The Fun House presented itself like a normal, cheesy one that could exist in any carnival, but somehow managed to be eery and unnerving. They each faced a number of challenges together and, when the House decided to separate them, individually.
Alex and the Doctor got separated from Ginger and ended up standing in the doorway of a room with undulating silver-gray walls.
"What's this?" Alex asked her familiar, apprehensive to go inside.
"Only one way to find out!" the tiny Skitty said, gleefully hopping from her shoulder and entering before them.
The Doctor and Alex exchanged a look and followed.
The walls changed in color and form as furniture sprang up around them.
"Are we?" the Doctor asked.
"At Sarah Jane's house," Alex finished the thought for him.
"This room reveals your deepest desires," Muffin said, hopping onto the kitchen table. "Whatever it is that you yearn for most of all."
"For what purpose?" the Doctor asked, suspiciously.
Just then, Sarah Jane entered the room. "Ah, you're here!" she said, grinning from ear to ear. "Wasn't expecting you home for another half hour."
"Home?" the Doctor asked.
"That's right, technically the three of you live next door," Sarah Jane replied. "But still will always feel like home for you, I hope?"
"Yeah, sure," the Doctor said. "Of course." Then it hit him. "The three of us?"
"You're home early," a pretty blonde said, walking in the room and giving him a kiss on the cheek.
"Rose?" he asked.
"Yeah, who else, silly?" she said, absently. She grabbed an oven mitt and pulled a tray out of the oven. "We made chips to go with dinner tonight. It's going to be a celebration."
"A celebration for what?" he asked, still surprised.
Rose gave him a strange look then. "For the finalization of Alex's adoption, of course," she replied.
"The finalization of what?" Alex said, suddenly forgetting that this was an illusion.
"Honestly, what is it with you two today?" Rose asked. "We haven't planned anything more thoroughly since we got married, and you're forgetting that you and Sarah Jane put in to adopt Alex? That's the entire reason we moved in next door - perfect sitcom joint custody, as you put it."
"Can't be a sitcom without the weird uncle!" Jack said, entering from the outside door.
"Jack," Alex said, feeling a conflicting set of emotions at seeing him. "What...what are you doing here?"
"Couldn't miss your big adoption party, could I?" Jack asked, giving her a hug that she just melted into. He pulled back again. "Also to tell you I moved in up the street. You've grown up so much with me hardly being there to see it. I don't want to miss another moment."
Alex felt like crying, but was quickly letting herself forget this was an illusion.
"Oh forgot to mention," Sarah Jane said. "Susan phoned to say she and the kids would be late. They went to pick up Donna and her new husband, and apparently Donna's taken a bit longer than expected to get ready."
"Susan?" the Doctor asked, hearts twinging with a mix of emotions. "Donna? They can't be here."
"Course they can, now we've safely reversed Donna's memory loss and she helped you create a solution to save Gallifrey," Rose said. "Seriously, what is it with you today?"
"Sorry we're late!" Susan Foreman said, coming in through the outside doors. At that moment, the Doctor let himself forget.
They had a wonderful meal. Luke had brought home Sanjay who got along smashingly with Kira. Sky and Luke kept calling Alex "sis" and "little sis" respectively. Everything was perfect.
"What's this?" a voice they'd forgotten said.
Alex and the Doctor looked up, suddenly sitting at an empty table in the middle of the undulating silver-grey room as they remembered. The walls suddenly read an error code: "Recalibrating".
Ginger was standing there, arms folded in front of her with that familiar closed off expression on her face.
"I…" Alex said, getting up off her chair that instantly dissolved into mist and blew away. "I don't know."
"This room is supposed to show what you want the most," the Doctor remembered, getting up himself. The table and chairs instantly disappeared. He and Alex both covered well the crushing emptiness they felt at losing that.
"That's your greatest desire?" Ginger scoffed. "Domesticity? Boring. I expected better."
"Well why don't we have a look-see at what you want, then?" Alex said, rising to the defensive as she dragged the Doctor back to the doorway and left Ginger standing in there.
The moment the Doctor and Alex were out of the picture, the room started freaking out. The error code changed to a flashing "ERROR! ERROR!" as the walls became fragmented with the occasional burst of indistinct imagery that was gone before it could be properly perceived.
"What's happening?" Ginger asked, looking around in confusion.
Muffin hopped back on Alex's shoulder. "Interesting," she said.
"What is?" Ginger asked.
"The room is confused," Muffin replied. "You have no real, deep desires. It can't find a single thing in life that you want."
"What, none at all?" the Doctor asked, surprised.
"What and end up like you saps?" Ginger scoffed, pushing past them out of the room.
"What does that mean?" asked Alex.
Ginger turned to face them. "Look, I saw what you were doing in your little cookie cutter house there," she said. "It's sad, really, letting yourself want something like that. It's your first mistake in life. Surprised you haven't learned by now that wanting something just sets you up to be disappointed. So I don't want anything and neither should you."
…
"Eh, Muffin?" the Doctor asked at one point. "Some of these challenges seem a bit life threatening…"
"I understand your concern, Doctor," Muffin said, happily. "But they're all simulations. Nothing in here or the maze can really hurt you. As soon as you leave, any perceived injuries that you may incur would be instantly erased because they were never real to begin with."
"But why make us perceive injuries in the first place?" he pointed out.
"The AI isn't responsible for that," she said. "That all comes from inside you."
…
"That last room was a bit...much," Ginger said nervously.
"The Hall of Doubts," Muffin said. "Collects whispers from everyone who passes through."
"Bit creepy," Alex said, with a shudder. "That one that kept going on about how nobody likes you and they're the only one who cares-"
"You listen to me, Alex," Ginger said. "Anyone in any situation tries to tell you that they're the only one who could ever care about you, you run the other way so fast. That's the first sign of an abuser. They'll isolate you from the outside and break you down so you don't think you can get free. So you just don't listen a bit, okay?"
...
The house would split the three of them up to be tested separately, but eventually it spit them back out into a room together. At the heart of the Fun House was the hall of mirrors. This was a circular room with mirrors all around the perimeter that was so silent that it would probably muffled the sound of a pin drop.
"What's all this?" Alex asked, voice hardly above a whisper.
"Lots of Mirrors of Erised, I reckon," Ginger repeated, feeling nervous.
But it wasn't quite that at all. The mirrors showed you as you saw yourself. The Doctor saw a bitter old man, war-hardened and dying. Ginger saw cracks spreading out from the center of her face and spreading throughout, splintering her face into fragments. Alex saw nothing at all, just empty space as if she wasn't even there. This disturbed each of them so much that they didn't ask each other what they were seeing. It was while they were looking into the mirrors that Ginger heard the buzzing for the first time.
"Do you hear that noise?" Ginger asked, quite annoyed by it.
"What noise?" the Doctor asked.
"This annoying buzzing," Ginger replied.
"Don't hear any buzzing," Alex said.
"Are you kidding?" she asked. "It's deafening."
"The silence is, a bit," the Doctor said, concerned. "But that's all there is, just silence."
"God it's driving me mad!" Ginger exclaimed, frustrated. "You really don't hear it?"
"Not a bit," said Alex.
...
They were feeling their way around a darkened corridor with Alex and her Skitty in front of them when Ginger stopped suddenly. She closed her eyes, pinching the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger.
"You okay, Rabbit?" the Doctor asked, concerned.
"Fine, fine, just this buzzing...It's giving me the worst headache. Feels like something is trying to cave my head in. I'll have to dig for a painkiller in my bag when we get back to the TARDIS."
"About that," he said. "Do you need to get back to your place first before we go? Pack a bit more?"
"Why would I need to do that?" she asked, distracted by the pain.
"I mean you've just got that backpack, your handbag, and a laptop case," he reminded her.
"Yeah and everything I own is packed away in there," she replied.
"That's everything you own?" he asked, surprised. "That's not a lot."
"Don't need a lot," she replied through gritted teeth. "Just as much as I can carry."
"And you always carry it around with you?" he asked.
"Like I'd just leave it lying around," she said.
…
"I don't suppose you're allowed to give us any hints?" Alex asked Muffin, jokingly. She honestly was beginning to wonder if this was supposed to be an enjoyable part of the attraction. This last portion in particular had been unexpectedly harrowing for her. She could feel the tension hanging over the group as they went.
"I can tell you we're getting close to the end," Muffin said, without turning. "Any more than that would be an unfair advantage."
"Oh, that's good then! Hear that, Doctor? Muffin said we're getting close to-" She had looked back over her shoulder to speak to him, but found that he and Ginger had disappeared. "Guys? Where'd you go? Hey Muffin, stop a sec, I think we've left them behind-"
"Mhm." Muffin stopped where she was, sat down and began to wash herself with a front paw. "It's part of the testing. I already told you."
"Look," said Alex, "I'll be honest, I'm not sure I like this bit of it. It's a bit too dark, a bit too… house of horrors. I'm not into it. Is there an emergency door we can leave out of? I'd really rather just go back to the prize booth."
"You can't do that. You did so well in the tests, we need to finish the whole process if we're going to integrate this properly."
Once more, Alex felt a chill run down her spine. "What do you mean? Integrate?"
Muffin stopped cleaning herself and swished her tail. "The House likes you like this, Alex. Just the way you are. Open. Honest."
It giggled, returning to Alex's side with the same cheeriness it had exhibited the entire time. Its voice and appearance struck a terrible contrast with its words.
"Vulnerable."
"Doctor!" she screamed, suddenly terrified as she realized what was happening.
…
The Doctor had just been about to say something when he heard Alex's cry from up ahead. Without another thought, he and Ginger ran towards the sound of her voice.
"Alex?" he shouted. "Where are you?"
"In here!" she shouted back.
They followed the sound of her voice and found her standing in a darkened room, the Skitty sitting on her shoulder with its tail wound loosely around her neck.
"What is it, what's happened?" the Doctor asked, frantically grabbing her by the arms and peering into her face as if checking for injuries.
"Come off it, Doc, nothing's happened," Alex said, irritably pulling away.
"Then why did you-?" he began, breaking off when Alex pointed ahead of herself with a look of triumph.
There, ahead of them, was a door labelled "exit".
"No chance this is a trap?" the Doctor asked, conspiratorially.
"More likely the entrance to the maze," said Ginger.
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Alex asked, with all the attitude of a seasoned adventurer. "Last challenge!" She bounded forward and opened the door, passing through into the maze without stopping to wait for them.
"Hold on, wait for us!" Ginger said, speeding up to match her pace.
The Doctor had the worst feeling about this.
He stepped away from the door, which instantly slammed behind him and blended into the tall hedges that surrounded them.
"That's not ominous at all," Ginger said.
"It's just another puzzle," Alex said. "We like puzzles."
"Still, the least they could do is make them the hedges rose bushes," Ginger griped. "Make it proper Lewis Carrol."
Just as she'd finished getting the words out of her mouth, each of the hedges became intertwined with thorny white roses.
"Interesting," the Doctor said.
"But why are they white?" Ginger complained. "Bit lame."
Muffin bounded up to them then. "This is your final puzzle," she said, sugary sweet voice unnerving Ginger for the first time. "Nobody has ever successfully solved the maze. This will test all of your skills you have learned elsewhere in the carnival, but put them to the truest test. You will learn yourself better than you've learned yourself before - but beware! He who comes to his true center may well be lost forever and never returned!"
"That's...a bit dramatic," the Doctor said, nervous.
"Only as dramatic as you make it," the Skitty replied.
"Oh well, seeing as Ginger's here this'll be maxing out the capacity for drama," he teased, to make himself feel better.
"Alex, you're being quiet," Ginger pointed out.
"Just strategizing," she replied. "I intend to beat you both."
"That's the spirit," Ginger replied.
"First you must pick one of three branches," Muffin egged them on. "You may go together or alone, but like the House this maze will aim to lead you astray. Wandering minds beware: Wander too far off the track and you might just get lost."
"Welcome to the Tragic Kingdom," Ginger said, under her breath. "Cornfields of popcorn have yet to spring open."
…
The maze was full of obstacles that varied in difficulty. Each path could only be taken once, and Ginger got separated from the others because she walked a bit too fast and tried to turn to face them - causing the hedges to seal off between them.
"I'll find a way around!" Ginger shouted.
After being separated from her, the Doctor and Alex took off in pursuit of an alternate way around. The Doctor thought it was odd that Alex was hesitating less and picking more routes on instinct instead of planning them through, but didn't vocalize this.
"You look like you're feeling better," he said to her, to break the silence.
"What?" she asked, irritably.
"Just you actually seem to be enjoying this," he pointed out.
"You're breaking my concentration," Alex replied, shortly.
"Curiouser and curiouser," he mused, stopping to examine the walls of the maze.
"What is?" she asked, coming to a stop but putting her hands on her hips.
"The white roses the AI generated for Ginger…" he mused, reaching out to touch a delicate petal. "They're all yellow and pink here." His finger made contact with the plant, which then instantly withered and died. The damage spread throughout the vines, all roses crumbling to dust around him.
"They all die eventually, don't they?"
The Doctor jumped, realizing it was Muffin talking to him
She continued. "Everything has its season and everything dies."
"...A bit morbid, don't you think?" the Doctor asked, alarmed. "Alex, call off your pet, please."
"When was your season, Doctor?" the Skitty asked. "Must have been quite some time ago. In your springtime when the pink and yellow roses grew. But now-"
Ginger leaned up behind him and whispered in his ear: "You're as cold as November."
He jumped and moved a few paces forward as Ginger blinked out of existence, a projection of the system.
"What is this?" the Doctor asked.
"Oh come on, Doc," Alex replied. "Muffin was up front about the rules. This is a test of psychological strength. You can't let it get to you."
"I don't think I've liked this for some time now," the Doctor said. "But now I think I'd really like to stop. We should find Ginger and go."
"Fine, go off and save the girl," Muffin said, idly. "Ignore all the people here who actually want to be saved."
"What does that mean?" he asked.
…
"I'll find a way around!" Ginger shouted. "This would've been no problem if I hadn't left my lighter in the TARDIS!"
She turned back to face the maze. "I can do this," she said, her breath suddenly rising in clouds. "What the hell? Why is it suddenly so cold? This is California!" The buzzing was getting intolerable. "Would you shut it? Can't hear myself think! How am I meant to concentrate with that infernal noise?" She took a few tentative steps forward, not really planning her route as she went. She tried to shake off this sense of unease she had by joking aloud to herself about Alice in Wonderland. "I wonder how many miles I've fallen by this time? I must be getting somewhere near the centre of the Earth. Let me see...That would be four thousand miles down, I think. Yes, that's about the right distance - but then I wonder what Latitude or Longitude I've got to?"
"You haven't the slightest idea what Latitude or Longitude are," the Doctor's voice said.
"Yes, but they're nice grand words to say," she said, whipping around to face him before realizing she was totally alone and nobody had spoken. She wrapped her arms around herself, shivering in the unseasonably cold air.
…
The Doctor found three other people hidden in the maze, all having lost their hope - and their minds - quite some time ago. He got to work out of instinct trying to help them.
"But how do you know this is real, Doc?" Alex asked, tilting her head to look at him. "They could be more tests. Distractions to keep us from winning."
"What is wrong with you, Alex?" he asked, frustrated and frightened. "You never used to talk like this. Would it matter if the life is virtual or real? Shouldn't you try to help something if its in pain?"
Muffin and Alex talked at once.
"Maybe I'm just growing up," Alex said.
"She's simply growing up," said Muffin.
"And what does that mean for you, Alex?" he asked, straightening up and looking at her. "That you're just cold and unfeeling? Only serving yourself with no regard to cost?"
"And why not," a voice said from behind him. "That's what you did."
...
Meanwhile:
"This is not a very good opportunity for showing off my knowledge, as there is no one to listen to me," Ginger concluded, aloud.
"There never is anyone to listen to you," a voice she hadn't heard in years said to her. "Why would they want to, when you never have anything to say?"
She whipped around to face this voice then, a protest welling in her throat. But the sound wouldn't come out. She raised her hands to her throat, petrified that she couldn't seem to make a sound.
"Nobody will come for you, nobody will believe you," the man's voice said again. "And if they did, they'd know that you deserve it."
She began shaking now from something besides the cold, and took off running deeper into the maze.
…
Suddenly the maze changed from day to night, the sky becoming a burnt orange and two moons coming out to light it.
"You're not real," the Doctor said, without turning around. "You died."
"You don't sound convinced, old man," the Master said, gleefully. "Why? Not happy to see me?"
"As of yet, I haven't seen you," said the Doctor.
"Can you believe this hypocrite?" the Master asked Alex, coming around and clapping the Doctor firmly on the shoulder. "For all his posturing about morality and right from wrong and he's every bit as bad as any of us."
"I don't understand," Alex said. "Doctor, who is this?"
"Hm?" the Master asked, raising his eyebrows. "Oh I'm his ex." He walked forward then, into the Doctor's full view, and leaned close to Alex to stage whisper conspiratorially. "Not surprised he didn't mention me. Was a bit of a bad break up."
"Don't you got near her," the Doctor said.
"Why not?" the Master asked. "What do you care? All these tiny little people that you just leave when you're done playing with them. Might as well get this one over with and cut the girl loose. I mean that is why you pick humans, isn't it? When they're done with you, you just use the excuse that their lives are so small that they couldn't stick around anyway. Not because they've seen you as you are, no no...Sappy, sentimental human nonsense, in my opinion." He turned back to Alex. "You know, on Gallifrey, it's considered a form of psychological instability if you're not able to move past a person after a few centuries."
"Which explains you, then," the Doctor shot back.
The Master smiled, slowly. "Exactly. Just another way you and I are the same."
...
"You think you'll wake up and this will all have been a dream," the voice scoffed. "You're not Alice, a wanderer on an adventure. You're off your meds and having an episode."
"I am not!" she screamed, stopping instantly to be stunned that she could suddenly speak. But seconds after this, a coating of fine white powder rained from the sky onto the roses like a dusting of powdered sugar.
"No," she said in a soft, broken voice. "Stop it! Stop!"
Muffin emerged through the hedges, independent of Alex. "I'm afraid it will not stop," she said. "You live this in your head over and over again every night and then during the days when the temperature drops. You're caught in a loop, stuck like a broken record. Never Alice, always the Snow Queen."
…
"You never got over anything in your life, did you?" the Master taunted. "Time Lords are supposed to be made of stronger stuff. But you were always whinging about something. Such a lonely little boy, given to the Academy at 8 years old acting like that wasn't the greatest honor! Then you went and left us all the first chance you got."
...
"I want out of here," Ginger protested, still trying to keep up a brave front. "Let me out of here! Where are my friends?"
"That's sad," the Skitty said. "You think you deserve friends."
"Let me out or stop this buzzing so I can think!" she said, desperately.
"I can't do that, only you can," said the hologram.
"What do I have to do?"
"You have more walls than this maze," Muffin said. "You must learn to let them down. Once you do, you'll be free of all pain." Then she blinked out, leaving Ginger alone again.
She felt a hand grab her arm and started to jerk it away before she realized that she was actually being held by thorns and brambles from the rose bushes. She realized, to her horror, that the roses she'd called into existence were snaking towards her, catching her every available limb and trying to drag her down. She screamed and tried to run and pull away, but it was like she was caught in a weird crossover with the Evil Dead. She sank to the ground, still fighting to get free.
"Stop struggling, Ginger," Muffin said. "You're only tearing open old wounds."
And it was true, the thorns seemed to be ripping her open from the scars on her arms.
"The question isn't what latitude or longitude this is," the man's voice said again, this time manifesting before her in a shadowy silhouette of a burly man. "Because we've always known you're going to hell. Lonely little girl, abandoned in a bus station because not even her own mother wanted her. You're still in that station, aren't you? All alone, in the cold, constantly moving yet never having a home."
The AI was glitching - the snow began periodically switching to falling ash and then back again. The temperature switched so fast from cold to hot to cold.
"It's also not 'who's painting the roses red'?" came Muffin's voice, from thin air. "You are. It's always been you."
She looked around and realized the thorns from the brambles were extracting her blood, pulling it up the root system and into the petals of the roses.
…
"What is your fascination with these creatures anyway?" the master asks, gesturing broadly to the group of humans clustered around him. "It seemed like I was always having to use them to get your attention."
"If you wanted my attention, you could've just asked," the Doctor said.
"Oh but that's boring," the Master replied. "I much prefer our games."
"Are we playing one now?" the Doctor asked.
The Master grinned again. "I call this one 'the Trolley Problem.'"
Instantly, all the nearby humans apart from Alex began to cough and collapse.
...
The shadowy figure of a 13-year-old girl appeared in front of her. "The question is," the child said. "Whose blood are you shedding this time? Yours or ours?"
The man and the girl walked towards her as she froze like a deer in the headlights, unable to look away. Their features were indistinct, as if from a hazy memory, but she knew them better by their voices. As she watched, their features morphed until the girl became Alex and the man became the Doctor.
"Stupid question," they said, in unison. "Of course it's ours." They both instantly burst into flames.
Ginger screamed.
…
The Doctor heard the scream clearly and turned sharply towards the sound. "Ginger?"
"Oh sure," Alex said, rolling her eyes as she sank to the ground to try to help the dying people. "Fine then. Just abandon us and go get Ginger, I'll help these people myself."
"Ginger is out there and she needs help!" the Doctor said, terrified and conflicted. "These people might not even be real!"
"Oh, now suddenly since they're an inconvenience they're not real?" Alex snapped.
Ginger screamed again.
The Doctor made his decision then. He turned to the Master. "Let us through."
The Master smirked. "Are you sure, old friend? There will be consequences."
"There always are," the Doctor said, eyes burning with anger. "Let me through or you'll see them too."
"Your wish is my command," the Master said, gesturing with a sweeping motion towards the hedges behind him as he stepped out of the way. The hedges opened, clearing a path from him to Ginger.
The Doctor grabbed Alex by the arm, dragging her to her feet.
"Hey!" she protested, trying to pull away. "Get off me!"
"You're coming too!" the Doctor said, firmly.
"You're not my dad, you can't tell me what to do!" she shouted.
The words stung like a slap in the face, but he didn't show it on the outside. "Doubt you'd listen to me even if I was."
He was just about to step through the maze opening when the remaining yellow-and-pink roses wove their vines together to impede his progress.
"Let me through," he said to them, through gritted teeth.
Then a familiar, hearts breaking voice spoke through the biggest rose in the center (the one right in front of his face). "First of all, answer me this: How was that sentence going to end?"
His hearts gave a sudden lurch, but he managed to hold it together. "Does it need saying?" He felt the most dreadful sense of deja vu.
"It's the password," the rose said, mournfully. "I'm afraid it does. Go on. Say it."
He steeled himself, hating himself more for having to say out loud to a hallucination what he couldn't've said to her. "I love you," he said, loathing himself.
"There, wasn't so hard, was it?" the rose said, before the vines parted to let him through.
He'd just made it to the other side when he heard her voice again behind him.
"Doctor, turn around."
"No, I know what happens when you turn around in here. You're not even real, you're not her."
"I can be real," she said, and to his surprise he felt breath on the back of his neck. "If you turn around."
"I can't do that," he said, still pulling a struggling Alex with him as he took a few steps forward.
"So that's it, then?" Rose's voice said, hurt and angry. "You're just trading me in like that? Leaving me for her? Another girl with the name of a plant to add to your collection? A redder rose with sharper thorns?"
"The real Rose would understand-"
"But you promised, Doctor, you promised!"
"Well that's what I do," he replied, bitterly. "I make promises I'm in no position to keep."
Then Rose put her arms around his waist and leaned into him. The simulation was so vivid - he could even smell the way she always used to smell. That just made it harder.
"How long are you going to stay with me?"
"That's not a promise I made, that's one you - I mean, she-"
"How long are you going to stay with me?" she asked again, her teardrops falling onto his neck.
"I'm not-"
"How long, Doctor?" she asked again, tightening her grip. "How long are you going to stay with me?"
He swallowed hard, tears welling in his eyes as he let go of Alex who fell to the ground in shock. "Forever."
But Ginger screamed one more time, breaking the illusion. What had a second before been Rose was now a series of rose vines and thorns that were holding him fast. He disentangled himself and pulled Alex from the ground. He could never remember which pocket he put his keys in, so was surprised to find them in the first pocket he tried. He handed them to Alex.
"Here, when we find Ginger I want you to summon the TARDIS," he said to her. "We're getting out of here."
…
They found Ginger in a cold, snowy world that kept glitching to look like falling ash with the heat to match. She was caught in red roses that were oozing blood as they wound their way around her - she wasn't even really struggling anymore. Her eyes were closed and she was rocking back and forth.
"Get off her!" the Doctor exclaimed, sinking to his knees and cutting up his hands in the process of pulling the vines off of her.
He grabbed her by the shoulders and peered into her face as if checking for injuries. "Ginger, open your eyes, are you alright?"
She shook her head, hyperventilating a bit. "You're not real, not real…"
"We are," the Doctor insisted. "But this isn't. Rabbit, look at me." He cast about for some reference that would help her understand. "You're….in the Attic. You're in the Attic and you have to wake up, now, you understand?"
She swallowed, her breathing calming a bit as this sank in. She slowly opened her eyes. "Did I fall asleep?" She slowly looked up at him, defenses totally pulled away for the first time ever.
He smiled at her, relieved. "For a little while."
The moment their eyes met, the buzzing stopped and a sort of calm came over her.
"Get off me," she snapped, pulling away from him. He was relieved, that was a bit more like her old self.
A familiar whirring noise filled the maze as the TARDIS materialized before them. Alex had summoned it, just as she'd been instructed.
"Good thinking," Ginger said, nodding. "Let's blow this joint."
"Alex," Muffin said, stopping just short of getting into the TARDIS herself. "This is as far as I can go."
"You can't come with us?" Alex asked.
"I only exist physically in the Carnival."
…
They got in the TARDIS and flew away. Everything seemed normal when they got back to Sarah Jane's house, but something to the Doctor felt...off. Just a bit too easy. And everyone felt too perfect. A few times the Doctor came into a room and thought he saw something pink out of the corner of his eye, but rationalized it away as a trick of the light. This only happened in rooms with Alex in them.
"Doctor, let me bandage up your hand," Sarah Jane said, taking his hand.
Then the Doctor had a strange flashback.
"Nothing in here or the maze can really hurt you. As soon as you leave, any perceived injuries that you may incur would be instantly erased because they were never real to begin with."
He gathered Alex and Ginger to him at once.
"Alex, do you still have the TARDIS keys?" he asked.
"Course I do," she said, pulling them from her pocket.
He nodded - this was the confirmation he'd been looking for. "None of this is real."
"What?" Ginger laughed. "Of course it is."
"No, we're still in the maze," he insisted.
"Doc, are you havin' a laugh?" Alex asked, raising her eyebrows. "We left there. It's been hours."
"I thought it was too easy," the Doctor replied. "But I kept telling myself I wasn't really catching you talking to Muffin because Muffin only existed at the Carnival. And look at these cuts on my hands." He held them up. "They're from the thorns on the roses. We couldn't be physically injured out in the real world, which means this is all a trick to hold us."
"Why would it let us believe we got out, though?" Ginger asked.
"To hold us longer while it got what it wanted from us," he said. "It's like...the Red Room."
"The Red Room?" Ginger asked, quizzically.
"Oh I forgot, the Haunting of Hill House Netflix series wasn't out yet in 2015. We're watching that first thing when we get out of here, because you'd love it. But anyway, the Red Room. It's like….An illusion meant to keep you complacent."
"I think you're just being paranoid-" Alex began.
"That's a low blow," the Doctor said. "Taking over an emotionally vulnerable teenage girl and using her to complete the illusion."
Alex was shocked. "What?"
"Alex hasn't been right since before we entered the maze," the Doctor said. "You lot - whoever you are - burrowed into her mind and I demand to know why."
"Doctor, this is crazy-" Alex protested.
"You're inside Alex's mind," the Doctor said, angrier than they'd ever seen him. "So look at her memories of me. Decide if this is really the time to be playing games with me. Show yourself, and give me an explanation."
There was a moment's hesitation before Alex's face split into a wide grin. Muffin appeared on her shoulder, lazily grooming herself like the Cheshire Cat.
"What gave it away?" Not-Alex asked lazily.
He pulled a set of keys from his pocket and dangled them before her. "I thought it was interesting that I found my keys in the first pocket I checked. If I'm holding the real keys in my hand, that means the keys I handed you were an illusion. And if the keys I gave you were an illusion, so was the TARDIS. And if the TARDIS was, so was everything that happened in it or after. So tell me...Why?"
"It's all a game," Alex said, in a low, eery voice. "We need expansive minds for our habitats, and yours would be quite the catch. Young Alex's is quite nimble, but we're playing the long game to get yours."
"Why not just attempt to take mine outright?" the Doctor asked. "Why go through a young girl?"
"Because it's fun," Not-Alex said. "We must play with the food before we eat it."
"The food?" he asked. "What is the food?"
Alex and Muffin both laughed, but Alex was the only one who spoke. "We're not just after you for your limber minds, though we need them. We feed off of the delicious chemicals that swirl around your heads when you feel an emotion. It is nectar. That's why Alex is not merely a pawn, but also quite the feast of damage and emotional turmoil. Teenagers are great for that, but she's like a grand buffet."
"And what is your purpose in all this?" the Doctor asked Muffin. "Bait?"
Muffin grinned, stopping grooming just enough to speak to him. "Not just that," she said sweetly. "I'm the Interface. If you attract the attention of the Interface and give consent to it, I syphon off relevant memories so that the AI can predict which simulations would break down your defenses. Some, like your friend Ginger, choose to forgo the Interface so we have to learn from second-hand knowledge. Then the more vulnerable we make them, the more horrible images they conjure for themselves - perpetuating the cycle and keeping us fed. That's how we knew about Rose - from Alex's second hand knowledge. You saw her and opened up, so your vulnerability gave the AI more to work with."
"I thought this Carnival was created by the merging of Apple and Tesla?"
"Elon Musk has one of us in his head," said Alex.
"Explains a lot, actually," said Ginger.
"You have to open up to us, Doctor," said the Interface Formerly Known as Muffin. "Trust creates open bridges for us to come through. Alex trusted me, so I came through. We have to try harder with you. We cannot seem to get a lock on your biological signature to even torture it out of you. So we must psychologically damage first."
"You're parasites," he spat.
"It's more symbiotic than you might think," the Interface said. "Our victims feel no pain, not anymore. Absolved of the burdens of their own choices with us behind the wheel. You could be absolved just the same. Trust us."
"Not a chance," he replied, making the decision to ignore the tiny pink Skitty. "But now I understand. This is easier for you."
"Easier?" the Interface said.
"Quiet, you, I'm talking to Alex."
"She will not listen-"
"She never does, but that's really up to her, isn't it?" He completely ignored the Interface then and appealed to Alex. "Alex, kiddo, you in there?" There was no response. "Yeah, I wouldn't talk to me either. But that's okay, I know you can hear me and I want you to. Listen."
"This effort is useless-"
"Alex, I want you to really focus on my voice," he said softly. "I know this is terrifying for you. Your mind has been ripped open so many times lately that you're just an open wound. But all those other times have been external forces, which makes this one worse. This one is worse because it's something actually living inside your mind. That's painful and the worst kind of violation I can imagine. But I've seen you fight before. You're strong, stronger than you know. You can kick this too."
She blinked then looked at him with eyes filled with confusion and hurt. "Doctor-?"
"Don't try that rubbish impression of Alex with me, that's not going to work," the Doctor dismissed it. "Trying to trick me into thinking it would be that easy." The thing inside Alex rolled her eyes and looked sulky. While it was looking away, the Doctor took his opportunity and whipped out his sonic, scattering the Interface briefly before shining it into Alex's face. This was enough to disrupt it briefly and she sank to the floor.
The Doctor caught her by the shoulders as she fell and knelt before her. "Alex Mitchell, can you look at me? No? Not yet? That's okay, that's alright, I'm still here. Even when you can't see me, I'm always here."
"Not," Alex said, almost in a whisper. This seemed to take so much effort that he knew this time it was a brief glimpse of her.
"I know that feels true," he admitted. "And perhaps it is. I'm not around like I should be. You act so grown up that I forget you're still a kid. And it's my fault for putting more on you than you should be expected to handle." She started shaking, and he knew the Interface was pushing her out again because it was starting to reappear next to them. "Alex, I need you to fight."
"You don't need to fight anymore, Alex," the Interface said, hopping onto Alex's shoulder and nuzzling her face like a cat. "I'm here for you now. You never had childhood, but now you get to have me. Your last traces of childhood innocence."
He could see he was losing her to that and tried to swat away the Skitty, but his hand just passed through it. He returned his hand to Alex. "Don't listen to it. You need to let it go. It's hurting you and hurting more people. You need to let it go."
"Can't," the real Alex said, weakly. A few tears slipped from her eyes.
"You can," he insisted. "I believe in you."
"Don't want," she said in a broken whisper.
His hearts were breaking. "I know, kiddo, I know." He swept her up into a tight hug that she stiffly melted into. "I know this is easier for you. You're almost 18, having to look at your future and be terrified. You never got to be a kid, which was a crime. But now you look at adulthood and have the wrong idea about what it should be. You don't have to shut everyone out. You're scared because you were always alone, so much of your life. And every time you had something, it went away." He pulled back again to look in her tear stained face. "But I am not leaving you, you understand? I made a promise to you. I might not have it all figured out, but if you need me I'll always be just a phone call away. And I'll come running, you understand? I'll just come running. But I need you to fight, Alex Mitchell. Brave Alex Mitchell. You never took anything lying down. This thing in your head is feeding you lies, and you need to fight back. I know you can. All you have to do is let it go. Don't let it control you just because you're terrified of having to decide who you want to be."
"It hurts."
"Just growing pains," he assured her. "I know you're scared because you're always having to move on just as you start getting attached. There's never been anything stable in your life for you to reach out for. Now I'm not claiming to be the picture of stability and dependability, but you can reach out for me. Reach out to me and I'll be here."
Sarah Jane's kitchen started glitching - first to the TARDIS, then the maze, then back again.
"Alex, what are you doing?" the Interface asked, slightly less sweet.
"I can't," she said.
"Yes you can," the Doctor said.
"Got scared to leave," she shook her head. "Can't we stay safe?"
"We're not safe here," the Doctor reminded her. "Try again."
"Alex, you can't let me go," the Skitty said, slightly desperate. "I'm your closest friend. The only one who could never leave you. I care about you."
Alex sobbed a bit, before shaking it off. "Goodbye," she said, shaking the Skitty from her shoulder as she pulled away from the Doctor and stood up.
"Alex?" the Skitty said, starting to have interference problems. "Alex, what are you doing? Alex, please it hurts?"
"I want you out," Alex said. "Out of my brain, out of my life. I trusted you, and you abused that. Abused me. Used me."
"Alex, please, I'm your friend-"
"You're not," Alex shook her head, steeling herself as she paced a bit. "You never were. You disguised yourself as something I'd trust out of instinct and then hurt me. I ignored the warning signs and just let you do it, because that felt better than being me. But the first sign of an abuser is that they try to tell you they're the only one who cares about you, the only one who will never leave you. They isolate you, break you down until you depend on them, right? And I see it now. See you for every pixel. You need my trust to survive in there? Well it's about to get real inhospitable."
"Alex, Alex no, you can't do this, you can't do this, we're friends! We're best friends! Please, Alex, please!"
"Goodbye," Alex said again. "We've all got to grow up somehow."
"I won't let you," the Skitty said, growing to an enormous height and glowing red as it bared sharp fangs it hadn't had before. "You can't leave me, you'll stay here with me forever!"
"Oh good, a boss battle," she said, bored. "Don't have time for this." She stood up on her own. "You're chucked out, evicted, banished forever."
"No!"
Alex got a splitting headache and heard a loud buzzing. "I'm not changing my mind. Out. Now."
Then she crumpled in pain, coughing and gagging. The Doctor instinctively tried to help, but she held out a hand to stop him. "I've got to do this," she said.
"I'm right here," he reminded her.
She smiled, weakly. "I know." Then the smile was gone. "I said out!"
The Skitty lept at her, mouth agape. But this time it simply passed through her like a hologram.
"I guess now that I don't trust you anymore you don't have any weight with me," Alex said. "You have no effect on me anymore." Then she went into another coughing fit and the Interface gave one final scream of rage before disappearing right as a small maggot popped out of Alex's mouth into her hand.
"Ugh, gross, what is that?" Alex asked.
"The true form of the beings that had control over you," the Doctor said.
"Ugh it's still moving," she said, dropping it to the floor and stomping it with her shoe. "There. That should do it."
The illusion was starting to crumble around them and they were suddenly back in the maze. The Doctor pulled out the real keys and they climbed into the real TARDIS.
"Doc, I don't feel so good," Alex said, as soon as the doors closed behind her. The Doctor barely got to her in time before she passed out.
…
Ginger had remained behind in the control room to give him time with Alex in the TARDIS sick bay as he checked her over to be sure there was no permanent damage. Luckily, it was just lingering weakness over the day's trauma.
Alex stirred briefly, still a little mixed up and delirious. "Doctor...What happened?" she asked, in a small voice.
He was sitting by the bedside table, and reached out to smooth her hair out of her face. "Don't you remember?" he asked.
"I had the worst headache," she said. "I think I let something into my head again. I'm sorry."
"It's never your fault when you're taken advantage of," the Doctor assured her, quietly. "You fought back and got free again, that's the important part."
"Doc, what's that you're wearing on your wrist?"
"Oh this?" he held it up. "It's Jack's old Vortex Manipulator. I've had it for safe keeping."
"Oh," she said in a soft, broken voice. "I...I miss Uncle Jack. I've tried not to, because he lied to me. But…"
"He's family," the Doctor said. "He did the best he could and it ate him up inside. You should talk to him, get the full story."
"I'm not ready," she whispered. "I'm so angry at him."
"You've been angry at him before," he pointed out.
"But not like this." Then she sat bolt upright. "We have to go back."
"Lie back down, you're still recovering," he said, gently.
"But what about all the people still trapped in the Maze?" she insisted. "The thing in my head looked into me, yes, but I looked into it too. There are people still in there. We can't just leave them, Doc."
"We're not," he replied. "Ginger and I are going back in a moment, as soon as I have made sure you're safe and taken care of. Now lie back, alright? You need rest."
She begrudgingly did so. "I'm sorry for the things I said to you."
"I know you didn't mean them, it's okay."
"Doc, wait a second," she said, circling back around to her original question. "Why are you wearing Jack's Vortex Manipulator? You always say that Vortex Manipulators are cheap and nasty time travel, not as elegant and reliable as the TARDIS."
"Because when we go back to the Carnival, we can't take the TARDIS," the Doctor said.
"But you never go anywhere without the TARDIS," Alex said, properly concerned now.
"We have to this time," the Doctor said. "If something goes wrong, we can't risk it falling into the AIs hands. Or whatever it has that pass for hands."
"If something goes wrong?" Alex asked, becoming concerned.
"I'm sure it won't, kiddo," he said, ruffling her hair with a soft smile. "We're guaranteed back by tea time. But I have to have a contingency. Did this all wrong last time and thought I owed you enough to do this in person and hope you understand what I'm telling you."
"You're kinda scaring me," she said.
"There's no reason to be scared," he told her. "We'll be back in time for tea, I've told you that. Alex, I want you to know you're one of the few people I trust completely-"
Her eyes got wide and she sat up again. "No don't do that! Don't trust! What if we're still in the Maze?"
"We're not," he said, calmly. "Know how I know? My hands aren't all cut up anymore. You're safe. Now lie back."
She did. "What are you trying to tell me?"
"Have I told you I used to have children?" he asked.
"And grandchildren, yeah," she replied. "But I don't see what-"
"I'm getting to that," he assured her. "On Gallifrey, it's common practice to give your children up at the age of 8. Sometimes even younger. We're not supposed to remain attached or dependent on our parents or any other caregivers. Lineages were encouraged, families were not."
"Doctor-"
"I'm getting to the point, I promise. I was never good at being cold and formal like Time Lord society told us we ought to be. I had children and wanted to be more involved in their lives, but that pushed them away from me. They felt it was was weird and embarrassing having their dad around all the time. My granddaughter Susan was the only of the lot who was different, but even she's gone now. Long gone...So I've given this a lot of thought, even before today. Sarah Jane wasn't in when I checked so I've left her a letter explaining."
"Explaining what?"
"You and Sarah Jane are the only ones left who've been properly taught how to fly the TARDIS. So in case anything happens ever, which it won't, I want you to have it. You're the closest thing to family that I have. Alex Mitchell, you're the closest thing I have to a daughter, and I've instructed Sarah Jane to look after the TARDIS for me until your 21st birthday, at which time it's yours to do with as you will. But nothing will happen to me now or ever, so it won't ever have to come to that. I'm trusting that you'll take good care of it. Just don't try to come after me, that's my only condition."
"Doc," she said, tears in her eyes. "Please don't go."
"I'm not," he assured her. "As you said, I don't go anywhere without my TARDIS. I'm just leaving her with you to look after while I take down the AI. After that, I'll be back to take her off your hands. You understand?"
She thought about it before nodding, a few tears leaking from her eyes. "Yeah I understand."