While You're Sleeping (11/10/Emilie/Donna)

[The Doctor]

The Doctor shifted his weight, a motion like a prize fighter squaring off for round two. Or like a bull, readying for a charge. As he did, Zagreus twisted an amused grin across the blood-spattered face of the tenth Doctor.

"I don't remember this being your game to write the rulebook for Doctor. It's mine."

"Cling to your delusions, parasite," the Doctor snapped, prodding the tenth Doctor in the sternum with the tip of his blackthorn cane. "You're sharing my mind, so this is hardly your rulebook."

Zagreus merely laughed. "And while your future incarnation is fighting in the back of my head, he's tightly locked away."

A strange expression crossed the Doctor's face, a cross between a smirk and a sneer. "Is he, now?" he purred. "Are you certain?"

"Oi mind his face!" Donna shouted, apropos of nothing else.

"Exactly. Mind my face," Zagreus taunted.

The Doctor jabbed Zagreus in the sternum again. "Your face, Zagreus? Yours? I think not."

Half turning, he bowed to Emilie and Donna. "Ladies," he said, "I fear I must impose upon your good will, and ask a favor of you. In my chambers - Emilie will know the way - there is a fragment of blue crystal the size of my thumb. Would you be so good as to go and fetch it for me?"

While the physical violence had been out of character, Emilie curtseyed back nonetheless since apparently they were being formal now. “Blue crystal," she murmured.

"Indeed, yes," the Doctor answered. "In the wardrobe, with my blue velvet smoking jacket."

"What is this old man? A sit in? Stand aside, your time is long since over."

The Doctor turned his piercing blue gaze back on Zagreus. "My time, creature? And what would you know of such things? You, who are forced to beg and steal and threaten for the things that everyone else has freely and in abundance!"

Behind him, Emilie offered to take Donna with her. That was good. The sooner they left, the sooner they would return with the crystal. And the sooner the crystal arrived...?

Why, the sooner this conflict would be over.

[Deleted]

Donna could not take her eyes off of the man who called himself the Doctor from the future. Even though she heard Emilie behind her. Time didn't answer to others? Well it hadn't met Donna yet. Her eyes narrowed slightly at the skinny bloke.

She wasn't going to get any answers from him right now. Sighing Donna turned back to face Emilie and glanced at her Doctor. He was arguing with himself again. Though the one formal voice, which seemed to be a friend, requested that they go fetch him a crystal.

Donna could not take her off of her Doctor. Would he be alright? Clearly they needed the crystal to help him. But she didn't want to leave him.

Her eyes went to Emilie. "Aright." she nodded and followed her to the door.

Donna stopped and turned back around. "Oi! Zagreus! You get out of my friend, got it? Because we are going to get you out. So if you hurt him it will be the end of your universe got it?"

Quickly she followed Emilie out of the library. "Do you know what this crystal looks like?"

[Deleted]

"Indeed, yes," the Doctor answered. "In the wardrobe, with my blue velvet smoking jacket."

Despite the distressing situation they found themselves in, Emilie smiled a little at the Doctor's description. She had only seen him wear that jacket once, but it had been more than enough to make an impression.

Looking to Donna, Emilie waited as patiently as she could for the woman to make up her mind. Once the red head decided, Emilie led her down the hall at a quick pace.

"Do you know what this crystal looks like?"

"Other than the fact it is blue?" Emilie asked light heartedly. "No, but I know the jacket well enough. Quite a nice cut, but he managed to set it on fire in an attempt to look mysterious while holding a pipe. Reminding a Time Lord to stop, drop, and roll has to be up there on the list of 'strange' experiences. Makes an impression, anyway."

[Deleted]

The women had left finally, leaving the Time Lords and Anti-Time creature on their own. Zagreus smirked as he looked to the youngest version of The Doctor once again, "Old Man, were it not for the massive paradox I would cause by dealing with you, you would be gone already."

The creature smirked and said, "But, that doesn't mean, I can't bruise you a bit."

With a sudden launch, Zagreus crashed his shoulder into the smaller man and took off through the bookcases. No doubt off to find a passageway within the library somewhere. There were a few after all.

The bow tied man took off after him momentarily, but gave up after three strides.

[Deleted]

With Zagreus bouncing off, The Doctor turned back to help the other version of himself, or the projection of himself. He hadn't quite worked out who he was yet. He crouched down and offered the younger incarnation his hand.

"Come on then, up you get. You alright?" He helped him up before fixing his bow tie and examining his younger face, "It's like looking in a proper mirror. You never get used to seeing a face that you weren't loomed with, no matter how old you are."

Looking at his original face was all well and nostalgic, but there was an issue, Zagreus was running off, and while The Doctor was sure the TARDIS would keep him away from Donna and Emilie as long as he could, The Doctor didn't want to spend too much time getting acquainted with who he used to be.

"Zagreus is in my previous incarnation at the moment, so I need to be careful with my own interference. The question is, I suppose, when Donna put out the distress signal, did you get pulled in as well? Or, are you something else?"

[The Doctor]

The women had left finally, leaving the Time Lords and Anti-Time creature on their own. Zagreus smirked as he looked to the youngest version of The Doctor once again, "Old Man, were it not for the massive paradox I would cause by dealing with you, you would be gone already."

"We're playing for high stakes," the Doctor answered. "What are you willing to risk?"

The creature smirked and said, "But, that doesn't mean, I can't bruise you a bit."

Zagreus' shoulder caught him in the chest, spinning him round. Lashing out, he managed to grab hold of the back of the Doctor's coat and throw one weak attempt at a kidney punch (laced with a quick burst of a psychic assault on Zagreus' self worth) before crashing to the ground. Then, prone on the floor, he watched Zagreus shove aside a bookcase and disappear into the TARDIS.

The bow-tied future incarnation gave quick chase, then stopped and offered him a had up. "Come on then, up you get. You alright?"

"Quite, quite," the Doctor said, dusting himself off and stooping to pick up his cane.

"It's like looking in a proper mirror. You never get used to seeing a face that you weren't loomed with, no matter how old you are."

The Doctor shrugged. "Appearances are, of course, immaterial." He tapped the eleventh on the forehead. "Essence is what is vital."

"Zagreus is in my previous incarnation at the moment, so I need to be careful with my own interference. The question is, I suppose, when Donna put out the distress signal, did you get pulled in as well? Or, are you something else?"

"You haven't figured it out?" The Doctor smiled. "Then I shall keep my secrets for a time longer, lest Zagreus learn them as well."

He stepped to the passageway Zagreus had revealed, then looked back. "come along, no time to dawdle. A loathsome parasite has made off with our body, and I - for one - have a burning desire to have it back."

[Deleted]

Donna quickened her pace to match Emilie's. Glad for the story that came with the jacket, Donna listened and laughed at the ending. "Yea, I could see someone having to remind spaceman to save his own skin for once."

The two women made their way down the halls of the TARDIS nearing their destination. Donna for one had never seen this famous jacket, but she had confidence that Emilie would be able to sniff it out quickly.

Donna's own mind was whirling as she decided if she should strike upon something that had been bugging her all day or not. "So, that skinny bloke, yea? He says he is the Doctor, but the future Doctor. Is it really the Doctor? I mean that's really him right?"