Disclaimer: If I owned this I would be living on a tropical island, not Hicksville where I currently reside. Or at least England. Either way, it would not be anywhere the idiots who live around me.
Ch.10:
The Doctor sprung into action.
"Get away from the tree!" he yelled shooing everyone away. Lily and Donna joined him and helped him shoo people. People mostly seem to think they were nuts.
"Oh, for God's sake, the man's an idiot." Donna's mother proclaimed. "Why? What's a Christmas tree going to…oh."
The sight before them was incredibly surreal. It would have been funny if it wasn't so horrifying. The ornaments were floating away from the tree and hovering above them. All of a sudden they started to dive bomb. Everyone dove for cover as ornaments became explosives. Unnoticed, the Doctor made his way to the DJ's station in the midst of the confusion. Once he reached it, he stood and addressed the Santas.
"Oi! Santa! Word of advice: if you're attacking a man with a sonic device…" he picked up the microphone and spoke into it, "don't let him near the sound system." With that, he shoved the screwdriver into the amp. Everyone covered their ears as a loud high pitch was emitted from the speakers. Finally the Santas fell and the Doctor let up. Looking around at everyone starting to pick themselves up, he spotted Lily sitting by the bar with her knees pulled tight to her chest, staring in front of her. Fears born of this morning came rushing to the front of his mind. He jumped over the table and rushed to her.
"Lily!" he called. He breathed a sigh of relief when she looked up at him.
"Sorry." She said. "That's the first time I've heard explosions since…" she trailed off. She looked down. "Sorry" she repeated.
He pulled her to him and hugged her tightly. "It's fine. It's understandable. You have nothing to be sorry for." She returned his hug and they stood to see to the Santas.
Meanwhile, Donna was helping make sure everyone was alright. She slowly made her way through the crowd and over to The Doctor and Lily.
"Look at that." He said when she arrived. "Remote control for the decorations." He handed the controller to Lily to hold while he picked up the robot's head. "But there's a second remote control for the robots. They're not just scavengers anymore, someone's taken control."
"Never mind all that." Donna told him. "You're a doctor-people have been hurt."
The Doctor wasn't paying attention. "Nah they didn't want you hurt. See?" he throw one of the baubles at her. "Not active now."
She caught it. "All the same, you could help."
The Doctor put the head next to his ear. "Think of the bigger picture," he told her, "There's still a signal!" He immediately ran off with Lily following behind him at a slower pace. After a moment, Donna moved to follow too, when her mother stopped her.
"Donna, who is he?" she asked. "Who is that man?"
Not having an answer, Donna just turned and followed them outside.
She found them outside.
"There's someone behind this." He was saying. "Directing the Robo-forms."
"But why me?" she demanded. "What have I done?"
He was studying his screwdriver, "Find the controller, we'll find that out." Lily replied for him.
"Oh!" he exclaimed. He was pointing his screwdriver towards the sky. "It's up there."
"Something in the sky?" Lily asked looking up.
Suddenly he ran off then ran back. "I've lost the signal." He told them. He looked at Donna. "We've got to get to your office, H.C. Clemens. I think that's where all this started." He looked around and spotted Lance.
"Lance! Lance, is it? Can you give me a lift?"
As Lance led them to his car, the Doctor pulled back to talk to a still subdued Lily.
"Are you alright?" he asked, giving her a worried look. She wasn't saying much, just standing there with her arms wrapped around herself.
She looked up at him and smiled.
"Yeah. I'm fine. Don't worry about me." She told him.
"Are you-"
She cut him off. "Doctor, you've got bigger things to worry about than me. If something's wrong, I'll tell you. Till then, Don't. Worry."
He nodded and they all got in Lance's tiny car.
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By the time they arrived at H.C. Clemens, Lily seemed much more like herself. They got out and raced up to Donna's office.
"You lot might think this is just a locksmith." He told them as they raced into the building, "But H.C. Clemens was brought up twenty-three years ago by The Torchwood Institute."
"Who are they?" Donna asked as the Doctor sat down at her computer.
"They were behind the battle of-What was it, Doctor?" Lily asked as the Doctor typed something on the computer.
"Canary Warf." He said, still typing. He looked up and saw Donna's blank look.
"Cybermen invasion?"
Still looking confused, he elaborated. "Skies over London, full of Daleks?"
"I was in Spain." She told him.
"They had Cybermen in Spain." He told her slowly.
"I was scuba diving." She said, as if this cleared it all up.
Both Lily and the Doctor just stared at her. Finally Lily finally responded.
"Geez, Donna, that big picture, you just keep missing it." She told the older woman.
"Torchwood was destroyed," the Doctor said, plowing on, "But H.C. Clemens stayed in business." He ran to another computer. "I think someone else came in and took over the operation." He hit the computer when it didn't do what he wanted it to do.
"You know that doesn't work with the TARDIS," Lily told him, "so what makes you think it going to help now?"
"But what do they want with me?" Donna asked.
The Doctor stood. "Somehow, you've been dosed with Huon energy." He told her. "And that's a problem because Huon energy hasn't been existed since The Dark Times. The only version of a Huon particle is a remnant in the heart of the TARDIS. See that's what happened."
He picked up a mug and a pencil.
"Say that's the TARDIS." He told her, holding up the mug. "And that's you." He lifted the pencil. "The particles activated inside of you. The two sets of particles magnetized and WHAP." He put the pencil inside the mug. "You were pulled inside the TARDIS."
"I'm a pencil inside a mug?" Donna asked weakly.
"Yes you are. 4H. Sums you up." He replied.
Lily gave him a look. "We have got to work on your analogies when this is all over." She told him.
The Doctor moved on. "Lance? What was H.C. Clemens working on?" he asked. "Anything top secret? Special operations? Do not enter?" he moved to another computer and used the sonic screwdriver on it.
"I don't know." Lance told him. "I'm in charge of personal. I wasn't project manager." Suddenly he got defensive. "Why am I even explaining myself to you? What the hell are we talking about?"
"You make keys. That's the point." Lily said, reading over the Doctor's shoulder.
"And look at this." The Doctor said. "We're on the third floor, underneath reception, there's a basement yes?" They moved to the elevator. When the doors opened, the Doctor moved to the button panel. "So how come, on the lift, there's a button marked 'lower basement'?" he asked.
"There's a whole floor not on the official plans?" Lily asked.
"Yep."
"Cool."
The Doctor nodded. "The question becomes: so what's down there?"
"Are you telling me this building has got a secret floor?" Lance asked.
"No, I'm showing you this building has a secret floor." The Doctor told him, while Lily just looked at him like he was an idiot.
"It needs a key." Donna pointed out.
"I don't." he told her, pointing the screwdriver at it. "Alright, thanks you two, we can handle it from here."
"No way, Martian." Donna said moving on to the lift. "You two keep saving my life, I ain't letting you out of my sight."
Lance hesitated. "Maybe I should go to the police." He said.
Donna just gave him a look and said "Inside".
He meekly got in.
"To honor and obey?" the Doctor asked.
"Tell me about it, mate." Lance replied.
"Oi!" Donna exclaimed, while Lily just hit the Doctor upside the head.
The doors closed and they were on their way.
A/N: *announcer voice* Lily's getting worse as time goes on and the Doctor's worried. So what will happen? Find out next time on: Never Gonna Be Alone.
Abbey