by Clive May (clive@cj4386.demon.co.uk)

A story of the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Adric.

The copy right of all things pertaining to the concept and characters of Dr
Who is the property of the BBC.  This Story is a work of fan fiction; it has
been written simply for the pleasure it gave me in writing it; and no money
has or will change hands with respect to the story.

The story and original characters are copyright Clive May 2001.


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Chaos Hunt.

Four.


In silence the Sister-Selves closed in, full of deadly purpose.

Nyssa gave a little cry. She pushed herself away from the Doctor's
defensive embrace.  Chin up, she advanced a step towards the murderous Sedra.
The empathic wave of security emanating from the Doctor, that had enfolded
her and quieted her shrilling mind in that sudden moment of someone
else's panic, needed answer, a payment, protection for protection.

"NO!" she commanded imperiously, sounding every ounce the daughter of
Consuls Tremas and Kassia of Traken.

Far gone in her fear, Sedra ignored the command.  She took another step,
raised her empty left hand to strike Nyssa from her path.  The Traken
stiffened, preparing to receive the blow.

It never fell.

Agalayne screamed in rage.  He leapt high, wings half spread.  His triangular
head flashed out like a striking viper.  Powerful jaws, studded with teeth,
closed over Sedra's wrist.  The enraged creature bit down hard.

Sedra stumbled to a halt.  As if surfacing from some great depth, she turned
her head slowly to stare in incomprehension at the thing dangling from her
arm.  Red blood was welling from between the jaws, running in rivulets down
her fingers and dripping into the grass.

Unaccountably, the blood, combined with the black silken robes and Sedra's
faintly leonine features, reminded Adric of the Lady Camilla. The memory
disturbed him, made the scene playing out before him more real and immediate.

Slowly, Sedra seemed to regain her focus.  "Vile beast!" she snarled and
brought her other hand around.  Agalayne hung on.  Muscles along Sedra's
arm bunched. With a little grunt, she brought the stone down in a murderous
arc at the unprotected head.

Nyssa screamed.  She leapt at the black garbed woman.

"Nyssa!  No!" the Doctor cried.

Both he and Adric started forward.  Nyssa's left hand shot out and up to
intercept the descending hand.  Sedra's forearm hit it with bone jarring
force.  The jagged lump of stone flew free.  It thudded to the grass.
Agalayne let go.  He dropped to the ground,  skittering back away from the
enraged woman, to hide himself in Nyssa's skirts.  He chattered fearfully,
his teeth clacking and snapping.

Wayland stepped forward, drawing out the medallion.  He held it up, almost
in Sedra's face.  Sunlight struck a silver gleam from the twirling disk.

He spoke, his voice resonant with command.  "Sedra!  Stop this madness!
NOW!"

Sedra turned bitter eyes upon him.  "Traitor!" she snarled.  our own
brother...traitor!  You've doomed us all with your treachery!"

Wayland flinched under her hot accusation;  but, resolute, he held out the
medallion in the sunlight.  A curious mind-numbing humming filled the air.
It sounded like the delicate sound of sirocco, the murmured death of waves
on a beach, the clamour of a thousand enraged bees combined.  The sound
wove in and out of the whispering beeches.

"Obedience to the Duty," Wayland commanded.  "Obey.  Hold to the sacred
trust.  Observe the law!"

Sedra glared at him for a long moment.  The whispering in the beeches died
as the world held its breath again.  Abruptly, the madness went from Sedra.
Her expression collapsed into dejected resignation, undershot with despair.
Behind her, the Sister-Selves of the Brood, mirrored their Decima Tercia.

"What happens now?" she asked without hope, and a significant look at the
Doctor.

"He is a friend;" Wayland assured her.

"He is a Time Lord!" Sedra bit back.  "They are no friends to the Brood."

 "He *will* help us," Wayland assured her.

Nyssa moved forward, took up Sedra's bloodied hand.  "You're hurt!  We'd
better get that bandaged."

"It *is* nothing," Sedra said, snatching her wounded hand away.  She held it
up between them.  To Nyssa's astonishment, the wounds began to fade.  In only
seconds, the teeth marks had vanished as though they had never been. At the
look on Nyssa's face, Sedra ventured a small smile.  She said: "A simple
trick, but one of passing usefulness."

The winged creature hiding in the folds of Nyssa's dress, stuck out its head
and peered about.  The bright eyes were full of curiosity; when they turned
upon Nyssa, they filled with a dreamy, far off quality.  Nyssa, aware of the
creature's gaze upon her, knelt in the grass.  With gentle cooing, she
encouraged it out from the folds of her robes. Unable to resist, Nyssa patted
its head.  Lids slid down, half covering the glittering green eyes.

"What happens now?" Sedra asked still watching the Doctor, her dark
regard full of suspicion and fearful uncertainty.

"Well, ah, tea would be nice," the Doctor observed.  "Then perhaps we can
all sit down with a nice cup of Earl Grey and try to sort this out.
Nothing better than a cup of tea and a buttered crumpet to discuss weighty
matters over.  What do you say?"

Though his tone was light, his eyes remained watchful of the Brood Sisters.
His silent message was not lost on the Decima Tercia.

 "We have no crumpets, Doctor," said Wayland, taking his cue from the Doctor.
"We do have some muffins left over, though."

The Doctor smiled with genuine anticipation.  "My favourites.  They'll do
nicely.  Which way?"

Wayland put the medallion away and pointed through the trees.  "Just over
there at Giessen Abbey.  Our Den is among the ruins near the Gate."

"Well?" the Doctor shot at Sedra.  "Truce and a nice cup of tea -- nothing
finer.  What do you say?"

Despite herself, Sedra smiled; and the world lightened a trifle.  "You are
the oddest Time Lord we have ever met," she observed.

The Doctor put a finger to his lips.  "Shhh.  If that opinion ever gets back
to the High Council?.."

Wayland smiled broadly.  "Oh.  Come now, Doctor -- from the rumours we hear
on the Gatenet..."

The party set off among the trees.  They had gone some way before Adric
realised that Nyssa was not with them.  He looked back to the roadside.
The girl was there, kneeling in a patch of sunlight before the strange
winged thing.  Their eyes were locked on one another's in a slow rapt
inspection.  Nyssa was motionless, only her brown wavy hair stirring in the
breeze.  The little creature was trembling all over.  Ripples were running
down its long neck.  Its short, swept back ears were quivering from root to
tufted tips.  The short spade tail lifted and lowered in smooth strokes.
What an odd thing it was.  And it had been all but forgotten by the others.

"Nyssa?" the Alzarian called out.

For a long moment, the girl did not move.  Then as if waking from a dream,
she looked up as Adric stopped beside them.  The boy peered curiously at
the thing.  "What is it?"

"He's not an it!  His name is Agalayne.  And he says we must go to the
fountain, right now- whatever that means.  There is something important we
must know.  He cannot make it plain to me.  All I can get is an impression
of a  fountain.  But I do feel that it is important."

Still crouching, Nyssa presented her back to the creature.  Agalayne half
opened his wings and hopped up onto Nyssa's back, riding high up, just below
her shoulders.  His huge, wicked looking talons gripped gently at the
material of her robes.  Nyssa rose.

"Come, Adric.  We must find the fountain now."

Adric watched her walk off with that grey hump crouched on her shoulders.  It
looked for all the world like a rucksack, only this one had a head on a long
neck, which peered curiously about as they went.

Adric shrugged, a human gesture he had picked up from somewhere, probably
that annoying woman Tegan.  He hurried after the party being swallowed by
the shadows under the trees.  By the time he caught up to them, the group had
emerged into a court before a rather ugly stone building. It might have begun
life as a manse; but it had been added to and altered so much that it was
impossible to tell.  Before the monstrosity in stone, was a partially paved
court.   At the exact centre was the fountain.

Agalayne took to the air with a soft chattering.  He back-wing jumped,
lifted up and looped over Nyssa, the gust of his wings streaming her brown
waves.  He swooped down onto a patch of lavender coloured cloth on the
grass, by the edge of the flag stones around the central structure.  With a
delicate skill, the creature plucked up Tegan's jacket and banked around.
In a moment, he was back-winging before Nyssa and extending the jacket to
her.

Nyssa took it; and a moment later Agalayne was alighting like thistledown
settling on her back.  He folded his wings with a satisfied shuffle and
clicked and clucked in Nyssa's ear.

Nyssa stared at the jacket a moment while a dozen explanations ran their
course, tracking expressions of dire thoughts across her normally serene
countenance.  But all were rejected.

She bent a mute inquiry upon the Doctor.

He looked from the jacket to the fountain, his expression grave.  At last he
took the bundle of cloth.  For a moment, he said nothing, his fingers idly
toying with the scorched material around one of the buttons.  He could still
smell the ozone, could just see the faint distortion on the fabric, could
feel the familiar twinge in his time senses, creating a warm buzz in his
forehead.

"What is it?" asked Wayland.

"One of my companions.  It's her jacket." He looked to Agalayne, crouched
on Nyssa's back. Gate technology was not his field, but he had a very nasty
suspicion he knew what had happened, and where Tegan, or anything that was
left of her, might have gone.

Sedra reached out a hand and caressed the jacket.  Her eyes closed. A look
of concentration settled on the patrician features.  After a few seconds,
her eyes opened, became two dark pools of shocked concern.  Sedra knew,
from the tingling sensation invoked by the Time Winds, lingering in the
fabric, what had happened here.

"There may have been a reciprocal looping."

"What does that mean?" Nyssa demanded, catching the concerned tone in
Sedra's words.

Agalayne chattered and shuffled his wings in agitation.  Sedra said,
indicating Agalayne and the fountain.  "The creature has come here and the
person who was here has gone there.  Only...Only..."

"Only what?"

The Doctor spoke, his voice reluctant.  "Only...It is certain death for a
person who cannot anticipate the Time Winds to travel between without the
protection of some sort of craft...or the hand of a Tharil - or a Brood
Sister."

"No!" Nyssa gasped, one hand going to her mouth.  Agalayne chattered, a thin
panicky sound.

Adric stared at the fountain in horror.  "You mean to say that she's been
transported through the Vortex unprotected? And that she could be -- "

"I'm very much afraid that might have happened."

The breeze had ceased its restless toying with the beeches.  Sedra spoke into
the heavy silence.  "Agalayne came here unharmed.  There is a chance."

The Doctor gave her a hard stare.  It was written plain in the set of his
features what he thought of that.  Sedra backed away, alarmed by his
expression.  She said, "We know it's not a very good chance...but it can't
hurt to check.  We know where she...she would have gone.  It can't hurt to go
and see."

"Sedra's right," Wayland agreed.  "We know where she'd have to have gone.
Agalayne was the friend of Madelaine, the Decima Tercia of the Orion
Brood.  He could only have come from there."

"Right!" said the Doctor decisively.  "I'd better go and have a look."  He
glanced at Sedra.  "If you could arrange to transport me to Orion."

Sedra nodded.  "As the Lord requires.  It is a simple matter.  We need not
all go."  She waved forward two of her Sister-Selves.  "Gabrila and
Orianna will shepherd you through.  They are the most skilled Vortex
Walkers of our set.   You will be in no danger."

"I want to come too," Nyssa put in.

The Doctor shook his head.  "No, Nyssa.  I'll only be gone for a few minutes.
When I get back with Tegan, we can all sit down to enjoy a nice tea - with
crumpets."  He glanced significantly at Wayland.

"But -"

"No.  Nyssa."

"But, Doctor,  if there's no danger?..."

                                     "No, Nyssa.  I'll only be gone a few
minutes.  I'll just have a quick word with the Decima Tercia of the Orion
Brood.  She will be able to tell me about all the Gate movements at that
end.  If Tegan can be recovered, Madelaine will know how best it can be
done."

"But, Doctor, Sedra says -- "

"Nyssa, no," The Doctor said firmly.  He turned and stepped between the two
Brood Sisters waiting by the fountain.

Neither of them had noticed the significant look that passed between Wayland
and the Sister-Selves at mention of Madelaine.

Orianna and Gabriela each held out a hand.  The Doctor settled his hat firmly
and joined hands with the two aspects appointed to shepherd him through the
chaos of the Vortex.  At their backs, the water of the fountain misted in
shimmering ethereal rainbows.

The Doctor looked from Wayland to Sedra, to the other Sisters standing in a
semicircle.  At last his gaze came to Adric and finally to Nyssa.

Her expression of mixed disappointment, concern and a tightly controlled
anger cut at him.  The argument had been brief and mostly
unspoken. It had ended unsatisfactorily for both of them.  For the Doctor
because he knew that he had hurt her with his disregard of her heartfelt
desire to go with him to search for Tegan.  For Nyssa because she knew that
the Doctor was trying to shield her from the possible unpleasantness; and she
could not decide whether she was pleased at his protective instinct or just
angry at his arrogant assumption.  Tegan was more closely her friend, perhaps
even more than his.

The Doctor found that he had no words to say. So he smiled encouragingly.

Agalayne's big green eyes watched him over Nyssa's head.  He was chattering
softly, mirroring Nyssa's misgivings about being left behind.

"Take care, Doctor," the Traken girl said at last with a good grace.

The Doctor braced himself.

"Good luck, Doctor," Wayland wished.

"Go!" Sedra commanded.

A power, electric and unseen, surged in the two Sister-Selves, rippled around
the semicircle of the remaining Brood as Orianna and Gabriela abandoned their
physical anchor in this particular reality, and rotated out of phase with the
stream of existence, taking the Doctor with them.

Those left behind waited in a tense silence.  After ten minutes, Nyssa
turned a look of fretful inquiry on Sedra.  For some reason the Brood woman
refused to meet her gaze.  A ripple of unease ran around the remaining
Sister-Selves.  Nyssa grew suddenly alarmed, as uncertainty about these
strange creatures began to clamour in her mind.

"Sedra?" she asked at last, her voice sounding loud in the suddenly still
air.

Sedra shot a look at Wayland.  The big smith nodded slightly .

"What's the matter?" Nyssa demanded, frightened by the silent
exchange.

"The way is closed!" Sedra announced.

"Closed?  What do you mean?  The way is closed?"

"We have closed the way," Sedra announced with emphatic deliberation.

"But why?" Nyssa demanded, her growing alarm turning to a real fear in the
pit of her stomach.

                 "To protect us from the danger of the irresolvable
bifurcation that has occurred -"

"What's that?" Adric demanded.

"We think you may know it as a Lassiter-Munroe Constant?   We are blind to
their presence.  Our two travelling aspects may have encountered the
Constant."

"Don't you know?"  Nyssa was growing alarmed. The impassivity of the
semi-circle of women had become suddenly very alien.

"We cannot know," Sedra continued to act as spokesperson for the
con-tesseraite entity.  "Such a Constant is the only thing external to our
being that can splinter the Mosaic of our mind.  We do not have union with
Oriana and Gabriela.  They may have been swallowed by the Constant.  If
that is what has happened then they are forever lost to us."

"Why?" Nyssa demanded, white faced and trembling now.  She did not like the
sound of that.

"If the Constant claims them, Chaos will tear them to pieces and scatter
their remains throughout eternity," Sedra explained.

"And if they escape the Constant," another took up the explanation.  "Then
they will be walled off forever beyond the immutable divergence."

Nyssa was frantic, her eyes wide with shock, her lips drawn.  "We must
do something? -"

"There is nothing to be done, child." Sedra told her gently.

"But!  But!  There must be something you can do?" Nyssa implored of the group
in general.  All heads shook in unison.  The sight was unnerving.

"No!  Nothing at this time!" It was Sedra who answered Nyssa's desperate
plea.

"But!  Why not? -"

"Devil Metal!" Sedra spat out, making it sound like the foulest oath since
creation.  She spun about, her silks floating, and walked away towards the
house.  The remaining Sister-Selves drifted after.

"Wait!" Nyssa cried.  "There has to be something you can do?  - You can't
just abandon the Doctor? -" But the Brood ignored her.  Nyssa turned a
desperate appeal on the black smith.

Wayland shook his head regretfully.  "There is nothing to be done, for now,
Nyssa.  Later, when it is safe, we will see what can be done," he told her
gently, and walked away towards the house, leaving the distraught girl
standing by the fountain with Adric.  On her shoulders, Agalayne chittered
quietly in agitation.

The beautiful summer's day had suddenly grown very bleak.




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