They had been running, harder and faster than ever before. Sabrina ended up in Utah, the Valley of the Gods, they called it. She sprinted, panting and sweating as she reached the end of a cliff, almost falling off. She could hear them following.
"Canton," She panted as him and his colleges followed him out of the car. They surrounded her in a circle, each holding up their guns.
"Miss Campbell," He responded casually. He lowers his weapon and motions to a couple of guards to lay a leather bag on the floor.
"Is that a body bag?"
"Yes, it is," She sighs and puts her arms in the air before responding.
"It's empty," A devilish smile crosses over his face.
"How about that," He raises his gun again.
"Do you even know why you're doing this? Can you even remember the warehouse?" He had looked into the eyes of the Silence and it commanded him to do this, "Tell him that I love him," He said nothing and pulled the trigger. She fell to the floor, dropping her face and body to the sand beneath her.
Canton walks through a long hallway, holding a folder and wearing a black suit. The Doctor sits there, a beard now grown on his face from the time he had spent imprisoned there. There are people building a wall around him. He is in a strait jacket and is chained to the chair.
"We found Sabrina Campbell. She had strange markings on her arm," He opens the folder, taking out a picture of her arm and tossing it on the floor for the Doctor to see, "Do you know what they are?"
"Why don't you ask her?" He looks to the floor, tears threatening to come to his eyes, but he refuses to let it happen. He wasn't weak, but he thought that he was. He sighed, oh, his poor Sabrina. Canton walks away without a word, but is stopped by the Doctor's words.
"Do you remember what she told me in the warehouse? What did she say, before, you know?"
"She said 'Tell him I love him'. She didn't specify who. Guess she didn't think that she needed to," The Doctor knew it. It was Rory. Her soon-to-be husband.
"You knew she was pregnant. You said so in the Oval Office. Why not just imprison her?"
"Doesn't have quite the same effect," He said nothing else and strolled away, as if they had just had afternoon tea and were making small talk.
Jack is scanning a building in formal wear, after a ball he was invited to. He never turned down a party. No life forms showed up, but they were there, in front of his eyes. They rose from the shadows.
"I see you! I see you!" He mutters to himself, rolling up his sleeve and marking a small area of skin that wasn't already marked. He didn't break eye contact until he heard noises behind him. They were here and they cornered into the edge of the building that had been destroyed.
"Captain Harkness," Canton casually greeted. He raised his gun, "Don't move! It's over!"
"They're here, Canton. They're everywhere."
"I know. America's being invaded," He had a mocking tone of voice.
"You were invaded a long time ago. America is occupied."
"You're coming with us, Captain Harkness. There's no way out, this time," A smile spread across Jack's face as he lowered his arms and took a breath.
"There's always a way out," He waved happily to them and fell backwards, off the corner of the building.
The Doctor watches a few scientists with a strong interest as they continue to build the wall.
"We found Captain Harkness," Canton speaks suddenly, but it doesn't faze the Doctor, he merely ignores it.
"These bricks, what are they made of? Where is he?"
"He ran. Off the 50th floor," The Doctor, again, ignored him.
"I'd say zero balanced dwarf star alloy. The densest material in the universe. Nothing gets through that. You're building me the perfect prison. And it still won't be enough," He is angry now. He only has one person left out there. Rory. Everyone else had been taken from him. Things always came up for them to not be there. He wasn't just angry, he was furious.
Rory is now running across the Hoover Dam, being trapped on both sides. He looks over the corner, and sees nothing but emptiness until the very end where the river lays. He turns around, throwing his arms up in surrender. He knew. She was gone; he had nothing left to live for. Fighting was no longer worth it if she wasn't there fighting with him.
"What are you waiting for?" He asks Canton, wanting death.
"I'm waiting for you to run," Rory lets his arms drop out of exhaustion, "It'll look better if I shot you while you were running. Then again, looks aren't everything." The trigger is pulled.
Two body bags are being pulled after Canton as he approaches the Doctor's newly built prison. They are laid down on the floor in his prison cell.
"Is there a reason you're doing this?"
"I want you to know where you stand," The guards leave.
"In a cell," The Doctor replies.
"In the perfect cell," Canton corrects, "Nothing can penetrate these walls. Not a sound, not a radio wave," He uses his hand to lock the door, "Not the tiniest particle of anything. In here, you are literally cut off from the rest of the universe. So I guess they can't hear us, right?"
"Good work, Canton. Door sealed?"
"You bet," The Doctor stands, struggling out of the fake restraints put on him. Canton unzips Sabrina's bag as the Doctor rushes to unzip Rory's.
"You okay?" He hugs Rory who, admittedly, looks dirty and smells disgusting.
"Finally," Rory pants, struggling for breath, "These things could really do with air holes."
"Never had a complaint before," Canton replies, helping Sabrina to stand. The Doctor stretches.
"Isn't it going to look odd that you're staying in here with us?" Sabrina asks.
"Odd, but not alarming. They know there's no way out of this place," Canton replies.
"Exactly. Whatever they might think we're doing in here, they know we're not going anywhere," He pulls on his braces and leans over, hitting the invisible TARDIS. He snaps his fingers and it opens automatically, "Shall we?" They follow him into the TARDIS.
"What about Captain Harkness? He dove off a rooftop!"
"Don't worry. He does that every now and then. Sabrina, Rory, open all the doors to the swimming pool!" They run to do what they were told and they stop when they finish, just staring at each other.
"I missed you," He sighed, pressing their foreheads together, "So much, every day. After spending so much time together, then to just be completely separated? It was impossible."
"I know, sweetie. I missed you too, so much. I love you," She remembered the last time she had told someone that to their face. The Doctor, she had told him that she was in love with him. She decided against telling anyone about that. She also decided against telling anyone about seeing herself in the astronaut suit. Honestly, she wasn't sure it was her. She couldn't remember it happening. She was never taken away as a child or put into an astronaut suit. She remembered that River had told no one, and she decided to do the same. The time would come for everyone to know, and it wasn't now.
They kissed; it was a long kiss that could have lasted a lifetime. It was full of passion and love. He loved her, and she loved him. Then there was the Doctor. He didn't love her back. She was being crazy, she decided. Her feelings were going crazy from the pregnancy.
Rory touched her stomach, which currently was still a bit flat.
"So, we know they're everywhere. Not just a landing party, an occupying force. And they've been here a very, very long time. But nobody knows that, 'cause no one can remember them."
"So what are they up to?" Jack is drying his hair.
"No idea. But the good news is...we've got a secret weapon," The Doctor runs to the door, the others following after him.
"Apollo 11's your secret weapon?"
"No, no, it's not Apollo 11, that would be silly. It's Neil Armstrong's foot."
It was raining and it was dark. Sabrina and Canton pulled up to an abandoned orphanage. They stop to listen to the radio.
"In just a few days mankind will set foot on the moon for the first time. Today the President reaffirmed America's commitment," It trailed on for a while before Canton turned it off.
"Ready. Check?" They both look to the palm of their left hands. Nothing.
"Clear."
"Clear."
"Ow!" The Doctor had just stuck something that left like a needle into Canton's hand.
"So, three months, what have we found out?"
"Well, they are everywhere. Every state in America," The Doctor does the same to Rory, " Ow!"
"Not just America, the entire world."
"There's a greater concentration here though," Jack corrects, being stuck by the Doctor, "Ow!"
"You okay?" He's now at Sabrina.
"All better," She replies confidently with a nod.
"Better?"
"I don't know why I said what I did. I'm not sure if I really do or not, but I'm one hundred percent positive that I love Rory. He's the father of this baby, he's my fiancé, and he's my entire life."
"What's up?" Rory was now standing next to them.
"Nothing. Really, nothing, seriously."
"So you've seen them, but you don't remember them," Canton cuts in.
"You've seen them too. That night at the warehouse, remember? While you were pretending to hunt us down we saw hundreds of those things. We still don't know what they look like," Jack sighs in frustration.
"It's like they edit themselves out of your memory as soon as you look away. The exact second you're not looking at them, you can't remember anything."
"Sometimes you feel a bit sick though, but not always."
"So that's why you marked your skin?"
"Only way we'd know if we'd had an encounter."
"How long have they been here?"
"That's what we've spent three months trying to find out," They had been to all fifty states, some foreign countries, and the like.
"Not easy, if you can't remember anything you discover."
"But how long do you think?"
"As long as there's been something in the corner of your eye, or creaking in your house, or breathing under your bed, or voices through a wall. They've been running your lives for a very long time now, so keep this straight in your head. We are not fighting an alien invasion, we're leading a revolution. And today the battle begins."
"How?"
"Like this," He reaches back and sneak attacks Sabrina, sticking her in the hand while she wasn't looking.
"Ow!" He just laughed at her.
"Nano recorder. Fuses with the cartilage in your hand," He now sticks himself, "Ow! Then it tunes itself directly to the speech centers in your brain. It'll pick up your voice, no matter what. Telepathic connection. So the moment you see one of the creatures, you activate it," He taps his hand and it starts to glow red, "And describe aloud exactly what you're seeing," He spoke into it. He pressed it again and it played the message back.
"And describe aloud exactly what you're seeing."
"Because the moment you break contact, you're going to forget it happened. The light will flash if you've left yourself a message. You keep checking your hand. If you've had an encounter that's the first you'll know about it."
"Why didn't you tell me this before we started?"
"I did. But even information about these creatures erases itself over time. I couldn't refresh it, because I couldn't talk to you," He reaches over and presses a button on the console. Canton takes a quick glance over his shoulder and turns back, unknowingly fixing the Doctor's bowtie before he could stop himself.
"What? What are you staring at?"
"Look at your hand," There's a flashing light on the palm of his hand.
"Why's it doing that?"
"What does it mean if the light's flashing? What did I just tell you?"
"I haven't," He stops.
"Play it," He presses the palm of his hand and the recording plays.
"My God, how did it get in here?"
"Keep eye contact with the creature and when I say, turn back, and when you do, straighten my bow tie."
"What? What are you staring at?"
"Look at your hand."
"It's a hologram, extrapolated from a photo on Sabrina's phone. Take a good long look. You just saw an image of one of the creatures we're fighting. Describe it to me," He snaps his fingers and their minds draw a blank.
"I can't."
"No. Neither can I. You straightened my bow tie because I planted the idea in your head while you were looking at the creature."
"So they could do that to people. You could be doing stuff and not really knowing why you're doing it."
"Like post hypnotic suggestion."
"Ruling the world with post hypnotic suggestion?"
"Now then, a little girl in a space suit. They got the suit from NASA, but where did they get the girl?"
"Could be anywhere," Canton suggests.
"Except they probably stayed close to that warehouse, 'cause why bother doing anything else? And they take her from somewhere to cause the least amount of attention. But you'll have to find her. I'm off to NASA."
"Find her? Where do we look?"
"Children's homes."
