Chapter 9: Birth of the Ka

Claudia paused at the opening to the old, abandoned factory and grimaced. This was definitely the right place. There was a faint but still fairly nasty chemical smell in the air. She didn't feel at all averse to acknowledging the building's presence though, which was… weird. The Doctor had warned them all about a perception field, or something like that, and he didn't seem like the kind of guy to get it wrong. She sniffed the air just to make sure before reaching out to tug open the rusted metal door.

"Yep, bleach." She confirmed aloud, ducking inside. The inside of the factory was much darker than the sunny coolness outside. It almost felt like nighttime. Claudia blinked a few times, and squinted, her vision still adjusting. Then she jumped at the sight of a tall, slender silhouette crossing in front of her only a few yards ahead of her.

"Holy crap!" She gasped, before darting after the phantom before it could disappear completely behind the dilapidated assembly line. "Hey!" She shouted halfway down the thin walkway, reflexively grabbing her Tesla as she slid to a halt. The stranger stopped and turned to face her.

"Do not be so foolish, Claudia Donovan. We both will burn." It responded in a deep imposing rumble. Claudia gulped.

"Oh joy! It knows my name somehow. That isn't creepy at all." Claudia reflected, not lowering her weapon. The creature tilted its head to one-side, lifting its hand as though considering reaching towards her. "Don't even try it, Poser-Scream. You're working with the bad guys right? What do you want with Apollo Pond?"

The Silence narrowed its eyes, leaning forward ever-so-slightly.

"We have all that we want. You will not prevent us." It taunted, taking a step forward.

"Seriously, stay back. It's a fine line between blowing up and touching you." Claudia threatened. It almost wasn't a bluff. This thing was really freaking her out. The Silence straightened, not bothering to call her on it. "So… prevent you from what?" Claudia prompted lightly.

"It has already begun." The Silence growled. "Silence will fall."

Claudia raised an eyebrow at the strange statement, but before she could inquire further she was distracted by a shuffling sound coming from the entrance. "Who's there?"

Koschei walked over to the end of the aisle, looking a bit winded. He looked from her face to her Tesla and back.

"Problem?" He inquired.

"Huh?" Claudia looked back down the aisle then to the inquisitive alien with a bewildered expression. "I uh… I think there was something there."

Koschei's squinted suspiciously.

"But you can't remember." He added. Claudia nodded and walked up to join him.

"I guess. Hi, I'm Claudia. I saw you die in my dream, and now I found you!"

Koschei raised his eyebrows.

"Awkward." Claudia admitted, following him as he strolled further into the factory. "I mean, I'm trying to prevent it, so…" He froze halfway up the staircase, causing Claudia, who'd been preoccupied with trying to shield her face from the caustic gasses, to bounce off his back. "Ow! Dude! A warning would be nice." Then she saw why he'd stopped. The Silence was standing not two meters away, reaching towards them, or rather, towards Koschei in an oddly expectant way.

"You saw my death." Koschei stated.

"Yeah. Sorry."

"Me too." Koschei replied, reaching into his jacket pocket for something as he continued to stare down the Silence. "You should have seen this coming." He concluded with detachment, pulling out his stolen lighter. Claudia's eyes widened in shock.

"Wait! The chemicals!" She protested, already searching for an escape.

"Exactly." Koschei spat, his stare becoming a venomous glare. Claudia spotted the break in the paneling behind her left shoulder in the split second before he lit the lighter and tossed it towards the nest. She grabbed him round the middle and rammed them as hard as possible into the faulty panel just in time to avoid being incinerated. The blast threw them quite a few meters to land on a pile of rotting cardboard and old wood. Claudia had just enough time to note that it had sprouted a shrubbery to her right before passing out.

Koschei woke with a start and pushed himself up off of the unconscious teenager that he'd unintentionally shielded. ~Not quite Koschei…~ He thought blearily. ~I'm me, but I'm not. I never was.~ He shook his head, trying to get his mind straight. He's not fighting back anymore. No more puppeteer.~ He smiled and stood up, checking himself for damage. There was nothing too terribly dire, but… He reached up to wipe at the wet warmth on his forehead. ~Ah. Well that explains that. Really is just me then.~

He bent down and brushed a few red and blue strands of hair out of the way and checked to make sure that the girl's pulse was strong. Then he wandered over to another junk heap to weigh his options. It would be a shame if anything happened to her. After all, he did owe her a debt for stopping the other one. 'Koschei' frowned to himself. This was proving to be a bit of a conundrum. He knew who he was supposed to be. He remembered being him. He was also rather certain now that he wasn't.

"Master!" The Doctor exclaimed, jolting upright on the couch as he awoke. Amy jumped up from her seat at Claudia's desk and moved to sit beside him.

"Easy, Doctor. You've been through an explosion."

"I remember. He was inside—" The Doctor broke off as he finally took in his surroundings.

"I'm sorry, Doc." Canton told him solemnly.

"They could have made it out though, yeah?" Amy prompted. "He's gotten out of worse." She insisted, stubbornly ignoring the way the Doctor's expression fell.

"Can you sense him?" Rory asked from his seat at the table across from Artie. He was pretty sure that he already knew the answer from the look on the Doctor's face, but he was hoping that he was wrong.

"Sense him?" Artie echoed, but no one bothered to answer. The Doctor shook his head mutely, not willing to look anyone in the eye.

"He can't be dead!" Amy denied. "He's been missing before—Hell, he's died before! We just have to find him."

The Doctor didn't respond for a long time. Just when Amy was heading back over to the desk to continue her search, he broke the tense silence.

"You said 'they'."

"Sorry?" Amy said, turning back around.

"You said 'they could have made it out'. Who else is missing?" The Doctor clarified.

"Claudia ran off while we were chasing after your partner. No one's seen her since." Artie informed him in a somewhat accusing tone. The Doctor's eyes narrowed and started scanning as he began to piece things together in his head.

"Car crash…" He muttered to himself absently. "They die in a car crash—But no, he's gone. No. I'm missing something. Something obvious."

"Oh good, he's doing that again. We're probably fine." Rory observed.

"You said history could change here." Canton reminded him. "Anything could hap—"

"That's it! Brilliant! Well no, you've got it completely wrong, but in a helpful way." The Doctor suddenly shouted victoriously. "Still showed me what I was missing. So, not bad…"

"Doctor! Explain, please." Amy cut in impatiently. Canton tried not to look affronted

"Right, sorry. Tell me, who has the artifact?" The Doctor inquired, looking around expectantly. Amy crossed her arms over her chest. The others all looked at Rory. They hadn't had the chance to deal with it yet, and he'd been deemed the safest courier once they had all joined up to find Koschei.

"I do." Rory admitted, already reaching for his pocket.

"You sure?" The Doctor said, and smiled, seeing Rory reach into his pocket, frown and quickly pat himself down with a perplexed expression. "I thought so."

"You've lost it?!" Artie snapped. Canton was less upset, regarding the Doctor with interest.

"She has it, or she will do." The Doctor concluded. "Jyun was quite the pickpocket. I doubt that Koschei even would have hesitated to lift it once he figured out what it was."

"You know what the artifact is." Canton observed.

"Of course he does." Rory complained.

"I wasn't sure until I saw it… Recognized it immediately, wasn't difficult for me to put the rest together. I doubt that he'd be any different." The Doctor explained. "We were both there when it was charged. It's the last white point star, the one from the device that the Master used to pull Gallifrey out of the Timelock. –Although, I don't know how it got all they way from Naismith Mansion to Seattle, but that doesn't matter.- It doesn't cause deaths at all. It saves lives. If I'm right, Claudia's dream was just a temporal experience she'll cause when she jumps time tracks."

The others frowned at his strange wording.

"Temporal displacement." The Doctor lamented. "It always wreaks havoc on grammatical tenses."

"So he is still alive." Artie said, looking from the Doctor to Valda.

"Should be." The Doctor replied noncommittally, then scowled in confusion. "He should be. But if he is I should sense him. Why don't I sense him?"

"The artifact?" Valda guessed. The Doctor let out a distracted murmur in response beginning to pace.

"Not the artifact, then." Amy surmised. "We can use it to find them though."

"No." The Doctor said disinterestedly.

"Well, shouldn't we at least try?"

"Don't need to find them." The Doctor responded. Amy frowned.

"You're right!" Artie exclaimed. The Doctor nodded without looking up, and he continued. "We can just wait and meet them! We already know where they're going, Claudia told us everything she saw in her premonition. We just need to find the place that matches what she saw."

Claudia woke up shortly after Koschei. Luckily, his more durable body had shielded her from the worst of the blast. ~Wait. Where'd he go? Didn't he land on me?~ She thought to herself, jolting upright and looking around for him.

"Ah. So you're fine." The object of her search concluded from atop another pile of wood and discarded scrap-metal a couple meters away. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his torn up, and now-noticeably-more-singed jeans jacket, and hopped off the pile to rejoin her.

"I think so. No worries."

"I wasn't." Koschei returned truthfully. "What does the Warehouse want with me?" Claudia frowned.

"How did you know that I was with the—Hey!" Claudia protested when he held up her wallet, presenting her with her own badge.

"Yes, yes. Junior Agent Claudia Donovan, you're with Warehouse 13. Also, your library card's expired."

Claudia snatched her wallet away from him and double-checked to be sure that all her cash was present and accounted for.

"As if I would bother." Koschei scoffed. Claudia stood up and pocketed the wallet.

"Your head's bleeding." She informed him coolly, then straightened, becoming more concerned than annoyed. "Wow, you're bleeding a lot! Here, let me look at that." She moved forward, grabbing his chin but he pushed her arm away.

"I'd rather not." He told her and took a step back. "Regardless, I need to go."

"Where're we going?"

"What do you mean 'we', Agent?"

"Claudia." Claudia corrected. "I saw you die, remember? I'm not letting you out of my sight until I'm sure that we've stopped it."

He studied her for a long moment, obviously considering whether or not he should attempt to ditch her and how. Then he relaxed and let out a loud sigh, turning to walk back towards the road.

"Fine. Keep up." He decided without looking back at her. She jogged after him, pausing for a second to stare curiously down at a trail of his foot prints across her path. ~He went out front once before…~ She realized, taking note of the kicked up dust where he'd hastily covered part of the trail. ~And he doesn't want me to know. Crap! He walks fast!~

"Hey wait up!" She shouted running after him.

"No." He called back grumpily. When they reached the front lot, it was clear that the others had left without them.

"Ouch. They really just skedaddled?" Claudia questioned, disbelieving.

"One Agent was injured. They did a token search while you were out but they didn't check where we landed." Koschei informed her. "We need a car."

"Wait. You saw them looking for us and you didn't do anything?!" Claudia objected. "What's wrong with you?!"

"Nothing at all. You weren't in need of medical attention. You wanted to save me, did you not?"

"Yes. I did." Claudia confirmed, stressing the word 'did'. Koschei smirked ever-so-slightly at that.

"I imagine you would have to be present to do so, and I wasn't interested in being found." Koschei replied. "He hasn't moved the TARDIS, has he?"

"The what now?"

"The TA—The big blue box. Is it still parked in the alley?" Koschei persisted impatiently. Claudia narrowed her eyes at him, becoming more and more suspicious.

"I think so…"

"Good. Let's go I need to change clothes. You can, too, if you like. I'm sure she must have something in your size." He said, starting off down the road, back towards town. "Come along. You know I won't wait up for you." He called after Claudia had just stood there staring for a bit too long, and she hurried after him, cursing at him under her breath.

A/N: Yeah, this is another weird one. I tried, I really did. I was originally planning to finish off the episode in this chapter, but this has been a tough week for me so this happened instead. I'll try to have the next one finished off more promptly but things are happening so i make no promises about the day. Anyway, thanks for reading this, and special thanks to Mistydrop for reviewing. Any thoughts?