Morning came too soon. Harry felt as if he had just hit the pillow when the light came on and the Doctor's hand was on his shoulder. "C'mon," the Doctor muttered and Harry reluctantly sat up. He had a very bad taste in his mouth - he would never had thought it, but two days without brushing his teeth had taken their toll. He'd have thought that after more than six months of living on the run he'd have been used to it, but now he just felt guilty for not appreciating enough their old magical tent with its fully equipped bathroom.
The Doctor either guessed what he was thinking, or felt the same way himself. Either way, he rummaged the inside of his suit, and came up with a toothbrush. "Has peppermint on it," he said, and Harry passed the thing over his teeth. It had a surprisingly refreshing effect - he was still smelly and tired, but now he also felt fully awake.
They arrived at the mess hall about one minute after five, which earned them a dirty look from Noble. She seemed to be very tired and tense herself - and Harry couldn't blame her. If everything went according to plan, by the end of that day, she and her people would be free. He was a bit resentful that their small delay had earned them that look, considering they were the first ones in, but he let this pass. It was too early in the morning to argue, as the yawn he had just failed to stifle reminded them all. He wandered towards the cold buffet, looking for coffee. The Doctor joined him after a second - he had approached Noble and seemed to try and start one of his cheerful conversations, but Noble gave him a look that could kill lesser life-forms, and he soon gave up and walked sheepishly towards Harry.
"You need an off-switch," Harry commented through another yawn. The Doctor just smiled his big smile, and got a piece of toast. Harry couldn't even think of eating without getting nauseated.
Two minutes later, Manach and Polly showed up. As soon as they walked in, Noble rounded up on Polly. "Where's Marvin?" she demanded.
"Couldn't - " Polly yawned loudly - "Sorry, Noble. Couldn't wake him up."
Noble made a voice that sounded suspiciously like Professor McGonnagall when she was very unhappy about something. Polly followed Manach and joined them near the coffee.
"Well, we're not waiting for him," Noble said.
"Wh - what?" Polly turned to her, surprised. "C'mon, Noble, he'll wake up soon! You can't - "
"Yes, I can. We can't afford waiting. I told him yesterday, if he doesn't wake up we're going without him."
"Yeah, but - "
"But what?" she demanded, and it seemed Polly only now realised she was very serious.
"He wants to come," he said quietly, but even he didn't sound too convinced by it.
"Yeah, well, if he wanted to come so much, he'd have bothered waking up," she said coldly.
"Can we do it without him?"
"Yup." And that was it.
Outside the mess hall, Mayik, Dale, and some of Dale's men were waiting for them, standing next to the pile of time-turners. Dale handed them bags, and they started stuffing in the smaller time-turners, while the bigger ones would be carried by the Pacifists. The Doctor's brow furrowed for a moment, but when Harry asked what was wrong, he shrugged and dismissed it. "Thought we had thirty-six. Must have made a mistake while counting them last night," he said, but Harry wasn't quite sure he was being completely truthful. Despite the short period of time he had known the Doctor, he had come to expect this of him: the Doctor almost never outright lied, as far as he could tell, but he made no effort to let you know the truth. In this, much like with the apparent madness and the twinkle in the eyes, he reminded him of Albus Dumbledore.
But there was no time to question any of this further. They had finished packing the time-turners, and were off.
Harry expected climbing up the stairs to the bridge-network would be hard with the cargo of time-turners on their backs, but they felt lighter than they looked. Even the Pacifists, who were carrying the bigger ones, didn't seem to have any trouble at all. "They're connected to the Tardis," the Doctor explained. "Through the Huon particles. It... sort of takes care of the weight." Harry didn't quite understand what the Doctor meant, but that, too, wasn't that big of a surprise.
The climb was eventually over. Mayik opened the door, and they were out, blinking in the sunlight. The explosion of light had already happened - daylight was rushing into the dark stairs. He blinked a coupe of times as he followed the Doctor out into the bridge, his eyes struggling with the emerald reflections from the bridges as much as with the sudden brightness. When he got used to the all the light, he sneaked a glance downwards. There were no Daleks there. For now, they were safe.
Walking the bridges back seemed faster than it did the first time round. Harry wasn't quite sure whether this was tbecause Dale had taken them through some short cuts that were not known to them before, or because now he knew where they were going - he could see it in the distance, the same building in which they had spent their first night in the city.
As they got closer and closer to the beginning of the bridge network, the signs of Dalek activity became more and more pronounced. It wasn't just the fact that after a while, some Daleks could be seen below them on the city grounds and between the buildings. The bridges themselves must have been the same bridges the Daleks had searched the day before. Dale had stopped them at one time, to show them Dalek track marks on the bridge they were walking on. Another time, he pointed to a singed part of the handrail that looked like the result of Dalek weaponry.
They walked in silence. There was no banter this time, no jokes, nor any chit-chat. None of them dared talking, in fear the Daleks underneath might hear them and destroy their plans. And as they continued walking in silence, the tension seemed to grow and grow, and with it the fears. What if they were caught, what if the Daleks noticed them, what if they failed? The Doctor's warning from the night before came back to Harry's mind: the Daleks aren't going to wait for the chief Dalek to deal with them if they noticed the intruders, they would kill them on the spot. No last minute rescues due to their stupidity or greed. No repeated mistakes. And none of them would repeat Voldemort's mistake of underestimating love or humanity.
He shook his head and looked down again. There was no point in thinking about these things, it did nothing but nurture his fear and let it grow. It was best to concentrate on their mission - and trust the Doctor. This had not been the first time he'd dealt with the Daleks. A small voice in his head reminded him what he said the night before - his people might have lost their war with the Daleks, but they took them with them, and the Doctor, after all, survived.
They were going to be fine. He had to trust this. There was no other option. And hey, he told himself, after everything he had survived, it would be ridiculous to die in the future by the hand of aliens, of all things.
Eventually, they had arrived at the very first building. There were signs of Dalek activity everywhere there, too, and Harry was glad Manach had covered any signs of their presence. They didn't stay long there, though. Dale gestured towards the ladder, and they started the long climb downwards. Harry sneaked a look at Polly, but he didn't seem to have any trouble with his leg. Whatever the ointment Mayik had given him was, it must have worked.
Harry expected them to leave the ladder when they reached the ground level, but instead they kept on climbing downwards, straight into the tunnels. They led right into the Dalek tunnels where they had escaped the day before, Harry realised. And indeed, once inside the tunnels he could see it was the exact same kind of tunnels that connected eventually with Noble's theatre-camp. They must have been carved in the rock, because they had gone far lower than the ground level; but if they were, there was no sign of rock, mud, or earth in them. They were encompassed in steel panels, old wirings, and rotting machinery. Here, like the rest of the tunnels, everything seemed ancient and unused. Harry remembered the Doctor saying he travelled in them the last time he'd been on Messaline - which must have been thousands of years before, as he visited the planet before the Dalek invasion, before the building of the city, before the peace between Hath and humans.
Harry hoped the Doctor could remember it after all these years. For him, the tunnels all looked the same. He had soon lost all sense of direction and had no idea where they were headed. Apparently some of the others did know, because soon after, they left the tunnel and walked into a large, round room.
"Those Daleks passed round here," Dale muttered, and they jumped to work. No one but the Doctor, and perhaps Mayik, truly realised what they were doing. As far as the rest were concerned, they had just set a bunch of the time turners up in a circle, when every once in a while the Doctor would come and switch certain time turners. There was no need to connect them, the Doctor explained, as they were already connected though the Huon particles and the treatment he had given them the night before.
Finally, they were each sent to a different corridor with a couple of time turners, to set them up as well. "Just put them about, oh, 10 inches from each other, and get back here," were the Doctor's slightly vague instructions. Harry started feeling the annoyance growing within him, but said nothing. Trust the Doctor, he reminded himself, and went in the direction designated to him. Polly was already returning from his corridor, and gave Harry a look that showed he shared Harry's frustration.
"Reckon the Doctor at least knows what he's doing?" he asked Harry. "I'd hate to sit here and wait for Daleks that would never appear. Actually, no, I'd hate to sit here and wait for Daleks, full stop."
"Thought you were scared of him just as much?" Harry couldn't help but commenting. There was such a difference between this Polly and the Polly who, just a couple of days ago, squeaked in fear when the Doctor approached him.
"Harry, in the past couple of days I've met him, the Godsend, you, who apparently came straight out of kids' fairytales, the Pacifists who were supposed to be just a legend, escaped a Dalek prison, and been to the Abandoned City. There's only so long you can stay shocked and scared, then it kinda wears off."
Harry laughed. He couldn't deny Polly had a point. With a wink, he left him and continued down the corridor.
Unfortunately, the corridor wasn't the straight line he hoped it would be. Instead, almost immediately after leaving the room, Harry had to make a turn. He sighed and started counting steps, trying to determine ten inches exactly, but eventually had to compromise on something that might as well had been 9.5 or eleven. It'll have to do, he shrugged to himself. If the Doctor wanted anything more accurate, he would have to come and move the time turners himself. He walked down the corridor another ten inches, and put the second time turner in place, when a soft whizzing sound was heard.
He straightened up - and saw a Dalek eyestalk, coming out from the corner and looking directly at him. He jumped in surprise. The Dalek itself seemed almost as surprised as he was - but got to his senses much faster than Harry. The weird-looking gun was aimed at Harry within a second.
"You are not in your designated area!" it screeched at him in its high, metallic voice. Harry swallowed. "Explain! Explain! Explain!"
"I - " he stammered, looking for any excuse that would prevent the creature from going back the corridor to bring back-up - or going forward and discover the rest of the group before they were ready for it. "I got lost," he said eventually.
"Humans are not permitted to wander off!" it insisted.
"I'm sorry!" Harry said, slightly relieved. The Dalek had obviously mistaken him for one of the human slaves. "I got lost."
"Daleks do not accept apologies!" the Dalek retorted. "You will return to your designated area or you will be exterminated!"
"Right, right," Harry said. He looked for a second at the time-turner. There was nothing to do about it now, they were both set. He just had to hope the Doctor would be able to do whatever it was he planned on doing, that he would continue despite Harry's disappearance. "I'm going."
He continued down the tunnel the Dalek came from, hoping beyond hope the creature would decide to follow him. When it did, it dawned on Harry he had no idea where the human slaves were. He wondered how long he could keep the pretence until the Daleks realised he was not, in fact, one of their slaves.
"Halt!" screeched the thing behind him. Harry stopped suddenly, feeling his heart pounding in his throat. "You will go to the mines!"
Mines... that never sounded good. "But I'm needed in the - "
"You will go! Go! Go!" the creature didn't seem to care where Harry was needed. At a push from his gun, Harry started walking forward again. The corridor soon started sloping downwards, and the various metal panels and wires that covered the walls of the tunnel started giving way to a yellowish-grey stone. The air became thicker and hotter, and the smell became stranger and stranger.
After a while, Harry became aware of a slight humming noise. They must be getting closer, he realised, but the Dalek was still gliding behind him, and Harry could see no opportunity to escape. Then the tunnel ended abruptly, straight into the mouth of a mine. There were carts going in and out of the cave, in complete silence. They entered empty, and came back full of a yellowish-grey stone. Escorting the carts were people, their backs bowed and their clothes and faces much dirtier than his was, and Harry realised with a pang of panic that all the Daleks needed to do was take one good look at him, and realise he couldn't possibly be one of their slaves. But none of the Daleks bothered giving him a second glance.
After all, the Doctor was wrong. The Daleks showed the same basic mistake that had been Voldemort's downfall: they did not even stop to consider their victims. As long as they kept blindly assuming he must be under their control, he had a chance to escape. That thought made him feel like he had just conjured up a Patronus in a room full of Dementors. Things would be alright, in the end.
Harry started walking towards the mine, trying to look as resigned as possible to his new fate. All he needed was a second, the Dalek to turn away, a corridor to connect this mine back to the Doctor... anything... if he could only -
"Halt!" called a metallic Dalek voice. Harry stopped dead.
"You are not designated to the mines!" the Dalek barked at him.
"It - he - I was told to come here," he didn't dare look directly at the Dalek's eyestalk, afraid to be caught in the lie.
"You will be scanned! Scanned! Scanned!" the Dalek cried and Harry could hear the eyestalk moving around. Please, he thought silently. Please, please, don't -
"You are not a designated slave!" the Dalek said, and Harry's heart started pounding heavily. So close. "Identify! Identify! Identify!"
Harry had no idea what to say - and then it got worse.
"You are of wizard stock!" the Dalek called. Harry couldn't feel his heart anymore. "Exterminate! Exterminate! Ex - "
"Halt!" his rescue came in the voice of a second Dalek. This Dalek was different. While the rest of the Daleks all were the exact same size and roughly the same bronze colour, this one was much larger, and sporting bright red colours.
"He is a spy! He is of wizard stock! He will be exterminated!" the little creature shook.
"Halt!" repeated the red Dalek, in a deeper, frightening voice. "He is an ally of the Doctor! He will reveal the Doctor's location!"
Harry raised his head, looked directly into the red Dalek's blank eyepiece, and told him where to stuff it.
"You will cooperate! Or you will be exterminated!" the red Dalek cried shrilly.
"You really like that word, don't you?" Harry shrugged. "I'm dead anyway, what difference does it make? But at least I'll take you with me."
"You will cooperate! Cooperate! Cooperate!" cried the red Dalek, but Harry ignored him. And then an idea came to his mind - after all, the Daleks didn't know themselves where the Doctor had been, had they? When the Dalek next started screaming shrilly, Harry pretended to agree.
"Fine, fine, I'll take you there," he said.
"Move! Move! Move!" the Dalek didn't even stop to gloat, and Harry started climbing up the tunnel, making sure to turn in the wrong place. When he looked back, there was a slave walking with them. One of the Daleks was ushering the man with his plunger, beckoning him to move forward, shouting at him with his shrill little voice. What did they need a human with them for? Harry wondered, but wasn't really in a position to ask either the Daleks or the man, who seemed terrified beyond his wits. He kept on looking back at the mine, as if afraid he would never see it again. Harry couldn't quite figure out why - surely this man, with his dirty clothes and underfed look, was better off in the fresh air than in the stinking and thick air of the mine? But the man didn't seem to share that though. He walked trembling in front of the Dalek, his eyes glued in the ground below him.
Harry shrugged it off. When he was ready to run, he decided, he would get close enough to the man, to take him with him.
But he didn't see the chance. The tunnels remained yellow and grey for a while, and then changed for metal. He was afraid for a second he was leading them inadvertently to the Doctor's group after all, but had soon relaxed. Instead of going upwards, as he remembered the path he had taken before, this path was going downwards. The air did not return to be clean and fresh. Instead, it became even more damp and thick, until Harry started fearing for the other man's health - he was breathing now in weird whizzing noises, as if he couldn't get enough oxygen. When the path forked again, Harry took the road leading upwards. Wherever it would lead them, he was now sure they were far enough from the Doctor, and perhaps the air here would be cleaner.
After another ten minutes or so, he realised that even if he wanted to, he could no longer lead them to the Doctor. They were in a part of the tunnels he had never been to before: it was neither rock nor metal, but covered in weird green canvas. What parts of the tunnel that were could be seen were plain steel doors, covered with a heavy layer of dust. It didn't look like the Daleks had been to this part of the tunnel, at least not for a very long time. The air as well felt old, and stale. They must have reached a completely different part of the complex now, one where no soul had stepped foot in for hundreds of years. Unfortunately, this was when the Daleks seemed to have picked up on the fact he might not be leading them to the correct place, after all, and he realised he had underestimated them.
"Move! Move! Move!" the red Dalek cried, and Harry turned around, expecting to see the Dalek weapon directed at him - but instead it was the other man, the slave, who was forced to move forward.
"You are not cooperating!" the Dalek was eyeing him with his weird, blue eyepiece. "This is not where you come from!"
"No - I'm sorry, I must have got lost and - "
"We will go back! And you will cooperate! Or he will die!"
The man gave Harry a terrified look, and turned his eyes down to the earth again, not daring to look at the Daleks.
"No!" Harry shouted.
"Cooperate!" was all the Daleks had to say. "Cooperate! Cooperate!"
They understood humans better than he gave them credit for. He could not let this man die, not like this. Not when he could prevent it. He could only hope he had managed to buy the Doctor enough time to prepare. How that would help, he didn't know. The Doctor talked about changing the Daleks' readings, making them think the planet was no longer fit for their needs. It didn't sound like anything that could have affected the Daleks if they came running down, guns blazing. But he had no choice. He had to trust the Doctor, because he had run out of ideas. They turned back.
Soon - too soon, too soon! - they were back on familiar grounds, in tunnels he had seen before. And this time, he took the tunnel that looked most familiar. "I think this is the right one," he warned the Dalek, afraid that if he made a mistake, the Daleks would assume he was not cooperating and punish the man. "I'm not sure. I've only been here once." The Dalek did not seem impressed with this explanation, and pressed onwards.
They were going up now, and the air was clean, almost fresh. And there was the time-turner. Too soon.
"This way," he said, and this time he said it loud, as loud as he could, hoping beyond hope that the Doctor could hear him, knew he was coming with the Daleks, could prepare somehow. "It's right around the corner."
And then they turned, and there was a circle of time-turners around the entire cave. Harry imagined he could see a slight blue buzz all around him, but he was not sure whether it was real or not.
"Where is the Doctor?" called the creature behind him shrilly. "Where is the Doctor?"
Harry stepped into the circle, the Daleks right behind him. And all of a sudden he knew. He didn't know how he knew - perhaps it was that tingling sensation, or something in the air that had reminded him of home, or something he did not realise he had lost ever since he left the London park into the Tardis and this mad adventure, or perhaps it was sheer dumb luck - but here, in this circle, magic could work. He drew out his wand and aimed it at the metal creatures.
"Impedimenta!" he cried. "Stupify! Reducto!" The Daleks, miraculously, stopped in place, having received the full blast of the curse. And the smaller, bronze Dalek, who had been on the receiving end of the Reductor curse, blew up. Encouraged by this, Harry aimed his wand at the frozen red Dalek. "Reducto!" he shouted again, and this Dalek exploded, too.
The Doctor came out of one of the tunnels, Noble immediately behind him. "Harry!" he cried, his voice slightly worried. "Get out of there!"
Harry just smiled. His legs were shaking - he didn't realise until now how afraid he had been. He grabbed the old man, who was gaping, stunned, at the two broken Daleks, and left the circle - and just in time. A whining sound, like a high whistle blown, was heard immediately as they stepped out of the time-turners' range, and the entire room started glowing blue.
"It's working," the Doctor said. Harry smiled, tried to congratulate the Doctor for a work well done, and everything went black.
The first thing he felt when he came to was a headache. His head had not hurt that badly since the last time his scar had burned, in the presence of Voldemort. But he could feel something soft behind him, and friendly-sounding whispers. If he strained his hearing, he could just make out what they said.
"Shhh! Tell them to stop shouting!"
"Stop shouting? Are you for real?"
"Look, I'm as happy as anyone, but if they don't stop shouting - "
" - It won't be the end of the world!"
"Are you sure?" he asked, opening his eyes. Bright light flooded his vision, causing the headache to resurge. He closed his eyes again, then opened them slowly and carefully.
The two speakers were Polly and Marvin. He was in a room, with bright blue walls, a room that looked familiar - he was back in the Pacifists' base.
"What happened?" he sat up in one go, causing minor explosions behind his eyes. He sent a hand to the back of his head, and felt something soft - a bandage.
"You - fell. On a rock," Polly sounded almost apologetic.
"On a rock?"
"Yeah, it sort of - was there. The Doctor said it was because of the Huon energy."
"It's poisonous," Harry remembered.
"Yeah. Apparently you absorbed quite a lot of it when you went into the circle, but the Doctor said it was lucky you went in there, because your magic was - well, I've never seen magic this strong. Don't worry, though - the Doctor did something and said you'd be alright."
"Yeah? Well my head's killing me," Harry complained. His gaze fell on Marvin on for some reason got stuck on the stylised beard. "Good morning," he commented drily "Did you always have that - ?"
"Had what?"
"Your - nevermind," Harry said, his head killing him, and took a second look at Marvin.
Marvin himself looked at Harry unabashed. He didn't look sorry at all he overslept and missed the defeat of the Daleks. But unlike what Harry had come to expect, he didn't seem jealous at all, just happy. Harry assumed this was because even Marvin couldn't whinge on about missing out the action or even the bad state of sorcery when the Daleks had just been defeated.
"They have been defeated, right?" he asked out loud. "The Daleks?"
"Oh yes!" Polly was ecstatic. "I still don't quite understand what the Doctor did, but they all froze, at the same time! All of them!"
"Huon particles are interconnected," the Doctor's voice was heard, and they all jumped. Harry's head suffered from a splitting pain yet again - he had just hit the upper bunk.
"Careful," the Doctor said in amusement. Harry rubbed his head. "Anyway, as I was saying, Huon particles are connected. As soon as the Daleks walked into the circle, the particles were transmitted to all the Daleks in the planet. It poisoned them."
"So they're dead?"
"No, not dead," said the Doctor quietly. "Just... frozen."
"For how long?"
"Until we can figure out what to do with them. And if there are any other Daleks out there, this planet would look dead to them."
"That spell you used on them could be a good idea," Polly said, but the Doctor didn't look too happy with the thought.
"How's your head?" he looked at Harry, instead.
"Hurting. But I think it's fine," Harry said, and the Doctor approached and removed the bandage.
"Yeah, Mayik put something on it, looks fine now. Come on, you're missing all the fun."
"Yeah, c'mon Doctor, you're also missing all the fun! If you're not careful, they'll drink all of your wine," Polly laughed. He sounded drunk already.
The Doctor might have called it 'fun', but Harry had the distinct feeling he wasn't so happy to be in the centre of attention. Harry couldn't fault him, of course, but he knew how much the people of Messaline had wanted to celebrate, and how much the Doctor must have meant to them.
He was surprised, then, at how fast Noble ushered them outside of the packed mess hall. "We need to go back to the camp," she said. "They will have heard by now that the Daleks are gone, but there'll probably be complete chaos. I didn't want to stay here as long as we did."
"But now you can move back to the city?" Harry asked. "And join up with the Pacifists?"
Noble threw a look at Dale. Someone tapped his shoulder, and he noticed her watching him. He raised his glass in acknowledgement, and she smiled a strained smile. "We'll see," she said. "We haven't been a part of the same society for centuries - maybe even millennia. We'll have to see what people decide."
"You really are lucky, you know," Marvin said, possibly drunk, possibly trying to make up for his comment the night before or his failure to wake up. "For us, I mean. They'll listen to what you have to say. As they should."
"Yeah, we'll see," she said again, and ushered them towards the bridges. The Pacifists didn't seem happy to let them go, but didn't stop them. And they left someone behind - Manach, who had revered the Pacifists since the day she heard her cousin's stories, had insisted on staying. Noble seemed reluctant to let her go with them, but eventually gave up, when the Doctor pointed out she could be a good ambassador, someone to create ties between Noble's group of survivors and this group of well-armed, well-organised people who had control of the city.
Marvin, too, wanted to stay behind. Not because of the Pacifists; he had made it quite plain he could not care less whether he was with them or not. No, it was Mayik he was fascinated by, Mayik whose company he sought. Noble seemed even more reluctant to allow that. Despite her dismissal of magic, she could appreciate the benefits it had given them. That was her argument, of course, and had made Marvin turn red and smug, but Harry smiled. She would also lose a friend if he stayed behind, and it was just as obvious that despite their quarrels, she cared much for him. Eventually, they reached a compromise. He would come back with them now - and once everything was alright, they could contact Mayik again. "And maybe he'll come and see us, as well," she said, hopeful. "He said he wasn't part of the Pacifists."
Mayik was on the other side of the room, his black wizard robe standing out between all of the colours, but Harry had the feeling he had heard that last sentence, because just at that moment he smiled and raised his glass, as well.
And soon they were on their way, on the bridges, back to the city, through the tunnels... but when they finally got back to the camp, Noble didn't cross the last tunnel into the great theatre.
"What's wrong?" the Doctor asked.
She looked uncomfortable. "Listen, Doctor... don't take this the wrong way..."
He looked at her without comprehension. But Harry had a feeling he knew what this was about.
"It's not about credit. I would happily give you all the credit you deserve for what you did - all of it, actually. You deserve all of it. Without you, we would never have found the Pacifists, or had a chance to fight, or stop them. I want you to understand this. This isn't about me looking bad."
"It's about faith," Harry said quietly, and Noble nodded. The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "You're a myth here, Doctor. A legend. I don't think Noble wants her people to learn to rely too heavily on legends to come and rescue them every time things get tough."
"That's the second time already," she said, half joking, half serious. "We can't really spend the next crisis waiting for you to show up."
"Maybe I will," he said, his eyebrow still raised.
"Maybe. But we can't count on it."
The Doctor nodded. He didn't seem to mind, except that he needed his Tardis.
"I'll distract them," Polly said, and left the tunnel into the room. He had told them Noble was still far, far behind, and no one thought to remain and see if this was wrong. It wasn't two minutes before the room was empty. For the first time in their lives, the refugees went out to the sunshine without fear.
The Doctor, Harry, Marvin and Noble climbed into the theatre. The comparison to the Pacifists' base was painful to Harry. Everywhere he looked, he could see the signs of those people who had clung on to dear life: the laundry lines, full of torn rags, the dirt had become so much a part of them that it could no longer be washed out; the big pots, in which a mash of something that smelled dreadful was being cooked, the same food time and again, the only thing these people could afford; a whole life, stored away in boxes, in this small, stinking place. He sneaked a look at the Doctor, and realised that the Time Lord was also surveying the room, but not with pity - he was looking around in pride.
And why not, really? Life will out. These people had survived all this time, and now, finally, things would get better. He wanted to find them and tell them that, even though they surely already knew. He wanted them to be here, to see the Doctor, to thank him for what he has done. But he knew Noble was right. And here they were, the four of them, in this abandoned room.
"Well then," the Doctor turned to Noble.
"Well then," she echoed his words, slightly lost.
"How old are you, anyway?" Harry all of a sudden asked. He wasn't quite sure why it was important.
She raised an eyebrow. "Twenty five," she answered. For the first time in the two days he knew her, she looked it, too, beaming at them in relief.
"Looks like you've got all your life ahead of you," the Doctor said warmly.
"I suggest you start by going to sleep," Harry gave her a tip from his own experience. "Nothing better to realise how good things have become than after a good sleep."
"And you would know," she said doubtfully.
He laughed. These people had hope now, and were free, and had their entire future ahead of them, and the forest had never seemed so far away in two months. "A bit, yeah."
"It's a good advice," the Doctor chimed in. "And we'd better let you sleep."
He walked to the Tardis, and pulled a small key from his pocket. The door of the Tardis opened, and Noble couldn't help but sneak another look inside, into the room that was bigger on the inside than it was on the outside. Harry followed him.
"Doctor," she called suddenly, and both of them stopped in place. The Doctor raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything. "Will I - will we see you again?"
"Oh, Noble," he said, and there was a strange quality to his voice, sounding slightly choked. "I hope you never have to."
She nodded, and smiled, even if she didn't think it was as good a thing as the Doctor had just suggested.
"Goodbye," he said, and went into the blue box.
"Goodbye," Harry echoed. "It was nice meeting you."
"Goodbye," she said, and Marvin gave him a wave and a smile. Harry smiled back. They would be alright, he thought as he walked into the blue box and closed the door behind him. The Tardis flashed in and out of existence, and eventually disappeared. The room went quiet.
"C'mon," Noble said to Marvin. "Time to start working. If you think you've had a lot to do until now..." she gave him a menacing look. There would be no rest for a long time, that much was obvious. But Marvin didn't mind. As he smiled back, his hand patted his beard and was then sent absent-mindedly to the golden chain around his neck, to touch the small hourglass hanging on it.