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Nyssa's Christmas Carol Part the Second: The First Spirit A shimmering purple light appeared in the middle of Nyssa's bedroom, slowly resolving itself into a woman dressed all in lilac, with a pure white light shining from her head, and a cap, of the same colour as her clothing, in one hand. "G'day," she said, "I am the Ghost of Christmas Past and..." Nyssa sighed. "No you're not. You're Tegan. What are you doing, Tegan?" "No, I *look* like Tegan, but I'm the Ghost of Christmas Past, okay? Now, a touch of my hand and you will fly. The emergency exits are here, here and here, and we request passengers do not smoke." The spirit took Nyssa by the hand and led her out the window, down the street and through the upper window of the Look Who's Talking creche, where they sailed straight past Izzy, who was sorting through the children's letters to Santa Claus. She did not look up as the passed. "They can neither see nor hear us." the spirit explained. "Thank you for travelling Ghost of Christmas Past Airlines, we hope you enjoyed your trip." Nyssa looked around. In front of her baby Nyssa was unwraping her presents. "You aren't supposed to do that until Christmas morning!" protested baby Adric, before becoming aware that the present was a NERF(TM) ground-to-ground guided missile, with fully armed gunky-stuff warhead. "This is going to sting, isn't it?" the Alzarian child murmured to no-one in particular. He was proved to be absolutely correct in this particular. As Izzy came rushing through to see what the noise was, the adult Nyssa turned to the spirit that had lead her here. "And this all proves *what*, exactly? That... that Trakenite Tweeny isn't even really me!" "Yeah, I know. That was just a diversion. The real reason we're here is for *this*." The spirit led Nyssa to the Time-Space Visualiser the young Doctors had made out of Duplo some weeks earlier. "This," she explained, "will enable us to look at the Christmasses of your past." And Nyssa looked. She saw her childhood, helping her father hang up the Eternigreen branches for Keeper's Day. She saw the year the Doctor had taken her back to Cranleigh Hall, to experience "a real Edwardian country-house Christmas" (which had, naturally, turned out to include yet another real Edwardian country-house murder). She saw the seasonal surprise of Lo-Shon catching her (him?) under the mistletoe. She saw Richard Mace treating them all to a Yuletide boar's head and mead and the Doctor springing for dinner at the Crystal Bucephalus. Even the Christmas at the 'Round a couple of years ago. "Strange how enthusiastically the Doctor celebrates Christmas," observed the spirit. "After all, he's not even human, let alone Christian." "Yes, but that isn't the point," responded Nyssa, unconciously reacting like her pre-psycho, not her current, self. "I mean, the birth of Christ was a significant event, whether you believe or not. And Christmas is an important time of the year. It's a celebration of life. It's a reminder of rebirth when the world's at it's bleakest. It's..." She stopped. "Okay, so maybe Christmas is quite nice," she said, eventually. "Can I get on with preparing to kill Adric again now?" "Nah," replied the spirit, "You can get on with preparing for the second spirit, though." Nyssa glanced at the Time-Space Visualiser again. It once more showed her under the mistletoe, this time with Adric. She looked at the expression on her own face, and was surprised. It was almost... ...And then Look Who's Talking faded, leaving Nyssa back in her badroom. Where, much to her surprise, the clock was striking one. Again. Part One - Part Three - Part Four - Part Five
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