Tristan Parkes: Day of the Dementors

Matt was practically howling in fear and anger at the terrifying interrogation he was getting from a very angry Ashlee and an irritated Tristan.

"How the hell should I know!?" wailed Matt.

"Come on, Matt. Surely you must know someone," said Tristan, impatiently.

"Matt, you are really trying my patience..." trailed off Ashlee.

"The only person I could think of would be Corrine, but I haven't seen her in years!" replied Matt.

"Full name please, Matt," said Tristan.

"Uh, Stepman? Stellar? Slec-something? Man, I dunno. It was ages ago!"

"Matt..." began Ashlee with a menacing look.

"Slecmann?" asked Tristan, as that was the only surname he could think of that began with 'Slec'.

Matt looked at Tristan in surprise. "How do you know?" he asked, then smirked. "On second thoughts, she does get around..."

"Which is why you dated her, obviously," retorted Ashlee, her voice loaded with disgust.

"My great-grandfather is currently going to school with a Martin Slecmann. They don't get along at all," said Tristan.

"Well, if that Martin kid is anything like Corrine, he better watch his back. That woman is a bitch," replied Matt.

"Well, in April of 2005, my great-grandfather was given a very nasty curse by Martin at school. Martin got into a lot of trouble for it with the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher," elaborated Tristan.

Matt appeared baffled and asked, "Huh?"

"Trist, don't waste your breath. Matt, do you have any idea where she might be?" asked Ashlee, who seemed to have calmed down significantly by now.

"I was just about to ask him that, Ashlee," added Tristan.

"How the hell should I know? I haven't seen the woman in years!" replied Matt.

"You can't be that thick, Matt. Surely you'd know what she's likely to do," said Tristan. "I'd think that given what Martin Slecmann is like, she's probably somewhere dodgy, like the Australian version of Knockturn Alley."

"Knockturn Alley?" asked Ashlee, with an eyebrow raised.

"It's a hidden wizarding street in England that caters to those who pursue the Dark Arts. Lots of unsavoury characters around there, including Martin Slecmann, who runs a Dark Artefacts shop in my time. He has a reputation for having customers who have overdue debts assassinated," explained Tristan.

"Knockturn Alley?" asked Matt. "I've heard that name somewhere before."

"You've heard of a wizarding place?" asked Ashlee, a little sceptically.

"I've just heard the name. I don't know anything about it," replied Matt. Seeing the sceptical look on Tristan and Ashlee's faces, he blurted out: "Honest! All I've heard is the name, that's it!"

"Shall we go another round with the Veritaserum?" asked Tristan, nastily.

"NO thankyou!" replied Matt, with wide-open eyes.

Ashlee giggled. "Aww, you're sooo cute when you're frightened. Like a little rabbit."

Matt scowled at Ashlee for her mocking.

"Trist, I think he's telling the truth," said Ashlee.

"Finally!" exclaimed Matt. "You actually believe me when I'm telling the truth!"

"Get up, Matt," ordered Tristan. "We're going back to the TARDIS."

Matt got to his feet, brushed himself off and eyed Tristan and Ashlee suspiciously.

They prepared to leave, but suddenly Tristan felt that familiar prickling sensation on the back of his neck.

"Uh, oh. Do you feel what I'm feeling, Ashlee?" asked Tristan.

"Ah, man," grumbled Ashlee. "Don't those things ever take coffee breaks?"

"What's going on?" asked Matt, looking rather confused.

"Dementors feed on psychic energy. As long as their reserves last or they have a source of energy, they can keep going without the need for rest," explained Tristan to Ashlee, then, turning to Matt, he added, "Matt, we're about to be attacked by Dementors. Just keep out of our line of fire. I wouldn't want to accidentally microwave you instead of a Dementor."

Matt didn't question Tristan's advice for a second and ducked under a car.

"Smart thinking, Matt, for once," said Tristan.

Ashlee pulled out her microwave gun, and asked, "Ready, Trist?"

Tristan tapped in the code for a microwave gun and also for a couple of objects that looked like grenades. "Ready."

"Where are you? I can feel you but I can't see you," said Ashlee, scanning the area.

"Goggles, Ashlee," reminded Tristan.

Ashlee gave an embarrassed grin. "Right," she said, then put them on.

A group of ten Dementors was approaching from the south. Tristan took one of the grenade-like devices, pressed the button on top twice and hurled it into the middle of the group of Dementors. "Shield your eyes!" he shouted and covered his own eyes, as did Ashlee. After a brilliant flash, which could be seen even through his closed eyelids and hand, the Dementors in the group were all dead.

"Woah!" exclaimed Ashlee. "When do I get one of those?"

"Patronus Bomb. One of Auntie Kathryn's inventions," explained Tristan. "Here. You can have this one for next time we run into a large group of Dementors."

Ashlee tucked the Patronus Bomb away inside her pocket. "I was half expecting you to say 'When you grow up'."

"And quote 'Men In Black'? I don't think so. I don't think I need to wait for you to grow up anyway," replied Tristan. "Dementors at ten and two!" he suddenly shouted, and shot the Dementor at two o'clock.

Ashlee shot at the one at ten o'clock and hit it. "You okay back there, Matt?" she called over shoulder.

Matt just whimpered.

Ashlee rolled her eyes at Matt's behaviour. "Pathetic. Dementor at 5 and 8 o'clock!" Ashlee quickly fired on the Dementor at 5 o'clock and it went out with a flash of light and cloud of steam.

"I've got the one at eight!" shouted Tristan, as he fired at the other Dementor.

Suddenly Matt screamed. "Something's got my legs!" Matt was digging his fingers into the ground to stop himself being pulled out from under the car, but to no avail.

"Quick! Round the other side of the car!" shouted Tristan.

"We're coming, Matt!" called Ashlee, as she and Tristan ran as fast as they could round to the other side of the car. They arrived just in time to see a Dementor put its mouth over Matt's and suck out his soul.

"Oh, Shit!" cursed Tristan. "Die you black bastard!" he snarled and fired his Microwave gun at the Dementor, but it was too late for Matt.

Ashlee ran to his side. "Matt?" She peered into his eyes and looked back at Tristan, her eyes full of tears. "He's gone."

"This is no time to start crying, Ashlee! We've got more Dementors incoming from the east," replied Tristan desperately and started firing repeatedly at the approaching Dementors.

Ashlee angrily swiped at the tears in her eyes and started shooting at the Dementors with more fury than ever before.

"Patronus Bomb! Quick!" ordered Tristan.

Ashlee took the bomb out of her pocket, pressed the button twice, and shouted, "This is for Matt!" She then proceeded to fling the Patronus Bomb at the Dementors and ducked, pulling Tristan down with her.

The bomb exploded in a brilliant flash, killing twenty Dementors, but there were still more coming. "I think this situation calls for a bit of temporal magic," said Tristan, with a sly look on his face. Tristan took out his wand, pointed it at himself and said, "Fast time! Fast time!" He then pointed the wand at Ashlee and repeated the process. Everything seemed to have almost stopped, as they were now running ten thousand times faster than normal.

"What's happening?!" demanded Ashlee, obviously a bit freaked out by the fact that everything had almost stopped.

"A temporal spell invented by my great-grandfather in his seventh year at Hogwarts," explained Tristan. "It speeds up time for the target a hundred times and lasts for two hours subjective time. I put it on us twice, so we're running ten-thousand times faster than normal, and it will wear off in four hours."

"Well, let's kill the buggers while we have the chance!" exclaimed Ashlee and started shooting Dementors like mad.

"That's exactly the advantage I intended to give us by putting the spell on us," replied Tristan as he, too, started shooting Dementors. Tristan keyed in the code for another four Patronus Bombs, activated them with a timer, and went and placed them in the middle of a huge group of Dementors. "Heh, heh, heh. That group has had it now. That looks like all of them. Let's go back to the TARDIS."

They started walking back towards the TARDIS when Ashlee suddenly stopped. "Oh, God. He's dead," she said, fighting tears as the emotions of what had happened to Matt caught up with her.

"Worse than dead, actually," responded Tristan. "We should put him out of his misery." Tristan went and picked up the gun Matt had earlier, aimed at Matt's heart and fired. He then wiped the gun clean of fingerprints. The bullet could be seen slowly making its way to Matt's heart and entering. "That's it. He's dead. Let's get out of here."

Ashlee murmured a quiet prayer and tried to stop crying. "He didn't deserve this. No one deserves this."

"I'll agree with you on that," replied Tristan. "Let's get back in the TARDIS before the fast time spell wears off and we have to worry about being blinded by those four Patronus Bombs."

Ashlee nodded and walked back to the TARDIS, attempting to hide her tears.

Once back inside, Tristan pointed his wand at Ashlee and said, "Slow time. Slow time." He then repeated the procedure on himself and they heard four loud bangs from outside. "That's the end of that batch of Dementors," said Tristan.

Ashlee nodded and sat down in a chair at one of the consoles around the sides of the control room, resting her head in her hands.

"It's terrible when it's a complete stranger, and even worse when it's someone you know. I wouldn't wish the Dementor's Kiss on my worst enemy, if I had one," said Tristan, bitterly.

Ashlee looks at Tristan, tears still flowing. "Can't we go back? Save him? Is there anything we can do?"

"As I recall, you were ready to murder Matt earlier on this afternoon," pointed out Tristan. "Now you want to save him?"

Ashlee let out a cry. "I was angry! I never would have wished this on him. Never!" She buried her face in her hands and said, "I'm a terrible person. I practically killed him. It should be me out there." Looking at Tristan, Ashlee asked, "Is it always this bad?"

"Is what always this bad?" inquired Tristan, looking rather confused by Ashlee's question.

"Does it always hurt this much?" asked Ashlee, as more tears fell.

"I don't recall you getting injured in that fight, unless you're talking about psychological injury," said Tristan. "Maybe now you have a new memory I need to block?"

Ashlee let out a cry and shook her head. "No! Not again! Please!" she begged, grabbing Tristan's sleeve in desperation. "Not again."

"Okay," said Tristan, "but if your memory of Matt being Kissed turns out to be a problem, we'll have to go through the data gathering process again. At least I won't have to perform any more surgery on you to update the program in the chip."

Ashlee was shaking as she replied, "I couldn't re-live it. Not today. It's too soon."

"I understand. I don't think I could handle it either."

Ashlee sniffed. "Thanks for understanding." Smiling weakly, she added, "Well, you've seen me at my worst. All I've done in the past few days is lose my temper and cry. I can assure you it won't get worse."

"Your temper is certainly something to be frightened of," remarked Tristan. "After all, you did make Matt piss himself when I went off to get the Veritaserum."

Ashlee laughed then stopped. "I shouldn't laugh. It's disrespectful."

"Well, think of it this way: it can be a funny moment to bring up at the wake after his funeral," offered Tristan.

Ashlee shook her head. "I couldn't go. I feel too responsible. And everyone knew I didn't like him. But that doesn't make me feel any less guilty." Ashlee proceeded to wrap her arms around herself, as if she were cold.

"You cold?" asked Tristan, with a look of concern. "I'll replicate you some insulating material if you are," he offered. "Maybe you're not actually cold, but you just think you are?" added Tristan as an afterthought.

Ashlee merely sighed. "I dunno, really. I'm not sure what I feel. There's too much going through my head. Grief, anger and guilt aren't the most pleasant emotions in the world."

"The first and last of those three are just what the Dementors like. Maybe you need some rest?"

"Yeah, maybe. I think I'll head back to my place. A good movie, a block of chocolate and Ruffles is exactly what I need right now."

"Here. Take this teleporter," said Tristan. "I've programmed it with your place as the destination. You'll have to go outside the TARDIS to use it, though."

Ashlee took it and smiled. "Thankyou. You know, if you want to join us, you're more than welcome."

"I'll drop by later," replied Tristan. "Meanwhile, I'm going to hack into the Phonekey Network to see if I can find any likely destinations that Corrine might have gone to."

Ashlee nodded. "Let me know if you get any progress." She picked up a datapad from next to the console and wrote something on it. "Here's my mobile if you need it. I'll see you later." Ashlee gave Tristan a quick hug and headed for the door.

Tristan followed her out and watched her vanish in a cloud of blue sparks, then turned around and headed back inside the TARDIS.