Chapter 11 The Plan
The next morning came quickly and by six am Atheyr was up, showered and forcing on RoaneB's too small scrubs. RoaneG failed to stifle the laugh that escaped her mouth when she came into the kitchen. She wasn't surprised to see him cooking and making tea. She did find RoaneB tiredly messing around with his phone.
"Shut up, it you're fault for not bringing clothes for me."
"Its still funny."
Atheyr glared before he turned back to the oatmeal he stirred. "You can still be laughing when you pay for my clothes."
"What?"
"The ghost gave us three days to prepare for a rescue. Yes we need to heal from our near death experiences. But we can do that and shop a bit. RoaneB already printed out passports for each of our rescue-ees. How's the lorry coming along?
Hover-van has been rented and is ready to go. We just have to go pick it up."
"Good, So miss sleep in, you need to figure out a place for us to go and for the others to rest until we can figure out what to do with them."
"We cou-"
"Don't say bring them back here." Atheyr snapped as he dished out the oatmeal and set it in front of them.
"Why not?"
He sat down with his own bowl before he answered here, "Because we've been here too long already and we have another two days here. I expect that this place will be discovered shortly after we leave on the third day."
"How can you know that?"
"Instinct. So its your job to think of a place. And pay for my new clothes. I vote we leave after we clean up breakfast."
"You can't go out in public."
"And why not?"
"You'll be recognized."
"Why do you say that?"
"Because you were on telly last week." RoaneB answered.
"What?"
"A spaceship nearly collided with the Earth and low and behold there was a blue box zooming about. Someone at the Unit base in India leaked a video of you and Queen Nefertiti talking with the base commander."
"What was I doing with an Egyptian queen?"
"God knows. But I know that you'd be recognized."
"That's why you said I was obsessed with the Doctor back when we escaped and the officer."
"That's right."
"Well I'll take the risk, I need proper clothes."
RoaneG argued with him for another fifteen minutes but in the end gave up. Despite her warning that it was a bad idea, Atheyr would not back down.
"We can just order it off of RoaneB's phone."
"I need fresh air." Atheyr finally admitted. "I've been indoors too long and our escape does not count. I was drugged through most of that."
"Fine."
And that's how their day began.
They took the public transportation into the shopping centre and Atheyr realized where they were staying. Olde London. Well London, but not London, It had been flooded and decimated, but sentimental humans decided to build up and over the ruins. Humans found it hard to come up with new names for places. Like New York...like New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New York.
The trip went without incident and Atheyr managed to find some decent clothes in a charity shop. RoaneG laughed at him, saying "You choose old man, torn up ancient clothes when we have plenty of money..."
"Bow ties are cool."
"Yeah, but you're painting a bulls eye right around your neck.."
"Retro clothes always have a comeback."
"Retro would refer to something fifty years ago. That outfit is nearly four hundred years old."
"They're still selling them and I'm still wearing them."
RoaneG found it best just to give up.
At noon they ended up at a fish and chips shop where they rendezvous with RoaneB. He dangled the keys in front of them as he announced that he has parked the hover-van in a hidden spot near the facility. After that he laughed at Atheyr's outfit. But Atheyr didn't care, his tweed, bow tie, trousers and boots made him feel more like himself. Half way through his usual comment of 'Bow ties are cool' He stood up suddenly, his face paling as if he'd seen a ghost.
"Montmore?" RoaneG asked like a concerned mother.
"Him." Was all that Atheyr could get out.
RoaneB stood after catching a glimpse of the man that Atheyr had seen.
"Franklin." RoaneB muttered and before Atheyr could protest he was out of his seat and out the door.
"RoaneG?" Atheyr whispered in warning and surprise has she followed her brother.
Atheyr quickly stifled his initial fear and went after them.
He found them behind the shop in a small alleyway. RoaneB had pinned Franklin up against the wall and RoaneG stole his phone out of his hand.
"You sniveling coward!" RoaneB yelled at Franklin and the man did cower.
"P-please!" He blubbered. "J-just l-let m-me g-go."
Atheyr slowly approached them, an involuntary shiver shimmied down his spine.
"Don't let him go, he'll tell them where we are!" RoaneG hissed at her brother.
"Of course that's what he'll do, I'm not an infant. He was about to call them." He nodded to the phone in RoaneG's hand.
"Who else knows you're here?" RoaneG shouted.
"All of them!" He shouted back. "And if I'm not back there in two days they'll take Gretchen and they'll kill me."
"Whose Gretchen?" Atheyr asked.
Franklin was on the verge of tears, "My wife. They took my baby because I wanted out and if I don't go back when I promised then they will take Gretchen too. They know I'm here. Because I'm visiting her, and this is where she works."
"We need to go, now!" RoaneG's voice near to panicking.
"We can't just let him go, he'll tell them where we are."
"Only in exchange for my daughter!" Franklin added in. "You're on the run, but what if your sister was still there? You'd do anything to get her back. And so will I, to save my little girl. I might be a coward. But I don't care if I die, I just want my family safe!"
Atheyr stepped up to RoaneB and pulled him away from Franklin. Franklin didn't move, suddenly terrified of the man he had spent years experimenting on.
"Tomorrow we're going back to save all of the prisoners stuck at the facility. If you help us, we will get your daughter back to you."
"R-r-really?"
"Yes. But please, you mustn't tell them where we are."
"Wait you're going back to the place of torture and death to save a bunch of strangers?"
"Yes." Atheyr told him. "And all the gallons of flesh that's being experimented on. I won't allow it to continue! I'll bring an end to this 'facility of cleansing'."
"I'll do whatever you want. I'll follow you, if you help me save my family."
"I will get her out."
"Okay...okay... What's the plan?"
The five of them found themselves back at RoaneG and RoaneB's 'safe house'. The Doctor rarely trusted that word and Atheyr felt just the same about it. Never trust something called a 'safe house'. It was just in the rules.
Dr. Franklin sat on one side of the sitting room, next to his wife Gretchen; while Atheyr and Roane B sat on the couch. It was RoaneG who nervously paced back and forth. Every now and then Dr. Franklin would turn to look look out of the curtained window. Gretchen looked nearly hysterical, she squeezed her husbands hands until they were chalk white.
RoaneG hated bringing them back here. She didn't trust either of them, but the feeling was mutual and tangible in the air. Atheyr was tempted to use his respiratory bypass, because of the mistrust that weighed the air.
"So we go in, rescue everyone." Atheyr continued with explaining the plan. "The children," He looked directly into Gretchen's eyes, "Laryn, the Flesh, everyone."
"You realize there are several gallons of flesh in there?" Dr. Franklin asked skeptically, as if he couldn't believe that the Doctor, or this Atheyr actually counted the Flesh as a part of 'everyone'.
Atheyr's responded with a glare, "In case you've forgotten, I came from Flesh." He snapped a finger as he pointed to RoaneB, "Didn't you mention Laryn had a lover who was Flesh?"
"Romel, but he died about six months ago."
"He didn't die, he melted back to Flesh." RoaneG corrected.
"Same thing." RoaneB argued.
"Maybe not. My molecular structure memory survived, maybe Romel can come back." Atheyr suggested.
"Laryn doesn't deserve her lover's return."
"We're getting off topic." Dr. Franklin intervened. "We can discuss morals when we have the time." He glanced at his wife before he looked back to Atheyr. "Are we really going to save the Flesh as well?"
"I thought you didn't want to have a talk about morals...But yes. Whatever you may think about the Flesh, it does have feelings. It doesn't like to be used, experimented on or decommissioned. It is in fact alive." Atheyr gave a look of absolute seriousness, but the other three weren't entirely convinced. Gretchen's face was neutral on the topic, her expression still retained her fear. Atheyr shook his head. "Ever watch Star Trek?"
RoaneB lifted up a hand as RoaneG scoffed at the sudden and unexpected change in conversation.
"Ever watch Deep Space 9? There was a character named Odo. I love that name...Odo. Makes me think of play-doh." Atheyr smiled with a short laugh.
"Odo was a changeling. Actually the show rather did inspire the idea for the creation of the Flesh. But then the government got involved and it all went a bit wrong." RoaneB explained. When the others stared at him he raised his hands in defense. "What? I like to read. Unless you to dolts forgot I did all the research and historical back ground for the Flesh. It was my thesis in Uni."
"Abel's good at research." RoaneG agreed, "But mostly its because he's a nerd."
"Oi!" RoaneB complained.
"You're my nerd, so its all okay."
"Alright back on topic." Atheyr pulled them back from their rabbit trail, "Dr. Franklin and RoaneB will collect the Flesh. RoaneG will guide me through the facility to rescue the others."
"I'm coming!" Gretchen nearly shouted, making Dr. Franklin jump.
Atheyr glanced at Dr. Franklin, his face was white as a ghost.
"We need you at the van, to ready it for the escape sequence." Atheyr told her.
Gretchen shook her head. "I've not seen my daughter in a year. An entire year, she's been stolen from me. I will not be left behind!"
"Smuggling four people into the facility is going to be tricky enough." RoaneB added. Its likely that our codes don't work."
"They've changed them. CCTV caught you starting a fire in the records room." Dr. Franklin confirmed, nodding to RoaneB.
"We've lost our way of getting in then." RoaneG sighed.
"What about you, Franklin?" Atheyr asked him, "They don't know you've gone rogue yet. They think you're on your break, visiting your wife, they don't expect you for another couple of days."
"My codes will work. I can easily spin a story of coming back early." He gave a nervous glance to his wife. Gretchen squeezed his hand and looked away, tears threatening to fall. "It isn't the first time my wife has kicked me out." He muttered and the others left him alone about it.
"Okay." Atheyr acknowledged, "So we have our plan, get in, get out. We've got our escape route. The next question is...where do we go?"
"We can come back here." RoaneG suggested, they don't know about this place.
"Don't be stupid." Dr. Franklin, RoaneB and Atheyr all said at once. Gretchen nodded in agreement.
"You've been in and out of this house...for how many days?"
"About a week." RoaneB supplied.
Atheyr wrinkled his brow at that, it felt much shorter to him.
"Then you have a week's worth of eye witnesses." Gretchen added. "The Facility won't leave us alone that easily, trust me I know. Even if you blew up the building, other facilities will track you down."
"So where do we go?" RoaneG asked, "Your place?"
Gretchen shook her head, "They'll realize straight away that my family is involved. So we mustn't go to any of my family's homes. Oh."
"No." Dr. Franklin shook his head.
"Oh? No? What?" Atheyr asked looking between them.
"He could help us." Gretchen turned to her husband.
"No, we can't trust him."
"He's a good man."
"He broke all of his promises to us and he didn't stop them from taking Leera."
"Who are you talking about?" Atheyr asked.
Gretchen looked back at him, "A friend of mine from Uni. He works with the government's military."
Atheyr shook his head. "That's all we need, soldiers and guns shooting everyone." He glanced at RoaneB and RoaneG to gauge their expressions. Their faces reflected pure horror.
"You can't involve the military!" RoaneG nearly cried. "They'll lock us up for high treason!"
"Not if they see you helping to end the Katharisei." Gretchen pressed.
RoaneG shook her head, "No, not if I'm on their records. We've done things. We've been a part of the Katharisei Facility for over eighteen years. They won't let us go just for a single act of betrayal. Not to mention...um..." She hesitated and looked at her brother then at Atheyr. She didn't say it, but she didn't have to. Now that she knew she wasn't full human, she, they, all of them could become experiments. "And the others, Zanna, Reilly, Laryn, it would be like...'Out of the Frying Pan and into the Fire.' Its the worst possible thing that could happen."
"That settles it, we will not involve the military." Atheyr agreed.
"Then where will we go?" Gretchen asked.
Atheyr thought for a moment and then smiled, "How about Leadworth?"
With their plans worked through and beds set up, with bedding and blankets strewn about the place, RoaneG relinquished her bed for the couple and settled on the couch while RoaneB took to the floor. Atheyr offered his bed, but he declined. They all settled down for the night. It was well needed as RoaneG, RoaneB and Atheyr were still healing their wounds left by the virus. They were getting better, but Atheyr's lower back ached deeply from the massive hole left there.
As he laid down to sleep, he tried once more to make it into a much needed healing coma. And it worked...for the most part, by the time his hearts increased and sent him into REM sleep he had healed, leaving only large scars behind. But if it was up to Atheyr, he would have just skipped all of the dreams that quickly became nightmares.
The world was dark. The distant gray sky burned and the smell of burning plastic was overwhelming. The Doctor spun in a circle, trying to determine where he was and what had brought him to such a place. There were big black trees everywhere, they nearly blotted out the sky. The forest was cold. So much that the Doctor shivered.
A red glow immediately caught his attention. The glow became a light and the light became a figure with six large red wings.
"Who are you?" The Doctor asked her.
"Ktahv esodowi Ufi?" She repeated back to him.
He gawked at her and swallowed hard he got up the courage to ask, "Why are you here?"
"Nyem esodowi Ufi urush?" The Doctor gritted his teeth, the six winged angel, the seraphim was speaking his own language. How could she know?
"Iposa." He whispered, afraid to speak that language again, how dare he? After all he had done to that world. He didn't have the right.
The seraphim glared at him and answered him in English, "I'll tell you, man of flesh. You are wrong and foolish. Why not let live the evil and suffer the innocent? No one is sinless, without blame. You are not the Doctor. But your fingers are stained in blood, redder than my feathers."
The Doctor shivered as he glanced down at his hands. They were drenched in blood, blood that poured from his chest. He gawked at the sight, a knife lodged deeply into his right heart.
"You missed the blade." The blood seraphim laughed as she stood over him.
The Doctor fell to his knees and then to his left side. He struggled to breathe and he choked in pain, blood filled his lungs and dripped down his chin. He looked into the seraphim's eyes, but a tearing sound diverted his eyes to the falling feathers that tore away from her back and fell into a bloody pile at her feet.
"Ufi esodowi Fesmohl." She accused him.
His hand shakily pressed against the bloody wound and remains of his slashed heart. He looked up at her. The guilt weighted with that statement in the language of his people was too much for him to bear.
"Sorsin." He whispered his apology, his hearts aching with more than just the pain of being impaled, but with the agony of knowing the truth. Everything was his fault.
"Ranta ufi lur!" She declared
"Ehfo!" The Doctor cried out, "Mosi, sorsin!" He begged her. He begged her not to take his soul. But she ignored his pleas and leaned over him. She withdrew the knife with one hand, but with the other she reached into the entry wound in his chest. The Doctor screamed, he could feel her hand grasping and wrenching at the remains of his heart. Finally the wingless seraphim pulled back. Her hand dripped with his blood, but it held onto a key. The key, the Key to his Tardis.
"Ehfo!" The Doctor cried weakly. His torn and broken body would not last long without his soul.
"Stop right there!" Declared an American accented voice, the mismatched green-blue-eyed girl appeared and she fought with the once-been seraphim, trying to get the Key, the Doctor's soul.
"That belongs to the Raggedy Doctor. Not to you sniveling echos." Yet another woman came into his line of sight.
"Amelia." the Doctor rasped.
"You have no claim to his soul. So release him!" She demanded. She strutted straight up to the demoted angel and took the Key from her hand.
"Thank you." the Doctor whispered and Amy turned back to him. His soul in her possession.
"They have no claim on your soul, no grudge...But I do. Why call yourself the Doctor? Don't you know what he did, what you did to me?"
The Doctor shook his head, trying to understand, but his mind failed to process the information as the horror played out before him.
"You sentenced me to death, Raggedy Man. So I pay you in return." With that she lifted her hand into the air and tipped her head back. She opened her mouth wide.
The Doctor struggled to pull himself up, to stop her from devouring his soul. He could not get up, all of his struggling proved only to drain him of his blood. He was dying. Amy dropped the key. Before she swallowed it, RoaneG snatched it out of the air. She raced back to The Doctor and set his soul into its place in his chest. "We have to get out of here!" RoaneG cried.
The Doctor's flesh healed with the returning of his soul. RoaneG helped him to his feet and they ran through the forest. RoaneG cried out and fell. The Doctor turned back to help her, but now there were roots and vines wrapping around her, dragging her back. The Doctor raced after her, trying to catch her hand. The vines were faster, they dragged her up against a tree, pulling her through it as if the bark was made out of play dough. It solidified by the time he reached her. Only her face was exposed. She looked out into the forest her eyes unseeing, expressionless and dead.
"RoaneG!" The Doctor cried.
"Aisha Roane has left the Library, Aisha Roane has been saved."
The Doctor staggered back. He knew what was behind him, he didn't want to look. He didn't want to see it.
"Spoilers"
The Doctor close his eyes and slowly opened them. He turned around and he saw her. River was sitting in that god-forsaken chair.
"Don't go River. Please." He begged her. River smiled with tears in her eyes. She connected to the mainframe and light exploded around her, then the scene froze. The Doctor was forced to gaze upon her frozen death. When he turned away from the horrific sight other voices took root, speaking all at once. A hundred voices matched a hundred faces that peered out from the trees.
"What is the point of you?"
"Can your conscience carry the weight of another dead race?"
"I want to stay. I can't go back. Don't make me go back. Doctor, please, please don't make me go back."
"You have no idea how dangerous you make people to themselves when you're around!"
"Grandfather! I belong with you!"
"No, but I spent all that time trying to find you. I'm not going back now."
The Doctor cried out to the mob of voices, "Stop this! Stop this please!" But the voices were cruel and did not stop.
"Doctor!"
The Doctor cried and covered his face with his hands.
"DOCTOR!"
A hand touched his back, making him turn and look though his fingers. A Weeping Angel stood before him, a communicator in it's hands.
"I died in fear. You told me my fear would keep me alive, but I died afraid, in pain and alone. You made me trust you, and when it mattered, you let me down."
The Angel reached out and grabbed his shoulder, pressing on the bundle of nerves. The Doctor called out once more.
Atheyr woke up with a start. His hands quickly placed over his hearts, feeling for any tears or holes, but there weren't any. He sighed with a relief that quickly turned into a gag, there was something in his room. It stood by the door and it moved silently without making a sound. Atheyr cleared his voice and the thing stopped. When it turned to look at him, he could see her eyes glowing, one blue and one green.
"Why is it that when I have bad dreams its always you who wakes me up?" He panted in surprise.
The ghost Uxia shrugged. She pointed to her wrist, then held up her hand showing two fingers and lastly she motioned him towards her as if she wanted him to follow. She turned around and disappeared through the door.
"Time to go?" Atheyr asked the darkness. His internal time sense told him that it was about 4:30 in the morning. So he got up and dressed himself and made it out into the sitting room. The Roane twins were still sound asleep, but there was a light on in the kitchen. Atheyr found Gretchen in there, drinking a cup of tea.
"Mind if I join you?" He asked her. She nodded and poured him a cup. He added three cubes of sugar and a bit of milk. After stirring it a bit and tasting it once with his spoon he decided to add three more cubes. He sipped it with his spoon and scraped it at the bottom of the cup to get at the sugar and then crunched the sugar in his mouth.
Gretchen stared at him as he noisily drank his tea, "I suppose only a madman can make his tea crunch."
"You have to admit you'd have to be a genius to figure out a way."
"Its not proof enough." She shivered as she took her next sip.
"I'm going to get your daughter back for you." Atheyr told her.
"I know. But there are things you don't understand. Stopping the Plymouth's Facility won't be nearly enough to keep her safe, or to keep your new friends safe. They'll never stop hunting us now. They've got her DNA on records now. We'll have to run for the rest of our lives. My family is going to be in so much danger."
"I'll protect you."
"How? You don't have your Tardis."
"How do you know about that?"
Gretchen swallowed and looked away. "I just do. I'm going to take her to the military. Leera, once we have her. I don't care what Chris says or does. He can die for all I care. But the only ones who will be able to protect her is them."
"Chris?"
"My husband."
"You don't mean that."
"What?"
"You do care for him, you wouldn't want him to die."
"But I'll sacrifice him to keep Leera safe. Its his bloody fault."
"He got your family involved."
She nodded as tears streamed down her cheeks. She covered her hands with her cheeks, "But if he hadn't Leera would have...she would have...she'd been so sick. So they helped her, but then wouldn't let him go and when he left them they found us and took her too." She leaned into Atheyr as she cried and he held her.
"We'll find a way to keep her safe, we'll find a way to end the Katharisei. I swear it." He whispered into her hair. "Even if it means summoning the Doctor myself." He promised. After a moment longer of holding her, Gretchen quietly thanked him and washed the tears from her face. Atheyr stood when he saw the Ghost, Gretchen screamed and then everyone was awake.