Hi. I'm Vayluh Arwen's muse. Sorry I haven't been around much lately, but I'm easily distracted by shiny objects. And university work. Listen, I can't promise to stick around for good, but I hereby promise to at least try to help VArwen out until the end of this story. She says she's not abandoning it, and that she's very very cross with me and my absence. So sorry about that, and let's get on with the show :)

Not of This World chapter twenty-six: 'For Old Times' Sake'. For Myra and the others it's time to have a chat with some old friends, and the Doctor has a lot of work to do. But time limits are there for a reason, and there is more at stake here than Myra yet knows. With Spiridons on their door and a nuclear reactor about to go sky-high, the group are going to have to move hard and fast.

Disclaimer - I don't own Doctor Who... but I should :)

Chapter 26 - For Old Times' Sake

Myra slung her bag over her shoulder, "C'mon, we've gotta get a move on."

Jack rolled his eyes, "Yes ma'am."

She shot him a look, and then Narla, who was trying and failing to hide a smile. She sighed, wearily. Why had she agreed to this? Hell, let alone agreed, she was the one who had come up with the idea!

"So all these tunnels... your friend's gunna bring them all down?"

"Yep," she replied, easily, "The Daleks will have to start again. Not all of the Spiridons saved... but some. Some is better than none."

"Of course." The alien hesitated a moment, and then seemed to find she couldn't hold it in any longer, "Hull?"

"Myra. Yes?"

"You and the Doctor..."

She waited for her to finish the sentence. When she still hadn't after ten long seconds, she glanced at her, not stopping her pace, "Me and the Doctor what?"

"What are you?"

This time she fully looked at her, slightly amused, "What? I'm human."

"No, not like that. What are you together?"

She shook her head, "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Hull."

"Myra."

Narla gave a frustrated sigh, "Myra, then. Are all humans this good at evading the subject?"

"Nope, that's just me."

She sighed again. Myra kept her eyes on the cave floor. The walk had been a mirror image of their entrance into the Spiridons' lair, starting with the sculptured, walled corridors and moving into the rough, unsculptured rock.

"Are you going to answer my question, or is staring at rock a more interesting pastime for you?"

Jack chuckled. She shot him a glare. He stopped. She looked back at Narla again. "What question?"

"What is he to you?"

She shrugged, casually, minding her head as she did so, "He's a guy who saves lives. Hence 'Doctor'."

"Yeah, but to you?"

She glanced at her, "You think he hasn't saved my life too? It is as embarrassing as hell, yes, but there have been occasions when my own incredible wit and intelligence just doesn't cut it, you know."

"Sarcasm, very interesting."

"Sarcasm, nope, it's actually arrogance."

"Arrogance, not a chance. That's most definitely not you."

"How would you know what is 'me'? You don't even know me."

"I've known you long enough to realise you are, again, diverting the question."

Abruptly, Myra stopped, turning round to the girl and putting both hands on her shoulder, "Right, okay, listen here and listen good. I don't do questions when we're running for our lives, apart from when they're very very very very relevant. The only person I let mercilessly interrogate me is the Doctor, and that's only because he's so very good at it. He's put in the time."

"Damn right." Jack agreed, fervently.

"Now, if you would please, this is really not the time for all this." She let go, paused, and then shook her head, continuing, "Let's concentrate on the task at hand, shall we?"

There was a long silence. Then the girl spoke again: "You sound like him."

Myra sighed, closing her eyes for a second. "Sound like who."

"Like the Doctor. You sound like him, have you even noticed?"

She paused for a moment, thinking.

"You even looklike him.
""How d'you mean? I s'pose I do, yeah."
"You've changed so much."
"For the better."
"I suppose."

Rose. Little Rose Tyler. She had gotten herself so easily swept up into this world. Into his world. Leaving her friends, her family, her life behind her. So captivated that even on another galaxy, a parallel world, she still wouldn't stop fighting to be at his side. Fighting to find him.

"I'll just keep on travelling."
"And you'll keep on changing. And in forty years time, fifty, there'll be this woman - this strange woman... walking through the marketplace on some planet a billion miles from Earth. But she's not Rose Tyler. Not anymore. She's not even human."

Not even human... Could that happen? Could time travel change you? Turn you? Into something... something that you never even thought could exist?

And, anyway... did it even matter?

No. No, it didn't matter. This wasn't her world. Wasn't her universe. Rose Tyler wasn't even a person. She was a character. A fairy tale. Fabricated. Billie Piper. Freema Agyeman. Catherine Tate. John Barrowman.

David Tennant.

"Myra?" the girl asked, hesitantly, "Myra, are you alright?"

She paused for a long time. Then she looked at her, "No," she said, firmly, "No. I don't sound like him. I don't."

Jack frowned at her, "What's wrong?"

"I... I keep forgetting that this isn't real." She paused again, and then shook her head, continuing up the path at a faster pace, "I can't let myself do that."

She caught the unease that flittered over the Captain's face. But the alien just looked confused, "What do you mean, not real? Of course it's real."

"It's not to me. Now. Please. We have to get moving." Her green eyes flickered over the faces either side of her, and then she returned them once again to the rocky floor, "Time won't wait."

Distress was palpable in the air. Anger. Confusion. Fear. Noise was everywhere. People hurrying about. Almost like panic, but with a far more brutal side to it. Readying themselves for battle.

A place in such a state of turmoil is easy to move through, he found. It is easy to remain unnoticed when everyone is at high alert. Silence was not the key. Confidence was. It was not a matter of agility, or patience, or subtlety. Simply... psychology. Pure chess.

The orange sun burnt tall in the sky, but was slowly setting. The temperature would drop twenty degrees in the next few hours, finally hitting about minus twenty by midnight. But they wouldn't be donning their furs today. They'd put it off for as long as they could, until it was colder than they could endure, in hope of finally surprising their prey.

He'd have to move quickly.

"Which way?"

"Left!"

The Doctor skidded round the corner, his hand jerking out to hit the wall, preventing him from slamming straight into it. He kept running, as fast as he could, bounding down the corridors in seconds.

He couldn't believe he'd told Myra as much as he had. He'd said too much. He'd perked her curiosity, and that was the worst thing he could have done. Myra was naturally inquisitive. She was always going to want to know more.

And then... and then Mbea...

No, his mind said, ferociously, Don't think about it. Don't.

But he couldn't stop. Despite the heavy pounding of his hearts, his rough breaths, the fact that he so wanted to keep his attention on the run, the sprint, the task ahead, he couldn't help but see her face, stubborn, and then hesitant, eyes falling to the floor, so human, turning her back - It was my fault - and then the feel of her skin underneath his hand, warm from the climate, and her eyes are on his again, green as the Jade Pagoda, leaning in close, because she had to understand, she had to understand.

Trust me.

Just trust me. Just know what I do, know that you did all you could, more than you could, more than you should have been physically able to do, you went above and beyond for that little planet, Myra, despite all hell standing in your path. Know what I know, know that you're incredible, fantastic, that you care, that you hurt, that you bleed, that you're so... amazingly human. Listen to me.

Trust me.

No. You trust me.

But there had been something wrong. She hadn't noticed. He had. He'd realised it in an instant, but what could he do about it? The only thing possible was to fix this, to get this whole Spiridon problem over with, to get the hell off this planet... and then deal with little Myra Hull.

"You remember that question I asked you? Back on Earth? Back in my kitchen?"

What was wrong with that statement? He couldn't even say it wasn't just a mistake. Just a slip of the tongue.

"Right. Of course. Saving the planet, as always."

But that wasn't. Was it. That was deliberate. That was sure. Defined. She knew what she was saying there. For old times' sake it was, then. The Spiridons, the Daleks, Captain Jack Harkness... and Myra Hull. Just like old times.

Trust me.

No. He couldn't trust her. Because, at the moment, she couldn't even trust herself.

The Doctor yanked himself back out of his head just in time to catch Langton's voice, reflexively obeying the order as he swung himself again around a tight corridor. He staggered to a halt in front of the containment system, his eyes already moving over it, calculatingly, his brain already ticking over options, plans, solutions, fallbacks.

"What do you think?"

"Oh, far too much for you to keep up with, I'm afraid." The alien cocked an eyebrow, and he shot her a smile, "Just be glad we've got an expert."

All the muscles in Langton's body seemed to stiffen. She turned for a second, and then seemed to decide against it: "The main computer needs passwords." She said, coolly. Then she paused, as if noticing the chill in her voice. She managed to adjust it as she walked away, "I'll get you through security."

"That'd be nice, thanks." He looked back at the hub, cocking his head to one side, thoughtfully, "Lets me give my full attention to this beasty..."

Many ideas flittered through his head. So many it was almost hard to keep track. Almost. This was him.

"How you doing on the security, Langton?"

"It's a complex system. It's made to be hard to open."

"Ah, one thing you did do correctly."

The silence that followed was practically glacial. "Give me some time." She replied, finally, and it was obvious she was speaking through gritted teeth, "I can do it."

"That's good." The girl didn't reply, and he hesitated for a moment. It wasn't exactly guilt, this feeling. Not really. But... perhaps it was... a little concern. He glanced in her direction. Her cad mium red hair fell down across her face, hidden by the computer screen, webbed, blue-violet hands tapping furiously quickly at the keyboard.

"Thank you." He said, finally.

Katriel glanced up, silver eyes catching his. She paused, looking at him for a moment, as if judging the meaning behind the words. Then she nodded, slowly, and returned to her typing.

The Doctor hesitated, and then shook his head, returning to the task at hand. Myra's eyes glimmered over the back of his mind, but he forcefully pushed her away. Bad enough he had the alien's eyes on his shoulder.

He couldn't cope with hers too.