Yes, that's right! Part seven, the end of Episode One! It's much longer, more like how long I want the parts of the other episodes to be. That way, there'll be only three or four parts instead of seven. Thank God, too, because I don't think I could handle an episode I don't particularly like drawing out for as long as this has. So: if you like this episode, sorry, but it's over, and if you didn't really like it all that much, hang on a bit longer cause better things are coming!

"Oh, this is fantastic!" The Doctor thumped the metal tower with his knuckles. It clanged, making a different noise from the other towers he'd knocked. It seemed to reverberate through them, flowing through the air and bursting the silence. Alice shuddered. "Much more thought out than last time, I'll give her that. It's nearly brilliant…. Nearly." He smirked at her. She grinned back at him and joined him next to the tower. She could practically feel the evil radiating off of the cool metal, chilling the air around them.

"Two days ago," She said, her voice low. "I would have never believed that I'd nearly get my face sucked off, track a fake woman across London with a screwdriver-"

"Oi! That's sonic screwdriver!"

"-or talk to a man I've never seen before like a childhood friend." She shook her head. "And yet…"

"And yet here you are," The Doctor gave her a funny look, almost like he was seeing her for the first time. A yellow curl slipped over her eyebrows, her green eyes wide in realization, and her top teeth were snug over her bottom lip, leaving pale crescents in the pink flesh. Absorbed as she was in her own thoughts, she didn't notice him looking, and put an unsteady hand against the tower.

"And yet here I am," She agreed, holding onto the tower like a life raft. She felt overwhelmed by her situation, unable to focus or calm down. She trembled.

She hadn't realized how much she'd needed a hug until the Doctor's arms were around her, smelling of books and something else, something old. She froze for a moment, conflicted, then she relaxed, resting her head on his chest and breathing in his scent. He gripped her tightly, his face buried in her bottle-blonde hair, then let her go and spun back to the tower. He started tapping beams with the sonic screwdriver, winding his way around the base, his coat flapping in the wind. Alice's emotions were warring, fighting for a hold on her. Confusion, surprise, even anger. She didn't know how to respond to the hug, even though she was sure he had just been doing the best he could to keep her sane. She decided to just ignore the embrace, pass it off as absolutely nothing. She hurried to the Doctor, walking beside him as he knocked the tower.

"I'm trying to tap into the source," He explained, still banging on the beams. "One of the these is not like the other… and we've got to find it." They walked in silence for a few minutes, the only sound the even ding of metal and metal. "Got you!" The Doctor cried, hitting one that sounded a bit more muffled than the rest. He twisted the top of his sonic screwdriver, changing the setting, and hit the support one more time.

Alice gasped. He glanced at her and tried to suppress the urge to laugh. Her eyes, which he was already very fond of in his own little way, were huge and bounced all over the metal, taking in the thick red tendrils that knotted together and climbed up the beam, all the way up to the top. He could practically see the little gears whirring away in her head, trying to take in and explain the mess all around her. He gave her a few moments to absorb the new information.

"Each of these little things is a face. He watched her expression change to one of horror. "She's still absorbing their energy- hasn't had enough time to finish, that's why they're still so thick. The more absorbed they are, the smaller they get." As they watched, a few more snaked out of the ground and up to the top. Alice shuddered, stepping closer to the Doctor's warmth. "Once they're all gone… there's no way to get anyone's faces back." He pushed up on the sonic, pushing out a clear chamber. The tendrils popped and smoked, shrinking down into the ground. Then, all at once, and insanely fast, they started getting smaller.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!" The Doctor growled, and paced around the beam with agitated steps. He ran a hand through his hair and glared up at the top of the tower. "You can't do this!" He screamed, his face twisting in anger. "They're innocent people, you can't just murder them!" He jumped towards the beam, only to be pushed away by scarlet electricity. He picked himself off the ground, his coat smoking, and cursed, fiddling with his sonic screwdriver.

"Doctor," Alice said, her voice still low and trembling. "What's happening?"

He looked at her with compassion in his deep brown eyes. He hated to take away her innocence, but he also didn't want to give her false hope. He sighed. "She- she's here. Absorbing the energy as quickly as she can."

Her emotions flashed across her face, horror and something akin to shock. He winced, already wishing he could take it back, but it was too late for that. "I thought you said it would take time for that!"

"I did," He pulled on his earlobe. He wanted to hug her, or at least comfort her, but there wasn't enough time. "But that was as long as she wasn't here." He kept turning the different parts of the sonic screwdriver and pressing buttons. "That was as long as she was still out collecting electronic pulses. And now… she's up there, sucking up the energy as quickly as possible." He nodded his head towards the tower.

Alice glared up at the top, barely even hearing the faint buzzing of the sonic anymore. She missed hearing the Doctor's frantic calculations, missed him throwing the sonic screwdriver, but she didn't miss him running straight at the beam and getting bounced back. He screamed up at the tower, his eyes dark.

Alice realized what she had to do. She picked up the fallen sonic and slipped it into her pocket. She backed into the beam opposite the infected on, remembering the thin ladder she'd seen built into the side of it. She spun around and started climbing.

The Doctor heard the clink of her belt buckle against the metal rungs and turned around, squinting up at her. His eyes widened, and he immediately started climbing up after her, his movements frantic. She glanced down at him and wrapped her arm around the ladder, fumbling with the sonic until it just felt right. She held it against the rung directly below her foot. It cracked, then swung free, leaving the bottom part of the ladder hanging on by one thin rod. She pressed the sonic to the other rod and it went falling to the ground. Luckily the Doctor hadn't been that far up, and was able to land on his feet. She smiled apologetically at him and switched the sonic screwdriver off, pushing it back into her pocket. She kept climbing.

Her head started to hurt, like it did whenever she had one of those strange blackouts. She had no idea how she'd known what setting to put the sonic screwdriver on, but one thing was for sure- there wasn't enough time to worry about it. She pulled herself up the ladder, higher and higher, until she could see the top of the tower.

Red tendrils snaked into a little silver ball at the very summit of the tower. The red electricity from below was not surrounding the knob- possibly because she had not expected any visitors, but most likely because all of her energy was focused solely on absorbing the electronic pulses. Whichever it was, Alice didn't care. She flicked open the chamber, turned on the sonic, and pressed it directly onto the ball.

Pain. Red-hot, firey pain. The woman directed all of the electricity into Alice, trying desperately to get her off. But instead of dropping, she curled her free hand and legs around rungs of the ladder, using all of her strength to push the sonic onto the ball. They both screamed in agony, electricity flashing and cracking. The tendrils sizzled and burned to white ash, scattering in the wind. Fire licked at the corner of her vision, sending pain flares through her body.

Alice pressed the sonic down once more, then darkness consumed her and she fell, the sonic screwdriver dropping from her grasp. It rolled over the edge, her own body following soon after. The two- girl and tool- plummeted towards the unrelenting ground below.

Strong arms snatched Alice out of the air, the ground still ages away.

oOo

Alice groaned and clutched her head, rolling over onto her stomach and sliding her hands underneath her. She pushed herself up and looked around at her surroundings.

The Doctor was there, leaning against a blinking, whirring pedestal thing that came up from the floor. A long, fat tube filled with blue tubes (that were moving up and down) reached into the ceiling. The walls were yellow, covered in orange, protruding circles. A small blue door with 'Police Box' written on it in white letters was set into one wall.

"Hold on," She looked back to the Doctor, her eyes excited and filled with wonder. "I know that door! We're in that blue box, your ship, the…" She paused. "The… the… TARLIS? Something like that."

He laughed. "The TARDIS."

"Right, knew that." She winced. "You know, I think I may be dead… One moment, I was zapping that ball with your screwdriver-"

"Oi! That's sonic screwdriver!"

"And the next, I'm waking up on some hard floor- for the second time since I've met you, by the way. You'd think it was getting to be a habit!" She smiled her tongue-in-teeth little grin.

The Doctor laughed and pressed a lever. There was a bit of shuddering, then the blue tubes stopped moving. He pointed to the door. "Your flat's out there," He followed her to it and out, stepping out onto cold concrete.

Alice giggled wildly and spun on her toes, spiraling her arms around her. "Never thought I'd be so happy to see this wretched place!" She bounced towards the stairs, then turned and looked at the Doctor. He had the stunned look of a deer caught in headlights, his nose crinkled a bit. "Oh, and I almost forgot…" She took a deep breath. "It's bigger- on the inside!" The stunned look disappeared as he laughed. She giggled with him, and couldn't stop laughing, until they were in hysterics and laughing so hard they couldn't breathe.

The Doctor was the first to stop, clutching his side. "Alice," His voice was serious. Her peals of laughter dwindled to little giggles, and she looked up at him with twinkling green eyes. She raised her eyebrow. "You know… I'm all alone in there," He inclined his head towards the TARDIS. "And, I was wondering, if maybe… maybe you'd like to join me?" He sped up before she could reply. "We could go anywhere, anytime, whole planets waiting for us to explore- past, present, and future." He smiled shyly. "Of course, only if you'd like…"

Alice thought. "Is every day like this for you? The danger, the thrills?" He nodded. "And can you really travel through time and space?" He nodded, more enthusiastically. She squealed and jumped. "Do you even have to ask?"

The Doctor beamed, his demeanor going from self-aware and a bit nervous to excited. He laughed, grabbing her bicep. "Brilliant! Brilliant!" His hand drifted down her arm and he knotted their fingers together, grinning. She blushed and smiled back, biting her bottom lip. He started pulling her into the TARDIS, then paused, one hand on the doorknob. "Alice Tyler… are you ready to experience words?"

She stared up at him with large green eyes, her gaze filled with wonder. She stood up on her toes and wrapped her arms around his neck. His arms circled her, and she threw her feet up, squealing. He swung her around, both laughing. "So, where to first? Fourteenth century? The year three thousand thirty-four? Ooh, that's a good one. Or how about a different planet? Mallen? Orets? Raxacoricofallapatorius? I've got a lot of history with that one…" He beamed and set her on her feet, pulling her behind him into the TARDIS.

There was a big gust of wind, an unusual whooshing noise, then the blue box was gone, the Doctor and Alice with it.

The end of episode one! Finally! Now we can get down to the fun stuff. I've got great things coming- little demon girls, Cybermen with emotions (not a good thing at all, by the way, they tend to get especially homicidal), parallel worlds where the Doctor is just a telly show character... Don't give up on me now, I've got amazing things on the way!

~CTST