The Defender of Time

Thirty-Five

Alessia held a hand to her head as an aching grew nearer to her temples and tried her best to listen as Mara bickered with Augustin. They were on a Cyberian station; she'd followed that far. She'd wished for a moment that there was a visual link among the constellations, but realized quickly that it was the least of her worries.

Mayzie looked at her worriedly, and she managed a smile. "I'm fine," she assured, reaching out to rest a hand on top of Mayzie's. "Why are we here?"

"Mara hasn't gotten that far." Octavius cleared his throat and glared at Alessia for a moment before turning back to the front of the room. "We're all dying to know."

"You know I don't do things without good reason!" Mara settled herself in a chair and picked absently at a cuticle. "When everybody's in here, then I'll explain."

Sephora scoffed. "Everyone is, Mara."

"Not the Doctors. They were invited too, you know."

Alessia looked sideways at Mayzie as Juniper snapped, "We don't need them here! We can handle ourselves just fine."

"You just think that he's gonna beat your ass for messing up Lea's ship, huh?"

"Feble! Language!"

Feble jutted his tongue out at Aprilla (who had been responsible for berating him) and smirked. "Whatever," he said cooly.

"Why the Truth Field, Mara?" Novice asked. "One of my best nurses just gave up a secret girlfriend. She could lose her post."

"Are you the head of the hospital?" Asked Decla eagerly. "Oh, congratulations, Novice!" She looked both ways like she was concealing a secret and leaned forward. "Have you read my autobiography yet? Everyone loves it so far. Right, Kaleb?"

The man sat beside her stuttered for a moment before nodding silently. Decla beamed. "I couldn't quite mention you all, but I promise I named characters after you! There's Juniper, the kind butcher who told me that a child can accomplish anything they dream of, Aprilla, my dance teacher..."

"Why are there characters in her autobiography?" Whispered Alessia. Mayzie and Juliette leaned in from either side. "An autobiography is non-fiction, right?"

Juliette sighed and nodded. "She wrote our story and published it as fiction. So I'm assuming she just made an autobiography up."

"...oh, and you can't forget Janus, the garbage man who I passed Juniper's wisdom onto, and--"

"Doctor! Perfect!" Mara stood up as Alessia's father walked into the room with Clara clinging to his hand; Mayzie's parents entered soon after. "We were expecting you."

Augustin sighed. "We weren't. Mara was, and we were just kidnapped along the way."

"It was a gathering, Augustin, not a kidnapping! You gave yourselves willingly to the Cybermen, did you not?"

Clara snorted from the front of the room. "There was nothing willing about that."

Mara furrowed her eyebrows and crossed her arms. "Not even after the Cybermen stated their mission?"

"There was no mission statement."

There was a Cyberman by the door, and Mara turned to him with her hands on her hips. There was a mechanical sort of clicking sound and her right eye was covered with a sort of blue film, which descended from the metal attachment on her cheek like a sort of monocle. "Did you not tell the visitors your mission?" Mara's voice was suddenly harsher, and it had a sort of echo to it.

"No." The Cyberman spoke briefly and remained quiet.

The film retracted back into the attachment and Mara sighed. "Alright, then. A bit of an uh-oh, but you're all here! And uninjured. Nobody's injured, right?"