In Memory of.....

The others, not being close enough (except the elves) to hear that, only wonder what the problem here is with what Sigin is holding.

Gilmuriel

Strange what can "pop up" in one's mind when certain subject matters are mentioned.

Indeed, when Walker mentioned children I naturally thought of a worry I had about what the result would be when certain kinds of offspring reach majority (age eighteen) and are offered the chance to become Champions. I am not talking of the children who were.....

.....

Okay, let me put it this way. The interesting children I'm talking about here were conceived while the parents were in the throws of lycanthopic induced animal instinct. Some of whom, I might add, were not with partners who are now married to the other. Some weren't even.....

Okay, let me put it this way. There are those like Loam and almost all of the Synizns who, during the sway of the full moon back when they'd been were-creatures, had managed to produce offspring with various partners also suffering under similar conditions as they. Neither Loam nor those Synizns can tell exactly how many offspring they produced that way. What will those offspring think when a Rule or Agent pops in on them with the Champion question and somehow they ask about who actually was their father? Well, being how rather uncooperative and antisocial were-bears tend to be I shan't think that we shall see unexpected visitors from that corner (i.e. do not believe any of the children of the Synizn's will be showing up on Terra Prime), with one exception (more later on that). No, the worry of embarrassing reminders will probably be from Loam's past.

Then there was that one forced fling that Fred 4, Synizn, and Astra 4 had with those.....foxes. See, a wrathful dragoness by the name of Moreau had captured them all for having killed her brother in all but blood, a dragon named Minestus, and used the Crystallic (a powerful Atlantian artifact) transformed them into horny demifox in the pressence of mundane foxes. The result was a clutch of children (demifox children) which hadn't been wanted....let us just say....

.....

God, and I thought that my life had been complicated at times....

Well, the short of it here is that even after that particular Fred's group got sorted out and all that, there still were those children. Fred 4 and Astra 4, being understandably human, just couldn't stand the thought of having to raise children from a joining such as that.... Well, that problem was solved by having those children being adopted by eager couples within the Manimal nation. The children, still demifoxes, were transformed (as they slept) by Crystallic into the same specie of manimal as the adopting couple. Fred the Manfox kept tabs on how those children were coming along, and those children do know that they were adopted. However, they don't know who their birth parents are....and probably won't know until perhaps their 18th birthday. Oh, I am pretty sure that the Rules and Agents have enough tact, but then again if those children have enough on the ball they'll figure things out on who conceived them and all. After all, though there are many more Champions about on Terra Prime than there had been....the list of possible parents is somewhat narrowed by the virtue of arrival times upon Terra Prime and conception times....let us just say.

Makes me and Astra (who I've raised this topic with late at night when the others are sleeping) glad we were just changed into elves. Being an elf is delightful and I'm not complaining. Just that it shows you how bad it could have been if that vengeful mage had real mean streak....

Then, when Sigin just mentioned the word "Faerie" brings to mind all those former Freds (and one Astra) who'd had a run in with a powerful mage named the Oracle. The Oracle (now dead) had transformed those victims into the opposite gender as some kind of silly game to see them flop and twitch as they tried to cope (for the most part...one was done as a way to put them out of an inheritance). With the ones who now call themselves Triakoth D'Honaire, that one had managed to render himself male again (away from the beautiful, air headed bimbo he'd been changed into) but in the process transforming himself (permanently as it turned out) into a male pixie. The others (Ia'adoire, Lueoth, and Ama'lis) had become members of the Fair Folke in addition to the changes in gender.

Astronomically small, you'd thinkg, that chance that this little pendant that Sigin's holding is somehow related.....but.....

There is just something about that pendant that seems.....familiar....

Ignoring questions, the dragon mage known as Sigin mutters sort of identifying spells and apparently isn't too happy with the results....or lack of results.

"Get the Light Elves and the pixies over to the to the Voyager's clinic," Sigin finally says just before changing into his dragon form, "We're going to need to tap their abilities here..."

In the Voyager....

"So, are we going to talk only about gossip or are you going to actually tell me what is on your mind?" the furry Doctor of the Voyager asks his human seeming analog counterpart.

True, hearing about how surprised Dr. What was upon learning that Trilling Blackfeather, after returning with him on a short jaunt to help one of the kidnap victims of the Red Pyramid, had been impressed enough by the Timelord's brave actions to officially adopt him as a son. As of yet the other Doctors (the Timelord kind) hadn't heard of that yet.....that or had not realized that by extension that Trilling had officially adopted them all. That would be interesting to see. That and it made for an interesting family tree.....

Then there was the gossip that had tongues wagging about what had happened in here with Jenny Elf. She and her Xanthian sisters had been on a tour and somebody had brought up the issue about how Champions now become Champions. As it stood now, only the children of Champions (upon their 18th birthday) were given the chance of becoming Champions. Presumably that meant that if a Champion took a mortal for a partner (as it were), then the Champion would have to watch the partner age and die, eventually. Jenny Elf, being of a different mindset than most, had asked a simple question that had turned everything on it's ear. She had asked a question and had reasoned out something that nobody had quiet thought of before. The spinoff of it said that it was found out that the mortal lovers of Champions could indeed be flown back into time to the date before new Champions could only be from the parents of a Champion to become a Champion.....but the would be Champion had to take a test of sorts. If the love was true and the partner was willing to spend the rest of his (or her) days with their Champion partner, then they would become a Champion as well. If not and they enter into this test, they fail the test and their life snuffed out!

That little caveat would put a damper on anyone trying to fool others into immortality, trust me.

"Remeber back awhile ago when the Captain saved Kes' life?" the human seeming Doctor asked, "How she went through all those mystical seeming rituals and finally came upon one that not only protected her from that energy that was killing Kes but also saved Kes' life?"

"Yes, I do," the furry Doctor says, not quiet seeing the point, "I remember how fascinated I had been on actually finding the scientific underworkings of that supposed miracle. Couldn't wait to share it with her, knowing that she'd....."

"I know," the human seeming Doctor interrupts, a touch impatient, "I was that way myself when it happened with me, you know. But remember that look in the Captain (both of them) when we did that?"

The furry Doctor (a basset hound morph) nods, remembering the unexpectedly disappointed look his Janeway had. The human seeming Doctor had said the same had happened with him.

"I think I now understand it," the human seeming Doctor says softly, remembering his encounter with the otherworldly entities called Rules and Agents. That and other things that had happened since then had lead the human seeming Doctor to have something of a religious experience that he was having trouble coming to grips with. He was going to try to share and sort it out with the entity most like himself, hopefully.

He seems to draw a breath to try to explain that when several dragon's who are Champions (along with others Sigin had summoned) come rushing in with a strange request indeed.

The rest of Doctor Who's group had been shooed away, telling them that this would take a LONG time and that Sigin would give them a recap when they got some substantial results.

Right now there wasn't much to tell. Too many questions and not enough answers, you see, to give anything substantial for wondering minds.

That and there was the problem that while the others would be helpful in other situations, the dragon mages and the mages needed no distractions in this investigation. Not wanting to make this more difficult than it needs to be, the Doctor (the Timelord one) and his Companions stay back out of the way. Some twiddle their thumbs, more or less. Some (like the Doctor and Inquirer), want to get finish some unfinished business.

.....

They haven't had their wedding night, folks....

Anyway, the dragon mages wanted to run a full bioscan...on a silver pendant! The reasons given why would have sounded ludicrous on any other day, but...

What Sigin's magic spells failed to tell the Voyager's medical scanners (along with inputs from the pixies and Light Elves) reveal an entity frozen within the silver exterior of the pendant! Within the pendant is what appears to be a living presence, frozen magically in time. The Light Elves put in that while they aren't sure, it appears that this entity was also some kind of victim of the Oracle. Spell traces seem to confirm that, they say.

What to do about this?

Well, before anything else, they first have to be able to free the entity (some have a sneaking suspicion that the entity calls, or called, "Fred") had to be freed from the magical pendant prison!

Once free, then maybe something could be done in helping the transformee! That's the problem, you see. The spell of the pendant is going to be a REAL problem here! After a long bull session between the Faire Folk Champions and the Dragon Champions (Sigin included), it was finally (somehow) decided that some radical means where needed in "cracking" the spell. They agreed on just what was needed, those dragons and Fair Folke, but none knew just how they could deliver the power needed to break the spell. The one magical item which could have easily have done it was now gone (re: 18183). Several dragons, looking at various magical diagrams and such, are about ready to tear their hair out by the roots when Diana Walker, seeing the diagrams, tells them what will do it.

She explains that she saw those kind of parameters the dragons needed had been shown in a Doctor Who episode that had been a tribute to an earlier Doctor Who episode that Betty and Ragan were well familiar with. It was ironic indeed, considering just who had been rescued recently here.

"We need the Hand of Omega?" Betty asks nobody in particular.

So, while there is no particular deadline here (the stasis spell on the pendant is that good), those of Doctor Who's group are soon leaving back towards Dr. Which's Earth. No hurry, but there was going to be a rather ugly trial for this one chap named William Walker who'd been captured by a Gunslinger named Roland....seems that William had been planning some kind of armed uprising against the government of Nantucket....and it didn't look too good for William Walker right now... It looked like he was going to hang...and the others didn't want to be around when the trial was going on (and the expected sentence was handed out)....

....

Well, anyway, while discussing it with the other Doctors (Timelord ones) it is decided that Dr. What's particular reality, they feel, has the best chance of being able to intercept the Hand before some Daleks are fated to get their manipulators on it....

It falls to Ragan to tell, when the others asks, about a certain Doctor Who episode covering this.

She was going to do just that after the Doctor (curious himself) locks the TARDIS before setting off when an odd thing happens.

Ten years ago their group ran into another Doctor and his TARDIS back in the Robot universe. Grand adventure that had been, but now it seems that something like a repeat is in the works here.

A familiar grinding sound warns them of the approach. Another blue police box appears from nowhere and out pops two people!

Inquirer and the others had met Ace of Dr. Who's universe in a friendly meeting one a small jaunt that hadn't lead to anything. The female Golem and Ace had a common interest in explosives, even, so hit it well off after Ace knocked off after her rather dull day job as a store clerk register operator. This one had that a "boom box" similar to that other Ace, anyway...

At least the elves are in their human seeming, she thinks to herself, Way they're staring at us would make you think otherwise, though!

Inquirer wasn't sure, but she had a feeling that the staring older gentleman with the eccentric mode of dress and a question mark handled umbrella was.....

1. "The Doctor I presume?" she asks, tilting her head.
2. "The Doctor I presume?" she asks, tilting her head. (alternate version)

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