Parasites of the mind

[Oracle]

“You don’t have many friends do you?” Oracle smiled a little to herself as she moved her arm out from under Khepri’s head “Now, that’s not true.” She said in a mock offense tone, as she gently hit Khepri with a pillow “Just never felt the need to make any.” Oracle smiled again to herself as that memory played out in her head. As she watched the light from the sun fade and the stars started to appear in the night sky, there was too much light pollution in the area for her to get a great view of the stars, but they were still there.

Leaning back against the Benben of the pyramid Oracle crossed her arms across her midsection a little before winching and pulling her hand away, yup, still bleeding. Sighing Oracle winced once again as she stood up slowly. She’d spent to much time here as it were, authorities would be making their way here soon she was sure of that, the fact that Oracle was up there as long as she had been, was somewhat surprising.

“Anubis, friend of the dead, warder against the dark, I praise and honor you.” Khepris voice echoed through her head causing her to falter a little as she went to stand, followed by pain radiating through her ribs as she moved wrong, causing her to yell in pain some. “You’re not here. You’re just in my head.” She could have sworn she heard Khepris hearty laughter “Oh, my dearest I’ve always been in your head, and forever there, I shall stay.” Oracle groaned a little bit in annoyance and started making her way down the pyramid.

”Turns out, if you cause enough trouble, even death doesn’t want you.” Oracle closed her eyes and moved her head trying to pop her neck and shut out Khepris’s voice “You’re dead.” her teeth started to chatter a little as she made it down the last couple of steps of the pyramid “Yeah, and you’re dying guess we’re both get to see what Anubis looks like together.” “Shut up!” Oracle stopped, realizing she had just screamed that out loud and was now getting some seriously suspicious looks from the few stragglers left.

Wrapping her jacket around her, she was cold and needed to hide the blood. Looking down Oracle pushed past them; she had a boat to catch.

[Thirteenth Doctor]

"...So how 'bout it? Moons of Arubis nine? Ice mines of Delta Radda? The golden fields of Venerus Cluster?" The Doctor shot out hoping for a grab on one of the ideas she threw. Her "fam" or team, however one wanted to look at it, had finally had enough time to get affairs at home squared away. She'd not stayed gone long. In fact as far as their lives went it had probably been only weeks, maybe a few months tops since she left them off in Sheffield. With all parties refreshed, it was time to get back to the exploring again.

"Uh, any of them sound interesting enough to me." Ryan said nonchalantly.

"I think what he's trying to say Doc, is we're game for anything you throw at us." Graham stated with a small smile. The man was starting to get back into living rather than just surviving, moving on from Graces death, which is what he knew Grace would want him to do.

"Yeah, just so long as its amazing." Yasmin pipped in.

"Amazin'....amazin'...okay you want amazin' I can give you amazin'." The Doctor said with a flurry, working the console like she always did. "How about pyramids?!"

"Sounds good to me!" Graham stated warmly.

"I'm in." Ryan said in agreement, maybe not as vibrant as Graham, but was still interested.

"Me too." Yas bounced just a little. "Pyramids have kinda fascinated me."

"Dealt with some a while back that weren't so great, but ya know what? Not gonna let that get me down!" she stated with a smile and then pulled the lever. The box vwhoorped through the time vortex before it finally began to materialize again. The moment it landed, Yas went over to open the door to go check out their surroundings. However, before she could get far she cried out.

"Doctor!"

The Doctor rushed to the door and looked down, her eyes connecting with Yas' who was hanging on to the edge of what she could very well tell was a pyramid wall. Well that was embarrassing, and quite dangerous.

"Hang on Yas!" The Doctor called out as she got down to the TARDIS floor and reached for her hand. "Give me your hand!"

Yas was weary at first, but then reached up, The Doctor grasped her wrist firmly and pulled. It wasn't as easy as some of her other regens, but she was still stronger than a human by far. "Are you alrigh'?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, I'm fine." Yas said brushing herself off as The Doctor looked her up and down as she closed the door.

"Righ'." she nodded satisfied that Yas seemed okay then turned and went back to the controls. "Let's try tha' again."

She fixed the coordinates, or at least she thought she did, then pulled the lever again. "That was a bit embarrasing. Don' know what's gotten into the ol' girl."

She stared at the console and spoke to her, "Tha' was very rude ya know."

The TARDIS made sounds at her as she vwhoorped along. "Yes I know it was a fantastic view, but that's no excuse."

The TARDIS finally landed again, this time Graham did the honors, being just a tad more cautious then before. The moment he peaked his head out the door he found himself quickly turning his head back to the group. "Uh Doc, I could be mistaken, but I don't think a busy city is quite a pyramid."

"Oh now wha'?" The Doctor huffed with a sigh and roll of eyes. She walked over to the door and looked out. A thin lipped frown crossing her lips, she turned back to the console and went off in frustration, "Oi! What's wrong with you? You not feeling well again ol' girl?"

All the TARDIS did was make a few random bleeping whoop sounds. The Doctor didn't answer, instead she thought for a few long moments, and then turned to her companions, "You know what. I think, maybe we could take a side trip. Apparently she needs time."

She gave the console a side glance of "you better be right" as if a silent conversation had gone on between them.

"Okay." Graham sounded a bit confused.

"Great." Ryan said feeling The Doctor's exasperation.

"Where are we?" Yas asked.

"London." The Doctor stated matter of fact. "A place I'm heavily familiar with."

"Oh that's not too bad." Yas stated, sounding a bit excited. "Could go shopping."

"Could check out the local sites." Graham shrugged.

"Great, cause it seems if I try again we may very well end up in a sun or the center of an asteroid or something." she huffed a bit, but didn't let it get her down for long. "Alrigh' onward it seems."

As the others began towards the door, The Doctor turned to look at the console, "You and I are going to have a heart to heart later 'bout this."

The TARDIS bleeped at her. She shook her head and followed her "fam"/team out of the TARDIS and into the wilds of London.

[Oracle]

Breathing quickly in and out of her mouth Oracle ripped the bandage covering her side off ”Gah!.” she tried to hold in a slight scream and stomped her foot on the dingy corner stores bathroom, causing the light above her head to flicker and almost go out.

She placed both her hands on the side of the sink and took a couple of deep breaths to calm herself. Her arms started to shake as Khepris wandered through her head, ”Nephthys, mistress of renewal, mother to Anubis, friend of the dead, easer of sorrows, I praise and honor you. Oracle laughed a little bit, slightly unhinged, not looking up from the sink the used bandages discarded into the rubbish bin and on the floor covered partially covered in her black blood.

She sighed as the voice echoed through her head again “Give the Egyptian act a rest.” reaching over to her bag, Oracle grabbed some more bandages out of her back and started to tape herself up again.

Slowly slipping her jacket back on Oracle jumped causing her to feel like a horse kicked her in her ribs all the way around to her back “Hey, you in there, either buy something or get out.”

“Yeah, yeah I’m going I’m going.” placing her hands under the tap Oracle gathered water in her hands before splashing it on her face.

The owner of the shop beat on the bathroom door again, jumping, her hands that had been on the sink broke the side off causing water to spill all over the room.

She didn’t give the shop owner time to react, jetting out of the bathroom and the shop all she could hear was the owner shouting after her.

[Thirteenth Doctor]

The venture was at first quite uneventful. The only hard thing about it, was memories. Memories that The Doctor still even to this regeneration found hard to deal with. Guilt of Rose would always be with him. Always. Didn't matter how many regeneration's he/she went through. Walking the streets just seem to dredge them up. At least most of them right at the moment were good ones, such as ones of him and Rose walking along eating a pastry and talking antics about one of their many travels, or them hanging out on a particular bench, or hell even them running from something potentially frightening and making light of the fact. She wasn't about to bring these hard thoughts up to the others of course, not unless they really pressed for it. Instead she'd wander memory lane silently by herself and enjoy the best she could the good thoughts she was daydreaming. Luckily the rest of the group had taken to gossiping and talking among themselves, thank the universe. Mostly about what they thought about doing while being stuck for who knew how long.

Well they weren't really stuck, what she didn't tell them was there was a hunch that there was a reason she was supposed to be here for something, or someone. Though the TARDIS for whatever reason (most likely as she usually was) was being cheeky and doing thing "I take you where you need to be most" shenanigans. She wasn't still fully convinced on that, not even back since her eleventh regeneration. She was more convinced sometimes the TARDIS did things because the old girl got bored or wanted to tease him/her. It honestly was hard to tell when a sentient spaceship couldn't always verbalize its thoughts to you, which frustrated The Doctor to no end. There was a certain level what The Doctor could read of the TARDIS through their telepathic like link to each other, but sometimes still the quote unquote answers were still often vague as hell. Sadly as they had been walking, The Doctor for the most honest of moments actually hadn't been paying much if at all to her surroundings, more concerned as to why they were there along side the memories, and had fallen a bit behind the others.

[Oracle]

Why did she have to come back to London, stupid Oracle, stupid. Placing a hand on the wall next to her and leaned forward a little trying to catch her breath.

Straightening back up Oracle reached up and wiped her sleeve under her nose. Maybe if she moved farther inland, letting out a slight growl of frustration she took a swing at the building next to her putting a nice size dent in it without so much as a flinch.

Stepping back in surprise it occurred to Oracle she really needed to get away from populated locations before she hurt someone, turning to run, she started off in a sprint again.

[Thirteenth Doctor]

It was then that almost like fate, The Doctor had been straggling far enough behind the rest that it had become a certainty that something would happen eventually. When honestly, unless she was purposefully traveling alone, did she ever really wander away from the group or companion. It wasn't common place, and that, was where fate itself decided it was going to take charge of the situation for her. Damn the TARDIS for her accuracy when it suited the time and space machine, sentient or not. The Doctor ended up colliding right into something very solid and toppled over. On her way down she had re-actively reached out to grab at something, finding clothe in front of her and tried to take purchase before she went completely to the ground. Apparently, from the quickness of it all, all she could tell was that she had clearly ran into someone, not a something, which to be honest would have been a bit more embarrassing than running into a someone instead. In her momentum downward, she was certain that the person she'd grabbed a hold of would fall right on top of her, because....because....because physics!

Meanwhile as this was going on; Ryan, Yas, and Graham had finally stopped yakking enough to notice that The Doctor wasn't with them anymore, Graham turning around to check only just them to catch the scene behind them and cringe as he heard The Doctor cry out weakly with an squeaked "umph" sound as she fell. Without having to get the other two's attentions, they too turned around to see the event that just had happened. Yas was first to respond, wanting to go over to help, but knew it would take them a few moments to get back there. Ryan and Graham on the other hand stood their momentarily bewildered by what just happened, Ryan actually acting just a bit like he felt awkward for the situation, his hands going to his pants pockets to help try and hide his shared uncomfortably.

[Oracle]

She had tried to get out of the way fast enough to keep from colliding with the individual, she was slow and the frustrated her to no end, she had been fast enough however to get her arms out in front of her so inside of face planting each other when they hit the ground, Oracle was able to get an inch or two between their faces. “ Seshet, lady of names and numbers, mistress of records, keeper of time, I praise and honor you.”

Oracle flinched and scrambled backward till she was able to sit back on her knees, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” looking up at the sky Oracle pushed the pain down and away as far as she could before returning her attention back to the individual she collided with “Are you ok?”

[Thirteenth Doctor]

The Doctor looked at the eyes that nearly connected with hers. They were super familiar. It wasn't until the face pulled away enough, that she could tell who it was that had nearly kissed her, literally in the face. It was someone she had met a few times before, Oracle. The girl being on top of her practically, even if only for a few seconds, had nearly brought a strange blush to The Doctors cheeks, and left the time lady in a bit of a awkward feel. So the TARDIS had been right about needing to be here. The old girl was here, because she was following Oracle. But why though? That was the real question. it wasn't as if the TARDIS stalked Jack Harkness. Though The Doctor believed that the TARDIS knew better than to antagonize such thoughts. The Doctors eyes were wide though still in shock a bit at seeing her there.

"Oracle?" she questioned skipping at the moment over the other girls question. "Hey, hey, it's alrigh', I'm fine. See."

She gestured to all of herself and she clambered around onto her knees and crawled over to Oracle.

"On the other hand you look a bit worse for wear, eh." she stated looking Oracle over visually, then noticed the pain she seemed to be in. "Oi, what happened?"

The Doctor sounded genuinely concerned as she reached towards the wound, but stopped short, biting at her lower lip in a slight understanding grimace. Finally Yas reached the two of them.

"Doctor, everything alright?" She breathed a little heavily.

"Yes, no, well kinda." The Doctor rambled. "She's not, but I am."

She wanted to take Oracle back to the TARDIS, take her to the ships fully equipt med bay and see what she could do for her. She knew that no hospital could help her.

[Oracle]

”How do you my..?” Oracle said softly, honestly, she was too tired to finish her question. However when The Doctor said she looked a little bit worse for wear the side of Oracles mouth twitch up for a second in a small smile “I’ve seen worse.”

Getting some of her speed back when The Doctor reached towards the wound Oracle started to stop her but missed her hand. Stopping she pulled her hand back and looked at it for a second trying to shake the double vision.

Looking at the newcomer as they ran up Oracle started to feel like her spine was cracking, which as much as she had been conditioned to withstand pain she had not been expecting it forcing her to take a couple of quick breathes in her nose and out of her mouth.

Hearing Yas address The Doctor she understood now how the woman knew her name causing her to visually relax slumping down some “We fought…” her eyes were kind of distant as if trying to remember what had happened before shaking her head “It keeps, it keeps slipping away. I barely remember the boat trip from Cairo to here.”

[Thirteenth Doctor]

Yas looked at The Doctor, concerned as to what to do. Finally Ryan and Graham had made their way over, but to give space, they stayed back far enough not to make a scene or a crowd. There were some folks starting to look, but in this century, most could care less, or video blog it to Facebook. Honestly that sort of careless behavior irritated The Doctor. For one smart brilliant individual, a group of idiots would just have to come along and make her rethink things just a bit. Not to say she'd turn her back completely on humanity. No humans were like children, they needed guidance and protection. They just could be a little dumb and arrogant sometimes and would deserve a proverbial spanking once in a while. Though, The Doctor supposed that people in this one particular case avoiding helping was a good thing. It meant she could remove Oracle from the situation without too much fuss.

"Need us to do anything Doc?" Graham asked, his hands in his pockets.

"Hold on." she stated lightly looking at Graham for a moment then back at Oracle, whom to her looked like she was about ready to pass out. "Hey, come on, stay with me."

She actually reached up and took Oracles face in her hands to try and get her to focus as she was crouched down at her level. "Come on, try and tell me."

She mostly wanted Oracle to try and tell her to keep her in a conscious state. However, just the girls paler made her believe that this was not going to stay true for long. Damn the silly girl. Honestly if it had been one of her other incarnations she'd probably have scolded her just because she was concerned about her life. Hell she still might, but for now she took on more the role she was told to be by her last incarnation. Be kind. So here she was, being kind. Still concerned as hell, but definitely kind.

[Oracle]

Oracle looked at The Doctor when she took her face in her hands and tried to piece together the last couple of weeks. “They uncovered a new tomb, farther, farther into the Sahara then the rest, workers started getting sick.” her hand sparked a little “Some kind of spinal fluid infection, I don’t…” she tried to shake her head a little but since The Doctor had her face in her hands it kept her from moving too much.

Closing her eyes for a second Oracle reached up and gently grabbed The Doctors wrist, the glow from her hand gently flowing between the hand of the two.

Oracle opened the door to the apartment while holding a paper bag. “Hey Khepri, I know you weren’t feeling well so I went and got stuff to make Sahlab, I know it’s your favorite when you’re feeling poorly.” quietly she used her foot to kick the door shut and deposited the contents onto the island “Khepri?”

Moving over she slowly pushed open their bedroom door and saw Khepri standing at the window her back facing her “Hey, what are you doing? You know the doctors told you no getting out of bed for a day or two till they could finish running those tests on your spinal fluid samples.” Oracle moved over to her and placed her hand on Khepris forearm. “3,000 years.” “Yeah, that’s how long you said it had been since that tomb had been…”
Oracle backed up a little when Khepri turned around and looked at her, she didn’t smell right and her eyes were wrong “Khepri?” “Varisneal.” “How do you know that name?” Khepri took a step towards Oracle then rushed her, using her momentum against her, Oracle caught her midchest causing the both of them to tumble over end.

Coming up on the other end of the tumble Oracle crouched a little watching Khepri “Don’t make me do this, I don’t want to fight you!” next thing she knew it felt like a ton of bricks had slammed into her knocking the wind out of her she saw a flash of something metal, her body reacting purely out of instinct drew all electric power around her.

Her memory started to get choppy after that, her hand slipped off of The Doctors wrist “I can’t.”

[Thirteenth Doctor]

The Doctor took a deep intake of breathe. It wasn't from the connection itself, it was from the intensity of the vision she had been shown. She could actually feel what Oracle had felt alongside seeing what Oracle saw. It made her afterward sigh with empathy. Whatever happened to her friend, it wasn't normal. She couldn't quite put a finger yet on what, but she'd definitely get to the bottom of it that was for certain. In the meantime, she had to get Oracle back to the TARDIS and get her healed up a bit. After all, The Doctor could do actual human standards of what a doctor should be just as much as many other things.

"Okay, okay. Don't need you hurtin' yourself worse." The Doctor stated then looked at Graham. "You asked if you could do anything?"

"Yeah." Graham confirmed.

"How about helm me get her back to the TARDIS." she said worriedly. "Please."

"Yeah sure." Graham stated. "Ryan get over here."

Ryan came over unsure of what was going on. "Huh?"

"Help me get her to her feet." Graham stated pointing at Oracle. They were going to have her put her arms around each one of them so they could help her walk back to the TARDIS if she could stay conscious long enough. If not, Graham would carry her fireman style the best he could for his age and try and keep people from staring too long at them as much as possible. At least the one way, she'd look more like she was drunk and being taken home. They both went on either side of Oracle ready to lift her up and walk back to the TARDIS.

[Oracle]

Normally she would have argued that she could walk by herself, and to be honest, the thought had crossed her mind, however, there were time and places for argument and this wasn’t it nor was she in any position to do so.

Putting her arms around Graham and Ryans shoulders she stood up although wobbly.

Tentatively at first Oracle took careful steps so she didn’t overcompensate and send the three of them tumbling, shaking her head she couldn’t help but laugh softly to herself “Rio Delacroix eat your heart out.”

[Thirteenth Doctor]

The Doctor watched carefully as Graham and Ryan helped her. Yas also just watched until they were able to get ready to move. At that point they were going to have to back track to the TARDIS. Tourist musing was going to have to happen later, which was okay in The Doctors mind. As much as London was fun, it was also a place of memories. Both her and Yas looked about them to make sure there wasn't too much attention drawn on them, and then The Doctor ushered for them to quickly as possible start making their way back to the TARDIS where The Doctor could better tend to Oracle. Who'd have thought she'd have to put the actual Earth variant of the term "doctor" to use so soon in a venture. Oh well, it was what it was.

Luckily it didn't take long for them to get back to the TARDIS. The moment they were there, The Doctor opened the door and allowed Graham and Ryan to go in first with Oracle.

"Take her down to the medbay. The TARDIS will show ya where it's at." she stated as she let Yas go in after her. The moment her companions were inside, she made her own way in and shut the door behind her. She followed them down the corridors to where the medbay would be. Luckily the TARDIS did half the work and made the medbay just a bit closer by shifting where it was located. The grace of the TARDIS, The Doctor was ever in its debt with how efficient she could be when she wanted to be.

The moment they got down to the medbay, The Doctor came in behind them quickly, "Get her on one of the beds."

As Graham and Ryan did that, The Doctor took off her long coat. That meant she meant business in helping Oracle. Yas stood there looking a bit awkwardly.

"is there anything I can do?" she asked The Doctor.

"Yes." she said and gave Yas a small smile. "You can help me tend to our patient. I'll need help grabbing things. Ryan, Graham you've both done wonderfully, why don't both of you go ahead and go get a bite to eat or something. Honestly your welcome to go back out and visit London if you'd like for a while cause this is gonna take a bit and the less people I have in my way the better."

"Ah, alright." Ryan said with a shrug.

"We can do that. You sure your going to be alright without us Doc?" Graham asked.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. I got Yas to help." she stated patting Yas on the shoulder. "Go on. I promise things will be fine. Go have fun. I can have Yas join you later."

"If your sure." he said and then turned to Ryan. "Guess we can have some guy time then."

"Awesome." Ryan was still trying to get used to treating Graham like family, but it was still a bit hard. It was getting better, but time would only tell really if things would get better. The two of them walked out the medbay door and down the corridor, leaving Yas and The Doctor to work with Oracle. The Doctor went over to her now that she was on a special bed that could have been nearly something straight out of star trek. It was able to read vitals just like her sonic could but was able to show it on a screen anyone could understand. To be honest the entire medbay looked like it was something straight out of star trek. It was very much futuristic, but it still definitely had a medical feel to it. Yet at the same time it also had a relaxing feel by the colors used and some of the design. There were semi translucent cupboards that held medications and tools used for different sorts of things as well as a lab table that could test different things like blood, DNA, virus', etc. It pretty much was a well equipped center for medical care. The Doctor just never had to use it that often, aside maybe from getting a band-aid or two for minor cuts and even then. Back when she was Mr. Bowtie Raggedy Man, she actually could have used the medbay to test Amy for her being pregnant. Instead, she had just linked the bio reading systems up to the control room so he could keep a close eye on Pond. It was a sneaky tactic, but she at the time didn't want to freak Rory out with her discoveries. Now, that same system was reading Oracles vitals, and they definitely were reading a weakened body.

"Hey you still with me?" she looked down at Oracle, putting a gentle hand on her face again, letting her fingers carefully brush away stray hairs from the girls cheek. Her eyes were actually filled with concern, one that probably could span way back to the first time Oracle had met The Doctor. She was trying to see if Oracle was still even awake or if she actually had passed out finally on her.

[Oracle]

One more step just one more step was all Oracle could think as Graham and Ryan helped her to the TARDIS. Managing to stay mostly conscious for the duration of the trek, though there had been some times when she had almost let her world go black only for the force of will to pull her quickly back awake.

Her world went black when she laid down on the medbed

Khepri stood in front of her arms across her chest staring Oracle down, the breeze causing stray hairs on her head to fly around “Tell me where you go.” “Khepri, I told you, I can’t right now, one day will come when I can…” Oracle got off of the couch and went over taking Khepri’s hand in hers only to have it take away from her “Look I promise you I will tell you everything I just can’t yet ok.”

Khepri threw up her hands a little “I have to go to the dig, I’m late for work.”

”I…” Oracle’s eyes snapped open when The Doctor touched the side of her face before shutting tightly again against the light and the pain that came rushing back “Yeah, I’m still here.” she said softly, clearing her throat she adjusted her position a little bit “What’s the prognosis Doc?” she had to joke that was just the way she was.