A/N: Thanks to dablackfox101 to adding this to her community! And hi Emily! And I know...Gris seems a little much in this chapter. I promise she's not going to run the show, I just needed to establish something between the characters. And it's old-school! (By this I mean Davies-centric writing rather than Moffat-centric, wherein the companions solved the problems because that was the kind of guy the Doctor was. An enabler, of sorts. In a good way.)
Disclaimer: Whoniverse is not mine. Vermorvet are from my brain, Libslons (captor race) too. I think, anyway.
While Srilana – that was our Vermorvet friend's name – chatted to me in my head, I felt up the Doctor's screwdriver in an attempt to find the button. I had no way to know if it was even on, let alone working. Or even if I was pointing it in the right direction.
But I was going to sit there, turning the screwdriver every which way and pushing against what I hoped was the door handle until something happened. If the Doctor believed it would help me, then so did I. Why, I wasn't sure – he was a crazy man in a flying blue box that had put me in harm's way the first time I met him. But, to be fair, I had walked hand-in-hand onto the ship of my volition.
He said he would save me and I still believed him.
I was beginning to give up when the handle actually started to give. I was practically in tears when the light hit my eyes and I could hear the sonic screwdriver still working in my hand. I released the button and blinked over and over, trying to acclimate to having all five senses again.
I had done it!
My vision slowly came into focus and the light stopped burning. I suddenly wished I was deaf again, though – just because we couldn't hear in the cells didn't mean that we weren't making noise.
The screams brought tears to my eyes, which made it a little difficult to ascertain if there were any guards. Wails, moans, shrieks. Whimpers. Those were the worst.
The doors that I thought were metal were glass. Not only would I hear all of the poor women, I could see them.
On the bright side, I realized that the locking mechanism didn't require a key. It was like a deadbolt so I just turned and said "get into the hallway, but quietly. Help open the other doors" and moved on. Behind me, slowly, the others emerged. Dirty, broken, and tear-stained but alive.
After several light steps in my heels, trying desperately not to make any extra nose, I found myself three cells down from my own.
I came upon a door that showed me a long, flesh-colored snake. A worm with no discernible gender but a long dress-like robe with no arm holes. Or feet.
I opened the door and took a stab in the dark. Srilana? Is that you? I asked as I pried open the door. Her face was human enough, with no nose and a small lip-less mouth. She had no ears to speak of and when I say she sat up I mean that her body coiled so that her upper body was in the air, her face drawing close to mine.
Her eyes were wide enough but her pupils were almost nonexistent in the milky whiteness of her iris and sclera.
Gris! You did it!
Yes and now I just have to find the Doctor. The other women are helping to free the prisoners. I don't know if they've found him yet or not.
I tucked the sonic screwdriver back in my pocket and left her, searching cells for my companion.
I nearly died when I found him. Almost the last cell, seated on the floor with his back and head resting against the wall behind him. His legs were stretched out in front of him, his hands pressed against the metal floor beneath him. His hair was askew and his suit was all but in tatters. His face was bruised and bloody, his lip split and a dark red smear on his chin.
I could have shouted with happiness that he was still alive and clicked the lock, putting all my weight into pulling the door open.
"Come to finish the job, then?" He asked as he jumped to his feet, as though he was talking about going to the zoo. He hesitated a moment as his eyes adjusted to the sudden flood of light, at which point he frowned. "I told you to run." His voice sounded half irritated and half amused.
"And I will, once we get everyone out."
He looked rough, worse in the full light. There were dark circles under his eyes – how long had we been here? – and a bruise was forming along his jawline. The mess they had made of his suit made me believe his body had gotten the worst of it. Looking at him made me realize that my own cheek ached and I could breathe through my nose, something I was probably thankful for. I reached a hand up and touched my nose tenderly, wincing as I did so. Definitely broken.
"Aren't we a pair," I laughed quietly and he shook his head, frowning at me still as he rolled his head on his shoulders.
"You should've listened to me."
"Did you just expect me to leave you here? They would've killed you."
"What they have in store for you is far worse, Gris."
"You said you would save me and you did, by putting that in my pocket. Now it's my turn."
We made sure everyone was out of their cells and then realized we had to find our way to the TARDIS. IT was slow going but, eventually, it was in sight. We herded everyone in but Srilana, the Doctor, and myself.
And, as we three stood outside the TARDIS, a thudding down the hall alerted us to the presence of our captors.
"Quick, get inside," I pushed Srilana through the door and tugged it closed – at this point I realized she couldn't hear me when I spoke aloud, but it didn't matter.
I was practically against the TARDIS door, the Doctor about a foot away from me.
The group of men that approached us were humanoid enough, despite their small, bulky stature and dark blue-black skin. They had no hair to speak of, save for thin black eyebrows and dark eyelashes of the same color. They wore bodysuits that showcased their thick frames and long limbs, although they were only a little taller than me, roughly 5'8''. Shorter than the Doctor.
That didn't stop them from grabbing him from my side, even as I reached out to take his hand. "STAY BACK!" he screamed at me as they dragged him further from me. With my heart racing, I had no idea what to do. They were holding him roughly by the arms and shoulders, his legs loose against the floor as they pulled him back.
"Come with us and we will make his death quick," one of them said, a few feet in front of me.
"I have a better idea," I replied, trying to sound far more impressive and confident than I felt. I tried desperately to keep the shake out of my hands and my voice. I slid my hand into my pocket and withdrew the screwdriver. "You'll give him back to me, right now, in one piece – or I will blow every one of us up into smithereens."
The man-thing looked at me, weighed his options, and nodded his head in the direction of the sonic screwdriver.
"What are you talking about?"
"This?" I asked, flicking out the screwdriver like I had seen the Doctor do earlier. They jumped a little at the noise and I lifted it into the air, hesitating my thumb over the button that would light it up. "It's a detonation device. Within in this tiny little metal casing contains enough," come on, think. What's explosive? Come on, come on –oh! A tiny voice in my head whispered the answer: "octanitrocubane to destroy this ship and quite a few more. If I press this button, we'll all be dead in seconds. Or you can kindly let that man go."
The man-thing looked at me, hard, for a long moment and I straightened my spine. I brushed my finger over the 'trigger', "I'm waiting."
He looked from me to the Doctor and back again before he lifted one hand and wave it in the Doctor's direction. His men released him and he caught himself before he crossed the distance to stand beside me – safely within the TARDIS' force field, it appeared.
"Thank you," I replied, lowering my hand a little. "But that's not everything."
"Gris…" the Doctor warned. I shot him a look before turning back to the group of renegade, kidnapping aliens in front of me.
"Stop," I said, resolutely. "You will stop abducting women. Now. Immediately."
"Our race-"
"I don't care," I responded, taking a step forward but pulling myself back. "There's this wonderful concept called romance. You know: dates, jewelry, flowers. Try it." They all looked mightily confused and so, to add emphasis, I lifted the screwdriver again. My arm was exhausted. "And if you don't – we'll be watching you. And if we find out that you've harmed a single woman, we will find you. And I will press this button."
The Doctor pushed the TARDIS door and slid in, me following immediately behind. I turned to them one last time, lifting the screwdriver out of the door, "Don't test me, boys. I will destroy you."
And then, the TARDIS door closed behind me, I slid down and let my bottom press to the floor of the TARDIS. With my back against the door, I held the screwdriver in two shaky hands as I tried desperately not to cry for a million different reasons.
The Doctor stopped and turned, moving back to me. He touched my shoulder gently, "Are you all right?"
I nodded, clenching my jaw. My cheek ached and I could feel the swelling as it grew.
"You know that's just a screwdriver, right?" he asked as I handed it back to him, turning it over in his hands. "And how did you know about octanitrocubane?"
"Random factoid in my brain," I shrugged, "A chemistry class, I think. And yes, I knew that. But they didn't." I paused, looking up at him from where I sat. I wiped my cheeks, the left one much lighter than the right, and sighed heavily. "I think I'm just going to sit here for a minute."
"Right. We have a lot of travelling to do to drop these ladies off. I'll get to it." He moved away a little but stopped and turned around. "And Gris?"
"Yes, Doctor?" I tilted my head up, resting the back of my head against the door.
"Thank you."
"I have the feeling you would've done the same thing. And it looks like you tried to."
He smiled and touched his split lip before he moved away from me and back to the console.
