Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Doctor Who, everything belong to the BBC with the exception of my own original character and some changes in the script.

A/N: This is where the big change really spot on I guess? Because when I think about the scene where Rose met with Madame de Pompadour isn't an enough satisfactory for me of the portrayal so I change it a bit and of course it become in a sort of when the Doctor met Van Gogh. This is also where I think people tend to forget about the real Madame de Pompadour and how she was not only just the Mistress of the King but she was brilliant, she ran the French politics and even the diplomats of her time was asking for her opinion first about a certain issue. She was so dead brilliant, and I think in this chapter would told her enough for her to regain her sense of determination.

Anyway! To the story!

Chapter 26

Murderous Clockwork Droid

On the other side of the mirror, Sam walked out with Arthur on his side. Sam bumped into the horse, as the animal whined and nuzzled his shoulder, eliciting a giggle from his throat. He looked around and tried to find where the droids would run off too as he grabbed the strapped of the horse.

"Come on Arthur," he smiled and stroked the horse muzzle. "Time to find some droids."

He marched down the hall in search of the clockwork droids, not watching where he was going and bumped into one of the clockwork androids. Panicking, Sam whirled around to escape but was quickly snatched by a second droid. Hurriedly, he let go of Arthur making the horse run away as he kicked and screamed with all his might, scaring the horse to running away. One robot gripped him in a bruising hold while the other pressed a needle into his skin, injecting him with a foreign liquid.

His screams died, and Sam slumped to the ground.

0o0

"I could've danced all night, I could've danced all night." the Doctor sang, crashing into objects. He briefly danced wilding with a banana setting a new rage before disappearing once more. He'd nabbed and eventually wearing a sunglasses and his tie around his head, dragging himself back through the corridor of the spaceship.

He led himself down towards the sound, leaning over the ship while giggling happily. "And still have begged for more," the Doctor continued to sang drunkenly as he staggered about the room. "I could've spread my wings and done thou." He spun around, and spotted a familiar white horse. "Arthur! You lovely horse, where have you been?"

Arthur bumped his nuzzle to him, urgently and that made the Doctor giggled even more. "Oh, you silly horse! What are you doing here again?"

He grabbed the strapped gently and his brain finally come around as alcohol has ran through his Time Lord biology and neutralized it, he now realized the strapped should be held by a familiar small little boy holding the strapped and followed the horse, and as he can see; he wasn't there. Panicked started ran through him.

"Sam!" the Doctor shouted as he sprinted down the corridors, frantically darting his eyes down every intersection he passed.

There was only one reason Arthur would have wondered off alone, the droids must have taken him. But where? He barrelled down the halls, he needs to find him quickly.

0o0

Sam's eyes fluttered open as a loud ticking reached him. He squinted a bit as he tried to get his bleary eyes to focus on the shapes that were surrounding him. Ticking reverberated through the room and he felt like he must be surrounded by a hundred of the rids. As the sedative wore off, he realized it was only a handful but that was more than enough for him to realized he was strapped to a table.

"W-what's going on?" he stammered.

He tried to sit up, but he was strapped firmly to a medical gurney buy his wrists and ankles. The entire fleet of the clockwork robots stared at him, ticking and grinding as they waited for the droid by his side to command them. Sam had a sinking feeling that the ship's crew had been shackled to this exact table before they had been gutted for spare parts.

'You are compatible.' the droid declared in a toneless voice.

"What?" Sam squeaked.

A sharp whirring saw propelled out of the droid's hand and hovered by his throat.

"No!" Sam shouted, trashing about to try and get free of his table. His face draining of colour as he tried to lean away from the blade approaching his throat. "No, please!"

'You are compatible.'

It suddenly moved its hand and the teeth of the blade nicked his throat. Sam cringed in pained.

"Compatible?" boomed a voice in the doorway.

The saw stopped, and all of the droids turned in synchronized movement to stare at the Doctor in the entrance.

"More compatible than Madame de Pompadour?" the Doctor scoffed. He strolled casually into the room looking a one of the clockwork. "It's you. You're my favourite, you are. You are the best! Do you know why? Because you're so thick." He blustered. "You're Mister Thick, Thick, Thickity Thick Face from Thick Face from Thick town. And so is your dad."

"Doctor…" Sam said in fear.

"Do you what they were scanning Reinette's brain for?" the Doctor asked. He strolled away from the droid. "Her milometer. They wanna know how old she is. Know why? Cos this ship is thirty-seven years old," he exclaimed mockingly. "And they think when Reinette is thirty-seven, when she is complete, then her brain will bill compatible. See, that's what you're missing isn't it? Hmm? Command circuit. Your computer. Your ship needs a brain and for some reason- Go knows what, only the brain of Madame de Pompadour will do."

'The brain is compatible.' the droid next to Sam said.

"Compatible?" he asked incredulously as he walked back over to it. "If you believe that, you probably believe this."

Quick as a flash, he stuck his hand in his jacket, yanked off the droid's wig and dumped the contents of a bottle onto its head. The red liquid dripped down the face of the robot and its gears seized with a crunch, freezing the clockwork in place.

"Multigrade anti-oil," the Doctor told him. "If it moves, it doesn't.

A cacophony of whirs and ticking filled the air as the remaining droids stiffly marched towards him, outraged over the attack of their leader. The Doctor flicked a switch on a nearby control panel, and the clockwork figures stopped and bent over in suspended animation. With the threat neutralized, the Doctor pulled the sonic from his pocked and unlatched the bars shackling Sam to the table.

"Are you alright?" the Doctor hurried over, using his sonic screwdriver to undo the straps holding Sam to the table. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have stayed."

Sam responded with a slight nod, still shaking a bit.

Next thing he knew, the Doctor was snatching him up in a desperate embrace, he felt the alien stiffened and shivered for a moment. It was a tight relived hug, that he was there, he was safe. From this exact moment, he knows his decision of taking the boy home was the best decision he made, seeing him almost being chopped off, seeing him got hurt was a final warning of the danger travelling with him.

The Doctor let him go and grimaced at the marked on his neck. He hurriedly rummaged through his pockets until he found a plaster and quickly placed it over the cut. "I'm sorry for taking too long. I had to stall them with some kind of rubbish talk. Glad they bought it. Must be really thick."

Sam glanced around at the frozen robots. "Are they safe?"

"Yep, safe," the Doctor said, pulling his tie back down from his head and pushing the glasses up to his hair. "Safe and thick. Way I like them. Okay, all the time windows are controlled from here. I need to close them all down." He began to dig in his pocket," Zeus plugs. Where are my Zeus plugs? I had them a minute ago."

"Why didn't they just open a time window to when she was thirty-seven?"

"With the amount of damage to these circuits, they did well to hit the right century," the Doctor shrugged. "Trial and error after that. The windows aren't closing. Why won't they close?"

A bell went off, and Sam flinched. "What's that?"

"I don't know," the Doctor checked. "Incoming message?"

"From who?"

"Reports from the field," the Doctor answered. "One of them must still be out there with Reinette. That's why I can't close the windows. There's an override."

There was a sudden loud whirring sound and droids on the flight deck all woke up suddenly. Sam's eyes widened and gasped as one of the clockwork droid that the Doctor had knocked out with anti-oil excreted from its hand, letting the fluid run down its sleeve and onto the Doctor's shoes.

"Well, that was a bit clever," the Doctor smiled nervously eyeing the reactivated droid and the lever that he'd pulled to deactivated the other droids clicked back into the on position, all by itself and the other slumped over droids in the room straightened back up with a loud whir, each one of them ticking ominously. "All right. Many things about this are not good." The sound chimed again and he called out to them. "Message from one of your little friends, say anything interesting?"

'She is complete.' the droid announced. 'It begins.'

With that, all of them teleported out.

"What's happening?"

"One of them must have found the right time window. Now it's time to send in the troops," the Doctor explained. He looked at him in the eye. "And this time, they're bringing back her head."

"What?" Sam exclaimed. "But she can't die, I thought she died at forty or somethin?"

"She can't, not yet. She died at seventeenth sixty-four at the age of forty-two," the Doctor told him. He pinched the bridge of his nose and paced the room in irritation. "I need to find that window and stop them."

"What if I went through one of the windows?" Sam thought out loud, trying to suggest a plan. "Would it help if I warned her? We know they are coming when she's thirty-seven. I could tell her to stall somethin'?"

"Yes! That would work. Not for long, but it'll buy us some time." the Doctor told him. He dashed out of the room with him in his tail, fixing his outfit the rest of the way as he ran. He stopped in front of a tapestry and scanned it with his sonic. "Right, okay, Sam! This should lead you to Reinette when she's thirty-two. You need to find her and warn her that they're coming in five years. They programmed to respond to her, she can't stop them but hopefully she can delay them until I can get there."

He nodded and took a stepped inside one of the time window. But before he got too far ahead, the Doctor called out, "Sam?"

"Yeah?"

"Be safe."

With a last nod to try reassured himself, he was off further into the ship hot on his heels, trying to find any time window that would lead him into the right time and saves the history and Reinette's. Leaving Sam staring after for a moment before he took a deep breath and walked through the mirror. A lavish tapestry hung in the hall not far ahead. Hoping this was an ideal time window to enter, he pulled back the drapery and stepped into an elegant music. It was fairly dark, and he tip-toed across the floor, not wanting to alert any guards.

"Madame de Pompadour," Sam called as he stepped into the grand room and the elegant woman in question let out a gasp of surprise and whirled around. "Sorry! Please, don't scream. It's nice to see you again but we don't have a lot of time. I've come to warn you that they'll be here in five years."

"Five years?" Reinette asked, eyeing the boy with a frown.

"Sometime after your thirty-seventh birthday," Sam supplied, "I um- I can't give you an exact date. It's a bit random, but they're coming. It's going to happen and in a way, for us, it's already happening." He gave her an apologetic look. "I'm sorry, it's hard to explain. The Doctor does this better."

"Then please be exact Sam, and I will try be attentive," Reinette said patiently.

"I don't think there is enough time."

"There are five years," she pointed out.

"For you. I haven't got five minutes."

"Will you at least try for me?"

He took a deep breath. "There's a ship, somewhere that has this time windows opened in each of its rooms. Different bit of your life in different rooms, might be a bit jumbled up a bit." Sam tried to explain, stumbling along. "I told you it was a bit complicated, and I'm not good at telling things. Sorry."

Reinette pursed her lips in concentration as she tried to make sense of what she told. "There is a vessel in your world where the days of my life are pressed together like the chapters of a book, so that he may step from one to the other without increase of age while I, weary traveller," her face twisted in annoyance, "Must always take the slower path.

Sam blinked a little, taken aback before he smiled a little, "Wow, you are brilliant."

"So, in five years, these creatures will return?" Reinette asked him. She took a steadying breath. "What can be done?"

"The Doctor says to keep them talking," Sam said with a small helpless shrug, wishing that he had something that would assured her more. "He said that they're programmed to respond to you, even thou you might be not able to stop them but you might be able to delay them a bit."

"Until?"

"Until the Doctor can get there."

Reinette took another steadying breath, her hands wanting to tremble a little in the swell of fear that was threatening to consume her, letting it out slowly before speaking, "He is coming, then?"

Sam nodded and smiled for her, trying to reassured her.

"But he cannot, make his promises in person?" Reinette asked, unable to help but hope that it was him, the vanquisher of her nightmares.

Sam pressed his lips together in a hopefully, a reassuring smiled. But he was finding it increasingly difficult to comfort her, he never really good at comforting people and she a grown adult, of course she would doubt her even further.

"The monsters and the Doctor," Reinette softly smiled. "It seems you cannot have on without the other."

"I guess so," Sam told her. "The thing is, you weren't supposed to have either. Those droid are messing with history. None of this was supposed to happen, well at least I don't think it should, don't really remember story about you meeting any clockwork android."

"Supposed to happen?" Reinette repeated angrily, standing. "What does that mean? It happened and I would not have it any other way. One may tolerate a world of demons for the sake of an angel." She turned with a swirl to face the fireplace, staring into it with heated eyes as she sucked a calming breath, reminding herself that his words meant nothing in the scheme of things.

"Are you okay?" Sam asked gently as he approached her.

"No," Reinette admitted. She looked at him with a gleam of sadness. "I'm afraid, very afraid. My journey in life will be shorten and I will be only known as a wicked mistress with a charming face." She took another breath as she slumped down on her chair. "I want to accomplish so much, yet here I am listening how there's a chance my time will cut short."

Sam looked at the woman in front of her, the same woman he learned in history class that mesmerize her teacher and made her gushed in delight; the same woman who was highly influential at the French court with a noble's titles for herself and her family, along with building and supporters to her influence. Was now afraid, and self-doubt on herself.

He sighed.

"I think the Doctor won't like me doing this, but I have another message to Jean Antoinette Poisson, and how great she is," Sam told her. He saw her eyes lit with confusion, and yet he continued on, trying not to spoil anything important. "No, really, she is an absolute genius. She knows a lot more than just art, or gardening, but she knows politic, philosophy and she mastered them all with breeze. Her salon was attended by some of the highest thinking minds, this was achieved even before she met the King, where people would come to her salon and shared mind and knowledge there because people feel welcome and accepted there."

"Do you know what really cool about her?" he continued, his tone was giddy with excitement yet with a genuine awe and sincerity that was rare from the people she met, "How she finds her way to the top like it was the easiest thing in the world, yet she does it with her wit and that makes people trust her, and fell in love with her. Not only because she's beautiful, but because she's so smart and brilliant. She's not just a wicked mistress or someone pretty, but she's so much more fascinating and will accomplish a lot more, which I can't say what because I'm pretty sure I can feel the Doctor glaring through my soul right now."

"My point is," Sam finally claimed. "You're amazing Reinette."

When he finished, Reinette stared at her with a gleam awe and tears of joy in her eyes as she finally giggled at him. She smiled of a new hope in her life, a new determination that she needed to solved and fight for her future as she wiped her tears away, still mesmerize by the simple words that come out from him. Her small angel, no, her friend has helped her giving this new hope for her, and she is utterly grateful at it.

"You are an interesting imaginary friend, Sam."

"I am?"

She walked towards him and hugs him softly as she whispered.

"Thank you."

"Sam?" they heard the Doctor call, "Sam! I found the right window," his voice come again and Sam tore his gaze from her through the tapestry, he looked back at her with a smile.

"I better go," Sam told her. "Just, remember what I say, yeah?"

With a nod of determination, Reinette walked back to her chair to wait for her time. There was no fear nor is she slightly even afraid, she's only has a whole set of new determination to set a new accomplishment in her life. Her time won't be cut short by those creatures. She will do what the Doctor said, and proceed the plan.

So?

I don't know if it's a right or an OK decision that I pulled, but I guess we never know?
Besides, I did try to makes the words sort of more simple and looked like as if it's my cousin who talked about his favorite character to me. I don't know I nailed it or fail but hey, that's what this for right? If I'm so scared of failing this chapter, than it should be as a lesson for me.

Anyway! Thank you so much for reading, favorite, follow, and reviewing it.

Please gives it a review, every review you did for a fic, not just this fic but any fic; would mean a lot for the writer.