Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 86th cycle. Now cycle 87!

IT'S THE FIFTH ANNIVERSARY CYCLE OF GLEEKATHON! - Five years! Five years! *insert flailing* Okay, not quite, but by the end of this cycle, it will have been five years of daily stories (sometimes twice a day! ... and for seven very frightening days a couple years back, three times a day!). It will also be the end of this crazy ride. I started thinking about ending gleekathon months ago, and I wanted to finish my ongoing series before that happened. It made it so I could finish out this fifth year, and it couldn't be any better that this cycle is actually ending on October 22nd 2014, which was the day it began, in 2009... Now here we go!

This story is a 'Character swap' for Guardian of the Array, a Doctor Who/Glee crossover series story originally posted from October 11th 2013 to January 8th 2014.

"Cactus Green"
(alternate, female) 12th Doctor, the Vinvocci, (Gemma (OC), young Artie)

Character swap: the Vinvocci for Paternoster

Bringing anyone into this situation would be tricky, and the Doctor knew this. She had encountered a whole variety of aliens in the many years of her travels, and this would have appeared to offer her a wide array of options as to who she might recruit for her decoy spies, but then how far was she meant to reach? Who was she better off staying away from, be it for their own sake, or for how much they wouldn't want to see her again?

And then she'd had a thought. Knowing what they were about to get themselves into, what technological elements they were meant to deal with, she knew there might be two people out there who could come in handy as they headed back into Indiana… provided they agreed to help. Already tracking them down would be a task. The last time she'd seen them, was just briefly before she… he… traded in his sandshoes and discovered just how cool bowties were. It wasn't so much that they'd left on bad terms, but then it all depended on who you asked. Personally, she didn't hold it against them, how they'd just left, after giving him a 'lift.' It had been a miracle they'd stuck around as long as they'd done.

In the end it hadn't taken nearly as much time as he'd assumed it would before she tracked them down. She had never known their true names, but she did know where they had been at one moment in time, and from there she had found the trail and followed it all the way back to their home world. Having set the TARDIS down where she needed to be, the Doctor had told Gemma and young Artie to stay there before making her way out to find her would be decoys.

She couldn't say just how much time had passed since the last time they'd seen one another, and until she revealed who she was to them, chances were that they wouldn't be telling her either. In the event that she should succeed in bringing them back to the TARDIS, the Doctor had made sure to explain a few things to her companions both small and tall. The most important part was that the man and woman were at no time to be referred to as 'cacti,' which they would not take well, regardless of the fact that they were as green and spiky as a cactus. They were called Vinvocci.

The Doctor's task was made easier by the fact that the pair had continued to work together after the ordeal at the Naismith mansion. Addams and Rossiter, they'd been calling themselves, whilst under the disguise of what he'd called a shimmer – not the same as with Gemma, naturally – which had made them look human. Those days were behind them now, and the Doctor found them in their full green glory, working together in much the same dynamic as they'd been back on Earth; she was in charge, and he did his best to keep up behind her. When they saw her standing there outside their lab, the one who'd called herself Addams had moved to close the door, but the Doctor let herself in.

"Authorized personnel only," she frowned. "And I can already tell by the looks of you, you are not auth…"

"Tell me, how did your superiors react when you never retrieved that gate of yours?" the Doctor asked, unmoved. The woman bristled; the man flinched.

"Sorry, I don't believe we've had the…" she took a step back, and the Doctor smiled.

"Oh, but I assure you we have, although I can't imagine you ever thought you'd see me again, not after I jumped off your ship with no better protection than a very old gun," she tipped her head, and for once the spiky woman let her shock show. It couldn't possibly be what she was thinking. "So none of those missiles damaged your ship or kept you from returning home, did they? Good old Wilf," she nodded, then looking to the tall man staring at them from across the lab. "And you, sir, of course."

"You're… him? No, you couldn't possibly, you're…"

"Too pretty? Oh, stop," the Doctor moved past her. "I need your help, both of you. If I was someone who held a grudge, and believe me, for the amount of years I've lived, you couldn't imagine how long I could hold that grudge, well… be glad I'm not. Mind you, I have made exceptions, for certain people. The point is you did cut and run, and while I'm not holding it over your heads, as I've mentioned… it could still be said I've earned myself the right to be heard." The Vinvocci looked to one another, deciding in silence.

"What is it that you want from us?" the woman finally asked.

"I need you to accompany me back to Earth, to pose as aliens in hiding."

"Aliens…"

"Non-human looking, which excludes me," the Doctor pointed to her face. "The way I see it, the pair of you should consider yourselves as having a vested interest in this mission."

"Is that so?" the woman asked, frowning.

"Those shields of yours, your shimmers," she put on the very same tone she had used. "Do you have any idea where they came from, where the original prototype for it came from?" They said nothing, and she didn't need them to. "I need your eyes and ears where mine won't be allowed, you see? I need your help to ensure that everything goes as it is meant to, so that one day you will be in the possession of your own shields, the ones that allowed you to pass for human and fool everyone, well… almost everyone."

The woman had pulled her partner into a corner, where they'd spoken in hushed tones for several minutes, while the Doctor sat back and waited patiently, observing her surroundings with natural curiosity. When they came back, she turned to them, waiting for their answer.

"We'll go with you," the man had nodded, until his partner held up her hand and he went silent.

"Not so fast. You see, Doctor, we are in the middle of something important here. Do you honestly expect us to merely drop everything we're doing and follow you obediently?"

"No, absolutely not," she stood. "If you need a few days, or weeks, or years, to finish whatever it is you're doing, please, go right ahead. However I should point out I will need an answer, and a time, and if that answer was yes and at the agreed upon time you are not here, then I will find you. No shimmer will do a thing at all to halt my coming. Now then, do we have a deal or not?" The Vinvocci looked to one another, and then the woman turned to the Doctor again, breathing out.

"If we do this, then we are even, clear?" The Doctor smiled.

"As a bell."

THE END

A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.
In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are
always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!