The Return of the Time Lady- Sequel to the Seer

Chapter Two: The Identity Of My Kidnapper

Chapter Two: The Identity of My Kidnapper

When I regained consciousness, a man's hand was stroking my cheek. 'That feels nice.' I thought. Then, I realized that the only man who would be stroking me was my stalker. My eyes jolted open, and sure enough, the black hooded man was above me, stroking my cheek.

I shrieked and shoved his hand away. The man pouted, and said, "You never used to have a problem with it."

What was he talking about? "Listen, I have no idea who you are. Just leave me alone, let me go home!"

The kidnapper looked confused. "You don't recognize me?" He pulled down his hood, revealing a man with close-cropped blonde hair and eyes that seemed to pierce my soul. I'd never seen him before in my life.

I didn't answer him in words, only shook my head. The man's face twisted, and for a second he was completely overcome with insanity- and then I did something I did not understand. I reached out my hand and just barely touched his chin. The man's face relaxed, and he looked at me with infinite sadness.

"You really don't remember me?" He whispered sadly. I felt terrible for this poor insane man. He obviously had gone insane long ago, possibly after his wife disappeared. I probably looked something like her, and he thought that I was her.

I shook my head. "I'm sorry, but I don't. We can at least start over, no hard feelings over the kidnapping and all. What's your name?"

"Koschei." He replied, staring very hard at my eyes.

A flicker of a memory stirred in my brain.

A young man, tall and handsome, grinning at me. "My name's Koschei. What's yours, my beautiful lady?"

I replied. "Trellya Sigma."

He crinkled his nose. "Theta's sister? I thought you were alright!"

I laughed at him. "I've heard of you. My brother doesn't like you very much."

And the memory was gone. I said my name was Trellya Sigma, but my last name isn't Sigma, it's Smith! And the man in my memory, Koschei, he called himself. He called me 'Theta's sister.'

What was it the crazy bowtie man called himself? Theta. Was this memory trying to tell me that I had known both of these men before, bowtie man being my brother and Koshei someone he knew?

The man noticed my face. "You remembered something. What did you remember?"

Somehow, I knew I could trust this man completely, crazy as he was. I recounted what I had seen, and he looked a little disappointed. "That's it? The first time we met? You don't remember..." He trailed off.

"Remember what?"

Koschei hesitated and then decided to say what he'd been fighting against admitting for a while now. "You don't remember our marriage."

I didn't say anything. I just stared. This man was obviously completely bonkers, there was no way I was married to him! I would remember him, surely! And yet...

There was something ever so slightly familiar, like the face of a childhood friend seen years later, their face completely different. The same person you always knew, but a complete stranger at the same time.

I opened my mouth to say something but he steamrollered on, things that I didn't remember pouring out of his mouth. "You don't remember our honeymoon, you don't remember our children. You don't remember how you left me alone with the drums, left to go insane. You don't remember that you loved me, with all your hearts."

In this rant, the thing that stood out most was the one about me leaving him. I had a feeling that I'd had no choice to leave, but I didn't remember the details.

Then I realized that I believed everything Koschei told me. Everything he said, while completely new, felt- there was no other word for it- right. When he stopped talking, he realized that I wasn't protesting against his claims.

"Do you remember anything else?" He asked, hope mingled with fear in his eyes.

"I-" I struggled at how to phrase the feeling. "No, but everything you say... It feels so right. Like I've always known, but it's completely new at the same time."

Koschei frowned a little, but he looked relieved that I at least believed him. Then a dark look passed over his face. "Do you remember Theta?"

I scraped my mind, but the only things that surfaced were the memories of young Koschei mentioning I was Theta's sister and the bowtie man shouting that that was his name. And, taking a deep breath, I told him so.

To my surprise, Koschei looked satisfied, almost pleased. "Well at least the one who took you away from me means nothing to you as well."

I blinked. That wasn't true, I thought. "No... He had nothing to do with it. I-" I scraped t brain, searching or the memory. It flared on a tiny scrap of a memory of me staring down at a piece of paper, tears on my cheeks, staring at the word banished. "I think I was banished..."

Koschei frowned. "Banished?! But- only criminals, really bad ones, were banished! You never did a thing wrong in your life! How could Rassilon-" he stopped, and looked around as though he had heard something. Vaguely I heard a grating, wheezing noise, and a tiny part of my mind thought, 'He's left the brakes on again.' But who was 'he?'

I pushed that nonsense thought out of my mind and blinked. Rassilon. The name was so foreign, but so familiar. I had another flash of the banishment letter, the name Rassilon signed in Gallifreyan, like the rest. Who was he? I had a feeling that I used to know him very well.

Before I could voice this thought, Koschei kept to his feet, staring at the door. "They're coming." He said. My blood ran cold. Who was they?

The door rattled, and I heard a woman's Scottish voice say "Doctor, it's locked!"

Then there was a strange buzzing noise, and the lock clicked open. Three people were standing in the doorway, an I was struck instantly by their familiarity. I'd seen them before, in my dreams.

The red haired woman with the Scottish accent, very beautiful, was standing very close to the sandy haired man. Theta, the bowtie man, was standing in front of them, looking in complete and utter disbelief at Koschei and I. Soon, Scottish and Sandy followed suit, until the three strangers (or rather, dreams come to life) were staring at me.

Finally, the woman whispered something like, "Are you sure she doesn't remember us?"

Theta replied with a crisp, "Yes, I'm sure. Well, 95.679% sure, but rounded up that's about 100."

I stared back at the two people. "I've seen you two before, in my dreams. But you don't really exist! How can you be here?"

The man and woman hesitated. Finally, the sandy haired man stepped forward. "I'm Rory, and this is my wife Amy. You used to know us, but I guess..." He swallowed.

Theta cleared his throat. "So, Master. You've survived death yet again. Who resurrected you this time?"

Koschei glared at him. "The same one that did her. Apparently he did a better job on me. Now why are you here? I was trying to help Trellya remember me. Just like she doesn't remember you, Doctor."

"Doctor?" I said absently. "Doctor who?"

He looked like I had slapped him in the face. "Do you remember I'm your brother, Trell?" He whispered.

The nickname stirred something in me, and I remembered sobbing on a bed, shaking in terror after seeing- something. I remembered a boy, my older brother, clutching me and muttering over and over in my ear, "It'll be ok, Trell. I'm here for you. Your Theta's here."

"You used to comfort me, when I had my-" I stopped, confused. I didn't know the word. I pushed past it an continued. "You always told me that things would be alright."

The Doctor- Theta- whatever- grinned and hugged me. "You remember something! Progress! Progress is good!!" He let go, beaming. "We should take you to important places, to help jog those memories. The TARDISs, our adventure locations, your-" he stopped, his face turning a pasty color. His wide grin faded. "Well, maybe not there."

I was going to ask him what he meant, but the next thing I knew I was being pulled down hallways with Amy and Rory and the Doctor and Koschei, trying to remember why I ever even wanted to know these people.