Melanie looked up when she heard a bleeping sound from the console. "Maybe it's a distress signal", Mickey suggested as he listened to it.

"A fat lot of good that's going to do", Rose muttered.

"I wonder whats taking Jackie so long?" Melanie asked wanting to get Rose thinking about something else other than the situation they were currently in.

"I dunno", Rose replied "I'd better give her a hand. It might start raining missiles out there".

"I'll give you a hand", Melanie said getting up.

"Tell her anything from a tin, that's fine", Mickey called after the two of them as they headed for the door.

"Why don't you tell her yourself?" Rose asked with her hand on the door.

"I'm not that brave", Mickey admitted.

"Oh, I don't know…" Rose said with a smile and opened the door. She and Melanie were promptly grabbed and roughly pulled out of the box causing them to scream.

Mickey rushed after them, knocking over the open thermal flask as he went. "Close the door!" Melanie shouted at him as she struggled in the Sycorax's grip. The black managed to shut the door before he too was grabbed by a Sycorax. The Sycorax that had grabbed Melanie walked over to his leader and spoke quietly to him.

"What are they talking about?" Rose asked Melanie quietly.

"I don't know. I can't hear them", she replied.

Whatever the Sycorax had said to the leader, the alien nodded before looking straight at the group of humans. He raised his hand and pointed at Melanie and said "That girl. She has the key to the clever blue box" Melanie glanced down at her key hanging around her neck. "She owns the blue box. Therefore, she speaks for your planet".

Melanie looked up at him eyes wide. "But she can't, she's just a kid", Harriet protested.

"I'm not a kid Harriet. I'm 19", Melanie corrected her "and if they want me to speak for the planet, then I'll speak for the planet".

Rose caught her by the arm as she stepped forward "Think you can do this?" Rose asked quietly.

"Honestly? No. But I don't have a choice", Melanie replied honestly.

"Good luck", Mickey said giving her an encouraging smile. Melanie took a deep breath and composed herself the best she could before she turned to address the Sycorax Leader.

"I address the leader of the Sycorax under the contract laid out in convention 15 of the Shadow Proclamation. You think you can just swan with your big ship and army, take our loved ones hostage and expect the rest of us to surrender? In what universe would anyone just surrender when the people we love are in danger? Answer: none. You know what we would do? Fight back" as Melanie spoke she felt this sudden surge of courage within her "And we'd win. Wanna know why? Because we have something worth fighting for and you don't. So I'm giving you this one chance. Release the hostages then take yourself, your army and get off our planet. Leave and don't ever come back. Because I guarantee you that if you stay, it won't end well for you".

There was a moment of silence before all the Sycorax burst into laughter. "You are very, very funny", the Sycorax leader told Melanie "And now you're going to die", he added a little more angrily.

"Leave her alone!" Harriet and Rose shouted at the same time Mickey said

"Don't touch her!"

The trio tried to run forward to come to Melanie's aid but they were restrained by Sycorax. The Sycorax leader continues to speak, circling the young woman as he did so. "Did you think you were clever to threaten us?" the leader raised his arms "We are the Sycorax, we stride the darkness" the alien hissed at Melanie who flinched, the courage she had when she spoke was no gone, leaving her feeling rather afraid "Next to us you are but a wailing child. If you are the best your planet can offer as a champion, then your world will be gutted and your people enslaved. And I'll take great pleasure in killing you slowly".

"Hold on, that's English", Alex, the man who'd been translating what the Sycorax leader had been saying.

"He's talking English", Harriet repeated.

"I would never dirty my tongue with your primitive bile!" the leader spat.

"You can definitely here English, right?" Melanie asked Alex, Harriet, Rose and Mickey. She understood the Sycorax Leader when he spoke so she couldn't tell if he'd suddenly started to speak English but she knew if the others could hear it then tha meant the TARDIS was translating. If the box was translating for them it meant only one thing. The Doctor was awake. That thought made her heart soar. She had been really worried when he collapsed on the balcony.

"Yes", Rose replied a smile growing on her face. She'd reached the same conclusion that Melanie had.

"Absolutely", Mickey agreed.

Melanie turned back to the Sycorax leader "see? They can definitely hear English", she said.

"I only speak Sycoraxic!" the Sycorax Leader declared.

"I know you do but I think you're missing the point. If they can hear English that means it's being translated…which means…" she broke off to turn towards the TARDIS. Mickey, Alex, Harriet and Rose followed suit. The doors to the TARDIS open and there stood the Doctor looking much better than he did before.

"Did you miss me?" he asked with a grin, his eyes fixed on Melanie.

The Sycorax leader roared in fury and lashes his whip at the Doctor who catches it easily. He yanks it out of the alien's hands and tosses it away. The Sycorax tried to attack him with his staff and again the Doctor disarmed him. This time he snapped the staff in half and tossed he pieces away. "You threatened my Bonded. That was a bad move. It makes me decidedly less merciful", the Doctor warned. The Sycorax was lucky that he'd only threatened Melanie, if he'd hurt her in anyway… then the Leader would learn why he's sometimes called the Oncoming Storm.

He turned to the humans, greeting them all as he passed until he got to Melanie. "Hello", he said smiling softly at her.

"Hi", Melanie said responding with her own smile "How are you feeling?" she asked.

"Much better. My head's nice and clear. All I needed was a good cup of tea", the Doctor replied. The pair looked at each other for a moment before Melanie flung her arms around him. The Doctor immediately wound his arms around her.

"Good", she said "no, more than good…fantastic". That gets a laugh out the Doctor for the use of his previous self's catchphrase.

"I'm sorry. Who is this?" Harriet asked interrupting their moment. The Doctor let go of Melanie and turned to Harriet.

"I'm the Doctor", he replied.

"He's the Doctor", Melanie repeated.

"But what happened to my Doctor? Or is it a title that's just passed on?" Harriet questioned.

"I'm him. I'm literally him", the Doctor assured her "Same man, new face. Well, new everything".

"But you can't be", Harriet insisted. How could he be? He looked completely different.

The Doctor knew he was going to have to persuade her that he was still the Doctor the same way he did with Melanie. "Harriet Jones, we were trapped in Downing Street and the one thing that scared you wasn't the aliens…it wasn't the war…it was the thought of your mother being on her own".

"Oh, my God", Harriet breathed realising that this man in front of her was indeed the Doctor.

"Did you win the election?" the Doctor asked.

"Landslide majority", Harriet said smiling, rather pleased.

"If I might interrupt!" the Sycorax Leader shouted.

They all spin around having completely forgotten all about him. "Yes! Sorry! Hello, big fella!" the Doctor said cheerily although his stance had turned defensive as he face the Sycorax Leader.

"Who exactly are you?" the alien asked.

"Well, that's the question", the Doctor answered with a grin.

"I demand to know who you are!" the Sycorax Leader demanded.

"I DON'T KNOW!" the Doctor bellowed back mimicking the leader's roar. He then relaxed "See, there's the thing. I'm the Doctor, but beyond that I…I just don't know. I literally do not know who I am. It's all untested. Am I funny? Am I sarcastic?" he looks at Melanie "Sexy?" he gave her a cheeky wink and she smiles back shyly "Right old misery? Life and soul? Right handed? Left handed? A gambler? A fighter? A coward? A traitor? A liar? A nervous wreck? I mean, judging by the evidence, I've certainly got a gob" The Doctor noticed a button "And how am I going to react when I see this" he points at it with an insane smile "a great big threatening button" he runs up the stairs laughing A Great Big Threatening Button Which Must Not Be Pressed Under Any Circumstances. Am I right? Let me guess. It's some sort of control matrix? Hmm? Hold on, what's feeding it?"

The Doctor crouched down and opens the door in the base of the pillar supporting the button "And what've we got here? Blood?" he dips a finger in and tastes it "Yeah, definitely blood. Human blood. A Positive, with just a dash of iron" he waggles his tongue around at the nasty taste and wipes his finger on his dressing gown "Ah, but that means…blood control…" the Doctor become delighted at that "Blood control! Oh, I haven't seen blood control for years. You're controlling all the A Positives. Which leaves us with a great big stinking problem. Because I really don't know who I am. I don't know when to stop. So if I see a Great Big Threatening Button Which Should Never Ever Be Pressed…then I just want to do this"

He whacks the button hard "No!" Harriet and Rose shouted. Melanie didn't think he'd just press the button if he wasn't sure that the people under the Sycorax's control where safe.

"You killed them!" Alex exclaimed.

"What do you think, big fellow? Are they dead?" the Doctor asked.

"We allow them to live", the Sycorax replied.

"Allow? You've no choice! I mean, that's all blood control is. A cheap bit of voodoo. Scares the pants off you, but that's as far as it goes" the Doctor explained "It's like hypnosis…you can hypnotise someone to walk like a chicken or sing like Elvis. You can't hypnotise them to death. Survival instinct's too strong".

"Blood control was just one form of conquest. I can summon the armada and take this world by force", the Sycorax Leader said.

"Well, yeah, you could, yeah, you could do that, of course you could. But why? Look at these people" the Doctor gestured to the humans "These human beings. Consider their potential. From the day they arrive on the planet and blinking step into the sun, there is more to see than can ever be seen. More to do than…"

"Um….that's the Lion King", Melanie pointed out. A couple of days after Rose left, she'd decided to have a movie marathon as she wanted some light hearted Disney fun to cheer herself up. Part way through the Little Mermaid, the Doctor joined her. Pretty soon they were watching another and another. The Lion King was amongst one of the movies they'd watched.

"Is it? Well the point still stands. Leave them alone!" the Doctor demanded.

"Or what?" the Sycorax leader challenged.

"Or…" the Doctor grabs a sword from one of the Sycorax guarding the humans, runs down the steps and comes to a stop in front of the TARDIS "I challenge you"

The leader and the other Sycorax burst out in laughter "Oh, that struck a chord. Am I right that the sanctified rules of combat still apply?"

"You stand as this world's champion", the Sycorax leader said unsheathing his sword and walking down the steps.

The Doctor shrugged off his dressing gown "Thank you. I've no idea who I am, but you just summed me up" he tossed the dressing gown over to Melanie who just about catches it. "So…you accept my challenge? Or are you just a cranak pel casacree salvak?"

The Sycorax hisses at the insult. The two kneel by their swords. "For the planet?"

"For the planet"