Chapter 4

The Top five left Atheyr alone with the other minions. Atheyr didn't bother to remember their names, they didn't speak to him and they ignored him. So Atheyr ignored them back. Atheyr considered his options for escape. But for him to try to leave the only thing keeping him stabilized would be suicide. He supposed if he had the time and not fifteen human scientists and four guards watching the exits, he might have the chance and the time to rig up a converter. It would help him to absorb the residual Artron Energy in the room, that way it would keep him going for a while.

But there was no way of knowing how long that would keep him going. He still had to figure out how to get off the island. Which led him to the notion of just staying put. The scientists wanted him stable, just as much as he did. So they would get him what he needed. Get him where he needed, like Cardiff, Wales. Atheyr was sure, staying put was his best option of stabilizing and escaping the island. He just had to be patient. Atheyr hated waiting, well, the Doctor hated it, but Atheyr was quickly deciding that so did he.

"Waiting is for wimps" He muttered under his voice.

His head jerked up when RoaneG, RoaneB, Franklin and Claude returned. RoaneB nicked his sonic without even saying a word.

"Oi! That's mine."

"I'll hold onto it, keep it safe for you."

"Ah, I think it would safest in my pockets."

"Well see that's the problem right there." RoaneB went on, "We're going to need your pockets."

"What?"

"He means your clothes." RoaneG explained, "We're ready to transport you, but we aren't taking any risks, if you start to lose your shape, we don't want to be trying to pick flesh out of cotton. Its just a precaution."

He didn't like the idea of submitting to them, but the were right. Transportation was tricky business and Atheyr would rather not become fused with cotton so he answered with a,"Very well." and stripped. They hustled him back into the cubical. Franklin fiddled with the computers and levers attached to his cage and suddenly he felt a shift from within the cage.

"What are you doing?"

Franklin didn't answer him but RoaneG put her hand onto the glass, "We're pumping the Residual Artron Energy into your cubical so it can come with us. We aren't going to take any risks with you."

Atheyr couldn't tell if that brought him comfort or fear. But it was a good idea.

"You should lay down and be as still as you can, there may be some jostling." RoaneG didn't move until he complied. His hearts raced when a white sheet was pulled over his cage and again his mind flashed back to the Pandorica. The Autons forced him into that chair and metal cuffs clamped over his wrists forcing him in place. The Pandorica had everything and he couldn't even escape it by death.

Atheyr shook himself. This was not the same thing, it was just a white sheet stopping him from seeing his surroundings, not several feet of metal. And this time he wasn't restrained, that was an improvement. But still the sheet over his cage only improved the reflection of his panicked expression. Another plus, Atheyr could send his senses out. He could close his eyes and reach out with his mind. He could feel the others in the hover-copter.

Atheyr reached out toward RoaneG, but he was met with a white brick wall. He didn't bother pushing any further, she would notice. RoaneB had a similar barrier, and he couldn't even detect Dr. Roane. Atheyr skipped over Claude, he didn't want to expose himself to Claude's subconscious, without even running around in his head, the man's sick-twisted nature seeped from his entire being. Franklin was easier to reach out to and he didn't have a barrier.

But only after a moment of listening in on his subconscious Atheyr pulled back. His stomach rolled and suddenly he regretted his tea and Jammy dodgers. Not only that but he could feel the Residual Artron Energy shift and lessen. Atheyr pushed the palm of his hand against his suddenly aching head. He should not have done it. The only thing keeping him as him was the Artron Energy, and now he's used some of it up. It wasn't worth the knowledge he pulled from Franklin's mind. All Atheyr could get out of him were violent images. Pain and despair and the image of a little blond-haired girl, Atheyr really didn't want to know. But he had the feeling that Franklin was here against his will.

Atheyr jerked awake, he hadn't realized he had fallen asleep. He sat up, but found he was still en-caged. Of course he was still in the cage, if he left it now he would melt. He winced at the throbbing in his head, it was ultimately worse than before. He tried to ignore it by taking in his surroundings, which do him little good, the sheet still covered the cage. He could tell that his cage had been grounded, so they must have arrived in Cardiff. Must have...but then again, proximity to the rift would have him partially stabilized outside the cage...

Atheyr sucked in a breath and held it when he saw the shadows and silhouettes moving around, and he could hear footsteps. He couldn't sense RoaneG's familiar footsteps and that made him nervous. The sheet move on one side and suddenly flipped up. A man in a white lab coat peered in. He had an id tag and Atheyr learned his name was Martin.

"Wow." Martin breathed, his breath fogged a section of the glass and Atheyr glared. Martin smirked, "It's perfect."

Atheyr pushed himself back away from Martin and the side he had lifted up. But movement caught the corner of his eye and the sheet on the wall behind him lifted up. Another man peered in, the name on his id read Lafreniere.

"Flesh, but Time Lord." Lafreniere spoke.

"You know, now that we have it's molecular structure blueprints, we could make copies...?" Martin suggested. Atheyr turned to look at Martin nervously, but had to turn his head back to Lafreniere.

"Heh, one for you and one for me." Lafreniere winked at Atheyr.

Atheyr's guts twisted and his head continued to pound in beat with his racing hearts.

A hissing sound had Atheyr looking back at Martin, his eyes widened as he watched Martin fiddle with the computers. "Leave that alone!"

"Oh, it speaks?" Lafreniere said with faux surprise.

"And what are you going to do to stop me?" Martin asked with a dark smile. He hit another button and that side of the cage pulled open. Atheyr pushed himself as far as he could into the back of his cube. Luckily it was large enough for him to lay down in it, however Martin was very, very keen to get his hands on Atheyr and he climbed in after him. Suddenly the wall on his back gave out and opened. Atheyr fell backwards onto foreign hands as they roughly pulled him out of the sanctuary of his pale cage.

Atheyr tried to scramble away from the men, but his movements were sluggish. The air burned his skin and he looked at his hands, the milky white had returned. He was reverting back. The two men cornered him. Atheyr struggled to get air into his lungs and his hearts felt like they were shriveling up.

"Please, I'll die, please stop." Atheyr begged, but they only smiled cruelly. They reached out for him and grabbed his arms. Atheyr clenched his eyes closed and screamed in agony. Their skin felt like red hot metal against his flesh. His nerve endings were slowly rising to the surface of his skin, making contact with rough hands and a violent atmosphere that seemed to be on fire.

Suddenly feeling lighter, Atheyr opened his eyes, the men were holding him, but not all of him. Atheyr looked on in horror as his fingers dissolved into droplets of flesh that fell to the floor. Atheyr was being held up and he could see that his left leg had separated from his body. Atheyr screamed again in half agony and half in fear. The two men weren't having nearly as much fun as they were and they had looks of disgust painted on their faces.

Atheyr couldn't keep his head lifted any more, his tormentors thought something similar as Atheyr saw the floor rush up the meet him. Atheyr tried to pull himself forward towards the cage. But the nerve endings that were once on fire were suddenly numb and he couldn't move. His lungs collapsed and his hearts had become embryonic. He didn't have long.

It was hard to hear anything beyond the rushing and static that buzzed in his ears, but he could detect Lafreniere and Martin moving away. His vision blurred and tried to refocus. Not long now and he would be just a puddle of gunge once more. His eyelids started to close.

A spark of gold shimmered passed, reminding Atheyr of regeneration energy. But he wouldn't regenerate now. Atheyr wasn't a Time Lord now, just gunge. But his eyes tracked the shimmering.

A golden-haired girl watched him from across the room. She had pale skin and mismatched eyes. The left eye was blue and the right eye, green. She had a sympathetic expression. She reached out to a panel on the wall. She closed her eyes as her hand pressed against the electronics. Sparks flew, but a shrill alarm screeched. Atheyr held on to the image of the girl as long as he could. But his eyeballs sunk into his head as he melted.

A horrible wet gasp ripped through his body. Pain exploded around him, in him, through him. He shivered and burned...and all at once he sat up. He could hear, see, smell and sense time. He was in his cubicle. The remains of the residual Artron Energy swirled around him, keeping him alive, just barely. The reflection of himself in his glass prison revealed his fleshy form, the milky wet, rubbery flesh and pale eyes, but he was together, one piece again.

He struggled with the his second gasp for air, but by his third wheeze he managed a clean cough as his lungs temporarily stabilized. His head throbbed and the residual Artron Energies in his cubical were extremely low. He had minutes left before he would melt again and that wasn't fair. The sheet had been removed from his cubical and Atheyr could get a bit of a look around beyond his glass. It was a basic lab with his cubical propped up a bit higher than he was used to. On the far side of the wall there was a large mirror. But Atheyr knew better, it was a two-way. And he knew he was being watched.

Atheyr jumped when a door opened, but relief flooded him when he saw RoaneG. That was wrong, because she was a part of this group and organization that had brought him back and he knew. He knew that they had something terrible planned for him, once he was properly stable.

RoaneG had a warm smile on her face and she carried an object in her hand. Atheyr's eyebrows pulled together in confusion. It was a rectangular silver box with wires and little lights.

"Working with you has been an honor." She told him. "I only wish it didn't have to end so soon." She muttered under her voice.

"RoaneG, where did you get that?" He asked her, but she didn't answer. She pulled out of the silver box a glass syringe, filled with a shimmering silvery blue liquid. Atheyr froze at the sight of it.

"Where did you get that?" Atheyr found himself repeating. But he couldn't help it. RoaneG had some how managed to get her hands on Time Lord technology. But it was worse than that. Because Atheyr knew what was in the syringe.

RoaneG opened a small panel on the side of the glass cage. She put her hand through it and held it out to Atheyr. "Let me have your arm." Atheyr hesitated. "If you don't want to melt, then you need this." She held in her other hand the syringe.

"That's Artron Energy..."

"Yes, pure Artron Energy."

"Where did you get that?"

"It doesn't matter. We have minutes before we lose you. So please, give me your arm."

She was right and there wasn't a thing Atheyr could do. So he held out his arm and winced when she stuck him with the needle. His breath hitched as the life giving energy flooded his veins. The Artron energy, in its purest form raced through him and warmed him. Atheyr watched his reflection the glass change back. Back to the Doctor's face and the milky white flesh vanished, forever.

Atheyr gasped and choked on the new energy and struggled to breathe. He could have sworn he heard cheers and an applause. Atheyr winced at the needle pulled back, but after blinking a few times, he found his headache gone and strong Time Lord organs functioning properly. RoaneG had done it. She had stabilized him. But he shivered, knowing that it only meant he would soon find out why they had bothered.