Lost In Time: A Doctor Who Fanfiction

Chapter 8 - 42, Part 2

Warning: Thar be cliches ahead     

Lyssa shoved Abi ahead of her, pushing the older woman out into the hallway and wincing at the blazing heat at her back. She ran with no real destination in mind other than getting away from the med-center, constantly looking over her shoulder and terrified that she might see Korwin coming after them at any moment. 

"Oof!" she grunted as she smacked into a hard chest, bringing her run to an abrupt halt. 

"Lyssa!" the Doctor exclaimed, pushing her back with his hands on her shoulders. He stared at her for a moment before placing his hands on her cheeks and pulling her in for a quick kiss, resting his forehead against hers after. "Don't ever scare me like that again," he told her, before returning to business and heading back down the hallway to the med-center at a fast pace, followed by a bemused McDonnell.

"Okay," Lyssa agreed breathlessly, voice faint and high-pitched, staring after him. She turned to Abi, eyes wide and cheeks burning. "Did that just happen?"

 Abi laughed shakily, sounding slightly hysterical herself. "Pretty sure we all saw that happen, you just didn't see it coming." She sighed, casting a nervous glance down the corridor. "We should probably go after them. Who knows what trouble they're about to get into."

"Korwin should be gone by now," Lyssa tried to assure her, though she felt much the same. "I mean, we would have heard something otherwise, right?"

Abi raised an eyebrow. "Sure. How about you go first, then, if you're so confident?" 

Lyssa laughed sheepishly and nodded. "Yeah, okay. That's fair." Retracing their steps, they returned to the med-center, glancing about for any signs of Korwin as they went. Stepping through the plastic curtains, Lyssa's gaze was immediately drawn to the Doctor and she flushed once more.

His gaze flickered to her for a second, just long enough to acknowledge her presence, then returned to the far wall where Abi had almost died. McDonnell and Scannell, who must have joined somewhere along the way, were also staring at the wall, faces tense and wary.

Lyssa followed their gaze, and grimaced. Long char marks stained the wall and floor, and reports and tools lay scattered across the floor as if Korwin had thrown them there in a rage. And even more ominous, on the wall where the outline of Abi's figure should have been as she died, were words burned into the metal, still glowing red-hot and sizzling.

BURN WITH ME.

"How is that possible?" Scannell demanded in disbelief, still staring at the wall. "The walls are designed to withstand both high heat and pressure for sterilization. We don't have anything up here capable of producing the heat required for that. Is that... was someone going to use that on Lerner and your friend?" 

The Doctor ran his fingers around the edge of the words, careful to avoid touching the red-hot letters. "Endothermic vaporization. I've never seen one this ferocious." He paused, looking distant. "Burn with me," he repeated thoughtfully. 

"That's what we heard Korwin say," Scannell frowned, looking troubled. 

"What? D'you think... no way! Scannell, tell him! Korwin is not a killer! He can't vaporize people! He's human!" McDonnell protested.

"Maybe he was," Abi muttered, crossing her arms. "Don't think any human can do what he tried to do to us."

"I mean, technically it wasn't Korwin," Lyssa mused absently, a bit louder than she'd meant to. Everyone turned to her and she cringed, silently cursing her lack of filter.

 "What do you mean, it wasn't him?" Abi frowned. "I ran the tests myself. It was Korwin. I don't know how he did what he did, but it was definitely him." Her hollow gaze turned back to the words burned into the wall, right where she had been standing just a few minutes earlier.