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gryfflepuffinthetardis · 3 months

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Dalek -- Supernova

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Warning: Not-Memories of an Abusive Marriage, Not-Memories of Nova's Death, Mention to Third Doctor, One Mention of the word "Dandy" (not sure if that could be seen as offensive but it's literally what William Hartnell's Doctor called the Third Doctor in the ten-year anniversary "Three Doctors" and I don't intend it in an offensive way but in a way of the Third Doctor had much more light in him than he does as the Ninth Doctor)

Backpfeifengesicht — German — A face that is asking to be slapped or punched.

"Never underestimate the power of my intuition. I recognize your game even before you play it."

“Arrogance is the great nullifier of intelligence, rendering, even, the cleverest of men, a fool. — Nick Adigu Burke

“The cleverest of all, in my opinion, is the man who calls himself a fool at least once a month” — Fyodor Dostoevsky

“Any intelligent fool can makes things bigger and more complex… it takes a touch of genius… and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.” — Albert Einstein.

“A fool is someone whose arrogance is only surpassed by his ignorance.” — Orrin Woodward

2012

Lillie and Rose had been traveling with the Doctor for about two and a half months now. It never stopped to perplex Lillie how fascinated the Doctor was in with her and Rose, as if they were the most interesting people he had ever met when he had the bigger-on-the-inside spaceship whose console he was practically dancing around.

When they first met the Doctor, he had been weighed down by a terrible tragedy, the death of his planet, Gallifrey, the death of his people—Time Lords, the death of Elder, a neighboring planet of Gallifrey, which had been inhabited by an alien species older than the Time Lords but a much more compassionate and progressive lot, and what seemed to hurt him the most at times, the death of his best friend, the girl he had loved since he was eight years old, not that he had verbally specified his love but it was clear he had some kind of love for her… Princess Supernova of Elder. He didn’t talk about her a lot but from what they gathered was that she was a fireball… literally. She had been a living embodiment of a star… a supernova and she had been capable of immortality, the Doctor confessed that sometimes he had wondered if she were older than the universe itself… yet she hadn’t been big on responsibilities yet she, being a princess, was required to learn about politics of the universe… planets and their inhabitants, the Shadow Proclamations, etc. he hadn’t explicitly told them that but Lillie had gathered from context.

All of these tragedies were caused by something called the “Time War”, a war he had fought in between his people and the Elders against some third party he seemed to deem too painful to tell them about so they never pushed. He would tell them in time. He had been the only survivor, he had admitted that after losing… he never specified which lose but the sisters had the feeling that the death of Nova had broken both his hearts, after losing… he had lost the will to care about the universe because the universe didn’t care but he never said what had brought that will back. Because of them.

But the girls didn’t dare think that they were responsible for his change of heart but they couldn’t deny that they might have helped in some way. They didn’t think they could be that important to him… but they were. Nova was right… as she always was. Saving them led the events of him bumping into them twice more before he let them be his companion for that adventure… and as he ran with them… he felt happiness like he hadn’t since before the Time War, the same but happiness, nonetheless.

There were moments of his that worried the sisters, feeling that he was trying too hard to be happy, trying to push something away. Rose had always gotten the feeling from her own sister, as if she were always trying to push something away but she couldn’t ever tell what it could possibly be.

He was rambling about some planet for pleasure and how that seemed like a challenge…

When an earsplitting sound entered throughout the Tardis, making the sisters clutch their own ears.

“What is that!?” Rose shouted.

“Distress signal! Sent out on every wavelength. It’s extraordinary.”

“It’s deafening!” Lillie shouted.

The Tardis appeared in a dimly lit room of the Van Statten Museum and the trio exited.

"So what is it? What's wrong?" Rose asked as Lillie went to wander, exploring the artifacts nearby.

"Don't know. Some kind of signal drawing the Tardis off course." He said.

"Where are we?"

"Earth. Utah, North America. About half a mile underground."

"And when are we?" Lillie asked.

"Two thousand and twelve." He said.

"God, that's so close. So I should be twenty-six."

"Dear god, that would mean that I should be twenty-five." Lillie cringed, "Oh, god, that's so old!"

The Doctor rolled his eyes and flipped a switch, lighting up the corridor.

"Blimey. It's a great big museum." Rose said.

"An alien museum. Someone's got a hobby. They must have spent a fortune on this. Chunks of meteorite, moon dust. That's the milometer from the Roswell spaceship." The Doctor observed, pointing out the different bits of evidence of extraterrestrial life.

"That's a bit of Slitheen! That's a Slitheen's arm. It's been stuffed." Rose exclaimed, looking at an alien arm.

Lillie caught sight of a robotic head, as she looked at it, she got a rising feeling of rage, rage like she had never felt before, not even for Jimmy Stone who she had apparently gone into a dissociative fugue out of revenge for. The kind of rage she had gotten the feeling that the Doctor and Nova were capable of. A personal rage, that could make her lose all sense of logic and sense of morality momentarily, the kind that could control her and the kind that would break her heart when she realized what she had done. The kind of rage that scared her.

Then she saw flashes of a… she couldn’t quite make it out… was it a woman, but she was surrounded like multicolored lights that made her eyes burn like she was seeing more than she should. Then it was gone, and she was left with a fading light in her eyes like you get if you’re in the dark and then suddenly it’s bright, once the light faded her headache seemed to disappear completely.

"Oh, look at you." The Doctor said, joining her.

"What is it?"

"An old friend of mine. Well, enemy.”

Lillie saw flashes of robots similar to the robotic head in front of her but they seemed more elegant… more sleek… more advanced… and it brought back the anger but even worse now but when the Doctor continued to speak she was brought back to reality, the images and anger gone again, “The stuff of nightmares reduced to an exhibit. I'm getting old."

“Yeah, you’re nine hundred.” Lillie muttered.

“I’ve known people who were older.” The Doctor said, defensively.

"Is that where the signal's coming from?" Rose wondered.

"No, it's stone dead. The signal's alive. Something's reaching out, calling for help." The Doctor said and he brought his hand up to touch the glass when Lillie grabbed his wrist, stopping him.

His blue eyes meet her darker blue ones that were full of concern for not only her sister but for him.

“Doctor… if someone has enough money to have the milometer from one of the most well-known alien spaceships in the world and a stuffed Slitheen arm… they’ll have money for alarms and if they’re collecting aliens, that’ll make you Exhibit A.” She let go on his arm but kept explaining her analysis of the owner of the museum, “And if they deem aliens as things.” Her tone briefly switched from concern to disgust at the sense of morals she had deduced, “to just observe at behind a glass… I can’t imagine they’ll be gentle once they find out you’re an alien. All this stuff is either inanimate or dead and the signal was alive and distressed.”

The Doctor nodded, that made sense and turned to the girls, their safety being his top priority. “Right, we should tread carefully for here on out.”

They heard the sound again, now louder and more desperate, further proving Lillie right as it was clear, it wasn’t just a distress call but a cry of pain.

Rose noticed a few seconds later that both the Doctor and Lillie were running towards the sound.

“Come on, Rose.” Lillie shouted and nearly knocked into a mannequin dressed in a suit and glasses, next to a plastic display about the “Men in Black” with a photo of the supposed sighting of the Men in Black and later with one of a handsome man with dark hair and a military jacket with sunglasses on although the man in the picture had intentionally let the owner of the museum pay too much money for a picture he had intentionally de-qualitied.

Rose caught up with her sister and she struggled to keep up with the Doctor, thinking, this is treading carefully?

They ran down a corridor and got to a heavy metal door and the Doctor banged on it before taking out his sonic screwdriver to unlock the door and when it opened, it was revealed that it had been muffling the already deafening sound.

The two guards in the room were so surprised by their sudden appearance that it took them a few seconds to point their guns at them.

Lillie, out of habit of running during one of her troublemaking acts of rebellion, ran off but it was clear she wasn’t trying to get away from the guards, but get under their skin as she didn’t head back to the Tardis, she ran through corridors until she circled back as if she knew the layout and then once she got another guard’s attention she went back and opened a door, heading inside, just in time for the guards to ram into one another at the corner.

The guards, with their faces burning with embarrassment and their helmet skew brought Lillie back to a restrained Rose and the Doctor. Then she heard their comms turn on as a man spoke.

“Attention all personnel. Bad Wolf One descending. Bad Wolf One descending.”

Lillie and Rose exchanged looks. That had been what Gwyneth had called Rose.

—

It was a normal day for Henry Van Statten.

He walked down his Utah base corridor with his assistant and series of other people he had paid an absurd amount of money for even though he deemed them utterly expendable.

His assistant, a nervous man named Polkowski said, “On behalf of all of us, I want to wish you a very happy birthday, sir. And the President called to convey his personal best wishes.”

“The President is ten points down. I want him replaced.” Van Statten stated.

This was something he thought he had power to do, there were a lot of things he thought he had the power to do but actually didn’t. If it was, a certain bigoted future president would’ve been instead of the first female president and wouldn’t been allowed to run again.

Polkowski made the mistake of voicing his opinion; “I don't think that's very wise, sir.”

“Thank you so much for your opinion. You're fired.” Van Statten declared and jabbed a thumb over his shoulder, “Get rid of him.”

“What?” Polkowski gasped when two armed guards grabbed him and pushed him through the crowd of people to two more armed guards who dragged him away.

“Wipe his memory, put him on the road someplace. Memphis, Minneapolis. Somewhere beginning with M.” Van Statten ordered. A woman with frizzy strawberry blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail took Polkowski’s place, “So, the next President. What do you think? Republican or Democrat?”

“Democrat, sir.” She said, not actually sure which was preferable to a man like this.

“For what reason?”

“They're just so funny, sir?” She asked, now even more unsure. This man cared nothing about politics unless it could do something for him.

Then Van Statten stopped and the woman stiffened, but kept her posture.

“What is your name?” Van Statten asked.

“Goddard, sir.” She said and turned to look him in the eye, “Diana Goddard.”

“I like you, Diana Goddard.” He said and she breathed in relief but her posture didn’t sink… she used to be a guard there. They continued walking. “So, where's the English kid?”

“Sir! Sir!” A twenty-year-old man whose name was not actually “The English Kid” as shocking as that news would be to Van Statten if you told him otherwise in passing, said rushing forwards. “I bought ten more artefacts at auction, Mister Van Statten.”

“Bring 'em on, let me see 'em.” Van Statten said.

“Sir, with respect, there's something more urgent. We arrested three intruders fifty-three floors down. We don't know how they got in.” Goddard said and she chose her words carefully so it wouldn’t result in her memory being erased or the guards that Lillie had humiliated. “They… they demanded to see you.”

Henry Van Statten had convinced himself he wasn’t alarmed when he heard he had intruders so far into his base, and “allowed” himself to be amused when he heard they “demanded” to see him.

They hadn’t demanded. The guards, still bright red with embarrassment and fear of what Van Statten would do to them if he found out that this tiny girl run circles around them, had barked that they were taking them to Henry Van blah-blah-blah—Lillie was already bored as she made obvious through a loud yawn that covered the man’s name.

“Well, if you insist.” She had retorted like they were annoying her.

“I'll tell you how they got in. In-tru-da window.” Van Statten said; a joke that would make the Doctor cringe… and that was saying something. No one laughed. “In-tru-da window. That was funny!”

This was followed by obedient laughter by people who didn’t find the joke particularly funny.

“Bring 'em in. Let's see 'em. And tell Simmons I want to visit my little pet. Get to it!” He shouted and then went through a doorway as Goddard touched her headset.

“Simmons? You'd better give me good news. Is it talking?”

Simmons, a man who has been a sociopath since he was a child when he had a different name, he used to be plagued with migraines that couldn’t ever be helped by Doctors, only by inflicting pain upon someone else, answered Goddard, “Not exactly talking, no.”

“Then what’s it doing?”

“Screaming.” Simmons said, what else was the creature supposed to do when you’re drilling into their flesh, “Is that any good.”

He saved Goddard from replying by continuing to drill and she disconnected as soon as she heard the screams continued, hiding her disgust from showing on her face.

A middle-aged balding man who positively reeked of arrogance entered, refusing to look at them in that egotistical way narcissists did, always looking through people, never giving them a second thought. Lillie already didn’t like him but she had gathered that from his office. He was followed by a woman and a young man around Rose’s age.

When he saw the intruders in his office, waiting for him, Van Statten became nervous in ways he hadn’t felt for a long time and ways he never had before, not only did the Doctor worry her but one of the girls did as she was loudly declaring how easy it had been to outrun both of the guards and all the flaws she had spotted so far in Van Statten’s security detail. She was a troublemaker and Van Statten didn’t like troublemakers. They tended to think for themselves.

He decided that he would ignore them at first, as if them appearing fifty-three floors of his highly secured base, despite what Lillie had to say, hadn’t unnerved him at all.

He dared a glance at the intruders, being long accustomed to not paying attention to those around him, just seeing colored blurs.

One was a man, he was of interest, casually dressed in a leather jacket and a big grin that exuded a confidence that Van Statten felt he had no right to have.

The other two of them were girls, Van Statten prepared discounted them as once, however, the brunette girl had immediately turned and made eye contact as if she could sense the very second, he would take to look at her. She didn't break it, she didn't blink, she tilted her head to the side and slightly down, the lightness of her eyes made it even more intense yet it wasn’t particularly focused... until Van Statten broke it. It unnerved him. Just as she suspected. She could see through all of his manipulation and intimidation tactics at once, she wanted to see how he would react to her own.

“These are the intruders, sir.”

The intruders didn't seem worried, in fact, the brunette girl seemed bored, despite the fact that she had run off when she saw them and nearly escaped them. Van Statten didn't like her, she unnerved him in the way he hoped he would unnerve others. And she looked barely legal.

Her appearance infuriated him. It wasn't intimidating at all like his did that he had worked so hard on. She was wearing a black star-studded leather jacket over a black cold shoulder top with a Stargazer Lily silhouette showing a black starry night sky with a black and white plaid skirt with white stars on it, black skinny jeans with stars, and black and white high-knee plaid boots with buckles.

“They can wait.” Van Statten said, looking back at the girl who was playing with a ring on her finger… a spinner ring… he didn’t like her.

Van Statten let the “English Kid” show his artefacts.

"And this is the last. Paid eight hundred thousand dollars for it." The young man said, showing what he had bought, he spoke in a British accent unlike everyone else who spoke with an American accent as they were in America.

"What does it do?" The older man asked.

"Well, you see the tubes on the side? It must be to channel something. I think maybe fuel." He theorized. Lillie tilted her head, that didn't sound right but she wasn't sure how she knew that.

"I really wouldn't hold it like that." The Doctor said.

"Shut it." The frizzy-haired woman said.

"Really, though, that's wrong." The Doctor said.

"Is it dangerous?" The younger man asked.

"No, it just looks silly." He went to reach for the object and the guards cocked their guns around him but the older man gestured for them to stand down as he went to hand it the Doctor the object, but Lillie instead took it and played it like she was an expert player of... whatever it was. Like she had been doing it for years.

"You just need to be... delicate." The Doctor raised his eyebrows at the girl as she played a familiar solemn tune he thought he would never hear again. Elder singing filled his ears. Her soft voice singing, rivaling the beauty the sounds of the Tardis. The notes played in a beautiful order that gave everyone an odd sense of inner warmth, like a giant hug, a feeling that was completely alien to Van Statten. As alien as the object she played.

"It's a musical instrument." The man observed.

"And it's a long way from home." The Doctor said, taking it from Lillie gently as she blinked her eyes as if a fog had settled back in her head.

"Here, let me." The man snatched the instrument from the Doctor, his touch was harsher, and the notes weren't as lovely.

"I did say delicate. It reacts to the smallest fingerprint. It needs precision." The Doctor said and the man softened his touch, emitting the more beautiful notes. "Very good. Quite the expert."

"As are you." The man said and then tossed it aside onto the floor, not so delicately, he enjoyed the disappointment that flashed across the Doctor’s face but the brunette didn’t show any emotion at this action which infuriated him, before asking the Doctor, "Who exactly are you?"

"I'm the Doctor. And who are you?"

"Like you don't know. We're hidden away with the most valuable collection of extraterrestrial artifacts in the world,”

“Uh, I’m pretty sure I saw what looked like crumbled tinfoil with grease on it down there.” Lillie deadpanned but was ignored.

“...And you just stumbled in by mistake."

"Pretty much sums me up, yeah." The Doctor grinned.

He chose a tactic that never failed to cow his subordinates into submission—changing to booming rage, “TELL ME HOW YOU GOT IN!”

“Well, we have a British police box from the sixties that’s secretly a spaceship with a pocket dimension inside so it’s bigger on the inside that doesn’t actually travel by flying but more like materialize and dematerialize like the apparate and disapparate spell, and with it, we can travel through time and appear in buildings miles under the surface.” Lillie stated the truth with a tone of utter sarcasm… so no one took her seriously.

She could see the worry in Van Statten’s face, he was worried everyone would start laughing at him.

"The question is, how did you get in? Fifty-three floors down, with your little cat burglar accomplices. You're quite a collector yourself, they're rather pretty."

"She's going to smack you if you keep calling her and her sister she." Rose snapped.

"Then I'll punch your teeth in." Lillie added, glaring at him with a sickly-sweet smile.

"They're English too! Hey, little Lord Fauntleroy. Got you a girlfriend. Your pick." He said to the younger man. “I do so love the English, they sound so commanding without actually having any power.”

Lillie glared at the arrogant man a look that gave him the impression that she could kill him before he could even attempt to plead for his life.

“‘Arrogance is the great nullifier of intelligence, rendering, even, the cleverest of men, a fool.’” Lillie quoted, “And you are far from the cleverest of men.”

"This is Mister Henry Van Statten." The man said.

"And who's he when he's at home?" Rose asked.

"Or more accurately his mother's basement." Lillie snarked in a pitying tone, smiling at the man, showing no fear of him, something that was new to him.

"Mister Van Statten owns the internet."

Still the girls were not impressed.

"Don't be stupid. No one owns the internet." Rose scoffed.

Van Statten was obviously mimicking his pose in the painting. He opened his eyes and smirked.

"And let's just keep the whole world thinking that way, right kids?"

The brunette girl looked at Van Statten and then at the portrait, she made a subtle face of dislike at it before continuing to look between the two. Then she gave him a look a deep and condescending pity like he was so pathetic that it was painful. And they didn’t care for that at all.

"Overcompensation and mirroring." She said in a deadpan voice, she wasn't from America, somewhere in Britan, Van Statten didn't know, his job was essentially spend money and try to make everyone afraid of him, did you expect him to study British accents or have any discernible skills.

"What?"

"You're intimidated, so you're appearing to not be by imitating that painting's pose." She said, casually.

"You, brunette.”

“Lillie.” Lillie and Rose said.

“Whatever, what makes you think you know me?"

"I studied human behavior, I can read body languages."

"Behavioral science... that's..." He laughed at it.

"You're a misogynist. You dismiss women and think they can never hold more power over you. But you lack a lot of things, most of all the cunning and wit of a woman. You try to induce intimidation into those who see that... if you could call that a painting, by the implication that you had paid an artist, a pretty damn good one, I’ll bet world-renowned, to give up their integrity to paint that painting, it shows off your money and shows your lack of morals and you fear that it’s more impressive than you. You’re right.”

Van Statten opened his mouth but Lillie kept talking.

“Your dad never loved you, couldn't even remember your birthday. Had his assistant buy you presents and claim they were from him...” Her eyes darted to the toy telescope in realization, “oh... you got his assistant fired... he bought you a telescope I bet and your dad didn't approve of that, fired him on the spot, never saw him again. The only person to ever show you kindness. Maybe if he hadn't you'd have some semblance of kindness but you are your father's son. You overcompensate your power because you grew up feeling powerless. Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree in some cases, huh?”

Van Statten had the feeling that he couldn’t treat this girl like he could others. If he tried to have her memory erased, the Doctor and the blonde wouldn’t let that happen without a fight. They mysteriously appeared fifty-three floors into his base… Van Statten didn’t like mysteries; it implied that he didn’t know something.

“I’d be careful. I met their mother. This is Rose Tyler and Lillie Tyler.” The Doctor warned, impressed by the brunette’s observations but didn’t want her to get shot. Jackie would have his head.

“Goodard. Did we ever have eyes on her?”

“What?” Lillie asked.

“Uh, Delilah Tyler. She was a prodigy, took complicated college classes since she was twelve. But in 2005, she dropped out of high school.”

“Right. She was that troublemaker.” Van Statten said, “I don’t like troublemakers.”

“I only make trouble when there’s people like you. I don’t rebel because I can, I rebel to do the right thing.” Lillie said.

“Yet you dropped out of high school. Full ride to Cambridge.” Van Statten tried to demean her but she wasn’t taking it.

“I got a better offer.” Lillie said, holding her head high and the Doctor beamed. "Do you know the word 'Backpfeifengesicht'." Lillie said with perfect pronunciation. He didn't answer so she took that for a "no". "It's German and it means 'a face that is asking to be slapped or punched'. Now that sums you up." She said this with a completely straight face and then pressed her tongue to the roof of her mouth in a cocky demeanor, and Rose snickered.

So you're just about an expert in everything except the things in your museum. Anything you don't understand, you lock up." The Doctor summed up,

"And you claim greater knowledge?" Van Statten asked as if he doubted it.

"I don't need to make claims, I know how good I am." He said.

"And yet, I captured you." He said, smugly.

"For now." Lillie said.

"Right next to the Cage. What were you doing down there?" Van Statten said, ignoring her.

"You tell me."

"The cage contains my one living specimen."

"And what's that?"

"Like you don't know."

"Show me."

"You want to see it?"

"Blimey, you can smell the testosterone." Rose snarked and the guards laughed, shocking Van Statten. They dare laugh without permission?

"Men." Lillie agreed.

"Goddard, inform the Cage we're heading down. You, English. Look after the girls. Go and canoodle or spoon or whatever it is you British do. Let’s see if Delilah is smarter than you, maybe she’ll get your job!” Van Statten

“My name is Lillie and no money could convince me to work for you.” Lillie spat.

“And you, Doctor with no name, come and see my pet."

“What the hell is canoodling?” Rose asked Lillie.

The Doctor was rather glad that the girls were away from Van Statten, he knew this sort of man, Lillie had been right, his lack of love and kindness in childhood formed him to be the apathetic man he was today.

Van Statten explained to the Doctor once they reached the Cage, “Whenever I have a bad day, all I need to do is pop down and visit him. He’s done more for me than three wives and fifteen therapists or that little stunt your little accomplice did.”

Shocker. Van Statten, being a, misogynist who viewed women as less powerful and intelligent than him and a control freak who thought he was the always the smartest person in the room and seemed to use power to help his possible superiority complex.

“But what is it?” The Doctor asked, ignoring this.

“We do keep asking but the thing is that it just doesn’t want to tell us.” Van Statten said. “We've tried everything. The creature has shielded itself but there's definite signs of life inside.”

“Inside? Inside what?”

A man in an orange protective suit came out of the Cage’s heavy metal door.

“This is Simmons, his job is to encourage it to stop sulking.” Van Statten said, lightly.

Translation: Torture it. That was the highest possibility in the Doctor’s head.

Simmons, a former criminal by the name of Aaron Denton, who had been plagued by constant headaches, until he realized as a child as inflicting pain upon others relieved it, didn’t acknowledge the Doctor but seemed polite to his boss. Why shouldn’t he? He’s being paid an absurd amount of money to torture a creature to relieve his pain instead of prolonging or even continuing his prison sentence.

“Welcome back, sir. I've had to take the power down. The Metaltron is resting.” Simmons said, he may be a sociopath but he was perfectly capable of manners.

“Metaltron?” The Doctor asked, knowing if Nova were still there she’d snark something like, “I can only assume one person here has so few brain cells to come up with that.”

“Thought of it myself.” Van Statten said. Well that explained it. “Good, isn't it?” No. “Although I'd much to prefer to find out its real name. And see which name I prefer.”

“Here, you'd better put these on.” Simmon advised, referring to some rather ordinary rubber protective gauntlets, further illustrating how little Van Statten cared for his staff. “The last guy that touched it burst into flames.” Simmons had a remorseful glint in his eyes, like it almost fascinated him.

“I won't touch it then.” The Doctor said.

“Go ahead, Doctor. Impress me.” Van Statten challenged.

The Doctor just stepped through the heavy door and Van Statten gave Simmons an order, “Don't open that door until we get a result.” Then he and Goddard went to a nearby desk with monitors on it.

The door closed behind the Doctor, but he got a glimpse of a drill… and he didn’t think it was being used for maintenance work. There was the smell of hot metal and a sizzling sound, he knew that must’ve been the flesh burning behind the metal.

The Doctor knew what being tortured felt like. His mind flashed to various moments in his adventures where Nova had willingly let herself be tortured just so others wouldn’t. She had always dismissed it while implying it was nothing compared to the torture her heightened emotions and worst memories inflicted on her, constantly of everyday.

He turned to the creature, it was still too dark to see but all he could make out was a dim blue light about the size of an eye. Metal and a blue light weren’t enough to narrow it down.

“Look, I'm sorry about this. Mister Van Statten might think he's clever, but never mind him but I’ve nothing to do with him. I've come to help. I'm the Doctor.” The Doctor introduced himself with sympathy in his voice that would quickly disappear once he realized what it was.

“Doc… Tor…” The creature said in a rusty metallic voice, with two white lights blinking just above the dim blue light with each syllable. The creature said the name slowly as if trying it out… no… as if recalling an old memory.

Fear struck the Doctor, fear of creature he only saw in his nightmares that ever since the Time War, made him wake up in a cold sweat, gasping for air.

“The Doctor!?” The creature shouted, now with the rage that was the only trait its species were known to have, especially for the Doctor, the creature remembered who the Doctor was even without its memory files.

The Doctor felt denial raging in his head even before the lights turned on, revealing various other torture tools—saws, more drills, an electric generator—but he paid no attention to that but there was no denying it once he could see it. Granted, this was one of the most battered ones, he had ever seen but it was still there, alive, breathing, living—while all the Time Lords and all the Elders—while Nova died.

Its gun stick still jerked, ready to shoot its old enemy down. , the Dalek screamed it’s catchphrase but with more than just hatred this time… a hysterical fury… one may describe it as “frothing at the mouth” if Daleks had mouths that is. “EXTERMINATE!” Insane. The Dalek was genuinely insane as one would be from decades of torture. “EXTERMINATE!”

TheDoctor hammered on the door in terror, memories of Nova’s death crashing over him in waves.

“Let me out!” The Doctor pleaded.

“Exterminate!”

Outside the Cage, Goddard panicked for the Doctor’s safety, pleading to Van Statten while he and Simmons only remained fascinated, “Sir, it's going to kill him!”

“It's talking!” Van Statten said, not caring about the Doctor’s life at all.

Orrin Woodward did once say, “a fool is someone whose arrogance is only surpassed by his ignorance.”

In the cage, the Doctor was still hammering on the door to no avail and he knew that.

“You are an enemy of the Daleks! You must be destroyed!” The Dalek raged and the Doctor shrank away, staring in horror, he wouldn’t let the Time Lords die with him trying to run away when there was no hope. He would look it in the eye. Die with some dignity.

The Dalek’s gun arm twitched but nothing happened. No beam of death. No Dalek gunshot noise.

For once, the Doctor was thankful for what Van Statten had done, if it wasn’t already broken, then him having it continuously tortured at rendered it nothing more than a bad-tempered pepper pot whose only weapon was it’s voice giving you a headache.

He laughed in relief, “It's not working.”

The Doctor laughed with more malevolence this time… not just as the Dalek looked at its useless weapon, the tables had turned and now the Dalek was at the mercy of the Doctor.

The Doctor didn’t realize how much savagery Nova’s death had caused him, perhaps his two regenerations since witnessing it had only enhanced it, caused it to grow like a festering wound. He had said it back with much more lightness, when he had much more light inside of him. Back when he was, as his first self-called him when the Time Lords have to break the First Law of Time (not that it was a reoccurring situation, say, oh, every ten years or so), a Dandy when they had to sacrifice Two’s precious recorder in a world of antimatter in a black hole, due to his clothing and hair back then.

Imagine if he still dressed that way now with Nine?

“Fantastic! Oh, fantastic! Powerless! Look at you. The great space dustbin. How does it feel?”

He remembered the last time he ran into powerless Daleks on the planet Exxilon during his first trip to the future with Sarah Jane Smith.

The Doctor stormed towards it, not to cause it harm but just to see what its reaction would be. It tried to roll away but it only allowed it to move a couple of inches, the rusty chains groaning as they held it back.

“Keep back!” It pleaded.

The Doctor continued until it was inches away, staring straight into its glowing blue eyepiece.

“What for? What're you going to do to me?” The Doctor shouted and it didn’t respond. He circled around the Dalek, glowering with the rage of being the last of his kind, “If you can't kill, then what are you good for, Dalek? What's the point of you? You're nothing!” He had completely circled around the Dalek and returned to his original spot when he spat, “What the hell are you here for?”

“I am waiting for orders.” The Dalek answered.

“What does that mean?”

“I am a soldier. I was bred to receive orders.” It clarified as if the Doctor didn’t know that.

“Well you're never going to get any. Not ever.” The Doctor said.

“I demand orders!” The Dalek cried.

“They're never going to come! Your race is dead! You all burnt, all of you. Ten million ships on fire. The entire Dalek race wiped out in one second.” The Doctor spat.

“You lie!” The Dalek accused him.

“I watched it happen. I made it happen!” The Doctor shouted.

“You destroyed us?” The Dalek asked.

The Doctor’s rage was overcome with sadness as he recalled the decision he had to make that wiped out the Daleks, the Time Lords, and a good amount of the Elders. He turned away, taking a few steps.

“I had no choice.”

“And what of the Time Lords?” The Dalek asked.

“Dead. They burnt with you.”

"What of... the Elders..." The Dalek asked and the Doctor's eyes blazed, his anger growing but the self-loathing part of him let the Dalek finish, "What of... Princess... Supernova..."

The Doctor closed his eyes as heartache beat against his chest, he saw flashes of Supernova behind his eyes.

"She... she left Elder... to find me on Gallifrey... she was killed by a Dalek... died in my arms... soon after the war with no more Elders... Elder froze." The Doctor said; a planet of living embodiments of stars was no longer given the same amount of heat with so fewer Elders… and she froze, freezing any Elders that may have survived. “The end of the last great Time War. Everyone lost.”

“And the coward survived.” The Dalek called him what he was considered to be by his own people. The one who ran away.

“Oh, and I caught your little signal. ‘Help me.’ Poor little thing. Pathetic. The Dalek race would be ashamed!” The Doctor mocked, “But there's no one else coming 'cause there's no one else left.” The Doctor gathered enough sense to feel shame himself… “Look at me.” His voice was soft and filled with self-loathing, “Look at the sort of man you turned me into.”

“I am alone in the universe.” The Dalek realized.

“Yep.” The Doctor popped the ‘p’ but his tone still retained his hatred.

“So are you.” The Doctor’s angry smile faded and his eye twitched with fury. “We are the same.”

This jolted the Doctor back into booming rage, causing him to snap, he turned back to the Dalek, storming at it, “We're not the same! I'm not…” He paused as a thought occurred to him, the last guy who touched it burst into flames, he pulled himself back, he didn’t need to touch it to destroy it, and he allowed his need for revenge, a gleeful savage need. “No, wait. Maybe we are. You're right. Yeah, okay. You've got a point. 'Cause I know what to do. I know what should happen. I know what you deserve.” He grinned as the Dalek remained silent; its plan having gone wrong. “Exterminate.”

The Doctor took out his sonic screwdriver and aimed it at the electric generator, powering it up higher than it had been designed and he pulled the lever, lighting up the Dalek with electricity, making the Dalek scream in pain!

“AHHH! HAVE PITY!” The Dalek cried.

“Why should I? You never did!” The Doctor shouted back. “You killed my family! You killed her! Most brilliant woman in the whole universe and you killed her like she was nothing!”

He would only realize later that he must be going through something Nova did. When she first ran into the Cybermen, she had dealt with some on another world—a world where they were created by a dying man who didn’t realize living without emotions was worst than living with them until they forced him to convert—she fought them in the future of that world and they tortured her… she often changed the length of time from thousands to millions to a billion years—until her companion found and saved her… and met their death… it had broken Nova… her parents and older Time Lords described her as once being a happy, optimistic girl but when he first met her, she was broken… she had gotten better but when she met the Cybermen… she had literally frothed at the mouth with rage, she had had some glee in her savagery towards them… just like he did towards the Daleks.

Outside the Cage, realizing the Doctor had the intention to kill his prized collection, Van Statten turned to his guards and ordered softly, “Get him out.”

The guards entered and the Dalek screamed out, “HELP ME!”

Bywater, one of two secret undercover FBI agents, pulled the Doctor away from the electricity generator before he could quickly rise its level to kill it, Bywater grabbed him and the other guard held her gun to his head but he didn’t care, all that he needed to do was kill the Dalek.

Van Statten didn’t even bother to acknowledge the Doctor or give the Dalek time to recover from the torture before he was shouting at the Dalek to recognize him as Simmons turned off the voltage.

“I saved your life. Now talk to me. Goddamn it, talk to me!” Van Statten shouted.

“You've got to destroy it!” The Doctor was shouting as he was dragged out of the room.

Van Statten still deemed power through sheer arrogance and ignorance as he looked into its eyestalk, “The last in the universe. And now I know your name. Dalek. Speak to me, Dalek.” The Dalek didn’t speak. “I am Henry van Statten, now recognize me!” Like that was going to impress it. Van Statten looked at Simmons, “Make it talk again, Simmons. Whatever it takes.”

Simmons looked pleased at his project.

—

Adam Mitchell, as they learned his name was, took the girls to his workshop, apologizing for Van Statten's attitude. He was much nicer than Van Statten but that wasn't exactly a high bar to reach. A toddler could reach it.

Adam seemed to be nervous but Rose was used to boys being nervous around her and her sister. Ever since Rose was thirteen and despite her sister’s boyish clothing and personality, she had always been very, very pretty and was completely oblivious to both her looks and how boys acted different around her; only Mickey had been immune and that was because he saw her as a younger sister.

But Lillie could tell it was because of Van Statten. He viewed people as disposable. Either he had those he fired killed, imprisoned, or had their memories wiped.

"Sorry about the mess. Mister Van Statten sort of lets me do my own thing, so long as I deliver the goods.”

“Are you okay?” Lillie asked, making Adam look at her oddly. “He threatened to replace me with you just to make you squirm and something tells me he doesn’t just fire people.”

“As long as I can manage creative enough stories for these. I’m fine.” Adam said, trying not to worry them. “What do you think that is?" Adam handed Lillie an inch-thick piece of metal.

"A lump of metal? " She said, slowly, she wasn’t really trying to guess, she wanted to reassure Adam she had no interest in his job.

"Yeah. Yeah, but I think, well, I'm almost certain, it's from the hull of a spacecraft. I’ve found others like it. You put them together, these things that look like nothing and they start to having meaning.”

“Like a puzzle. A puzzle from the stars.” Lillie said, unaware that she was subconsciously mentally doing the same to various objects around the room.

“Exactly. I mean, it all seems like junk at first but if you can find the right context. The thing is, it's all true. Everything the United Nations tries to keep quiet, spacecraft, aliens, visitors to Earth. They really exist." Adam said, glee mingling in his eyes, grinning at the girls.

"That's amazing." Lillie said, feigning ignorance. which seemed to come naturally to her for some reason.

"I know it sounds incredible, but I honestly believe the whole universe is just teeming with life." He confessed.

"I'm gobsmacked, yeah." Rose agreed, also feigning ignorance, "And you do what, sit here and catalog it?" Rose asked.

"Truly we're étonné, stupéfait!" Lillie exclaimed with a smile. Rose gave her a look. "It's French."

"Best job in the world."

"Imagine if you could get out there. Travel amongst the stars and see it for real." Rose said as Lillie spotted something, it was a regal ring with a beautiful opal.

She felt a sort of connection to it and when Adam wasn’t looking, she pocketed it. She wasn’t usually a… well, she guessed some would say a “kleptomaniac”, but she didn’t feel like it was stealing but more like taking something that had once belonged to her but she just… forgot about it.

"Yeah, I'd give anything. I don't think it's ever going to happen. Not in our lifetimes." Adam said, unaware of the knowing looks the sisters exchanged.

"Oh, you never know. What about all those people who say they've been inside of spaceships and things and talked to aliens?" Lillie asked.

"I think they're nutters."

"Yeah, me too." Rose said.

"Most of them," Lillie agreed, "So, how'd you end up here? Why do you do this?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, why do you want to live like this?” Lillie asked, “With a boss like that.”

"Van Statten has agents all over the world looking for geniuses to recruit."

"Oh, right. You're a genius." Lillie asked.

"Sorry, but yeah. I can't help it. I was born clever."

"So was this one." Rose wrapped an arm around her blushing sister. "She was going to go to Cambridge before we met the Doctor. Top of her class since she entered school. Took complicated university classes since she was twelve.”

"Rose." Lillie blushed.

"When I was eight, I logged onto the US Defense System. Nearly caused World War Three." Adam told them.

"Yeah, I never did that." Lillie laughed. She did however create a variety of odd gadgets that either made things easier, like the gadgets made by the dad in Gremlins, only they actually worked, or they didn’t work because she just didn’t have the right tools, or they just didn’t make sense to Jackie and Rose.

"What, and that's funny, is it?"

"Well, you should've been there just to see them running about. Fantastic!"

"You sound like the Doctor." Rose said.

"Are you and him..."

"No, we're just friends."

"Good."

"Why is it good?" Rose asked.

"It just is."

“Uh, so, what’s your job here then?”

“I’m in charge of the ‘inanimates’. Anything alien that hasn’t got a pulse.”

“So these agents were watching my sister?” Rose asked, feeling a little scared that she hadn’t noticed.

“Yeah, uh, Delilah, right.” Adam asked.

“I prefer Lillie.” Lillie said, making a face.

“Yeah, yeah,” Adam looked around and lowered his voice, “Don’t tell anyone but I’ve hacked into the list just to see who’s there. You were high on the list.” Lillie seemed a little abashed at this. “You were very impressive to him, they might’ve actually spoken to you a few times but… Van Statten likes… obedience in his employees.”

“I do not.” Lillie said. “I also don’t enjoy the idea of working for a misogynistic power-hungry snake who deems everyone but him as worth less.”

“Yeah, and then in 2005… you just kind of… dropped off the face of the Earth.” Adam said.

“Something like that.” Lillie said.

Rose changed the subject before it came around to the Doctor and his means of travel. She didn’t think Adam would just go blabbing but a guy like Van Statten… who knows who was listening. "So, wouldn't you rather be downstairs? I mean, you've got these bits of metal and stuff, but Mister Van Statten's got a living creature down there."

"Yeah. Yeah, well, I did ask, but he keeps it to himself. I did meet it once but… only the once.”

“And?” Lillie asked.

Adam shook his head, like Lillie did when she got those migraines, like he was shaking away a bad memory. “And… nothing. It… it doesn’t do much. Van Statten wants it to talk but it rarely ever does.”

“Can we see?” Lillie asked, tilting her head with curiosity.

“It’s off limits. Although, if you're a genius, it doesn't take long to patch through on the comm. System."

"Oh, you can hack. Me too."

"She got arrested for it." Rose gave her sister a disapproving look but Lillie just rolled her eyes.

"Technically, that and trespassing and breaking and entering." Lillie said. Adam looked down; Lillie could see he was one to be cowed easily, that must be the kind of staff Van Statten wanted. She wasn't one, she must've been deemed too rebellious for his liking. Not that she had any problem with that. She turned back to Adam, "Well, genius, let's have a look, then."

"It doesn't do much, the alien. It's weird. It's kind of useless. It's just like this great big pepper pot."

Lillie couldn't see it very well on the tiny screen but the overwhelming urge to destroy it shot through her body. She recognized it but couldn't quite place it.

They saw the creature screaming as a guard drilled into its casing.

"It's being tortured! Where's the Doctor?" Rose asked, panicked.

"I don't know." Adam said, genuinely confused and horrified by this.

"Take us down there. Now." Rose demanded and she took her sister’s hand.

—

The Doctor, Goddard, Van Statten, and guards reentered the elevator as the Doctor explained, “The metal's just battle armour. The real Dalek creature's inside.”

“What does it look like?” Van Statten asked out of curiosity, somehow still not grasping how dire this situation was and that it was far more important than his petty childhood fascination.

“A nightmare. It's a mutation. The Dalek race was genetically engineered. Every single emotion was removed except hate.”

“Genetically engineered.” Van Statten repeated out of fascination as the Doctor rolled his eyes at the stupidity of this “self-proclaimed” genius. “By whom?”

“By a genius, Van Statten. By a man who was king of his own little world. You'd like him.” The Doctor spat.

“It's been on Earth for over fifty years. Sold at a private auction, moving from one collection to another. Why would it be a threat now?” Goddard had more of an understanding of the situation than Van Statten did.

“Because I'm here. How did it get to Earth? Does anyone know?” The Doctor asked.

“The records say it came from the sky like a meteorite. It fell to Earth on the Ascension Islands. Burnt in its crater for three days before anybody could get near it and all that time it was screaming. It must have gone insane.”

“It must have fallen through time. The only survivor.” The Doctor correctly theorized.

“You talked about a war?” Goddard explained.

“The Time War. The final battle between my people and Elders against the Dalek race.”

“But you survived, too.” Van Statten said, still not worried.

“Not by choice.” The Doctor’s voice became dark.

“This means that the Dalek isn't the only alien on Earth. Doctor, there's you. The only one of your kind in existence.” Van Statten said, that being his top priority.

—

The Doctor been stripped on his jacket and shirt and was chained with his arms above his head with a scanner pointed at him as Van Statten lightly said, “now, smile!”

Van Statten mishandled the laser scan, making it painful as it scanned down the Doctor’s body, revealing two hearts.

“Two hearts! Binary vascular system. Oh, I am so going to patent this.” Van Statten said, excitedly.

It was already patented by Unit… by decades. Turns out he wasn’t as much as an expert as he thought he was.

The Doctor knew if Nova were with them, she would’ve burned him and haunted him with the memories of his sins, not that he could’ve physically gotten her to the cage due to her ability to manipulate gravity.

“So that's your secret. You don't just collect this stuff, you scavenge it.” The Doctor spat.

“This technology has been falling to Earth for centuries. All it took was the right mind to use it properly.” It does but it wasn’t being used by the right mind. Not by a long shot. “Oh, the advances I've made from alien junk. You have no idea, Doctor. Broadband? Roswell. Just last year my scientists cultivated bacteria from the Russian crater, and do you know what we found? The cure for the common cold. Kept it strictly within the laboratory of course. No need to get people excited. Why sell one cure when I can sell a thousand palliatives?”

The Doctor still wasn’t impressed with him.

“Do you know what a Dalek is, Van Statten? A Dalek is honest. It does what it was born to do for the survival of its species. That creature in your dungeon is better than you.

“In that case, I will be true to myself and continue.” Van Statten said, casually.

“Listen to me! That thing downstairs is going to kill every last one of us!

“Nothing can escape the Cage.” Van Statten scoffed, “Maybe you underestimate my genius.”

The Doctor laughed, coldly.

“Your genius? Look around you! All you do is feed off of others’ skills. A sociopath to torture the creature with cheap protection. Guards who’s names you don’t remember. A belief that everyone is beneath you. You’re a thief!” The Doctor spat.

Van Statten just blasted the Doctor with the laser again, in an attempt to shut him up.

“But it's woken up. It knows I'm here. It's going to get out. Van Statten, I swear, no one on this base is safe. No one on this planet!” The Doctor cried but Van Statten just ran the laser scan again, just to hear him scream.

Adam brought the girls down to the cage.

"Hold it right there." A soldier, Bywater said.

When Simmons made eye contact with Lillie, the headache faded and so did his rage and for the first time since he was a young child... he felt genuine guilt... he seemed to be paralyzed in it and simultaneously he felt like he was going to be sick from it. He couldn’t move. Was this what the real Danny Simmons felt like when he beat him until he needed to be hospitalized or when Danny Simmons realized that Aaron Denton had somehow gotten out of prison and was at his front door. But the thoughts and emotions were brief.

"Level three access. Special clearance from Mister Van Statten." Adam said, showing the guards his clearance card.

The three entered the cage and the girls approached the creature and the thoughts and emotions left Simmons, back to normal.

Another migraine hit Lillie, followed by a wave of fear as a sort of memory came back to her.

"Record indicate that you will show mercy!" She heard a robotic voice say.

Nova smirked a malevolently mischievous smirk. "Don't you know who I am? I'm the Elder Princess Supernova. Killer of the creator of Daleks, Davros."

"Mercy! Mercy! Mercy!"

"Say it again."

"Mercy! Mercy!"

"Again!" She demanded.

"Mercy! Mercy!"

"Sorry. Wrong protector of the universe." She smirked, shaking her head, and held up her sword and cut straight through its metal.

Lillie suddenly felt herself grabbing Rose’s hand and pulling her back, slowly approaching herself.

"Don't get too close." Adam warned.

Lillie stared at the creature in horror but her eyes fell to the chains and the obvious signs of torture.

A not-memory came of her first-person view of her being chained up in a room, there were those silver robotic creatures again and the rage came back but it wasn't the rage she felt in the not-memory... in the not-memory she felt more contempt but relief... relief that someone was safe... the rage was an aftermath emotion... Lillie had a feeling that that someone... wasn't relieved and fought like hell to get back to whoever's memory this was... the robots restrained her against an electricity unit and they turned it on, she couldn't feel the pain but she could hear the grunts of pain, refusing to give them the satisfaction of her screams, and the lights caused by the electricity, the colors were dark, like they were made out of dark light that entrapped her.

“What use are emotions if you allow them to destroy you.” A robotic voice asked.

"Makes me.... stronger than you..." She gritted out.

"Hello, are you in pain?" Rose asked, snapping Lillie of the not-memory.

"M-my name is Lillie Tyler and this is my sister, Rose." Lillie stammered, ignoring the urge to destroy it, choosing to see the best in it despite all of her screaming to do the opposite, "we've got a friend... he can help. He's called the Doctor. What's your name?"

The Dalek realized that these two must be the Doctor’s companions. Naïve to what it truly was.

"Yes." The voice was metallic and it sent shivers down her back.

"What?" Lillie asked.

"I am in pain. They torture me, but still they fear me. Do you fear me?"

"No." Rose said but Lillie remained quiet. She didn't fear it, but she feared for Rose; she just wanted to kill it and she felt horrible for feeling that way.

"I am dying." It said.

"No, we can—we can help." Lillie stammered.

"I welcome death. But I am glad that before I die, I have met humans who was not afraid."

"Isn't there anything we can do?" Rose asked.

"My race is dead, and I shall die alone."

Rose reached for the Dalek's metal head to place it there for comfort.

"Rose, no!" Lillie shouted, lurching at Rose, pulling her hand back but accidently touching it herself.

When Lillie's hand made contact, her eyes flared purple and her compass glowed, forming an energy around her that was invisible to anyone who couldn't see in multiple dimensions at once and the Dalek absorbed her long-suppressed biology.

The King of Elder and Nova’s abusive arranged husband, Narcissus grabbed Nova's arm aggressively, pulling her back as she tried to go and fight in the Time War.

"Narcissus! Let me go!" She pleaded.

"Get back here! It's not your job to fight!" He growled.

"Yes, it is! I'm the Queen and this is my planet! Now let me go!" She screamed.

"Does it give you please to humiliate me like that!?" He demanded, loudly, because apparently that’s all he thought of her actions. That she only wanted to humiliate him when their people were dying.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Nova cried.

"What will people think when they see the Queen fighting instead of the King?"

"You're worried about what people will think more than saving our planet!" She asked, incredulously, continuing to fight back.

"STOP FIGHTING!" He roared and backhanded her, sending her to the ground, painfully.

She opened her eyes with her bruised body on her side and she spotted the ring the Doctor had given her. Her mother’s engagement ring. The one she had left on the Tardis because she wasn’t going to let her family heirloom bind this sham of a marriage. It laid hidden but purposely placed there by that genius Time Lord she had befriended long ago… but not the one you may be thinking about.

She sat up, glaring daggers at him, "You know the only reason I stay with you is not because I love you. I don't even like you. I only stay with you because if I don't you and your psycho bitch sister will take control!" She shouted, getting to her feet. "I will never stop fighting! I stayed with you for my people but now they’re dying and my Doctor needs my help.”

He went to hit her again when she punched him in the face, knocking him over, she stood over him, glaring daggers at him. “You can stay here and die but I’m not going to die a selfish dirty coward. I am the Rebel Princess of Elder and I am a fighter and a protector.”

Then she turned and started off.

“IF YOU GO AFTER THE DOCTOR, YOU’LL DIE!” He yelled.

Nova turned to her sorry excuse for a husband and glared, "I don't care. As long as he's safe, I'm happy. But as long as I still live, he will never have to make that choice."

Then she ran out of her castle. "I'm coming, Doctor." She whispered, fully intending to end the war to save the Doctor from taking the burden upon himself... she wouldn't make it.

She pulled her hand back only when Rose pulled her back. There was a glowing silver handprint where Lillie's hand had been but it quickly faded.

The creature started to become more animated. "Genetic material extrapolated. Initiate cellular reconstruction!" It broke the chains as one of the guards came in.

"What the hell have you done?" Simmons shouted at Lillie like she was supposed to know what would've happened even though he was the one who allowed them in.

"Well, what were you doing!?" Lillie snapped at him.

He was carrying the drill he had been using on it earlier, hoping to use it some more. The creature raised its plunger thing.

"What are you going to do? Sucker me to death?" He scoffed sarcastically.

The sucker covered his face and mouth as it did just that, sucking in his face, collapsing his skull.

Simmons must’ve somehow made eye contact with Lillie again as he died, his headache increased tenfold as she kept eye contact, there was a mercilessness in her eyes... and he could hear her voice in his head saying, "This is what the real Danny Simmons felt as you killed him." This increased his fear as if he were dying both his death and the real Danny Simmons' death and feeling the fear of both, he wanted to cry but he couldn't and then he was dead.

Lillie felt Rose pulling her out of the cage. "It's killing him! Do something!" Rose screamed as they ran out of the cage.

"Condition red! Condition red!" Bywater said, pushing a button, "I repeat, this is not a drill."

—

In the Doctor’s Cage, Van Statten was taken aback when the Condition Red warning sounded and he looked at the Doctor.

“Release me if you want to live.” The Doctor said, softly and this time Van Statten obeyed.

—

On a screen in the room, the girls saw the Doctor run up to it, saying in an urgent voice, "You've got to keep it in that cell."

Then he realized that Lillie and Rose were there. Why the hell were they there!? And this was followed by, well, of course, it would be them of everyone here!

"Doctor, it's all my fault," Lillie apologized.

"No, she was trying to stop me." Rose said.

"I've sealed the compartment. It can't get out, that lock's got a billion combinations." Bywater guard said as Rose comforted her sister.

"A Dalek's a genius. It can calculate a thousand billion combinations in one second flat." The Doctor informed them.

That word. Dalek. It echoed in Lillie's head.

"I will never betray the Doctor. You know what that is? Loyalty. Something Daleks are incapable of." Nova spat, bitterly.

"That is correct, Elder Princess."

They watched the door with bated breath and when the doors opened and guard yelled, "Open fire!"

"Don't shoot it! I want it unharmed." Van Statten shouted at them but they didn’t listen.

"Van Statten, with all due disrespect, shut your trap before I smack it off your face!" Lillie snapped.

"Rose, Lillie, get out of there!" The Doctor cried.

The bullets had no effect on the Dalek, in fact, it was ignoring them until it caught sight of the video screen where the Doctor’s face was.

Then it brought its sucker up to the screen and plunged it through it, electricity crackled on the casing and Lillie saw that it was healing itself even further than with her touch. Lillie noticed that the lights were flickering. It was draining the power, using it to heal itself.

Bywater, again, the secret agent, knew it was time to withdraw, he turned to his partner, a female guard. "De Maggio, take the civilians and get them out alive. That is your job, got that"

"You three, with me." She ordered and the four ran for their lives.

As they ran through the halls, Rose refused to let go of her sister's hand. They came across a group of guards who were going to try and destroy the Dalek.

"Civilians! Let them through!" De Maggio shouted as they ran through the phalanx.

The gunfire soon started up behind them.

—

“Tell them to stop shooting at it.” Van Statten ordered.

“But it's killing them!” Goddard shouted at him.

“They're dispensable.” Van Statten said and spoke to his soldiers. “That Dalek is unique. I don't want a scratch on its bodywork, do you hear me?” No answer. “Do you hear me?”

The gunfire slowly died out, and Van Statten seemed to only now realize the full terror of the situation. All those men couldn’t stop it and now it was going to kill him.

Goddard brought up the schematics of the base.

“That's us, right below the surface.” It zoomed to the bottom of the screen and she pointed to a blue mass, “That's the cage,” Then to a moving bright light on the map, “and that's the Dalek.”

“This museum of yours. Have you got any alien weapons?” The Doctor asked.

“Lots of them, but the trouble is the Dalek's between us and them.” Goddard replied.

“We've got to keep that thing alive.” Van Statten was still keeping his interests in mind. “We could just seal the entire vault, trap it down there.”

“Leaving everyone trapped with it. Lillie and Rose are down there. I won't let that happen. Have you got that?” The Doctor said, authoritatively. Van Statten didn’t reply but thought the Doctor was being unreasonable. “It's got to go through this area. What's that?”

“Weapons testing.” Goddard replied.

“Give guns to the technicians, the lawyers, anyone. Everyone. Only then have you got a chance of killing it.” The Doctor advised.

—

De Maggio, was a mother but she had very little to do with her son’s childhood because in order to make sure he grew up in a house with money, she worked for Van Statten, the last time she had seen her child, he had furious at her, because it had been the first time she had seen him that he understood who she was supposed to be and that she wasn’t there for him. She tried to make him cooperate but instead he swore at her and he refused the “naughty step”. She had told him that if he didn’t she would have the punish him further but he still refused. It was then she realized that this job had affected her because she had developed the belief that soldiers had to follow through or their threats or they look weak. So she slapped him and her son, a gentle one, nonetheless but his face was still red with anger at her, sat on the naughty step longer than he should’ve and refused to speak to her. She was initially wanted to refuse coming back but the offers kept on getting bigger and bigger and she did what she believed was best for her child. When being there would’ve been enough.

She understood the job she was given to protect the younger civilians. That’s what a mother did. They protected the young. As the four ran through the corridors with the Dalek in pursuit, she kept the rear of the group; even though they weren’t trained for action as she was.

Adam had only had this job for less than two years and he was never given guard duty. Rose had only been traveling with the Doctor for two and a half months.

De Maggio, could tell that Rose and Adam weren't trained for duty, but Lillie seemed to be. Like she was trained once, even though the memo she had been sent showed she only trained in advanced science theories and rebellion. She had quick reflexes and could run quickly but she stayed slow for Rose.

De Maggio, kept strangely happy, perhaps because she felt like this was making up for her poor parenting skills last time she had seen her son. She was protecting the sisters of a single mother and the son of a couple. The three were still very much children, only one out of their teens.

Rose, Adam, Lillie, and De Maggio came across a staircase.

"Stairs! That's more like it. It hasn't got legs. It's stuck!" Rose gasped.

"I wouldn't get your hopes up yet." Lillie warned her sister.

De Maggio looked back, seeing the Dalek approaching. "It's coming! Get up!" De Maggio shouted and they all ran up a flight of stairs. They looked down as the Dalek rolled into the room. Its eyestalk moved to them and zeroed in on Lillie.

"Great big alien death machine defeated by a flight of stairs." Adam taunted.

“Don’t taunt him!” Lillie snapped at him, elbowing him in the ribs hard.

"Now listen to me. I demand that you return to your cage. If you want to negotiate, then I can guarantee that Mister van Statten will be willing to talk. I accept that we imprisoned you and maybe that was wrong, but people have died, and that stops right now. The killing stops. Have you got that? I demand that you surrender. Is that clear?" De Maggio demanded.

No answer.

"Elevate." It said. Oh no.

The Dalek started to levitate up the stairs towards them but still it kept its eyestalk on Lillie.

"Oh my God." Rose gasped.

"Adam, get them out of here." De Maggio ordered.

"No, you have to come with us. You can't stop it." Lillie pleaded. "Nothing can stop it!"

De Maggio noted that Lillie was concerned for her. That was kind. So was her sister. She almost forgot what kind people were like.

"Someone's got to try. Now get out! Don't look back. Just run." She ordered; Adam was already running; he was gone. De Maggio didn’t blame him but the girls hesitated. “Go!” Rose pulled her sister’s hand, forcing her to run and they followed Adam as De Maggio started to shoot.

As they ran down a hallway, Lillie stopped when she heard her scream and then silence before Rose pulled her along.

—

Van Statten was still being difficult. The Doctor was frankly starting to wonder which one was more difficult the Dalek or Van Statten.

“I thought you were the great expert, Doctor. If you're so impressive, then why not just reason with this Dalek? It must be willing to negotiate. There must be something it needs. Everything needs something.”

What a human way of thinking. So simple. Still him trying to get the power back.

“What's the nearest town?” The Doctor suddenly asked.

“Salt Lake City.” Van Statten replied.

“Population?”

“One million.”

“All dead.” The Doctor said and finally looked up at him. “If the Dalek gets out, it'll murder every living creature. That's all it needs.”

“But why would it do that?” Van Statten shouted, at the realization that this was one person he couldn’t buy out.

“Because it honestly believes they should die. Human beings are different, and anything different is wrong. It's the ultimate in racial cleansing and you, Van Statten, you've let it loose! The Dalek's surrounded by a force field. The bullets are melting before they even hit home, but it's not indestructible.” The Doctor explained. He went to the comms and warned all the spare staff, “If you concentrate your fire, you might get through. Aim for the dome, the head, the eyepiece. That's the weak spot.”

One arrogant or idiotic man answered with, “Thank you, Doctor but I think I know how to fight one single tin robot.”

—

On the forty-sixth floor, the staircases opened up to a corridor that led to a reception area.

“The main stairwell picks up from along here.” Adam explained to the sisters, panting from running up seven flights of stairs.

Rose was grateful that Lillie had insisted that she’d wear running shoes before they left the Tardis.

The trio rounded a corner and ran onto the loading bay but they were blinded by a light, well, Adam and Rose were. Lillie stopped when they stopped as she tried to think what to do next. Scream at the soldiers for blinding them, warn them of the Dalek, or shout at Rose and Adam to keep running.

Then one of the commanders shouted at them, “Hold your fire! You three, what the hell are you doing!? Get the hell out of there!" One of the commanders shouted while Lillie leaned back to see the Dalek closer than she thought.

“You’re the one blinding us!” Lillie shouted back at him while giving him a rude gesture with her free hand that Rose wasn’t cutting the blood flow in as they ran past the guards. “It’s coming!”

The Dalek entered, it turned and zoomed in on Lillie again.

“Come on. Don’t stop! Why have you stopped!?” Adam shouted.

But Lillie didn’t know why; it wasn’t exhaustion. She didn’t exactly feel exhausted, her blood was coursing with adrenaline, her legs hurt a little and she had had a continuous migraine since she touched the Dalek but she wasn’t exhausted. But she couldn’t move. She just couldn’t.

The Dalek was examining Lillie, it may have been fifty-some years since it was in the Time War but it remembered what Princess Supernova looked like. She had been the one his creator credited for making him the way he was. Bitter. Untrusting. Evil. He didn't use exactly those words but that was the gist.

Its weapons were broken but its scanner and memory files still worked and it scanned her.

Species Diagnosis... Loading... Loading... Loading... Human.

The Dalek scanned her body temperature, it was a normal temperature for a human, perhaps a bit overheated but they were underground and she had been running.

She couldn’t be Supernova, it was impossible. She couldn’t change her body temperature. She’d die.

“Lillie!” Rose was shouting, hugging her hand but Lillie wasn’t even budging. She felt like this unseen energy had ensnared around her, rendering her paralyzed. "LILLIE, MOVE!" Rose screamed.

Lillie wanted to turn to her and shout at her to get off her and leave them alone... leave them both alone but when she turned and saw the true genuine fear in Rose's dark green eyes... the feeling in her legs came back, she was her own again.

“Please, I don’t want to leave either of you!” Adam cried.

"Come on!" Rose shouted, taking her hand and they ran, Lillie's legs started to work again and the three of them ran off the bay.

"It was looking at me." Lillie told them.

"Yeah, it wants to slaughter us." Adam dismissed.

"I know, but it was looking right at me." Lillie said.

"So? It's just a sort of metal eye thing. It's looking all around." Rose said.

"I don't know. It's like there's something inside, looking at me, like, like it knows me." Lillie said.

"Come on." Rose said, pulling her sister as they broke into a run again.

As she ran, she could feel humming in her head and she could hear the Dalek, loud and clear in her head.

"Next time I see you... I shall kill you."

To the Dalek's surprise, he heard Lillie's voice but with an Australian tinge, "Bring it, Space Nazi."

—

The Dalek allowed Goddard, the Doctor, and Van Statten to watch as all the soldiers, the lawyers, the accountants and whoever else shot at the Dalek on the screen. The bullets had no effect and soon the Dalek started to elevate in the air. The Dalek shot the fire alarm, triggering the sprinklers in the loading bay area and shot the water, electrocuting all of the men on the floor level.

The commander shouted at the surviving men to retreat but they didn’t have time, another shot had them all electrocuted too.

—

Lillie staggered, falling to her hands and knees briefly as her head was suddenly filled with the screams of the men and women and the sound of electricity crackling.

“Come on!” Rose shouted, heaving her sister back to her feet.

—

The Dalek stared right at the video screen, staring right at the Doctor… showing its power and then let the video screens turn off, the office was left in a stunned silence.

Van Statten was even more terrified now, there was nothing he could do to stop it and he had witnessed first-hand how powerful it was, more powerful than he could ever be. It just let eighty-nine men and women shoot at it but it hadn’t even budged. Then with two shots it killed eighty-nine people with absolutely no effort.

“Perhaps it's time for a new strategy.” Van Statten said, quietly. Ya think? “Maybe we should consider abandoning this place.”

“Except there's no power to the helipad, sir. We can't get out.” Goddard spat, coldly.

“Then I shall go there myself, operate it manually.” He decided.

“There isn’t even enough power for the elevator, you can’t get to the surface.” She reminded him.

Van Statten started to pace the room, “No. No. No. No. We’re all going to die. You were right, Doctor.” Acknowledging the Doctor seemed to trigger an idea and he pulled a gun from his desk and pointed it at the Doctor. “The Dalek wants you dead, yes? Maybe if I were to give you to the Dalek…”

The Doctor’s look was reminiscent to Lillie’s earlier looks of condescending pity and he snarkily said, “I’m sure it would thank you very nicely… just before it exterminated you.”

“It’s still a chance.”

“No, Van Statten! The only chance you’ve got is me!” The Doctor spat, “I am the only person who can possibly stop it!”

“Put the gun down!” Goddard shouted but Van Statten ignored her, still oblivious that both she and the Doctor had taken more charge since the Dalek had begun its killing spree while they remained in the office. He had been useless, not even his soldiers had listened to him.

“And exactly how are you going to stop it, Doctor. Please, convince me. I am a reasonable man. You can see I am being a reasonable man.” That had to be bigger lie than the Dalek’s manipulation tactics.

“I don’t know yet.”

“No, not good enough.” Van Statten said after a moment of consideration.

The Doctor remembered Nova’s observations of those who held guns. Van Statten’s hands were shaking. But fear… it showed who people really were and it wasn’t like Van Statten was hiding his ego.

“I said, put the gun down!” Goddard repeated.

When Van Statten and the Doctor looked at her, they saw that she too had drawn a gun on Van Statten.

“What is this?” Van Statten said, weakly, not only did two aliens in his alien museum easily take power over him but a woman did too; it seemed only know the Van Statten realized that she had taken charge.

“I am a federal agent with the FBI, put down your weapon, you have the right to remain silent.” She revealed.

Van Statten laughed, perhaps to try to take power back from her, “You’re choosing this moment to arrest me!?”

Goddard didn’t waver, she just got closer and pressed the gun against his head, “Or maybe we just give you to the Dalek.” She said with a tone that said she had no qualms about doing this, “let’s see what it does with you.”

“Enough of this!” The Doctor shouted but he had to admit he didn’t see that coming.

He strode to Van Statten and took the gun from him and tossed it aside just like Van Statten did with the musical instrument earlier.

“I know you’re both scared, but this is pathetic. If you want to survive, either of you, then you have to do better than this!”

Goddard looked at the Doctor and sighed, lowering her gun before turning to Van Statten, “If we make it through this, you’re still under arrest. Bywater was a secret agent too and you got him killed.”

“You said we could seal the vault.” The Doctor said before Van Statten could respond.

Van Statten moved to the computer at his desk, “It was designed to be a bunker in the event of nuclear war. Steel bulkheads”

Goddard shook her head, “There's not enough power, those bulkheads are massive.”

“We've got emergency power.” The Doctor explained, “We can re-route that to the bulkhead doors.”

“We’d have to bypass the security codes.” Goddard protested, “That would take a computer genius.”

“Good thing you've got me, then.” Van Statten boasted, even though in that entire building, he was the fifth best with computers at best. After the Doctor, the Dalek, Lillie, and then Adam.

“You want to help?” The Doctor asked.

“I don't want to die, Doctor. Simple as that.” Well as long as he was reassuring them of his selfishness. “And nobody knows this software better than me.”

“Doctor, Sir.” Goddard suddenly said and nodded to the video screen that the Doctor hadn’t noticed had turned back on.

“I shall speak only to the Doctor.” The Dalek demanded, still hovering over the corpses.

The Doctor was quiet for a moment, getting over his shock and as usual sassed the Dalek, “You're going to get rusty.”

“I fed off the DNA of Lillie Tyler.” The Dalek told the Doctor and he narrowed his eyes at the implication that the Dalek had touched Lillie; the idea of this monstrosity touching someone as pure, as kind, as brilliant as Lillie as if it had attempted to sully her. “She carries the energy from within your Tardis that allows the Time Lords to regenerate. Now I too am reborn!”

Ah, it wasn’t trying to coax him into touching its casing to kill the Doctor but to take some of his left-over regeneration energy to heal itself.

“Extrapolating the biomass of a time traveler regenerated me.” It continued to gloat.

“What's your next trick?” The Doctor asked.

“I have been searching for the Daleks.” The Dalek told him.

“Yeah, I saw. Downloading the internet. What did you find other than a lot of ‘bare bodies’ and petitions for the revival of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Destial Supernatural fanfics.”

“All irrelevance has been disposed of!” The Dalek said, bluntly as if offended that it would keep that information. “I scanned your satellites and radio telescopes, searching for any signal for the Dalek race.”

“And?”

“Nothing.” The Dalek feel silent, coming to terms that the Doctor had been telling the truth, there were no more Daleks. At least, to their knowledge.

If Nova had been there she would question what made the Dalek think the other Daleks would waste their planning time just to rescue one Dalek that had gone mad. They had no sense of loyalty or comradery. For the most powerful empath in the whole universe, she understood species who despised emotions quite well.

Then the Dalek cried out, plaintively, “Where shall I get my orders now?”

“You're just a soldier without commands.” The Doctor said.

The Dalek was silent for a few seconds before speaking with fresh defiance. “Then I shall follow the Primary Order, the Dalek instinct to destroy, to conquer.”

Odd, Daleks weren’t known for expressing defiance, the Doctor briefly considered this but had more pressing concerns, like his companions the Dalek was hunting, the longer he spoke with the Doctor the more distance the girls put between themselves and the Dalek.

“What for? What's the point?” The Doctor cried out but the Dalek didn’t reply. “Don't you see it's all gone? Everything you were, everything you stood for.”

“Yes. It is all over.” The Dalek said, softly.

“So let it end. Just let it end. There is no point any more, not to any of this.” The Doctor pleaded. The Doctor felt dirty and small; embarrassed that he, the Doctor, who killed nearly all the Daleks (and the Time Lords and an unknown amount of Elders), the Oncoming Storm was pleading with a Dalek. But it was all for the survival of Lillie and Rose… and the rest of humanity. “You’re the last. There is no point to you.”

“Princess Supernova of Elder is dead.”

“Yes. I know that.”The Doctor gritted.

“There is no point to you either.”

“Yeah. Yeah, and maybe that’s true too but she was worth honoring.” The Doctor said, “More than any Dalek. More than your master.”

The Dalek seemed to consider this, as if considering if the Dalek’s purpose was worth honoring now that it seemed that there were no more.

“Then what should I do?” The Dalek said with what the Doctor would almost consider, solemn. “If I have to give myself orders, what orders must I give?”

“You want me to help you?” The Doctor asked, disgusted with the proposition.

“You are the only one left that knows the Daleks. Tell me what I must do.” The Dalek reasoned.

“All right, then. If you want orders, follow this one. Kill yourself.” The Doctor said, coldly.

“The Daleks must survive!” The Dalek cried out.

“The Daleks have failed! Why don't you finish the job and make the Daleks extinct. Rid the Universe of your filth. WHY DON'T YOU JUST DIE!?” The Doctor suddenly realized he was shouting… no, more than that, he was raging, screaming straight at the video screen, he was letting himself be too emotional.

The Dalek stared at the camera and stared right at the Doctor. There was no judgement in the Dalek’s response, but there was certainty in the Dalek’s mind, “You would make a good Dalek.”

The screens went blank, letting the darkness of the screen reflect the Doctor’s horrified look on his face. He had seen that face before, Nova would occasionally get it when she lost herself in her rage or remembered some particularly bad memories.

Nova’s archenemy had been the Cybermen, she was the complete opposite. A power empath who had the ability to turn off her emotions but refused to even though it would be so much less painful. She had allowed her emotions to be numbed due to being overwhelmed but wouldn’t turn them off. Yet because of this, she was the perfect example of the Cybermen’s argument that emotions destroy you. Her emotions had sometimes led her to lose herself and do terrible things. So she had to not be so emotional to think straight. Just like a Cyberman.

The Doctor now realized his own utter loathing for the Daleks were similar to the hatred that all Daleks possessed.

Goddard and Van Statten were silent behind the Doctor until he broke the silence, “Seal the Vault.”

Van Statten started typing away on one keyboard and the Doctor on another as the Dalek started after Lillie, Rose, and Adam again. “I can leech power off the ground defenses, feed it to the bulkheads. God, it's been years since I had to work this fast.”

The Doctor paused and glared at Van Statten. “Are you enjoying this?”

Goddard was looking at the schematics, bringing up life signatures, there was the three of them in the office, the bright light that was the Dalek and three slowly moving up the staircases, not too far away from the Daleks but still behind the bulkhead door.

“Doctor, Lillie and Rose are still down there.”

"Exterminate!" The Dalek about to shoot the Doctor said before, "Ahh..." Then a sword was thrusted through the Dalek's metal before retracting and the Dalek was shoved to the side, revealing an blue-haired woman.

"Doctor!" Nova screamed when she saw him. He turned and she leaped into his arms despite a war going on around them. She let out a soft giggle of relief and disbelief into his ear, making him feel all warm and fuzzy inside as his hearts thumped at an irregular beat. "I found you. I will always find you."

He pulled back, smiling down at her, "I know you will and I will always find you."

She hesitated before leaning up on her toes and pecking his cheek, just at the corner of his lips. Not exactly a kiss but close enough.

"We have a war to win." She said and put on her game face.

The trio were running up a seemingly never-ending staircase when Lillie's phone rang, Lillie wasn't running as fast as she could, she could run faster than Adam but she stayed near Rose, she would protect her by any means possible. Yet she was so dazed with a hurting migraine and images she couldn’t comprehend because they were either too bright for her to see, or there were so many colors she couldn’t process them or noises she didn’t understand, that she actually answered her phone.

WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING!? NOT NOW! KEEP RUNNING! GET ROSE TO SAFETY! Her brain screamed.

"Yeah, this isn't the best time." She answered.

"Where are you?" The Doctor asked.

"Level forty-three." She replied.

"You've got to keep moving."

"What do you think we're doing? Having a picnic!" She shouted back at him

"The vault's being sealed off up at level forty. If you don’t get through, you’ll die.”

"Oh, really!?” She huffed and asked, “Can't you stop them closing?"

"I'm the one who's closing them. I can't wait and I can't help you. Now for God's sake, run."

"Fantastic." She muttered, sarcastically before relaying the message to Rose and Adam.

—

“I’ve done it. We’ve got power to the bulkheads.” Van Statten said.

“Just a couple of more minutes. Give them as much time as we can.” The Doctor said.

“No, we don’t have any more time. The power is already fluctuating, I won’t be able to keep hold of it!” Van Statten argued.

“They’re just a few floors away.” The Doctor protested.

“So is the Dalek, it’s right behind them.” Goddard said, following the Dalek’s progress.

“We’re nearly there. Just give us two seconds.” Lillie’s voice shouted through the phone but they all knew there wasn’t enough time.The Doctor saw one of the life signatures slow down to another and Lillie’s voice distantly said through the phone, “Come on, Rose!”

“If you don’t lower them, I’ll do it myself!” Van Statten said but he went quiet when the Doctor gave him a glare.

“No. It has to be me.” He said, quietly.

Just one tap of the “Enter” key and the bulkheads would start to lower.

He had sacrificed his own race. He let the Elders die. He’d sacrificed everything he thought he was, what made him the Doctor. His own conscience… the love of his life. It would all be for nothing if he couldn’t sacrifice his best friends. Just two sisters. Two human sisters. Just two human girls. Lillie and Rose Tyler.

Do it, Doctor. Damn yourself completely. The voice wasn’t any of his or Nova’s… but the monster’s creator.

Perhaps, this was who he was. He couldn’t escape it after all. Maybe he was a destroyer of lives, maybe he was just like the Dalek. A killer.

“I’m sorry.” He said and pressed “enter.”

—

They had reached the fortieth floor when the bulkhead doors started to close and Lillie knew not all of them would be able to make it through. But Lillie still slowed down for Rose, pushing the small of her back so she’d run faster. She knew the Dalek was close, she could feel it in her mind, prickling, trying to get in but unlike before it couldn’t. Something wasn’t allowing the Dalek to get in despite it’s efforts and she knew… she just knew that if it wasn’t for her determination to save Rose, that maybe the Dalek could get through.

"Come on!" Adam shouted at them and then he was through. He was safe. But Rose and Lillie weren’t. Not yet. Less than a hundred meters.

She heard screams in her head… it sounded like her scream, overlapping with one another, like a montage someone makes of a character to illustrate that character’s pain and therefore their strength, the voices were back to back but she couldn’t make out what they were saying. The only thing she did know was that they were full of strength, determination, bravery, and resilience.

She saw Adam through the bulkhead door, he had stopped now that he was safe. His face was aghast, he also realized that they both may not make it through if either of them. She could sense Rose starting to slow down even if that wasn't a conscious choice.

No. No! Rose. ROSE!

Then the screams got louder, they were screams of effort, screams that one does when fighting back.

“NO!” Lillie screamed, she may have been doing a scream too, she couldn’t tell since all of her thoughts seemed to be screaming but she was solely focused on getting Rose through. Then it was as if a white hotness shot over her mind, her eyes blazed purple and her compass glowed and she pushed Rose with all her might, Rose didn’t realize what was happening, suddenly she was going faster and then a force seemed to pushed her so she slid under the bulkhead door… leaving Lillie behind.

Lillie’s empty hand hit the bulkhead door and she closed her eyes. She was going to die.

—

“The vault is sealed.” Van Statten said.

The Doctor didn’t bother with the map. He brought a hand to the comm in his ear, maybe they got through. They were brilliant. They were extraordinary…

—

Lillie was breathing heavily yet steadily as she rested her head against the bulkhead door. Lillie could hear Rose’s muffled sounds of initial confusion. Where’s Lillie? Where did Lillie go?

She couldn’t tell if Adam was answering but Rose’s voice got louder with failing attempts of denial.

No! No! She got through! She must have!

Then another muffled voice came from the phone in Lillie’s hand.

"Lillie? Rose? Where are you? Did you make it?"

Lillie breathed heavily as she brought the phone to her ear as Rose’s voice started to rise to screams of hysteria.

On the other side of the metal door, Lillie could hear her sister screaming and wailing as she banged her open hands against the door.

"LILLIE!" She screamed. "LILLIE! OPEN THEM BACK UP! PLEASE, OPEN THEM UP!"

At least, Rose was safe.

"I'm sorry, Doctor. I was a bit slow." Lillie turned to see the Dalek approaching her, it was closer than she thought it would be. "See you then, Doctor. It wasn't your fault. Remember that, okay? It wasn't your fault.” She knew he was blaming himself and he had to know that it wasn’t. She didn’t blame him. She wasn’t worth the world. But he did blame himself. “And you know what? I wouldn't have missed it for the world. Tell my mum… Tell my Mum I love her or have Rose tell her so she doesn’t kill you.” She attempted a laugh but it was weak. “Take care of Rose for me, won't you?"

“Lillie.”

“Promise me.”

“Lillie…”

“Promise me! Promise me that you’ll take care of Rose!” She shouted, the Dalek seemed to be rather respectful for her last words. It just stood there, examining her. “Promise me! Let me have that! Promise me she’ll be safe!”

“I… I…” He couldn’t deprive her of that. Her dying wish. “I promise…”

She hung up the phone and called to Rose on the other side, "I love you, Rosie. Never forget that. Rose Tyler… I love you." Rose pressed her ear against her side of the wall as Lillie turned to face the Dalek, she wouldn’t cry. She would be brave. She knew it would be painful. Everyone else had died screaming but it was worth it. Rose and everyone else was safe.

"Exterminate." The Dalek said.

She saw flashes behind her eyes, "Exterminate."

The Doctor didn’t see it but Nova did. “DOCTOR!” She screamed, pushing him out of the way and the Dalek hit her in the chest, her skeleton glowed before she fell as Dalek Caan then made his escape.

“Nova, no!” He cried, distraught, he fell to his knees and pulled her into his lap. “Nova!”

“M’ Sorry.” She breathed, her words slightly slurring from the pain; he could see her hand veins already starting to glow the color of a supernova as she lifted them to look at them, “Fuck, he got me good.”

“Why? Why would you do that?” He sobbed as she lowered them.

“Because I-I…” Her body began to glow like an aura. “Doctor, I…” She let out a bitter chuckle, “you know why. Because…” She broke off, gasping in pain as the glow in her veins reached her cheeks.

“Shh, don’t talk.” He hushed her, stroking her hair, ignoring that it was burning his hands.

“No, this is my last chance to say it.” Her voice broke.

"No, you’re going to be okay. You’re always okay.”

“No, I’m not. Elder is dying… and there’ll be no more children to be born for me to be reborn as. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Doc.” Her purple eyes looked into his blue ones as her eyes started to glow. She uttered out his true name before her body let out an explosion, cutting her confession short that shot the Doctor a few feet away, when he got up, his body now dying from her blast, her body was gone, leaving nothing but a scorch mark in the shape of a star.

On the other side of the bulkhead doors, Rose let out a gut-wrenching scream as she fell to her knees and pressed her head against the bulkhead door.

The heartbroken girl turned around as Adam eased her away.

When the Doctor heard the Dalek over the system, he tore the comm headset off of his head.

"It killed her." The Doctor said, having flashbacks to... her.

"I'm sorry." Van Statten said.

"I said I'd protect her. She was only here because of me, and you're sorry? I could've killed that Dalek in its cell, but you stopped me." The Doctor spat, bitterly. He kept having flashbacks of her brilliant smile.

"It was the prize of my collection!" Van Statten defended.

"Your collection? But was it worth it? Worth all those men's deaths? Worth Lillie?” Saying her name brought back the pain that she was dead and he only blamed himself and he swept all the junk off Van Statten’s desk, all the artefacts, all the toys, all the junk. All junk compared to Lillie. “Let me tell you something, Van Statten. Mankind goes into space to explore, to be part of something greater."

"Exactly! I wanted to touch the stars!"

"No, Lillie did. You? You just want to drag the stars down and stick them underground, underneath tons of sand and dirt, and label them. You're about as far from the stars as you can get…” The Doctor shouted and then his voice became quiet. “And you took her down with you. She was eighteen years old."

His mind flashed to Nova's dying moments. He got them both killed.

—

Adam stood there as Rose continued to wail and scream in anguish.

A thought popped in his head. Safe now. She can’t take your job now.

He felt a wave of grief and guilt at the thought. He hadn’t thought about that since they were in his workshop. But had there been a part of him that had still worried about it? He looked up at Rose who was still sobbing, weakly beating her hands against the bulkhead door. Maybe Lillie had been right, if he had developed this way of thinking in his time of working with Van Statten was it really worth all that money he was offered.

The Dalek had only hit the bulkhead. Lillie opened her blue eyes that she had closed from instinct when she heard the laser but she didn’t feel pain other than the migraine and the pain from running thirteen flights and corridors. It hadn’t killed her.

Lillie opened her blue eyes to find that she was still alive, the Dalek had hit the bulkhead doors, it hadn't killed her.

"Go on then, kill me." Lillie demanded but it didn't move. She heard Adam through the bulkhead door, pulling Rose away. "Why're you doing this?"

“I gave myself orders.”

“Oh, did you?” She scoffed, “And did you enjoy them? Enjoy killing all those people. They had lives. People they loved. They had no say in what happened to you. I bet the majority of them didn’t even know what was happening to you!”

"I am armed. I will kill. It is my purpose." The Dalek said.

"They're all dead because of you." She said, bitterly.

"They are dead because of us." It corrected.

All she ever wanted was to help people. "And now what? What're you waiting for?" She demanded, her voice shaking, not from fear of it but from rage at what it had done.

"I feel… I can feel your fear." It said.

"What do you expect?" She snapped.

“I feel everyone’s fear. I can see your emotions. Daleks do not fear. Must not fear." It said and then it shot at either side of the bulkhead door.

The Dalek assumed it had healed itself through Lillie's exposure from the Tardis, taking the ability of regeneration, the Time Lords were so skilled at having but that wasn't true.

It had nothing to do with the Tardis. It was simply from who Nova once was. She once had the ability of resurrection before her companion’s death and her rampage of revenge which had downgraded her ability to reincarnation. Whether she wasn’t deemed worthy enough for it or self-actualization. And before the climax of the Time War, she had resurrected someone which had nearly deprived her of all her strength but she did it for her people and for Gallifrey. She had also possessed an enhanced form of healing, via stellar, cosmos, and universal energies. That was what the Dalek had tapped into but what it didn't know was how much of the combination of Lillie and Nova it had absorbed. Right now, it was still simply Dalek but with one thing: it found Lillie Tyler utterly fascinating. And it disgusted it.

"You gave me life. What else have you given me? I am contaminated."

"What do you mean? Contaminated?" She asked. “There’s more to life than hatred!”

The Dalek had formed a memory file on Lillie, continuously filling it out through the day as it chased her down. Even keeping information it had gained from the internet about her.

Name: Delilah "Lillie" Tyler Gender: Female Subject Age: Eighteen and five months and thirty days Species: Human Nationality: English; London Appearance: Five foot three, curly brunette hair, blue eyes, pale skin Notes: High intelligence, High Empathy, ADHD, Cares for Rose Tyler above all else, Trusted assistant to the Doctor, Strongly resembles Princess Supernova, Her touch revived the Daleks!!!!!!!!

"You remind me of someone." It said suddenly.

"What?"

"An enemy long ago. She was killed."

"Who?"

"Princess Supernova of Elder."

“So what?”

“I AM SUPPOSED TO HATE PRINCESS SUPERNOVA! SHE IS THE PREDATOR OF THE DALEKS!” It started to tantrum.

Lillie waited until it stopped before she said, "It's called empathy. What you’re feeling.”

"DALEKS DO NOT FEEL EMPATHY!" It bellowed.

"You fed off my DNA. Empathy is a genetic trait that is inherent more than taught. You thought you were just feeding off of the time energy from me but you did more than that—you fed off of me." Lillie said, getting closer so she was staring into its eyestalk.

Adam and Rose entered the office, Rose's hair was a mess, her face was streaked with tears from crying at the apparent loss of her only sister. Her baby sister. The one she swore she would take care of.

"Doctor, it killed her." She sobbed, running to him, "It killed Lillie!" The nineteen-year-old's whole body racked with sobs which broke the Doctor's hearts.

He glared at Adam, accusingly, "YOU WERE QUICK ON YOUR FEET, LEAVING LILLIE BEHIND!"

"I'm not the one who sealed the vault!" Adam shouted back.

Then the screen turned on, revealing the Dalek and a very alive Lillie Tyler. Rose turned around, still crying.

"Open the bulkhead or Lillie Tyler dies."

It was true. Lillie was alive. Standing in front of the Dalek to the side so the gun arm jabbed her in the lower back. Rose let out a tearful gasp of disbelief yet relief, "you're alive."

"Can't get rid of me that easily, Rosie." Lillie said with a light chuckle.

"I thought you were dead." Rose said.

The Doctor’s smile faded when he realized this meant he’d have to sacrifice her all over again. And this time, the Dalek would force him and Rose to watch. Rose may not but he would watch.

“Lillie…” The Doctor called out, helplessly. He couldn’t help it.

Was Lillie crying? Tears weren’t falling but her body language said she wanted to. “I’m so sorry.” She said. He closed the door on her with the killing machine, a creature that would rearrange her internal organs, painfully, and she was sorry.

"Open the bulkhead!"

"Don't do it!" Lillie told them. “He’s bluffing. He can’t kill me!”

He? The Doctor thought.

The Dalek pressed its sucker on the side of Lillie's face, it put pressure as it half covered her face.

Rose cried out in fear, “NO!”

Lillie still resisted as she swore into the sucker, she fought.

"What use are emotions if you will not save the woman you love?"

The Doctor paused, momentarily being lost in memories. "I killed her once." His words were carried more weight than they thought, "I can't do it again." The Doctor said, no one stopped him. He pushed the button and the bulkhead opened.

The Dalek let Lillie go who recoiled with anger and few creative expletives and the Dalek… was the Dalek hanging its eyestalk in shame… what was the Doctor looking at and then the screen cut off.

"What do we do now, you bleeding heart!" Van Statten shouted, "What the hell do we do?"

"Kill it when it gets here." Adam suggested and Rose looked at him like, what do think they've been doing?

"All the guns are useless, and the alien weapons are in the vault." Goddard said.

"Only the catalogued ones." Adam said and Van Statten looked at him like, excuse me?

The Dalek forced Lillie to walk through, jabbing her in the back with the gun arm, towards the elevator.

"I saw the love in your thoughts." The Dalek said, "that need."

"You can't tell me you don't need."

"The Doctor... would you die for him?"

Yes.

"I don't know." She refused to admit that she would willingly give up so much for someone who she had known for so little time but she would. She would risk for life to give someone she hated another chance. And she far from hated the Doctor.

"You do know. I have seen the answer. You would die. You would die for the rest of eternity for him."

“Then why ask?”

“There are things I would die for. We are not so different.”

She spun around, furious. “WE ARE NOTHING ALIKE!” She shouted, “YOU ARE DETERMINED TO FIGHT A DYING CAUSE!”

“You save lives with the Doctor. They will one day die.”

“They mean more than your cause!” She spat.

. I was bred to kill and then to die. And I was not afraid. Death was part of my function. But you revived me. By giving me life, you gave me choice.”

"Of course, I did."

"I was never intended to have choice."

"What kind of existence is that?"

"The Dalek way."

“Please…” Lillie said and the Dalek didn’t want to listen but still it did. “You don’t have to kill any more.”

“There are nothing but choices. I see that now. How can you endure it? There is a world inside you. I thought you were small but you are like Time Lord science. All of your thoughts, beliefs, ideas, how do you not drown?"

“How can you endure nothing but hatred?” She countered, “I’ve gone my whole life with choices. I do drown. They overwhelm me sometimes but I’d rather be overwhelmed with emotions than have none at all.”

“Who are you, Lillie Tyler? Who is the Bad Wolf?”

“What?” Lillie asked.

“And why do you look so much like Princess Supernova and why are you so much like her?”

Lillie didn’t know how to respond.

“Do not leave me, Lillie Tyler.”

“I won’t.” She said. Even after all this, she still had the capacity to have mercy for him. And the Dalek knew that it was all because of Rose. And they entered the elevator.

—

Adam and Rose stood in Adam's workshop as the Doctor shifted through the guns, acknowledging them for what they really were and tossing them on the ground. "Broken. Broken. Hairdryer."

"Mister Van Statten tends to dispose of his staff, and when he does he wipes their memory." Adam explained, "I kept this stuff in case I needed to fight my way out one day."

"What, you in a fight? I'd like to see that." The Doctor scoffed.

"I could do." Adam said, indignantly.

"What're you going to do, throw your A-Levels at 'em?" The Doctor asked, sarcastically when he found an actual functioning weapon, "Oh, yes. Lock and load."

The Doctor stopped and noticed a series of scattered objects. Jewlery. That he recognized from a nieghboring planet.

"What are these?" He asked, angrily.

"What?" Adam asked, "Just... alien jewelery. I don't know."

"Yeah, Elder jewlery. These belonged to Elder."

“Doctor!” Rose exclaimed, giving him a pleading look and he nodded. That could wait. He needed to save Lillie.

The brunette and the Dalek were in the elevator as Lillie pleaded with it.

"I'm begging you, don't kill them. You didn't kill me." Lillie begged.

"But why not?" It asked, turning its eyestalk to her, nearly smacking her in the head with it, "Why are you alive? My function is to kill. What am I? What am I?

"Something more. Something with compassion and acceptance."

"You are describing Elders! Daleks hate Elders!" The Dalek shouted at her.

The doors opened, revealing Van Statten and Diana Goddard but not Adam, Rose, or the Doctor, they were safe at least. "Don't move. Don't do anything. It's beginning to question itself." She warned.

The Dalek moved towards the terrified Van Statten. "Van Statten.” For so long all, he had wanted was for the Dalek to say his name but the name he had felt carried the power of the world was spat out in that metallic turning voice like an insult. “You tortured me. Why?"

"I wanted to help you. I just, I don't know. I was trying to help. You’re a survivor.” Correct. “We’re both survivors.” Incorrect. “If you could guess at things I’ve had to do.” Everyone in the room—Goddard, Lillie, the Dalek, and even Van Statten were disgusted by his words, but it disgusted Van Statten in a different way. He was proving he wasn’t the smooth negotiator he seemed to think his portrait conveyed, he was a blubbering child, in the rare moments, he wasn’t having a tantrum when he didn’t get what he wanted. But he couldn’t stop blubbering. “I thought if we could get through to you, if we could mend you. I wanted you better. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry! I swear, I just wanted you to talk!" Van Statten stammered, tearfully and fearfully as he was backed up against the wall.

He apparently wasn't expendable, but all those people were. The dark part of Lillie thought that he deserved it more than anyone below that had died because of his greed and arrogance. Because of a childhood fancy.

“What would you have had me say?” The Dalek asked.

That had genuinely never occurred to Van Statten. He had no answer.

"Then hear me talk now. Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate!"

But she needed to be merciful. It’s what Rose would do.

"Don't do it! Don't kill him!" It turned and looked Lillie straight in the face, Van Statten was impressed that she was able to make the Dalek listen to her, she looked at it, unafraid. She was proof personified that there was power in being kind, not that Van Statten could ever understand that. "You don't have to do this anymore. There must be something else, not just killing. What else is there? What do you want?" Lillie pleaded.

"I want freedom." It said.

"Then come and I'll show you freedom," She said.

“Wait.” The Dalek turned back to Van Statten, making him back against the wall. “Touch me.”

Van Statten remembered the man who had burst into flames when he touched the Dalek’s casing.

“I can’t. I-I’ll die.”

“No. You have nothing I wish to extrapolate from you. There is nothing in you I could want.”

Van Statten obeyed and he didn’t die… he felt… honored… he would only later realize that it wasn’t an honor, it was a curse, growing nightmares where Van Statten himself was the Dalek, killing everyone he had ever known but he had too much pride in the immediate aftermath to erase his memory.

Lillie and the Dalek walked down the corridor a little until the Dalek stopped. It determined that the wall was at its weakest just below the helipad and it told Lillie this who nodded in understanding.

“So you did it. You’re free.” She said and then she frowned. Another similarity with the Doctor, the Dalek didn’t like it when Lillie frowned. The Dalek felt confusion in its mind that it didn’t like either. “So why don’t you do it, then? Isn’t this what you wanted?”

It the closest thing to an order that it figured it would get from her, so it fired and blasted a hole in the roof, rubble fell but Lillie didn’t flinch, she just coughed, waving the dust away, a beam of beautiful sunlight streamed down on them.

"You're out. You made it.” She raised her hand into the light, feeling the sun and she moved into the light to it beamed on her face, “I never thought I'd feel the sunlight again."

"How does it feel?"

“Didn’t they have a sun on your planet?” She asked. No answer. Oh. He had never felt the sun before. “Can’t you…” Her voice trailed off.

The idea of opening the Dalek casing has never occurred to the Dalek. But it was now… along with so many more ideas.

Lillie moved to look at the front of the Dalek, but not blocking the sunlight, she could hear the machinery whirring and creaking.

The casing of the Dalek opened, revealing a deeply pale—paler than Lillie—one-eyed mutant alien with tendrils for limbs, there were grooves in his skin that resembled the ones of a brain, there were thick webs of some kind of mucus or slime and Lillie had the feeling the tech was wired into the Dalek’s skin.

The Dalek felt like Lillie truly knew him. He thought he would sense her revolution or disgust, there was a twinge of disgust but that had been there since the killing spree, but the Dalek could feel her understanding of who he was, what he was. There was sympathy but not pity.

She noticed old and new burns from the torture, burnt flesh, and sores where metal had or still was pierced into the skin——some of the Dalek oozed on to the floor, she wondered if she should fetch a mop but she wouldn’t think using a broom to swept up someone’s ashes would be proper so a mop wouldn’t be either. She wasn’t disgusted and she wouldn’t allow herself to be fascinated. She chose to accept the Dalek for who he was. She wondered if this was what Daleks were originally or if they had devolved over time in order to survive in that metal prison it called casing, but felt it rude to ask.

The Dalek reached one of the tendrils out into the sunlight, for years, the Dalek had only felt painful physical heat as it was burned to appease an egotistical man’s childhood fancy but now it felt a different warmth. A similar warmth it got from Lillie’s kindness but this warmth didn’t make it’s Dalek philosophy scream in shame.

Lillie gave the Dalek a small smile, it didn’t contain any genuine joy per se but more of a sympathetic happiness for the Dalek, that it finally got some semblance of life… of freedom… or choice… or life.

"Get out of the way.” The Doctor shouted, she turned to see the Doctor with a huge gun pointed at them with Rose behind him who didn't seem to approve of what he was doing but was willing to do whatever it took to save her sister. “Lillie, get out of the way now!"

"No. I won't let you do this." Lillie said.

"That thing killed hundreds of people." The Doctor argued.

"It's not the one pointing the gun at me." Lillie pointed out, darkly and the Doctor flinched as if Lillie had been the second Tyler to slap him.

"I've got to do this. I've got to end it. The Daleks destroyed my home, my people. Nova and her people. I've got nothing left."

"Look at it." She said, looking at the alien, showing him the Dalek’s open casing.

The Doctor was confused, Daleks usually never voluntarily opened their armor, much like Ice Warriors.

"What's it doing?" Rose asked.

"It's the sunlight, that's all it wants." Lillie said.

"But it can't." The Doctor said, Daleks didn’t want anything but to destroy.

"It couldn't kill Van Statten, it couldn't kill me. It said it took the time energy from me. I think it took more from me. Empathy is a genetic trait. It-It's changing. What about you, Doctor? What the hell are you changing into?" Lillie spat.

The Doctor lowered the gun as if it suddenly became too heavy for him, holding it limply at his side. He looked away from the Dalek and straight into Lillie’s eyes. "I couldn't...” He choked on his words and looked back at the Dalek. “I wasn't...” He stopped again, looking at the Dalek, at its eye, the only sign of what it once was. Then he looked back at Lillie. “Oh, Lillie. They're all dead."

Rose couldn't keep herself back anymore, she ran to her sister, pulling her in for a hug, crying tears of joy as she nearly squeezed the life out of her younger sister.

"Rose." She groaned.

“I thought I lost you…”

"Why do we survive?" The Dalek asked.

"I don't know."

"I am the last of the Daleks." The Dalek said.

"You're not even that. Lillie did more than regenerate you. You've absorbed her DNA. You're mutating."

"Into what?" The Dalek asked.

"Something new. I'm sorry."

"Isn't that better?" Rose asked.

"Not for a Dalek."

"I can feel so many ideas. So much darkness. So much of your darkness, Lillie. Like… like a dark star. Lillie, give me orders. Order me to die." It told her.

"No, I can't do that." She refused, shaking her head. “Please, don’t make me.”

"This is not life. This is sickness. I shall not be like you. Order my destruction! Obey! Obey! Obey!"

Lillie closed her eyes as a tear fell, "Do it." She whispered.

And the Dalek could feel her sorrow, overwhelming, so much that it felt like physical pain.

"Are you frightened, Lillie Tyler?"

"Yeah." She said.

"So am I. Exterminate." The Dalek said, it closed its eye as the sisters retreated towards the Doctor. The armor closed up and rose into the air. The balls on its lower body spread out around it creating a forcefield, then it imploded safely.

Lillie buried her face into her sister's shoulder and she started to cry.

“It’s my fault. I did all this.” She cried, nearly buckling, she was so exhausted she couldn’t even rely on her usual coping mechanism of smiling.

Lillie had soon gathered herself as Diana Goddard arrested Van Statten, which Lillie openly applauded as Goddard listed the various crimes, Van Statten had committed including in being responsible for the death of fellow FBI agent, Owen Bywater.

The Doctor had gone back to Adam's workshop and got a box and gathered all of the Elder artifacts he could find. Nova deserved that. She may not have survived but this way, some of Elder still survived and he would keep watch over them in the Tardis. A lot of them were jewelry, Elder had been known for their galaxy-colored gems, the royals being Nova and Queen Kassandra had them but they distributed them to the Elder public, they had always believed that they weren't above their people but it was deemed too risky to distribute them across the universe, their gems were rumored to have energy. Actual energy. On Earth, gems were believed to have emotional energies but on Elder they actually worked. Some of them her basic tools, nothing too dangerous. Some medical tools, some tools that were used to help young Elders become used to their powers, some just everyday tools used for things such as agriculture, architecture, astronomy, science, cooking, gem mining, and other everyday jobs and activities. It was funny how many had ended up on Earth, nonetheless in this very workshop, but Elder technology had been known for its efficiency so the royal family would be generous with giving their tools to other planets.

Back in the museum where the Tardis was.

"A little piece of home. Better than nothing." The Doctor said, hand on his ship, affectionately.

"Is that the end of it, the Time War?" Rose asked.

"I'm the only one left. I win. How about that?" The Doctor said, bitterly.

"The Dalek survived. Maybe some of your people did too." Lillie suggested.

"I'd know. In here." He said, tapping his temple, "feels like there's no one."

"Well then, good thing we're not going anywhere." Lillie said.

"Yeah."

Adam approached them, "We'd better get out. Van Statten's disappeared. They're closing down the base. Goddard says they're going to fill it full of cement, like it never existed."

"About time." Rose scoffed.

"I'll have to go back home." He said.

"Better hurry up then. Next flight to Heathrow leaves at fifteen hundred hours."

"Adam was saying that all his life he wanted to see the stars." Rose told the Doctor.

"Tell him to go and stand outside, then." The Doctor sassed.

"He's all on his own, Doctor, and he did help." Lillie said.

"He left you down there." He argued.

"So did you." She reminded him.

"What're you talking about? We've got to leave." Adam said, confused.

"Plus, he's a bit pretty." The Doctor commented.

"I hadn't noticed." Rose shrugged.

"On your own head." He said and then unlocked the Tardis.

"What're you doing? She said cement. She wasn't joking. We're going to get sealed in." Adam said but was ignored by the trio as they entered the Tardis. "Doctor? What're you doing standing inside a box?” He heard the engines starting up and his curiosity got the better of him. “Rose? Lillie?" Adam crept inside and the Tardis dematerialized.

0 notes

gryfflepuffinthetardis · 3 months

Text

The Disappearance of Will Byers

"She was daring, she was dreamy. She was that cute little rebel that one never asked for but always wished for."

"Something is coming. Something hungry for blood." Twelve-year-old Mike Wheeler told his friends during the D&D campaign. "A shadow grows on the wall behind you, swallowing you in darkness. It is almost here."

"What is it?" Will Byers asked.

"What if it's the Demogorgon?" Dustin Henderson asked, anxiously and Will fell back in his chair, "Oh, Jesus, we're so screwed if it's the Demogorgon."

"It's not the Demogorgon." Lucas Sinclair insisted.

"An army of troglodytes charge into the chamber!" Mike exclaimed.

"Troglodytes?" Dustin smiled.

"Told you." Lucas chuckled and they all chuckled.

"Wait a minute," Mike said, softly. "Did you hear that? That... that sound? Boom... boom... BOOM!" He slammed his hand on the table for dramatic effect, something he picked up from Dustin's older sister. "That didn't come from the troglodytes. No, that... that came from something else." He slammed a figurine down, "The Demogorgon!" And the rest of the boys groaned.

"We're in deep shit!" Dustin exclaimed.

"Will, your action!" Mike shouted.

"I don't know!" Will cried.

"Fireball him!" Lucas advised.

"I'd have to roll a thirteen or higher!" Will pointed out.

"Too risky. Cast a protection spell." Dustin recommended.

"Don't be a pussy. Fireball him!" Lucas argued.

"Cast protection."

Mike slammed his hands on the table, "the Demogorgon is tired of your silly human bickering! It stomps towards you. BOOM!" Mike shouted.

"Fireball him!" Lucas cried.

"Another stomp, boom!"

"Cast protection."

"He roars in anger."

Their voices overlapped until Will rolled the dice, "Fireball!" The dice rolled off the table.

"Oh shit!"

"Where'd it go? Where is it?" Lucas asked.

"I don't know!" Will said.

"Is it a thirteen?" Dustin asked.

"I don't know."

"Where is it?"

"Oh my god."

Mike's mother, Karen started to shout for him, "Mike! Mike!"

"Can you find it?"

"No, I can't find it!"

Karen opened the door to the basement, "Mike!"

Mike looked up at her, "Mom, we're in the middle of a campaign!"

"You mean the end? Fifteen after." She left and Mike ran after her to plead for more time.

"Freaking idiot!" Lucas groaned.

"Oh, I got it!" Will exclaimed, finally finding the dice. "Does a seven count?"

"It was a seven? Did Mike see it?" Will shook his head. "Then it doesn't count."

Dustin gathered his stuff to head home when he picked up the pizza box, "Yo, hey guys. Does anyone want this?"

"No." They said.

Dustin headed up the stairs to Mike's sister, Nancy's room where she was on the phone with her best friend, Barb about a boy from school. Steve Harrington to be exact.

"Yeah. No, I don't think... yeah, he's cute. Steve. Steve's cute." Nancy said and Dustin bit his lip and narrowed his eyes. He wasn't a big fan of Steve and didn't see why his sister liked him so much. "Barb, no, I don't think he like-likes me. Barb, you're not..."

"Hey, Nancy." He called when she didn't notice him. She was a teenaged girl thinking about the most popular boy in school it'd probably be hours before she would notice him even with his large curly hair and adorkable smile. She looked over at one of her best friend's younger brother. "There's a slice left if you want it." He opened the box, "Sausage and pepperoni!"

Annoyed that he would dare interrupt her ultra-important phone call that she could easily have at school the next day, she told Barb through the phone, "Hold on." She walked to him with a sickly-sweet bratty in a teenage girl way smile and closed the door in his face.

They both knew if Nancy's other best friend and Dustin's sister were there, she'd smack Nancy upside the head so hard that her head would hit the wall for being so catty to her brother. Cassie Dare had a love for her brother that Nancy couldn't understand despite her having two younger siblings which was one more than Cassie had. Dustin was more than just a little brother to Cassie, he was her best friend. Nancy guessed that his rare genetic disorder did that as both her siblings were relatively normal health-wise, other than she was bewildered when she was told her mom was pregnant with Holly due to the fact that she had never seen anything resembling a spark between her parents.

He joined his best friends outside and told Mike, "There's something wrong with your sister."

"What are you talking about?" Mike asked.

Dustin headed to his bike, "She's got a stick up her butt."

"Yeah." Lucas agreed, "It's because she's been dating that douchebag, Steve Harrington."

"Yep, she's turning into a real jerk." Dustin nodded.

"She's always been a real jerk." Mike said like this was common knowledge.

"Nuh-uh, she used to be cool like my sister." Dustin said, "Like that time she dressed up as an elf and Cass dressed like a guardian dhampir for our Elder tree campaign."

"Four years ago!" Mike shouted as Dustin rode off on his bike.

"Just sayin'."

"At least, Cassie can balance time with us and the douchebag." Mike called, hoping his sister could hear him.

The party knew of Steve Harrington due to Dustin's sister, Cassie's friendship with Steve, but they didn't know him personally—how Cassie did. The real Steve. The one he tried to hide under a façade of douchebaggery.

Dustin was proud to say he had the coolest sibling in the party. She was badass, geeky, intelligent, and caring. She was sarcastic, mouthy, and loud like he was.

When they reached Lucas' house, he turned to his friend, "Good night, ladies."

"Kiss your mom 'night for me." Dustin teased and he turned to Will, "Race you back to my place? Winner gets a comic."

"Any comic?" Will asked.

"Yeah." Will took off, "Hey! Hey! I didn't say go!" Dustin shouted after him as he tried to catch up. "Get back here! I'm gonna kill you!"

"I'll take your X-Men 134!"

Cassandra Delphia "Cassie Dare" "Cassie" Henderson is wild, dangerous... insubordinate... Right here, folks. right here.

Cassie was in her room, dancing to Killer Queen by Queen from her boombox.

She had a love for the band that she shared with her father along with The Velvet Underground and Doctor Who and Bentleys and music. Her auburn hair bounced as she spun, dressed only in underwear and a long Queen shirt, and then... she gasped in pain as a headache formed as if she were trying to remember but worse, it was like something had happened elsewhere yet it still affected her, she stumbled back into her drawer, holding herself up with her elbows.

Her memory flashed images of children in hospital gowns dead with blood around them, blood ran out of her nose heavily which made her hand fly up to it, "Shit!" The images stopped as her knees buckled inwards and she fell down, grasping a hand to her head as she could hear a ringing sound in her ears until she heard a voice that grounded her.

A scream somewhat resembling a pterodactyl scream that told her that her little brother was home. "I'M GONNA KILL YOU!"

"I'LL TAKE YOUR X-MEN 134!" She heard Will Byer shout.

Dustin often forgot his key and as she had predicted there was a loud, furious, and rapid knocking at the front door screaming at the top of his lungs as if Dustin had been locked out for five hours, rather than five seconds, "CASSIE! OPEN THE GODDAMN DOOR BEFORE I FREEZE MY ASS OUT HERE! IT'S FUCKING FREEZING OUT HERE!" She unlocked the door before the neighbors started yelling at them for Dustin to shut up... again and threaten to call the police... again and actually call the police... again. Even without her brother's antics, her family was not the most loved in Hawkins due to her father. The auburn traumatized girl let her curly-haired brother in. "I lost my X-Men 134!" He complained.

"Yes, I think the whole neighborhood heard. Actually, I think all of Indiana and maybe some of Russia heard." She deadpanned as she shut and locked the door. "You hungry?"

"Nah, we ate pizza. I tried to offer Nancy some but she's a jerk now. Night, Cassie!" Dustin went into his room.

Cassie loved her brother more than anything, she had been four when he was born, and he immediately became the most important thing in her life for the rest of her life. She went to go to bed with the usual nightmares of the bloody corpses of those children.

In the morning, the phone rang and she got up from the table to answer. "Hello? You've reached the Henderson Household. This is Cassie Dare speaking." She said.

"Hi, Cassie. It's Joyce." Came Joyce's hoarse and worried voice.

"Hi, Joyce. Um, did you need something?" She asked into the phone.

"Will didn't happen to spend the night at your house, did he?" Joyce's voice asked nervously.

"Will? N-no. I heard him go by our house last night." Cassie said, getting a bad feeling in her chest. "Is-is he not home? Do you need me to come over?"

"No, I think maybe he just left early for-for school." Joyce stammered, "Thank you so much. Bye."

"Bye..." Then Joyce hung up and Cassie started to bite her lip as anxiety started in her. Will had been like a brother to her when she and Jonathan became best friends and more so when Dustin and he became friends. Will had actually been the one to bring Dustin into the party.

The boys biked their way to school as Mike informed them that Joyce, Will's mother called. Will wasn't there.

"His mom's probably right." Lucas reasoned, "he probably just went to class early."

"Yeah, he's always paranoid Gursky's gonna give him another pop quiz." Dustin said.

"How's Cassie?" Mike asked.

"Tried to pretend she didn't spend the night having nightmares." Dustin sighed, he had left earlier than her since she had a car and her driving honestly terrified him.

"Again?" Lucas asked.

"Give her a break, she was hospitalized by mysterious lab for three weeks." Dustin snapped at Lucas, "cooler than anything your sister's done, all she does is sass. Cassie is legitimately traumatized."

"How?" Lucas scoffed.

"DON'T YOU DARE BELITTLE HER TRAUMA!" Dustin suddenly scream, pointing his finger at a bewildered Lucas who was looking at him like, idiot!

"She tell you what it was about?" Mike asked, moving past this.

"No. I don't think she remembered but when I got to her room at two in the monring, she was nearly doubled over in pain from a migraine." Dustin said but before the boys could ask about it they were interrupted.

"Step right up, ladies and gentlemen." Troy, a fourteen-year-old bully exclaimed. "Step right up and get your tickets for the freak show. Who do you think would make more money in a freak show? Midnight, Frogface, or Toothless."

James pretended to think about it but let's be honest he had like two brain cells. If he actually did try to think, it'd probably cause him great exertion.

"I'd go with Toothless." He said, mimicking Dustin's lisp.

"Added bonus for his freak of a sister and your flamboyant father," Troy laughed.

"She is not a freak! She has genuine shock and trauma!" Dustin defended his sister, being as protective of her as she was of him, he also ignored the jab at his father, "And I've told you a million times, my teeth are coming in. It's called cleidocranial dysplasia."

"I told you a million times." James mocked.

"Do the arm thing," Troy demanded

"Do it, freak!" James demanded when Dustin hesitated, exasperatedly.

Dustin did the arm thing, pushing his shoulders moving forwards, being unusually close and his bones cracking, and the bullies groaned in delighted disgust.

"Gets me every time," Troy said and they pushed past the boys.

"You know maybe I should tell Cassie about them," Dustin said. "She'd kick their asses for that.”

"I think it's kind of cool." Mike tried to cheer Dustin up, "it's like you have superpowers or something. Like Mister Fantastic."

"Yeah, except I can't fight evil with it," Dustin said as the boy headed inside. "The best I got is a traumatized sister who thinks she's modern female Robin Hood."

"Wouldn't that still just be Robin Hood?" Mike asked.

Ignoring the anxiety that Joyce had given her, Cassie drove her father's Bentley, blaring Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody. She was trying to drown out noises she kept hearing panicked breathing, screaming, whimpering, electricity sparking, thudding, and then bones cracking.

"Get the intruder!"

"No..." A young girl's voice said with the clear intent to protect.

She suddenly pulled herself back to reality when a horn honked and Cassie remembered, oh my god, I'm driving! She shook her head to find that miraculously she hadn't crashed but nearly did because she was at the turn, she turned into the high school parking lot. She could’ve changed so many lives, she shouldn’t even be driving, she was fifteen, granted her birthday was in a few days but still.

She had been sitting in her car in the High School parking for a full ten minutes, just staring at her left hand that clutched her steering wheel, tightly as she stared at her spinner rings her dad had given to her when her hyperactive symptoms started to appear. She had a mental disorder that was passed down from her father that made her naturally hyperactive and absent-minded, spinning her spin rings helped her focus somewhat. She had a large collection of spinner rings that changed along with her clothes everyday. Today, she had a ring with engravings of flowers and leaves and over it was a snake with a sodalite gem attached to it, a shooting star spinner ring, another snake spinner ring, a crown spinner ring, and yet another snake spinner ring.

Behind her eyes, she saw those children and then blood.

"Do not... worry..." A girl's voice said, softly.

Then she saw her father sobbing again, she remembered the days that followed, his ambition to find out what happened had been replaced by deep depression as he drank himself to oblivion and became very clingy of his daughter as if he were afraid someone was going to take her away from her.

Slam! Cassie jumped when Steve Harrington slammed his hand, cheerfully on the hood of her car. "Hey, Henderson!" She looked at him and the panic faded from her brown eyes. His brown eyes furrowed with worry, "You okay?"

She put on a fake smile, her mask, but Steve had always been able to see through it. He gave her a look, "Cassie."

She got out of her car and closed it and looked at him, "I'm fine, Steve."

He wasn't buying it, so he cupped her face, making her breath hitch in her throat, "Cassandra, you can tell me anything, you know that, right?" His King Steve façade cracked and her Steve shined through. The Steve she loved.

"Yeah, of course." She cleared her throat and stepped back , "Don't you have a note to put in Nancy's locker." She moved past him and he watched her leave.

"Right, Nancy." He whispered to himself.

She turned as she walked backwards, "And don't call me Cassandra, Harrington."

"Whatever you say, Henderson."

She stopped half-way across the parking lot and looked at the middle school. She could see Dustin, Lucas, and Mike talking to two older boys. She could spot her brother from a mile away, only one person in Hawkins had hair like that... but no Will. Something didn't feel right. She tilted her head, what was Dustin doing? The boys walked away and then Dustin was shouting at Lucas.

She was brought back to reality when a car honked and she looked to see Tommy H. and Carol in Tommy's car or as Cassie called it: The Douche-Mobile.

"MOVE, BITCH!" Carol shouted at her as Tommy H. gave her the middle finger as if she were the constant annoyance just for existing (none the less every time she opened her mouth).

She gave him a false smile and flipped them off with both her hands before walking to the school as Steve's gaze lingered on her.

She caught up with Barb and Nancy as Barb asked the dreamy teen, "So, did he call?"

"Keep your voice down," Nancy said as if she thought people were trying to overhear. Like they weren't totally invested in their lives up until the next scandal broke to distract themselves from said lives.

"Did he?" Barb asked.

"I told you. It's not like that. Okay, I mean yes, he likes me, but not like that." She said, clearly just wanting to overcomplicate things for drama sakes as Cassie rolled her eyes and pointed into her mouth, miming retching but neither girl noticed it.

"Or you could just be his next notch under his belt." Cassie said, bluntly, making Nancy's dreamy smile falter.

She stopped when they reached her locker and she started to unlock it, "we just... made out a couple times."

"'We just... made out a couple times.'" Barb mocked as Cassie rolled her eyes once out of Nancy's sight, "Nance, seriously, you're gonna be so cool now, it's ridiculous."

"No, I'm not." Nancy said, modestly but she fully agreed with her and it was already starting to go to her head, making Cassie want to bang her head against the locket door.

"You better still hang out with me, that's all I'm saying. If you become friends with Tommy H. or Carol—"

"Oh gross." Nancy scoffed.

"Back me up here, Cass," Barb said, nudging the brunette back to reality.

"Oh yeah, Carol and Tommy are total jackasses." She nodded and then pointed at Nancy, nearly hitting her in the nose as the blue-eyed girl crossed her eyes to look at it. "You become like them, and I will hurt you. Slowly and painfully. And then I bury your body and nobody will find it." She gave Nancy a sweet but psychopathic smile.

This was considered normal for Cassie Dare Henderson.

"Speak of the devil," Barb hummed, nodding past them.

Cassie then turned to see Steve leaning against his locker looking at her—no, looking at Nancy, surely, he had been looking at Nancy. Steve blushed when he saw that she was looking at him and then walked away.

Steve hadn't been looking at Nancy, he had meant to but got distracted by his beautiful best friend. Cassie had light brown hair that was just one the cusp between brunette and auburn, today it was in a half-fishtail braid, she was wearing a gold and black shirt with a clock on it and an Alice in Wonderland quote on it: "The hurrier I go, the behinder I get", a gold and black plaid skirt, black tights, and black boots with gold buckles.

Steve hadn't been looking at Nancy, he had meant to but got distracted by his beautiful best friend. Cassie had light brown hair that was just one the cusp between brunette and auburn, today it was in a half-fishtail braid, she was wearing a black hooded leather jacket over a bronze and black shirt that said: "Something wicked this way comes" with a skull with a knife in it under the writing, a bronze and black plaid skirt, black ripped tights, and black boots with bronze buckles. She wore colorful mixtape ear cuffs that didn't quite match her outfit but she considered another shout-out to her father other than the crown and snake spinner rings.

Then Cassie turned and saw him, he flinched, standing up straight and blushing, embarrassed to be caught staring at his best friend who then waved at him in a friendly manner.

WAVE! SMILE! DO SOMETHING, YOU IDIOT! He mentally screamed at himself, instead of doing either of those things, he stiffly turned and headed for the bathroom before Cassie started to brood, depressedly.

Real smooth, Harrington. His dad's overly critical voice sassed in his head.

Cassie was not popular despite her best friend being Steve Harrington, the most popular boy in school. In fact, she was the opposite, she was in Hellfire club with Eddie "the freak" Munson, and she dressed like and had the personality of a boy in the early eighties. She swore some people ran away from her.

Cassie was also painfully aware that her and Steve's relationship had been becoming increasingly strained with every year since he entered high school when he first became popular when he started to get tall and confident which coincided around when he adopted his douchebag attitude.

He started hanging out with the likes of Tommy H. and Carol who were the most toxic people she had ever had the displeasure of meeting in her entire almost-sixteen years of life. Literally thirty seconds after Steve introduced them, Cassie wanted nothing more than to punch them in the face until she heard something break.

She couldn't help but think that his popularity was more important than her. She honestly didn't see why he didn't break it off with her already, considering that Tommy H., Carol, Nicole, and the other sheep whose names Cassie had absolutely no interest in even attempting on learning, have straight up outright told her that if it wasn't for her, Steve would be even more popular.

She couldn't help but think that his popularity was more important than her but she couldn't bring herself to break it off. He was too important to her. Part of her was convinced the only reason he wasn't breaking up their friendship was because he felt sorry for her.

"Are you okay?" Nancy asked, noticing that Cassie seemed a bit distracted. Well, more so than usual.

"Did Joyce call your place?" She asked her.

"What do you mean?" Nancy asked, frowning at this seemingly random question and how they weren't talking about her love life anymore, because heaven forbid, her nonexistent love life and social status not be the only subject of importance.

"She called asking about Will. I guess he didn't come home last night." She confessed.

"She did call but I'm sure he's fine." Nancy shrugged. "Nothing ever really happens here..." She caught herself and looked at Cassie who just stared at her blankly for a long, long time. This went on for a while. With Cassie living Nancy a scathing, scrutinizing glare as Nancy awkwardly avoided eye contact, uncomfortable.

"So when are you going out with Steve again?" Barb asked, bringing them back to the original subject.

"I'm telling you guys, it was a one-time..." Barb gave her a look as Nancy opened her locker, "two-time thing." Nancy picked up a note in her locker with messy scribbling that Cassie recognized as her best friend's. There was deep jealousy brewing in her but she kept it quiet, which was rare for a Henderson. Her friendship with Steve and Nancy was too important to her.

"You were saying?" Barb asked.

Steve pushed Nancy against the bathroom wall as they made out before trailing his kisses to her jaw.

"Steve..." Nancy breathed.

"Hmm?" He hummed, distractedly.

"I need to go."

"In a minute." He mumbled against her skin.

The bell rang and Nancy glanced at her watch when Steve went back to her lips. "Steve... I really, like... Seriously, I have to go." Nancy said in between kisses before finally pulling away.

"Wait, wait, wait." Steve said, picking up her bookbag before she could and stepping to the other side of the bathroom. "Let's... let's do something tonight, yeah?"

"Uh... I can't. I have to study for Kaminsky's test."

"Right. Cassie told me." He nodded, the beautiful smile of his best friend flashing behind his eyes before directing his attention back to the genius brunette in front of him, mentally scolding himself. "Come on, what's your GPA again? Three-point-nine-nine-nine."

"Kaminsky's tests are impossible." Nancy said, reaching for her bookbag.

"Well, then just let me help." Steve tried, continuing to keep the bookbag away from her, teasingly.

"You failed chem." Nancy remembered as Cassie had told her.

"Damn it, Cassie." Steve cursed before during his charisma back on, "I got a C-minus."

"Well, in that case..." Nancy teased.

"So I'll be over around, say, like eight?" Steve suggested.

"Are you crazy? My mom would not—" Nancy protested.

"I'll climb through your window. She won't even know I'm there. I'm stealthy, like a ninja." Steve said, knowing if Cassie was there, she'd laugh loudly at this. While they had always been "partners in crime", Cassie was the stealthier one while he was always the clumsy one who she always took the fall for so he would not get in trouble with his much more strict yet more neglectful parents and as per her rebel morals passed down to her from her father.

"You are crazy." Nancy said.

"Come on, Cassie and I sneak into places all the time."

"You nearly get arrested every time." Nancy reminded him and tried to walk past him.

"Damn it, Cassie." He cursed and turned to her, "Wait, wait, wait. Just... okay, forget about that. We can just... we can just, like, chill in my car."

"Oh, yeah, who was the last girl you did that with?" Nancy asked, teasing but Steve answered seriously.

"Cassie." Steve said with genuine honesty and innocence, before changing the subject before Nancy asked him about his relationship with Cassie as he could tell she was about to do. Most girls were put off from his more than close relationship with Cassie, in fact he spent more time than necessary convincing girls that they weren't dating, no matter how much he wanted to. "We can find a nice quiet place to park, and..."

"Steve... I have to study. I'm not kidding." Nancy said, seriously.

"Well, why do you think I want it to be nice and quiet?" He said, allowing his true self to shine through just a little bit but it was still closed off as he was playing it off as charismatic.

Nancy smiled, "you're an idiot, Steve Harrington." She turned to leave but turned around at the last moment, "meet me at Dearborn and Maple at eight. To study." Then she left.

Steve smiled as the bell rang and he picked up his bookbag and sighed, "I gotta talk to Cassie about keeping my reputation in tact." He mumbled to himself and walked off, ignoring how just saying her name made him smile.

Cassie had homeroom with Jonathan but when she got there, he wasn't there. No Will. No Jonathan. A worried Joyce. Not a good mix. It was like when she had first come back from being missing and there were still hints of the anxiety it had caused Pan.

"Cassie?" Barb asked as Nancy came in. "You okay?

Cassie shook her head, faked a smile, and said, "Yeah. I'm fine."

Throughout the entire school day, she had this constant nagging feeling that something was wrong.

"HENDERSON!" Coach Johnson screamed in her face, practically showering her in spit and bad breath as she just gave him a bored and annoyed look like, how dare you interrupt my bored musing during your class. "Am I boring you?"

"Yeah actually." She deadpanned, making the class laugh, the only one she really registered was Steve's. "Do you mind?"

"You're doing free throws for the rest of the class!" He growled.

"Oh no. Free throws. This must be hell." She muttered, sarcastically and got up and walk at a drolly pace towards the basketballs as Steve hid his smile with his hand, watching her with loving eyes.

She spent the rest of the class, throwing basketballs into the hoop with better accuracy than Coach Johnson, Tommy H., and Carol had wanted.

"Looking good, Henderson!" Steve shouted, teasingly.

"You wish, Harrington!" She shouted back, turning to him, her braid flying as she turned to look at him. She turned but as she turned her vision flashed to seeing the basketball hit the backboard, flying back, and hitting her in the face, and then to another vision of it hitting the backboard, flying back and missing her.

Then she was back and the ball left her hands, hitting the backboard as both Steve and the vision had distracted her, it hit the backboard, bounced back, and too startled to move it smacked her in the head and knocked her down flat on her back.

Tommy H. and Carol laughed loudly as Steve cursed and ran to her side as she laid flat on the floor, sprawled out, her vision out of focus.

"Shit, Henderson!" He breathed, concernedly.

Cassie tried to lift her head, but it caused such throbbing that she dropped it, hissing in pain. She heard the girl's voice again along with her twelve-year-old voice.

"Name?"

"C-Cassie Dare."

"Come from outside?" The girl didn't seem to have a basic education given how she spoke.

"Yeah, yeah, my friend, he dared me to break in."

"Friend? What is friend?"

"And then there was this-this light and, oh shit, my head, my head hurts."

"Do not worry..."

"Cass, Cass, can you hear me?" Steve asked, frantically, pleadingly.

"Oh, my head." She groaned, sitting up and then her eyes landed on something bizarre. A ginormous snake morphing into the appearance of her father with black wings. "The fuck?"

"Shit, your nose." Steve said as Cassie felt blood rush out and when she looked back the oddity was gone.

"Gross." Tommy H. said and Steve glared at him like, I will hurt you.

"Shit, let me take you to the nurse." Steve said.

"No, you can't miss class." She groaned, her hazel eyes meeting his brown ones as she lowered her voice, "you can't afford it and you need to graduate to your senior year."

"I'll take her." Eddie Munson said, "Give me the excuse of leaving." Steve helped her up while giving Eddie a side-glare and letting him take her away as Steve continued to glare after him.

Somehow she was deemed as fine and was returned back to class. After school, she walked through the halls of the school to leave in a sort of daze but in a hurry to get to Dustin until she felt a hand land on her shoulder and she looked up, her eyes connecting with a familiar brown pair.

"Cassie?" Steve asked, concerningly. His true interior cracking through the popular douchebag exterior. "Are you okay?"

She blinked hard and shook her head and faked a smile, "Yeah, I'm fine."

Steve gave her a look like, that doesn't work on me. "Cassie, is this about... your missing time."

"Steve, I'm fine." She said, shortly at his oversensitive tone and pushed past him, somewhat coldly and ran to the middle school and she stopped when she saw a cop car there and saw Hopper and Callahan getting out.

"Shit." She muttered and ran to them. "Hopper!" She shouted, she literally hopped to a stop in front of them and said, "what's going on?"

Cassie sat with the boys as they all started talking at once, trying to explain how Will takes Mirkwood.

"Okay. Okay." Hopper tried to quiet them down.

"Boys!" Cassie shouted, and they quieted down, knowing better than to argue with her.

"Okay. One at a time, all right? You." Hopper gestured at Mike. "You said he takes what?"

"Mirkwood," Mike repeated.

"Mirkwood?" Hopper asked.

"Mirkwood." Cassie confirmed with a head nod and a casual one-shoulder shrug.

"Have you ever heard of Mirkwood?" Hopper asked Callahan.

"I have not. That sounds made up to me." Callahan told him.

"All words are made up." Cassie pointed out in a deadpan tone—the kind she usually had when dealing with Callahan as she gave him a smug smile.

"No, it's from Lord of the Rings," Lucas explained.

"Well, The Hobbit." The Henderson siblings said in unison.

"It doesn't matter." Lucas snapped.

"He asked!" Dustin argued.

"'He asked'!" Lucas mocked.

"Shut the hell up, Lucas!" Cassie argued as their voices started to overlap again.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Hopper spoke above them, "What'd I just say? One at a damn time." They quieted down as the Henderson siblings crossed their arms in an identical pouty manner. He then pointed at Cassie as she was the oldest. "You. What is Mirkwood?"

Cassie un-pouted and explained, "Mirkwood, it's a real road. It's just the name that's made up. It's where Cornwallis and Kerley meet."

"Yeah, all right, I think I know that—" Hopper mumbled to Callahan.

"We can show you if you want." Cassie offered, "My car's just across the street."

"I said that I know it!" Hopper said with an exasperated tone.

"But we can help look." Cassie said and she and the boys started to agree all at once, eager to find their friend.

"No, after school, you are all to go home. Immediately." Hopper demanded, "That means no biking around, looking for your friend, no investigating, no nonsense. This isn't some Lord of the Rings book."

"The Hobbit." Dustin corrected.

"Shut up!" Lucas said went to smack him, but Cassie grabbed his arm in a tight grip and glared at him with a death glare he was all but too familiar with, like, if you want to keep that hand, you better rethink that move, Ranger Lucas with the mere weapon of a slingshot?

"Hey, let him go." Hopper said, and Cassie let go as Lucas pulled his arm back. "Do I make myself clear?" Hopper stood up and then repeated, "Do I make myself... clear?"

The boys mumbled in confirmation while Cassie gave him a sarcastic thumbs up and smile before flipping her hand and giving him the finger with a very fake, sarcastic smile.

Cassie went back to the school to inform the principal why Jonathan won't be coming to his classes the next few days, she informed Dustin to wait in the car and if he wasn't when she got back she would hunt him down and drag him home by tying him to the top of her Bentley to which he gave her the middle finger. One could only imagine what it would be like when he entered high school with her.

That was often a thought that Steve had and hoped he wouldn't be held back to be around that all the time.

She walked out of the office when she heard footsteps approaching at a fast pace.

She spun around, an instinct of fear shooting through her, only to see that it was Steve approaching her, "Steve, what are you still doing here?"

"Basketball practice. Where were you?" He asked, frowning in concern hoping their little spat hadn’t made her mad at him.

She looked around, slightly overwhelmed at the moment as she stammered, simultaneously trying to answer Steve, "I, uh... um... I..."

"Oh, hey, Cass." He said, gently, walking to her and grasping her shoulder and cheek gently. “You can tell me anything; I’ll always be here for you.” His touch made her feel like all her anxieties just melted away as her eyes met his.

"Will's missing." She said, Steve looked at her, trying to remember who Will was, "Will Byers? Jonathan Byers' brother."

Only then it seemed to click. "Oh, well, I'm sure he's fine. Is Dustin okay? Are you okay?" Her heart warmed at his genuine concern.

"We're dealing." She managed a smile, but he saw right through that. He always had that talent; he knew when she was lying.

"You know if you need to talk..."

"Why would I?" She interrupted, defensively, giving him an icy look.

"Well, you know... It's just... the last time someone went missing..." He stammered.

"Yeah, well I'm fine now, aren't I?" She said, sharply, "I gotta go drive Dustin home, he's in the car and you know how impatient he is."

"Yeah." Steve didn't spend much time with Dustin but knew he could be very impatient.

They walked out and he said, "Hey, maybe we could do a movie night, say tomorrow? Maybe a double-feature. Maybe, Halloween and Psycho? And uh, that new horror movie will be coming out the eighteenth? Sleepaway Camp."

"I-I heard that it's problematic." Cassie noted, shifting her eyes away from Steve uncomfortably.

"From who?"

"My dad." She said, she didn't discuss her dad too much due to... situations. "So, Psycho for the psycho." She teased.

"No. Of course not. I don't think you're..." Steve became both flustered and blushed.

"Cool it, Steve." She pushed him, playfully, "I was just teasing."

"CASSIE! STOP FLIRTING WITH THAT HARRINGTON DOUCHEBAG AND GET YOUR ASS BACK IN THE CAR BEFORE I DRIVE MYSELF HOME!" A pterodactyl-sounding voice screamed that could only be her little brother as her car horn honked longer than necessary.

Cassie closed her eyes in embarrassment as her cheeks burned and reddened as Steve rubbed the back of his neck and muttered a goodbye to Steve and ran to the car, "I'm going to kill you!" She shouted at him and she saw Dustin in the driver's seat, "MOVE YOUR ASS!" She pushed him to the passenger's seat with her cheeks burning with embarrassment.

"The only way I could drive worse than you is if I made the car explode." He shouted back at her.

"You be quiet before I tie you to the roof! We're going straight home!" She shouted, pointing at him as Steve watched from the distance, still embarrassed.

"Why because I embarrassed you in front of Steve!" Dustin said, loudly—no, scratched that—screamed very loudly.

"Shut up!" Cassie hissed and got into the car and slammed the door and drove off, speeding past Steve with her cheeks flaring; she blinked her eyes and took some deep breaths, mentally cursing her younger brother as he loudly and verbally cursed her driving.

Steve watched her Bentley speed off and he sighed, smiling slightly before heading to his own car.

At the Wheeler house, Nancy had little to no sympathy to what was going on with Will's disappearance.

"We should be out there right now. We should be helping look for him." Mike begged.

"We've been over this, Mike. The chief says—" Karen Wheeler started.

"I don't care what the chief said!" Mike snapped.

"Michael!" Karen scolded.

"We have to do something. Will could be in danger."

"Cassie wasn't." Ted said, distractedly and Nancy finally looked up. Apparently being emotionally checked out was a family trait.

"She was exposed to dangerous chemicals and was hospital-bound for three weeks, dad!" Mike shouted at his father. "I'd call that 'in danger'!"

Karen didn't scold her son that time as she agreed with him but she turned to her son and said, "more reason to stay put."

"Mom!" Mike whined.

"End of discussion." Karen said, sternly. She looked at her husband who was about as useful in parenting as the drink he was drinking now.

Nancy decided that now was the best time to ask, trying to lie her way out of the house, for the very first time, "So... me and Barb are gonna study at her house tonight. That's cool, right?" Though she wasn't really looking for a "no".

"No, not cool."

"What? Why not?" Nancy demanded as if she couldn't possibly fathom why because it wasn't like a boy she had known for more than half her life was missing or anything.

"Why do you think?" Karen asked, "Am I speaking Chinese in this house? Until we know Will is okay, no one leaves."

The look on Nancy's face would make you think that it was the end of the world. "This is such bullshit!" Nancy cursed.

"Language." Ted scolded.

"So we're under house arrest?" Nancy scoffed, ignoring her father. "Just because Mike's friend got lose on the way home from..."

"Wait, this is Will's fault?" Mike scoffed at his sister.

"Nancy, take that back." Karen demanded.

"No!" Nancy said like she didn't think she was out of line. If Cassie were here, Nancy would have a broken nose.

"You're just pissed off 'cause you wanna hang out with Steve." Mike correctly accused.

Nancy glared at her brother, knowing that Cassie or Dustin most likely told Mike.

"Steve?" Her father asked.

"Steve who?" Karen asked.

"Steve Harrington, her new boyfriend!" Mike answered.

"You are such a douchebag, Mike!" Nancy whined like this was honestly the worst thing that had ever happened to her.

"Language!" Ted scolded.

"More of a douchebag than dating your best friend's boy?" Mike spat back. Anyone with eyes could tell that Steve and Cassie were in love with each other, guess Nancy was just stupid.

Nancy just scoffed and stormed off. "Nancy, come back." Karen called but Nancy ignored her, "come back!" She turned to her youngest, Holly, "it's okay. It's okay, Holly. Here, have some juice."

"You see, Michael? You see what happens?" Ted asked though no one knew to what he was referring to as it felt like he trailed off mid-sentence.

"WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WHAT!?" Mike shouted, "I'm the only one acting normal here! I'm the only one that cares about Will!"

Karen looked at her husband as he vaguely responded, "that is really unfair, son. We care." He couldn't even care enough to stop eating.

Mike slammed his hands down and stormed off.

"Mike!" Karen called.

"Let him go." Ted said.

Karen turned, glaring at her husband, "I hope you're enjoying your chicken, Ted." She snapped.

"What did I do?" Ted asked as Karen picked up Holly and stormed off. "What did I do!?" Grade-A parenting, Ted.

Cassie was on her bed, talking to her father on her Tardis table phone and for some reason she wanted to break Nancy Wheeler's nose for being a bitch.

"No, daddy, no one's seen him." She shook her head.

"Do you need me to drive down?" He asked, concernedly, fearing that Will’s disappearance may have had something to do with what he had found out and feared for his children’s lives.

"No, I don't think mom would appreciate that." He said.

"Right, because I cheated on her." He said, not loving what he had done.

"That and she doesn't exactly approve of your... life choices." Cassie rolled her eyes and then her walkie-talkie crackled to life with static. "One sec, dad." She rested the phone against her shoulder.

"Dustin, do you copy? Over." Mike's voice said.

"Yeah, I copy. Over." Her little brother's voice said.

"We're heading over to Mirkwood to look for Will. Over."

"Are you crazy? What if we get vanished too? Over."

"Don't be a baby!" Lucas said.

Out of all of her brother's friends, Lucas got on her nerves the most which how critical and skeptical he was.

"We are looking for Will. Period. He'd do the same for us. Over."

"Fine." Dustin groaned.

"Uh, daddy, I gotta make sure Dustin doesn't get vanished."

"Ri-right, be safe. I love you." Pan said, knowing that Cassie could defend herself given that he taught her to the best of his abilities.

"Love you too. Bye." She said and hung up the phone and picked up the walkie-talkie and said, "Did you boys actually think you could get away with this?"

"We've been caught!" Mike panicked, "Retreat! Retreat!"

"I'm coming with you all." She said. "Over."

"Why?"

"Because I'm not letting my little brother get vanished." She said, sternly. "I don't remember much of what it was like to be vanished but I know it wasn't fun." There was silence she knew they were cursing at her, she could hear Dustin's curses through the wall, "Yeah. I played the 'went missing' card. Now get over it, you little shits."

She pulled her blue raincoat and blue beanie and grabbed two of her pocketknives and two of her guns that her father had gotten her as he had taught her how to defend herself from a young age. She went to Dustin's room to find him halfway out the window.

"Uh..." He said, looking at her.

"Need some help there, buddy?" She teased and went to help him.

"Shouldn't you be telling to stay home, like a responsible older sister?" Dustin asked, not sure if he should be upset about this or not.

Cassie stared at him for a full ten seconds before breaking into laughter at this, "I am not a responsible older sister. I have a record. I have more pocketknives, guns, and other weapons than you could imagine." Then she gestured with her hand, "let's go." She walked out his room.

"Are you a secret psychopath?" Dustin asked before following but she didn't answer.

In Indianapolis, Pan stared at his phone (identical to his daughter's) for a long, long time as he bounced his leg with his hand tugging at his auburn hair but falling over his face. He hit the back of his head against the chair.

“Pan?” His bedmate for the night called, a woman named Sally or Sandy or something.

“Uh, rain check, darling. Don’t think I’m in the mood for tonight.” He called back to her and looked back at the phone. He murmured out, “Jesus, Cassie. What are you getting yourself into?"

The things he learned that night still haunted him but what haunted him even more was that he just left his children there, unaware. He and Dustin weren’t as close as he was to Cassie, but he still loved them. The most terrifying thing to him was something happening to either of them.

“Please.” He murmured, praying to whatever could be listening, “please, just let them be safe. Keep them safe. At least, give me that.”

She picked the boys up despite their protests only agreeing after she said threatened the run them over which they knew was a real possibility because she was not a good driver.

"You don't even have a driver's license!" Dustin shouted when she drove off from picking up Lucas.

"I turn sixteen in four days!" She shouted back at him as Lucas rolled his eyes.

When she picked up Mike, she heard a small noise and turned to see Steve trying to climb up the house to get to Nancy's window. He looked at them innocently, trying to play cool, like this was a totally normal thing to do and Mike rolled his eyes. Cassie stared at him for a long, long time before pushing Mike into the car, which triggered Dustin to complain loudly which entailed a long string of loud curse words.

She walked backwards to the front of her car, still looking at Steve who gave her an awkward wave. Anger stewed in her and she felt ashamed for feeling that way. She just gave him the middle finger and slid into the driver's seat and drove off as Steve blinked in confusion at her harshness.

Steve watched her until her car was gone before continuing to noisily climb up the house to Nancy's room. He tapped on her window, still thinking about Cassie. Nancy looked at him and he gestured for her to let him in.

"What are you doing here?" She whispered, "I told you on the phone I'm under house arrest now." Apparently, she still felt no guilt over blaming Will for disrupting her social life.

"I figured we'd just study here." Steve shrugged.

"No. No way." Nancy hissed.

"Oh, come on. I can't have you failing this test." Steve said and clumsily and nosily climbed in as he continued to speak, "so just... bear with me." The window rattled, "oh shit, shit, shit." He turned to Nancy, "what'd I tell you? Ninja."

"I thought you and Cass were 'partners-in-crime'." Nancy narrowed her eyes at him.

"If I'm being perfectly honest, she does most of the breaking and entering." Steve said and he flashed back to that dare and how terrible he had felt. How bad he still felt. She had almost died because of him.

"Steve?" Nancy asked, noticing the distant look in his eyes.

"I'm fine. She's fine now." He muttered and then gestured to her notecards, "so... studying?"

The party plus Cassie finally got to Mirkwood with the boys complaining about Cassie's driving. "I think my entire life just flashed before my eyes." Dustin groaned as he got out of the car. He hated his sister's driving.

Cassie rolled her eyes as she got out, she took her brother's hat, put it on her head and ruffled his hair. "Drama Queen." She said.

"You guys, you feel that?" Dustin said, looking up at the sky and a raindrop fell in his face, making him blink and Cassie smiled at how adorable her brother was. "I think maybe we should go back."

"No. We're not going back. Just stay close." Mike said, "come on. Just stay on channel six. Don't do anything stupid."

"Yeah, Lucas!" Cassie said and they headed into the woods, making Lucas scoff.

"Give me that back!" Dustin whined about his hat. "Hey guys, wait up!"

"Which polymers occur naturally?" Steve read.

Nancy looked up to remember, "starch and cellulous."

Steve turned to the next card, "In a molecule of CH4, the hydrogen atoms are spatially oriented towards the centers of—" Steve read these, not having any clue to what he was reading.

"Tetrahedrons." Nancy said.

"Wow. Jesus, how many of these did you make?" He asked, flipping through them.

"You said you wanted to help." Nancy told him.

"Not even Cass is this thorough." Steve said.

"Yeah, well, Cass kind of lives in her own world." Nancy shrugged and Steve's eyes darted up and he just looked at her, trying to decide whether or not she was being mean. Everyone in Hawkins High knew how protective Steve Harrington was of Cassie Dare Henderson. Jason Carver once called her "Patient Zero" and Steve threw a basketball in his face which made Cassie burst into laughter. "You know what I mean."

"Yeah," Steve moved on from the subject of his best friend before, "how about this? How about... how about every time that you get something right, I have to take off an item of clothing. But every time that you get something wrong..."

"Uh, pass." Nancy scoffed.

"Oh, come on." Steve teased, "come on."

"No."

"Come on, it'll be fun."

"No."

"During fractional distillation, hydrocarbons are separated according to their..."

"Melting point." Nancy said, matter-of-factly.

Steve flipped the card, "ooh, it's boiling points."

"That's what I meant."

"Yeah, that's not what you said." Steve teased and played with his collar.

"No." Nancy said.

"No?" Steve asked, playfully and sat up, leaning towards her, "oh, do you need... you do you need help?"

"No." Nancy said before Steve kissed her as Africa by Toto played in the background. Nancy laid back and Steve leaned over her, the kiss got more heated when Nancy broke the kiss, "Steve. Steve, come on."

"What?"

"Are you crazy? My parents are here." Nancy said, because that's where she drew the line, not blaming the disappearance of a twelve-year-old on the pause of her nonexistent social life.

Steve playfully looked around the room, "that's weird. I... don't see them." He said, sarcastically and he kissed her again as Nancy sat up, breaking it.

"Was this your plan all along?" She accused, "to-to get in my room and then..." She thought back to Cassie’s words, "get another notch under your belt."

"No. Nancy, no." He sighed, understanding why she would think this. He had a reputation for sleeping with girls, though the only girl he had ever slept with was Cassie and that was in a platonic way, though not so platonic in his head but neither Cassie nor Nancy needed to know that.

"I'm not Laurie, or Amy, or Becky."

"You mean, you're not a slut." Steve said.

"That's not what I'm saying." Nancy lied, shaking her head.

"You know you're so cute when you're lying." Steve smiled. "But you're no Cassie Dare Henderson when it comes to lying."

"Shut up."

Steve picked up a teddy bear and spoke in a toy voice, "Bad Steve. Bad. Don't do that to Miss Nancy..."

"You're an idiot, Steve Harrington."

"And you are beautiful, Nancy Wheeler." Steve said and went back to reading cards before she interrupted.

"Did you ever do this with Cassie?" Nancy asked suddenly and Steve faltered, he knew that this had to be coming. Ever since Cassie entered high school and everyone could see that they were closer than the average pair of best friends, he spent most of his time trying to convince people that they weren’t dating, no matter how much he wanted to be.

"Nance, Cass and I are just friends. Best friends." He said, not looking up.

"Not every guy's best friend is a girl." Nancy pointed out.

"She's not like other girls." Steve replied, almost wistfully but in a way that told Nancy he was done talking about his relationship with Cassie for the night.

About ten minutes later, it was pouring and Cassie suddenly heard a ringing sound. She stopped and stared around in complete bewilderment.

"Hello?" She heard Joyce's voice say. That's odd. She could hear kind of static. "Lonnie? Hopper? Who is this?" She heard the static fade to a breathing sound. "Will?" A sign of a true mother. "Will?" She heard an odd chittering and she froze. She could hear Joyce sobbing, "Who is this? What have you done to my boy? Give me back my son!" Then she screamed and it stopped.

"CASSIE!" Dustin screamed, shaking his sister. She inhaled sharply, looking at her worried brother. "Did you have an episode?"

"Yeah, I definitely had an episode of something." She said, nodding slightly before continuing without another word.

"Cass! You can't just have an episode and then walk off!" Dustin shouted, marching after her.

A little bit later, "WILL! WILL!"

"BYERS!"

"I GOT YOUR X-MEN 134!" Dustin shouted then he turned to the group, "Guys, I really think we should turn back."

"Seriously, Dustin. You wanna be a baby, then go home already!" Lucas snapped.

Cassie yelled, "BOO!" in Lucas' ear making him yelp and jump away. "Who's the baby now, huh?"

"Not funny!" He snapped, embarrassed.

"I'm just being realistic, Lucas!" Dustin said.

"No, you're just being a big sissy!" Lucas snapped.

This was why Cassie couldn't babysit both Dustin and Lucas anymore because Lucas kept on insulting Dustin which was a very good way to get yourself hurt.

She took a deep breath and reminded herself that Lucas was just the logical one and in a somewhat emotional state which was likely making him irritable and fussy.

"Did you ever think Will went missing because he ran into something bad?" Dustin asked, "and we're going to the exact same spot where he was last seen? And we have no weapons or anything?"

"Um, hello. Gun." Cassie said and waved her gun around.

"Whoa. Lucas shouted in alarm.

"Cassie! You can't just wave around a gun like that!" Dustin screamed.

Cassie was going to retort when she and Mike heard something.

"Dustin, shut up!" Mike said.

"I'm just saying, does that seem smart to you?" He asked.

"Dustin, shush." Cassie shushed, initally waving the gun haphhazardly at them, making them all squack and duck before holding it much more carefully as she slowly moved closer to the noise.

"Do you guys hear that?" Mike asked.

The boys their lights in the direction of the rustling, revealing a girl around the boys' age with a shaved head, wearing a Benny's t-shirt that was sopping wet. She was terrified and looked like she was going to start crying.

Cassie's mind flashed back to her missing time to a girl with a shaved head.

"Do not worry. I will help."

Cassie didn't miss a beat, she took her raincoat off and gave it to the girl.

"Here, come with us. We'll get you some dry clothes." She said, softly. The girl was hesitant so Cassie crouched in front of her, giving her a kind smile with kindness in her hazel eyes that was near foreign to the girl, "Hey, you're safe now."

But it wasn't her own safety the girl was worried about.

*Anyone catch the John Mulaney reference?*

*This story may veer away from Life is Strange because I keep wanting to have a story with precognition through hallucinations like another Steve Harrington x Henderson!OC story I read, "Alice the Amazing" but I don't want to copy.*

*Does anyone want me to add a gif of Thor using the quote that Cassie uses: "All words are made up."?*

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gryfflepuffinthetardis · 3 months

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Prologue — 1979

Warnings: Implication of discrimination and discrimination by association

"Be a rebel. Be wild, child. Never settle. That's not your style."

Steve Harrington and Cassandra Henderson—best friends since diapers. Their fathers were friends in high school when Pan and Claudia Henderson still lived in Hawkins but not anymore because Steve's dad is an asshole. But they moved a few towns over when she was two until Dustin Henderson was born when she was four and then her parents got divorced... one would say because of differences but one could also say because they shared one specific similarity in which case they would then get a punch to the face if that said that to Cassandra's face. Cassandra moved back to Hawkins with her dad where she was reunited with Steve Harrington who was now five, but they acted as if there was no two-year time span of not seeing each other. When she was about eight, she started to get into a rebellious phase and when she was eleven, she gained the nickname "Cassie Dare" from how daring she was, as a play on "Cassandra", known by the school, most of the teenagers, the police, and pretty much anyone who happened to meet her because she usually left an impression. Despite this, most just called her Cassie as when people properly met her, they found that it was a bit awkward to say every time.

Her father knew she meant no trouble, in fact, he implored it as long as she kept her morals and the ones he taught her.

1) Never sell or betray out a friend or family

2) Never steal from small, independent businesses but from big chains (they can afford it, small chains cannot.)

3) Always show a man that you can be as sweet as candy and deadly as ice.

4) Be a rebel, not a criminal.

5) Do as much good as you can with your rebellion. Be like Robin Hood, angel.

6) Have fun and be happy.

And she did, she toed the line between "rebel and "criminal" despite many of the judgemental residents of Hawkins, decalring her to be a "criminal", a "born deviant" (to which she would point out meant she just deviated from social norms so she absolutely was that sometimes that wasn't what they were going for and Cassie was fully aware of this), a "miscreant", a "delinquent", a "hoodlum" or whatever word judgmental people for in or before the fifties threw around at those who acted out of what was considered normal, including Steve's parents after they "cut ties" with Pan Henderson, however this was only one reason she was heavily scuritnied by the older close-minded residents of Hawkins.

Some however, knew she was good at heart. She was always unwaveringly kind if you actually thought about her actions, she was selfless and always gave people a good story to tell after. She never tried to manipulate others into her rebellious acts, she looked out for what was best for other in their own self-interest.

Then she turned twelve and Steve Harrington had dared her to go into the mysterious Hawkins Lab on April thirteenth of 1979.

She just smirked at her thirteen-year-old best friend, "Is that really a challenge, Harrington?" She smirked, the mid-April wind blowing her auburn hair.

"Then impress me, Henderson." He smirked back.

Cassie scaled the fence, her feet just being small enough to fit into the holes in the fence before propping herself on top of the fence and looked back at Steve on that hill, giving him a thumbs up before dropping and landing on her feet, the force making her crouch down and touch her fingertips to the ground before swiftly standing up to her feet, her auburn locks bouncing before she pulled her black hoodie over her head and walking towards the wall to press herself against it and she disappeared from Steve's sight.

Steve Harrington didn't see her again for three weeks, no one saw her for three weeks. Three weeks of blaming himself.

Benny, an old school friend of Pan Henderson, took the trash out on May fourth when he heard a twig snap and he looked into the woods to see a shivering twelve-year-old girl with auburn hair and hazel eyes he recognized as his old school friend, Pan Henderson's daughter despite how pale and sweaty she was.

"Cassandra?" He asked as she stared at him as if she were doped up, her skin was pale and she was layered in sweat, she was swaying as if she were unable to see straight, disorientated and lost her coordination, her sclerae were bright red and glazed over, her breathing was deep yet shallow as blood-tinted tears fell down her face; then she collapsed.

When she awoke a few minutes later, she was deeply hungry, digging into a hamburger despite her being a vegetarian. Though she abandoned it halfway through after realizing it and switched to French fries after running to the bathroom to vomit it up out of guilt.

"ANGEL!" Pan shouted when he burst through the door albeit more dramatically than what was needed, ignoring the deputies behind him, protesting that they go first, having given them the middle finger while screaming curses at them.

"Daddy!" Cassie sobbed out, speaking for the first, she got up and ran to her father, sobbing into his chest as they hugged.

"Shh, shh, shh..." Pan shushed his daughter, soothingly, caressing the back of her head as she sobbed, "it's okay. You're safe now."

"Ma'am, I am sorry but we need to ask you some questions." The chief said, prompting Pan to turn abruptly to him and shout dramatically at him.

"WE ARE HAVING A MOMENT HERE!"

The official story was that Hawkins Lab had been oblivious to Cassie's breaking and entering until she had been “violently and recklessly” exposed to a chemical that had endangered her life and they couldn't risk anyone breaking in to get her without it contaminating them or worsening her condition so they lied when they asked if she had been seen.

The recently transferred and depressed Hopper had thought was just a bunch of bullshit as he gave them a deadpan look but the chief bought it so Hopper couldn't make a big stink about it even with the sympathy he was given even though they had lied to federal officers and if she had been exposed to a chemical why was she still in the same clothes. And why was there blood on her clothes?

Pan Henderson also called bullshit as he narrowed his eyes as the representative of Hawkins Lab, Mister Brenner with his arms crossed, glaring daggers at him like nothing could give him greater pleasure than for his snake rings to come to life and squeeze the life out of him, right here in the hospital where she had been sent due to starvation and exhaustion.

"I hope we can put this matter to rest." Brenner told Pan.

"To rest? You kidnapped my child and kept her in your lab for three weeks!" He shouted with cold fury in his brown eyes. Pan Henderson may have looked silly with his silly walk, red hair, and constant sunglasses but messing with his kids was a sure-fire way to get an oncoming storm coming your way.

"She broke in, we could sue." Brenner said, flatly.

"I don't think you know who I am." Pan growled.

"I know exactly who you are, Pan Henderson. And you do not want me as your enemy." Brenner said.

"And you don't want me as yours." Pan challenged.

Pan showed a much softer side when Cassie woke up, her hazel eyes looking exhausted but relieved.

“Hey, angel,” He smiled, having nothing but fatherly love in his brown eyes.

“Daddy.” She sniffled, “Where… where am I?”

“Hospital. You fainted from exhaustion.”

“What happened?”

“I don’t know.” He said, stroking her hair, gently, “But I’m going to find out even if it kills me.”

Steve Harrington burst into the hospital brought by his asshole father who was clearly not happy with how much his son cared for his female best friend.

When she thought back to the lab, she could just barely remember, she saw flashes of tiled walls and then flashes of a young girl around eight years old with a shaved head, and blood... lots and lots of blood, and then... pain. If she tried to remember too hard it hurt her head so badly that her vision would blur and would disorientate her.

Even though she had forgotten, she wasn't the same as she once was. Her smiles were no longer genuine, always hiding pain with jokes and smiles.

A few weeks later, her dad’s ambition to find out what happened got really serious to the point that she had gotten accustomed to waking him up because he had stayed up so late, trying to figure out what happened.

Then she had woken up in the middle of the night when the door slammed shut.

She ran out to see her father, sinking against the door, sobbing with his hands in his hair.

“Dad? Daddy?” She asked, running to him.

He looked up at her with illuminated brown eyes and he pulled her into a hug, tightly as if he were scared she’d disappear again.

“Daddy, what’s wrong?” She asked.

“I won’t let anyone hurt you or Dusty,” He cried, “Never ever.”

“Daddy…”

He shook his head, holding her tightly as his body near racked with tears.

When her brother and mother moved back to Hawkins and her father moved to Indianapolis, she stayed with her brother. She felt she needed to be in Hawkins for him. And she was right, four years later.

*Get ready for many David Tennant gifs. I know he's usually a love interest on this show but he has a really good dad energy to me. Like a fun but protective dad type.*

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gryfflepuffinthetardis · 3 months

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Cassandra Delphia “Cassie Dare” Henderson 1983 Bio - Killer Queen

Full Name: Cassandra Delphia "Cassie Dare" Henderson

Quote:

Age: Fifteen/Sixteen Years Old

Birthday: November 10, 1967

Zodiac Sign: Scorpio

Current place of residence: 2886 Piney Wood Drive, Hawkins, Indiana

Relations: Dustin Henderson (Younger Brother), Claudia Henderson (Mother), Pan Henderson (Father)

Appearance: Long light auburn-brown hair, Hazel eyes, Five foot four

Personality: Cassie Dare uses sarcasm as a defense mechanism, she covers her pain with jokes and fake smiles and pushes people away when she needs them the most. She's incredibly smart but tends to act dumber than she was to get people to underestimate her. She was fiercely protective of those she loves, especially her little brother and becomes violent when they're threatened. She already regularly threatens violence but usually, she's all bark and no bite until she's provoked or someone she cares about--especially her little brother, Dustin Henderson and to a slightly less extent, Steve Harrington--are threatened, then she becomes relentlessly violent. She has a problem with authority as she gets bored easily and hates sitting still yet is innately curious. She is hyperactive and impulsive, this being the reason why she hasn't fully shut down emotionally due to repressed trauma. She also hints that she may have picked up her rebellious behavior from her father.

She is an ambivert and seems like an introvert unless she trusts who she's with and she shows extroverted characteristics.

She shares many traits with her little brother, Dustin such as nerdiness, geekiness, a love for Dungeons and Dragons, bluntness, dramaticism, loudness, empathy, intellect, rudeness, language, acceptance, loyalty, snarkiness, sarcasm, and bravery.

Cassie Dare can be a bit overzealous in what she's interested in.

Unlike Nancy, she chooses to remain moral even if the consequences are negative towards her and it gets her in trouble. When she's about to get in trouble with someone else she always sacrifices herself and denies anyone else had anything to do with it.

While she is fine with her current popularity status which is not considered either popular or unpopular and won't miss a chance to snap at Nancy over hers, Cassie Dare shows shades of a "mean girl" such as how she points out Nancy's insecurities and fears and makes passive-aggressive comments towards Carol. When she feels that people aren't seeing their obvious faults and it continues or they cross a line she won't hesitate to call them out without mercy.

Hogwarts House: Hufflepuff

Personality Type: INFP (The Dreamer; Mediator)

Relationship with Steve Harrington - She views Steve Harrington as a hero as despite them having been friends since they were babies when she and her father moved back to Hawkins when she was six, she views Steve as her hero as he saved her from bullying when they were younger and have been inseparable since, however when she knows he goes over the line, she calls him out on it. Steve doesn't really realize just how much Cassie Dare cares for him until it's too late.

She is oblivious to Steve's feelings for her due to her insecurities and honestly believes that she is too broken for him and Steve believes that she is too good for him as she is empathetic and genuinely kind even when she has nothing to gain and though it baffles him she is at most reluctant to engage into the cruelty of the teen social behavior that is brought upon her by those like Tommy H. and Carol.

He views her just as highly as she views him, even after her memory loss and trauma, as she is his Manic Pixie Dream Girl.

Disorders: ADHD (But in the eighties it wasn't known as ADHD until 1987. It was known as Hyperkinetic reaction of childhood. And I hate that. It sounds like they're blaming your childhood which is an infuriating common misconception of ADHD), PTSD

Tropes:

Manic Pixie Dream Girl - Cassie Dare is this to Steve Harrington, where his life is full of selfishness, neglect, sex, intoxication, cruelty, infidelity, and loneliness, Cassie Dare is empathetic, loyal, kind, and compassionate while still rebellious and adventurous.

Birds of a Feather - She and Steve are very alike while they are also very different. Both of them have somewhat neglectful parents, Steve's are never around and Cassie Dare's mother is at most emotionally distant and she has a stronger bond with her father who lives in Indianapolis. Both Steve and Cassie Dare had defense mechanisms that pushes others away.

Opposite Attract - Cassie Dare is also very different to Steve as she is nowhere near as wealthy as he is. She is not popular and she is a geek while he is a jock. She chooses to be kind to others while Steve has the King Steve façade.

Friends: Dustin Henderson (Little brother), Pan Henderson (Father), Jonathan Byers, Will Byers, Joyce Byers (Honorary mother), Lucas Sinclair (on-and-off), Nancy Wheeler (on-and-off), Mike Wheeler, Barbra Holland, Steve Harrington (Best Friend/Crush); Eddie Munson (Good Close friend/Club member)

Enemies: Carol, Tommy H., Nicole, Anyone who dares mess with her little brother.

Skills: Sherlock Scan, Hyperfixation, Intellect, Basic Sword fighting, Basic gymnastics, D&D knowledge, Martial arts, Combatant, Staff Proficiency, Empathy, Apathy; Skilled Detective, Skilled Marksman, Intuition, Basic Swordsmanship, Archery, Gun Proficiency

DnD Class: (Multi-Classed; her personality is layered and unpredictable and the Party have different opinions on her class)

Bard (The Party generally agree she mostly matches the Bard in which her general personality as she often outwits and/or messes with people by talking/charming/tricking them and there's her obvious love of music and has always been highly skilled at reading a room, there's her famous mischeivoiusness and she has a philosophical way of thinking and like Dustin she can be consider diplomatic in terms of a relationship as her personality type is called the "mediator" though she's often too brutal to be truly considered to be either "diplomatic" or "a mediator")

Or Fighter (This is how she becomes at first sight of anyone she cares about is threatened; she is increadbly brave and well-adverse in using weapons as Pan felt it was crucial for her to know how to defend herself and others. She isn't afriid to fight, she's intellignet in multiple ways, adaptable, and fearless. She does have the ability to be stragetic, however her emotion does impair her judgement in the moment and when she's protecting someone she cares about, her emotion overrule and she acts out but when protecting someone from a situation, she does possess a levelhead and thinks strategically.)

Or Rogue (She is considered this more than a fighter class in general, because this is how she got her reputation and it's another the Party agrees fits her well. Her acts of rebellion are generally done with stealth and she always hides her accomplices with deception, she is very sneaky and stealthy, able to move like a ninja. She has a tendency to isolate herself as she feels no one in Hawkins truly understands her like she does, she is known for being unashamed and unafraid of how society views her, and has always seen the rules of others' as "guidelines" rather than something to actually take seriously.)

Or Cleric (The Party also feel she fits for a "Cleric" due to her level of protectiveness and selflessness, as she unwaveringly does what she feels is the best call for everybody in the party which is what she always does to keep her friends from getting into trouble, her protectiveness and loyalty are a few of her most prominent traits.)

Guardian. (While not the same kind of class as the others, this is the class the Party best feels fits Cassie and she has preferred to herself as this herself. As she doesn't just make decisions best for the Party but she actively fights to protect them.)

Abilities:

Precognition - Cassie Dare can see the future to some extent, mostly she can only see possibilities but she knows one will absolutely be true. Her techniques of this vary between old-fashioned visions or visual hallucinations, whether seeing something that foreshadows the future or straight-up hallucinations of bizarre things that actively speak to her, giving her the feeling of losing her mind.

Limits - If she actively uses her powers too much it can make her nosebleed, make her cry blood, give her headaches, make her dizzy, blur her vision, or render her unconscious.

Equipment: Camera, Guitar, Bentley car

Inspiration: Max Caulfield from Life is Strange (Not so much anymore),Phoebe Halliwell from Charmed, Samantha Kingston from Before I Fall; Kent McFuller from Before I Fall; Harper from Set It Up; Lucy Pevensie from Narnia

Theme Song(s): Mad World (Tears for Fears), Cherry Bomb (Joan Jett and the Blackhearts), Killer Queen (Queen)

Favorite Songs: Killer Queen (Queen); Carry On, Wayward Son (Kansas); Mad World (Tears for Fears), Sweet Jane (Originally written the Velvet Underground but her preferred one is the cover by Cowboy Junkies); Cherry Bomb (The Runaways); 9 to 5 (Dolly Parton), Don’t Fear the Reaper (Blue Oyster Cult)

Favorite Bands and Singers: The Police; the Velvet Underground; Cowboy Junkies; ABBA; The Smiths; Queen (Shared with her father's favorite band); Kansas; The Runaways; Dolly Parton; Blue Oyster Cult; Tears for Fears; Foreigner; Yes; Joan Jett

Etymology:

Cassandra - Seer who could see the future but was never believed in Greek Mythology

Delphia - One who can predict future

Cassie - Shining over man; Purity; Unheeded prophetess; Who fills men with love; Shine upon mankind

Dare - A rebellious name; (Also the name of a moral with the sight in the Percy Jackson series)

Nicknames/Aliases: Angel (By Pan Henderson), Cass (By friends), Cassie Dare, Cassie, C.D.

Face Claim:

As a child: Georgie Henley

As a teen/adult: Zoey Deutch

*Hyperkinetic reaction of childhood is what they called ADHD before they first started calling it ADHD. And I don't like that. It wasn't called ADHD until 1987 and wasn't recognized as a mental disorder until sometime in the sixties despite being known since 1798.*

*Also, never say that ADHD is just an excuse because it's not. If you don't have ADHD, you can't possibly understand what it's like. People without ADJD act like it's just a minor inconvenience in life but it's not just a learning disorder, it's connected to everything in life and if you let it, it can run your life.*

*Seriously, this is one of the most common disorders in the world and it's still mostly known for its stereotypes.*

*An active power means you can see the results like in Charmed. Telekinesis and freezing time is active but precognition is passive.*

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gryfflepuffinthetardis · 3 months

Text

Killer Queen (Steve Harrington) Season One Cast

Twelve-Year-Old Cassandra Delphia "Cassie Dare" Henderson — Georgie Henley (As Lucy Pevensie)

The Girl Who Forgot

Sixteen-year-old Cassandra Delphia "Cassie Dare" Henderson — Zoey Deutch

The Girl Who Was Distant/The Guardian

Pan Henderson — David Tennant (Crowley)

The Cool Father in Indianapolis

Steve Harrington - Joe Keery

King of Hawkins High

Dustin Henderson - Gaten Matarazzo

The Compass Genius Little Brother

Eleven - Millie Bobby Brown

The Number Who Broke the Dam

Mike Wheeler - Finn Wolfhard

The Paladin Who Fell For the Mage

Lucas Sinclair - Caleb McLaughlin

The Overlycrtical and Unsympathetic Boy Who Didn't Understand How Compasses Worked

Nancy Wheeler - Natalia Dyer

The Princess Who Screwed Up and Got Revenge

Jonathan Byers - Charlie Heaton

The Antisocial, Loner Photographer

Joyce Byers - Winona Ryder

The Mother Who Never Stopped Believing

Chief Jim Hopper - David Harbour

The Man Who They Underestimated and Regretted

Will Byers - Noah Schnapp

The Boy Who the Demogorgon Caught

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gryfflepuffinthetardis · 4 months

Text

World War Three

youtube

Estrenar — Spanish — Wearing something for the very first time.

"Let people underestimate you. That way they'll never know for sure what you're capable of."

Electricity crackled on the alien as she dropped the man. The girls ran past the alien trying to escape.

Then Harriet stopped them, "No, wait. They're still in there. The emergency protocols. We need them." And then she ran back.

“Wait!” Lars shouted.

Rose and Lillie looked at her and then each other with bewilderment before going after her only to find her running back as the alien had started to chase them.

They ran past the elevator and before the alien could pass it the lift opened, revealing the Doctor.

"Hello." He said, cheerfully.

Lillie pulled the two older women with Lars behind them through a door while the alien was distracted.

"Hide." Rose hissed.

Lillie hid behind a curtain, Rose hid behind a cabinet, Lars in the darkened chimney, her dark clothes blended her with the shadows and masked her scent, and Harriet hid behind a folding screen.

The alien followed soon, trilling, playfully, "Oh, such fun. Little human children, where are you? Sweet little human kins, come to me. Let me kiss you better. Kiss you with my big, green lips."

Rose moved from behind the cabinet to behind the curtains with her sister. They exchanged fearful looks and then held each other's hands, tightly.

Soon two other aliens joined, "My brothers." The first alien greeted.

Now there's more of them?

"Happy hunting?” One of them asked.

"It's wonderful. The more you prolong it, the more they stink." Lillie's eyes widened.

"Sweat and fear."

"I can smell an old girl. Stale bird and brittle bones." One of them said. Harriet.

"And three ripe youngsters, all hormones and adrenaline. Fresh enough to bend before they snap." The first alien said before pulling back the curtain, revealing the sisters who then screamed.

Harriet bravely jumped out of her hiding spot, shouting, "NO! TAKE ME FIRST! TAKE ME!"

“GET AWAY FROM THEM!” Lars shouted, emerging from her hiding spot w

Lillie took this opportunity to push herself up and kick the alien over, pushing her sister out of the way and she kicked the alien in the chest, actually managing to knock her over before another grabbed her by her hood, holding her above the ground as she kicked and punched.

"LILLIE!" Rose and Lars screamed.

Then the Doctor burst in with a fire extinguisher and sprayed the aliens with it, making the alien drop Lillie who landed on her feet, the force forcing her to crouch down and her fingertips hit the floor, steadying her and she flipped her head up, her hair soaring above her head, "Out! With me!" He told the girls.

Lillie pulled the curtain down over the alien who had picked her up, and pulled it around it, and forcing them to spin in a circle, disorientating it, like a crucial game of hit the pinata before she joined the Doctor and the other women as the Doctor continued sprayed the aliens.

"Who the hell are you?" He asked Harriet.

"Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North."

"Nice to meet you." He said.

"Likewise." She replied.

He sprayed them again before the fire extinguisher was empty and they ran out.

"We need to head to the Cabinet Room." The Doctor instructed.

"The Emergency Protocols are in there. They give instructions for aliens." Harriet agreed.

"Harriet Jones, I like you."

"And I like you too."

The aliens screeched as they chased them through the corridors and rooms. Harriet, Rose, Lillie, and the Doctor made it back into the cabinet room. The Doctor grabbed a decanter of alcohol and held the sonic screwdriver up to it.

"One more move and my sonic device will triplicate the flammability of this alcohol. Whoof, we all go up. So back off." They stepped back. "Right then. Question time. Who exactly are the Slitheen?"

"They're aliens." Harriet observed.

"Yes. I got that, thanks." The Doctor said, sarcastically.

"Who are you, if not human?" Said one of the male Slitheens to the Doctor.

"Who's not human?" Harriet asked, confused.

"He's not human." Rose and Lillie said.

"He's not human?" Harriet exclaimed.

“He’s an alien.” Lillie said.

"Can I have a bit of hush?"

"Sorry."

The Doctor turned back to the Slitheen, "So, what's the plan?" But Harriet spoke again.

"But he's got a Northern accent." Lars suddenly said.

"Lots of planets have a north." Lillie explained to her.

"I said hush. Come on. You've got a spaceship hidden in the North Sea. It's transmitting a signal. You've murdered your way to the top of government. What for, invasion?"

"Why would we invade this God-forsaken rock?" One of them said,

"Then something's brought the Slitheen race here. What is it?"

"The Slitheen race?" One of them scoffed.

"Slitheen is not our species. Slitheen is our surname. Jocrassa Fel Fotch Pasameer-Day-Slitheen at your service." Jocrassa said.

"So, you're family."

"A family business."

"Then you're out to make a profit. How can you do that on a 'God-forsaken rock'?" The Doctor theorized.

"Ah, excuse me? Your device will do what? Triplicate the flammability?" One of them asked. Lillie really couldn't tell the difference between them.

"Is that what I said?"

"You're making it up." The Slitheen accused.

"Ah, well! Nice try. Harriet, have a drink. I think you're gonna need it."

"You pass it to the left first." She said.

"Sorry." He said and handed it to Lillie.

Lillie took it from the Doctor and took a swig and then handed it to Lars who also took a big swig.

"Now we can end this hunt with a slaughter."

"Don't you think we should run?" Rose asked.

"Fascinating history, Downing Street. Two thousand years ago, this was marsh land. 1730, it was occupied by a Mister Chicken. He was a nice man. 1796, this was the Cabinet Room. If the Cabinet's in session and in danger, these are about the four most safest walls in the whole of Great Britain. End of lesson." The Doctor lifted a small panel and pressed a button causing mental shutters to crash shut across the windows and doors. He turned to the three women, "Installed in 1991. Three inches of steel lining every single wall. They'll never get in."

"And how do we get out?" Lillie asked.

"Ah." The Doctor said, only now realizing this.

"You didn't think about that, did you?" She asked.

"No." He confessed and then said, “shut up.”

The Doctor dragged the man's body into a small storeroom where the late prime minister's body was.

"What was his name?"

"Who?" Harriet asked.

"This one. The secretary or whatever he was called.” The Doctor clarified.

"I don't know. I talked to him. I brought him a cup of coffee. I never asked his name." Harriet clearly felt bad about this.

"Indra." Lillie said.

"What?"

"His name was Indra Ganesh." Lillie said, they all looked at her, "It's on his wallet." She held up his wallet.

She had done it out of instinct, almost like a second nature. Like she often came across bodies and searched for identification.

The Doctor looked at her curiously, "why'd you take his wallet?"

"I-I don't know. It was almost like... second nature." She said, handing the wallet to him.

"Thank you, for your death may save the lives of many. And I'm sorry, it had to be you." The Doctor remembered Nova used to say.

She always used to say that you couldn’t save every life but you could make sure their life counted, so their memory could keep them alive forever.

"Right? What do we got? Any terminals, anything?" The Doctor asked, walking out of the closet.

"No. This place is antique. What I don't get is, when they killed the Prime Minister, why didn't they use him as a disguise?" Rose wondered.

"He's too slim. They're big old beasts. They need to fit inside big humans." The Doctor said.

"But the Slitheen are about eight feet. How do they fit inside?" Rose asked.

"That's the device around their necks. Compression field. Literally shrinks them down a bit. That's why there's all that gas. It's a big exchange."

"Wish I had a compression field. I could fit a size smaller." Rose joked.

"Excuse me, people are dead! This is not the time for making jokes." Harriet scolded.

"Sorry. You get used to this stuff when you're friends with him." Rose apologized.

"Well, that's a strange friendship." Harriet said.

"It's more like you learn how to laugh at the darkness. It's a defense mechanism." Lillie added, darkly and then muttered, "though, I was already a pro at that."

Lars seemed to consider this for a moment.

"Harriet Jones. I've heard that name before. Harriet Jones. You're not famous for anything, are you?" The Doctor said.

"Oh, hardly." She scoffed.

"Rings a bell. Harriet Jones?" He turned to Lillie and Rose who shook their heads.

"Lifelong backbencher I'm afraid, and a fat lot of use I'm being now. The Protocols are redundant. They list the people who could help and they're all dead downstairs." Harriet said.

“Hasn't it got, like, defense codes and things?" Rose asked.

"Couldn't we just launch a nuclear bomb at them?" Lillie asked.

"You're both very violent young women." Harriet commented.

"Thank you." Lillie said even though it wasn't a compliment.

"That's my baby sister, ladies and gentlemen." Rose said with a slight smile as Lars shook her head with a gentle smile.

"Well, there's nothing like that in here. Nuclear strikes do need a release code, yes, but it's kept secret by the United Nations."

"Say that again." The Doctor said, suddenly.

"What, about the codes?"

"Anything. All of it."

"Well, the British Isles can't gain access to atomic weapons without a Special Resolution from the UN."

"Like that's ever stopped them." Rose scoffed.

"Exactly, given our past record. And I voted against that, thank you very much. The codes have been taken out of the government's hands and given to the UN. Is it important?" Harriet asked.

"Everything's important." The Doctor replied.

"If we only knew what the Slitheen wanted. Listen to me. I'm saying Slitheen as if it's normal." Harriet said with disbelief.

"What do they want, though?"

"Well, they're just one family, so it's not an invasion. They don't want Slitheen World They're out to make money. That means they want to use something. Something here on Earth. Some kind of asset." The Doctor said.

"Like what, gold? Oil? Water?" Harriet guessed.

"You're very good at this." The Doctor complimented.

"Thank you."

"Harriet Jones. Why do I know that name?"

Rose's phone beeped. "Oh, that's me."

"But we're sealed off. How did you get a signal?" Harriet asked.

"He zapped it. Super phone." Rose explained.

"Then we can phone for help. You must have contacts." Lars said.

"Dead downstairs, yeah."

"Besides who's going to believe us over the British Government, compared to them we're nothing?" Lillie added, bitterly.

"It's Mickey." Rose said.

"Oh, tell your stupid boyfriend we're busy." The Doctor snarked.

"Yeah, he's not so stupid after all." Rose said, showing them that Mickey had sent her a picture of a Slitheen.

"No, no, no, no, no. Not just alien, but like, proper alien. All stinking, and wet, and disgusting." Mickey told them. "And more to the point, it wanted to kill us!"

"I could've died!" Jackie's muffled voice exclaimed.

"Is she all right, though?" Rose asked.

"Don't put her on, just tell us." Lillie added hastily, not wanting to get another lecture. They didn't have time.

The Doctor took the phone from Rose. "Is that Ricky? Don't talk, just shut up and go to your computer."

"It's Mickey, and why should I?"

"Mickey the Idiot, I might just choke. Before I finish this sentence, but, uh, I need you."

Mickey was now hacking into the UNIT website.

"It says password."

The Doctor plugged the mobile phone into the conference phone speaker.

"Say again."

"It's asking for the password."

"Buffalo. Two Fs, one L." The Doctor replied.

"So, what's that website?" Jackie asked in the background.

"All the secret information known to mankind. See, they've known about aliens for years. They just kept us in the dark."

"Mickey, you were born in the dark."

"Oh, leave him alone." Rose said.

"Thank you. Password again."

"Just repeat it every time." The Doctor instructed. "Big Ben—why did the Slitheen go and hit Big Ben?"

"You said to gather the experts, to kill them." Lars said.

"That lot would've gathered for a weather balloon. You don't need to crash land in the middle of London." The Doctor pointed out.

"The Slitheen are hiding, but then they put the entire planet on Red alert. What would they do that for?" Rose asked.

"Oh, listen to her." Jackie said, sarcastically.

"At least she's trying something." Lillie snarked.

"Well, I've got a question, if you don't mind, Since that man walked into our lives, I have been attacked in the streets. I have had creatures from the pits of hell in my own living room, and both of my daughters disappear off the face of the Earth."

"We told you what happened." Rose said.

"I'm talking to him. Cause I've seen this life of yours, Doctor. And maybe you get off on it, and maybe you think it's all clever and smart, but you tell me. Just answer me this. Are my daughters safe?

"Mum, we're fine." Lillie reassured but was ignored.

"Are they safe? Will they always be safe? Can you promise me that?" The Doctor remained silent, "Well, what's the answer?

Mickey took the phone from Jackie, "We're in."

"Now then, on the left at the top, there's a tab, an icon. Little concentric circles. Click on that."

"What is it?"

"The Slitheen have got a spaceship in the North Sea and it's transmitting that signal. Now hush, let me work out what it's saying."

"He'll have to answer me one day." Jackie said in the background.

“Hush.” Mickey hushed her.

"It's some sort of message."

"What's it say?"

"Don't know. It's on a loop, keeps repeating." Mickey's doorbell rang, "hush!"

"That's not me. Go and see who that is." Mickey told Jackie.

"It's three o'clock in the morning." Jackie complained.

"Well, go and tell them that." Mickey said, annoyed.

"It's beaming out into space, who's it for?"

"It's him! It's the thing, it's the Slickeen!" Jackie said in the background, panicked.

"They've found us." Mickey panicked.

"Mickey, I need that signal." The Doctor said.

"To hell with the signal!" Lillie shouted.

"Never mind the signal, get out! Mum!" Rose agreed. "Just get out! Get out!"

"We can't. It's by the front door." Mickey told her. Small silence before he spoke again, "Oh, my God, it's unmasking. It's going to kill us."

"There's got to be some way of stopping them! You're supposed to be the expert, think of something!" Harriet shouted.

"I'm trying!" The Docotr shouted, “Nova was always better at this!”

"I'll take it on, Jackie. You just run. Don't look back. Just run." Mickey said.

"Mickey, it's an eight-foot-tall monster that we have no idea on how to beat; we don't even know what planet they're from! Be smart about this," Lillie pleaded.

They heard the sound of the door splintering as Rose pleaded, "That's our mother."

"Right, if we're going to find their weakness, we need to find out where they're from. Which planet. So, judging by their basic shape, that narrows it down to five thousand planets within traveling distance. What else do we know about them? Information!"

"They're green."

"Yep, narrows it down."

"Good sense of smell." Lillie said.

"Narrows it down."

"They can smell adrenaline." Lars said.

"Narrows it down."

"The pig technology." Harriet suggested.

"Narrows it down."

"The spaceship in the Thames, you said slipstream engine?" Rose said.

"Narrows it down."

"It's getting in!"

"They hunt like it's a ritual." Lillie said.

"Narrows it down."

Well, this was getting depressing. Lillie rubbed her the sides of her temple as the gears in her head whirred.

"Wait a minute. Did you notice? When they fart, if you'll pardon the word, it doesn't just smell like a fart, if you'll pardon the word, it's something else. What is it? It's more like, er..." Harriet tried to search for the word.

"Bad breath!" The sisters said in unison.

"That's it!"

"Calcium decay! Now, that narrows it down!"

"We're getting there, Mum!" Rose cheered

"Too late!"

"Calcium phosphate. Organic calcium. Living calcium. Creatures made out of living calcium. What else? What else? Hyphenated surname. Yes! That narrows it down to one planet. Raxacoricofallapatorius!

"Oh, yeah, great. We could write them a letter." Mickey said, sarcastically. The door finally fell down, not that Lillie was complaining but it seemed like they should've gotten the door down ages ago.

"Get into the kitchen!"

"My God, it's going to rip us apart!"

"Calcium, weakened by the compression field. Acetic acid."

"Speak English!" Jackie snapped.

"Vinegar!" Lillie shouted.

"Just like Hannibal!" Harriet exclaimed

"Just like Hannibal. Mickey, have you got any vinegar?" The Doctor said.

"How should I know?"

"It's your kitchen." The Doctor said.

"Cupboard by the sink, middle shelf." Rose instructed.

Jackie took the phone from Mickie. "Give it here. What do you need?"

"Anything with vinegar!" Lillie told her.

"Gherkins. Yeah, pickled onions. Pickled eggs." Jackie said over the phone.

Lillie wrinkled her nose. "And you kiss this man?" She asked her sister.

They heard the Slitheen break in and then a splat. A few beats of silence, then a fart and the sound of the Slitheen exploding.

"Hannibal?" Rose asked, then looked at her sister.

"The only Hannibal that comes to mind is Lector." She shrugged.

“Aren’t you supposed to be a genius?” Lars asked her sarcastically.

"Hannibal crossed the Alps by dissolving boulders with vinegar." Harriet explained.

"Oh. Well, there you go then."

They all toast the moment with a glass of port from the decanter and the Doctor cringed at the taste.

"Listen to this." Mickey told them.

"Our inspectors have searched the sky above our heads and they have found massive weapons of destruction capable of being deployed within forty-five seconds. Our technicians can baffle the alien probes, but not for long. We are facing extinction, unless we strike first. The United Kingdom stands directly beneath the belly of the mother ship. I beg of the United Nations, pass an emergency resolution. Give us the access codes. A nuclear strike at the heart of the beast is our only chance of survival. Because from this moment on it is my solemn duty to inform you planet Earth is at war."

"He's making it up. There's no weapons up there, there's no threat. He just invented it." The Doctor complained.

"Do you think they'll believe him?” Harriet asked.

"They did last time." Rose said.

"That's why the Slitheen went for spectacle. They want the whole world panicking, because us... us humans when we get scared, we lash out." Lillie said, darkly. "Anything that we think it different we hate it for years without reconsideration."

"They release the defense code..." Rose said.

"And the Slitheen go nuclear." The Doctor finished

"But why?" Harriet asked.

The Doctor opened the doors, "You get the codes, release the missiles, but not into space because there's nothing there. You attack every other country on Earth. They retaliate, fight back. World War Three. Whole planet gets nuked."

"And we can sit through it safe in our spaceship waiting in the Thames. Not crashed, just parked. Only two minutes away." Margaret giggled.

"But you'll destroy the planet, this beautiful place. What for?" Harriet asked.

"Profit. That's what the signal is beaming into space. An advert." The Doctor said.

"The sale of the century. We reduce the Earth to molten slag, then sell it piece by piece. Radioactive chucks, capable of powering every cut-price star liner and budget cargo ship. There's a recession out there. People are buying cheap. This rock becomes raw fuel."

"At the cost of five billion lives." The Doctor scoffed.

"Bargain."

"Or at the cost of you and your whole family." Lillie said, darkly.

"I give you a choice. Leave this planet or I'll stop you."

"If you had any ounce of common sense, you would know not to mess with me." Lillie said, with danger in her voice that was unfamiliar to her but reminded the Doctor of someone.

"What, you? Trapped in your box?" She laughed.

“Yes. Us." The Doctor said, he shut the door on her laughing face.

As the doors closed, Margaret saw Lillie's eyes flash purple which sent a jolt of a surprise and fear shoot through her but she brushed it off. Oh, what a mistake that was.

"All right, Doctor. I'm not saying I trust you, but there must be something you can do." Jackie said.

"If we could ferment the port, we could make acetic acid." Harriet suggested.

"Mickey, any luck?" Rose asked. Apparently they weren't even going attempt that.

"There's loads of emergency numbers. They're all on voicemail."

"Voicemail dooms us all." Harriet rolled her eyes.

"If we could just get out of here." Lillie groaned.

"There is a way out." The Doctor said.

"What?" The girls asked.

"There's always been a way out."

"Then why don't we use it?" Rose asked.

"Because I can't guarantee your daughters will be safe." He told Jackie.

"Don't you dare. Whatever it is, don't you dare."

"That's the thing. If I don't dare, everyone dies."

Lars examined the Doctor’s face, he didn’t look happy. Like he enjoyed it. Like Mickey had talked about, like she had heard about. He regreted the list of deaths that always followed him.

The sisters looked at each other, knowing what each other's answer was before looking back at the Doctor and said in unison, "Do it."

"You don't even know what it is. You'd just let me?" He asked them.

"Yeah."

"Please. Doctor. Please. They're my daughters. They're just kids." Jackie pleaded, tearfully.

"Do you think I don't know that? Because this is my life, Jackie. It's not fun, it's not smart, it's just standing up and making a decision because nobody else will."

"Then what're you waiting for?" Lillie asked.

"I could save the world but lose you both." He said, staring at the two girls, especially at Lillie.

Lars could see… losing Lillie… that would break his hearts…

"Except it's not your decision, Doctor. It's mine." Harriet said.

"And who the hell are you?" Jackie demanded in that mom-shout mothers did to anyone who questioned the safety of their children.

"Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North. The only elected representative in this room, chosen by the people for the people. And on behalf of the people, I command you. Do it." Harriet said.

"How do we get out?" Rose asked.

"We don't. We stay here." He said and went to get the Emergency Protocols from the Red Box. "Use the buffalo password. It overrides everything."

"What're you doing?" Jackie asked.

"Hacking into the Royal Navy. We're in. Here it is. HMS Taurean, Trafalgar Class submarine, ten miles off the coast of Plymouth."

"Right, we need to select a missile." The Doctor said.

"We can't go nuclear. We don't have the defense codes."

"We don't need it. All we need's an ordinary missile." The Doctor said.

"Oh my god." Jackie gasped, "Please, don't."

"It's either the five of us or five billion people." Lillie reasoned.

"What's the first category?"

"Sub Harpoon, UGM-A4A."

"That's the one. Select." He said.

"I could stop you." Jackie said in the background.

"Do it, then." Mickey said, not any more happy to launch the missile that would save the world but kill his girlfriend and his best friend and her mysterious friend.

"You ready for this?"

"Yeah."

"Mickey the idiot, the world is in your hands. Fire."

Mickey clicked the mouse, "Oh my god." Jackie gasped.

Lillie was filled with a series of reasonable thoughts, focused on their survival. On Rose's survival. On the Doctor’s survival. On Lars’ survival.

"How solid are these?" Harriet asked, referring to the walls.

"Not solid enough. Built for short-range attack, nothing this big." The Doctor replied as Lillie eyed the cupboard they had placed Indra Ganesh in.

"All right, now I'm making the decision. I’m not going to let any of you die. We're going to ride this one out. It's like what they say about earthquakes.” Lillie said, opening the cupboard door. “You can survive them by standing under a doorframe. Now, this cupboard's small so it's strong. Come and help me. Come on." Rose said and Harriet and Lillie went to go help her.

The girls emptied the cupboard, quickly before the missile hit.

"It's on radar. Counter defense five-five-six."

"Stop them intercepting it."

"I'm doing it now."

"Good boy."

"Five-five-six neutralized."

The Doctor unplugged the phone and ran to the cupboard to join the girls.

"Here we go. Nice knowing you all." They all held hands, "Hannibal!"

The missile hit and the cupboard shook violently before it started to roll before stopping.

"Is it over?" Lillie groaned, "Are we dead?" The Doctor pushed the steel door off as the girls got out.

"Made in Britain." Harriet said.

A soldier came running to them, "Oh, my God. Are you all right?"

"Harriet Jones. MP, Flydale North. I want you to contact UN immediately. Tell the ambassadors the crisis is over. They can step down. Go on, tell the news."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Someone's got a hell of a job sorting this lot out. Oh, Lord. We haven't even got a Prime Minister."

"Maybe you should have a go."

"Me? Huh. I'm only a back-bencher."

"I'd vote for you." Rose said and Lillie and Lars nodded.

"Now, don't be silly. Look, I'd better go and see if I can help. Hang on!" Harriet said and made her way down the pile of rubble. "We're safe! The Earth is safe! Sergeant!"

"I thought I knew the name. Harriet Jones, future Prime Minister. Elected for three successive terms. The architect of Britain's Golden Age." The Doctor said.

"The crisis has passed! Ladies and gentlemen, I have something to say to you all here today! Mankind stands tall, proud and undefeated. God bless the human race."

The sisters made it home being welcomed with a huge hug from their mother.

A little bit later, Harriet Jones was on the TV as the sisters watched, "Mankind stands tall, proud..."

"Harriet Jones. Who does she think she is? Look at her, taking all the credit. Should be you on there. My daughters saved the world!" Jackie shouted at the television.

"I think the Doctor helped a bit." Rose said.

"All right, then. Him too. You should be given knighthoods."

"Ooh. Knightess Lillie." Lillie grinned but something about that title didn't feel right.

"That's not the way he does things. No fuss. He just moves on. He's not that bad if you gave him a chance." Rose said.

"He's good in a crisis, I'll give him that." Jackie said.

"Oh, now the world has changed. You're saying nice things about him." Rose said, sarcastically.

"Well, I reckon I've got no choice. There's no getting rid of him since you two are infatuated."

"We're not infatuated." The girls said in unison.

“I meant, Lillie.”

“I am not infatuated!” Lillie repeated and turned back to the television, “I don’t get infatuated with boys.”

Rose just smirked, shaking her head and Jackie went just made a noise that was half a scoff and half a hum.

"What does he eat?" Jackie asked.

"How do you mean?" Rose asked.

"I was going to do shepherd's pie. All of us. A proper sit down, 'cause I'm ready to listen. I wanna learn about you two and him and that life you two lead. Only, I don't know, he's an alien. For all I know, he eats grass and safety pins and things." Jackie said

"He'll have shepherd pie." Lillie said.

"You're going to cook for him?" Rose asked.

"What's wrong with that?"

"He's finally met his match." Rose teased.

"You're not too old for a slap, you know." Jackie said and she got up to go to the kitchen, "You two can go and visit your Gran tomorrow. You'd better learn some French. I told her you were in France. I said you two were au-pairing."

Rose's phone rang, she took it out and saw that the caller ID said Tardis.

"Hello?" She asked confused, holding it so both she and her sister could hear the other end.

"Right, I'll be a couple of hours, then we can go." The Doctor said.

"You've got a phone?" Lillie asked into the phone.

"You two think I can travel through space and time and I haven't got a phone? Like I said, couple of hours. I've just got to send out this dispersal. There you go. That's canceling out the Slitheen's advert in case any bargain hunters turn up."

"Um, our mother's cooking." Rose said, awkwardly.

"Good. Put her on a slow heat and let her simmer."

"She's cooking tea. For us."

"I don't do that."

"She wants to get to know you."

"Tough. I've got better things to do."

"It's just tea."

"Not to me it isn't."

"She's our mother." Rose said.

"Well, she's not mine." He said.

"That's not fair."

"Well, you can stay there if you want, but right now there's this plasma storm brewing in the Horsehead Nebula. Fires are burning ten million miles wide. I could fly the Tardis right into the heart of it then ride the shock wave all the way out. Hurtle right across the sky and end up. Anywhere. Your choice."

Rose and Lillie looked at each other and went to Rose's room.

"Girls, I was thinking. I've got that bottle of Amaretto from New Year's Eve. Does he drink?" Jackie said as she entered Rose's room to find her packing and Lillie helping her.

"I was wondering whether he drinks or not." Jackie said.

"Yeah, he does." Rose said, she turned to Lillie, "go pack."

"Don't go, sweethearts. Please don't go." Jackie pleaded as Lillie headed to her room to pack.

Lillie and Rose both had large rucksacks of clothes and personal belongings on their backs as they headed for the Tardis with Jackie following them.

"I'll get a proper job. I'll work weekends. I'll pass my test, and if Jim comes round again, I'll say no. I really will." Jackie pleaded.

"Mum, we're not leaving because of you. We're traveling, that's all, and then we'll come back." Rose said as Lillie adjusted the beanie she had put on her head.

"But it's not safe." Jackie said.

"Mum, if you saw it out there you'd never stay home." Lillie said.

"Got enough stuff?" The Doctor said, sarcastically.

"Last time we stepped in there, it was spur of the moment. Now we're signing up. You're stuck with us." Rose gives the Doctor her rucksack and went to Mickey.

"Come with us. There's plenty of room."

"No chance. He's a liability, I'm not having him on board." The Doctor said.

"We'd be dead without him." Rose told him.

"My decision is final." The Doctor said, firmly.

"Uh-huh." Lillie said, not convinced that it was his decision.

"Sorry." Rose told him. Rose and Mickey did quick kiss goodbye.

"Good luck, yeah."

Jackie turned on the Doctor, "You still can't promise me. What if they get lost? What if something happens to you, Doctor, and they're left all alone standing on some moon a million light-years away. How long do I wait then?"

"Mum, you're forgetting. It's a time machine. We could go traveling around suns and planets and all the way out to the edge of the universe, and by the time we get back, yeah, ten seconds would have passed. Just ten seconds. So stop worrying." Rose comforted her, "I'll take care of Lillie and she'll take care of me."

"Yeah. See you in ten seconds' time, yeah?" Lillie agreed.

The three Tyler women all hugged before the two teenagers parted and entered the Tardis as the Tardis dematerialized, Jackie looked at her watch, counting ten seconds.

"Ten seconds." She scoffed before going back to the flat.

—------

As a member of Torchwood One, Lars had an obligation to tell them that she had met the Doctor, their sole purpose for existing but then there was Lillie. Brilliant, noble, kind, valiant, and beautiful Lillie Tyler.

And the Doctor did save them all. The whole world.

She smiled at the junior researcher, a handsome man with blue eyes who always wore a nice suit, he smiled back as they went along with their jobs that no one could know about.

*What do y'all think of Lars?*

#The Eccedentiast #Katherine Langford #Supernova #Doctor Who #Harriet Jones #Rose Tyler #Mickey Smith #Jackie Tyler #Ninth Doctor #Slitheen #Youtube

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gryfflepuffinthetardis · 4 months

Text

Aliens of London - Supernova

Grend-jai — That feeling of needing to ask someone for help but feeling bad for the imposition, as well as the fear of hurting someone's feelings.

"The universe is under no obligation to make sense to you."

The Tardis materializes around Powell Estate and the trio got out.

"How long have we been gone?" Rose asked.

"About twelve hours." He responded.

The girls laughed and Rose said, "we won't be long. Just want to see our mum."

"What're you going to tell her?" He asked.

"I don't know. We've been the year five billion…"

"Met Charles Dickins…" Lillie added.

"And we've only been gone, what, twelve hours? No, I'll just tell her I spent the night at Shareen's and Lillie fell asleep at the library. Again. See you later. Oh, don't you disappear." She said as the girls went up to their apartment unaware of how long they've really been gone.

"I'm back! I was with Shareen. She was all upset again. Are you in? So, what's been going on? How've you been?" Rose called as a pale-faced Jackie came out, staring in shock. "What? What's that face for? It's not the first time I've stayed out all night."

Jackie dropped her mug of tea, smashing it.

"It's you. Both of you. You're back." She gasped in disbelief.

"Of course, it's us." Rose exclaimed.

"Oh my God, you're back. Oh my god." She pulled the girls into a hug and that was when the girls saw the flyers.

Rose Tyler has been missing from her home with her sister, also missing, on Powell Estate on March sixth, 2005.

Rose is described as nineteen years old, five-foot-four in height, slim build with Shoulder-length blonde hair and green eyes

Deliah “Lillie” Tyler has been missing from her home with her sister, also missing, on Powell Estate on March sixth, 2005.

Lillie is described as eighteen years old, five-foot-three in height, slim build with below shoulder-length curly brown hair and blue eyes

The Doctor ran inside, "It's not twelve hours, it's twelve months. You two have been gone a whole year. Sorry."

"Yeah, thanks, doc." Lillie rolled her eyes.

Jackie's relief quickly turned to the rage that only a mother could have that the girls so feared, and they had a police officer come over to make a statement as Jackie screamed herself hoarse at her daughters. The best Rose could come up with was that they were traveling which set her off into another direction of rage.

"The hours I've sat here, days and weeks and months, all on my own. I thought you two were dead, and where were you? Traveling. What the hell does that mean, traveling? That's no sort of answer." She turned to the police officer, "You ask them. They won't tell me. That's all they say. Traveling."

"That's what we were doing." Rose said, lamely.

"When your passports still in your rooms? It's just one lie after another." Then she rounded on Lillie, "And don't think this is okay for you, you never finished school and you think you're going to get into Cambridge after this." Then Rose again, "how dare you just run off traveling and bring down your little sister with you. How could you be so irresponsible, Rose!?"

"It's not Rose's fault, mum. I wanted to go!" Lillie spoke up, not wanting Rose to get all of the blame.

"Mum, we meant to phone." Rose tried.

"We really did..." Lillie added, "We just... forgot." Seriously? That was the best she could come up with? She was usually a much better liar than this.

"What, for a year? You forgot for a year? And I am left sitting here. I just don't believe you. Why won't you tell me where you've been?"

"Actually, it's my fault. I sort of uh, employed Rose and Lillie as my companions." The Doctor spoke up which was rather brave of him, given the ferocity of Jackie.

"When you say companion, is this a sexual relationship?" The police officer said.

"No." Rose, Lillie, and the Doctor all said in unison.

"Then what is it? You just waltz in here all charms and smiles then the next thing I know both my daughters vanish off the face of the Earth!" Jackie shouted, "How old are you then? Forty? Forty-five? What, did you find them on the internet? Did you go online and pretend you're a doctor?"

"I am a doctor!” The Doctor protested.

"Prove it. Stitch this, mate!" She snarled and then slapped him across the face.

Then she rounded on Lillie again, "Is this some episode that you dragged Rose into. The Doctor isn't real."

"Mum, it's not like that!" She cried.

Later in the kitchen, Jackie was hugging her daughters, not wanting to let them go.

"Did you two think about me at all?" She asked.

"Yes, of course." Lillie said.

"All the time, but..." Rose trailed off.

"One phone call. Just to know that you two were alive." Jackie said.

"Mum, we're sorry. We really are." Rose said.

"Do you know, what terrifies me is that you two still can't say. What happened to you two? What can be so bad that you two can't tell me, sweethearts? Where were you?" Jackie cried.

They couldn't answer her.

Rose and Lillie went out to get some air, sitting on the roof of the Powell Estate with the Doctor.

"We can't tell her." Rose said, "We can't even begin."

"She's never going to forgive us and we missed a whole year. It’s 2006, now." Lillie said, she turned to the Doctor, "was it good?"

"Middling."

"You're so useless." Rose scoffed.

"Well, if it's this much trouble, are you two going to stay here now?"

Lillie couldn't answer, she just stared at the ground.

"I don't know. We can't do that to her again, though." Rose said as Lillie nodded in agreement.

"Well, she's not coming with us." The Doctor said and the girls laughed at the thought.

"No chance." Rose laughed.

"I don't do families."

"She slapped you!" Lillie laughed.

"Nine hundred years of time and space, and I've never been slapped by someone's mother."

"Your face."

"It hurt!"

"You're so gay." Rose commented, silence before she asked, "When you say nine hundred years...?"

"That's my age."

"You're nine hundred years old?" Rose asked.

"Yeah."

Rose turned to Lillie, "Mum was right. That is one hell of an age gap." She pushed off the small ledge they were sitting on and Lillie followed her, "Every conversation with you just goes mental. There's no one else I can talk to. I've seen all that stuff up there, the size of it, and I can't say a word. Aliens and spaceships and things, and we’re the only people on planet Earth who knows they exist."

A loud deep horn broke their conversation as a spaceship with black smoke trailing behind it came crashing down, the trio ducked as it descended over their heads, it flew over London until it crashed into Big Ben and into the Thames.

"Oh, that's just not fair." Rose muttered.

The Doctor laughed and took the girls’ hands and they ran down the building and to the street where the military had arrived and were blocking off the road.

"It's blocked off."

"We're miles from the center. The city must be gridlocked. The whole of London must be closing down." Rose said.

"I know. I can't believe I'm here to see this. This is fantastic!"

"Did you know this was going to happen?" Lillie asked.

"Nope."

"Do you recognize the ship?" Rose asked.

"Nope.”

"Do you know why it crashed?" Rose asked.

"Nope."

"Oh, I'm so glad we've got you." Lillie said, sarcastically.

"I bet you are. This is what I travel for. To see history happening right in front of us."

"Well, let's go and see it. Never mind the traffic, we've got the Tardis."

"Better not. They've already got one spaceship in the middle of London. I don't want to shove another one on top." The Doctor said.

"Yeah, but yours looks like a big blue box. No one's going to notice." Lillie said.

"You'd be surprised. Emergency like this, there'll be all kinds of people watching. Trust me. The Tardis stays where it is."

"So, history's happening and we're stuck here."

"Yes, we are."

"It's got to be Ken Livingstone, hasn't it?"

"We could always do what everybody else does. We could watch it on TV." Rose suggested.

Jackie had invited a bunch of people over as she begrudgingly let the Doctor flip through the channels.

"I've got no choice," Jackie said as she brought two mugs of tea for her daughters. "Either make him feel welcome or I risk never seeing you two again."

"YOU TWO HAVE BROKEN YOUR MOTHER'S HEART!" Ru Chan, a friend of Jackie's, yelled at them as Jackie spoke. "SHE WAS SOBBING IN MY ARMS! I CRADLED HER LIKE A CHILD!"

"Oi, I'm trying to listen." The Doctor said but was ignored.

Jackie invited some more people inside and she moved to the coach, saying, "Oh, guess who asked me out. Billy Croot."

After a while, the Doctor got up and left and the girls followed.

"And where do you think you're going?" Rose asked.

"Nowhere. It's just a bit human in there for me. History just happened and they're talking about where you can buy dodgy top-up cards for half price. I'm off on a wander, that's all." The Doctor said.

"Right. There's a spaceship on the Thames and you're just wandering." Lillie said, not believing him.

"Nothing to do with me. It's not an invasion. That was a genuine crash landing. Angle of descent, color of smoke, everything. It's perfect."

"Uh-huh." Lillie said, unconvinced as she crossed her arms.

"So?"

"So maybe this is it. First contact. The day mankind officially comes into contact with an alien race. I'm not interfering because you've got to handle this on your own. That's when the human race finally grows up. Just this morning you were all tiny and small and made of clay. Now you can expand. You don't need me. Go and celebrate history. Spend some time with your mum."

"Promise you won't disappear?" Rose asked.

He patted himself down until he found two sets of keys, "Tell you what. Tardis key. It's about time you two have had one. See you later." He gave each of the girls a key for the Tardis and then walked off.

Lillie watched him go with a blushing smile on her face as no one had ever given her their key before. Rose nudged her with her shoulder.

“Shut up.”

“He likes you.” Rose sang.

“Please, he’s like eight-hundred-and-eighty-two years older than me.”

About half an hour later, the Let's-Get-Together-And-Yell-At-The-Tyler-Sisters party had turned to a "Welcome the Martians" party, thankfully.

Lillie had gone to take a shower and then change into new clothes.

She walked out of her room, now wearing a sky-blue leather jacket over a black shirt that said: “She was not fragile like a flower, she was fragile like a bomb”, a pastel purple and blue plaid skirt, blue and purple tie die jeans, and blue and purple boots. She had baby braids that framed her face.

She left her room, fidgeting with her braids when a Lancashire accent shouted, “Lillie!”

A small five-foot-two girl with dark chestnut reddish-brown hair and brown eyes rocketed into Lillie, nearly knocking her over.

"Lars!" Lillie's voice was muffled.

Then she pulled away now furious and punched her in the shoulder, “WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN!?”

Lillie rubbed her shoulder and muttered lamely, “Traveling.”

The girl scoffed at this obvious lie. “Yeah, come back to me when you think of a better lie.”

Rose cleared her throat and Lillie looked at her, briefly resembling a deer in headlights.

“Uh… Rose, this is… Lars…”

“We’re old classmates.” Lars said, shaking Rose’s hand.

“Right.” Rose muttered.

Lillie pulled Lars to the side, away from everyone. “Does Mum know about us?”

“No. I didn’t… She just knows we were friends before I got my internship. Where the hell have you been?”

“I… I can’t tell you that.”

Lars huffed, crossing her arms; then she softened and asked, “Are you happy? Are you safe?”

“Happy? Yes. Safe… relatively.” Lillie said.

“Well, safety’s never really interested you.” Lars said and Lillie smiled. She had missed her.

—

Lillie had caught up with Lars for a while before she walked back to Rose.

"Hey, Rose. Guess what I found out?" She said.

"What?"

"Jimmy Stone, you remember him?"

"The guy who I dropped out of school for and then stole my computer? Yeah." Rose said with teasing sarcasm.

"The night the Autons attacked, he was killed by one while stealing from his at the time girlfriend. Karma is a twisted mistress, ain't she?" She said, plopping down next to her, smiling, feeling no remorse for Rose's ex.

"Here's to the Martians!" Jackie shouted.

"The Martians!" Everyone except for Rose, Lillie, and Lars cheered.

Then Mickey entered and stared at the two girls in disbelief. Rose nudged Lillie and the two girls looked at him.

"I was going to come and see you." Rose said.

"Someone owes Mickey an apology." Ru said.

"I'm sorry." Rose apologized while Lillie avoided his eyes.

"Not you." She told them and everyone looked at Jackie.

"Well, it's not my fault. Be fair. What was I supposed to think?" Jackie excused.

“Mum, what did you do?” Lillie asked.

What Jackie did was apparently accuse Mickey killing them which Lillie couldn't believe. They had been friends since as long as she could remember. In the kitchen, Mickey was scolding Jackie, Lillie, and Rose.

Another reason, Lars hadn’t specified who she was to Lillie. She awkwardly stood in the corner of the kitchen in her most recent attempt to make souffle.

"You two disappear, who do they turn to? Your boyfriend and best friend. Five times I was taken in for questioning. Five times. No evidence. Course, there couldn't be, could there? And then I get her, your mother, whispering around the estate, pointing the finger. Stuff through my letterbox, and all cause of you two."

"We didn't think we'd be gone so long." Rose said.

"And I waited for you, Rose. Twelve months, waiting for you and the Doctor to come back."

"Hold on. You knew about the Doctor? Why didn't you tell me?" Jackie said.

Lars looked up, curious but then she spotted some people trying to eavesdrop, “Oi, you lot!”

Mickey closed the severing hatch and the door into the kitchen.

"Yeah, yeah. Why not? Huh? How could I tell her where you went?"

"Tell me now." Jackie demanded.

"I might as well, cause you're stuck here. The Doctor's gone. Just now. That box thing just faded away." Mickey told them which just confused Jackie.

"What do you mean?" Rose asked.

"What are you talking about?" Lillie demanded.

"He's left you two. Some boyfriend he turned out to be."

The girls exchanged a panicked look and then bolted out of the flat with Mickey following them and Jackie and Lars not far behind.

The girls ran to where the Tardis had been parked last but it was gone.

"He wouldn't just go, he promised us." Rose panicked.

"Oh, he's dumped you, Rose. Sailed off into space. How does it feel, huh? Now you are left behind with the rest of us Earthlings. Get used to it." Mickey snapped as Jackie joined them.

"Shut up!" Lillie snapped at him, her eyes blazing in the way they did before she slapped someone.

"He would have said." Rose said.

"What're you three chimps going on about? What's going on? What's this Doctor done now?" Jackie demanded.

"He's vamoosed." Mickey laughed, mockingly.

"Mickey, you better shut up before I smack the residual plastic out of you!" Lillie snapped at him. “He's not, because he gave us these." The sisters showed their keys and Mickey just scoffed which did earn a smack upside the head by Lillie, "he's not either of our boyfriend, Mickey. He's better than that. He's much more important and he..." Lillie trailed off when the Tardis keys started to glow.

They looked up when they heard the beautiful sound of the Tardis as it began to appear.

Rose and Lillie tried to persuade Jackie to go inside while Lillie trying to push back Lars; their stubborn mother and the control freak however didn't budge as she stared in shock as the Tardis appeared. Lars looked surprised yet intrigued.

"Huh?" Mickey chuckled like, what'd I tell you?

"How'd you do that, then?" Jackie asked.

The sisters ran into the Tardis, "All right, so I lied. I went and had a look. But the whole crash landing's a fake. I thought so. Just too perfect. I mean, hitting Big Ben. Come on, so I thought let's go and have a look..." He looked at Lillie, “did you change?”

"Our mum's here." Rose interrupted.

"Oh, that's just what I need. Don't you dare make this place domestic." The Doctor complained as an angry Mickey, a shocked Jackie and a fascinated Lars entered the Tardis.

"You're the one who just appeared out of nowhere! Don't you have scans for something?" Lillie exclaimed.

"You ruined my life, Doctor. They thought they were dead. I was a murder suspect because of you." Mickey blamed.

"You see what I mean? Domestic."

"I bet you don't even remember my name." Mickey snapped.

"Ricky."

"It's Mickey."

"No, it's Ricky."

"I think I know my own name." Mickey argued.

"You think you know your own name? How stupid are you?"

“Oi! Shut up the both of you!” Lars shouted.

"And who is this!?" The Doctor demanded and then turned to Lillie, "You can't just bring people on board."

"YOU MATERIALIZED IN FRONT OF US!" Lillie shouted, not letting him scold her for something that wasn’t her fault.

"Yes. Yes. Good point. Alright! Go ahead." He waved his hand at Lars.

Lars ran back out of the Tardis and she circled it, running her hands along the cool wood and the blue paint and came back inside.

"it's... it's... bigger on the inside… or-or is it smaller on the outside?” Lars asked, walking around the console.

"The miracle of quantum physics." Lillie said.

"How..."

"It's a pocket dimension, basically." Lille said, shrugging.

Jackie turned to leave, too overwhelmed by all of this.

"Mum, don't! Don't go anywhere. Don't start a fight!"

"Mum, it's not like that. He's not... I'll be up in a minute. Hold on!" Rose ran back into the Tardis, "That was a real spaceship."

"Yep." The Doctor said.

"So it's all a pack of lies? What is it, then? Are they invading?"

"Funny way to invade, putting the world on red alert." Mickey pointed out.

"Good point!" The Doctor admitted.

"So, what're they up to?" Lars asked. “Invasion or some kind of test to see how we react or maybe they want something from Earth.”

“I’m sorry, who are you?”

“Uh, this is my, uh, fri-friend, Lars.” Lillie said, “She moved away for an internship soon before I met you.”

“Lars? That’s an odd name.”

“Odder than the Doctor?” Lars narrowed her eyes and held her hand out, “Clarys ‘Lars’ South-Woods.”

Jackie was in her bedroom, processing what she had learned. Where her daughters had been.

The television showed a number to call for if anyone had information about aliens. Jackie grabbed the phone a dialed the number, getting the busy line twice until someone picked up.

"Yes, I've seen one. I really have. An alien. And they're with him. My daughters, they're with him. And they're not safe. Oh, my God. They're not safe. I've seen an alien, and I know his name. He's called the Doctor. It's a box; a blue box. They called it a Tardis."

Jackie soon hung up unaware that she had just put her daughters in danger.

Back in the Tardis, the Doctor and Mickey were arguing until Rose took him aside to talk to him while the Doctor worked on repairs. Lillie gently stroked the Tardis' controls soothingly as if calming the Tardis down as she explained what had happened to Lars until the Doctor spoke.

"Got it! Ha, ha! Patched in the radar, looped it back twelve hours so we can follow the flight of that spaceship. Here we go." A trajectory appeared on the monitor, "that's the spaceship on its way to Earth, see? Except. Hold on. See? The spaceship did a sling shot round the Earth before it landed." The Doctor said.

"What does that mean?" Rose asked.

"It means it came from Earth in the first place. It went up and came back down.” Lars said.

“And whoever those aliens are, they haven't just arrived, they've been here for a while." Lillie continued.

"The question is, what have they been doing?"

Mickey and Rose started to channel-hop on the scanner.

"How many channels do you get?" Mickey asked.

"All the basic packages."

"You get sports channels?" Mickey asked, amazed.

"Yes, I get the football." The Doctor said, shortly and slightly annoyed and then a group of people appeared on the screen, "Hold on, I know that lot. UNIT. United Nations Intelligence Taskforce. Good people."

"How do you know them?" Rose asked.

"Cause, he's worked for them. Oh yeah, don't think I sat on my backside for twelve months, Doctor. I read up on you. You look deep enough on the Internet or in the history books, and there's his name, followed by a list of the dead." Mickey said.

"That's nice. Good boy, Ricky." The Doctor said, mockingly.

“You mean because he arrived to save them?” Lillie asked, casually, yet almost defensively. “If a detective comes to catch a serial killer and more people die does that mean it’s the detective’s fault?”

Mickey opened his mouth but didn’t have anything to defend his argument.

"If you know them, why don't you go and help?

"They wouldn't recognize me. I've changed a lot since the old days." Lillie thought about these words... no. That's impossible. "Besides, the world's on a knife-edge." The Doctor continued. "There's aliens out there and fake aliens. We want to keep this alien out of the mix. I'm going undercover. And uh, I'd better keep the Tardis out of sight. Lars, do you have a car?”

“Not big enough for five people.”

“Yeah, no one over five foot five can get in.” Lillie snarked.

“Ricky, you've got a car. You can do some driving." The Doctor went to leave the Tardis with the two couples following.

"Where to?" Mickey asked.

"The roads are clearing. Let's go and have a look at that spaceship."

As they left, they heard a helicopter overhead and a spotlight shined on them.

"Do not move! Step away from the box and raise your hands above your heads."

Lars pulled her hood over her head.

Police cars and armored personnel carriers surrounded them. Panicking, Mickey ran off, making Lillie roll her eyes and then and Lillie spotted Jackie running out of the flat building.

"ROSE! LILLIE!" She screamed, trying to run to them but a soldier stopped her, "ROSE! LILLIE! THOSE ARE MY DAUGHTERS!"

Mickey hid behind some dustbins, the trained soldiers somehow unaware of him.

"Raise your hands above your head. You are under arrest."

"Take me to your leader." The Doctor said as Jackie continued to try and break free of the soldiers keeping her from her daughters.

Lillie rolled her eyes.

The trio of time traveling and the spunky control freak (not that it was a good idea to call her that) were escorted into a police car that looked to be very fancy.

"This is a bit posh. If I knew it was going to be like this, being arrested, I would have done it years ago." Rose commented.

"It's not usually." Lillie said, as she had always been the more rebellious of the two girls.

"What?" The Doctor asked, shocked.

"I tend to have a problem with authority." Lillie dismissed, reminding the Doctor of someone and not for the first time.

“Problem?” Lars scoffed, “You’re allergic to authority.”

"We're not being arrested, we're being escorted." The Doctor told them.

"Where to?"

"Where'd you think?"

"Area fifty-one?" Lillie asked before remembering that was in America, “the British Aera fifty-one?”

“I doubt that.” Lars muttered.

"Downing Street." The Doctor laughed.

"You're kidding." Rose giggled.

"I'm not."

"10 Downing Street?" Rose asked.

"That's the one."

"Oh, my God. Lillie, we're going to 10 Downing Street!" Rose squealed, "How come?"

"I hate to say it, but Mickey was right. Over the years I've visited this planet a lot of times, and I've been, er, noticed." The Doctor said.

"Now they need you?" Rose asked.

"Like it said on the news. They're gathering experts in alien knowledge. And who's the biggest expert of the lot?" He asked.

"Patrick Moore?" Lillie asked, innocently.

"Apart from him."

"Oh, don't you just love it."

"I'm telling you. Lloyd George, he used to drink me under the table. Who's the Prime Minister now?"

"How should we know? We missed a year." Lillie said. "I barely knew who it was before."

Then they looked at Lars, “I’ve been busy.”

“Yes, at your posh shop job.” Lillie said, sarcastically.

“It’s not a shop job!” Lars shouted.

People kept on taking pictures of the four, Lars kept her head down and Lillie pulled her hood over her face and put her sunglasses on as they walked by.

Inside, a traumatized older woman entered the room where the Doctor, Lars, and the Tyler sisters were.

"Ladies and gentlemen, can we convene? Quick as we can, please. It's this way on the right, and can I remind you ID cards are to be worn at all times." A man announced. He handed an ID to the Doctor, "Here's your ID card. I'm sorry, your companions don't have clearance."

Lars actually did have clearance but didn’t want to leave Lillie.

"I don't go anywhere without them." He said, firmly.

"You're the code nine, not them. I'm sorry, uh, Doctor. It is the Doctor, isn't it? They'll have to stay outside." The man said as the older woman slowly approached them at the mention of the Doctor.

"They're staying with me." He insisted.

"Look, even I don't have clearance to go in there. I can't let them in and that's a fact." The man said.

"It's all right. You go." Rose said.

“Yeah, what’s the worst that could happen.” Lillie asked and then joked, “Invasion of the Body Snatchers?”

"Excuse me. Are you the Doctor?" The older woman asked.

"Sure."

"Not now. We're busy. Can't you go home?" The man said, rudely, looking very annoyed as if she had been bothering him all day.

"I just need a word in private." She argued with the man as the Doctor left.

"You haven't got clearance. Now leave it." He turned to the girls, "I'm going to have to leave you with security."

"It's all right. I'll look after them. Let me be of some use." Harriet said and gestured for the girls to follow, "Walk with me. Just keep walking." She was now speaking in a softer voice, she sounded scared but she was trying to sound casual, "That's right. Don't look round." She flashed them her ID, "Harriet Jones, MP Flydale North.” Lars nodded, Harriet Jones was a person of interest, in a good way. They arrived at the staircase.

This friend of yours, he's an expert, is that right? He kn—he knows about aliens?"

"Why do you want to know?" Rose asked and then Harriet’s brave face started to break and she broke down into tears.

Lillie went to comfort her, sharing bewildered looks with Rose and Lars.

Harriet brought them to the Cabinet Room as she frantically explained what she had witnessed to the three teenagers. She went to a closet and took out what looked like the skin of a man with the clothes and everything but nothing inside.

"They turned the body into a suit. A disguise for the thing inside!" Harriet cried, starting to sob again.

"It's all right. We believe you." Lillie comforted, soothingly as Lars grabbed a box of tissues.

"Yeah, we do." Rose agreed, "It's... it's alien. They must have some serious technology behind this. If we could find it, we could use it."

Rose started to search the room, she opened a few drawers while Lillie opened a cupboard, "Ooh!" A man's body fell out on top of Lillie who started to stammer incoherently.

Rose pushed the corpse off of her sister, pulling her into her and away from the body as Lars pushed the body on their back.

"Oh, my God! Is that the..." Rose started when the man from earlier entered, apparently realizing that the Doctor’s companions were missing.

"Harriet, for God's sake. This has gone beyond a joke. You cannot just wander..."

“Oi, we have an emergency here!” Lars shouted.

He saw the man on the floor, "Oh, my God. That's the Prime Minister!"

Lillie crouched down and felt for his pulse, "he's dead. They killed him."

“I think it’s fair to say they do not come in peace.” Lars said, looking around for a weapon.

"Oh! Has someone been naughty?" A high-pitched voice said and they turned to see a pudgy woman with a blonde pixie cut, closing the door behind her; Harriet Jones stiffened, recognizing her as one of the aliens.

"That's impossible. He left this afternoon. The Prime Minister left Downing Street. He was driven away!" The man exclaimed.

"And who told you that, hmm? Me!" She giggled.

She reached to her hairline, revealing a zipper attached to her skin that only Lillie could see before she started to unzip it the five of them were bathed in an eerie blue light. She pulled the skin down revealing a big fat green alien with large pitch-black eyes and oversized claws.

She let out a screech as she grabbed the man.

"LOOK OUT!" Lillie screamed but it was too late.

She rammed him against the wall as he screamed and the girls watched in horror.

*Any ideas for songs*

#Doctor Who #Supernova #The Eccedentiast #Katherine Langford #Rose Tyler #Lillie Tyler #Ninth Doctor #Slitheen #Jackie Tyler

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gryfflepuffinthetardis · 4 months

Text

The Unquiet Dead

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Eidolism — Noun — The Belief in Ghosts and Spirits

"I am still trying to unveil my mystery."

The Tardis supplied them their own rooms, Lillie's was her dream room with dark purple walls with multicolored stars and galaxies that constantly shifted and twinkled. The Tardis landed roughly making her fall off her bed, her arms shot out and flipped over, falling on her knees. She got up and ran out of her room and to the console.

"What the hell was that?" She asked.

"He can't drive." Rose answered.

"Oi! I promised you a time machine and that's what you're getting. Now, you've seen the future, let's have a look at the past. Eighteen-sixty. How does eighteen-sixty sound?

"What happened in eighteen-sixty?" Lillie asked.

"I don't know, let's find out. Hold on, here we go!"

The landing was tough, knocking all three of them over as they grinned and laughed.

"Blimey!" Rose chuckled.

"You're telling me. Are you two all right?"

"Yeah. I think so. You?" Rose helped her sister up. "Nothing broken? Did we make it? Where are we?"

The Doctor went to the console and checked the scanner which Lillie suspected wasn't one hundred percent accurate.

"I did it. Give the man a medal. Earth, Naples, December twenty-forth, eighteen-sixty."

"That's so weird. It's Christmas." Rose mused.

He gestured towards the door, "All yours."

"But it's like, think about it, though. Christmas. Eighteen-sixty. Happens once, just once and it's gone, it's finished, it'll never happen again. Except for you. You can go back and see days that are dead and gone a hundred thousand sunsets ago."

"No wonder you never stay still." Lillie smiled.

"Not a bad life."

"Better with three." Lillie mused.

"Come on, then." Rose took her sister's hand and they started to the door before the Doctor stopped them.

"Hey, where do you think you're going?"

"Eighteen-sixty." Lillie shrugged.

"Go out there dressed like that, you'll start a riot, Barbarella and Sarcastic Miss Marple.” He gestured to Lillie’s sarcastic clothing. “There's a wardrobe through there. First left, second right, third on the left, go straight ahead, under the stairs, past the bins, fifth door on your left. Hurry up!"

"What?" Lillie asked, her head hurting from all these directions.

The Tardis suddenly lit up a path for the sisters who grinned and ran off, giggling.

Rose picked out an era-appropriate maroon dress under a black cloak while Lillie found a black and midnight blue dress and matching boots. She wore over it a baby blue winter cloak with white fur that reached the back of her knees, which seemed to be forced on her by Rose. Her hair was in Victorian rag curls but only at the ends with one lock of hair in those majestic Victorian waves hung beside each side of her face.

The Doctor was working under the console when the sisters returned.

"Blimey!" He exclaimed, seeing Lillie. His memory flashed back to Nova, her multicolored hair. Her amethyst-colored eyes. Her smile.

"Don't laugh." Lillie warned.

"You two look beautiful..." He caught himself and looked down, "considering."

"Considering what?"

"That you're human."

"I think that's a compliment." Rose muttered.

"Aren't you going to change?" Lillie asked.

"I've changed my jumper. Come on."

"Typical." Lillie scoffed, playfully, "We have to put these on while he just has to change his jumper.”

"You stay there. You've done this before. This is ours!" Rose said.

The sisters hurried to the Tardis doors, Rose looked out, snowing falling, she pressed her black boots into the snow, leaving a track that wasn't there before. She smiled at Lillie, and they went outside. Lillie tilted her head back as the snowflakes were caught in her dark hair.

The Doctor joined them, "Ready for this? Here we go. History."

The Doctor soon bought a newspaper even though Lillie swore he had previously mentioned that he had no money, "I got the flight a bit wrong."

“Well, that’s not surprising.” Lillie teased.

“Oi!”

"I don't care." Rose said, grinning.

"It's not eighteen-sixty, it's eighteen-sixty-nine."

"I don't care."

"And it's not Naples."

"I don't care."

"It's Cardiff."

That made Rose falter slightly, "Right."

"Rose, we're in Cardiff over a century in the past." Lillie grinned. "This is amazing!"

Rose admired her sister's joy. She had never seen her so happy. She knew they had made the right choice in joining the Doctor.

They soon heard screaming from inside a nearby theatre.

"That's more like it." The Doctor said as he and girls ran into the theater.

The trio came inside, fighting past the fleeing crowd to see blurs of blue gas flying through the air, wailing loudly.

"Fantastic." The Doctor said and then ran towards the stage as the sisters watched as a duo, an old man and young woman went to the corpse and picked her up.

"Oi! Leave her alone!" Rose shouted.

"I'll get them." Lillie shouted as she was the smallest of the trio and would have an easier time getting through the crowd.

"Be careful!" The Doctor shouted.

"Be careful, Lillie!" Rose echoed.

She pushed through the crowd and ran out of the theater to the duo who were packing the woman into their coach.

"Oi! What'd you two think you're doing?!" She shouted.

The woman went to her to speak her. She had black hair, pale skin, and brown eyes, she was quite pretty yet she had a deep sadness in her eyes, she was dressed like a mere servant.

"Oh, it's a tragedy, miss. Don't worry yourself. Me and the master will deal with it. The fact is, this poor lady's been taken with the brain fever and we have to get her to the infirmary." She lied in a Welsh accent.

Lillie pushed her out of the way and felt for the woman's head and her neck for a pulse. She had no pulse and was cold to the touch.

"She's cold. She's dead! Oh, my God, what'd you do to her?" Lillie asked in disbelief.

The old man snuck up behind her and pressed a pad of chloroform to her mouth, her nostrils burned with a sickly-sweet smell before everything went black before she could fight back more than digging her fingernails into his arms and scratch deep marks into his skin.

"What did you do that for?" The woman exclaimed.

"She's seen too much. Oof, she’s heavy.” Lillie’s weight seemed to be getting slowly heavier and heavier. “Get her in the hearse. Legs."

The Doctor and Rose came out of the theater with the angry man on stage hot on their trail to see the woman pushing Lillie’s head into the hearse.

"LILLIE!" Rose screamed as the woman ran back around to the front and they drove off with her sister.

“You're not escaping me, you two. What do you know about that hobgoblin, hmm? Projection on glass, I suppose. Who put you up to it?” The man demanded of them. Rose wasn’t listening at all, she looked like she was going to start crying.

“Yeah, mate. Not now, thanks.” The Doctor said and took Rose’s hand, running to the nearest carriage. “Oi, you! Follow that hearse!” They got in.

“I can't do that, sir.” The driver said.

“Why not?” Rose demanded.

The man who had followed them stuck his head in. “I'll tell you why not. I'll give you a very good reason why not. Because this is my coach.”

“Well, get in, then.” The Doctor said and pulled the man inside, “Move!”

The driver cracked the whip and the carriage moved down the street.

“Come on, you're losing them!” The Doctor shouted.

“Everything in order, Mister Dickens?” The driver asked.

“No! It is not!” The Charles Dickens said.

“What did he say?” The Doctor asked, Rose, despite, knowing who that was as Lillie was a fan of The Signalman, couldn’t care less while her sister was in danger. Otherwise, she’d be in a similar state as the Doctor.

“Let me say this first. I'm not without a sense of humour…” Charles Dickens started.

“Dickens?” The Doctor asked.

“Yes.”

“Charles Dickens?”

“Yes.” Charles Dickens said, a bit irritably.

“The Charles Dickens?”

“Should I remove the gentleman and lady, sir?” The driver asked.

“Charles Dickens? You're brilliant, you are. Completely one hundred percent brilliant. I've read them all. Great Expectations, Oliver Twist and what's the other one, the one with the ghost?” The Doctor said, excitedly.

“A Christmas Carol?” Charles Dickens asked.

“No, no, no, the one with the trains.” The Doctor said, trying to recall the name.

“The Signalman.” Rose said, distractedly, never taking her eyes off the trolley. “Lillie loves the view of reality transition.”

“Yeah, The Signalman, that's it. Terrifying! The best short story ever written. You're a genius.” The Doctor agreed. That had been one of the first stories Nova had showed him when he was in the academy.”

“You want me to get rid of them, sir?” The driver asked again.

“Er, no, I think they can stay.” Charles Dickens said.

“Honestly, Charles. Can I call you Charles? I'm such a big fan.”

“A what? A big what?” Charles Dickens asked, confused.

“Fan. Number one fan, that's me.”

Rose was sure Lillie could give him a run for his money.

“How exactly are you a fan? In what way do you resemble a means of keeping oneself cool?”

“No, it means fanatic, devoted to. Mind you, I've got to say, that American bit in Martin Chuzzlewit, what's that about? Was that just padding or what? I mean, it's rubbish, that bit.” The Doctor said.

“I thought you said you were my fan.” Charles Dickens frowned.

“Ah, well, if you can't take criticism. Go on, do the death of Little Nell, it cracks me up.” He noticed Rose giving him a glare, “No, sorry, forget about that. Come on, faster!”

“Who exactly is in that hearse?” Charles Dickens asked.

“My little sister, Lillie.” Rose said, her eyes back on the hearse. “She's only eighteen. It’s my job to protect her.”

“It's my fault. She's in my care, and now she's in danger.” The Doctor said.

“Why are we wasting my time talking about dry old books?” Charles Dickens asked, “This is much more important. Driver, be swift! The chase is on!

“Yes, sir!”

“Attaboy, Charlie.” The Doctor grinned.

“Nobody calls me Charlie.”

“The ladies do.” The Doctor said.

“How do you know that?” Charles Dickens asked.

“I told you, I'm your number one…”

“Number one fan. I know.”

Gwyneth and Mister Sneed, the duo that abducted Lillie, they were carrying the unconscious teenager into the morgue. Oddly enough, she seemed lighter when they pulled her out of the hearse but once again she seemed to be slowly getting heavier and heavier.

"The poor girl's still alive, sir! What're we going to do with her?" Gwyneth asked.

"I don't know! I didn't plan any of this, did I! It isn't my fault if the dead won't stay dead." Mister Sneed said as if this was something anyone would do as they placed her down on a black table in the middle of the room.

"Then whose fault is it, sir? Why is this happening to us?" Gwyneth asked and she left. Mister Sneed followed her and locked Lillie inside.

There was a knock at the door while Mister Sneed and Gwyneth were in the hallway.

"Say I'm not in. Tell them we're closed. Just, just get rid of them."

Gwyneth opened the front door to find a nineteen-year-old woman with blonde hair who looked ready to kill, a fire blazing behind her green eyes and flared nostrils, looking quite like her mother, and two older men.

"Where the hell is my sister?" Rose demanded, slowly, it was evident in her voice that if she didn't find out soon, she was going to lose it.

"I'm sorry. We're closed." Gwyneth told them.

"Nonsense. Since when did an Undertaker keep office hours? The dead don't die on schedule. I demand to see your master." Charles Dickens demanded.

"He's not in, sir." She lied and tried to close the door.

"Don't lie to me, child. Summon him at once." Charles Dickens shouted, slamming the door back open.

"I'm awfully sorry, Mister Dickens, but the master's indisposed." The girl said, she looked terrified, Rose would've felt sorry for her if she hadn't just kidnapped her sister.

A gas lamp behind her flared as the Doctor noted. "Having trouble with your gas?" The Doctor asked.

"What the Shakespeare is going on?" Charles Dickens asked.

Lillie awoke sooner than chloroform is supposed to last, thankfully not in a coffin, unaware of the corpse that was sitting up in its coffin behind her.Oddly enough, Lillie felt refreshed, not at all like waking up or even waking up from chloroform.

Lillie saw the man in the coffin who was groaning like a zombie.

"You all right, mate?” He continued to groan, staring at her with dead eyes, not blinking as he grabbed the sides of the coffin. “You're kidding me, yeah? You're just kidding. You are kidding me, aren't you?" The man climbed out of the coffin and walked in a zombie-like manner towards her. "Okay, not kidding." She got down, moving away from the man.

The Doctor moved past Gwyneth to the flaring gas lamp.

"You're not allowed inside, sir." She insisted as Rose moved past her as well. “Ma’am.”

"There's something inside the walls." The Doctor said.

The door was locked and if she had the proper equipment, say a bobby pin, she’d be able to pick the lock but she didn’t have one or pockets. What kind of dress had pockets?

The woman from earlier reanimated in her coffin, sitting up, groaning.

Lillie picked up a vase and threw it at the man, he only stumbled back.

"The gas pipes. Something's living inside the gas."

"LET ME OUT!" A voice screamed, "OPEN THE DOOR!"

"Lillie!" Rose shouted, running to find where her sister's voice was coming from.

"PLEASE, LET ME OUT!"

Mister Sneed shouted at them, "How dare you..." Rose pushed past him, aggressively she would have to deal with him later. "This is my house!"

“Yeah, and you kidnapped my sister!” She shouted back at him as her sister continued to shout.

“LET ME OUT! ROSE!? DOCTOR!? SOMEBODY HELP ME! ROSE!?”

"Shut up." Charles Dickens told him, running past him.

Gwyneth hurried to them and Mister Sneed pointed at her, because this was her fault that it was his idea to kidnap Lillie in the first place.

"LET ME OUT! SOMEBODY, OPEN THE DOOR! OPEN THE DOOR! ROSE, HELP ME! AAHH!" Lillie screamed as the man grabbed her. Some unknown instincts from another life kicked in and she fought, kicking him back as they continued to approach.

The Doctor kicked the door open, and Rose hurried inside.

"Get off my baby sister!" She shouted pulling her sister away from an oncoming female zombie.

"Rose! Zombies, they're zombies." Lillie cried.

"It's a prank. It must be. We're under some mesmeric influence." Charles Dickins said.

"No, we're not. The dead are walking."

"Who's your friend?"

"Charles Dickens." Rose said.

"Okay. Wait what? As in Signalman Charles Dickens." Lillie asked.

"My name's the Doctor. Who are you, then? What do you want?" The Doctor asked the zombies.

The man, Redpath spoke in a distorted young child's voice, "failing. Open the rift. We're dying. Trapped in this form. Cannot sustain. Help us. Argh!"

Then the gas left the bodies and they collapsed.

In the living room, Rose and Lillie were shouting at Mister Sneed while Gwyneth poured them all tea.

"FIRST OF ALL, YOU DRUG MY SISTER, THEN YOU KIDNAP HER..." Rose screamed at the man.

"AND DON'T THINK I DIDN'T FEEL YOUR HANDS HAVING A QUICK WANDER, YOU DIRTY OLD MAN!" Lillie added, just as angry as Rose as the Doctor grinned.

"I won't be spoken to like this!" Mister Sneed exclaimed but Rose continued to shout.

"THEN YOU STICK HER IN A ROOM FULL OF ZOMBIES! AND IF THAT AIN'T ENOUGH, YOU SWAN OFF AND LEAVE HER TO DIE! SO COME ON, TALK!"

"It's not my fault. It's this house. It always had a reputation. Haunted. But I never had much bother until a few months back, and then the stiffs," they all glared at the man's bluntness. "The, er, dear departed started getting restless."

"Tommyrot." Charles Dickens scoffed.

"You witnessed it! Can't keep the beggars down, sir. They walk. And it's the queerest thing, but they hang on to scraps. One old fellow who used to be a sexton almost walked into his own memorial service. Just like the old lady going to your performance, sir, just as she planned."

"Morbid fancy." Charles Dickens reasoned.

"Oh, Charles, you were there." The Doctor said.

"I saw nothing but an illusion." He denied.

"If you're going to deny it, don't waste my time. Just shut up."

"Doctor!" Lillie snapped at him, warning him not to be rude.

"What about the gas?"

"That's new, sir. Never seen anything like that."

"Means it's getting stronger." The Doctor said, "the rift's getting wider, and something is sneaking through."

"What's the rift?" Rose asked.

"A weak point in time and space. A connection between this place and another. That's the cause of ghost stories, most of the time."

"That's how I got the house so cheap. Stories going back generations."

Neither of the girls noticed that Charles Dickens had gotten up and left until the door slammed shut.

"Echoes in the dark, queer songs in the air, and this feeling like a shadow passing over your soul. Mind you, truth be told, it's been good for business. Just what people expect from a gloomy old trade like mine."

The Doctor grinned as Lillie rolled her eyes.

Later, Rose and Lillie joined Gwyneth in the pantry, the sisters started to help Gwyneth wash up.

"Please, misses, you shouldn't be helping. It's not right." She said.

"Don't be daft. Sneed works you to death." Lillie dismissed.

"How much do you get paid?" Rose asked.

"Eight pound a year, miss." Lillie said.

"How much?" Lillie asked, hoping she just didn't hear him correctly.

"I know. I would've been happy with six." She said.

"So, did you go to school or what?" Rose asked.

"Of course, I did. What do you think I am, an urchin? I went every Sunday, nice and proper." Gwyneth replied.

"What, once a week?" Lillie asked.

"We did sums and everything. To be honest, I hated every second."

"Me too." The sisters chimed.

"Don't tell anyone, but one week, I didn't go and ran on the heath all on my own." Gwyneth giggled like it was a the most sinful thing she had done.

"I did plenty of that. I used to go down the shops with my mate Shareen. We used to go and look at boys." Rose said.

"Well, I don't know much about that, miss."

"Come on, times haven't changed that much. I bet you've done the same."

"I don't think so, miss."

"Gwyneth, you can tell me. I bet you've got your eye on someone."

"A guy or a girl?" Lillie asked and Gwyneth, as homosexuality was not as hated but more so considered a topic of taboo and considered with more curiosity or indifference than homophobia, just gasped in shock at Lillie’s forwardness in the topic but didn’t mention it.

"I suppose. There is one lad. The butcher's boy. He comes by every Tuesday. Such a lovely smile on him."

"I like a nice smile. " Rose said.

"Me too," Lillie laughed. "Nice smile with sharp wit and a strong sense of compassion. Ooh, and good hair! Good hair, preferably dark and a nice face. Preferably friends first."

"Good smile, nice bum." Rose said.

"Well, I have never heard the like." Gwyneth said and then all three girls laughed.

"Ask him out. Give him a cup of tea or something, that's a start." Rose said.

"I swear it is the strangest thing, misses. You two have got all the clothes and the breeding, but you talk like some sort of wild thing".

"Maybe we am. Maybe that's a good thing. You need a bit more in your life than Mister Sneed." Rose said.

"Oh, now that's not fair. He's not so bad, old Sneed. He was very kind to me to take me in because I lost my mum and dad to the flu when I was twelve." Gwyneth said.

"Oh, I'm sorry."

"Thank you, miss. But I'll be with them again, one day, sitting with them in paradise. I shall be so blessed. They're waiting for me."

"Do you have any other family?" Lillie asked.

"A few cousins here and there, all live in Cardiff, don't see them very much though." She shrugged, "Maybe your dad's up there waiting for you two too."

Lillie stiffened, staring at her in shock. How did she know? Rose and Lillie's father, Pete Tyler had died when Rose was six months old, Jackie had just given birth to Lillie the week prior. Seven days.

"Maybe." Rose said.

"Who told you he was dead?"

"I don't know. Must have been the Doctor."

"Well, that also doesn't make sense, we haven't even tell him about our dad." Lillie said.

"Our father died years back. Lillie... never got to meet him. I was just a baby." Rose said.

"But you've been thinking about him lately more than ever. Both of you."

"I suppose so.”

“And you, Miss. You have vague memories of a father-like figure that you don’t quite remember. And another mother. One who was very insightful and wise. Beautiful.”

“Wh-what?” Lillie stammered. She never told anyone about those flashes.

“How do you know all this?" Rose asked as Lillie studied the young woman.

"Mister Sneed says I think too much. I'm all alone down here. Much how people say about you, Miss. When they think you’re not listening. But you can read them better than most. You can sense things.” She was looking at Lillie, she realized she had done it again and changed the subject. “I bet you've got dozens of servants, haven't you, miss?"

"No, no servants where I'm from." Rose said.

"Or at least, we never did." Lillie added.

"And you've both come such a long way."

"What makes you think so?"

"You're from London. I've seen London in drawings, but never like that. All those people rushing about half-naked, for shame. The naked women and the naked men together… And the noise, and the metal boxes racing past, and the birds in the sky… no, they're metal as well. Metal birds with people in them. People are flying. And you, you've flown so far. Further than anyone." She said, "The things you've seen. The darkness, the big bad wolf." She told Rose then turned to Lillie, "and you're unlike them all... Unlike all humans, and unlike all of your true kind. The dying star princess that could cheat death. Forever, if you chose to.”

Lillie suddenly stumbled back as the dizziness and a terrible migraine washed over her.

"Lillie?" Rose said, going to her, concerned.

"Ah, so how's the Dying Star Princess." A cheeky voice said.

"Ah, shut it, Koschei." Her voice responded playfully in an Australian accent, "Or I'll have you thrown in the dungeon."

“I see who you love. Why, I’ve never seen the likes of that. I see your power… your pain and it hurt… it hurts you so much… and your fear…” The fear she currently had was much easier to look at, “You fear how they will react. You fear they won’t love you anymore. Not just for who you love but what you are…”

“Gwyneth…” Lillie croaked out, grabbing her wrist and snapping her out of it and the memories of the pain vanished from Gwyneth’s head as if erased one by one.

Gwyneth stumbled back and profusely apologized. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, misses."

"It's all right." Rose tried to reassure her but Lillie seemed properly shaken.

"I can't help it. Ever since I was a little girl, my mam said I had the sight. She told me to hide it." She rambled.

She could see more, more than the sisters knew. She saw lives Lillie hadn’t lived. She saw the pain that would destroy her optimism if she remembered. She saw her heartache and her constant fascination that followed her through them all, that could be killed… with but a raven.

"But it's getting stronger, more powerful, is that right?" The Doctor asked, making them jump. When did he get there?

"All the time, sir. Every night, voices in my head." Gwyneth confirmed.

"You grew up on top of the rift. You're part of it. You're the key." He said.

"The key?" Lillie asked

"I've tried to make sense of it, sir. Consulted with spiritualists, table rappers, all sorts." She said

"Well, that should help. You can show us what to do."

"What to do where, sir?" Gwyneth asked, confused.

"We're going to have a séance."

Lillie turned to her sister, confused, and pointed to the Doctor, "Did he just say we're gonna have a séance?"

Everyone gathered around a table in the living room.

"This is how Madam Mortlock summons those from the Land of Mists, down in Bute Town. Come, we must all join hands." Gwyneth explained, sheepishly.

"I can't take part in this." Charles Dickens scoffed.

"Hey, Scrooge. Come on, have an open mind before saying Bah Humbug." Lillie said, looking at him, expectingly.

"This is precisely the sort of cheap mummery I strive to unmask. Séances? Nothing but luminous tambourines and a squeeze box concealed between the knees. This girl knows nothing."

"Oi!" Lillie snapped, "don't you dare antagonize her, now drop the Harry Houdini attitude and sit down." Charles Dickins looked confused. While Harry Houdini was alive, he wasn't known... not yet. Not for his magician fame and definitely not for his ironic abhorment of anything supernatural.

"I love a happy medium." The Doctor said after a few beats of silence.

"I can't believe you just said that." Rose said as Lillie groaned, throwing her head back.

“Come on, we might need you. Come on, all it took was that one experience in the Signalman to change the skeptic’s point of view of reality. Give it chance and you may be turned from a skeptic to a believer." She raised her eyebrows in a challenge. Charles Dickins sat between Lillie and Gwyneth.

"Good man. Now, Gwyneth, reach out."

"Speak to us. Are you there? Spirits, come. Speak to us that we may relieve your burden." Gwyneth said and then whispering started.

"Can you hear that?" Rose asked.

"Nothing can happen. This is sheer folly." Charles Dickins said.

"You know not everything can be explained with logic and reason." Lillie smiled. "So, you never want to listen to reason."

"Look at her." Rose added.

"I see them. I feel them." Gwyneth said as blue gas tendrils drifted above their heads.

"What's it saying?"

"They can't get through the rift. Gwyneth, it's not controlling you, you're controlling it. Now, look deep. Allow them through." The Doctor said.

"I can't!" She cried.

"Yes, you can. Just believe it. I have faith in you, Gwyneth. Make the link." The Doctor said.

"Yes." Gwyneth said as blue outlines of people appeared behind Gwyneth.

"Great God! Spirits from the other side." Mister Sneed gaped.

"The other side of the universe." The Doctor said.

"Pity us. Pity the Gelth. There is so little time. Help us," the figure spoke with the distorted voice of two children and Gwyneth spoke along them.

Lillie narrowed her eyes, skeptically. They deserved her sympathy but she didn’t trust them, it was a gut feeling. The first thing they said was: “Pity the Gelth”.

"What do you want us to do?"

"The rift. Take the girl to the rift. Make the bridge." The Gelth instructed.

"What for?"

"We are so very few. The last of our kind. We face extinction." The Gelth said.

"Why, what happened?"

"Once we had a physical form like you, but then the war came."

"War? What war?" Charles Dickins asked.

"The Time War. The whole universe convulsed. The Time War raged. Invisible to smaller species but devastating to higher forms. Our bodies wasted away. We're trapped in this gaseous state."

"So that's why you need the corpses."

"We want to stand tall, to feel the sunlight, to live again. We need a physical form, and your dead are abandoned. They're going to waste. Give them to us." The Gelth said,

"But we can't." Rose said.

"Why not?"

"It's not... I mean, it's not..."

"Not decent? Not polite? It could save their lives." The Doctor snapped.

"What if it were your loved ones? The ones you lost! Your best friend, maybe! Your partner." Lillie said, darkly. The Doctor only stared at her surprised by her bluntness and surprising knowledge. His mind flickered back to his last partner, his best friend. Supernova. “What if it was Nova?” A pang in both his hearts.

"Open the rift. Let the Gelth through. We're dying. Help us. Pity the Gelth." The Gelth said before retreating back into the heat lamps.

"Gwyneth?" Rose hurried to the dark-haired girl who had collapsed.

"All true." Charles Dickins said, he seemed to be stuck between horror and amazement.

A little while later, Gwyneth has been laid on the chaise longue while Lillie dapped a wet cloth to her forehead.

"It's all right. You just sleep." She shushed.

"But my angels, miss. They came, didn't they? They need me?" She asked.

"They do need you, Gwyneth. You're their only chance of survival." The Doctor said.

"I've told you, leave her alone. She's exhausted and she's not fighting your battles." Rose said as Lillie gave Gwyneth a glass of water, "Drink this."

"Well, what did you say, Doctor? Explain it again. What are they?" Sneed asked.

"Aliens."

"Like foreigners, you mean?"

"Pretty foreign, yeah. From up there."

"Brecon?" Sneed asked, oblivious.

"Close. Outer space." Lillie said with blank snark deadpan in her tone and Sneed couldn't tell if she was being serious or not.

"And they've been trying to get through from Brecon to Cardiff but the road's blocked." The Doctor continued, "Only a few can get through and even then they're weak. They can only test drive the bodies for so long, then they have to revert to gas and hide in the pipes."

"Which is why they need the girl." Charles Dickins realized.

"They're not having her."

"But she can help. Living on the rift, she's become part of it. She can open it up, make a bridge and let them through." The Doctor said.

"Incredible. Ghosts that are not ghosts but beings from another world, who can only exist in our world by inhabiting cadavers." Charles Dickins mused, fascinated like only a writer could.

"Good system. It might work."

"You can't let them run around inside of dead people." Rose said.

"Why not? It's like recycling." The Doctor said.

"Seriously though, you can't."

"Seriously though, I can."

"It's just wrong. Those bodies were living people. We should respect them even in death." Rose said.

"Do you carry a donor card?"

"That's different. That's..." Rose stammered.

"It is different, yeah. It's a different morality. Get used to it or go home. You heard what they said, time's short. I can't worry about a few corpses when the last of the Gelth could be dying."

"It's not the Gelth you're worried about, it's your guilt." Lillie said, darkly, "you'd be singing a different tune if it was your loved ones. Reminders of what you lost. What if it was your family's bodies? Or Nova’s.”

The Doctor looked at her, unsure on why she was being so rude all of a sudden. She didn't know herself but it was striking a cord in her. But she was right, he wasn’t sure if he could face a constant reminder of his family. Of Susan. Of Nova.

"I don't care. They're not using her." Rose said,

"Don't I get a say, miss?" Gwyneth asked, suddenly.

"Look, you don't understand what's going on."

"You would say that, miss, because that's very clear inside your head, that you think I'm stupid." Gwyneth said.

"That's not fair."

"It's true, though. Things might be very different where you're from, but here and now, I know my own mind, and the angels need me.”

“I don’t think they’re the angels you think they are.” Lillie said, darkly but was ignored.

“Doctor, what do I have to do?"

"You don't have to do anything."

"They've been singing to me since I was a child, sent by my mam on a holy mission. So tell me."

"We need to find the rift. This house is on a weak spot, so there must be a spot that's weaker than any other. Mister Sneed, what's the weakest part of this house? The place where most of the ghosts have been seen?"

"That would be the morgue."

"No chance you were going to say gazebo, is there?" Lillie deadpanned, dryly.

Now in the morgue where just a few hours ago, Lillie was being attacked by zombies.

"The thing is, Doctor, the Gelth don't succeed, 'cause I know they don't. I know for a fact there weren't corpses walking around in eighteen-sixty-nine." Rose said.

"Yeah, well, neither were we walking around in eighteen-sixty-nine." Lillie pointed out.

"Time's in flux, changing every second. Your cozy little world can be rewritten like that. Nothing is safe. Remember that. Nothing." The Doctor told them.

"Doctor, I think the room is getting colder." Charles Dickins noted.

"Here they come." Rose said.

A Gelth came out of a gas lamp by the door and stood under a stone archway. There was nothing about the Gelth that Lillie didn't trust.

"You've come to help. Praise the Doctor. Praise him." The Gelth said.

"Promise you won't hurt her." Rose told the Gelth.

"Hurry! Please, so little time. Pity the Gelth." Lillie noted how the Gelth had ignored Rose's question. Always "Pity the Gelth."

As if they were trying to push it on them. To pity them. Almost like they were trying to guilt-trip them. For some reason, that caused a burning hatred in the pit of Lillie’s stomach, despite not having any big manipulators in her life, at the very most Jackie would guilt-trip her into doing something.

"I'll take you somewhere else after the transfer. Somewhere you can build proper bodies. This isn't a permanent solution, all right?" The Doctor said.

"My angels. I can help them live."

"Okay, where's the weak point?"

"Here, beneath the arch."

"Beneath the arch." Gwyneth repeated as she went to go stand beneath the arch, inside the Gelth.

"You don't have to do this." Rose said.

"My angels."

"Establish the bridge. Reach out to the void. Let us through!"

"Yes, I can see you. I can see you. Come!" Gwyneth gasped.

"Bridgehead establishing."

"Come to me. Come to this world, poor lost souls!"

"It is begun. The bridge is made." The Gelth said, Gwyneth opened her mouth a blue gas started to come out.

"She has given herself to the Gelth."

"Rather a lot of them, don't you think?" Lillie asked.

"The bridge is open. We descend." Then the sweet blue apparition turned red like flames with teeth. The voice was now hard and deep, "The Gelth will come through in force."

"You said that you were few in number." Charles Dickins exclaimed.

"A few billion. And all of us in need of corpses." The Gelth growled as the dead started to rise.

"Gwyneth, stop this. Listen to your master. This has gone far enough. Stop dabbling, child, and leave these things alone, I beg of you." Mister Sneed demanded.

"Mister Sneed, get back!" Rose shouted as a corpse grabbed him and snapped his neck and a Gelth then inhabited his body.

"I think it's gone a little bit wrong." The Doctor observed.

"Oh, you think!?" Lillie sneered at him, sarcastically.

Sneed lifted his head, his brown eyes were now ice blue, "I have joined the legions of the Gelth. Come, march with us. We need bodies. All of you. Dead. The human race. Dead.

"Gwyneth, stop them! Send them back now!" The Doctor shouted.

"Four more bodies. Convert them. Make them vessels for the Gelth."

Sneed backed the time travelers up against a metal gate

“Doctor, I can't. I'm sorry. This new world of yours is too much for me. I'm so..." Charles Dickins stammered before he could finish a Gelth screamed and he ran off.

The three moved behind the metal gate where the bodies couldn't get them.

"Give yourself to glory. Sacrifice your lives for the Gelth."

"I trusted you. I pitied you!" The Doctor shouted.

"We don't want your pity. We want this world and all its flesh."

"Not while I'm alive." The Doctor said.

"Then live no more."

"But we can't die. Tell me we can't. We haven't even been born yet. It's impossible for us to die. Isn't it?" Rose asked.

"I'm sorry."

"But it's eighteen-sixty-nine. How can we die now?" Rose exclaimed.

"Time isn't a straight line. It can twist into any shape. You can be born in the twentieth century and die in the nineteenth and it's all my fault. I brought you two here." The Doctor said.

"It's not your fault." Lillie said.

"We wanted to come.

"What about me? I saw the fall of Troy, World War Five. I pushed boxes at the Boston Tea Party. Now I'm going to die in a dungeon in Cardiff." The Doctor said.

"It's not just dying, is it? We'll become one of them." Lillie pointed out.

"Then we'll go down fighting, yeah?" Rose said, taking her sister by the hand.

"Always." She nodded and took the Doctor's hand. "Together."

"I'm so glad I met you. Both of you." The Doctor said.

"Us too." The sisters said and then Charles Dickins ran back in.

"Doctor! Doctor! Turn off the flame, turn up the gas! Now, fill the room, all of it, now!" Charles Dickins shouted.

"What're you doing?"

"Turn it all on. Flood the place!"

"Brilliant. Gas." The Doctor said as Lillie's blue eyes lit up with understanding.

"What, so we choke to death instead?" Rose asked, not understanding.

"Am I correct, Doctor? These creatures are gaseous." Charles Dickins asked.

"Fill the room with gas, it'll draw them out of the host. Suck them into the air like poison from a wound!" The Doctor said.

The corpses turned and they started to shamble towards Charles Dickins.

"I hope, oh Lord, I hope that this theory will be validated soon, if not immediately."

"Plenty more!" The Doctor exclaimed and he ripped a gas pipe from the wall. Making the Gelths leave the corpses, making the corpses fall.

"It's working."

The trio of time travelers came out from behind the gate. Lillie went straight up to Gwyneth and grabbed her hand, Gwyneth looked at her in acknowledgement, her eyes clearing.

"Gwyneth, send them back. They lied. They're not angels." The Doctor said but she only looked at Lillie.

"Liars?" She asked.

"Look at me. If your mother and father could look down and see this, they'd tell you the same. They'd give you the strength. Now send them back!" The Doctor said, "Only you can do it."

"I can't breathe." Rose coughed.

"Charles, get her out." The Doctor instructed.

"I'm not leaving her." Rose said, stubbornly.

"Neither am I." Lillie said as she started to cough.

"They're too strong." Gwyneth said.

"Remember that world you saw? Rose and Lillie's world? All those people. None of it will exist unless you send them back through the rift." The Doctor said.

"I can't send them back. But I can hold them. Hold them in this place, hold them here. Get out." She said as she took out a box of matches.

"You can't!" Rose shouted.

"No!" Lillie pleaded.

"Leave this place!" Gwyneth said.

"Rose, get out. Go now. I won't leave her while she's still in danger. Now go!"

Charles Dickins took Rose and tried to get Lillie but Gwyneth spoke up, grabbing Lillie by the wrist. "Lillie. Come here. Please."

Lillie walked over to the girl and she whispered something in Lillie's ears. "I see who you really are. The only person who could make the most fearsome of creature beg for mercy but would get none. The warrior princess who was forced to conform. The warrior princess who had to resurrect the Doctor's evil counterpart. The Destroyer of Daleks."

Images flashed behind Lillie’s eyes and Gwyneth continued.

“You… you’ve got half-memories of lives you haven’t lived. There’s one constant companion who follows you. Your… your impossible girl… she resembles a girl I’ve seen… a girl who you always see. He hardly notices her but you always do and she vexes you so. She is impossible like you are impossible but that’s impossible because you are impossible… an anomaly… and you fear… you… fear what your sister will think… your mum… they won’t accept you… they won’t be able to see you. That’s what scares you most of all. That they won’t love you anymore. Not just because of who you love but because of who you truly are…”

"I don't know who you're talking about." Lillie whimpered.

"The girl. She fascinates you, not just because she's impossible but for who she is… because you love her. You always do.”

Flashes of who Gwyneth saw flashes behind Lillie’s eyes. She knew one but many were not her.

Lillie stepped back, staring at her with wide eyes, when Rose pulled her away and they ran out with Charles Dickins.

As the Doctor ran out of the building a few minutes later, KABOOM!

Rose, Lillie, and Charles Dickins ran to the Doctor.

"She didn't make it." Rose said, sadly.

"Gwyneth..." Lillie muttered, sadly.

"I'm sorry. She closed the rift."

"At such a cost. The poor child." Charles Dickins said as a single tear fell down Lillie's cheek.

"I did try, but Gwyneth was already dead. She had been for at least five minutes." The Doctor told the girls,

"What do you mean?" Rose asked.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Lillie asked.

"I think she was dead from the minute she stood in that arch."

"But she can't have. She spoke to us. She helped us. She saved us. How could she have done that?" Rose said.

"'There are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy.' Even for you, Doctor." Charles Dickins quoted.

"Hamlet. Shakespeare." Lillie whispered to Rose.

"She saved the world. A servant girl. No one will ever know." Rose said.

"We do." Lillie told her.

The four walked to the Tardis and the Doctor turned to Charles Dickins, "Right then, Charlie boy, I've just got to go into my, er, shed. Won't be long."

"What are you going to do now?" Rose asked him.

"I shall take the mail coach back to London, quite literally post-haste. This is no time for me to be on my own. I shall spend Christmas with my family and make amends to them. After all I've learned tonight, there can be nothing more vital." Charles Dickins said, noticeably more spirited than he was before.

"You've cheered up." Lillie noted.

"Exceedingly! This morning, I thought I knew everything in the world. Now I know I've just started. All these huge and wonderful notions, Doctor. I'm inspired. I must write about them." He said with the excitement only a writer could possess.

"Do you think that's wise?" Rose asked.

"I shall be subtle at first. The Mystery of Edwin Drood still lacks an ending. Perhaps the killer was not the boy's uncle. Perhaps he was not of this Earth. The Mystery of Edwin Drood and the Blue Elementals. I can spread the word, tell the truth." He said.

"That sounds brilliant." Lillie laughed, "you should do that."

"Good luck with it. Nice to meet you. Fantastic." The Doctor said.

"Bye, then, and thanks."

Rose shook his hand and then kissed his cheek as the Doctor opened the Tardis door.

"Oh, my dear. How modern. Thank you, but, I don't understand. In what way is this goodbye? Where are you going?" Charles Dickins said.

"You'll see. In the shed." The Doctor said, vaguely.

"Upon my soul, Doctor, it's one riddle after another with you. But after all these revelations, there's one mystery you still haven't explained. Answer me this. Who are you?" Charles Dickins asked.

"Just a friend passing through." The Doctor said.

"But you have such knowledge of future times. I don't wish to impose on you, but I must ask you. My books. Doctor, do they last?"

"Oh, yes!" The Doctor said, truthfully.

"For how long?"

"Forever. Right. Shed. Come on, girls."

"In the box? All of you?

"Down boy. See you."

"Bye, Mister Dickins." Lillie said and then kissed his cheek like Rose did.

In the Tardis, Rose asked, "Doesn't that change history if he writes about blue ghosts?"

"In a week's time it's eighteen-seventy, and that's the year he dies. Sorry. He'll never get to tell his story." The Doctor said as Lillie's heart fell.

"Oh, no. He was so nice."

"But in your time, he was already dead. We've brought him back to life, and he's more alive now than he's ever been, old Charlie boy. Let's give him one last surprise."

The Tardis materialized as Charles Dickins' confusion turned to amusement.

Lillie went to her room as she pondered what Gwyneth had told her she clutched her necklace and then it was gone.

She took her phone out and phoned Lars.

#the eccedentiast #supernova #doctor who #katherine langford #Gelth #The Gelth #Charles Dickens #Non-Christmas Christmas Special #Rose Tyler #Ninth Doctor #9th doctor #Bad Wolf mention #Gwyneth #Cardiff #1869 #Youtube

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