"We control the Flesh from those harnesses you saw." Cleaves again ignored Savannah.
"Wait, wait. So you're Flesh now?" Rory pointed at Cleaves.
"Every one of them except Jennifer," Savannah nodded. "She was the only one that wasn't in a harness."
"Don't be scared. This thing," Cleaves gestured to the tub. "It's like operating a forklift truck."
"You said it could grow, only living things grow," The Doctor told her, still leaning against the vat of flesh.
"Moss grows. It's no more than that."
The Doctor and Savannah bristled.
"This acid is so dangerous we were loosing a worker every week. So now we mine using these dopplegangers. Or gangers, for short. These bodies get burned, or fall in the acid..."
"And who the hell cares," Buzzer comented. "Right Jen?"
"Uh- the nerve endings automatically cut off, like airbags being discharged." Jen explained. "We wake up, and get a new ganger."
"Well..." Simone switched to Galifreyan again. "That explains why I don't feel half the time, doesn't it, Theta. This why you wanted to wait?"
The Doctor nodded at her.
"What's that language you're speaking?" Dicken asked her.
"A language the two of us made up a while ago. We use it when we need to talk about private things." The Doctor lied swiftly.
"Anyway the it's weird," Jimmy shrugged. "But you get used to it.
"Jennifer I want you in your ganger." Cleaves ordered. "Get back to the harness."
Jennifer nodded and walked away. The Doctor pulled out his sonic and scanned the Flesh.
"Hang on, what you up to pal?" Buzzer asked.
"Shush Buzzer," Savannah stood. She could see the Doctor having trouble with the Flesh.
"Stop it!" The Doctor had to use a lot more force to stop scanning the Flesh. "Strange. It's almost like it was scaning me." He held out his hand.
"Doctor..." Cleaves stared at him. The Doctor put his hand on the Flesh and Savannah hissed, a strange sensation going through her. She knew no one else felt it, and she had a feeling it had to do with her connection to the Doctor. "Get back Doctor, leave it alone!" Cleaves, Amy and Roy jumpped as the Flesh splashed out of the vat a little.
"Theta." Savannah grabbed his wrist. "Theta. Stop it." His face was contorted in pain. "That's an ORDER."
The Doctor yanked his hand back, and Savannah held it over her heart, to assure herself he was okay.
"Doctor," Amy took a step forward. "You alright?"
"Inncreeedible!" The Doctor took Savannah's face in his hands. "I mean you have no idea. No idea. I mean I felt it. In my mind, and I reached out to it, and it to me and, and." He suddenly pressed his lips to Savannah's. "I mean wow!"
"Don't fiddle with the money, Doctor." Cleaves smirked.
"How can you be so blind? It's alive and you're planting your lives and your personalities directly into it." The Doctor shook his head and pulled his snowglobe out again. Lightning crashed everywhere, and Savannah grabbed onto the vat. "It's the Sun storm."
"And it's not Apollo," Savannah raised her golden eyes up to his, ans they faded back into the bright, animalistic green her contacts provided to her.. "He said he can't stop it."
"It's close," He agreed. "Too close."
"Have we heard anything from the mainland yet?" Cleaves asked.
"No, the comms are still too jammed with radiation." The Doctor began pacing as he listened to Jimmy talk.
"Okay, then we'll keep pumping acid until the mainland says stop. Now why don't you stand back, and let us impress you?"
The tub that was perpendicular to the vat of Flesh started to fill up. The Flesh slowly took form, and after a few minutes, Jennifer's ganger sat up, gasping.
"Ewww." Savannah crinkled her nose. "Not really impressed. Grossed out, yeah, but impressed? Not so much."
"But we can see why you keep it in a church." The Doctor fiddled with his hands. "Mirical of life."
"No need to get pouncy. It's just gunge," Buzzer told him.
"Guys we need to get to work!" Cleaves ordered.
"Let's get a crack on." Jimmy and Buzzer helped Jennifer out of the tub.
"Did I mention the Solar Storm?" The Doctor asked as Lightning struck again, and the ground rumbled. "You need to get out of here."
"Well where do you want us to go?" Jimmy asked. "We're on a tiny island."
"Well I can get you all off it." The Doctor boasted.
"Don't be rediculous, we've got a job to do," Cleaves scoffed.
"It's coming." The Doctor shook up his snow globe.
The alarm started going off again.
"That's the alarm." Jennifer stated.
"How do you get power?"
"It's solar. We use a solar router."
"The Weather vain. Cockerel." Savannah bit her lip.
"Boss," Jimmy sighed. "Maybe if the storms bad we should get underground. The factory's seen better days. The acid pipes might not stand another hit."
"We've got two hundred tons of acid to pump out. We get behind we stay another rotation. Anyone want that?"
"Please," The Doctor yanked cleaves away. "You are making a massive mistake here. You're right at the crossroads of it. If you don't- if you dont -prepare for this storm you are all in terrible danger."
"My factory. My rules." Cleaves snatched her arm away from the Doctor.
"I need to check the progress of the storm. Monitering station?"
No one answered him.
"Dicken?" Savannah slid next to him. "Where is it?"
"Three lefts, a right and a left. Third door on your left."
"Ah! Thank you, Savannah."
"Thank you, Dicken." Savannah corrected, kissing said mans cheek and running out the door with the Doctor. Amy and Rory followed closely.
As they entered the monitering station, the ground gave a mighty rumble and the Doctor had to shout to be heard over the alarm.
"This is going to be the mother and father of all power surges! See the little rooster, the cockle-doodle-doo? It's a solar router feeding the entire factory with solar power. Now, When the wave hits...Kaboom." His voice darkend at that. "I have to get to that cockerel before all hell breaks loose!" He paused as he was running out the door, giggling. "I never thought I'd have to say that again. Amy breath. Savannah, Relax."
"Yeah. I mean thanks, I-I'll try?" Amy stared at him.
"Theta. All hell. Breaking loose. GO!" Savannah pushed him out the door and followed after him, only to break away and run to the room with the harnesses. She began disconnecting everyone. Jimmy, then Buzzer, Cleaves, and Dicken. She couldn't get to Jennifer before she was suddenly unconcious on the ground.
When she woke up, she was laying on Dicken's chest, and he had an arm wraped around her.
"Oi, oi, oi! Dicken. I'm sure you're a fine man and all, but she's mine. Or at least she will be." The Doctor's jealous voice woke her up even more. She gently pushed Dicken away, and the Doctor helped her up.
"Oh, my head." There was a head-ach pounding in her skull.
"Doctor," Amy shook her head. "These are all real people, so where are their gangers?"
"Everywhere, I'd suppose." Savannah leaned against the Doctor.
"No, don't worry. When the link shuts down the gangers return to real flesh." Cleaves told them.
The Doctor spun with Savannah in a slow circle so they could take everyone in.
"The storms left us with acid leaks all over so we need to contact the mainland. They can have a rescue shuttle out here in no time." Cleaves stopped talking as music started playing loudly.
"That's my record," Jimmy mumbled. "Who's playing my record?"
"Your gangers," Savannah told him.
"They've gone walk-about." The Doctor steadied Savannah on her own two feet.
"Impossible. They're not active! Cars don't drive themselves, cranes don't lift themselves, and gangers don't-" Cleaves cut herself off as the record changed songs.
They arrived in a recreational kind of room, to find it ransacked, for the most part.
"No way." Buzzer mumbled.
"I don't- I don't believe this."
"They could have escaped though the service door in the back." Jimmy pointed.
"It seems the storm has animated your gangers." The Doctor took a seat at the head of the long table.
"They ransacked everything." Cleaves sighed.
"Not ransacked. Searched."
"Through our stuff?"
"Their stuff," Savannah shrugged. She sat on top of the table, facing the Doctor. He pulled himself closer and placed his head on her knees, occasionaly placing kisses against them.
"Searching for what?" Jimmy watched Savannah run her fingers through the Doctor's hair.
"Confirmation. They need to know that their memories are real." The Doctor gazed up at Savannah with sorrowful eyes. Sorrowful because he still couldn't figure out how they'd managed to slip under his nose the night before her coronation and steal both Savannah and Amy away from him. He blamed himself.
"Oh, so they've got flaming memories now?"
"They feel compelled to connect to their lives." Savannah brought her other hand into his hair as well, relaxing both herself and the Doctor.
"Their stolen lives." Cleaves' voice rose loudly.
"No, Cleaves," Savannah sighed. She looked over her shoulder at the older woman. "You gave them this. Your personalities, memories, traits secrets. Everything. You gave them your lives, and human lives are amazing. You're supprised they walked off with them? It's happened before, am I right?"
"Even if this has happened before they can't remain stable without us plugged into them."
Savannah rose an eyebrow at Jimmy but shrugged anyways. The Doctor slid his hands up her thighs, slipping his fingers just barely into her shorts, determined to make Dicken see she was taken. Mostly. He'd have her entirely when he found her.
Jennifer suddenly gasped, and Rory went into nurse mode.
"Are you okay?" He asked. "Do you need some water?"
"I feel funny. I need the wash room." Jennifer rushed out.
"I'll come with you." Rory cast his friends a look and went after her.
"ACHOO!" Dicken's sneeze made Amy jump. "Sorry."
The Doctor placed his chin farther up on Savannah's leg as he examined the card tower next to her.
"That's me," Buzzer told them. "Kind of a hobby. So what, my ganger did that all on it's own?"
"Who taught you how to do that, Buzzer?" Savannah asked.
"My Grandad."
"Well," The Doctor moved so his cheek was pressing against her thigh instead of his chin. "Your ganger's grandad taught him how to do it too. You both have the same child hood memories, just as clear. Just as real."
"No," Buzzer shook his head and destroyed the card tower.
"Scared, disorientated, struggling to come to terms with their own lives," Savannah stopped her movements but kept her hands in his hair.
Then, as one, they leapt up, and Savannah walked around the room, looking at things, while the Doctor went over to the microwave and heated up random foods.
"We need to protect ourselves," Jimmy said.
"Are you a violent man Jimmy?" The Doctor called over to him, not turning around.
"No." The man answered.
"Then why would the other Jimmy be? Theta, don't burn anything." Savannah barely looked at her alien.
"Don't tell me you're hungry at a time like this Doctor?" Cleaves walked over to him, where he was waiting by the microwave.
"You told me we were out cold for a few minutes, Cleaves, when in fact it was an hour."
"Sorry, I just assumed..."
"Oh, it's not your fault. Like Savannah said. Disorientated. Amy when you got to the alcove, who was in harness?"
"Jimmy and Dicken had helped Buzzer out. Then Dicken went to Savannah."
"And Jennifer?" The Microwave dinged and Savannah walked over, grabbing the plate, and handing it to Cleaves.
"She was standing on her own when we got to her." The Doctor and Savannah stared at Cleaves for a long moment. Savannah bit her lip again.
"It's hot," She commented. Cleaves hissed and dropped the plate, and it shattered on the ground. She looked at the Doctor and his Princess, appaled. "The transmatter is still a little rubbery. Nerve endings not quite fused properly." Savannah gently took Cleaves' hand, but the woman yanked it away.
"What are you talking about?" She snapped.
"It's okay," The Doctor stressed.
"Why didn't I feel that? Why didn't she?"
"You will, and Savannah's just special." The Doctor didn't want to let it slip that Savannah was Flesh. "You, however, will stablize."
"No, stop it. You're playing stupid games STOP IT!" she screamed. Savannah flinched and covered her ears. Cleaves turned away from them. The Doctor went up behind her and put his hand on her shoulder.
"Trust me. I'm the Doctor."
Cleaves turned around, her face not her own. She hissed at the Doctor.
Buzzer grabbed a knife from the table and Jimmy held him back.
"Where's the real Cleaves, ya thing?" He shouted. "What have you done with her?"
"Yes, that's good, you remember. This is just the Flesh, the early stages of the technology. So much to learn."
"Doctor, what's happened to her," Amy asked softly.
"She can't stabalize. She's shifting between half formed and full formed. For now at least," Savannah whispered over to Amy.
"We are living!" Cleaves' ganger said. Then She screamed, caausing Savannah to cry out and cover her ears again, as the ganger rocketed past her and out the door. The Doctor grabbed Savannah by the shoulders.
"It seems you're sensitive to the voices of the gangers," He comented, kissing her forhead gently. "Let her go," He added to Buzzer, Jimmy, and Dicken.
"Doctor, Rory." Amy reminded.
"Rory?" The two aliens asked in unison.
"RORY?" Amy spun in a circle, showing how Rory wasn't there.
"Ah, Rory, Rory, Rory! Always with the Rory," The Doctor slammed his hands into his face.
And so began the search for Rory.
