Disclaimer: I'm planning a global take over, so it will just be a matter of time until the Doctor is mine.

Ch. 37:

Amy and Lily flanked Rory as they stood in front of Signora's Calvierri. Rory was wearing Guido's clothes and Amy and Lily were wearing some of Isabella's old clothes.

Will you let me in? Lily heard the Doctor asked.

Lily sighed and opened her mind to him.

Do not think I am doing this for any other reason than to keep Amy and Rory safe. She told him.

Understood. He replied, looking through her eyes. Good to see your speech pattern still does that weird thing when you get mad.

Shut up.

Yes, ma'am.

"So, basically, both of our parents are dead from getting the plague." Rory said awkwardly. "I'm a gondola…driver…so…money's a bit tight…so having my sisters go to your school for special people would be brilliant. Cheers."

Lily gently touched his arm, trying to get him to calm down. Rory got it and took a deep breath.

Signora Calvierri's son, Francesco, moved to stand in front of Amy.

"Have we met?" he asked.

"I've just got one of those faces." Rory answered.

"I wasn't talking to you." Francesco said.

"She's got the same face…" Rory said, "which is because she'd my sister!"

"Carlo, explain yourself." The Signora said, turning to her manservant. "Why have you brought me this imbecile?"

"Signora, they have references from the King of Sweden." Carlo replied.

"What?" The Signora exclaimed. "Let me see."

She held out her hand and Rory walked to the throne and put the psychic paper in it.

"Well, now I can see what got my steward so excited." The woman said, examining the paper before handing it back. "What say you, Francesco? Do you like them?"

"Oh, I do, Mother." Francesco said, circling the two girls. "I do."

"Then we would be delighted to accept them." The Signora announced. "Say goodbye to your sisters."

Rory and Amy gripped each other's hands and Lily grabbed him in a quick hug.

"Get back to the Doctor as quickly as you can." She whispered quickly.

He nodded and Carlo led him away.

"Tell Uncle…Doctor…We'll see you both pretty soon, okay?" Amy told Rory and he nodded. "We'll be fine."

Get to him quickly. Lily told the Doctor. Keep him safe and I'll keep Amy safe.

Keep yourself safe. The Doctor told her seriously.

Lily hesitated for a moment before letting the barrier in her mind drop and letting the Doctor feel her worry for him.

I will. She told him. You stay safe, too.

She felt the Doctor pull out of her mind and she and Amy were alone in the throne room.

Carlo led Amy and Lily through the school, and Lily covered her face with her hair as she passed some of the girls who had met her earlier. The man took them into a room they were to share with some other girls.

"There are clothes on the beds." He told them. "Get changed and wait here."

"Blimey." Amy said, looking around the opulent room. "This is private education, then?"

"Not where I came from." Lily replied as the other girls, except one, left.

"Hey." Amy said to the girl who stayed. "Hello. I'm Amy, and this is the –"

"Lily." The Time Lord interrupted. "I'm Lily. What's your name?"

"Isabella." The girl replied.

"Listen, your father sent us." Lily told her quietly. "We're going to get you out of here, but you need to trust us and tell us what's happening in here. What are they doing to you?"

"They, um…they come at night." Isabella told her. "They gather round my bed and they take me to a room…with this green light and a chair with…with straps, as if for a surgeon."

"What happens in there?" Amy asked.

"I wake up here." Isabella replied. "And the sunlight burns my skin like candle wax."

A bell tolled and Amy looked around warily.

"I have to go." Isabella told them, standing up.

"Where are you going?" Lily asked.

"We're not allowed to spend time with new girls on their first night." Isabella told her.

Lily nodded.

"Alright, go." She told her quietly. "Just stay safe."

Isabella nodded and left Amy and Lily alone.

They got changed in silence.

"You don't like me, do you?" Amy finally asked.

"I don't know you, Amy." Lily replied. "I'm mad at him, and unfortunately you're tied up in that."

"But you know I kissed him." Amy said.

"Yes." Lily replied softly, folding her clothes obsessively.

"You should know that he didn't kiss me back." Amy told her.

Lily froze, but she didn't look up.

"And you were never far from his thoughts." Amy continued. "He mentioned you all the time, and anyone could see he missed you."

"Not enough to come back." Lily murmured.

"I know things are messed up between you two, and I'm sorry for my part in it, that's all I wanted to say." Amy said.

Lily sighed and finally looked up at her.

"You know Rory loves you, right?" she asked.

"Yeah." Amy replied.

"It scares you, doesn't it?" Lily asked.

Amy stared at her.

"Believe me, the Doctor and I are the experts on running." Lily said, grinning. "We know what scared looks like."

"I'm afraid I'm settling." Amy whispered.

"I can't answer that for you." Lily told her. "Only you can decide if you're settling or not."

"What if I told you I was in love with the Doctor?" Amy asked.

"I'd tell you that that happens a lot." Lily said, smiling weakly.

"Would you hate me?" Amy asked.

Lily laughed despite herself.

"If I hated everyone who fell for the Doctor, I would have to hate most of the universe." Lily told her. "The Doctor takes people away from their problems, he takes them and he makes them better, so of course they fall in love with him. Hell my best friend and my brother have both been in love with him at some point. All I can do is trust the Doctor when he tells me I'm the only one. And I do."

"Then why are you mad at him?" Amy asked. "He did what he promised. He came back."

"Because I thought we were in this together." Lily told her seriously. "I thought I was the one he would never run from. But that's what he did. He ran away from me and left me alone and it hurt. It hurt more than you can imagine. Imagine having part of you ripped away. That's what it felt like to have the Doctor run away from me."

"I'm sorry." Amy told her.

Lily studied her closely.

"I imagine that's how Rory is feeling right now." She told her. "He thought he had a life he was about to start, and in an instant found that ripped away from him. You need to make the choice, be with him or don't be with him. You can't have both."

Amy sat down on the bed heavily.

"I know." She said softly.

Lily came and wrapped her arm around Amy's shoulders.

"You know what always makes me feel better?" Lily asked.

"What?" Amy asked.

"Exploring places I'm not supposed to be." Lily replied.

Amy laughed.

"Come on." Lily said, pulling her up. "Let's go let the boys in."

The Doctor and Rory sat back in a gondola as Guido, dressed in Rory's clothes, guided them along the canal.

"She'll be fine." The Doctor told Rory.

"You can promise me that, can you?" Rory shot back.

"Yes." The Doctor answered. "Lily won't let anything happen to her."

Rory hesitated for a moment before nodding.

Lily and Amy made their way downstairs and heard moans and cries.

"You need to stay behind me." Lily told Amy. "And if I tell you to stay, you stay, understood? I'm not the Doctor. I'll just change the molecular structure of the floor you're standing on and make you stay if you don't obey me."

Amy nodded.

"Can you really do that?" She whispered.

"Yes." Lily replied.

They continued walking, not noticing the skeletal hand sticking out of a chest they passed.

The gondola reached its destination.

"We're here." Guido told them.

Carrying a lit torch, the Doctor opened the creaking gate and Rory followed. Guido stayed with the gondola.

"Right." The Doctor said as they climbed a flight of stairs. "Okay, I'll go first. If anything happens to me, go back…"

"What happened?" Rory demanded. "Between you and Amy? You said she kissed you."

They reached a door and the Doctor turned to look at him.

"Now?" the Doctor demanded. "You want to do the now?"

He went up the last steps to the door.

"I have a right to know." Rory told him as he followed. "I'm getting married in 430 years."

Amy and Lily went to the center of the courtyard and set down the lamp. Lily reached over and released the bar locking the grate. Suddenly, someone hit her in the back of the head and she fell to the ground. Amy shrieked and turned around to find Carlo.

The Doctor and Rory continued through a narrow passage, the only light coming from the Doctor's torch.

"She was frightened." The Doctor told him. "I was frightened, but we survived, and the relief of it…and so she kissed me."

"And you kissed her back?" Rory asked.

"No." the Doctor replied. "I kissed her mouth."

"Funny." Rory replied.

"Rory…" the Doctor said, stopping and turning to look at him. "Rory, I didn't kiss her back. For one thing, I wouldn't do that to the Phoenix. And for another, she kissed because I was there. I would have been you," he tapped him on the chest, "it should have been you."

"Yeah." Rory agreed.

"Exactly." The Doctor said. "That's why I brought you here."

A strong gust of wind blew out the torch, leaving them in the dark.

"Can we go and see the vampires now, please?" the Doctor whispered.

Amy gasped as Carlo forced her down the stairs and another servant carried an unconscious Lily over his shoulder.

"Control yourself, child!" Carlo ordered.

He dragged her into the chamber Isabella had described, and The Signora, Francesco, and some of the girls were waiting.

"Get your hands off me." Amy ordered.

"Psychic paper." The Signora scoffed. "Did you really think that would work on me?"

There was a hum of power as the chamber was bathed in a green light.

The Doctor pushed the grate open and climbed out, using Rory as a ladder.

"Push…" he called.

He got out and reached back down to pull Rory up.

"Come on." He said. "There we are."

He looked around for the girls, but they weren't there.

"Something's wrong." The Doctor whispered. "Lily? Where are you? I can't see a thing."

"Just as well I brought this, then." Rory said, pulling out a small flashlight.

The Doctor pulled out a large light from under his jacket.

"Ultraviolet." He said. "Portable sunlight."

"Yours is bigger than mine." Rory stated.

"Let's not go there." The Doctor replied.

He spotted something on the side of the well and bent to look at it. He touched a stain and brought his fingers away red with blood.

"Lily." He whispered.

He quickly stood and walked off, Rory following behind.

The Signora circled Amy as Carlo held her and the other man locked Lily to a pillar.

"Where are you from?" The Signora demanded. "Did you fall through the chasm?"

"Mother, this is pointless." Francesco said. "Let's just start the process."

"Hold your tongue, Francesco!" the Signora said. "I need to know what these girls are doing in a world of savages with psychic paper."

Two girls came forward, holding a chair with wrist straps.

"Who are you with?" the Signora pressed. "I scarcely believe your idiot brother sent you."

Francesco set a hook above the chair and one of the girls attached an IV bag to the hook.

"What are you doing in my school?" The Signora demanded.

"Okay." Amy said. "I'll tell you. We're from Ofsted."

"Put her in the chair." The Signora ordered, laughing.

Carlo pushed her into a chair and the girls fastened the straps as Amy struggled. Francesco held her head from behind.

"NO!" Amy yelled. "Get your hands off me!"

"Oh, make sport of me, will you?" the Signora said. "Tease me as if I were your dog? Well, this dog has a bite, girl."

She turned and Amy saw her fangs.

"Doctor!" she yelled as the Signora leaned in and bit her neck.

"If we cancel now," Rory was saying as the men walked along, "we lose the deposit on the village hall, the salsa band…." He sighed.

The Doctor leaned down and opened a chest, revealing skeletal remains.

"What happened to them?" Rory asked.

"They've had all the moisture taken out of them." The Doctor said.

The Signora pulled away from Amy, licking her lips as the girls left. Amy's eyes were glazed and Francesco leaned down and ran a finger along her neck by the wounds.

"Mother…" he said. "Where you drink from her, may we share? I'm so thirsty."

"Of course, darling." She replied.

"That's what vampires do, right?" Rory asked. "They drink your blood and replace it with their own."

"Yeah, except they haven't just had their blood taken," the Doctor replied, "but all the water in their bodies."

"Why did they die?" Rory asked. "Why aren't they like the girls in the school?"

"Maybe not everyone survives the process." The Doctor said.

Rory stalked away in frustration before stopping and rounding on the Doctor.

"You know what's dangerous about you?" Rory demanded, pointing at him. "It's not that you make people take risks. It's that you make them want to impress you. You make it so they don't want to let you down. You have no idea how dangerous you make people to themselves when you're around."

"Who are you?" the voices of girls asked in unison.

The girls appeared, each from her own archway. The Doctor held up the ultraviolet light as they approached.

"We should run." He said. "Run!"

The Doctor and Rory ran from the courtyard, followed by the girls.

"This is how it works." The Signora told Amy. "First, we drink you until you're dry. Then…we fill you with our blood. It rages through you like a fire, changing you, until one morning you awake and your humanity is a dream…now faded."

"Or you die." Francesco said, chuckling as he moved a strand of hair away from her neck. "That can happen."

"And if I survive?" Amy asked.

"Then there are 10,000 husbands waiting for you in the water." The woman replied.

"Yeah, sorry." Amy said. "I'm kind of engaged."

She kicked the Signora and Francesco restrained her.

There was a hum and the Signora flipped back part of her skirt to reveal a device clipped to it. Suddenly her image flickered and revealed an insectoid creature with a fish-like head. Her human image returned as they heard running footsteps and voices above them. They ran upstairs, leaving Amy alone, struggling to get free, with Lily, who was still unconscious and chained up.

The Doctor and Rory ran along a corridor and stopped when the Signora, Francesco, and Carlo appeared in front of them.

"Cab for The Phoenix and Amy Pond?" the Doctor asked.

Amy gasped in surprise when a hand reached out to undo her straps. She looked up to see Isabella.

"She bit me!" she exclaimed as she stood up.

"Yes." Isabella agreed.

Amy ran to Lily.

"Phoenix?" she called. "Come on, you need to wake up!"

Lily groaned and opened her eyes.

"That…son of a bitch." She said slowly. "He hit me! The son of a bitch hit me!"

"I don't know where the key is." Amy told her.

Lily glanced at the chains.

"Screw the key." She said, her eyes flashing. The chains disappeared and Lily climbed to her feet. "Now I'm pissed."

The girls approached from the other end of the corridor, blocking the Doctor and Rory's escape.

"This rescue plan, not exactly watertight, is it?" the Signora asked.

"Ha-ha!" the Doctor said, brandishing the light at the girls to hold them back.

They all jumped as a gold barrier sprung up around the Doctor and Rory. Lily emerged calmly from an intersecting corridor, followed by Amy and Isabella.

"I wouldn't hurt them if I were you." She said.

"Rory!" Amy called.

"Amy!" he shouted back.

"Quickly, through here!" Isabella called.

Lily let the shield drop and they followed the girl back down the corridor.

"Seal the house." The Signora ordered.

"They're not vampires!" Amy told the Doctor.

He was leaning down and opening a door with the screwdriver while Rory checked Lily's head.

"I'll be fine." She said, waving him away.

"What?" The Doctor exclaimed as they ran down the passage

"I saw them, I saw her." Amy said. "They're not vampires. They're aliens!"

"Classic!" the Doctor chuckled.

"That's GOOD news?" Rory demanded. "What is wrong with you people?"

The Doctor pushed him further along as they heard the aliens break through the door.

"Come on, move!" he ordered.

Francesco came up behind them and the Doctor brandished the ultraviolet light at him to hold him back.

"Keep moving!" the Doctor ordered. "Come on, guys."

Isabella opened a doorway for them and led them outside to the stairs where Guido was waiting by the canal.

"Quickly." She told them. "Get out. Quick!"

Sunlight hit her and she shied away.

"Oh.." the Doctor said, running to help her. "Come on, run!"

"I can't!" she replied.

Before he could stop it, she was dragged back inside. He pounded on the door and spasmed as the door was electrified. He fell to the ground and was still.

"Theta!" Lily screamed, running to him.

Rory ran after her and checked him.

"Is he dead?" Amy demanded.

"No, he's breathing." Rory replied.

Amy looked back at Guido, who looked at the ground, before looking at Lily who was holding the Doctor in her arms.

Lily was sitting next to the Doctor on the bed when he came round. She was dressed in her clothes again and her hair was blonde, but the tips were still red.

Hey. She said, helping him sit up.

You're talking to me again? He asked.

Right now, my fear is overruling my anger. She told him, glaring. Don't screw it up.

He gently touched her face.

I won't. he told her.

"You're awake!" Amy exclaimed.

She and Rory walked over to join them.

"So what happens now?" Amy asked.

The Signora walked into the throw room to find the Doctor in her throne and Lily leaning against it.

The Doctor gave her a wolf whistle.

"Long way from Saturnyne, aren't you…Sister of the Water?" he asked.

"No, let me guess." She replied. "The owner of the psychic paper. And the girl with the amazing power. Then I take it you're refugees, like me?"

"I'll make you a deal." The Doctor told her. "An answer for an answer. You're using a perception filter. It doesn't change you features, but manipulates the brainwaves of the person looking at you. But seeing one of you for the first time in, say, a mirror, the brain doesn't know what to fill the gap with, so leaves it blank…hence no reflection."

"Your question?" the Signora asked.

"Why can we see your big teeth?" he asked.

"Self-preservation over-rides the mirage." She answered, laughing. "The subconscious perceives the threat and tries to alert the conscious brain."

"Where's Isabella?" the Doctor asked.

"My turn." The Signora said. "Where are you from?"

"Gallifrey." Lily answered.

"You should be in a museum." The Signora marveled. "Or in a mausoleum."

"Why are you here?" the Doctor asked.

"We ran from the silence." She answered. "Why are you here?"

"Wedding present slash plead for forgiveness." The Doctor replied. "The silence?"

"There were cracks." The Signora told him. "Some were tiny…some were as big as the sky. Through some we saw worlds and people and through others we saw silence…and the end of all things. We fled to an ocean like ours and the crack snapped shut behind us…and Saturnyne was lost."

"So Earth is to become Saturnyne Mark II?" Lily demanded.

"And you can help me." The Signora said. "We can build a new society here, as others have. What do you say?"

"Hmm." The Doctor replied.

He stood and walked over to her, Lily following behind him.

"Where's Isabella?" he whispered.

"Isabella?" the Signora asked.

"The girl who saved my mate and my friend." The Doctor replied.

"Oh, deserters must be executed." She replied. "Any general will tell you that. I need an answer, Doctor. A partnership. Any which way you choose."

"I don't think that's such a good idea, do you?" he asked. "I'm a Time Lord. You're a big fish. Think of the children. Plus I already have a mate, and I think I've pissed her off enough for the next century."

"Carlo!" the Signora called, and the man approached. "You're right. We're nothing alike. I will bend the heavens to save my race, while YOU philosophize."

"This ends today." The Doctor told her. "I'll tear down the House of Calvierri, stone by stone."

Carlo put a hand on the Doctor's chest, but cried out in pain a moment later as Lily twisted his arm behind him.

"Do not touch him." She growled.

"You really shouldn't have hit her." The Doctor told him.

Lily let go of him and pushed Carlo to the ground before joining the Doctor as he walked to the door. When they reached it, the Doctor stopped and turned back around.

"And you know why?" he asked the Signora. "You didn't know Isabella's name."

The door opened.

"You didn't know Isabella's name." he repeated.

He and Lily walked out and the door slammed behind them.

A/N: Tell me what you guys think!

Abbey