The 13th Doctor

by Sooza Lei

After regeneration, the Doctor finds himself alone and his ship damaged. When he lands to find material, he finds trouble and a couple of unwilling companions.

Regeneration. It's not what it's cracked up to be. But he should have been used to it by now. After all how many times had he gone through it?

He couldn't think about that, it was almost as painful.

At least it didn't last long, or at least he was told it didn't last that long. Though, it felt like an eternity to him.

He stumbled about, his eye sight blurry, trying to figure out what he was doing and where he was.

he sat down heavily. it was either that or fall down. He scrubbed his face with his hands, trying to make himself think.

A thought popped into his head, uninvited. "Am I still a he?" He said out loud. A quick pat down revealed that he was still a he. Another quick thought suggested that maybe it would have been nice to be a girl, a nice change of scenery, so to speak.

He didn't dwell on that too long. Instead, he pulled a hair out and examined it. "Still not ginger." He said in disappointment, tossing the hair away. "I'll never get to be ginger at this rate.

Oooh, that sounded a bit sulky, didn't it?" He frowned. "Who am I talking to?" He smiled suddenly. He was struck with remembering his last friend, last travelling companion. He got to his feet too quickly, and started to fall over, but he used the momentum of the fall to carry him faster in a walk. "Hello! Yoo-hoo!" He called out. "Someone here?" No answer. Something twinged at the side of his mind. "I'm here, is there anybody else..." The Doctor stopped, his shoulders slumping as the memory came back completely. "Anybody?" He called out in a quieter voice. Of course no one answered, because he was all alone.

A crushing sadness and loneliness sat on him, making him feel the need to sit down again.

"...It was all my fault..." He muttered, putting his face in his hands.

"...It's all your fault!" The manager all but shouted at Ruby Waters, waving his finger in her face. Ruby resisted the urge to bite that finger, or just the manager in general, an urge she was getting more everyday.

She glared at him and crossed her arms over her chest as she drew up to her full height.

She wasn't going to be blamed for someone else screwing up shipping orders, especially seeing as how she didn't deal with the shipping catalogue.

"No it's not." She said in firm, clipped tones. Now it was her turn to point a finger. "No where in my job description does it say that I take care of orders, nor was I asked within the past fortnight whether I'd be willing to look after said documentation. Find a different scapegoat, one that's willing to be blamed and harassed like this in front of everybody."

The manager looked purple. "You're walking a thin line, Waters." He said in a low voice, sticking that finger in her face again. Ruby gritted her teeth, a sound eking out of her throat.

The manager raised an eyebrow that he nearly rubbed off. "Did you just growl at me?" He snorted. "Hey, look at Jane here, learned a lot from Tarzan did you? What's a matter animal girl? You going to going to bite me? Maybe I need a whip and cha-" And that's where Ruby snapped and bit the fat, ugly finger that was pointed at her, and refused to let go.

Ruby guessed that she was lucky. No charges were pressed against her, but she was fired on the spot, which she might have deserved. Probably. Ok, definitely deserved. One did not bit other people in polite company, or even rude company for that matter.

She put her hands in her pockets as she walked up to the front of her apartment, and wrapped her fingers around her keys.

At least it was a nice day out. Maybe she'd spend the rest of it outside, and only come back when it's dark.

She stopped on the walk way. Why did she need to go inside then? She didn't need anything in there, so she could just walk now.

Ruby shrugged and continued forward. She should at least take a drink of water first.

When she came in, Ruby noticed a shifty looking boy in the dark corner near the mailboxes.

He held a jumbo sharpie in his hand, but he was quick to slip it into his sleeve so that it was gone in an instant. He smiled and nodded at her as she past. Ruby nodded in acknowledgement.

Half way up the stairs she heard, "Your boobs are too great a distance from your legs."

Ruby paused. What? She turned around, knowing that couldn't be what he just said.

"Huh?" She uttered, frowning. The boy repeated himself. Yep. That's what he said, alright.

"What?!" Ruby asked, totally baffled. Who says that, and what the hell does that mean?

"What's that supposed to mean?" A second later she realized that it was probably something perverse, and that she didn't want to know. She started to walk up the stairs quickly.

"It's an ice breaker." The boy said, starting to go up the stairs too, but at a slower pace. "It's my way of saying you're too tall." "Gee, thanks." Ruby said, not slowing down.

"Perhaps we got off on the wrong foot." The boy said, still following her. Ruby began to panic. Why didn't she just go for that walk? There were only five floors she could go up, then it was either try and make a break for it and risk leading him to her home, or run down the other stairs and try to get help.

She wished that she had paid more attention to those teach-yourself-books on self defence.

"Would you please stop for one second?" The boy said, touching her hand.

Ruby didn't even think about it; she flinched away from his hand, and punched him in the forehead. It was merely reflex and she didn't mean to hurt him, but that didn't make either of them feel any better.

The boy was thrown backwards off the stair, and landed in a heap at the bottom.

He didn't move.

Ruby put her hands to her face. "I've killed him!" She gasped, before running down the steps, to check for a pulse.

"I'm sorry. Sorry, sorry, sorry." She chanted, putting one hand on his wrist, the other on his throat, trying to find his pulse. She couldn't find any.

"Oh!" Ruby cried, putting her head to his chest, hoping that she made the same screw up she always did when trying to find a pulse. She tried to find her own, several times before, but according to her readings, she was dead.

Ruby held her breath, as she focused on trying to hear.

It's was odd. There seemed to be an echo. But she pushed that out of her mind, just happy she didn't kill him.

She shook him, trying to wake him up.

The boy snapped up right, one hand to the front of his head, one to the back. "What was that for?" He demanded, his voice breaking. "Who hits someone for no reason?"

"You startled me." Ruby said defensively, leaning away from him. She just realized that he was wearing odd clothes. Clothes that didn't fit him, like he was wearing someone else's.

The boy seemed to think that that made it alright for her to punch him. He nodded passively. "That makes sense then." He told her. He dug something out of his pocket. "Building inspector." He said, showing her an id in his wallet. The id seemed to be a bit fuzzy, but Ruby didn't get to look at it that long, because it was stuffed back in his ill fitting jacket.

The boy didn't even bother trying to get to his feet. "Could you tell me how old this building is? Rough where abouts is fine." He asked, looking around the lobby.

"I don't know, 1980's?" Ruby made a face at him. "Wait a second. Who you trying to kid? You're a building inspector? Try a different line, kid, that one ain't going to work on anyone with half a brain." She said, getting up.

The boy got to his feet. "But it's true." He said. "Do you know if this building was built with copper wire?"

Ruby raised an eyebrow. Maybe what was in his hand was some kind of tool, not a sharpie, and he wanted to steal the wires out of the wall.

"Actually," Ruby said, edging towards the stairs again. "I think it was made with bricks."

The boy smiled at her, like that was the greatest crack he'd ever heard.

"I'm asking because if it was, then there's a good chance that it was also made with asbestos." He said, returning to being all professional. "That stuff can ruin your lungs, so we want to be extra careful to make sure that we're up to code."

"I'm allergic to asbestos," Ruby stated, wondering why she was still here, talking to this liar. "If there was any, I'd be sneezing like crazy."

The boy seemed to give up hope with her. "Ah." He said.

Ruby started up the stairs again, but looked back to see the boy looked dejected and sad.

I am a bad person. She thought to herself. I didn't even ask if he was alright, or even apologize.

She sighed and started back down the steps.

"Are you alright?" She asked, still keeping her distance. "I'm sorry that I hit you, and that I made you fall down the stairs."

The boy ignored her apology. "Wait, you called me 'kid', but you can't be any more that twenty-five or so." He said thoughtfully. Ruby was slightly offended. "I'm twenty." She said.

The boy grabbed her shoulders, and Ruby almost punched him again. "Quick! How old am I?"

He demanded, giving her a little shake. Ruby's eyes bugged. Was he stoned?

"I don't know," she said, kind of scared. "Somewhere around fifteen, or seventeen. It depends on whether you're a bit tall, or a bit short. It's harder to tell because you're skinny and you don't have much for muscles."

The boy let go and put his thumb on his chin. "Well, that explains why you didn't believe the paper." A realisation shone in his eyes. "You're wondering about my accent." He said.

Ruby was wondering no such thing. She hadn't even realized that he had one.

But now she realized that it was British.

"The truth is, I'm lost." The boy said, obviously trying to look pathetic. "Can I borrow your phone? I can call the hotel I'm staying at, and maybe get directions to get back there."

Ruby thought about that. She never allowed strangers into her apartment. It was just common sense. But she hurt this boy. But then again, he seemed to be eight kinds of crazy.

She was at war with herself, and the boy knew it. "I'd use my mobile, but I lost that too." That wasn't going to cut it, so the Doctor stepped it up a bit. "I'm scared. I don't know where I am, or where..." he genuinely choked back a sob. It had crept up on him. He was going to say his friends, but then he thought about... No. it wouldn't do him any good to think about the past. Not right now.

Ruby's conscience won out in the end. "Alright, come on." She said, waving at the stairs. She knew she was going to regret this.

They walked to her suite, the Doctor behind her by half a step, chattering at her pleasantly.

It unnerved Ruby. She wished that he'd walk beside her instead.

She opened her door, and quickly showed him the phone. The sooner the phone call was over the sooner he'd be gone.

A tortoiseshell pranced out of a room in the back, and hopped up on the kitchen counter, staring expectantly at Ruby. It didn't matter to the cat that her owner was back early, all that matter was that it got it's treats that it always got when Ruby returned home.

Ruby looked hard at the Doctor, before going and opening a cupboard.

The Doctor quickly waved his sonic screw driver around so that he could see the readings.

Ruby jerked back, and looked at him suspiciously. "What was that?" She asked.

The Doctor shrugged, his hands behind his back. "I didn't hear anything." He said.

Ruby frowned, but dug out the snacks anyway.

The tortoiseshell waved it's paw at the reused yogurt container, as her owner opened it.

"Aren't you going to make your call?" Ruby asked, feeling a bit of sweat trickle down her back, while she fed the cat it's treats.

"I don't remember the phone number." The Doctor said, looking around. "Do you have a phone book, by any chance?"

"It's by the phone." Ruby said, rounding the counter. Of course, the book wasn't there.

Ruby slapped her forehead. "I forgot. It's in my room." She started to jog away. "Stay there, I'll be right back."

The Doctor waited until she was out of sight, before scanning the kitchen for something copper.

He didn't want to steal, but he was in a rush and he doubted that even if he asked as politely as he could, that the woman would give him one of her pots or pans.

He quickly opened the cupboards, searching, until he found what he was looking for.

"What are you doing?" Ruby demanded, phone book in front of her chest.

The Doctor stood up quickly, still holding the skillet. "...How much do you want for the..." he glanced at it. "Frying pan."

Ruby stood there blankly for a moment. Things were starting to get a fuzzy, unreal feeling about them. "What?" She asked, putting a hand to her forehead.

"I want to buy your pan." The boy told her, as if it was the most natural thing to do in a stranger's home. "How much do you want?"

"Nothing." Ruby answered, glancing at her cat. The cat seemed fine.

The Doctor furrowed his brow. "You'll let me have it for free?" He asked hopefully.

Ruby snatched the skillet out of his hands. "No!" She said, shaking her head. "You don't get to have my skillet!" She thrusted the phone book into his hands. "Make your call and get out."

She ordered, putting a protective arm around her cat.

There was a sharp knock at her door.

The Doctor and Ruby watched each other for a moment before she went to answer the door, her cat tucked under her arm.

The Doctor frowned at the frying pan. He guessed he could just grab it and bolt past her while the door was open, but it just didn't seem right.

Ruby opened the door to see her landlady standing there, looking blank, her face sallow and slack as if she was dead.

"Mrs. MacTavish, are you alright?" Ruby asked. Mrs. MacTavish began to reach out for her, as she shuffled into the apartment.

Ruby automatically backed up. She could feel something was wrong.

"What are you doing?" Ruby asked, putting her hand up to protect the cat.

Mrs. MacTavish didn't answer. Instead she continued to walk towards Ruby.

"You have no right just to-!" Ruby stopped when she felt someone grab her hand.

She looked into the Doctor's face. "Run." He said simply, before pulling her after him as he ran out her door, her best skillet in his hand.

They ran outside, and for good measure, to the next block.

Ruby didn't need much urging to run; Mrs. MacTavish was scaring the hell out of her.

Petrushka, her cat, didn't like being held outside, and definitely didn't like being jostled like she was.

When they stopped, Ruby shifted her grip on Petrushka, and eyed the boy.

"Why'd you make me run?" She asked, before seeing her pan. "Hey!" She said, reaching for it.

The Doctor pulled it out of reach. "I'm sorry, but I need this more than you do." He told her.

"That was a Christmas present!" Ruby protested, reaching for it again.

The Doctor made a face. "Really?" He asked, looking at the pan. "Who gives dishes as gifts? Not very thoughtful, is it?" Ruby made another grab, Petrushka trying to get away, but the Doctor danced away, keeping the skillet out of reach.

"I like cooking, so it's a very thoughtful gift!" She shot back.

The Doctor looked over her shoulder and stopped moving. Ruby grabbed the pan, and gave it a tug. It slipped right out of his hand. He grabbed her wrist. "We might want to run again." He said, before starting to pull her again in a merry chase.

Ruby wasn't going to go for it so easily this time. She pulled her weight so that she didn't move in his direction. "No. Not this time." She said firmly. "Where do you expect to run to? And why are we running?"

The Doctor pointed over her shoulder. "Because of them."

Ruby looked back, and saw three tough looking people holding guns.

"That's a good reason." She admitted, running after the boy she didn't know.

They ran until they came across a blue police call box. Or, at least, that's what the sign above the door said.

"Where the hell did this come from?" Ruby demanded, Petrushka wailed, clawing her owner.

She walked by earlier, and that wasn't there.

The Doctor let go of her wrist to dig out an electric key. He pointed it at the police call box, and the light on top blinked on, and beeping sound came out of nowhere.

"What the-" That was all Ruby got out before the Doctor dragged her in.

Ruby blinked, trying to get used to the dim light. She wished she hadn't.

The place was wrong. It was bigger than it should have been.

She started to back towards the door, before realizing that it must have been connected to a building.

But it wasn't close enough to any building. Her mind told her.

"That's enough!" Ruby said loudly, her voice echoing off the walls. The Doctor looked at her from where he was crouched down by a cluttered table, clutching her skillet again.

"Keep the damn pan! I'm out!" Ruby said, throwing the door open.

He started to get up as Ruby threw open the door. "No! Stop!" He said, holding up his hand.

The people with guns were very close. One raised her rifle and aimed at Ruby.

Ruby made a strangled sound, as she and the Doctor slammed the door shut.

Petrushka jumped out of her owner's slackened grip, and ran off, ready to explore.

"See?" The doctor said, a bit surly, leaning against the door. "They never listen! Every time I say don't do that, or stay put, or don't mess with that, what do they do?" He looked in Ruby's face and pointed at her chest. "I'll tell you what they do! They don't listen!"

"Wouldn't that be what they don't do, then?" Ruby asked, looking for a lock or something on the door.

The doctor huffed and pointed harder. "Don't get smart with me. I've had a very trying day!"

He said, going back to the cluttered desk and her pan.

Ruby decided the best thing to do would be to get away from the door, which she did.

"I'd forget about that if I were you." She said, walking towards them.

"Flimsy metal and old wood is no match for a shot gun." She looked back. "Or any gun, for that matter."

The doctor grunted. "Don't worry about that. They won't shoot." He said, placing the pan in some kind of funny looking bowl. "Right now, we have to worry about the wiring." He smiled at her, as he connected a silvery tube to the bowl. "But not for long, because I'm on that."

Ruby shook her head, and began to look for Petrushka.

"Don't go too far please!" The boy called after her. "I don't want you to get lost."

Ruby snorted. "I'm going to find the back door to this place, or phone. You can fiddle about all you please." She told him.

"There isn't one." The Doctor said, watching the pan intently.

Ruby doubled back. "Isn't one what?" She asked. "Phone or door?"

The Doctor thought about that. "Both I think." He tipped his head to the side. "Or at least, I don't think there is. There might be, my brain's kinda scrambled. But don't worry, I'll be back to full capacity soon. twenty-four hours, no more." He made a face. "I think. Maybe. Probably. Who knows."

Ruby shook her head, and a thought struck her. "Were those people after you?" She asked, her tone accusatory. The Doctor put his head back and looked at her. "Doubt it." He said. "I haven't been her that long. It usually takes a while before someone starts trying to kill me." He squinted. "But, there was that one time..."

Ruby didn't stick around to hear any more. She took off running to find her cat.

The place couldn't be that big.

Being wrong appeared to be a past time for Ruby. She found Petrushka, but no door, or phone.

But that wasn't the reason she came back to the control room.

The doctor was still sitting there, his thumbs pressed to his bottom lip, watching the pan intently.

The pan seemed shinier than usual.

"You're back." He said rather pointlessly. He didn't even turn.

Ruby began stomping. "Of course I'm back." She snapped. "Do you know why I'm back?"

The Doctor looked at her and smiled cheekily. "Of course I don't." He said, before turning back to the pan. "I'm not an Ood."

Ruby ignored him. "I'm back, because my cat spoke to me." She said, her voice rising. "Not 'mew mew', she spoke to me, 'go away, I'm exploring', she spoke to me. She spoke my language!"

The Doctor rubbed his chin. "...Hmm. Yeah, that makes sense." he said, shrugging. "The Tardis would allow translation between you two. I mean, why should it be limited to 'superior life forms'."

Ruby stared at him. "You drugged me." She said haltingly, holding Petrushka.

"An unknown boy drugged me, dragged me off to some unknown place to do unknown things to me. This is how I die!"

The Doctor got to his. "Quit with the drama queen act. You're not going to die." He rubbed his head. "And quit referring to me as a kid or a boy. Nine hundred and fourteen does not exactly make me a child. Besides, even if I was, it's really insulting that you'd refer to me like that seeing as how you thought that I was only three years younger then you."

Ruby frowned. "There's no way that you're fourteen." She stated, standing stock still.

"Gah!" The Doctor threw his hands up in the air, exasperated. "NINE HUNDRED and fourteen! Don't you listen?"

There was a snapping sound, which drew both their attentions to the skillet.

It was all but glowing now.

Right before their eyes, the pan melted, and was pumped through the silvery tube, into a tray-like grid complete with exposed wires.

The molten copper filled the tray most of the way up, almost covering the wires completely.

"It could be better, but it's good enough." He patted the console that Ruby had at first mistaken for a cluttered desk. "We'll flying again, eh?"

"What are you going to do to me then?" Ruby asked. For some odd reason, she was more worried about her cat, and was more upset that her best skillet, her only skillet was just made in to soup.

The Doctor got up and cackled. "Ooh! That was a good cackle, wasn't it?" He grinned from ear to ear. "I don't think I've ever laughed like that before!" He put his hand on an old-fashioned leaver, and pulled it down. "What am I going to do with you?" The room shuddered and made a loud clanking sound. "Well, first of all, we're going to get out of here."

With that, there was another clanking sound, before Ruby was almost jerked off her feet, as she felt like the room just shot upwards.

"It's a bit rough this time, innit?" The Doctor asked.

Ruby sat heavily on the step, her arms empty as Petrushka had escaped yet again.

"I wouldn't know," Ruby said, glaring at him. "I've never done drugs."

The Doctor ignored her slightly. "Good. They're bad for your complexion." He said, fiddling with the mess of knobs and wires. "Why is it like this? It shouldn't be this bad. Maybe I'm flying too soon, but that doesn't seem right. I know you better then my old faces, this should be a snap."

Ruby put her head on her knees, and wrapped her arms around her legs. This was bad.

The Doctor tapped his chin, as he wracked his brain for the answer.

"Ah!" He said, slapping a huge button.

The Tardis, rocked and lurched so hard, that all three of them were thrown around.

Ruby blinked the stars out of her eyes.

Somehow, she had ended up on her side, with her head feeling like someone was trying to cleave it open with a dull axe. Maybe just the axe's handle.

"Er, I guess it's not the big button." The Doctor said, getting up, holding one elbow.

"Maybe that's a thing with me. I like to push big buttons." He rubbed his head again. "I might have to put a sign over it; do not push if unsure of what it does. But then again, I'd probably push it anyways, just because it says not to."

Ruby jerked up. "Oh no." She breathed. "Petrushka!" If she got hurt, then the cat almost definitely did.

She began calling the cat, looking under anything that Petrushka could hide under.

The Doctor opened his mouth to say something, but closed it with a shrug. It's not like she would listen to him, anyway.

Instead, he opened the door to see where they were.

"Ah, well," he said, sitting down in the doorway. "This isn't so bad."

Petrushka was no dummy; she waited until everything was calm again, before continuing her exploration.

She found a hallway that looped back to the main room. She used it and found the Doctor sitting in the doorway to the dark outside.

Petrushka walked over and sat beside him, looking out.

"Amazing." She said, wrapping her tail around her. The Doctor nodded. "I often forget that, but when I'm with someone new, it reminds me how spectacular it really is. It's like a fine painting, or a field of dandelions," he said, leaning back on his elbows. "After seeing it several times, you forget the beauty, and just see the faults and then you begin to resent it."

"Petrushka!" Came a muffled echo.

The Doctor turned his head towards the far side of the control room where the echo came from.

"Oh, that's right, she's still looking for you." He said to the cat. "She's in here!" He yelled, not getting up.

"Where's here?" Ruby called back, completely lost.

The Doctor put his hand to his face. "She just had to go running off, didn't she?" He asked, getting up. "But to fair, it is your fault, Petrushka."

The cat harrumphed, but otherwise ignored him.

The Doctor began to leisurely stroll through the Tardis. There was no point in rushing about. He had done enough of that earlier.

"Where are you?" He called out, putting his hands in his jacket pockets.

There wasn't much in them. Bits of paper, an empty paper bag with a tiny bit of icing sugar in it, a washer and a lot of paper clips kept together with a safety pin.

He pulled out the paper clips and the paper bag.

He sniffed the paper bag, and wondered what the paper clips were for.

The bag smelled fruity, and made him feel even hungrier than he already was.

"I seem to be in a theatrical company's closet." Ruby responded. Perhaps they were somehow in a theatre? But that didn't make any sense. Ruby didn't live near anything like that; she lived on the edges of down town and the rail yard, no one would want a company there.

And what was that jolting earlier? It couldn't be an earthquake, she didn't live in an area that had them, so, were they somehow moved?

Ruby shook her head. For a place this large, there was no way that it could be moved, so that brought her back to her original statement; the boy must have drugged her somehow, and now she was hallucinating all this.

The Doctor picked up his speed. "Oh, you've found my clothes!" He said happily. He could do with a change of clothes.

He skidded through the hall, past his closet. "Whoops!" He said, turning so quickly as he skidded, that he almost fell over. He cursed his shoes that didn't have any grip.

"You're the first ones to go." He told them, walking into the huge room.

Ruby watched the boy from where she sat, her back against the wall.

She hadn't really taken in what he looked like before because her mind was always somewhere else, but now she tried to note every little detail about him, so that she could remember him later.

She would have guess that he was 5'4", tops, with sandy hair that brushed the tips of his ears and, green eyes-no, hazel, oval face, round chin, and pointy nose.

His frame was slight, emphasized by his borrowed clothes, and his hands were small, at least, small when she compared them to her own.

"Give me half a mo." The Doctor said, holding up a hand just as Ruby opened her mouth to ask what was going to happen to her, again.

The Doctor raced behind a room divider that a nice Chinese print on it.

Ruby jumped as two Oxfords went flying over the divider. "Take that!" He all but shouted.

She glared at the divider. Was he aiming at her?

Soon, the suit jacket, shirt, pants and suspenders were flung so that they draped over the divider.

"Hmm. I suppose suits are out, at least for now, if I look as young as you say I do." He muttered to himself. "I don't want to stand out too much, do I?" There was a scuffling sound.

"Have you forgotten the people with guns?" Ruby asked, wondering if they were a hallucination as well. "Do you think we have enough time for this?"

The Doctor stepped out from behind the divider, displaying his new outfit.

Ruby shook her head without even noticing. "First of all," she found herself saying, despite herself. "It's summer. Second, you'll trip over that scarf. Who makes a scarf that long? Third, jodhpurs suit no one. they should have never been invented."

The Doctor looked wounded. "But. But they're cool." He said, pouting.

"No." Ruby said firmly. "They were never cool. Just like thin ties."

The Doctor walked back behind the divider dejectedly, his scarf dragging.

"Were the people with guns with you?" She asked, oddly less worried. Probably the drugs fault.

Perhaps this boy was somehow into human trafficking.

"Nope." Came the reply, along with more scuffling. "I don't believe in guns." He laughed. "It's amazing that that has stayed the same, isn't it?"

Ruby's brow furrowed. "Could you stop that at least?" She asked.

The Doctor stepped out to show off his next outfit; a black leather jacket, bow tie in a checked shirt and dress pants over high tops.

"Somehow, it's possible that that one's worse than the first." Ruby said, blinking.

"Stop what?" The Doctor asked, pouting even more, his hands on his hips.

"Talking to me, then talking to yourself immediately after. It's really confusing." Ruby explained.

"I'll try." The Doctor said, looking at the floor. He looked so sad.

Ruby blew out a breath. "The problem with your styles are that you keep mixing several together." She said. "Why don't you try the simplest one? Jeans, sneakers, a tee shirt and maybe a baseball cap?"

The Doctor crossed his arms and snorted. "What is this? 1995?" He narrowed his eyes at her. "Is it? I didn't think that it was, but the way things have been going, I may have miscalculated."

Ruby rolled her eyes. "Fine, you don't have to be so sarcastic about it." She said, looking away.

The Doctor slowly pointed at her, as if his arm weighed a ton. "I'll take that as a 'no'."

He said, before rushing one last time behind the divider.

The Doctor emerged a moment later, wearing a long sleeved blue shirt that had three buttons that ran down from the collar, that was a couple sizes too big, black jeans, and brown shoes that looked to be a few decades out of style.

He raised his arms out to the sides. "Go on then, tell me what's wrong with this one. Tell me that it's silly, or that it's uncool." He said, still pouting.

"Congrats, kid, you look basically normal." Ruby said, getting up. "Now can we get out of this crazy place?" She asked, rubbing her hands on her dirty jeans.

The Doctor tipped his head to the side. "Now, here's the tricky part." He said, squinching his eyes. "I'm going to explain somethings to you, and you won't believe a word of it. Not a word. Then, there will almost definitely be something that proves my story, but you still won't believe me. Then something even more unbelievable will happen and then you'll believe me. truthfully, I don't want to go through that again. I've gone through that exact thing millions of times, and I'll admit it's gotten a bit old for me. It would be great if you just could just believe me, but you won't, so I'll just give you the footnotes version." He said in a single breath. The Doctor panted a bit, held up a finger, than continued. "I'm a Time Lord, or alien, which ever is easier for you to wrap your mind around, I don't really mind. This is a space ship and a time machine, It's called the Tardis. That stands for something, but I'm not going to go into that right now.

I've recently have gone through a massive change, so I'm still pulling myself together, still trying to figure out who I am." He slapped his forehead. "Oh! And I needed your pan because it was copper."

Ruby remained silent.

The Doctor nodded. "See? You don't believe-" "Time travel's impossible." Ruby interrupted, leaning on her knees.

The Doctor raised an eyebrow as he shoulders slumped. "I tell you all that, and the one thing you have a problem with, is that you don't believe in time travel." He said incredulously. "Not the fact that I say I'm an alien, or that I say we're in a space ship, wait, no, you see, it's not really a space ship, but more of a-" "It's not a matter of believing in it, like Santa Claus. Time travel is impossible." Ruby interrupted again. "To time travel, you'd have to be travelling faster than the speed of light. No one could survive that speed; it would crush you beyond recognition. That is saying that you were ever able to get up to that speed, which, in itself, is impossible. Plus, there would be no way that you could control the direction, or where you popped up-" "Ooh, you're an expert on time travel, are you?" the Doctor cut in, leaning against the room divider. "See, you're thinking of time as something straight and inflexible, right? Well, see, that's where you're making a mistake. Think of it as a big ball, of wibbly, wobbly, timey-wimey...Stuff." He sniffed and looked at her. The Doctor dropped his hands. "What?"

Ruby was looking at him strangely, her back ram-rod straight, as she leaned away from him.

"What are we on?" She asked, seeming very bothered.

The Doctor huffed very loudly, and started to walk to the door, before whipping around and pointing at her. "You're impossible." He told her. "Like time travel." Ruby shot back, getting back to her feet.

The Doctor sneered at her, before leaving his closet, Ruby following, because he seemed to know his way about the place.

After a few moments, they were back in the control room.

The Doctor jogged to the main console, and began examining it extensively.

Ruby saw Petrushka, and began to walk towards the cat, scolding it gently.

"What a naughty kitty to run away like that!" She said, stretching her hand out for Petrushka. "I was so worried that you..." Her sentence died away in a gasp.

The Doctor made a face at the console that was meant more for Ruby. "What is it now?" He asked in the same manner that an older sibling would use after being annoyed for so long by the younger sibling.

"Nnng..." That was all Ruby was able to utter, as she held onto a pipe on the wall, her eyes clamped shut in fear.

The Doctor looked up and saw her cowering. He glanced around, but didn't see anything scary.

He started walking toward her. "Are you in pain?" He asked, eyeing her.

She sure could make herself small. It was almost miraculous. He touched her wrist.

"Do you see it too?" Ruby said in the barest of whispers, her eyes still shut.

The Doctor glanced around again. Nothing seem to warrant this response. "What's 'it'?" He asked, crouching down, still looking.

Ruby tipped her head slightly. "Outside." She whispered.

The Doctor rolled onto his butt, fell onto his side, and looked out. Nothing.

"Nothing's there." He said, in a bright voice. Ruby opened her eyes and looked at him. "Nothing but the void of space." He continued. "Oh. Well, you could count the stars but, I'd figure you'd do that automatically."

Ruby looked at the door, made that sound again, and rolled up even tighter.

The Doctor patted her, unsure. "It's alright." He told her. "It's like there's a big bubble around us, so that we can breathe. Though, I wouldn't recommend jumping out."

Ruby buried her face in her arms. "I'm afraid of heights." She said in a slightly muffled voice.

He wasn't expecting that. "Ah." He patted her arm again. "I can see where this would aggravate that particular phobia." He looked at Petrushka who was completely engrossed with her view. "Would it make you feel better if I closed the door?"

Ruby nodded like a clock work doll. "Please..."

The Doctor nodded, got up and closed the door despite Petrushka's complaints.

"Now." The Doctor said, clapping his hands together. "Are you hungry?"

Ruby sat with her arms crossed over her chest, chewing grape gum, while the boy who sat across from her ate bits off of four different plates, exclaiming whether or not he liked something.

Ruby watched from the diner window as a red double decker bus drove by. She had never seen one before.

She had given up hope that she had been drugged. She now believed she had lost her mind.

Ruby guessed that it was alright, it's not like she was going to hurt anyone, or forget that her actions had consequences.

Now she was just trying to figure out whether the boy was real or not.

"...What's your name?" Ruby asked, knowing that she should have thought to ask that much earlier, but it was better late than never.

The boy stopped with a forkful of gelled eggs hovering in front of his open mouth.

"You can call me The Doctor." He shrugged. "Or just Doctor, either one's fine with me." He put the eggs in his mouth and made a wretched face. "Nope. Not this either."

Ruby tapped a nail on the table.

The Doctor put his fork down. "I suppose that you're waiting for me to ask you who you are, rather than introduce yourself." He said, wiping his mouth with a napkin. "That sounded a bit rude, didn't it? Sorry, I'm still trying to get a hang on things."

Ruby traced her nail around a hole in the table's veneer. "Actually, I think you already know who I am." She said. Ruby had no idea how she'd find out whether the Doctor was real or not.

She was not smarter than her mind, so there was no way to find out if she was tricking herself.

The Doctor frowned. "Really? I didn't think you had said anything like that." He picked up his fork, and restarted his sampling. "Care to reiterate?"

Ruby sighed, and put her chin in her hand. "Ruby." She answered. It didn't escape her that he merely said that she COULD call him The Doctor, not that that was his name, so she called him on it.

The Doctor waffled. "Ah. Well, a name is merely a handle, or a title. So, as long as who ever your talking to, you know there's title, it doesn't really matter one-" Ruby shook her head. "You're not going to tell me anyway, are you? I suppose it doesn't really matter one way or the other, does it? Not now." She said. She hooked her nail under the lip of the table and ran it back and forth. "Do you know what was going on back there? With Mrs. MacTavish acting all weird, and those people with guns."

The Doctor put his chin in his hand and frowned. "I think I might have an idea." He admitted.

"Has anything strange have been happening lately? I mean, something might have seemed perfectly normal, but now that you think back to it, it seems odd and out of place, or it seems normal, when it should have been weird."

Now it was Ruby's turn to frown. "...Wait, what?" She asked, blinking. She had dreams that made more sense than this boy.

The Doctor repeated himself, being sure to say it slower this time around.

Ruby looked like she still hadn't quite got it, but decided that she try to answer anyway.

"No." The Doctor looked like he was starting to get a headache. "Nothing in the slightest, struck you like something was going on? Large gatherings of people, flashes of light during the night, t.v. going on the blink?" He asked, stacking the plates on top of each other.

Ruby closed her eyes and thought hard. "No." She answer, her eyes still closed. "I keep to myself." The Doctor drew down the corners of his mouth. "Can't make it easier, can you?" He grumbled.

Ruby opened her eyes and raised a brow. "You're one to talk." She shot back. "You're very disruptive, y'know that? freaking me out in the lobby, stealing my pan, dragging me about, showing me that you have no taste in clothes. You're like a box full of rats released in a packed church."

The Doctor stood up. "That's a terrible description." He told her. "You just called me a box. A box isn't disruptive! A box is simply a box that carried the rats, and probably got dirty in the process. If I have to give up talking to myself around you, you have to stop giving descriptions like that."

Ruby sighed, getting up. "I hope you have money, 'cause I don't." She muttered to him, half preparing herself to run again. It wouldn't surprise her, the way the day was going.

"You don't think much of me, do you?" The Doctor said, digging out his wallet.

When they were back in the Tardis, The Doctor resumed asking questions about any oddities that Ruby might have seen.

"Have you been sick in bed? Out of town, maybe. Some reason as to why you haven't seen something important." He asked.

Ruby shook her head, looking at the floor. "Why did you need my pan, again?" She asked.

The Doctor ran a hand through his hair. It would have been great if she could have stayed on one topic.

"Copper it a great conduit for certain types of energy." He explained. "It's lighter that most metals and it's almost everywhere."

Ruby nodded, and leaned on the console. "It's a shame you didn't have any then." She said, raising an eyebrow.

The Doctor nodded. "I actually had some around here somewhere, but I seemed to have..." He trailed off when Ruby picked up a length of pipe from under the console.

"Ah..." He uttered, his shoulders slumping. "...On the plus side, we can get you a new one."

Ruby dropped the pipe. "Not like that one." She answered. "That one was a gift." She crossed her arms, and jutted her chin.

"You enjoy being difficult, don't you?" The Doctor asked, narrowing his eyes. "So there's nothing, nothing at all that you know was out of place."

Ruby shook her head. "Oh! Unless you consider the radio going out, but that's just one of those things, isn't it? Like the lights going out every now and again." She shrugged. "It's not like you said, 'seems normal when it should have been weird.'"

The Doctor tapped his chin. "Maybe." He said. "When did it happen?"

Ruby sighed. "You ask a lot of questions, don't you?" She said. "Why this? When? Why?"

She closed her eyes and thought about it. "I heard it go out when I was paying rent, so at the beginning of this week. Mrs. MacTavish always listens to the radio."

The Doctor drummed his fingers. "The beginning of the week." He muttered himself. "What, Sunday, Monday?"

Ruby nodded. "Monday." She responded. "The morning." She added for good measure.

She had no idea how that was supposed to help, but she figured that she might as well go for it; be swept along with the flow.

The Doctor shrugged. "Well, it's the biggest lead we have so far, so we might as well go back."

Ruby opened her mouth, and the Doctor held up his hand. "No." he said. "I don't want to hear how it's impossible."

Ruby made a face. "I was going to ask you what you thought was going on." She said, glancing at Petrushka, who was toying with a cord of some sort.

The Doctor fiddled with an assortment of knobs and levers. "Oh, that's different then." He said.

"No idea, really. More like a shadow of a suggestion of an idea."

The room made a milder version of the sound Ruby heard earlier, and this time, she wasn't thrown off her feet.

"You're running smoother now." The Doctor said more to himself.

Ruby cocked her head, and leaned on the console. "You're alone a lot, aren't you?" She asked quietly.

He looked up. "...A bit more than I used to." He said. "But I suppose that could be said about anyone. Look at you, you're alone more than when you lived with your family, I bet."

Ruby dropped it. It was none of her business.

The room stopped it's vibrations. The Doctor licked his lips. "Now we'll see." He said, flicking on an ancient radio that looked to be from the thirties.

Ruby hadn't noticed it before, because it was nestled in a a stack of rubbish in a darker corner.

"Where'd you get that?" She asked, walking over so that she could run her fingertips over the worn, yet smooth edges.

"A friend gave it to me." Came the response. "Someone who believed that radio truly was the future."

Ruby's brow furrowed as she tried to remember a quote that was very similar to what the Doctor had just said. She shook her head. "Must have been an old friend." She said.

"Not really." The Doctor said, before asking Ruby to tune it to the right station.

Ruby did as asked, and put her arms behind her back. "Now what?" She asked. The music wasn't what was playing when she had paid her rent, so she had no idea where they went from there.

The Doctor sat down. "We wait."

Ruby glanced around, before sitting beside the boy.

They sat there in silence, listening to songs, and then commercials.

"You know Petrushka is a boy's name, right?" The Doctor pointed out, unable to stand the silence any more. "I have nothing against that, but I was just wondering if you knew. Oh! Did you name her for the Petrushka ballet theatre? I almost forgot about that place. It would be nice to go back and see some of the old favourites."

Ruby leaned her head on her knees. "I heard it on an old kid's show." She said. "I knew it was a boy's name, I just like how it rolled off the tongue. I didn't think the cat would really care what gender her name was intended for, or if she even had a name." Ruby smiled for the first time that day. "After all, name's are merely handles..."

The Doctor shrugged. "I suppose if you want to see it that way." He sniffed, before smiling back.

Suddenly, the radio made an odd sound, before kicking out.

The Doctor shot to his feet and stared intently at the radio, as if that would let him in on the big secret of what was going on.

"I wonder..." He dug the sonic screw driver out of his pocket and aimed it at the radio.

"Might work. Maybe. Probably not. Doubt it." He glanced at the side of it, and frowned.

"What is this?" He muttered to himself. "This can't be right. Well, if it is, it's fantastic."

Ruby cleared her throat. "Care to share?" She asked.

The Doctor tapped his chin as he began to pace. "You don't listen to the radio, really, do you Ruby?" He asked. Ruby shook her head. "Too many commercials. I don't want to be brainwashed." The Doctor laughed at this, like it was one of the funniest things he had ever heard. Ruby wondered if that was a thing with him; laughing at things that weren't really funny.

"But I bet Mrs. MacTavish listens to the radio all the time." He said, pacing faster. "Did you know radio waves travel forever? It's true. They just keep bouncing off things and going on like nothing happened. But now they can travel even further, even faster than before thanks to satellites. And lucky us, someone, something, heard it, and rerouted the signal and sent back their own little message. A nasty little message that no one would really know what it meant, or what they just heard."

Ruby blinked. "So, whoever, is actually brainwashing people?" She asked, raising her eyebrow incredulously. The Doctor threw his arms up in the air. "Give the girl a cigar!" He shouted.

Ruby stood up, rubbing her hands on her jeans. "Why?"

The Doctor whipped around, putting them face to face at an uncomfortably close proximity.

"That's the million dollar question, isn't it?" He asked, putting his hands on her shoulders. "What's the main reason for brainwashing?"

Ruby took a step back. He might not have minded have some stranger's face in his own, but she was different. "To get something from that person, or persons." She answered. "Obviously. But why would something a million miles away want to send a signal back here so that we could be brainwashed by it? Why bother with it? It just seems like a waste of energy to me."

The Doctor resumed his pacing, chewing on his thumb nail. "Obviously, so that whoever it is, can make people do what it wants." He said, still pacing.

Ruby got up and clapped her hands absently. "I don't see why, even so." She said, scuffing her shoes. "Human evolution has been going down hill since the industrial revolution. Just like prairie dogs." The Doctor stopped and frowned at her. "What?" He asked, dropping his hands.

Ruby shrugged. "Well, prairie dogs used to be a highly advanced rodent, building complex mazes under fields and they realized that their strength was in numbers, but eventually, there was no way for them to evolve into a superior creature, because they had grown soft because of their greater intellect." She said. Ruby had a soft spot for vermin. Had since she was a small child.

"It's sad in a way, they could have been truly remarkable if they continued to advance at they rate that they were going."

The Doctor paced slower, thinking. "Radio signals have been bouncing around for over two hundred years," he muttered. "Perhaps it's an old signal they got. The signal back was rather crude... But none the less..."

Ruby crossed her arms and tapped her foot. "What?" She demanded after a minute or two.

Just then, the radio went out again.

The Doctor jogged to to the console and started pushing more buttons and flicking levers.

"What?!" Ruby demanded,utterly confused.

Petrushka jumped up on the console so that she could see what was going on, but the Doctor just scooped her up and gently dropped her on the ground.

"Not while I'm working." He told her, turning back to the console.

"You're just going to ignore me now, huh?" Ruby said, picking up Petrushka, so the cat could see what was going on.

"I am... working on..." The Doctor said distractedly, paying close attention to the console. "Ah ha! Tracking the signal! Now, all we have to do is follow it."

The signal lead them to a radio tower beyond the outskirts of town.

It looked like it had been abandoned; broken windows, a chain link fence with huge gaping holes in it. Someone had even pilfered the barbed wire from the top of the sagging fence.

Ruby shook her head. "Are you sure this is the right place?" She asked, stepping out of the Tardis. "It looks like it was left along time ago." Ruby cocked her head at it. "But why wouldn't they have stripped it? There's a lot of valuable stuff here, by the looks of things."

The Doctor stood on his toes, and peered in a grimy window. He was shorter than he would have like to be. "Because they didn't abandon it." He whispered. "And hush."

Ruby glared at him. She didn't like how he spoke to her like a naughty child, but she remained quiet. The place seemed to demand that.

The Doctor pointed his sonic screwdriver at the heavy ancient padlock, and it popped open with a surprising amount of noise.

Ruby jumped and was glad Petrushka was still inside the Tardis. The last thing she wanted was the cat on the loose.

The Doctor opened the door and gestured for Ruby to follow. She did, but not before taking the padlock.

She didn't have the key, but it was still a nice looking lock.

The place was little bigger than a double wide trailer. It was merely under the tower so that people could do maintenance and such, so there was no need to have some grand expanse there.

Dust coated everything, as did cockroaches, spiders and centipedes. From the smell, there were also mice.

The Doctor frowned as he listened hard. He was hearing something that should have been impossible at that place; the radio.

Or at least he was certain that it was the radio, he was hearing the same song that was playing when they had left the Tardis.

He began to move things about as quietly as possible. Ruby protested a bit when he picked her up and placed her on a table along with an assortment of other things he moved off of the floor. Again, he shushed her.

Finally, the Doctor found what he was looking for. There was a loose floor board with a large knot-hole hidden under a cabinet. He stuck his thumb in the hole and pulled the board back.

It slid backwards, clicking into place, opening into a hastily made cellar. The music became louder.

He glanced up at Ruby, and saw how she was staring at the hole in the floor.

"I'll understand if you don't want to come with me." He told her softly, as he crouched by the little door. "Just say the word, and I'll take you somewhere safe right now."

Ruby looked up from the hole, a light in her eyes. "Would I have been any help if I had gone down there with you?" She asked. The Doctor shrugged. "Some. But can manage just fine." He answered.

Ruby hopped down from the table without making any sound. "Well then, put a sock in it, I'm helping." She told him. She smiled wryly. "I have no idea what I'm doing, but I'm helping."

The Doctor smiled at her before jumping down the hole.

"Lower yourself down, I'll catch you." He called up to her, just as her legs came swinging down.

"Move." She told him. "I don't want to kick you in the head." The Doctor took a step back, before she tumbled to the hard packed floor of the tunnel.

"Now," the Doctor said, pointing his sonic screwdriver up the tunnel, "we follow the music."

The tunnel was long and was in an 'L'. So they had little to no light to see by. But that really wasn't a problem. The tunnel was wide, and the floor was smooth, so they merely followed their ears to the large room at the end.

In the room, there were dozens upon dozens of people lined up, their backs pressed right into the fronts of the people behind them, but the wasn't a complaint to be heard. Actually, there was nothing to be heard except the music and a quiet undertone of collective breathing.

After a moment or two, a batch of the people would step forward as one, then would be scanned by a yellow ball on a long mechanical arm. After the scan of each person, there would be a very electronic voice that said a number in between one and ten. The ones that were a five or higher, stepped on an orange stage, and appeared to evaporate into thin air, while those under five, were disintegrated on the spot.

It took Ruby a moment to realize what just happened to the three and four that were standing with the separate batch.

She gasped and covered her mouth, shocked, but not a soul heard her.

Another batch broke off from the the long lines, and stood, ready to be scanned as they shuffled through the other people's ashes.

The Doctor gritted his teeth. "They're transporting them, probably to sell for cheap labour." He said, getting up. He walked through the lines, pushing his way through, before scanning the arm, the yellow metal ball on the arm, and then finally the transport.

The yellow ball ignored him as it continued it's work of figuring out which person was desirable, and who was not.

"Three." It said, just as the Doctor pointed his sonic screwdriver at.

There was a loud buzzing sound, and the ball exploded.

Ruby flinched at the bang, but she was the only thing that moved in the room.

The people in the line stood still, quietly waiting for their turn to die.

The Doctor stormed towards her, grabbing her wrist, pulling her after him.

Ruby pulled back. "Wait." She said, looking over her shoulder at the people. "There's nothing I can do for them right now." He told her, not even looking back. "At least they're not going anywhere for awhile."

Ruby wrenched her wrist free. "Alright. That's ok, I guess, but do me a huge favour; I'm not a dog. I'm not a naughty child, so quit leading me around by my hand, and quit shushing me, or I swear I'm going to punch you again." She told him, crossing her arms, frowning.

"Lead, I'll follow. Maybe. At least give me a choice, huh? Just stop using my arm as a leash."

The Doctor glanced at her irritably. "Fine. Can we go now?" He huffed, gesturing to the other end of the tunnel.

Ruby screwed up her face and nodded before following him back to ground level.

Petrushka was back up on the console, staring at the odd tubes that moved up and down.

Ruby walked over quickly to the cat. "Bad kitty! Get down!" She ordered, shooing the cat.

"Ah, shut up." Petrushka drawled, hopping down.

Ruby looked at the Doctor. "Y'know, I always had a suspicion that's what she said." She told him. "Actually, it was a lot ruder what I guessed she would say."

The Doctor nodded. "I can imagine." He replied. "Let me guess," he said, changing the subject. "You now want to know what's happening." He said. Ruby tipped her head towards the door. "What about those people?" She asked quietly, looking at the door.

The Doctor sighed and lowered his head. "We're going across to the far side of a system two or more systems away to help them." He looked in her face, a burning anger and passion that wasn't there before. "And we're going to do our damnedest to make sure that this doesn't ever, EVER happen again." He said loudly, before pulling a lever.

Ruby looked at the ceiling as the whole place made a loud mechanical noise that went into a dull roar before dying down into a steady hum.

We're travelling through space. Ruby thought to herself. The thought made her feel queasy in the extreme and made her weak in the knees.

Ruby watched as the Doctor examined the console, muttering to himself.

He glanced up. "What?" He asked, thumb still in his mouth, (he was gnawing on it a second earlier.) Ruby shrugged. "I just realized I know nothing about you." She said. "Not even your name. Well I guess I know that you have a tendency to run, which might explain why you're so damn skinny." The Doctor scoffed weakly, his face looking tired and wane in the dim light.

"Nothing much to tell, I'm afraid." He said. Ruby stood so that their shoulders were almost touching. "Nine hundred and fourteen years old, and you have nothing to tell?" She said doubtfully. "You must be crap at time management." "I travelled mostly." He answered after a several minutes. "Everywhere I go, there's always some trouble close behind. I had friends, tons of them..." Ruby nodded. The Doctor stared at the tubes with glassy eyes. "Then... I lost them. I should have been used to it by then, but, how do you get used to having your heart broken?"

Ruby said nothing. She just stood beside the stranger, thinking that there was no way to get used to a broken heart that can't be mended.

The planet was over three times the size of Earth, and when they stepped out on the surface, Ruby could feel a difference in her bones.

There were building of incredible proportions and looked like they were made from coral.

The Doctor frowned as he put his hands on his hips. "This isn't right..." He murmured to himself. Ruby glanced at him. "Wrong place?" She asked, adjusting her footing on the uneven ground. The Doctor shook his head. "There's nobody here." He pointed out.

They were on the outskirts, but even so, there should have been movement detected.

As they walked between the towering buildings on the uneven ground, more than ever did it look like the place was abandoned.

"Where is everybody?" The Doctor asked, putting his hands in his pockets, feeling that overwhelming loneliness that he felt only hours before.

Ruby stumbled. "Did you feel that?" She asked. It felt like there was vibration that went right up her legs.

The Doctor was just opening his mouth to say something, when the vibration happened again, only this time much stronger. There was the indescribable sound of ground tearing apart, and the ground that he was standing fell away from beneath his feet.

"DOCTOR!" Ruby yelled, grabbing his hand.

He smacked against the side of the cavern as Ruby was pulled to her knees by the weight of him.

Ruby quickly caught hold of his arm with her other hand. "Gimme your other hand!" She demanded, feeling blood rush to her head.

When he gripped her wrist, Ruby realized that there was no way that she could pull him up.

Her legs were pinned beneath her, and she was half dangling into the cavern.

They looked in each others' faces and they both knew what was going to happen.

"I'm not letting you go." Ruby told him through gritted teeth.

The Doctor glanced down. The fall would probably kill him, but if he kept hanging on they'd both die.

"There's nothing you can do." He replied.

Ruby glared at him. "Fuck you, Doc." She told him venomously. "I said I'm not letting you go, so shut up and let me think a moment, will you?"

Ruby glanced behind her, before looking down again. "Hang on, alright?" She said, sounding very angry. All she wanted that day was to go on a nice walk.

The Doctor felt his leg kick out, trying to find a foothold. "I don't really have that much choice, do I?" He asked, wondering if he should really give up so quickly. "Shut up." Ruby repeated, digging the toes of her shoes into the ground. If she did it right, she could inch backwards, let him get a grip on the ledge then pull him up. But the problem was that her arms were already starting to go numb and her head was getting very light.

Tap, inch. Tap, inch. Ruby groaned. If it went like that, it would take her years to get him up.

"Come on..." Ruby growled. "Can you just climb up me?" She asked, still inching backwards.

The Doctor shook his head. "If I do that, you'll definitely fall in." He answered.

Suddenly, there was the very distinctive sound of gravel shifting and crunching.

"Ruby," He said urgently. "Let go and run." Ruby tried to inch faster. "No. I wo-" At that moment, she felt several hands wrap themselves around her middle and pull her backwards.

The Doctor felt her grip loosen as she was pulled in two directions at once.

"NO!" Ruby screamed. "Let me go! He's going to fall! NNOOO!" But it was too late; the Doctor's hands slipped through her own, and he fell straight down to his doom.

Ruby cried as she kicked and fought the best that she could against her unseen attacker, who was dragging her to one of the buildings and to an uncertain fate.

Of course he didn't die, it would have been too simple if he did. At least that's what the Doctor thought bitterly. Another one gone, and again it was all his fault.

At the bottom of the cavern, there was a vat of goo thicker than molasses, and it was his luck to fall into it. It had hurt like hell falling into it, but he survived. He always did though.

As he scraped his face clean, and squeezed most of the slime out of his clothes, he couldn't help think that if only she had let go of him, they both would have survived.

He didn't want to think like that, but experience had told him that he was going to find her too late. After all, just look at those people back under the radio tower. If they didn't kill her out right, they would cull her with the rest, sort her and then do who knows what with her.

"No more of this." He told himself, squeezing out his hair. "If we get out of this alive, no more companions, no more trips or joyrides with adventurers. You'll do this alone."

He sighed and glanced around himself. The vat wasn't really a vat, but a stream of sorts.

It oozed its way through the tunnel, seeming to be completely natural in its course.

The tunnel also seemed natural, with its uneven ceiling and thin strip of rock between the goo and the walls. At points the rock seemed to disappear as well.

The Doctor glanced up one way then the other, before sighing again, pointing his index fingers at both ways, then going going to the left. It looked to be as good a way as any.

The wall was worn smooth where he placed his hand to inch along the thin ledge.

A strong salty smell came from the drying goo on his clothes, making the Doctor wrinkle his nose. it wasn't a really offensive smell, but it wasn't exactly a nice one either.

A few more minutes, he rounded the corner and saw there was no way to continue that way.

The rock fell away completely, and the goo slid under a very low over hang.

He sighed and began shuffling back the way he came, and passed the hole in the ceiling of the underground lake, but not without strong feelings.

How many died because of him? Certainly he'd saved countless lives, but how many of those lives were put in danger because of him? He wondered morbidly whether Ruby had joined their many ranks. Another sigh as that thought got shoved into the dark box in the back of his mind which seemed to grow larger with each passing year.

The faint sound of music could be heard on the other side of the bend in the tunnel.

Soon, he saw why; thousands upon thousands of humans, silurians, and a variety of other humanoids worked unendlessly, without complaint, pulling gigantic buckets of the goo out of the lake, turning a monstrous wheel to work a mill of sorts that the goo went into, before coming out flattened and dried, then rolled and placed in another mill, this one much larger than the first.

It was obvious the reason why there was no complaint was because their minds were not their own. They worked on even if someone fell, they merely stepped over the person, like they weren't even there, regardless of their own injuries as well.

The music was there to reinforce the brainwashing, but here the underlying message was more obvious.

The slave drivers were a bit odd looking; they were kind of orangey looking, with four arms, two legs and no head. Well, not really a head, their heads were in their chests, and their multiple eyes watched every move that the workers made.

The Doctor inched a bit closer to the wall, before walking right out into plain sight, much to the shock of the drivers.

"Hello, I was wondering if I could talk to someone about what's going on." He said loudly, gesturing to the workers. One of the drivers scuttled towards him, it's gait like a bird's.

It held a square thing up in front of itself, scanning the Doctor. It's eyes nearly popped out of it's head when it read the readings.

The Doctor took a step towards it, causing it to stumble back a bit. The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "Take me to your leader." He frowned. "That...actually didn't feel as corny as I thought it would. Never matter, could you please? I'm a bit anxious to leave a cat in a place for too long without a litter pan." The driver scanned him again, obviously disturbed by the readings. The Doctor sighed. "Yes, I'm different from the ones you've forcibly enslaved." He said, growing more irritated by the second. "That's part of the reason why I want to talk to whoever's stupid idea this was."

The driver went to scan him for a third time, and the Doctor knocked the device out if its hands.

"Enough of that!" He snapped, as the casing cracked on the hard ground.

"Yes, enough." Came a second voice from above them. The driver cowered, visibly shivering.

"You're an oddity. I like oddities. Come here, strange one."

The Doctor took a couple steps back and looked up at a ledge. He couldn't see anything because it was too high and he was still too close, so he decided to listen and climb up the rough stairs.

The leader was am alien to the drivers, that much was plain to see. It was little more than an over glorified puddle of slime. It was an ancient. So old that it's body had begun to disintegrate,

oozing down into an indiscernible mass of purple and red slop. It's one arm was being absorbed by it's own body.

The Doctor glared into it's melting face. It smiled, or something close to it.

"Ooh, even from here, I can feel your intelligence. Little wonder why you're not following the orders." It simpered and drawled. It smiled at it's guard. "Hmm. Very, very bright, indeed. My orders only, unfortunately, work on a certain wave-length and level of intelligence. I presume you're down here for your pet?" It's big, slobbery tongue wormed its way out, leaving threads of slime on its lop-sided mouth. "Pet?" The Doctor repeated.

"Hm, yes." It answered, still simpering. "You were snooping around up there, and you were separated from your pet. It's the only logically explanation as to why you'd come down here. I can see why, too; strong back, that one. It'll work for a long time." It cocked it's head at him.

"Oh, or perhaps you wanted to see me, hm? Perhaps you want a piece of the Business? If so, I must tell you about the wonderful material they have on this planet. It works for everything from ship material, to housing. It's very ideal as it's very lightweight, even though it's tougher than metastable allotrope carbon." It shot him a sly look. "It would do well to patch any holes or some such thing on your ship."

The Doctor surveyed the workers. "And how much would that cost?" He asked.

"Ooh, right to the point." It squished forward on it's little platform. "Seeing as how you're quite the likeable fellow, I'll make it exceedingly cheap, if you're willing to give me your pet. Can you tell me where I could find more workers? Hm? Something strong. These aren't bad, but I want something that's going to last more than a few years. These ones aren't quite as strong as I'd like. They grow sickly and weak after a while. They slow down you see?" The Doctor nodded. "I see perfectly." He answered.

It laughed. "Yes, I knew you would." It spat on the ground. "Now, just tell me, and I'll give you enough material to paper your ship twice over. As for the pet, well their easy enough to come by, aren't they? I'm sure you could find a better one."

The doctor swallowed with difficulty. "She's not a pet." He said, gritting his teeth.

"Oh?" The thing paused. Yes, this was a thing with no conscience, no soul, this was a thing because it saw everyone, everyone different from it as something below it, something to be used until it did it's part.

"Oh! Surely you could find something better for a concubine?" It looked at his face. "Or have I mistaken it's place? Is it your mate?" It laughed. "I would be certain that you could do better in that regard-" "Shut up." The Doctor couldn't hold it back any longer. He clenched his hands.

"You talk about them as if they're a single unit, a product for you to use then dispose of." He hissed. "You claim ownership of innocent souls, merely because you wormed your filthy way into their minds, and laid your wretched traps, pulling them in to this half life of servitude, killing them if they don't measure up to your standards of strength and health." He waved a hand towards the mills. "How long have you been taking them, enslaving them? Why do I get the feeling that you've been farming them, almost?"

It squinted up at him. "I take it you're not interested in a transaction, then?" It drawled, looking bored. The Doctor didn't even have time to open his mouth before a yellow ball, like the one under the radio station, appeared, and shoved him off the ledge.

There was no sound from below, other than the monotonous drone of mills turning.

The puddle of slime leaned forward, and peered down at where the Doctor was laying still, nary a movement.

"Is he dead?" It asked the ball. The yellow ball dove down to examine, unimpeded by an arm, like its brother back on Earth. It scanned him. "Ten+." It answered.

The puddle of slime leaned back, thinking. "So he's valuable." It mused. "Take him to the holding pen." It ordered, with a wave of its remaining hand.

He wasn't quite sure what woke him, but he didn't dwell on that, or the fact that he was still alive, instead he quickly took stock of the situation.

Here, there were a dozen or less people who either were unaffected by the hypnosis, or had been locked inside their own minds and were regarded as useless.

"You alright?" A little red fellow asked him, as the Doctor struggled to his feet. He touched his head as he tried to remember whether the the concerned individual was a zocci, or a vinvocci, because he did remember that they didn't like to be mistaken for the other. "I'm fine." He finally answered, thinking that it probably wouldn't come up anyways. "What's going on?" He asked, stretching the kink out of his back.

"We're off to market, that's what's going on." The zocci told him. "At least we're better off then those poor buggers." She nodded towards the cage next to them. In there, all sorts stood shoulder to shoulder, weaving a bit, but otherwise remained still. A wave of deja vu swept over the Doctor.

"What's going to happen to them?" He asked. The zocci turned pale, and shook her head.

"They're going to feed the others." A silurian leaning against the wall, answered. "And I don't mean they're going to go gathering morsels."

The Doctor turned. "And you know this for certain?" He asked, feeling inside his pockets.

The silurian stood up. "I wouldn't say that for the fun of it." He ran an eye over the Doctor.

"Not many of your kind end up in this cage. They either get burnt up, or end up over there."

The Doctor made no move for correction. "How long have you been here? And where is here?" He asked, glancing around the cage, looking for weak spots. "We're still under ground, aren't we?" "Two layers lower than the work floor." The zocci answered quickly. "I've been down here for a day an a half. It's awful the way these fellows treat us."

"He'll learn." The silurian said, knowingly. "I suppose she put you in here because she wanted to add something exotic to the mix before we're shipped out."

The Doctor frowned. "She?" He asked. "How do you know it was a she? She just looked like a pile of goo to me." The silurian waved his hand. "It just struck me as a 'she', alright?" He snipped. The zocci looked unimpressed. "What about that thing struck you as female?" She asked, obviously ready to blow her top. The Doctor stepped in between them. "Does anyone here know which way the door to this cell opens? Up, down, sideways?" He asked quickly, waving his hands in all directions. "Down." Someone in the back said defeatedly.

The Doctor dug through his pockets, pulling out the paper clips, as he walked to the door.

"What are you doing?" The silurian asked, like the Doctor was an idiot.

The Doctor shrugged. "I saw this on MacGyver once." He said, reaching up and fiddling with the lock, twisting the paper clips around inside it.

Ten minutes later, they still were locked in. "Well, rats." The Doctor said, shoving the clips back into his pocket.

The zocci held her hands. "Well, at least you tried." She said in a consoling manner.

"But it didn't do any good, did it?" The silurian said, running a hand over rough scales.

The Doctor gave the door a shake. "Did it look like it moved?" He asked a bit excitedly.

"A tiny tremor, perhaps." The silurian answered slowly. "But you can't shake the door down."

The Doctor nodded in agreement. "Can't batter it down either, too much noise." He pointed to the silurian. "I'm sorry, forgot to ask, you are?" The silurian raised an eyebrow. Or maybe not. It was very hard to tell seeing as how he had no eyebrows. "Thaithus." He answered.

The Doctor turned to point at the zocci. "Ollit." She said with a nod.

"Good." The Doctor nodded, before sitting down. They'd have to risk the noise though, if they wanted to get out before they were moved to the telepad.

"How often does the guards come round to see that everything is in order." He asked, thinking up a simple plan. Ollit shook her head. "Impossible to say." She said. "It's those yellow orbs that come by and sometimes it's only seconds in between each patrol."

Another thing put up to risk. "Well, we're just going to have to break it down." He said. standing up again.

Thaithus put his head up. "What sorry? Break what down? the door?" He asked. "Are you mad? If we break it down, that would mean that we plan to escape, but we have nowhere to escape to. No ships, no-, well nothing, and you expect us to run headlong into our captors?"

The Doctor shrugged. "You can stay here if you like, I'm not forcing you either way. I just personally wouldn't like to become chattel. And there are those of us who will be either worked to death, or eaten by those workers, unless someone makes an effort to save them." He said, looking Thaithus in the eye. "I don't know about you, but I'd at least like to try to save them."

He turned to the group. "Would anyone like to help me?" He asked, spreading his hands wide. "You don't have to go beyond the cell doors if you don't like, just please help me open the door."

Ollit stepped forward. "I'll help." She said, puffing out her chest proudly. Unfortunately, it just made her look like a fat cactus. A few others moved towards him, muttering under their breath that it was the right thing to do, or that they didn't have anything else to do except to wait for their removal.

In a matter of moments, the Doctor and several others were putting their shoulders to the door in a steady rhythm, knocking it out of its moorings. It didn't take long before the already loose door to go flying off its track, tumbling the escapists. The Doctor quickly got up, Helped Ollit and a couple other to their feet, pointed both way, then set off at a decent clip.

"Doctor," Ollit called after him. "You're going the wrong way." The Doctor hesitated. "I think this cuts through to...Right." He said, doubling back.

They jogged quickly down the passageway on their toes, on the alert for drivers or yellow balls.

Thaithus had strong reservations for coming along. "Do you have anything for a plan?" He asked. "Other than run right into the center of trouble, I mean."

The Doctor turned to him frowning. "All I'm getting from you negativity, so if you wouldn't mind just for a few minutes to try going into a more positive setting, that is presuming that you can do that." He said. Thaithus cocked his head. "You don't have a plan, do you?" He said, grimacing. The Doctor pulled down the corners of his mouth. "...Not as such." He said, his mind was still working on it. Thaithus scoffed. "Ah!" The Doctor pointed at him. "There's that negativity again." He began to pace a bit. "Hang on, there must have been a reason for each one of you to be taken. She wanted strong beings for hard labour." He held up his hand when Ollit started to protest the thing being called female. "Alright, I'll just refer to her as Gooey, alright?"

Ollit nodded. "Now you said, Thaithus, that the majority of who were caught, with the exception of most humans, right?" The Doctor shook his head, and rubbed his chin. "But then sh- Gooey, doesn't seem to mind dealing with slavery, so she might have nabbed whoever, trying to use them as workers first. Aha!" Several people shushed him. "Not so loud!" Ollit whispered, as if her being extra quiet made up for him being loud moments before.

"Not one of you were on land when you were taken, were you?" He blundered on, regardless.

They weren't. "But what does that have to do with anything?" Ollit asked, crossing her arms.

The Doctor started to open his mouth, but then snapped it closed as he heard a whirring sound.

One of the yellow balls were on patrol.

"Now what?" Someone hissed as they pushed against the wall.

The ball began to pass them, but paused and rotated, before flying off back the way it came, screaming the alarm.

"That's what." The Doctor said. "Remember, you can always go back." he told them.

Only two actually did go back. The rest went charging after the screaming yellow ball.

Up the slope and into the mill room, where the yellow ball had alerted several of the drivers, but they weren't prepared for the sudden rush.

The Doctor ran under Gooey's perch and scooped up his sonic screw driver, as several of the other prisoners rushed the guards, taking the weapons from them, and aiming them at the other drivers with gun-like weapons.

"Hmm. You are not only smart, but you're a leader. Very interesting." A voice simpered above them. "Perhaps you'll do well in a gladiator setting? Kill the ones that don't comply."

The drivers levelled their own weapons at the prisoners, and told them almost word for word the same thing Gooey just said moments before.

Thaithus bared his teeth. "Never." He said, aiming at the leader.

The Doctor stepped in between the two factions, his hands held up.

"Reverse the message." He told the pile of slime. "Or insert a new message and let these people go."

Gooey looked down on him with distaste. "Why would I do that?" It asked. "Do you not know business? I'd lose good workers."

The Doctor shifted his hand slightly. "Oh, you're going to lose them anyways, because you've already lost." He said loudly.

The thing raised a sticky eyebrow. "Hmm." It uttered, reaching up with its good arm towards a lowering tube. It grabbed onto the tube and brought it to its mouth, muttering something into it.

There was a shuffling sound as the dazed workers parted slightly, letting a person through their ranks.

The person shuffled towards the center of all the madness and took a gun out of one of the drivers' hands.

"A lock...No key." Ruby breathed, waiting for her next order.

The Doctor looked up at Gooey, angry. "Don't even bother trying something so pathetic." He said.

"A lock..." Ruby repeated, pointing the gun at her chest. "No key."

"It's extremely awful to see a pet die in front of you, isn't it." Gooey threatened. "I imagine it stays with you quite well."

"It's amazing that you believe that you're still in control of all us." The Doctor stated. "But you don't have a leg to stand on." He frowned. "I suppose that can be meant in several different ways, and most of them true." He smiled. "How often does that happen?"

The gun in Ruby's hands made a loud sound as it began to charge, ready to fire.

"I guess she really doesn't mean that much to you, then." Gooey said.

The Doctor turned away from the thin, and gestured to the seeming deadlock.

"Isn't it weird that not one soul here has fired at someone aiming at them?" He asked.

"...No key." Ruby said again. The Doctor pointed at her. "Exactly!" He shouted, turning back.

Ollit frowned. "But that was just nonsense." She told him.

The Doctor looked at her and furrowed his brow. "You sure? I think it made perfect sense." he replied. "You took over their planet, and did something to terrorize the natives. But as you can see, they don't want to obey you any more. And they're not, look, they're as threatening as cardboard cut outs!" "Enough! I am in control!" Gooey yelled. "We've played this game for too long! She dies!"

"Ruby, why is there no key?" The Doctor asked, blatantly ignoring Gooey.

Ruby paused in her endless phrase. "Key...No key...Lock." She said, as if trying to figure out what he meant.

The Doctor smiled at her. "You thought I didn't see you steal that lock, but I saw it make it's way into your pocket. And you were focusing on that when you heard the message start up, weren't you?" He asked, taking a step towards her.

Ruby's head snapped up, and she pointed the gun at the Doctor.

Bang! The gun fired a huge fireball, and a few people screamed, as it hit the tube, and showered Gooey with sparks.

"You'll pay! You'll all pay!" Gooey cried, waving the stumpy arm through the air, summoning dozens of yellow balls.

Ruby looked down at the gun in her hands with wonder. A yellow ball zoomed near her, and without a moment's notice, she shot it down.

The balls attacked the drivers and the prisoners alike, shooting some, being shot at by others.

Ruby still seemed like she was in a daze, as the Doctor grabbed her arm and pulled her down by a roll of dried material.

"You alright?" He asked her. Ruby struggled to answer. "I... might be. I think I killed something, though." She mumbled, looking utterly confused.

The Doctor shrugged. "Well, nearly. Your aim was off a bit." He told her. The watched a ball go zooming past. "If I could just get my hands on one of those." He said to himself.

Ruby, who still hadn't regained all of her sense, nodded and walked out into the line of fire.

"Wait, stop!" The Doctor called after her, trying to get her to stop.

Ruby figured that the best way to get anything's attention was to make a bit of noise, so that's what she did. She threw her head back and screamed louder than what seemed possible.

A couple of the balls flew towards her with great speed.

At the last moment, Ruby fell to the ground, and they had to quickly reverse their direction.

Pop! One fell out of the air, and another was shot down, narrowly missing hitting Ruby in the head.

She passed both to the Doctor. "Please don't do that again." He asked, already going to work.

"You want a ball, I get you a ball, you complain." Ruby muttered. "There's no pleasing you unless it's with a skillet." Ruby frowned. "Wait..."

"Don't worry, you'll figure it out." He told her, letting the ball fly back up into the air.

The altered ball flew around its counter-parts, gathering a flock of them that chased around behind it.

"What's it doing?" Ruby asked, hating the fact that she wasn't as clear as she could be.

"You'll see." The Doctor told her, getting up. "I think it's safe now."

Ruby got to her feet unsteadily and followed him back to the spot under Gooey's perch.

"What are you two doing?" Thaithus demanded. "Go back to cover."

"No, there be no more hiding from Gooey or anything that Gooey has brought with Gooey to this place." The Doctor replied, he glanced at where Ollit stood, holding her injured arm.

"That's a bit awkward to say." He told her, before turning his attention to the problem at hand.

"Now, for the last time; reverse the message." He said loudly, as the yellow balls rose trough the air, aiming their lasers at Gooey, who leaned forward to look down on them all. "No." Came the simple answer. "And the marvellous thing about this all, is that there's nothing you can do about it, after all, you need me alive to release the hive."

"Hive? What, like bees?" The Doctor asked. Realization dawned. "And that would make you the Queen! So you are a she, aren't you? Or maybe you're reference to a hive is a lot different than what I'm thinking about."

Ruby looked at him and shook her head. "You're wrong." She said, starting to make her way up the rough steps to Gooey. "We don't need anything you've got to offer, you pile of sickening-"

"Ruby, try to keep it PG, please." The Doctor reminded her. Ruby's head lowered, before she jerked it back in to it's defiant place. "You're lazy and selfish, so of course you made your job as easy as possible, didn't you?" She continued. "You made an endless looped recording so that you only had to make one message. One that made anyone to hear it desperate to follow the signal, and obey the whispered orders."

"But then," Thaithus said, thinking about it. "Because she deals in chattel as well, she'd need another message to get the original to stop the other one, make it wear off."

No longer did Gooey look smug.

"I say we shove her off her pedestal." Thaithus said, making his way to the steps.

The Doctor caught hold of Thaithus' arm. "Wait." He turned to Ollit. "What kind of ship were you on?"

Ollit blinked rapidly. "What? Why?" She asked. "A cargo ship."

The Doctor nodded. "Perfect." He said, pulling Thaithus off the steps. "Then they can drop you all off when they get here."

Thaithus looked unimpressed. "No one's coming for us, because they have no idea where we are." He stated coldly, wrenching his sleeve out of the Doctor's hand.

"Actually, they are." The Doctor contradicted him. "Because every crew member on a zocci ship has to wear a tracking slash homing device, partly due to the fact that a fair few crew members have gotten either left behind on a planet, slightly drunk, or have jumped ship so to speak, so that they could explore a new world on a different ship."

Ollit clapped a hand to her chest, touching the covered chip. "I forgot about that completely!" She exclaimed. "You get so used to it, that you don't even think about it being there."

Thaithus glared at both of them. "And the reason that we shouldn't rid the universe of this scum?" He asked. "Have you forgotten what it's done?"

The Doctor crossed his arms, making little bits of the brownish, dried goo flake off his shirt.

"No, I haven't, which is the precise reason as to why we should spare Gooey for now." He glanced around at them all. "Abduction, slavery, mind control, forced labour. Don't you think that the society of everyone here would like to have a piece of her?" He said. "I'm sure that someone will come up with a sentence that you'd all like."

Gooey had nowhere to escape to, now that she didn't have anyone to carry her around everywhere. "This isn't fair!" She cried. "I had no other choice!" Ruby leaned against the wall. "Oh?" She uttered, clicking her tongue.

Gooey turned to her. "I was practically starving, when I landed here, cold and nearly frozen to the bone. I saw the river's properties, and I realized that with it, I could make a life for my-"

"Shut up." Ruby told her. "Can you go one sentence without saying 'I'? If you want anyone to believe you're not the wretch that we all know you are, why not let go of their minds?"

Gooey's lopsided mouth worked furiously as she tried to figure out a way out of her mess.

The Doctor thought about something he had seen in the yellow ball.

He pointed his screw driver at the cloud of them, and they let out a horrible squawking sounded, making almost everybody cover their ears.

It took a moment, but the workers woke up one by one, in time to see a group of zocci authoritatives appear out of nowhere.

"What's all this then?" One of them asked Ollit, who explained everything to the utmost detail.

It was agreed that they would take the other travellers back to some common ground, and that Gooey would be taken into custody.

"What about them?" Thaithus nodded to the milling workers, who were still falling over themselves in confusion.

"They'll be sent home." The Doctor replied honestly. "Just like the ones that are two levels below us. Or aren't." He corrected, seeing several other prisoners being brought up by the seemingly mute drivers.

"Right. I'll start shifting them." He said. "Does anybody else know how to work a telepad?"

It took over an hour to get everyone and everything sorted, but eventually it was done, with a squawking yellow ball accompanying the last few people.

He saw that Thaithus and Ruby were talking to each other, nicely it seemed.

"I hate to interrupt, but I think it would be for the best if we got back to Petrushka." The Doctor said, standing off to the side.

"Petrushka! I forgot about her!" Ruby said quickly and guiltily. "It was nice to meet you." She held out her hand to Thaithus, who wasn't sure what to make of the gesture.

With that, she dropped her hand, said good bye, and follow the Doctor back to the Tardis.

Petrushka was exactly where she should have been; sitting firmly on the console, staring at them as they came in.

"I'm hungry." She stated in an upset tone. "And you were gone, never a thought to leave me with food and water." She sniffed and jumped down, walking away from them.

"Poor kitty." Ruby said, scooping the cat up. "Poor, poor kitty. I'll get you food as soon as we get home."

The Doctor blinked. "Why wait that long?" He asked.

Ruby, who no longer believed that she had cracked, had a hard time believing that they were in an alien restaurant that not only allowed Petrushka in, but gave them a special table so that the cat could sit up with them.

The Doctor adjusted the sleeves of his suit that looked like something out of the forties. "This is much better," he told her. "I felt so awkward in that other get up. How about you?" He nodded, referring to the black button up dress that he loaned her. It appeared to be from the same era.

"It's very nice." She told him. "Thank you for loaning me one of your dresses."

She picked up a piece of her food with her fingers and put it in her mouth. Ruby could work with a fork, she could work with chop sticks, but the things that she was supposed to use now, were beyond her comprehension.

The Doctor shrugged. "No problem." He told her. "Want another drink?" He pointed to her half empty glass.

Ruby nodded. "Yes. Please." She said, giving Petrushka's back a pet.

The cat had said nothing after the food had been delivered, instead had shoved her face in the food, and had hardly come back up for air.

Someone passed by the table, circled back, and leaned on the back of the empty chair.

"Hello." He said, being very friendly.

"Hello." Ruby answered back politely.

He pointed at her chest. "Human?" He asked. Ruby nodded. "Then that explains the cat."

"I suppose it does." Ruby said, wondering what this was about.

"Mind if I sit down?" He asked, smiling, showing most of his teeth.

Ruby shook her head. "Actually, I'm with someone." She told him.

He leaned back like he was ready to walk away. "Ah. Can I buy you a drink then?" He asked.

Ruby smiled wryly. "I'm not that easy." She told him taking a sip of water.

He smiled wider. "Nothing worth doing ever is." He replied. Ruby half choked on the drink when it started to come out of her nose.

He walked around the table and patted her back. "Sorry." He apologized. "So how 'bout it?"

Ruby looked up at him. "What?" She asked, incredulous. "The drink." He clarified, pointing at the table and the bar. the devilish smile returned. "Unless you were thinking something else."

Ruby turned red. "I-" "Stop it." The Doctor ordered, before walking around the table and setting the drinks down. The stranger paused for a second, looking deep into the Doctor's eyes.

"I know you, don't I?" He asked. The Doctor sighed and sat down. "Ruby, this is Jack Harkness, he and I go way back." He said, introducing them. "Captain." Jack corrected, helping himself to the remaining seat.

He flicked a finger at the boy. "Doctor?" He asked. The boy nodded. "It's been a while." The Doctor said.

"You've changed." Jack commented. "Several times." The Doctor put in.

Ruby yawned after a while of listening to them talk to each other, catching up on lost time, but she tried to muffle it, to no avail.

Jack turned to her. "You tired?" He asked, hooking his thumb over his shoulder. "Because I know this place-" "Don't." The Doctor interjected. Jack turned to him. "Place that has really good cheap rooms." He finished. "Don't what?" "Flirt. You flirt with everyone." The Doctor said. "I think I told you that before."

Jack shrugged and got up. "Hey, can't blame a guy for trying." He offer Ruby his hand. "It was nice to meet you." He told her, before walking of into the bar.

Ruby smiled after him. "I liked him. Perhaps a little too horny, but he was nice." She said, yawning again. "Mm, sorry." The Doctor waved it away. "I'll take you two home now." He said, standing up. Ruby slipped her arms around Petrushka, and followed the Doctor out of the restaurant.

The rest of the way home, Ruby was subjected to system of a down, panic at the disco and other music that was loved by teenagers over a decade before.

"Well, I look like a teenager, I might as well act like one." Was the only explanation she got.

They weren't too far from her front door when they landed.

Ruby looked up at the building. "Everything is put to right, is it?" She asked. "Yep." He answered, stepping out of the Tardis as well. Ruby turned to him. "I'm never going to see you again, am I?" She asked, holding a sleeping Petrushka.

The Doctor pursed his lips and shook his head. "I can't." He told her, his throat tight with emotion. "I can't keep doing this; it's too hard to say good bye. Oh, and the lives I've destroyed by by being selfish. I can't." He gulped back the lump in his throat. "Y'know, after you found my closet, the one thing I wanted more than anything else was to make you smile, or laugh. That's all. I just wanted that one thing, and look what happened to you."

Ruby hugged him, and because she was taller than him, she gave him a kiss on the forehead.

"You also saved me twice. Remember that." She told him. "But I'll let you go. Good bye. I hope for all the best for you." She waved at him, and he jerked his chin towards the apartment. "Go on, go home." He said. The Doctor waited until she took a few steps away, before going into the Tardis, and slamming the doors closed.

Ruby turned and watched it disappear into nothing, then walked slowly up to the front door.

The Doctor shot through time and space to his favourite spot. Or at least, it used to be his favourite spot.

The radio was still on, but all he got was static. The Doctor marched over to it and snapped it off. He stared at it a moment before turning it back on, tuning it to a particular station.

"...Quest for a certain boy I met along time ago. He told me that radio waves travel forever, so I hope that one day he gets this." 'Come away with me' began to play softly.

This was the second time that he'd heard this same broadcast, but this time, it meant something.

The Doctor sighed, and glanced at his console...