Alright second chapter out within two days :) You guys are getting spoiled. Thanks for the wonderful follows, favorites, and reviews; I'm glad you guys like the story. I am sincerely sorry for anyone who thought Nyla and the Doctor would have it easy because well… you'll see.
Also I'm just wondering what people want because some said that they want Nyla and the Doctor paired, while others said that they want them to just be friends. Leave your opinion in the reviews please! It would really help me a lot, thanks!
The Recurring Battle
Nyla and Amy both groaned as they awoke from unconsciousness. Nyla glanced around, trying to remember exactly what happened. Right puke.
The Doctor stood in front of them, waving his sonic screwdriver around the piping they had presumably fell from. "There's nothing broken, there's no sign of a concussion and yes, you are covered in sick."
"Where are we?" Amy stood up as she spoke, wiping her hands on her pants in a futile attempt to rub the puke off. "Oh, God, it stinks!"
"Overspill pipe, at a guess." Nyla answered for the Doctor, standing up as well. "Let me guess. That button over there," she nodded her head at the large forget button sitting on the wall, "is the only way out. Right?"
The Doctor nodded. "One door, one switch, one condition. We forget everything we ever saw. Look familiar?"
Before the Doctor, Nyla, or Amy, could figure out a plan to get out, two Smiler booths that they had seen around the city lit up.
"The button's the carrot and… ooo here's the stick." The Doctor said to the girls. He turned to the Smilers, examining them some-what cautiously, or as cautious as the Doctor ever is. "There's a creature living in the heart of this ship. What's it doing there?"
The Smilers didn't respond, and instead became Scowlers. Nyla glared at them and stepped forward indignantly, "Oh, knock it off! We aren't leaving and we aren't forgetting! And what are you stupid robots going to do about it? Stick out your tongues?"
Amy ripped Nyla backwards when the Scowlers stepped out of their booths, glancing over at the Doctor as they backed away. "Doctor, uh, are we gonna run now?"
The Doctor had his response on the tip of his tongue, but was cut off by two shots being fired at the Scowlers. Liz stepped up between the trio and the Scowlers with a smug smile.
"Ah, look who it is. You look a lot better without your mask." The Doctor peered around Liz to scrutinize the now dead Scowlers.
As he and Nyla went over and scanned them, Liz held out her hand to Amy. "You must be Amy. Liz. Liz Ten."
"Hi," Amy shook Liz's hand, forgetting that she was covered in sick.
"Ugh yuck. Lovely hair, Amy. Shame about the sick. You know Many, yeah? The little girl? She's very brave."
The Doctor and Nyla stood and moved away from the Scowlers. Dead they were no use, and told nearly nothing about the issues with the beast. They were just simple robots- droids used to block anyone from interfering with the government. Still something had been bugging Nyla since Liz X had found them. "How did you find us?"
Liz shrugged. "Wasn't hard really. Stuck my gizmo on you. Been listening in. Nice moves on the hurl escape. So," she directed most of her attention to the Doctor now, "What's the big fella doing here?"
The Doctor raised his eyebrows skeptically, "You're over sixteen, you've voted. Whatever this is, you've chosen to forget about it." The disappointment and slight annoyance was palpable.
Liz shook her head as she defended herself, crossing her arms over her chest. "No. Never forgot, never voted, not technically a British subject."
Nyla spoke up this time, "Then who, or what I suppose, are you, and how do you know us? Because earlier, you knew the Doctor and I. How do you know us?" The fact that two aliens now knew her name was freaking her out, even if the first had only known her because she lived next to it for three months.
Liz rolled her eyes as if it were obvious. "You're both a bit hard to miss, love." She nodded at the Doctor, "Mysterious stranger, M O consistent with higher alien intelligence, hair of an idiot. And you," she acknowledged Nyla again as she spoke, "Complete genius, the sarcasm, the type-A loner personality," Liz shrugged. "I've been brought up on the stories. My whole family was."
"Your family?" Amy asked quizzically.
Liz shook her head. Hopefully Nyla would figure it out, she didn't feel like explaining. As it was the Scowlers were waking up, and they needed to move. "They're repairing. Doesn't take them long. Let's move." She led the Doctor, Amy and Nyla through the hallways.
Nyla held back a groan when the pounding in her head started up again. It was the same pounding that occurred when Prisoner Zero was imitating her. As far as she knew however, no one was copying her. Still, the farther they walked down the hallway the worse it got, to the point where she was finding it difficult to stand. She couldn't even hear the Doctor talking to Liz, the pounding drowned out everything. All she registered other than the pounding were her feet moving on the floor. The others stopped walking, but Nyla didn't notice and walked right into Amy, who had been trailing behind the Doctor and Liz.
"Sorry," Nyla muttered, placing a hand on a nearby beam to hold herself upright.
Amy looked Nyla over, noticing her pale skin and slanted posture. "Hey, are you alright?"
Nyla nodded, pulling herself together enough to attempt to appease the pounding by rubbing her temples. "Think I might have a migraine. Never gotten one before though. Or well, I have but not this bad."
Amy's brows furrowed. "You sure you don't want to sit this one out or something?"
Nyla shook her head. "No. No way. I need to see this through to the end. It's probably just from studying too much."
Amy let it go, but watched her friend out of the corner of her eye. They had just made up sure, but she was still worried about her. She hadn't seen her in two years; she had no idea if these migraines were normal or not.
Nyla was grateful Amy let it slide; she didn't want anyone worrying about her. She found that when she listened to the Doctor and Liz talk, the pounding faded to the back of her head enough that she could focus and think. Using that to get her through the pain, she hung on the Doctor's every word.
"The tentacle… It's like a root! It's all one creature, the same one we were inside, reaching out. It must be growing through the mechanisms of the entire ship."
"Like what?" Liz questioned. "An infestation? Someone's helping it. Feeding my subjects to it. Come on. Got to keep moving." Liz angrily stalked off down the corridor, forcing the others to follow her.
Everyone except Nyla that is. As much as Nyla wanted to follow them, she knew they would take too long. This creature was obviously in pain if it was wriggling around like it was, and the problem needed to be taken care of right away. Plus she needed to take a break and think without the others hovering over her. Nyla sat down, listening to the Doctor's voice fade as they walked away.
Okay, what do I know? Right so no engine- somehow the ship is moving without any sort of engine. There's an animal in the middle of this huge-ass ship. No terrestrial animal could grow that large, or support an entire ship without collapsing under the pressure. So alien then. Huge-ass alien that's supporting an entire ship that doesn't have an engine… Oh of course! It's so obvious the Doctor probably figured it out! Nyla jumped up, giddy with her discovery. The new found energy was short-lived however; Nyla found her legs giving out, causing her to collapse on the floor. She bit make a groan and gritted her teeth, gripping a beam that sat above her head tightly. Using nearly all of her strength, she pulled herself up and dragged herself down the hallway towards what she thought was the right direction. Honestly, she was just guessing at this point.
After about five or six minutes of shuffling down the hallway and clinging to the beam as if she were ice skating for the first time, Nyla arrived in a huge control room- or at least that's what she assumed it was. The chamber had control panels lining its walls, which seemed to be random bricks. The floors were concrete or some substance like it (who knew what they had in the future), and there were officers pacing around the room. Smilers were also in the chamber as well, guarding a large hole in the center of the room. Said hole was actually what caught her attention, and seeing as no one seemed to notice her peeking around the door way, she took her time observing it. The hole was surrounded by a small wire fence and Smilers, with a small panel containing the two buttons she had seen with Amy and the Doctor back in the voting room. Above the buttons was a blank screen, which confused Nyla a bit, but she moved on quickly, it wasn't worth examining too long. What really worried Nyla was the small bit of flesh being pummeled relentlessly by a laser. The pulsating rhythm of the laser matched the pounding in her head, and the more she focused on the laser the worse the pounding in her head became.
This poor animal is being abused for the sake of keeping a ship moving! What the hell? Before the pounding became too painful, Nyla stopped her focus on the torture of the animal and instead on creating a plan. That animal would not be tortured any longer.
The Doctor glanced around the large bedroom of Liz X. The bedroom was somewhat ordinary, despite Liz being a queen. The bed had blank white sheets and a small gold and red canopy, but other than that, there was nothing else inside the crème colored room. The only thing that was out of the ordinary was the forty or fifty water glasses lining the floor. "Why all the glasses?"
Liz placed her mask on her bed, leaving Amy standing unsure in the middle of the hallway. "To remind me every single day that my government is up to something and it's my duty to find out what."
"A queen going undercover to investigate her own kingdom?"
Liz stared at him meaningfully, "Secrets are being kept from me. I don't have a choice. Ten years I've been at this. My entire reign. And you three have achieved more in one afternoon…. Doctor where's Nyla?"
The Doctor's eyes widened as he whipped around to stare at Amy in the doorway. "Amy, where's Nyla?"
Amy gawked at him, "Why are you looking at me? I don't babysit her! Hell we didn't even talk for two years! …Although before, when we were looking at the tentacle thing, Nyla said her head was killing her. She kept insisting she was fine but she looked pretty bad… Still, I thought she was following us when we came here."
The Doctor sighed and shook his head. "We'll have to find her later. Then I guess I'll give her the standard speech on not wandering off I suppose. Anyway, Liz you said you've been on the throne ten years. How old were you when you came to the throne?" As he spoke he moved over to sit on her bed and examine the mask she had been wearing earlier.
"Forty. Why?"
Amy gaped, "No. What, you're fifty now? No way."
Liz nodded, "Yeah they slowed my body clock. Keeps me looking like the stamps. I always wear that mask in public though, so it's not like anyone but me notices. Under cover's not easy when you're me. The autographs, the bunting."
The Doctor was only half paying attention however, focused on the mask. "Air-balanced porcelain. Stays on by itself, because it's perfectly sculpted to your face."
Liz rolled her eyes. "Yeah? So what?"
"Oh, Liz. So everything." It was times like these when he wished Nyla were with him. She would have understood the problem with Liz right away, just like he had.
Before he could contemplate that too much, a man and two Smilers walked into the room and forced them to leave the room and progress towards somewhere unknown.
Nyla stood up and leaned back, just about ready to put her plan to save the animal into action. It was a simple plan really. Wait until one of the Smilers walked past the door, sneak behind its back, and sprint towards the control panel and press the 'abdicate' button before anyone has the chance to move. Simple yet (hopefully) effective. Nyla cracked her knuckles and rolled her ankles in a circle, then glanced out the doorway to see how long until the Smiler passed by. The pounding didn't seem to be as bad right now, almost as if it sense she was about to do something dangerous and immensely important.
Alright
One…
Two…
Three!
Nyla sprinted behind the Smiler and around the Smiler guarding the hole, just about to press the button when a loud voice rang out above her, freezing her in place.
"Nyla, don't!"
She froze, and in her hesitance, a Smiler grabbed her tightly. Damn. In her adrenaline-hazed, pounding head, she had forgotten to check to see where the officers were and if anyone new had walked into the room. And someone had of course. The Doctor, Amy, and Liz of all people.
The Doctor ran towards her, placing a hand on her arm and then turning up to glare at the Smiler holding her. "Let her go. Now."
Nyla shivered as the Smiler let go of her. The Doctor did not look happy to see her. "Nyla, what the hell? Where were you? First you wander off alone through the ship, and then you try to press the abdicate button? Do you know what pressing that button might do?"
Nyla stuck out her chin in defiance and ripped her arm away from the Doctor. He was being so condescending, and Nyla hated that. She was brilliant! A genius! She'd been called so on many occasions. He had no right to speak to her as if she were a child. "Of course I do! That poor animal wouldn't be tortured any more for starters!"
The Doctor shook his head angrily, "By pressing that button you could have condemned the entire ship to be at a standstill, never moving through space again! Is that what you want?"
"It's better than torturing this poor animal and force feeding it humans who think that its torture is as awful as I do!"
The Doctor shook his head. "You aren't seeing the big picture. It's not just about this beast! It's about every human on board too!" He sighed. They had to deal with the situation at hand, not each other. "We're talking about this more later. There is no way you're traveling with me if this is what you're going to do. You're a genius Nyla, but sometimes you're so incredibly stupid." The Doctor stalked away from her to go and look at the exposed flesh in the floor. He spoke loudly, "Look at this! Torture chamber of the Tower of London. Except it's not a torture chamber, is it? Well, except it is. Except it isn't. Depends on your angle."
Nyla crossed her arms. The Doctor's comments sliced through her, but she'll be damned if that meant that she would let this creature be tortured another minute. She might be hurt, but this animal had been hurt far worse and far longer than she. "It's a torture chamber, alright Doctor!"
The Doctor ignored her in favor of explaining to Liz exactly what the pulsating laser was. "Well, like I said, it depends on the angle. It's either the exposed pain center of the big fella's brain, being tortured relentlessly OR," he glared at Nyla when she opened her mouth to speak, "it's the gas pedal, the accelerator."
"Or both," Nyla retorted. "Starship UK's go faster button." The pounding behind her eyes started up again, and she focused on just staying upright to defend the poor thing. Still, she could only hear bits and pieces of what anyone was saying.
Liz shook her head. "I don't understand."
The Doctor stared icily at everyone in the room, "Don't you? Try to. Go on. The spaceship that could never fly. No vibration on deck. This creature, this poor, trapped, terrified creature. It's not infesting you, it's not invading, it's what you have instead of an engine. And this place down here is where you hurt it, where you torture it, day after day, just to keep it moving.
Nyla ripped the sonic screwdriver out of the hand it was resting in and held it up, praying for the right setting. "Tell you what. Normally, it's above the range of human hearing. This is the sound none of you wanted to hear. This is the sound I have been hearing and feeling all damn day." She raised the screwdriver and soniced a tentacle sticking out of the ground, causing ear splitting screeches to be heard, presumably coming from the creature. After the screaming started Nyla threw the screwdriver across the room and spun to glare at the Doctor. "A minute ago you were arguing with me, saying how it might not actually be torture 'depending on your angle', but after hearing these screams how can you say that?"
The Doctor was in full oncoming storm now. She had thrown his screwdriver across the room! "Nyla go get my screwdriver." He spoke quietly, but his anger was obviously bubbling under the surface. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Amy and Liz standing in the corner, watching with wide eyes.
Nyla reciprocated the glare, refusing to back down. Leaning in so she was less than a foot from him she spoke, "No. If you want its screams to be silent again, then you can get the screwdriver yourself. If you want to let this creature suffer than you can at least listen to its screams."
"Nyla, I'm not human! I've been hearing its screams all day too. I just admitted this is torture! But I guess you're too much of a pompous, egotistical, self-proclaimed child prodigy to listen to what I had to say, weren't you?" The Doctor broke away from her and violently snatched the sonic from the floor, muting the creature's screams. Nyla moved to stand in the corner, shaking from the amount of unbridled anger coursing through her system.
Liz interjected before the two could continue arguing, "Look you can continue your lovers spat later. Just stop it. Who did this?"
Her advisor was the one to speak up this time. "We act on instructions from the highest authority."
Liz stared at him for a moment in disbelief. "I am the highest authority! And I certainly did not order this! The creature will be released, now."
No one moved, or seemed to be listening even.
Liz clenched her hands into fists, "I said now! Is anyone listening to me?"
The Doctor sighed aggressively, "Liz, your mask."
She held it up curiously, "Yeah, what about it?"
"Look at it. It's old. At least two hundred years old, I'd say."
She shrugged, "It's an antique. So?"
He pulled the mask from her grip and lobbed it in his hands. "Yeah, an antique made by craftsmen over two hundred years ago and perfectly sculpted to your face. They slowed your body clock, all right, but you're not fifty. Nearer three hundred. And it's been a long old reign. The same ten years, over and over again, always leading you here."
Liz looked in horror at her advisor. "What have you done?"
"Only what you have ordered Ma'am." He responded automatically. "We work for you Ma'am. The Winders, the Smilers, all of us."
Nyla watched as everyone crowded around the screen by the flesh. She could hear it from where she was standing in the corner; Liz, talking about how the system worked and why it was created. Starwhale, Nyla thought. That's what it's called. Poor creature. She stroked one of the tentacles nearby, trying to block out the pounding pain that was still drumming away in her head. She literally was not able to hear what the Doctor was saying earlier about it being torture because of this stupid pounding. Why was she the only one who felt it? Who heard it? If she wasn't focusing hard enough on something, it would drown out any word, noise, or even her own thoughts.
Amy's quiet voice floated into her head and snapped Nyla back to the present. She moved back to stand with the group, still extremely furious with the Doctor. "I voted for this. Why would I do that?"
The Doctor glared at Amy now. It seemed as if his anger wasn't over yet either. "Because. You knew if we stayed here, I'd be faced with an impossible choice. Humanity or the alien. You took it upon yourself to save me from that. And that was wrong." The raw fury in his eyes made Amy take a step back. "You don't ever decide what I need to know."
Nyla shoved the Doctor back, although he barely moved. "She doesn't even remember doing it! Honestly Doctor, back the hell off!"
The Doctor ignored Nyla as he turned away to go and fiddle with some control panels. "You did it. That's what counts."
Amy looked down in shame, "I'm- I'm sorry."
Nyla gritted her teeth. "You shouldn't be apologizing Amy! You were trying to do what's best for him and honestly you don't even remember doing it! Why the hell are you apologizing for something you don't even remember?"
The Doctor kept his back to her as he retaliated. "Nyla stay out of this! You've already done enough and you know what?" Now he turned to stare her right in the eyes. "Maybe it was good you and Amy didn't talk for two years. I would hate for her to be influenced by you. Actually I would hate for anyone to be influenced by you.
And Amy. I don't care. When I'm done here, you're going home."
This time Amy held her ground. She already apologized what more did he want from her? "Why? Because I made a mistake? One mistake? I don't even remember doing it. Doctor!"
He shook his head and turned back to the controls. "Yeah, I know. You're only human."
Liz walked over to the control panel while the Doctor pressed more buttons. "What are you doing?"
The Doctor sighed and closed his eyes. As furious as Nyla was with him, even she could see the tired look in his eyes. "The worst thing I'll ever do. I'm going to pass a massive electrical charge through the Star Whale's brain. Should knock out all its higher functions, leave it a vegetable. The ship will still fly, but the whale won't feel it."
Nyla's jaw dropped. "That- That would be like killing it!" She exclaimed furiously.
The Doctor clenched his hands on the levers. "Look, three options. One, I let the Star Whale continue in unendurable agony for hundreds more years. Two, I kill everyone on this ship. Three, I murder a beautiful, innocent creature as painlessly as I can. And then I find a new name, because I won't be the Doctor anymore."
Liz pleaded with Nyla this time. "There must be something we can do, some other way."
Nyla took a deep breath and nodded. "I need more time to think."
The Doctor shook his head, "You don't have more time to think! This is it! You want to just kill all the humans on this ship and that is NOT an option!" He thundered. "Nobody talk to me. Nobody human has anything to say to me today!"
Amy and Liz move to sit down against a wall, and after a moment Nyla follows them dejectedly. "You used to be so nice. You saved the good guys and punished the bad ones. What happened in the two years you were gone to change that?" Nyla muttered. She was nearly speaking to herself, but Liz heard her.
"That's it though," Liz whispered to her, "that's the Doctor. He always has to save everyone in the most humane way possible. He has to give them a second chance."
Nyla shook her head. "This isn't a second chance. This is a letting the humans live on a floating corpse."
Liz kept talking but Nyla chose to tune her out and watch the children play. She was missing something. Something important.
Suddenly Amy stood up, dragging Liz with her. "Doctor, stop. Whatever you're doing, stop it now! Sorry your majesty. Going to need a hand." Amy dragged Liz and forced her hand down on the 'abdicate' button.
The Doctor yelled at Amy while the ship started shaking. "Amy what have you done?"
The advisor to Liz spoke up in awe, "We've increased speed."
"Yeah well, you've stop torturing the pilot. Got to help." Nyla retorted. She sighed in relief when she realized the pounding in her head was gone as well.
Liz shook her head in confusion. "It's still here. I don't understand."
Amy smiled kindly, staring at the Doctor as she spoke. "The Star Whale didn't come like a miracle all those years ago. It volunteered. You didn't have to trap it or torture it. That was all just you. It came because it couldn't stand to watch your children cry. What if you were really old, and really kind and alone? Your whole race dead. No future. What couldn't you do then? If you were that old, and that kind, and the very last of your kind, you couldn't just stand there and watch children cry."
The trio walked silently back to the Tardis. The Doctor was lamenting on his companions, as well as his actions. He only just realized the extent of the arguing he had done with Nyla and the insults as well. Nyla on the other hand, was debating between whether she should apologize to the Doctor or punch him in the face for being so damn mean to her. In the end, she decided to do neither. She needed to calm down and breathe before she even looked at the Doctor again. When they arrived on the observation deck, Nyla all but ran into the Tardis, praying that there was somewhere she could hide and think.
The Doctor sighed and watched her go. He really had been pretty mean to her. Especially since she was pretty much right in the end, albeit with different motives. Still, she couldn't just go wandering off, and then decide to make a decision that could cost thousands of lives without even asking him.
Amy sighed as well and handed the Doctor Liz's mask. "From the queen. She says there will be no more secrets on Starship UK."
The Doctor accepted the mask and turned to look out the floor to ceiling window. "Amy, you and Nyla could have killed everyone on this ship."
Amy chuckled. "And you could have killed a star whale."
"And you saved it. I know, I know."
Amy grinned. "Amazing though, don't you think? The Star Whale. All that pain and misery and loneliness, and it just made it kind."
He shook his head in denial. "But you couldn't have known how it would react."
Amy considered that for a moment and then turned to stare into his eyes. "You couldn't. But I've seen it before. Very old and very kind, and the very, very last. Sound a bit familiar?"
"But Amy that's not me. You saw my fight with Nyla. I wasn't very kind then was I?"
"No," Amy agreed. "But you were trying to do what was right for everyone, not just one person, or one star whale. That's pretty kind if you ask me. Especially since Nyla was right about the fact that the humans had it coming."
The Doctor sighed and rubbed his eyes. "Amy what do I even say to her? I mean I called her a stupid, pompous, self-proclaimed child, and then said she was too egotistical to listen to me! Not to mention I told her that it was good she was alone for two years because she shouldn't be influencing anyone else." He went and sat down on the floor next to the Tardis, placing his head in his hands.
Amy walked over and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Doctor, I think you should just talk to her. Just apologize. You both were wrong in a way, and you both really need to talk this out."
The Doctor sighed reluctantly and stood up to hold the door open for Amy. Before she entered however she hugged him. "Hey."
The Doctor's eyebrows moved together in confusion. "What?"
"Gotcha."
"…Huh. Gotcha."
Amy perched herself on the jumpseat and watched as the Doctor flew around the console to pilot them into the Vortex. "Doctor, you know what I said about getting back for tomorrow morning?"
He nodded and spun through the room, pressing buttons as he went. "What about it?"
"Right, so I haven't been completely hone…" Amy cut herself off as the phone started ringing. "Hang on. Is that a phone? People phone you?"
The Doctor shrugged noncommittally. "Well, it's a phone box. Would you mind?" He would have answered it himself, but other than being preoccupied physically with the Tardis, he was trying to figure out exactly how he was going to apologize to Nyla. And how he was even going to make her stay in the first place. He really did love having her on board, even if they already argued a little less than 50% of the time they've been together.
He was broken out of his thoughts when Amy asked him something he didn't exactly catch. "Sorry, what?"
"Prime Minister on the phone…?"
"Which Prime Minister?"
"Er, which Prime Minister?" She leaned away from the phone after he answered. "The British one."
The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Which British one?"
Amy repeated the question before exclaiming, "Winston Churchill for you."
The Doctor grabbed the phone from her then. "Oh! Hello, dear. What's up...Don't worry about a thing, Prime Minister….We're on our way." He hung up the phone with a grin. "What do you say Amy? World War Two?"
Amy smiled back but shook her head. "Sleep for me, Doctor. You arrived pretty late when you picked us up, and that adventure just took it out of me. You do have a spare bedroom right?"
The Doctor shook his head sarcastically. "Nope. You know, with a ship that's bigger on the inside, the spare bedrooms just wouldn't fit."
"Oi! I was asking a fair question you know."
He waved a hand over his should dismissively as he climbed down the console stairs to start repairs on the Tardis. "Just ask the Tardis for a room and she'll make one for you. She's sentient you know." As a passing thought he added, "Oh and tell Nyla to make a bedroom too. That is if she's um… staying and everything."
Amy shook her head even though he couldn't see her. "Nope. No way. You need to talk to her before we go to World War Two. You can tell her yourself."
The Doctor huffed in annoyance and stood up to explain to Amy why he really didn't need to do that but she had left before he could get a word in. He exhaled slowly and placed his face in his hands again. He really was rubbish at this wasn't he?
