Disclaimer: I would never have been that original with River Song. And I cried when I rewatched Silence in the Library...if I owned Doctor Who, I wouldn't be so crazed about it, would I?

Quick Note: Sorry, but I have been sick, and this has been put off until I could get well enough to think again. Which was today. I can't promise what the next chapter will be, since I need to figure out how long the story will be before I write any more, but it's finally coming together. Took me long enough, I know...

Note: Each chapter follows a different character. This one follows Rory Pond as he and the Doctor...well, as they continue running.


In the midst of the silence that seemed to hang over this maze-like compound could be heard the sound of footsteps. Running feet.

Over that sound came a loud roar. Almost as if a tornado had broken loose and was tearing the building up.

"Okay, okay, do we have to…" Rory started saying, before the Doctor grabbed his arm, tapped a wall, and pulled him through a newly opening door. "Why do we always have to run for our lives?"


"Because what's the fun of instant teleportation and time travel if you don't get a work out?" the Doctor called back, looking excited. Rory followed, for once not caring that the Time Lord was leading them apparently randomly, or that in each new room the light was already on, its reddish hue glaring down at them as the Doctor either patted the wall quickly or sonic-ed it to open.

They were running, and when you ran beside the Doctor, most other thoughts tend to disappear in the hurry.

Through a wallway, open a wallway, through a wallway, open a wallway, through a wallway…again and again. Rory lost count after so long; he wanted to argue, say that they were going the wrong way, remind the Doctor that they were just getting more and more lost, that he had a wife somewhere in here—but words left him as soon as they formed, lost in the wind that seemed to be on their heels, that had come from nowhere and would fade into nothing.

Just as a coherent thought formed in his mind, the Doctor stopped in the middle of a room. He spun around a few times, running his fingers through his hair. "Something's changed," he said, almost offhandedly. "What's changed? Rory?"

The companion blinked, looking over his shoulder. "Um…this room feels darker than the last few rooms?"

"No, no, that's a feeling. I want a fact. Sure, this room does feel darker, but it isn't…something else has changed to make us feel like that. What's changed?" The Doctor stared through the dark wallway behind them, as if trying to look through it.

Rory shrugged. "Um…well, it feels cooler."

"I said no feelings!"

"Right, right, facts. Er…maybe the pressure is less in this room than the last?"

"Worthless, you, being all touchy-feely and sciency…wait." The Doctor turned to face Rory. "Why do you say the pressure is different?"

He shrugged again. "I dunno; the room itself feels different—I know, no feelings, but still. I think…maybe…this room isn't smaller than the others, or larger, but it's colder, so unless the air conditioning has been turned up, it makes sense that the pressure is lower. Somehow?"

The Doctor lifted a finger, as if to test the wind, which was lightly blowing still. "Not pressure. Well, yes, pressure, but not really. Not our room's pressure, it hasn't changed; no, that room's." He pointed up. "See? Small holes…just barely. Relieving the pressure building up in whatever's up there."

Rory squinted, trying to avoid looking at the dim light. "There's a room above us as well? This place is multi-leveled?"

"It appears so…something up there is creating one heck of an air-displacement…there wasn't any wind in the other rooms."

"So…we're under a generator or something?"

The Doctor turned around, a mischievous glint in his eye. "Or it could be a giant, and we're feeling its exhales."

"Oh, thanks for that. Exactly what I needed to think of…giants in a place creepy enough," Rory said. The Doctor grinned slightly at the sarcasm.

"Don't be prejudiced…I've met nice giants before. Well…but that's beside the point. Maybe you're right; maybe it is a generator, a machine, up there. Or it could be the nesting area of our tentacled friend."

"Whatever it is, we're not being chased anymore."

The Time Lord nodded. "It never gets too close, those footsteps. No…that's not it. It got close once; otherwise, it just chases us into corners, egging us on."

Frowning, Rory looked at the black wallway, open behind them. "What…do you think there's two different sets of things following us?"

"Maybe," the Doctor muttered. He clapped his hands together; Rory flinched at the sudden noise. "Whatever it is, at least one thing here is playing us like lab rats in a maze. Scaring us to get us moving, putting us at different sections, and watching us struggle to find the prize."

"Prize?"

"Finding each other again, I'd assume."

"Hold on. Are you saying that it's…studying us?"

"Not for academic reasons; 'know one's enemy,' I'd say would be the phrase it'd use."

Rory frowned deeper. He motioned around him. "So…it, whatever 'it' may be, could kill us whenever it so desires?"

"Maybe." The Doctor has lost his grin; Rory had noticed a while ago that the Doctor was like whiplash, smiling one moment and glaring the next. "Maybe not. But no use standing around here! Come on! We're not going to be the rats."

"So…what are we going to do?"

"Find another way!"

"What…through ventilation shafts? Which are nonexistent here, by the way."

The Doctor looked at him, amused. "Not another way through. Another way to find Amy without getting even more lost."

"I thought you knew where you were going!" Rory exclaimed.

"Well, I can't do everything at once," the Doctor said, his voice going higher in pitch to almost a whine. "I got us away, didn't I?"

"But…" Rory shrugged, helplessly. "How can Amy stand you?"

"She doesn't. She's getting better at slapping, that's all. And don't you dare start on that too!"

Smiling, the Doctor turned around in a circle. "Hmmm…doors…walls…ways…there's something here, I know it!"
"What?"

"Oh, I don't know…wait, maybe I do. We could…but that's crazy."

"What is?"

The Doctor ran his fingers through his hair once again. "We go back the way we came."

Rory looked around; when no subservient thought entered his mind, he sighed. "Doctor, I don't see how that's crazy. It seems plenty logical to me."

"We'd be going back the way we came in…the way those footsteps were. See, we know there's a trap ahead; that's why we're being herded this way. But…but. Anything could be behind us, and…"

Rory squinted in the dim light. "Are you getting somewhere with this?" he interrupted.

The Doctor paused, his finger raised as if to help him declare something. Slowly, he put it down. "Okay, we'll head back! Happy?" he said crossly. A smile lit Rory's face briefly before both men turned around to face the dark wallway. "I guess I can't say ladies first, can I?"

"Sorry, but no." With that, Rory stepped through the door.


"Something's changed." A few rooms later, the Doctor's voice was the first to break the silence.

"What has?" Rory asked, frowning in the darkness. The way back was familiar, but not…the way walking up a full road is different than walking down an empty one.

"I'm not sure."

Rory rolled his eyes. "Stop doing that!"

"Doing what?" the Doctor asked, indignant.

"Saying something mysterious and then refusing to explain!"

"Oh. That. Sorry…it just sort of comes out…like a scream on a roller coaster. You just can't help it."

Rory sighed. He turned to the Doctor; where his voice was, at least. "Do you have any ideas, then?"

"Yes. No. Maybe." With that enigmatic statement, the Doctor took out his sonic screwdriver. He must have pressed a button; his hand became visible for a moment, the green light of the sonic outlining it as it emitted a high-pitched whining. Then, without a flicker, the room lit up as the light proceeded to turn on.

The room was different, was changed.

The light, above, wasn't old and dim. It was bright, a strong, new light in the rustic warehouse. It almost gave a bluish shine to the walls, as opposed to the red shine in previous rooms—in all other rooms until this one.

"New light…that's different…" the Doctor said, the sonic buzzing dying down. "So, why is there a new light?"

"Someone finally got enough money to pay for lightbulbs?" Rory asked, half-joking, half-hoping his answer was really that simple, and knowing it wouldn't be.

"Rory, in wartime Germany, when the German mark became basically worthless, people couldn't afford lightbulbs. So, instead, they'd go to their workplaces, and trade in a lightbulb there for a burned-out one. The work would go buy a new bulb, and the person would have effectively gotten a source of lighting."

The brunette waited a moment before responding. "Yeah, but…what does that have to do with this…?"

"I'm not sure. But it was a good story. Trade-offs…that's what's happening here, the wallways opening, the burnt-out lights…they're trade-offs. And…and…" The Doctor looked around for a moment. "We saw this place issuing out smoke…it's obviously some sort of furnace someplace…and the lights…the lights aren't just here for decoration. They're some sort of power-fueler."

"This thing," Rory started, when the Doctor paused for a breath, "it relies on senses, yes? That sound, those footsteps…the lights above…Doctor, are we still mice in a trap?"

"Yes, but we're mice that know that the easiest way through is by looking above," the alien stated. He started jumping. "Yep, above. Nothing good's below…I don't think so, at least…"

He raised the sonic screwdriver yet again, and buzzed it at the ceiling. The light flickered slightly, but then grew stronger and stronger, until it was almost blinding. And then…darkness.

But it wasn't the same darkness as had been in the room previously. There was light—above them, in the ceiling. No, above the ceiling.

"Hold on…so there is a room up there?" Rory asked, squinting. The ceiling had evaporated into a glass-like material; above, Rory could see a new set of lights and a white ceiling.

The Doctor grinned. "Yes, there is. Now, how about giving me a boost?" he asked, pointing at a hatch in the ceiling to the right…a hatch that hadn't been present in the actual lit room.