not more than eleven or twelve years of age that sat on the bed was also a swatch of color in the room.  Her dark hair was longish, held back in a ponytail.  Her bare knees were knobby and her bare feet dangled, mixing as only a young gangly girl's limbs could.  She was unfamiliar to Nyssa until the girl lifted her eyes and speared her with a watery, brown, infinite gaze that brought the Traken close to tears. 

"Tegan?"

"They're arguing again.  Blast it, I hate when they do that."

It was said clearly, but with a shrill note.  It was said with the tone that only a child hurt, distressed and tired of an argument could muster. 

Nyssa joined Tegan on the bed, reaching out to hold the scared, sad and angry girl.  "Who is arguing, Tegan?  The Doctor? The Doctor and someone?"

"The Doctor?"  Tegan laid her head on Nyssa's shoulder.  "No.  Mom and Dad, that's who, Nys.  They won't stop.   They think we don't hear them, my sis and brothers and I.  They think we can't hear them.  We can.  And the yelling, the anger, the screaming…it hurts.  Mom says she doesn't want to stay home anymore and Dad says that he never wanted children.  But we're here, Nys!" Tegan said, suddenly sitting forward, shrugging off her friend's arm.  "We're their children.  They had us.  We aren't mistakes.    Whether they want us or not, it doesn't matter.  We're here!  Who wouldn't want children?"

Nyssa squeezed her friend's young shoulder and turned her around to face her.   She brushed at the tears on the girl's cheeks and shook her head.  "You're wanted, Tegan.  Never doubt that.   And children should always…ALWAYS be wanted."

Tegan sniffed and lifted her chin.  Nyssa smiled.  She glanced around the room, but then returned her gaze to the girl.  "The Mara, Tegan?  Is there any part of the Snake here?"

The girl's eyes flashed.  "It was here once, for a long time.  It loved the arguing.  It gloated and wouldn't let me leave and made me listen to the arguments over and over again.  But it left and it took everything with it."

"You're sure," Nyssa pressed. 

Tegan nodded and let her friend squeeze her shoulder as the yelling outside the door continued.

**

The Doctor frowned.  He wore his comfortable cricket boots and cricket gear, but for once, he felt very out of place in his usual armor.  The air was heavy, dark with industrial soot and cold morning fog.  And the surroundings were scarcely more welcoming.  It was an old building, identified by the peeling paint and mold and the harsh smell of liquor, cigarettes, vomit and sex only increased its horrible allure.  He glanced around the corner of a hallway into a small, would-be-a-bedroom room and saw a young woman sitting on a mattress on the floor. 

Down the hall he heard others waking and wondered if he would be found.   It wasn't a worry.  It was a thought.  But the woman looked lost and very very alone and he wanted to help her.  Then he could find Tegan.  He wondered where his Yentria was.

"I'm here, Thete." 

The words were said lowly, quietly and definitely hesitantly.  But they were said with the dusky, devil may care, tone that he had heard her use before.  He glanced in shock at the woman as she turned to him.  Against the smoggy, dirty window and with a cigarette in her hand, she didn't quite look like Tegan, but his mind told him otherwise.  She was naked except for the sheet that was somehow covering her body, but with all the rips and tears it was a surprise it did that much.  Her hair was a saucy cut and she had some eye makeup smeared about on her cheeks. 

"Where is here?" he asked quietly.  In truth, he expected he already knew the answer.  She drew a pair of jeans aside on the mattress, which he noticed was bare and stained, and patted the surface.  With raised eyebrows he slowly sank to sit on its edge.

"King's Cross," she said quietly and tapped her cigarette.   She nodded out the window.  He turned slightly to look out.  He saw a dingy brick work and a fire escape, but around the edge of the next building he saw a sliver of blue.  "This is when I actually LIKED the place.  In the mornings, that is, when everyone is still asleep.  He never sleeps with me all night, you know."

"He?" the Doctor asked, turning to look at his Yentria. 

"Him," Tegan hooked her thumb over her shoulder.  "Don't make me say his name, Doc.  Just let it stand at him and be done with it.  At least he leaves me alone in the mornings.  He's not gentle, you know.  I hate when he is constantly on me at night.  But it gives me a place to stay a place to sleep.  I have to have a roof over my head, you know.  Can't find a job if I can't shower or sleep."

The Doctor frowned mightily and rose to stalk to the outer room.  His demeanor dictated for Tegan to follow.  She did so, swathing her lithe form in the tattered stained sheet.   When the Time Lord stopped, he was in the main room surrounded by people in various stages of undress.  A woman that was clearly a hooker lay next to naked man.  Another man lay next to a bucket of at least day old vomit.  Another woman looked used and abused.  He stared about at the various bodies and then at the man near the abused woman and then finally back at Tegan.

She looked at him, defiant and oh so young.  Before he could say anything, she turned and ventured back to her sanctuary.   He walked behind her and waited until they were both in the room.  There was a door to his relief and he shut it decisively.

"That he?  The one next to the woman who looks like she was worked over?" he asked incredulously.  Tegan avoided his eyes and sat on her mattress again.  "Tegan?"

"He doesn't hit me, you know.  He says I'm too young, thank God.  But he lets me stay here.  And occasionally Martha comes in here and we shut the door.  He leaves us both alone then."

"Tegan?" he said urgently, tightly.  The meaning was clear.  It was the same as if he shouted: were you raped?

She sat down hard on the mattress and glanced back out the window.  "It's not like I can go home again.  I'm more wanted here than there any day.  I help Martha."  She raised her chin and her eyes were hard amber points in her pale face.  "I can HELP here.  Don't judge me!"

The Doctor squatted next to her and cupped her chin in his hand.   "I only want to know if he has hurt you, Tegan."

"I'm going to find a job and get out of here.  I swear that," her voice trembled.  "And he…he cares for me, you know.  He doesn't hurt me."

The Doctor closed his eyes painfully and turned his palm to cup her cheek.   He felt the tears, the moisture on her face.   "The Mara, Tegan.  Is it here?  Tell me if you have seen the Snake."

Tegan nodded slowly and let his thumb trace her lips.  "The Snake was here.  It dwelled in the corner and laughed at me.  It was gleeful.  Most often when HE was in here with me.  It would tell me that cornerstones are the most vital to what a building will become."

"Is it still here, Brave heart?" he whispered.

"No.  It left.  It said I was not entertaining enough."

The Doctor sighed and opened his eyes to see her bright ones staring back at him.  "Lack of pain is not love, Tegan.  Being left alone is not love.  Comfort, familiarity and wanting a person to share what you are is love, Tegan." 

"I never said he loved me," she argued.  A stirring from the hallway made her tap him on the shoulder.  "They're waking.  You'd better leave, my lad."

**

 The sun was bright, blinding almost.  It reminded Nyssa of what she knew of Australia from Tegan's stories.  The clang of metallic steps underfoot and the sound of roaring aircraft engines finished the vignette.  The short cropped haircut that spoke 'Tegan' was on the woman in front of her and she followed the woman down the steps. 

At the bottom the girl stopped and she turned to Nyssa with a large smile.   "England.  Haven't been here since I was a young kid when I used to go to Granddad's.   Auntie V should be around here somewhere.   She'll be picking me up.  Supposed to live with her in London.  Thank God it's not mom's sister.  Lord, that would have killed me."

Nyssa walked down the steps and squinted into the bright day.  She smiled as Tegan bounded the last few steps to hug a smallish woman with short hair.  Their laughter filled the air.  "Would you look at you, Tegan Jovanka?  You've grown up!   And it's about time," the woman stated, holding her niece away to glance at her up and down.

Tegan glanced back at Nyssa with a smile.  "Auntie V…she was always so open with me…and her opinions.  I'm okay here.  I'm happy here."

Nyssa nodded crisply, but gave a brilliant smile.  She could feel her friend's happiness with this memory.  "I hate to ask, Tegan, but I need to know…is the Mara here?  The Snake…we're trying to find it."

Tegan frowned suddenly and the sunlight dimmed overhead.  "Never here, Nyssa.  Never here.  It wouldn't dare."

Nyssa breathed a happy sigh of relief. 

**

The Doctor saw Tegan as she stood in the cloisters of the TARDIS.  He could see himself – agitated and angry- pacing in front of the arbor where she sat.  The conversation was muted and eventually she rose and left him – or rather the he that was talking with her – and walked quickly into the corridor.  He glanced at his other self complete with beige summer coat, cricket sweater and all as he sighed and shook his head.  He could practically feel the sexual tension and frustration emanating from himself. 

With a frown, he took off at a jog to catch Tegan as she nearly jogged down the corridor. 

"Sexually active incarnation.  Wonderful."

He reached out to catch her hand.  She whirled, ready for a fight, all fire and brimstone in her eyes.  "What do you want now?" she demanded.

"Tegan," he breathed, suddenly intent on her eyes as they nearly brimmed with tears.  It stopped him.   "I'm looking for the Mara…is it here?  The Snake?"

Tegan hissed a breath through her teeth.  "Hell's Teeth…that Snake?  No, it's not, but it is close.  Like a divining rod, it was.  It went right through the old memories and embedded in the modern memories. It's not here."

**

Nyssa saw the dark of the secondary console room.  Two figures danced in an ancient, primeval dance, engaged.  She could hear the sighs, the moans, the grunts and the Doctor's voice dark and deep with passion. 

The Snake was definitely not here.

**

The Doctor rounded the final corner and saw Tegan standing motionless in the corridor.  He had found the Snake.  It stood over her, coiled and ready to strike.

**

His eyes snapped open just as Nyssa's did.  Nyssa sat at Tegan's side, holding her hand while the Doctor cuddled his Yentria in the crook of his arm.  They gazed at each other across Tegan' prone body.    

"Nothing," Nyssa breathed.

"I found it," he muttered at the same time.  The Doctor could see in Nyssa's eyes that she had stumbled upon Tegan's less likable memories much like he had.  With an effort, he set thoughts of Tegan's young life aside.  Now, he thought, was not the time to mull over what had or hadn't happened and what was or wasn't an impact on her.

"Where?" Nyssa whispered. 

The Doctor drew a deep breath and released it with a puff.   "I'm not sure I should take you, Nyssa.  The Mara is very powerful and very evil-"

"And Tegan is my friend," Nyssa answered forcefully.  "I’m not afraid of evil, Doctor."

"Of course you aren't.  But I'm afraid for you and for Tegan," he replied, painfully honest.

"I can help her.  I can help you.  Take me to it, Doctor."

He couldn't deny the strength of conviction in Nyssa's eyes or her voice.   He gave a sharp nod and reached across Nyssa to hold her hand as he drew Tegan closer.  Together, they held her hand on her lap.  The last thing Nyssa saw as she closed her eyes again was the Doctor pressing an infinitely tender kiss to Tegan's brow.

 ***

Nyssa drew a deep breath and groaned.  The image was worse than she had anticipated.  The snake was indeed incredibly large and very imposing.  It towered over Tegan by several feet; towering even over the Doctor. She could feel the evil emanating off of the being.  She knew the snake wasn't its original nor preferred shape.  She wondered if it even had a shape. 

Tegan was standing, almost in a daze.  Her arms hung loosely at her sides and her head was back.  Her eyes stared blankly, tiredly ahead.  Even as the Doctor grabbed at her arm, she remained as she was.  

"Tegan," Nyssa called quietly.

The Doctor shook his head as Tegan's hand slipped from his.  "She can't hear you, Nyssa."  He whipped about, rearing his head to pierce the Mara with a pair of steely eyes.  "And we have you to thank for it, don't we?  Hiding behind a human?  Rather not a sporting thing to do, is it?"

The Snake paused, swinging its massive head around to stare at the Doctor.   "And attraction to the same inferior life form is not?  She amuses me."

"Oh, she does, does she?"  The Doctor slid along side Tegan and then edged slightly in front of her.  "How much of her mind have you invaded?"

"Enough to know her fears, her wishes, her dreams, her memories.   Her form is very cramped, and her mind is rudimentary, but very entertaining.  Did you know, Doctor, that it is easy to convince a human that a thought is their own?   That what they do is their own will?  This woman-child is under the impression that she has agreed to your 'arrangement' is of her own mind?  Oh, they are so easy, like moldable clay in my hands."

The Doctor swallowed his fear at her words.  "You lie.  You always lie.  It's like an illness with you."

Nyssa stepped forward to lay her hand against the Doctor's back.  At her unfamiliar touch, the Doctor's back twitched, but she could tell he drew strength from the presence of a friend.  She glanced sideways at Tegan and was saddened to see the dull, empty look in her friend's eyes.  Dreams were safe havens for her, for her friend.  They were safe havens to remain protected and warmly embraced by your subconscious mind.  It was not a place to be attacked or held hostage.  Even nightmares were your own.  This, however…this was hell.

The Mara glanced beyond the Doctor's shoulder and saw Nyssa.  "You have brought the empath, Time Lord."

"I am Nyssa of Traken," Nyssa answered easily, quietly.

"One of the Union?" the Mara seemed surprised. 

"I am.  Daughter of Tremas, the Keeper," she answered, a little more strongly.  "And Tegan is a friend of the Union as she is a friend of my heart."

"Your petty extensions of the Union will not work against me.  She is a weak empath, a weak minded fool."

The Doctor answered, leaning forward.  He slipped his hands into his pockets.  "But she is strengthened by friendship.  Tegan accepts friendship.  Mine and Nyssa's.  Gallifrey and Traken."

"You think she accepted your friendships of her own accord?" the Mara rumbled. 

Nyssa stiffened, but the Doctor answered in a snarl.  "Yes.  I know enough about her to know-"

"Her or me, Time Lord, does this ring a bell-" the snake drew itself up to its full height and opened its mouth.   But out of it came Tegan's voice, not the low, mewing voice of it had been using.  "Thete?  Lord, I love the way you thrust."

Nyssa gave a shout of outrage, as pain flooded her head.  The Doctor clamped down on his internal anguish and growled out his rage, projecting it away from his young companions.  "That's her thought," Nyssa moaned.  "You're pulling out her memories, her thoughts and trying to twist them as your own."

The Mara snarled.  "Are you sure?   Be blessedly sure, Daughter of Traken.  Accuse me of the wrong thing and your friend will become my own.   You will forfeit her friendship through a lie."

Nyssa grunted in pain.  "I can feel your pulling on her mind.  It is her own."

The Doctor wrapped a hand around Nyssa's wrist and reached out to pull Tegan toward him with his free hand.  Her limp body collapsed into his.  "She is our friend."

"She is mine.  Her agreement, her acceptance of you is mine, Gallifreyan."

"Tegan," he answered, lowly, stressing her name in a low rumbled tone.  "Tegan is my Yentria. Willingly."

The Mara closed its eyes as it smiled languidly.  "You accept her?"

"Completely," the Doctor coughed out as Nyssa shouted:  "Of course."

"Enough to face up to your own fears and hers?"

The Doctor nodded once, clipped.  "I sense a challenge, Mara."

"If you falter, you will lose her.  You will do as I say and take me to the planet of my choice."

"And if Nyssa and I win?"

"You will keep your Yentria."

The Doctor lifted his chin and speared the snake with a gaze.  "And your transportation, your transplantation to another planet?"

"You will do that without harm to your Yentria."

"Then we…accept," the Doctor answered strongly and without hesitation.

**

It was surprising how quickly the dream reality changed.  Suddenly the Doctor found Nyssa missing and Tegan wrapped in his arms.  He glanced down at her to see her hesitantly smiling back at him.  She took his hand and drew it around to her front.  "He's kicking, Thete, can you feel?"

She laid his hand against her swollen abdomen.  His hand self consciously stroked her familiar abdomen to feel a small bump move under his fingers.    With a frown, he glanced down at her face and beyond her to her body.  He could see that she was heavily pregnant.  His once lithe and trim Yentria was large with child.

"Tegan…" he breathed.

"That's not it, Thete," she corrected with a sigh.  She moved his hand to the right and under his palm he could feel a small hand or foot bumping against his skin.  "There.  Really, I thought you were able to commune with him.  He's very agitated today."

He lowered his second hand to curve around the lie of the body.  She giggled and let him pet her stomach.

"You would think that you hadn't seen me pregnant before," she breathed.  "Just tell him to calm down so I can keep down dinner.  Hell's Teeth, he's active.  Wonderfully active.   I'm so glad."

The Doctor lifted his eyes from her abdomen to stare in her brown eyes.   They were full of tears and were wonderfully wide. 

"Aren't you glad?  That means he's alive!"

He nodded quickly and licked his lips.  "Of course I'm glad."

She frowned and lowered her hand to stop his gentle touch.  "No.  Something's wrong.   Something about the baby?  Is something wrong? Can you feel something?"

Immediately he leaned forward and pressed his lips against hers.  Then he closed his eyes and, to soothe her mind, he reached out to commune with the child within her.  He touched the fetus' mind and the sudden spark of life, the pounding of one heart; the electrical race of the neurons flooded his own senses.  He thought calm thoughts and monitored the temperature and strength of the mental push back against his own.

"He's human," the Doctor whispered.

Tegan laughed and he felt her happiness flood through the baby.  "Of course he is, Thete.  We found that out four months ago."

He gave her a smile that bordered on goofy.  "What else did we find out?"

"Thete."

"Humor me."

She rolled her eyes and closed them in agitation.  The twitch went clear through her body to the child.  "That he's a 'class four empath' as you put it.  That he has all of his fingers and toes.  That he's, as far as we can tell, healthy.  You think he'll live to be approximately 200.  And that there is a distinct possibility that he has nanites in his blood and that is what makes me sick every few days. Oh, and you would prefer the name Timothy."

He gave a weak nod. "We never went back to Gallifrey," he whispered.

"No, of course not," she bit her lip.  "You wouldn't let us.  The baby is okay, though, isn't he?  You were worried about gestation."

"Yes," he reassured.  He leaned in and kissed her again, this time lingeringly.  "The baby is quite all right."

"You're rethinking Gallifrey aren't you?  You still think we ought to return there.  You are worried about his physiology.  I don't want him engineered, Thete."

He closed his eyes.  With a puffed breath, he said:  "I don't want to either."

When he opened his eyes, Tegan was no longer in his arms.  She lay on a bed.  He recognized it as the bed at her Grandfather's house.  His Yentria lay in it, looking very tired and worn out, in pain.  He glanced at the door to see Nyssa listing quietly.  In his young companion's arms was a small bundle of cloth with a small child. 

"How is he?" Tegan whispered, hoarsely.

Nyssa gave her a smile.  "Perfectly, a little doll of a child.  So quiet."

"But he is okay?" Tegan pressed.

With a nod, Nyssa widened her smile.  "Very healthy.  Doctor?  Would you like to hold your son?  Tegan will have to feed him soon."

Tegan glanced over at him and gave a gentle smile.  "Thete?"

The Doctor felt himself nod and then Nyssa was striding across the room.   He felt a small weight pressed into the crook of his arm.   A glance down had his gaze meeting that of a small boy child with incredibly bright blue eyes.  He could feel the touch of a similar mind to his.  He could feel his own DNA sequence within the child.  And his own intelligence.  And the dying need of his own sense of temporality.

Softly he whispered, if only for himself to hear.  "I'll teach you.  Show you."  A sense of fear welled up inside of him.  It was the norm for a Time Lord to be loomed with his own sense of temporality.  His son had none; he had no time sense.  And it gave the Doctor an almost physical pain. He couldn't imagine how his son could know his place in the Universe, his place in time without it.  He closed his eyes.

Tegan's voice was almost mournful.  "Thete?"

Was this the pain that his father had felt when he felt him in the womb?   Was the pain that had driven him to have Thete engineered?  Was this it?

"Thete?"

He opened his eyes to see Tegan levering herself off of the bed, worried.   "Thete, what's the matter? What's wrong?"

The Doctor took a deep breath.  Tegan was human.  His child was mostly human.  His child was healthy.  What more could he ask for?

"Nothing, Tegan," he said, with conviction, opening his eyes to stare into his son's bright stare.  "Nothing is the matter.  He's perfect."

The world dissolved into a bright light.

**

Nyssa found herself lying in dust, the metallic taste of blood in her mouth.  She stared upward at a dying sky, pale in its final moments.  She was alone.  She looked down at her body and saw that she was dressed in her old pristine dress.  She wore the gown for religious observances.  As she realized that, she realized that she lay on her home soil: the soil of Traken. 

Or maybe not.

She turned her head to the side to see Tegan lying near her.  Her eyes were closed, but she had an angelic smile on her face.   Frowning, the girl called out to her friend.   "Tegan?"

Her friend opened her eyes and turned to glance back at Nyssa.  "Oh, Nys."

"What are we doing?"

Tegan frowned and looked quixotic.  "What do you mean?"

"Why are we on Traken?"

Her friend shook her head.  "You brought me here after….well…after…" Tegan took a deep breath.  "After the Doc…regenerated.  It's not Traken.   It's a…well…a transplant of it."

"The Doctor…regenerated?" Nyssa whispered.  "Oh, Tegan….when?"

Tegan's frown grew more pronounced and she stared at her friend.  "A month ago, by my reckoning."

Nyssa reached out across the sand to hold her friend's hand.  "You're going home?"

"I don't know, Nys; I don't know," she whispered.  Then it appeared as though she forced a smile to her face.  "But that wasn't the purpose of this trip, you know.  The purpose was to have you touch Traken soil again.  That's why we came here.  You need Traken, Nys."

"Home?" Nyssa whispered.  "Am I to go home with you?"

Tegan squinted and glanced back at the sky overhead.  "If you want, Nys.  Are you sure you want Earth?"

"Don't you need me?" Nyssa replied, very quietly.   "Don't you need me?"  She stopped as the second sentence left her mouth.  She felt the almost empty feeling of dread in her stomach.   It was the palpable emotion of loss, bereft, adrift on a sea with no shore.  The Doctor…gone.   Tegan, going home.  And she, she had no home.  She was alone.  A solitary woman from a dead and lost planet.  All she had was the need and the want of her friends that tied her to something, to some sort of existence.

Nyssa gasped back in sadness, rough in her anger at life.  She felt Tegan's sadness at the Doctor's passing.  She felt the loss of love in her friend.  An ache that she hadn't felt before and that she didn't wish to feel again.  It was a different ache then when she lost her father. Or her mother.  Or indeed her family and planet.  She could taste the fear at life, bitter; the taste of lost love, deep with longing and pain and ache and empty…so empty.  She couldn't fill that for Tegan.  She couldn't heal her.  She wasn't needed.  

She had nowhere and no one to go to.  What was she going to do?  Hang on to Tegan, watch her live her life on her home planet?  Would she fit in there?  Did she have a purpose there?  Did she have a purpose anywhere?  What was she going to do?

She stared at the sky and then turned to stare at her friend.

"I can't go with you to Earth," Nyssa whispered and saw a small tear fall from Tegan's eye but saw the acceptance as well.  "I need to find my own way.  I need to have my own purpose and place in the world.  In the universe.  I have to find that."

The world dissolved into a blinding light even as Tegan gave her a sad, deep smile.

**

The Doctor felt a weight in his arms and glanced down thinking to see his son.   But he saw the auburn hair of Tegan, and felt her arms around his waist.  Her lips were on his neck, gently tugging at the skin.  It was a lovely feeling and he whispered a moan under his breath.    His hands clenched at her, pulling her close, into his arms, practically burying her in material and muscle.  "Tegan."

Her hand lifted from his waist to lay a finger against his chin.  "Don't."

"Tegan," he quietly pressed. 

"No, don't talk," she said.  "Don't waste your strength."

He then realized that she was supporting him.  He didn't feel weak, but he had a feeling that he was in need of her strength.  When she lifted her face to his, he saw it streaked with tears.  With blurry sight, he glanced around and saw that they were tripping, half-leaning, half-stumbling towards a far off TARDIS. 

With a glance down, he saw that he was covered in blood.  A hole in the neighborhood of his lesser heart was welling with orange life fluid.  "Tegan?"

"Just make it to the TARDIS, please," she begged quietly.  His hand clenched at her back again. 

"What?"

She nearly groaned.  "Don't talk," she continued to plead.  "The gunshot wound'll be fatal if I don't get you back to the TARDIS.  

He tried to nod, but the movement of his head threw his superior weight off kilter and he slipped to the side and fell.  Tegan cried out and tried to catch him before he tumbled to the ground.  He noticed that it was snow and freezing where he fell.  Tegan landed next to him.  She scrabbled up to his head.  "Doc?   Thete?!  Lord!"

He shook his head.  His legs were going numb.  "Tegan…" he whispered.  "Don't…cry…"

"We have to make it," she pleaded, loudly enough as she scooted around to hold his head.  "You have to get back up.  Damn it, Thete, you have to get up.  I can't carry you.   I can't drag you."

"Legs refusing to move, Tegan," he whispered.  "Arms going numb.  And…" he turned his head to the side to glance toward the TARDIS.  "The TARDIS is several yards, if not…" he took a deep breath.  "A quarter mile or more away. Won't make it."

Tegan let loose a whimper and then leaned over his face.  "You HAVE to, Thete.  I can't leave you here.  I can't…you can't…"

"Tegan, love…" He tried to smile.  "Rest easy.  I'll regenerate…" he whispered.

"I'll lose you!" she yelled.  "I want you, not some bloody regeneration of yours.  I love you.  Now.  Please!  Get up!"

His uninjured heart skipped a beat at the words as she uttered them.   She was clutching at his hand and all he could feel was warmth from what she had said.   She stared at him incredulously.  He felt her tears as they fell on his face.  "Tegan."

"I do, Thete.  You've got to try to make it for me.  Please!" She begged.

"I love you too.  I'll still be here for you.  That won’t change," he whispered.  "That won't change…"

He closed his eyes because the glare was too bright.  He felt the weight of her head as she laid it on his chest.  It was the last thing he felt or recognized as he felt the very familiar arms of death reach out to embrace him.  He wanted to shout no.  He didn't want to lose the feeling of need or of want for her.  And he didn't want to have her lose him.

The world dissolved into a hazy shade of white.

**

He opened his eyes and saw that Tegan was curled into his chest, her arms firmly around his waist and chest.  She was clinging to him as though he were the only raft in a sea.  Nyssa's head lay on his leg and her hand firmly clasped Tegan's even as it rounded his body.   He pressed a firm kiss to her forehead and was rewarded with her burrowing further into his muscles.

"Tegan," he whispered.

"Hmm?" she breathed in return.  "Don't wake me, Thete…" she complained.

He smiled and gently eased her closer to his chest.  "Good dreams?"

Quietly, she murmured her answer.  But she could have shouted it from the highest mast of a ship and it would have garnered the same strength of reaction in him.  "I dreamt I was in love."

His smile made his face ache.