Notes: I hope you don't fine this chapter too tedious, as it's over twice the length of the last and it has a fair amount of explanation due to the main aliens of the story being introduced. Because I created the species, I make sure to include a lot of creatures from the show (new and classic) whenever I can, so hopefully you enjoy :)


Chapter Two

Amy couldn't have been gone more than ten seconds when the hover-truck burst through a bush on the opposite side. It was a clean white colour with black rounded edges, making it look like an apple computer that had been converted to a vehicle. Hovering about a metre off the ground, it stayed fairly level for floating in the air. It was made of two parts like any truck: the front for the driver and passengers and the back for cargo. A tarp covered whatever items were in the back, but the jagged points sticking out made them seem cubical.

When the front doors of the vehicle slid open sideways and two aliens sauntered out the Doctor's fear was confirmed as to who they were.

They were humanoid, but with a a few differences. They seemed to be taller than the average human, both nearing seven feet and their heads looked as though had been stretched out more than most people. Their skin had a greyish tint to it. Each were wearing a blue jumpsuit sort of clothing that the Doctor presumed to be a uniform. Their hair was completely opposite one another: one black as night and the other a bleached blonde. The lighter haired person seemed to have a smaller build and longer hair pulled up in a ponytail, so the Doctor assumed she was a girl.

'Hello there!' the Doctor called down to them as they approached. 'Lovely day isn't it? Bit nippy up here, not that I'm complaining. Actually, I'm complaining a bit. Mind giving me a hand down?' He flashed them the biggest smile he could muster.

'How surprising... seems to be a Speakie,' the blonde said.

'That is odd,' said the one with black hair. 'Our records state their would not be life capable of language for at least another few million years.'

They were right, of course. The Doctor hadn't noticed until he'd been there for a while but it was clear after exploring somewhat with him and Amy's hike that TARDIS had not only gotten the location wrong, but the time period.

'Yes, this would be the... Cenozoic period, I believe.' said the Doctor. Thinking about the creatures that made up that time period, he was hoping Amy wouldn't run into any of them on her way to the TARDIS.

The girl had obviously heard him, as she stared up with puzzlement. But she spoke as if she was just observing. 'Surprising knowledge of our language and aware of the time period.'

The man below him reached a hand into the side of his suit and pulled out a small circular remote. After pressing the device to the tree, the Doctor felt his stomach lurch as the cage dropped to the ground. It hit the rainforest floor with a thud, and the Doctor was soon pulled out as the as the aliens began to direct him toward the hover-truck.

'I take it you're not here for the beach, then?' The Doctor asked cheerfully, seeming not to mind the two dragging him by his upper arms.

Rheia's bright blue eyes regarded him with boredom. 'We're here to collect specimen for testing on our planet.'

'Yes, I thought it may be something like that, judging by the traps. But to be honest I'm surprised you are even bothering with humans; I figured that you'd had enough of them. Not that I'm human, but I'm assuming that's what you thought, '

'We actually don't have much experience on our planet with humans,' Black Hair explained. 'This is the first time in many years that we have been allowed a visit to earth. Many species on our planet are descendants of crossbreed-

'Be quiet, Milo,' Rheia interrupted as the reached the truck. 'We are here to procure specimen for the lab, not explain our planet's history to a Speakie.'

She took the tarp off the back of the truck to reveal glowing blue cages full of different animals from the time period. A sabre-toothed cat, pre-historic horse, and some kind of fur covered pig were just some along with many smaller boxes that looked like they held dirt samples or insects. In front of the full cages were many tiny, empty blue cubes.

'I do know some things already,' the Doctor chimed in as he studied the scene. 'You Versutians value intelligence, correct? Well, I know I may not look it, but I'm quite clever! Not even human actually, a Time Lord.'

'A Time Lord? That is... doubtful,' Rheia said as she rearranged some of the boxes.

'If you give me a chance to prove it to you, I'm sure we can write this off as a misunderstanding.' The Doctor attempted a double handed thumbs up, but it got somewhat lost from Milo clinging to his arms.

'How did you know where we are from?' asked Milo.

Rheia rolled her eyes at her companion. She then picked up a blue cube from the truck and threw it to the ground, where it grew to the size of large dog cage.

'It's your gadgets, overall demeanour, and of course your colouring. I mean you are descended from Inter Minorians, so you still have that grey skin thing going for you. But the black and blonde hair of course sets you apart from them, went off to your own planet with lots of electro-magnetic technology that separates you so much you've evolved into a completely different species! Plus, like I said, I'm clever. I know you guys think you're all that and what not, but going to other planets and kidnapping sentient beings? C'mon, let's be a bit better than that!'

Rheia shook her head with annoyance and looked to Milo. 'Enough of this, just get him in the truck. If he is truly above a level five intelligence he will be released soon enough.'

'Level five?' The Doctor exclaimed, obviously bothered. 'I thought at the most you would have the audacity to test on level threes, but five? Your own intelligence level can't be that much higher.'

But the Doctor said all of this in vain as the two just plopped him in the blue cage they set up for him. Rheia pressed the Doctor's box up against the sabre-toothed cat's, who he was sure if he got close enough to, would have no problem getting a good swipe in at him through the gelatinous bars.

Rheia and Milo headed for the front of the truck, but Milo grabbed her arm.

'What if he really is not human? What if he is over level five?' Milo asked.

'Um, then he gets to leave, obviously.'

'But he mentioned humans... perhaps there are some here! We could have gotten it wrong.'

'They dropped us off in an area not known to have humans for a reason; they want us to focus on the even lesser creatures first.'

'But we are so close. They never said we could not bring them back if they were encountered. It is at least worth a check, right? If not, we can just take what we have.' He shrugged.

'Alright,' Rheia replied, then turned toward the truck. 'Luna, come!'

A rat-like creature the size of a Corgi sprang out of the truck, growling. Her grey fur was long all around her and she had a coarse tail was half the length of her body. Curved spikes moved up and down on top of her head and she had bat-like ears. A white collar that was barely visible hung around her neck through all the fur.

'A Stigorax...' the Doctor whispered, eyes wide. He knew what good hunters they were. Smart creatures, but ruthless.

Luna crawled right up to Rheia. She looked down on her. 'See if you can pick up the scent of a creature we haven't already encountered on this guy, then sniff around and see what comes up.'

The Stigorax nodded, and after sticking her nose into what the Doctor would have definitely thought of as his personal space, she frantically began searching the area. She made such a loud growling noise as she sniffed that the Doctor was surprised he hadn't heard her in the truck earlier.

When she got to the spot Amy had stood for most of the few minutes she'd been there, the creature stopped and looked to her master. She rasped out only a slightly different noise, but it somehow sounded triumphant.

Rheia smirked. 'Good. Go get it.'

The creature made a few more growling noises and ran off into the woods, right in the direction of the TARDIS.

'No!' the Doctor screamed desperately, clinging to the bars. 'Stigorax are ruthless, she'll kill her!'

'This is interesting,' said Rheia. 'Luna would not have registered the human's scent if you were not a different species. Also you claim to be of higher intelligence, is this human your pet?

'I do not keep people as pets,' the Doctor replied angrily, but his face quickly turned to pleading when he looked back at Rheia. 'Please, I'm begging you, call it off.'

Rheia approached the Doctor and looked him straight in the face. 'I think I know my pet better than you do. Luna will track and herd, that is all. She knows what will happen if she doesn't...'

'She sounds more like a slave than your pet, then,' the Doctor hissed.

Rheia seemed agitated by the comment. 'If you think I treat her insufficiently you know less about my planet than you thought.'


Amy's heart burned in her chest as her long legs darted over the uneven jungle ground. She had started running at a full sprint but was losing steam now that her initial adrenaline seemed to run down. She was determined to keep up a good pace, though, the Doctor wouldn't tell her to 'run' without a good reason. OK, so he did say it often, but that didn't mean it was ever without a good reason.

She wondered if she'd made the right decision leaving him there. He had made it seem that, because he was a Time Lord, they would let him go but wouldn't let her because she was a human. She hoped that was true and he wasn't just making it up to get her to leave. She banished the thought that he wouldn't be able to get away. He would meet her in the TARDIS soon.

Amy reached the forest edge and ran onto the beach, silently thanking herself for choosing, for once, trousers over the mini-skirt.

That's when she heard the growls.

Oh great, she thought. The Doctor's been captured by some aliens and some jungle cat is coming to eat you. Forcing herself to glance back, she turned around and saw the menacing giant rat creature.

'Ok, so not a tiger, but not much better!' she huffed.

Common sense was telling her she'd never outrun the creature, but she willed the thought away and ran as hard as she could. The sand didn't help and she hoped it would be causing the creature the same amount of difficulty.

Unfortunately, this didn't seem to be the case as she learnt from a glance behind her that the creature was rapidly gaining. But when she whipped her head back around she saw it: The TARDIS.

She was so close. She had to run harder. Despite her chest threatening to explode, she didn't even know if her legs could carry her any faster.

Then the creature was on her.

It had leapt onto Amy's back and pushed her into the ground. She gasped for breath, trying to lift her face from the sand but the thing seemed intent on keeping her head down. Clawing at it with her hands left it un-phased, no matter how much fur she pulled. She tried to kick it but her legs were too far away and she couldn't flip her body over with the thing on top of her. The creature's growls filled Amy's ear and she felt saliva drip onto the back of her neck.

She closed her eyes, waiting for it to bite down. But it never did. Eventually she opened her eyes. The creature's rat-looking head was right by hers and it kept it's teeth bared. When Amy tried to lift her head it snapped at her, so she stayed down.

They stayed like this for a few minutes, Amy feeling sand fill her lungs from her heavy breathing.

The sound of the hover-craft was faint at first, but the moment it broke the tree-line it filled Amy's ears. She was forced to close her eyes as sand whipped off the ground when it closed in. It wasn't as much as Amy may have anticipated form the machine, but the small sandstorm was big enough to have to shield her eyes.

The vehicle stopped just a few metres away and two figures came out. The thing on Amy's back remained in place as they approached, allowing Amy only to see their sand-dusted boots.

'Good girl, Luna,' a voice said. The moment she did Amy's captor released her. All Amy could see when she lifted her head was two silhouettes, the sun directly behind them. Before she could get herself up, one of them ducked down, grabbing her hair and forcing her off the ground.

Her hands instinctively rushed to her head and she let out a yelp as she was hulled up.

'Oh, she has a nice colour,' the man holding a fistful of her hair remarked.

'Let go of me!' Amy shouted as she struggled to get free. She kicked at them, but even when her legs hit they didn't seem troubled. She stopped moving for a moment and got a good look at their faces. They didn't seem to think much of the situation at all, both of them seemed passive. Also, she noticed, they were grey.

'Calm down, girl. You are going to be fine.'

'This one has to be human,' said the woman.

'What's that supposed to mean?' Amy demanded. At least she tried to sound demanding, but neither answered her.

'Put her in the back before she hurts herself, Milo,' said the woman. 'Come, Luna.'

The rat thing gave her one last growl before going to the front of the vehicle with her master.

'Yeah well, I've never liked Rodents of Unusual size!' she called after it, just before being guided toward the back. She saw all the cages, including one with the Doctor. His face brightened when he saw her, which she thought was strange given the circumstances.

'Amy, you're alive!' he exclaimed, getting up from his sitting position and onto his knees.

'Yeah, but I'm not so sure about this crowd you're hanging out with, these days.'

Milo reached down to pick up one of small blue cubes, pulling Amy's head down with him. She made a small noise of discomfort.

The Doctor's face turned dark. 'Oi, let her go!'

'If I do that she may run away,' Milo said simply as he threw the square onto the ground where it proceeded to grow larger.

'You better believe I'd run away!'

He opened the glowing door and pushed her inside. After landing on her side, she pushed herself up and propped up on the back of the cage. It shrank to just fit her inside. Milo picked the whole thing up with her inside and placed it on top of the sabre-toothed cat cage, with strength that surprised Amy. He finished securing the cage down and walked around to the passenger side of the truck.

'Do you still have the sonic?' The Doctor asked the moment the Versutian was gone.

'Yeah, right here,' she whispered, pulling it out and stretching her hand towards the Doctor. The sabre-tooth cat growled lowly for a small moment she was afraid it was going to grab her arm, but its head remained on the cage floor.

Amy's arm, sonic in hand, hung over the Doctor as he opened his hand. She dropped the sonic and he grabbed it, pulling it into his own cage and starting buzzing about.

'So I know I should probably be more concerned with some other happenings at the moment, such as being kidnapped by aliens and whatnot, but I'm pretty sure these animals aren't from 2010.'

'Ah, yes.' The Doctor didn't look up, but greeted Amy's question with enthusiasm. 'We're sort of... not in 2010. More like pre-historic times. And I'm pretty sure these particular aliens are from quite a distant future.'

'What?'

'Sixty seconds remaining before teleportation range,' an automated woman's voice rang out from the front of the truck, and Amy was reminded of the gravity of the situation.

'Doctor, you'd better hurry!'

'Don't worry Amy. I... am... done!' He finished the sentence and the door swung open. The Doctor crawled out. Keeping low so he didn't alert the Versutians, he began working on Amy's lock.

'Forty-five seconds remaining.'

The Doctor suddenly stopped his buzzing and began lowering the screwdriver. 'No...'

'Doctor? Why did you stop?' Amy asked, eyes wide.

'It's deadlocked,' he whispered.

'Meaning...?'

'Meaning the sonic won't be able to do anything.'

'Thirty seconds remaining.'

Amy gulped. 'It's... it's OK Doctor. It'll be fine. You know where they're going right?'

'No,' the Doctor said decidedly. 'I am not leaving you.'

'If you stay we'll both be trapped! You know where they are going?'

'Yes but-'

'20 Seconds remaining.'

'Then you can find me. It'll be a lot easier when one of us is free.'

'Amy, I know what planet they're going to and I can find out the year, but that's it. Problem being that planets are usually pretty big.'

'Oh, you'll figure it out, I know you will.' She smiled warmly, fighting back her fear.

The automated voice began a count down. 'Ten, Nine, eight...'

'I am not leaving, Amelia.'

Amy saw the Doctor about to go back in his cage. Panicking, she grabbed the collar of his shirt and pushed him off the truck.

The Doctor toppled into the sand, rolling to a stop. He looked up at the truck to see Amy trying hard to keep a smile on her face.

'Three, two, one.'

The Doctor watched the whole vehicle materialise into thin air.

Amy was gone.