Day of the Moon-Part One
Three months later...
They hold hands as they run.
There's a dam up ahead, Glen Canyon Dam-according to the sign, anyway, somewhere in Arizona-and Amy glances over at Rory. A second of silent communication passes between the two of them, then Amy speaks.
"No new tally marks?"
Rory looks down at his arms. "None."
"We safe to make a run for it?"
Ragged, scruffy, face and arms and face covered with tally marks, Rory looks both ways, then nods. "Three, two, one, now!"
Flying from cover, husband and wife sprint from cover, reaching midway across the dam before the first four-wheel-drive bursts out, cutting across their path. Another vehicle emerges behind them, trapping them against the edge of the dam.
"Canton," Amy says as the man steps forward. "Do you even know why you're doing this? Do you even remember the warehouse?"
Canton motions the men out of the jeeps. They carry a pair of-
"Are those body bags?"
"Yes, it is, Mrs. Pond." He grins.
"They're empty."
"How about that?"
They still don't shoot.
"What are you waiting for?" Rory asks.
Canton smirks. "For you to run. It'd look better if I shot you while you're running." He cocks his head, as though considering. "Then again, looks aren't everything."
His gun flashes twice.
~o*o~
River Song lifts the skirt of her evening dress and runs through the unfinished skyscraper, a hunted look in her wide eyes. She freezes, suddenly.
"I see you," she shouts, fumbling with the Sharpie hanging around her neck, marking two more lines on a tally-covered arm. "I see you."
"Doctor Song? Doctor Song? Go, go, go!" Canton's voice floats through the skyscraper, and River whirls and runs again.
They catch her at an open wall.
"Don't move! It's over," Canton says, aiming his gun at her.
"They're here, Canton. They're everywhere." River backs up as far as she can.
"I know," he answers. "America's being invaded."
She shakes her head. "You were invaded a long time ago. America is occupied."
"You're coming with us, Doctor Song. There's no way out this time."
River laughs. "One thing I've learned from the Doctor, Canton-always stand near a door." She smirks. "There's always a way out."
With a wink and another laugh, she leans backwards and falls.
~o*o~
Arkytior knows it's over.
She's evaded them for a long time, searching for the Silence, marking them on her skin, and she'll never be able to look at a tally mark the same way again-but it's over, now. They're coming. The salt water pools about her emerald Converse, soaking her feet, grains of sand washing in through the eyelets. She stands, stares out over the California ocean, the waves stained crimson and orange and gold and rose by the setting sun.
"It's over, Dreamer."
She turns, sunlight glowing behind her, turning her hair to molten flame. "You'll have to shoot me a few more times than you're expecting," she says casually, looking from the gun aimed at her chest to the empty body bag beside Canton on the sand.
"As many rounds as it takes," Canton returns. "If you try to run, my men will cut you off."
"I'm not going to run."
"So be it. Never can be sure, you know. Looks can be deceiving."
The gunshot cracks through the air, and Arkytior smiles.
~o*o~
The Doctor sits, shackled and bound in a straightjacket, watching the walls of zero balance dwarf star alloy-the densest material in the universe-rise around him. The perfect prison. It's nearly completed, now, with only the door remaining-Canton will be coming soon.
As though the thought's a summons, the ex-FBI agent appears in the doorway right then, dragging body bags. Three of them.
"Is there a reason you're doing this?" the Doctor asks, refusing to look at the body bags.
"I want you to know where you stand," Canton answers, pulling the last body bag inside the door.
"In a cell."
"In the perfect cell," Canton corrects. "Nothing can penetrate these walls. Not a sound, not a radio wave, not the tiniest particle of anything." The soldiers standing guard outside leave, and Canton seals the door-and the facade cracks, a grin spreading across his face. "In here, you're literally cut off from the rest of the universe. So, I guess they can't hear us, right?"
The Doctor grins. "Good work, Canton. Door sealed?"
"You bet."
Laughing, the Time Lord stands, the shackles snapping off and the straightjacket releasing easily. The body bags sit upright, unzipping. Rory climbs out first.
"You know, these things could really use some air holes."
Canton chuckles. "I've never had a complaint before."
"Why am I not surprised?" Arkytior mutters, kicking the bag off her salt-stained shoes. "Dead men tell no tales, after all."
"Are you all okay?" the Doctor asks, leaning back against an invisible wall. With a snap of his fingers, the air shimmers and the TARDIS's interior appears.
Amy frowns at Canton. "Isn't it going to look odd that you're staying in here with us?"
Canton shrugs. "Odd, but not alarming. They know there's no way out of this place."
"Whatever we're doing, we aren't going anywhere," Arkytior agrees.
The Doctor slides around the corner he's leaning against, stepping halfway inside the invisible TARDIS doors. "Shall we?"
As they file into the TARDIS, Canton asks, "What about Doctor Song? She dove off a rooftop."
"Oh, don't worry," the Doctor says with a shrug, bouncing around the console. "She does that. Amy, Rory, open all doors to the swimming pool."
Arkytior is the last to enter, closing the doors behind her and making her way to the console to help the Doctor. "I'd get out of the way," she says to Canton as she passes. "The gravity's about to get weird."
The TARDIS materializes, the doors open, and River Song sails through in a perfect dive.
There's a splash. The next second, the doors are closed and the TARDIS is back in the Vortex again, and a moment later River comes into the console room in dry clothes with her Vortex manipulator strapped around her wrist and the tally marks washed off.
"So," the Doctor says after they're all gathered around the console, "we know they're everywhere. Not just a landing party, but an occupying force, and they've been here a very very long time. But nobody knows that, because nobody can remember them."
"So what are they up to?" Canton asks.
"That's what we're trying to find out," Arkytior answers.
"The good news," the Doctor adds, "is that we've got a secret weapon." He grins brightly. "Neil Armstrong's foot."
~o*o~
"I can deal with Apollo 11," Arkytior murmurs to the Doctor. "You go with Canton and Amy, I'll take River and Rory. You know I'm better at blending in than you are."
He starts to object, but she cuts him off. "Theta, I'm a scientist. Please?"
A second passes, then he sighs. "Fine then." Louder, walking towards Rory: "So, three months! What have we learned?"
Rory opens his mouth to answer, but the Doctor grabs his hand and injects something into it. "Ouch!" He shakes his hand, frowning, then shrugs. "Well, they're everywhere. Every state in America."
Canton's next, and he yelps. The Doctor ignores him, moves on to Amy, still talking. "Not just America. The entire world."
"There's a greater concentration here, though," River says as he gives Amy the shot.
"Ouch," Amy mutters.
"So you've seen them, but you don't remember them?" Canton asks.
"You've seen them too," Arkytior reminds him. "At the warehouse, remember?"
"While you pretended to hunt us down, we saw hundreds of them." River sighs, shakes her head. "We still have no idea what they look like."
"It's like they edit themselves out of your memory, the second you look away," Rory explains. "The exact second you look away, you forget they exist."
"So that's why you marked your skin," Canton realizes.
Amy nods. "It was the only way we'd know if we'd had an encounter." She frowns. "Sometimes you feel a bit sick afterwards, but not always."
"How long have they been here?" Canton asks.
"That's what we've spent the last three months trying to find out." Arkytior sighs. "It's not easy when you can't remember anything."
"How long do you think?" Canton persists.
"As long as there's been something in the corner of your eye," the Doctor begins, voice low, "or creaking in your house, or breathing under your bed, or voices through a wall." He meets everyone's eyes, one at a time, hard and dark and intense. "And they've been running your lives for a very long time now, so keep this straight in your head. We are not fighting an alien invasion. We're leading a revolution." A breath, steel in his eyes and ice in his voice. "And today, the battle begins."
"How?" Canton's voice shivers with a tinge of fear.
"Like this," and the Doctor grabs River's hand first, injecting it, then Arkytior's.
River hisses and shakes her hand, and Arkytior winces.
"Nanorecorder," he says, laughing. "Fuses with the cartilage in your hand." He pauses, injects his own palm. "Ow. It tunes itself directly to the speech centers in your brain. It'll pick up your voice no matter what."
Arkytior looks at her palm curiously. "Telepathic connection?" she guesses.
"Yep!" He beams. "The moment you see one of the creatures, you activate it, and describe aloud exactly what you're seeing."
"And describe aloud exactly what you're seeing," echoes around the console room.
"Because," the Doctor continues, "the moment you break contact, you'll forget the encounter ever happened. The light will flash if you've left yourself a message. You keep checking your hand. If you've had an encounter, that's the first you'll know about it."
Canton shakes his head and sighs. "Why didn't you tell me this before we started?"
"We did," Arkytior says. "Even information about the creatures erases itself over time. None of us could talk to you, so we couldn't keep it fresh in your mind."
Canton looks away, a moment later turning and straightening the Doctor's bow tie. He frowns when he sees everyone watching him. "What? What are you staring at?"
"Look at your hand," Arkytior says, exchanging an amused glance with River.
In the center of Canton's palm, a little red light is flashing. "Why is it doing that?" he asks, fascinated.
The Doctor sighs. "What does it mean if the light's flashing? What did we just tell you?"
A frown. "I haven't-"
"Play it," River says.
"My God, how did it get in here?"
"Keep eye contact with the creature, and when I say, turn back and straighten my bow tie."
"What? What are you staring at?"
"Look at your hand."
An image stands in front of the TARDIS doors. "It's a hologram," the Doctor explains. "Extrapolated from a photo Amy took on her phone. Take a good, long look."
Arkytior stares at it, commits it to memory-
She must've been staring at the door for a reason-hang on, Canton's palm was flashing.
"You just saw an image of one of the creatures we're fighting," the Doctor says after a moment. "Describe it to me."
Canton shakes his head. "I can't."
The Doctor shrugs. "Neither can I. None of us can. You straightened my bow tie because I planted the idea in your head while you were looking at the creature."
"So they could do that to people," Amy says slowly. "You could be doing stuff and not really knowing why you're doing it."
Rory's eyes widen. "Like post-hypnotic suggestion."
"Ruling the world with post-hypnotic suggestion?" Amy asks, skeptical.
"Now then, a little girl in a spacesuit," the Doctor says. "They got the suit from NASA, but where did they get the girl?"
(helpmehelpmepleasehelpme and the gun kicks back and the sound of shattering glass and)
(and a high-pitched scream)
"Arkytior?" he asks softly, breaking into her memory.
"Sorry." She looks around. "Find the little girl, right? Orphanages near the warehouse. I'm going to NASA-River, Rory, you're with me. Kind of. Theta, a lift?"
~o*o~
This is definitely a Bad Idea.
The Doctor eyes the walls warily, taking note of the messages scrawled on them.
Get Out Leave Now
Leave Me Alone
Get Out Now
Very Not Good.
Canton is following Dr. Renfrew to the older man's office, and the Doctor had been intending to go with them; the writing on the walls, however, makes him ever-more unsure about letting Amy explore by herself.
"Canton, I'm going to go with Amy. Yell if you need help." He lifts his palm. "Don't forget to check."
Canton nods. "Be careful."
The Doctor follows behind Amy, turns the opposite direction down the hallway. He ducks inside the first room, scans the dormitory, shrugs, goes to leave. When he lifts his hand to open the door the blinking red light in his palm catches his attention.
"They're everywhere. Sleeping. Get Amy, get Canton, get out before they wake up."
His arms are covered in tally marks.
He leaves the room quickly, quietly, runs down the hallway. There's a door open partway down and he ducks in, sees Amy looking at a picture.
"Come along, Pond," he says, voice low. "I've seen what I need to."
"Doctor," Amy says, turns, holds out the picture. "Look at this."
A young girl with wide blue-green eyes, dark hair, and a shy smile stares at the camera.
"It's the little girl," the Doctor says, surprised. "From the suit."
Amy nods. "But, Doctor, look at-"
She freezes, drops the picture, jumping at the sound of the glass shattering. Her eyes are focused over his shoulder, and he turns slowly, backing away from the door.
It's the spaceman.
"Help me. Please, help me," and the little girl lifts the visor and stares out at them with an anguished expression on her small face. The glass is cracked, lines spiderwebbing across the entire window, a round depression to show where the bullet hit-had the glass not withstood the impact, the bullet would've hit in the direct center of the girl's forehead. An instant kill-shot.
"We're sorry we shot at you," the Doctor tries quietly. "There was a misunderstanding, she didn't mean to shoot you."
"What's your name?" Amy asks.
The little girl hesitates, then whispers, "Aria."
"That's a lovely name," the Doctor says with a smile. "Right, Aria, let's get you out of that suit."
Aria stares at him, as though trying to decide if she can trust him, and there's something about her that's… almost familiar. Her timeline spirals into the future, even more vague than it should be, vague enough to be almost invisible, familiar yet twisted-upside down, inside out-and then he feels movement in the hallway beyond and the moment shatters beyond repair.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Aria wails, and then two figures enter the room behind her.
In Renfrew's office, Canton hears screams.