Parasites of the mind

[Thirteenth Doctor]

"Well you could be worse for wear. You've lost blood, but I think you'll live." The Doctor tried really hard to stay light about the situation. Taking in all the information on the screen, she was able to gauge the situation decently enough. Even to the point she could probably patch her up fairly quickly even. What she was concerned about was how long she had actually been like that. She knew that Oracle was different from humans. Heck even different from her. She was honestly lucky The Doctor had came along because in the end, she could have died from bled out all because she couldn't have gotten a transfusion from any human hospital, which meant she'd have been back in some facility again. The Doctor understood how unwelcome that sort of thought was. One of the few things he wasn't quite fond of with humans. it was great they wanted to learn, but sometimes their methods were crude and unethical.

"Though how you managed so long..." she gave a concerned frown. "I really don't know. Guess your as stubborn as always."

She looked at the area where the wound was and even managed to expose the area. Looking at it made her cringe in empathy. She then turned her gaze to Yas.

"Yas can you get me some clothes please. Preferably damp."

"Sure." Yas replied, happy to be able to use some of her other training. Cops also had basics at least in EMT work. So it helped in a situation like this.

"Their should be some in the cupboard over there." The Doctor pointed to a semi transparent doors with a white frame around them. The inside of the cupboard was lit, illuminating a sort of blue green light from it. Yas went over to the cupboard and grabbed what she found. Then went and looked for a sink of some sort to wet a few with. While she did that, The Doctor assessed the wound the best she could around the dark blood. It wasn't the worst wound she saw, but it definitely wasn't one she'd want to leave unattended.

"How is it when I run into you, your always getting yourself into some sort of trouble or another, mmm?" The Doctor stated with a light teasing air. She wanted to see Oracle smile, if anything. She wasn't expecting the girl to laugh because that would be bad just a bit if she did, but a good old smirk would make The Doctors day. While waiting for a possible response, The Doctor went over to the lab table to grab something and then went to a cupboard on the opposing side of the room where she kept a plethora of medicines. Some designed for time lords and ladies, while others were designed for humans and other species. Furrowing her brows she skimmed through a few of the shelves, bottles and what not's clinking about as she searched for the right liquid.

[Oracle]

Holding up both her hands Oracle gave The Doctor and Yas a thumbs up and said softly In a slightly deadpan voice ”Yaaayyy.”[/font in response to The Doctor saying that they’d think she’d live.

“You say stubborn, I say resilient.” Oracle turned her head looking at The Doctor and Yas before turning her head back to where it had been and flexing her jaw a little to not make a sound as The Doctor exposed the wound it would just be another scar in many, but that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt any.

The sides of Oracles mouth twitched up a little in a laugh “Well, in my defense, if someone answered their phone from time to time…” she frowned a little her vision swarming causing her to have to squeeze her eyes back shut, as her head filled with Khepri voice again

"Death is but the doorway to new life.
We live today, we shall live again.
In many forms shall we return."

Reaching up, Oracle pressed the palms of her hands to her temples as if trying to massage them “She’s so loud..” she blinked a couple of times turning her attention back to The Doctor “What are you looking for?”

[Thirteenth Doctor]

She only stopped momentarily at the fact of oracle saying something about someone being too loud, and a part of her didn't believe it was her or Yas. Noting it in the back of her mind, she pressed her lips together for a moment before speaking, "Something to take away the pain in the long run. Ah hah! Found in."

She grabbed a bottle finally and looked at it momentarily before pulling it into the palm of her hand and grasping it firmly so it wouldn't drop. She grabbed a few other bottles, just in case, but the one pain one was the most important. She then turned back towards Oracle and went over to her. She set the bottles down on a movable table. Next she took the thing she'd grabbed from the lab table and began to load it with the bottle she had filled with pain med's in it. The one thing The Doctor knew was that oracle was not like everyone else. She wasn't human. So the pain med's that humans took, would not work on her. Instead she had a special cocktail just for such cases like Oracles. The bottle clicked into place and she brought the device towards Oracle. Luckily she probably was too loopy from pain to notice the injection.

Quickly she pressed the device against Oracles arm and it injected quickly with a hiss. There usually was still a prick of pain from the injection, but there was no needle like traditional 21st century human syringes. It wasn't the most potent spot to inject from, but it worked. She would have done her neck with it but she didn't want to chance Oracle grabbing her out of reaction to her reach. "There we go. Should start kickin' in fairly soon. Don't need ya smackin' me while I work on the wound."

She honestly would be lucky if oracle didn't smack her now for sneaking that dose on her with that little device. She was actually prepared for it though if the girl did. She wouldn't blame her for reacting. Hopefully Yas would be back over soon with the wet cloth's. Then she could "stitch" Oracle back up so at least she wasn't bleeding anymore.

[Oracle]

Oracle kept watching The Doctor dig around in the cabinets till she found what she’d been looking for; usually, Oracle would have bolted at the thought or hint of getting some form of injection, but she was too loopy at the moment to care.

Frowning some at the sound of the hiss as The Doctor injected her with the pain killer Oracle tried to move her arm out of the way “Ow…” she started to feel the medication enter her bloodstream washing over the pain in her body, now she was really having a hard time focusing “So…In case this stuff knocks me out I have two things to say, and if I don’t say them now, I’ll forget’em.”. she gestured to The Doctors appearance. “1.The look suits you. B. she held up two fingers “This is two debts I owe you now.”

She was fighting the pull of sleep caused by the pain killer. “Doc, starting to think you and I attract trouble like a bad penny.” at least that’s what she meant to say she was sure that’s probably not what it sounded like.

[Thirteenth Doctor]

This made The Doctor smile a bit, even chuckle a little in fact. Well at least Oracles sense of humor was still intact. At least while she waited for Yas, she knew the med's would do the trick. Before Oracle could pass out on her though potentially, she decided to respond.

"No penny is truly bad. I mean it always seems to be there when you need a bit of luck after all. But I agree, we really do attract trouble. Well, in my case I more run head long into it and disrupt it on purpose." she smirked. "But ya know, semantics."

Yas finally came over with the clothes. The Doctor gave the other woman as she approached a small smile. Yas was so helpful, often a bit of a people pleaser to be honest, but The Doctor supposed that was what made her great as a cop on the field. She was more the gentle type with a fire cracker nature that could burst through from underneath like a Vesuvius volcano if poke just wrong. it allowed for folks to get close to her, without feeling half as intimidated. Plus there was nothing wrong with a person of her career choice after all.

"Thanks Yas." The Doctor said warmly and took one of the clothes. Yas put the rest down nearby and then stood there to watch The Doctor do her thing. There was no point in two people working. All it would do was get the two of them under each others feet and that would be of no help to Oracle.

"She alright?" Yas asked.

"Yea, she is. At least I believe she will be." The Doctor stated as she cleaned up Oracles wound.

"So you two know each other?" Yas inquired.

"Yea, we met way back. Well when I mean way back, a few regeneration's back. Differen' face you see. Long story." she offered. "Saved her from falling once."

"Ah." was all that Yas could seem to give. She didn't understand or know anything about regeneration, she hadn't had to experience that yet with The Doctor, but The Doctor already mentioned it was a long story so she was sure she'd probably learn or figure it out at some point either from The Doctor talking about it or her just doing it.

"I know, it's a bit confusin'. I'm a time lord, well er time lady in this case, and we time lords and ladies just tend to change faces when our bodies become too damaged for whatever reason. I wasn't lying when we first met when I said my last face was a Scotsman. Ooo did he have some fairly cross brows, thankfully I was able to shed myself of the dark broodiness with this new body and new personality. Pretty much everythin', except well what should be the core of who you are, changes. So all the memories and what not's are all still there, just not always the same quirks or interests."

"Makes sense I suppose." Yas shrugged. She tried to understand. At least The Doctor did explain it as she continued to work.

"Don't think too hard on it, it'll only make your head hurt." The Doctor mused. "It's just a thing that is. Much like how you and all other humans shed skin constantly. So in a sense you change yourselves, just the long way round."

"Okay I can get that." Yas said with a small laugh. "Your something else Doctor."

"It try to be." The Doctor stated as she finished drying off the wound now and took a small bottle that one would have thought looked empty, but it really wasn't. It had tiny little nano like things in there that could help knit Oracles skin back together. In conjunction with a setting on the sonic screwdriver, The Doctor would be able to heal her skin. She could have done with just the sonic, but it would have been easier and quicker with the nano's doing half the work and would leave no scaring that way. She tapped the bottle and a little something flickering in metallic nature dropped on the wound and disappeared. She the pulled out her sonic, switched through some of the functions until she found the right one and then pointed it at the wound, which began to slowly mend like magic.

[Oracle]

Oracle managed to force a smile before her world went black again.

“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.” Well, that’s not true; she thought to herself, she had had a few.

She’d had Rio, Rios children as friends and she’d run into that Doctor character….Oracle furrowed her brow for a second her world spinning a little in Deja vu feeling.

Turning, she sat on the edge of their bed gently rubbing her side before lifting her shirt looking at a line where once a wound been; there was something she was missing. Starting to get up Oracle felt one of Khepri’s hand gently slide over her shoulder, “Don’t leave me my pet.”

Oracle shrugged off Khepri’s hand as she continued to stand “Just, just wait a second.” taking a deep breath. Oracle tried to calm her nerves.

“No, you’re fine just lay back down,” said Khepri reaching out an grabbing one of Oracles hands “Stay, with, me.”

Oracle squinted her eyes again reaching up she rubbed them with her hand that was on the opposite side of the Nanos to make sure she didn’t disrupt what they were doing. Not sure for a moment if she had dozed off or if that had been a simple flashback. Trying to hide the slight panic that transferred over from the dream I second what Yas said.”

[Thirteenth Doctor]

"Of course you would." she chuckled a little at Oracles comment. "Yes well your somethin' else yourself."

She flipped a switch on the bed, it caused a special wave of energy to invisibly pulse, much like a massage without the motion of it to give a person a certain amount of sleep. Next best thing to morphine in her mind. Supposedly the kind that didn't harbor dreams. The Doctor was hoping this would help Oracle rest better for a few hours. If it didn't she'd, well, think of something else.

The Doctor watched her intently for a moment, her brows knit in concern. Something had really bad happened to her, and she wanted to know what. If there was anything about The Doctor that seemed quite consistent, it was that she never liked a mystery left unsolved. Whether she was a girl or a boy. It didn't matter. She always had to open the box, push the big friendly button, or do something spontaneous to keep things exciting. In this case it was probably going to most likely poking at something dangerous. The thought was exhilarating really. Caution to the wind right? Right. In any case whatever it was, she was going to get the answers and meet the challenge whatever it might be. Just as soon as she knew Oracle would pull through on this one. Her certainty was usually high, but no never could truly know.

"You'll be alrigh'." she stated to Oracle and put a hand on her shoulder. "Your in safe hands. Yas, Graham, Ryan, and I will be here. Nothin' is going to happen on my watch. I promise."

She could tell that she had been slipping in and out of weakness and was curiously wondering what the girl had been dreaming about. If not a bit concerned. She'd have to talk to her about it later though.

"We should give her some time to rest, she's been through a lot. We can chat with the other two in the mean time." The Doctor noted. "Besides, it'll be a good idea if we can find out what's going on and get to the bottom of it."

"Right." Yas nodded in agreement, gave Oracle a light smile, and then turned to leave the med bay. The Doctor wasn't going to be far behind. She leaned down towards Oracle, "I'm here if you need me. Don' forget tha'. Try and rest well my friend."

She too gave a smile, only one that if a person knew The Doctor, was that it was trademark only of The Doctor. She backed away. "Also don' touch the nano's you'll only disrupt them."

[Oracle]

The corner of Oracles mouth moved up a little in a nah sort of way when the Doctor mentioned she was something herself. Oracle started to say something but when the pluse of medical bed started it was almost as if someone had flipped a switch on her consciousnesses.

Oracle felt as if she was floating weightlessly in an inky blackness; she could hear what was going on the outside of her body but she had already given in to the darkness of her mind for a while .

I'm here if you need me. Don' forget tha'. Try and rest well my friend." Oracle tried answer but found herself unable to do so.
“ Seshet, lady of names and numbers, mistress of records, keeper of time, I praise and honor you.”

Oracle frowned a little in the dreamscape Look, any other time I'd be all for conversation but for right now, you can just stop ”They won’t be able to help you. ”See, your lack of faith in them tells me they will.

[Thirteenth Doctor]

The Doctor had moved the group back to the control room for regrouping. They all had grabbed something to drink while at it. If one thing was consistent, it was having a good cup of coffee or tea to get the brain stimulated. The Doctor took a drink from her own cup and stared at the readings she had obtained from the med bay. Her eyes were intense on the holo in front of her. After all the beds down there could do just about as good of readings, if not better in some cases, than her own sonic screwdriver. Yet they still couldn't seem to find the answer to what was going on with Oracle. It wasn't like The Doctor been trying to see if there was anything in particular, but the sheer fact that Oracle had been in trouble was something, and that posed for any sort of concern in any respect. It was baffling her, however, and that left her in all sorts of frustration that not even her drink could solve.

The readout showed something, something effecting Oracles brain. It was as if though, whatever it was, didn't want to be seen or captured on her readings. The Doctor took another intense drink before she gave a deep sigh of defeat.

"I don' get it." she mused out loud.

"Don' get wha'?" Graham asked.

"This readin'. It just doesn' make any sense what so ever." she gestured to the holo screen. "I mean, tons of brain activity, but no reason for it. I mean yeah some people can have natural amounts of high activity but a lot of this is dedicating to areas that are that active unless asleep on the normal scale."

"Maybe you just need to take a step back for a bit. After all you seem to know her well, so perhaps takin' a breather would help." Ryan stated.

"Yeah I agree." Yaz nodded.

"Yeah, maybe your righ'." she sighed deeply and then walked over to the biscuit dispenser and popped one out to eat it. She was actually stress eating, not something she normally did in most regeneration. She wondered if this was something of this regen only.

"You had been standing there for at least maybe a good hour maybe more Doc. I mean you didn' even notice we'd gotten you new cups to drink in between with how intense you'd been workin' with the stuff on the screen." Graham noted.

"I know, I'm sorry." she said looking down a moment. "It's just, with how Oracle and I go back its just...she means somethin' to me. Jus' like the way you three do. Important." the Doctor stated having had a seat next to them on the hexagonal steps.

"I get that." Yaz nodded. "We're here for ya though. Which means we'll do whatever it takes to help figure things out."

"Yeah." Ryan agree.

"I know." The Doctor said wearily. "And it's appreciated."

"So, can you tell us a bit about your friend?" Ryan asked.

"What do you want to know?" The Doctor raised a brow.

"I dunno, how you came to know each other." Ryan added. "Somethin' like that maybe."

"Well we've had a bit of a past together. I saved her from a cliff side at one point." she stated. "Not this face of course, another face, but yeah. Guess you could say I saved her life." she mused. "After that, things were more like the way you and I are. Their was travels, things like that. But eventually she shot back off on her own again and well yeah. So meetin' is sort of a here and there thing."

"Ah." Ryan nodded.

There was a long bit of silence.

"So do you think she's why we came here?" Yaz asked.

"Perhaps. It would make sense after landing on the pyramids and then coming straight here instead." The Doctor nodded. "The TARDIS probably knew something was off."

The fact that they'd been in Egypt prior and now were in London instead didn't make a lick of connection yet for The Doctor even though it probably should have.

'Maybe I can help you?" Yaz offered. "Perhaps havin' a fresh set of eyes would be a good idea."

"Alrigh'." she conceeded to Yaz's offer.

"I mean I haven' exactly gotten to do stuff in field for forensics or anything like that but in the training and well side learnin' I tried to pay attention to things." Yaz stated. "I might not have a degree in medicine, but I have a good mind in findin' clues."

"Yes, of course you do." The Doctor said with a small smile. "And we migh' as well put it to good use."

On that note she finished the drink she had by downing it, putting the cup somewhere out of the way after standing up more refreshed.She looked to Yaz, "Okay let's do this."

The two of them both looked at the materials and talked quietly to each other while Ryan and Graham sat back left wondering why they were there and more importantly what the deal with the girl was even more since The Doctor seemed to be keeping quite to herself over it even though she exposed some parts. Eventually though Yaz pointed out something unusual.

"Do you see tha'?" she said pointing to the holo.

"What?" The Doctor said trying to gauge what Yaz was actually seeing.

"That." Yaz tried to get a better pinpoint by trying to circle it with her finger. The Doctor then saw it. There was something else, another field of activity?! How had she missed that! It had been a short blip though. Like whatever it was, registered and then vanished. It registered a second time and then vanished again a few moments later. The question was, what the hell was it?

"Well that's new?" The Doctor mused.

"What is it?" Yaz asked.

"Not fully sure, but it looked like another brain wave reading, but there, that's not right. I mean unless somehow she has two brains and one's down there and the other up there. Or she's well...you know..then I can't see how that's possible. I mean sure infants can have erratic brain waves, but yeah. I don' know."

She shakes her head. She didn't want to think about the second possibility. That actually sort of scared her to be honest. So for the time being she shoved it to the back of her mind. This one time she was severely slipping up though, and the reason being, Oracle was close to her.

"Doctor you need to center yourself." Yaz stated putting hands on The Doctor's shoulders. "We'll get this. Let's retrace. You found Oracle on the street, damaged and bleeding with a would. I show up and she's talking about having been in Cairo prior. Somehow she got to London by some strange miracle. How is a bit beyond me. So whatever happened, must have been there."

it was then that the info dump load hit her square in the face like The Doctor idiot she apparently still was, "Righ'! She had said that didn' she. I also saw something she shared. It's fuzzier now, but...oh thank you Yaz!"

She kissed the girls cheek and went to the controls, "You are a genius!"

"So wait where are we going Doc?" Graham asked.

"Back to where it all started." The Doctor gave a mischievous smile. "We are going back to Egypt. Guess you'll get to see the pyramids after all!"

"Great." Ryan gave a sarcastic tease.

After setting the coordinates, The Doctor then pulled the lever on the console, sending the TARDIS flying into the vortex back to Cairo.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Some time later, while the others were getting ready to venture into Cairo to go get answers, The Doctor went back into the med bay alone to talk to Oracle, as long as she actually woke up at this point. The nano's had finally finished their work on the one wound which was good and it meant the blood loss would be done. Instead of standing like some of her incarnations might have, she sat and waited patiently. A part of her daydreamed back to some of their other adventures. At least ones her mind could remember anyway. So she sat there with her eyes closed leaning her elbow on something her face rested on her hand gently as it supported her heads weight. A very faint smile played at her lips.

[Oracle]

“Were you ever going to tell her what you what you were doing on those weeks when you’d disappear?” In Oracles dreamstate she was trying to quiet her mind so she could think; she hadn’t been expecting the creature to talk or she hadn’t felt them roaming about in ther memories so when it spoke she did jump a little “hmmm?’ Oracle asked, not being quite sure where the voice was coming from inside her head, she needed to stall while she could do a mental check of herself, “Such pretty memories.” Oracle felt something moving up her spinal cord causing her mental world to light up like a christmas tree.

“Stop.” She said without opening her eyes, she was still searching for the entity and she was close she could almost smell it, wait no, static electricity and dust? Ok, now she was confused she thought to herself and frowned a little, Oracle knew she knew that smell but she needed to find, the, the thing…

Then she heard it, four heart beats. Oracle took a deep quick breath as she opened her eyes, ok med bay, check, not the Libertiran surely not, to clean. Oh yeah, TARDIS. Oracle heard a small movement off to her side causing her to turning her head in that direction. Ok yeah, TARDIS theory confirmed then. Wait, how did she? Then it came flooding back to her. Taking both her hands Oracle facepalmed slightly, letting her hands run down her face before saying, more to herself than anything but still audible ”I’m such an idiot.”

[Thirteenth Doctor]

"Hey your awake." The Doctor stated, happy to see her awake. "Your not an idiot, why would you even say that?"

The Doctor got up from where she was sitting and moved over to where Oracle was laying.

"You just had a rough few days, weeks, somethin' like that maybe. That's all." she tried to make Oracle feel better, but she had no idea if it was working or not. However, deep down she knew it was more than just a rough week or whatever, it was hard. She'd lost a friend. "Sorry, I'm terrible at this sometimes."

She gave her a half sort of awkward wry smile. The Doctor tried but sometimes seeing people she cared about in such situations just left her feeling odd a bit. Probably because of care and worry.

[Oracle]

Why was she an idiot? Oracle ran the reason through her head real quick why she could say she was an idiot, she should have reached out when Khepri and the other workers started getting sick, when she got hurt. Sighing Oracle shut her eyes and shook her head a little “Just, decisions made that I could have made better.” She didn’t know what else to say.

She let out a small laugh when The Doctor said she had just had a couple of rough days, weeks “Yeah, something like that.” Oracle shook her head rolling her eyes a little at herself before looking at The Doctor. “I don’t know, you seem pretty good at it to me.” She smirked a little

“ You respect this one, how cute.” Oracle closed her eyes for a second, and flexed her jaw, she had to go back to Cario, she knew that. Reaching over Oracle hesitated for a second before gently placing her hand on The Doctors forearm, “You’re worrying, stop it.”

[Thirteenth Doctor]

"Ah, you're too kind." The Doctor stated. "I really don' know about that, But I'll take it."

She gave a small smile at her.

"Your lookin' better." she commented. "The nanos did a great job patching you up. Made sure there was some food brough' for ya."

She grabbed the food and brought it over setting it down on a stand nearby.

"So, we're heading back to Cairo. Well more like we're there. We're planning on finding out exactly what happened and what we can do to fix things. I still don't completely understand wha' happened to you, but I'm going to get answers. It's against my better judgement to even consider you tag along, but I may need your help in this one. Only because the fact you are ground zero to what may have happened."

[Oracle]

“Heh, yeah, you ain’t kidding,” Oracle said in response to the Nanos doing a great job patching her up, she wasn’t hungry. But she figured if she did eat something, it’d make smoothing over getting back to Cairo easier.

Then it was like the universe gave Oracle an out when The Doctor said that they were already in Cairo. She went to sit up while listening to The Doctor say that it was against her better judgment to let Oracle go with them. “Yeah, remember what happened last time you tried to do that?” she said with a light laugh.

Oracle knew that she was probably about to have a lecture from The Doctor, but she had to move. Slowly she started to move to sit on the side of the med bed, “I’m a light bulb that’s currently burning out its socket trying to pull power to stay lit, I have to move.”

Gods she was sore she finally managed to find her balance to sit up on the side of the Med Bed she wasn’t sure how to word it “..You know those times when you wake up and there for a couple of minutes you have no idea where you are, and you sorta freak out for a second?” she paused again, why couldn’t she find the words Oracle was not enjoying being in full control of herself. “The fact that didn’t just happen.” she laughed a little at herself cause she didn’t have the words for it mostly cause it had never happened to her before.

Her head felt like it was about to explode as the voices flooded her head

“Seshet, lady of names and numbers,
mistress of records, keeper of time,
I praise and honor you.”

Closing her eyes, Oracle tightened her grip a little on the medbed “Doctor, I’m gonna be really vulnerable with you here for like two seconds.”

[Thirteenth Doctor]

"Yeah I remember." she chuckled a little herself. But then she let herself go back into a more serious mode. "I'd noticed somethin' when tendin' to you earlier on. It seems there's somethin' else there, inside of you goin' on. I'm not entirely certain as to what, hence coming back to Cairo to get answers, but yeah."

She gave a worried look when Oracle closed her eyes as the girl sat there. It obviously was still bothering her whatever it was, and it wasn't something the nano's thought about fixing either. Granted their main job had been programmed to fix the one ordeal, but still.

"Everythin' alrigh'?" she coaxed trying to analyze the situation better. She really wished she knew what the thing was that seemed to be parasitizing off of Oracle. "Talk to me. Please."