The Fires That Burned Blue (Chapter 9)

Chapter 9 (Burn on Forever...)

She could smell…peaches. She hadn’t had peaches in such a long, long time. Not since that day Craig gave her some when they were both kids.

Craig…

She found it too hard to think about her friend. She could hear a noise to the left of her. It was a gentle, rhythmic beeping and she couldn’t decide whether it was irritating or soothing. She decided on the former, because she certainly wasn’t going to be falling asleep again.

Or was it something else that was keeping her from dozing back to sleep? It could have been the sharp pain in her chest. The niggling throbbing felt like someone regularly pricking into her chest with the tip of a knife.

Knife…she thought back to Craig again and the answers - or rather questions - that had come from that knife. She wondered if it had all been a dream. If it had been a dream then it would mean that she was still in West Fulton in her crappy life. If it wasn’t a dream then her life was about to get a little bit weirder.

And then she remembered the bullet hitting her. The bullet shot from that thug, Colin Dunlop.

Her eyes snapped open. Above her was a white ceiling with a lamp gently glowing down on her. She looked to her right and saw the young man known as Caleb fast asleep in a chair. She looked to her left and saw the other man - the Doctor - sat in an identical chair. He was busy with felt tip pens colouring in a colouring book.

Lilly managed a very slight laugh and then regretted it. The pain in her chest…

“Lilly,” said the Doctor gently. “Lilly, are you okay?”

“I’m…I’m fine,” she managed. It felt like she hadn’t used her voice in a long time.

“You need to take it easy. You need to rest.”

“Where am I?” she asked. She wanted to look around her, but she daren’t move another inch.

“Not on Earth,” he said with a smile.

“What?”

“Mr Dunlop shot you through one of your hearts. No hospital on Earth could have saved you.”

She started to panic. “Am I…Am I okay?”

He shushed her. “You’re fine. They’ve rebuilt your left heart. Good job you had two though. That one kept you alive long enough for me to get you here.”

“Oh, god,” she said. “Two hearts…I forgot I’m an alien.”

The Doctor smiled. “You’ll get used to it.”

“So if I’m not on Earth then where am I?”

“A medical space station orbiting the planet Citrix. The Healers here owed me a favour.”

“What!?” said Caleb, suddenly waking from his slumber.

“You’re still on the space station, Caleb,” said the Doctor.

“Is Lilly…?”

“Your sister’s going to be fine. Just fine.” He leaned back in the chair. “But we need to go soon. When we returned to the TARDIS I did a scan. The Master left in his own TARDIS, which means he’s finally finished regenerating.”

“And has a new face that none of us have seen,” said Caleb.

“And if I know the Master,” said the Doctor, interlocking his fingers and looking thoughtfully into the distance, “then he’ll have some kind of perception field on him.”

“Which…is?” said Lilly groggily. She was drifting out of consciousness again.

“It means that he could hide in plain sight and we’d not know it was him. So we need to go. We need to continue to mask our time traces and we need to run.” He looked at Lilly. “You up for a bit of running, Lilly?”

“Don’t be stupid, uncle,” said Caleb, shaking his head. “She won’t be running anywhere just yet.”

A thought struck Lilly. “What about my real mother?” she said, her eyelids heavy.

The Doctor looked at Caleb and then back down at the girl. “We can’t go and see her yet. It’s the first place the Master will go to plan his next move. We need to disappear off the radar for a bit and keep you safe. Then, when you’re ready, we’ll see what we can do.”

“O…Okay…” she drawled, and then fell asleep again.

“And I need to keep you safe.” He looked at Caleb. “I need to keep both of you safe.”




Holly sat there in silence as Lilly finished telling her story, her knees drawn up to her chin. She was wearing shorts and could feel the gentle breeze on her bare legs. The sun was setting now and it cast the both of them in a golden light.

Holly turned to Lilly. Her hair was looking even more golden than normal. She didn’t turn and look at Holly though. She just continued to stare out at the waves crashing in the distance.

“Where is this place anyway?” said Holly.

“No idea,” said Lilly. “The Doctor came here after Caleb died. He spent a lot of time just sitting here and staring out to the horizon.”

Holly shook her head. “How did he die? You told me that you killed him.”

Lilly breathed in and then exhaled in one, long breath. “I don’t know if I’m ready to tell you that part yet.”

“Because I’ll hate you?” said Holly.

Lilly turned. “No. Because I still hate myself for it.”

“You’re not a killer though. Despite everything you went through back in Scotland.”

“A killer is someone who kills somebody else, isn’t it?”

Holly didn’t reply.

Lilly shook her head. “So, no. I’m not ready to talk about it yet.”

Holly put her hand on Lilly’s and Lilly turned to her. “You can trust me, you know?”

“Even after all that?”

“Even after all that,” she confirmed.

“What is it about you, Dangerfield?” said Lilly, narrowing her eyes. “You’re not a robot are you, like Craig?”

Holly laughed. “No. Absolutely not a robot. Flesh and blood through and through.”

Lilly managed a weak smile. “Thank you for listening.”

“And when you’re ready for part two,” said Holly, “just get the Doctor to book us a couple of tickets to Mystery Island and I’m ready for you.”

“But what happens when you go home,” said Lilly, “and I’m on my own again?”

Holly looked sad. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.” She smiled again. “That’s the thing about bridges - you can cross them more than once.”

Lilly looked at Holly for a long time. She was a kind person. Too kind for her, but it made her feel happy. She opened her mouth to say something when…

…the sound of the TARDIS engines filled the air and slowly the box materialised. The setting sun made it look darker than it usually looked.

The doors opened and the Doctor emerged, his arms folded. He leaned on the door frame. “Okay?”

Lilly looked at Holly and then both girls nodded back at the Doctor. “Okay.”

“Hop on board then, ladies. I’ve got some news.”

The girls made their way across the beach and then slipped into the TARDIS. Holly caught the Doctor gazing out to the jungle beyond the beach and then he too turned and went inside.

“So what’s this news then?” said Lilly, sitting on the sofa and picking up a jelly baby from a glass bowl at the side.

“Well whilst you two were having your little chat I did a bit of digging. I went back to West Fulton.”

“What!?” said Lilly. “Why the bloody hell did you want to go back there?”

“Because that was where this particular incarnation of the Master was born,” said the Doctor. “Now we know he’s masked his time traces and he’s put on a perception field so we have no idea who he is or what he looks like. So I’ve just spent hours and hours trawling the CCTV footage of that area and I think I’ve found him.”

The Doctor flicked a switch on the console and a holographic image of grainy CCTV footage appeared.

“Most of the footage was corrupted - it must have been because of the effects of the Master’s regeneration energy, but it cleared up in one particular frame.”

The Doctor zoomed in on a particular section of an alleyway. There was the blurred face of a man standing beside a dumpster.

“The video cuts out after this, but we can only assume that this is the Master.” He pointed towards the top of the image. “See the few traces of flames that have just come off him.”

“Well, great,” said Lilly. “So my father looks like a grainy, blurry man.”

“A little faith, Lilly,” he said, pressing another button. “I cleaned up the image through the TARDIS filters and came up with this.”

The image was still blurry, but had been cleared up quite considerably. The face was stern looking with a receding hairline and a high forehead.

“He looks…familiar,” said Holly.

“Mmm-hmm,” said the Doctor, nodding. “I ran the image through the TARDIS scanning system.” He put his hand on Holly’s shoulder. “Did I tell you what a fantastic machine my TARDIS is, Miss Dangerfield?”

“Well I know now,” said Holly with a chuckle.

He smiled. “The TARDIS has picked this face up throughout time on numerous occasions in numerous times and numerous locations.”

“So it’s definitely the Master then?” said Holly.

“Yes,” said the Doctor. “Now I can’t pinpoint all of his locations, but a number of locations jumped out at me.” He folded his arms. “He looks familiar because we’ve met him before. The man at the cemetery back when we fought off the zombies.”

“They’re not zombies,” corrected Lilly.

“Wait a minute!” said Holly. “Yes, I remember him. He asked us what we were doing and then he legged it when the zombies came out. He came out of the funeral building!”

“That’s right!” said Lilly. “Oh my god!”

“That’s not all,” said the Doctor. “He’s also been spotted masquerading as a doctor at NESP headquarters. Remember the business with the Cybermen?”

Holly shook her head. “Why?”

“There’s more, Miss Dangerfield,” he said, rather more excitedly than he meant to sound. “When you and Lilly were locked in the prison he was posing as an Agent Matthews. According to reports Matthews came to the Rock. Turns out that Governor Wainwright was still alive until the Master shot him dead.”

“Matthews…” said Lilly.

“I know where you’re going with this one, Lilly,” said the Doctor. “Matthew was the name of the Time Lord that helped the Yaros when they arrived on Earth. The aliens on the Runswick estate.”

“Oh Jesus,” said Holly, her hand shooting to her mouth.

“Why is he doing this?” said Lilly slowly.

“I have no idea, but he’s been watching us. He’s been following us and he’s been aware of our every move.”

“Then what do we do?”

“We keep moving. We keep flying from place to place. Eventually we’ll find him again, and that’s when we stand and fight.”

“I need a drink,” said Lilly, getting off the sofa and heading towards the corridor.

The Doctor looked sad and then turned to Holly. “Are you sure you want to stay?”

Holly folded her arms and looked stern. “Now, more than ever, Doctor.”

“She may hurt you,” said the Doctor. “You know what she’s capable of now.”

“She didn’t tell me the story of how Caleb died.”

The Doctor swallowed. “Caleb’s death-”

“No,” said Holly, shaking her head. “When she’s ready she’ll tell me, but until then…just let her be. I’ll make sure she’s alright. I’ll take care of her.” She moved to follow Lilly and then turned back. “But when the Master rears his head again, just make sure you’re ready for him.”

The End


Doctor Who: Resurrection will return for a Christmas-themed short tale on Christmas Eve.