PATTERNS

by ardavenport

~~O~~O~~ Part 6

Inside the TARDIS Steel lay where he'd been thrown by Alice/the Mandragora. He lay still on his side with his eyes closed. Frost was beginning to form on the floor and wall next to him.

Sarah groaned and rolled over, catching her breath after hitting the ledge of the console in the stomach. She coughed and felt nauseous, but no longer controlled by unseen forces and alive. She rose to her feet and stared hopelessly at the horror outside the TARDIS. Winds and colors swept about crazily, but the phantoms on the floor paid it no heed. The ends of the Doctors scarf, his hair and his coat fluttered wildly. Sapphire's dress whipped tightly about her legs and her hair was as well at the mercy of the changing winds. They kept their place, in the center of the floor. Hieronymous had apparently faded into the ghostly crowd around them.

Steel's eyes opened. He could see what was going on on the view screen. Everything seemed to be in place. The Mandragora's damned victims, the Time Lord and Sapphire, all ready for the final blow. A tearful Sarah Jane Smith watched through the open door. The skylight above the mosaic shattered, showering the room and its occupants with bits of broken glass.

Stiffly, he rose to his feet. Sarah heard him and turned. Stony faced, he ignored her and headed for the door.

She reached for him. "Wait, it's no . . . . "

"Don't touch me." he told her.

He looked deadly. She didn't even ask him what he was up to; it was obvious he wasn't going to tell her. He marched out the TARDIS door into the maelstrom. Mechanically he stepped onto the cracked floor, the gale having little effect on him.

The Doctor cried out. The winds now had a direction. They swept downward, down from the broken skylight and with them came harsh orange light, bits of the Mandragora's full energy seeping in from the astral gap. It assaulted the two in the center of the room, forcing them to their knees. The Doctor stared up at a growing orange glow from above. The air became warm around him. He would be directly in the path of the Helix energy when it burst though to that dimension.

Steel reached the center of the floor. The winds from above rushed down on him, but unlike the Doctor and Sapphire he was undisturbed by it. Hardly a hair on his head was touched. He extended his hands straight in front of him, turned at the waist and grabbed the Doctor's shoulders.

The winds shrieked. The light around the Doctor changed to blue-white, his expression one of profound surprise as he let go of Sapphire when Steel pushed him away. The air made a sound like glass scraping on glass where it struck the floor around him. Bits of tile flew outward.

Orange lightning flew from the glow above them and into the blue-white light. It melted into it and more orange light began pouring from above as if sucked in by an opposite. The air howled. The wind reversed itself, circled the room and back up through the hole in the skylight. The orange light slowed to a stop and also reversed itself. It struggled upward in fiery bits as if it fought an irresistible pull. The sound increased in volume. Then the light snapped away and up back through the skylight and was gone.

Sarah gasped. She ran forward, closer to the open door. The only sounds were the ones she herself made. She stepped outside.

The room was a disaster, littered with bits of broken tile and glass. All the light fixtures had been broken and the windows as well. But Sarah could see the sky, faintly brightened by dawn. She couldn't understand how it could be morning so soon; it seemed to be just a few hours into the night.

She went to the center of the room. "Doctor?" She put a hand on his shoulder; it was ice cold and she pulled her hand back. Her palm tingled and burned where she'd touched him. The Doctor didn't move. His coat was frosted with ice and even his curls were stiff from the cold.

/Don't touch him./

Sarah jumped back when Sapphire 'spoke'. She lay where she had fallen, her eyes staring up at nothing.

"He - he's frozen. what did he do?" she pointed at Steel.

/He stopped the Mandragora. We have to warm them up now. Go and get blankets and a heater; there's one in one of the upstairs bedrooms./

"But what about the Doctor? He's frozen!"

/He's alive, marginally. If you want to help him; do as I said,/ she added crossly.

Still worried, Sarah stood and left.

An hour later Sapphire was able to move and, wrapped in a blanket, she loosed Steel's grasp on the Doctor. She helped Sarah to lower the Doctor, still stiff, to lie on the floor. Sarah put a pillow under his head. Sapphire alone was able to coax Steel to a sitting position. The elemental's hands were at his sides but his fingers were still frozen like claws.

Sarah wiped moisture from the Doctor's face. At first she thought he was sweating and that the electric blanket she put over his shoulders was too warm. But it was only water condensing from the air. He still stared straight ahead, his eyes wide with surprise, the water condensing around them made it look as if he were crying.

"How did he do that?" Sarah asked. "What did he do? "How did he stop the Mandragora?"

"Steel can lower his body temperature to absolute zero. He disrupted the Mandragora's pattern for entering this dimension when he touched the Doctor."

"Absolute zero? That's impossible."

Sapphire didn't respond to the human's disbelief. "It's what he does," she answered.

"And the Mandragora's been stopped? It won't come back?"

"It can't. it's entrance into this world was perfectly timed. All of the astral elements had to be exactly in place for it. It had to withdraw completely to avoid utter disaster."

/It's all gone,/ Sapphire thought to Steel.

/The - the Man-d-dragora?/

/Yes./

/W-we s-s-still have t-to d-deal with th-the T-Time Lord./

Sapphire glanced in his direction and then back to her partner. /He can wait./

"I don't know if he's getting any better," Sarah said uncertainly after another hour. She was very worried about his slow recovery. His body was still very cold to the touch and she could barely find a pulse. And the Doctor had become terribly thin from his two year ordeal. She wondered if that were hurting his chances of recovery.

"He is," Sapphire answered. She looked back at where Steel was sitting. He was as stiff as ever and his eyes were closed. "Do you think he might recover faster in his TARDIS?"

Sarah looked from her to the police box.

"I don't know, I suppose so."

"Perhaps we could find something to carry him with."

"There's bound to be something in the TARDIS. You wouldn't believe the junk he's got in there." Sarah carefully removed the key chain from around the Doctor's neck, went to the TARDIS and opened the door. But when they entered Sapphire hesitated.

"Are you alright?"

"Yes," she smiled faintly. "But, could we leave the door open?"

"I don't see why not." Actually Sarah knew perfectly well that the Doctor hated having the TARDIS door left open. One never knew what might slip in, like a Mandragora. But since she needed Sapphire's help and the two elementals had apparently saved the day Sarah led her past the console room to some storage cupboards. They went through fishing gear, cricket gear, boxing gear, a first aid kit, a gorilla outfit, folding chairs, inflatable pool toys and more. Sapphire was glad that Steel wasn't with her. He would have fits if he saw how many things the Doctor liked to keep around. Finally they came across a folding stretcher and took it outside with them.

/- - phire?/

/Steel?/

Sapphire was appalled. Apparently Steel had been calling her and even with the door open the TARDIS had completely cut him off.

/W-what are you d-doing?/

/We're getting rid of the Time Lord./

"You take his feet. I'll take the head," she told Sarah who unplugged and discarded the electric blanket. Then they both partially dragged, partially lifted him onto the stretcher covered him with the other blankets and took the poles at both ends.

/H-how, Sapphire?/

/Once he is inside this device he will be outside Time. He'll be gone./

/H-he won't b-be gone. H-he can still c-come back./

/What do you want, Steel? Retribution?/

He paused when he heard this rebuke form his partner. The two women lifted the stretcher and went inside the TARDIS again, bumping it on the door frame as they went.

The two women put the stretcher down in the center of the console room. While Sarah knelt by the Doctor, Sapphire stood back.

/He will recover./ She 'spoke' to Sarah without speaking. She wanted her instructions to make the greatest possible impression on the human. /When he does. He must take this device away from here, out of our sphere of influence./

"Why"

/Steel will be waiting for him outside if he chooses not to leave this place./ She didn't smile, didn't explain the threat at all. She turned and vanished, escaping back outside to her own time. After a moment, Sarah stood and closed the door behind her.

Hours later the Doctor stirred. With Sarah's help he rose and shed the encumbering blankets. He almost tripped on the various devices that Sarah had found in the TARDIS to warm him up. Heaters, hot water bottles and more blankets.

He shook his head and refrained from mentioning that he had been dreaming about desserts and flame throwers and bunsen burners. When Sarah told him about Sapphire's warning he looked at the viewer. The two elementals were waiting. Picture perfect, Steel with his arms impatiently folded across his chest; Sapphire sitting quietly in a folding chair that she must have gotten from another part of the house.

"Well, I think they'll understand if we don't stop to say good-bye." He went to the controls and began fiddling with the coordinates.

"Doctor." Sarah approached slowly. "Who was that woman, the one in the flowered dress and sweater?"

The Doctor froze and Sarah knew she had hit a sensitive area. But she had been wondering about this mystery woman ever since she burst into the console room when the Mandragora made its last attack.

"She was at the party before all of this happened. She knew you, didn't she?"

"Yes," He didn't look up at Sarah when he answered. He'd had two years in purgatory to think about the loss of Alice, but now that the incident was truly over he felt like he needed e little more solitude. To think, maybe recover a bit and perhaps not go anywhere for a little while.

"She didn't make it when the Mandragora attacked you when you first came here." Sarah saw the Doctor's shoulders tense when she said this. "Who was she?"

"Her name was Alice." He still didn't look at her when he spoke. Sarah remembered how the Doctor and Alice had apologized to each other for her death. She recalled the many times she thought the Doctor had gotten killed in some misadventure. But she never seriously thought about how he would feel if she were the one to die. She didn't want him to find out.

"I'd like to go home now."

He almost sighed and quickly set the coordinates. "South Crydon?" he asked.

"This time, I hope. The last time you were thirty kilometers off. I had to walk home," she scolded.

"Was I?" he looked up at her with real surprise.

"You were. I'm not wearing walking shoes, this time." She pointed down at her maroon pair of shoes. They matched her outfit, but also had two inch heels. "So, I'm not getting out until we're on my front doorstep."

He grinned and Sarah thought he looked almost normal. "Won't the neighbors object?"

"I'll just tell them you're from out of town." She returned his smile. He manipulated the controls and the time rotor on the console began to move.

Outside, the two elementals waited. No one had disturbed the house that day. When humans eventually investigated the whereabouts of the house's inhabitants they would only find mysteries and no answers about what had happened there.

When the TARDIS noisily dematerialized Sapphire stood.

"Shall we go?" she offered.

Steel, even after a day to think about his partner's solution to the Time Lord problem still locked unhappy.

"He can still return."

"I know." She scrutinized him carefully. "Would you have really killed him to stop the Mandragora?"

"Yes," he answered without hesitation. "If I could."

They turned together and silently vanished from the room.

~~O~~O~~ END ~~O~~O~~

Note: This story was written by me and first appeared under the name 'Anne Davenport' in the print fanzine 'Traveling Companion' #4 in 1989.

Disclaimer: All Who and 'Sapphire and Steele' characters and their universes belong to the BBC and/or ATV and/or whoever; I m just playing in their sandbox.