Lyssa immediately began to struggle, straining against the bindings holding her down and kicking her feet wildly as she was lifted into the air.
"Let me go," she screeched, jerking against her restraints to no avail. "Let me go!" But the arms holding her only tightened, pinning her arms to her side as something soft and warm buried itself in between her neck and shoulder, a soft Scottish burr reaching her ears through the roaring panic.
She stilled, sucking in a breath as her feet touched the ground once more, and she slid to the floor, something cold and metal. "Doctor? Is it really you?" she asked weakly, her voice quivering.
"It's me, fairy-girl," she heard the familiar voice whisper. "And if you doubt it, just wait." The restraints loosened and slid down her arms until they met her hands, and she realized that they weren't restraints, they were hands. Wrinkled and worn, but very familiar as they clasped hers, radiating a warmth that calmed her racing heart. "Do you feel that?"
Her voice trembled as she answered. "Yes."
"That's how you know it's really me. It doesn't happen with anyone else, besides me. I'm right here with you, alive, and you're alive, and everything's going to be all right."
"But - but how? I don't understand," she stammered, holding his hands so tight she was afraid her nails were digging into his. "I mean - at first I thought you were dead, but then the Master came, and I thought you might not be after he gave me your ring, but then I thought that maybe I was just trying too hard to hope for the best, and just setting myself up for a greater fall, and then -"
"Lyssa, breathe," he interrupted gently.
She huffed out a laugh that came out more like a sob, well aware that tears were forming in her eyes, and she hated it. She'd already cried more than enough that day because of the Master, and she didn't want to give him any more satisfaction. "Sorry."
He released her hands, coming around and kneeling in front of her, grasping her hands again reassuringly. "It's not your fault, Lyssa. The Master led us here, has been leading us all on a wild goose chase. This is all a distraction, meant to weaken and terrify us while he goes for the real goal."
She sniffed, not wanted to free her hand to swipe at her once-again runny nose. "And what's that? Doesn't he normally want to take over the world, or something? Did he try doing that while we were trapped in here?"
He shook his head. "Nothing so simple, I'm afraid. Once I woke up a few hours ago, the Master came by to gloat." His brows furrowed and his eyes darkened as his hands suddenly held hers tighter. "And he stole my ring. Claimed he was going to use it to lead you into another trap, and make me watch as he caught you."
"So wait." Lyssa pulled her hand free of his, regretting the loss of contact, and slipped the ring off of her thumb. "So... you weren't the one to write the words on here? He was?" She felt sick at the thought of the Master manipulating yet another part of the Doctor's life - especially something that was clearly so valuable to him.
"What? Words? No, I didn't have the chance to write any. My arms were bound, and I had no way of doing so even if they weren't. But I didn't see him write any words on it, and he didn't mention doing so, either. And it'd be a bit out of character for the Master to miss the chance to gloat. What do they say?"
She dropped the ring in his hand wordlessly, not missing the way his expression lightened just the tiniest bit once he was holding the metal. He glanced down at the words, reading them silently before frowning in confusion, running a free hand through his hair and making it even wilder than it already was.
"Face your fears?" he read aloud, shaking his head. "No, that doesn't make sense. That's not his style. Why would he write that?"
"Because it..." Lyssa stopped and swallowed hard. "Because it encouraged me to go back in the house. He told me that that was the only way to escape, and I believed him - it didn't look real, outside. But I still didn't want to go back inside. But seeing the words gave me hope that you might have been alive, and so, I had to try and get back through, so I could find the TARDIS, and rescue you. Or - " she lowered her voice and stared at the floor. "Find a way to a-avenge you, I guess. Stop him, somehow, if I could."
"Except that's not what happened," he stated the obvious, his voice gentle.
She nodded. "I was trying to find my way through, and listen for them, but then the route was blocked. There was a bunch of rubble in the hallway, and the only way that was clear was to come into the area by the stage. I wasn't quite sure why the Master wanted me to go this way, if he wanted me to find the way we came in, but," she shrugged, "I got an idea and decided to go with it. If I got captured by the animatronics, and wound up with you, then maybe you'd be able to figure a way for us to escape, and this way, we'd all be together."
"And if the animatronics really had killed us?" he asked, his voice heavy. "If Bria and Scott and I were all dead, what was your plan then? What did you think would happen when you charged an animatronic?"
Her eyes met his briefly - just long enough to see how unhappy he looked - before she shifted her gaze back to the floor again. "I wasn't - I didn't think you were dead, I told you that. If you die, I die, or something like that, I think that's what River said, and I was physically fine, so you couldn't be dead," she rambled.
"Lyssa," his voice was cautious now, bereft of all the joy it had held when they'd first reunited. "You never mentioned that earlier when you said why you thought I might not be dead. You said it was because you thought I'd written those words on the ring."
"Yeah? And?" She still refused to meet his gaze, fiddling with her fingers nervously. "There were a whole lot of things that I didn't say. A whole lot of things that didn't make sense, that I couldn't even put together properly until I was trying to put myself together and work up the courage to enter the house. Like Bria's blood landing on my hand."
She could see the Doctor flinch from the corner of her eye, and repressed a shudder of her own. "It was cold. Icy cold, like it'd been refrigerated. And if Bria was - is - human, like I was assuming, then it should have been warm."
"Bria's human," the Doctor affirmed, sounding strained. "Completely human."
Lyssa nodded, still refusing to look up from the absolutely fascinating piece of dirt on her shoes. "Like I said, I didn't realize that until later, but it didn't make sense. That, and the fact that it came from the beak, her body - her body wouldn't have - it didn't make sense that there'd be blood coming from the beak," she managed to explain.
"And then there was the whole thing about the robots suddenly 'gaining sentience and a need for blood' when they'd had neither of those things before... It just didn't add up. And like I said, maybe I was desperate, but I so wanted to hope that you were alive, that I thought that maybe you'd written those words on the ring, too, as a way to encourage me."
The Doctor shook his head, letting out a groan as he ran a hand down his face. "I've been a right proper pudding brain, Lyssa. He played the both of us for fools, and we let him. If I'd been paying more attention to my surroundings, I would have seen that, seen all the inconsistencies. But the Master kept me focused on my surroundings, I had to be alert, and using all my senses to watch for everything that I should have been. And then after I got captured, I was too worried about breaking free and finding you to focus on much of anything else."
She looked up for the first time, his icy blue eyes melting just a little as they met hers. "There you are," he whispered. "I really was worried about you. The Master knows our fears, and how to play off of them. For you, it was the robots, and the fake blood. Everything that reminded you of Canary Wharf. For me..." He laughed, thought there was no joy in it. "It's been what I've always feared. Losing you. Whether to a threat, or to someplace that I can't follow. And that's something the Master's always known."
"I don't understand," she frowned, shaking her head. "How would I go somewhere you can't follow? You have a TARDIS. You could go anywhere you wanted to; and even when I jump, I jump to someplace where you're at."
"There's one place you can go, where I can't follow," the Doctor told her quietly. When she looked up at him, he tapped her forehead gently with one finger. "When you hide in there, and shut the world out because it's been too cruel, and I can't follow you there."
"But what about the french lady - the girl in the fireplace when you were Ten?" she questioned. "I thought you guys had the ability to do that sort of thing."
"Not without permission," he said heavily. "Never without permission. I would never violate your privacy in such a way." He shut his eyes. "But that's not the point. The point is that the Master used our fears against us to take what he really wanted. This was just like a game to him - he didn't even really take it that seriously, or he would have tried harder to keep me locked up."
"So then, if he didn't want to kill us, what did he really want?"
The Doctor sighed heavily. "Bria. She still has value to him, because he can use her to help bring about the coming of the Siren."
Lyssa's head snapped back to meet his. "The Siren?"
He nodded, his eyes distant and weary. "It's time. I know it, and he knows it." He gave her a weak smile. "This is the latest you've ever seen me, and this is the earliest version of you that I've seen in a long time. That, and I believe the message on the ring isn't just for you. And it's not from the Master, either." He looked at the writing on the inside of the ring one more time thoughtfully before slipping it back onto his ring finger.
"It's not?" Lyssa asked, stunned. "But then, who did it?"
The Doctor pursed his lips. "Quite possibly the same person who placed all the rubble outside that hallway and forced you to come inside where I could reach you, as opposed to going to the front of the building, where the Master no doubt had some sort of trap set up. But the only person I can think of isn't capable of coming here - not yet, at least. And not without great cost to herself."
"Okay, I'm getting more and more confused here, but I think we need to try and set a few things straight at least," Lyssa decided, rubbing her temple withe one hand. "I don't know much about the Siren - hardly anything, actually - but I know that she's feared by just about everyone, so I'm assuming her arriving or whatever is a really bad thing? Which is why the Master wants to bring it about?
"And then second of all, how did you escape? Did Scott? And what about Bria? Are we going to go after her? Actually, before I ask that, how are we going to get out of here? And where is here? Are we inside the animatronic somehow?" she asked, glancing around the room, which was filled with mechanical gears.
"In order of appearance, yes, the Siren... the Siren means death. But there are some people she must never meet, for then it will be the battle for time itself," the Doctor muttered, for once refusing to meet her eyes.
"And then will come the greatest sacrifices of all. And that's why the Master seeks to release her, to unleash the chaos and destruction he worships. I escaped because the Master handcuffed me to the wall, but neglected to take my sonic screwdriver - yet another reason I believe he did all this on purpose. He wants me to escape and follow him, so I can be there for the greatest confrontation yet."
He scoffed bitterly. "It will be anything but great. And yet I can do nothing but follow him. I have to." He raised a hand and gestured to their surroundings. "I used my sonic to rewire the controls. There was a simple AI in place to operate them, and a transporter beam that they used to suck us in and shrink us when they 'attacked.' I managed to hack the controls of the other animatronic and send you over here when you triggered the attack of that one. I'm hoping we can use it to get out of here. Scott's alive, he's snoring on the floor somewhere over there," he jerked a thumb at a motionless lump by the far wall.
"I managed to lock onto him and bring him over here, but there's no sign of Bria anywhere in the building. I think I'm going to have to go back to where she was raised - and I use the term loosely," he added darkly, "to find out where to even begin to look for her before it's all too late. We're currently in an animatronic, and still on the stage, although I can manipulate the controls enough to move them, if I try. The attack program has been deleted from all of them, so the others shouldn't cause any problems."
Lyssa considered the rapid flow of information for a minute. "Are you and Scott all right?" she asked at last. "Any side effects, or whatever? Like why Scott's still asleep, when you and I are both awake?"
"I'm a Time Lord," he reminded her. "Different system. And I defused all the harmful systems before you were caught, but I'm assuming Bria, Scott, and I all got the same treatment - some sort of knock-out gas. I checked him. He's fine, he'll just be a bit loopy when he wakes up. And before you ask, I'm all right."
Lyssa watched him silently for a minute, pondering the way his hand shook ever so slightly, and the way his words didn't quite ring true, and how his eyes kept running her over, pausing on her various scrapes. How he'd admitted that one of his worst fears - because she refused to believe that it was his absolute worst - was losing her.
A memory of a different Doctor and companion, who'd escaped another horror, came to mind. "Is 'all right' Time Lord code for 'really not all right at all'?" she asked, a sad smile quirking up the edges of her lips. "Because if so, then I'm all right, too."
He stared at her wordlessly for a moment, his blue eyes searching her brown, before he suddenly stood and extended a hand to her. "Then what's say we go and be all right together," he suggested. "Two heads are better than one. Unless you're Flovaxian. Then it just causes problems, because they're supposed to have three heads, not two. It can get messy sometimes, I've seen it," he said in a stage whisper. "But in this case, I think you might be just what I need to help us get out of here. And I will get you out of here," he promised.
Lyssa smiled, accepting his hand, and help up, gratefully. "The Oncoming Storm and Lyssa, against the Master. Sounds poetic. Well, the first part does, at least. My name sounds a bit more drab."
"The Doctor and his fairy-girl, against the universe," he corrected her. "Because when you're around, I can take on anything, as long as I know you're with me."
She felt her smile grow wider, perhaps only overshadowed by the blush now threatening to take on her face. "Always," she agreed, squeezing his hand.
The smile he threw her then was so bright it sent her heart pounding in her chest, a strange sort of ache growing there. He didn't notice though, having released her hand to spring on the various gears and controls scattered across the little room they were in. He had pulled out his sonic and was busy using it on everything he came across. She was almost over it, though, her face finally returning to its normal color when he had to go and ruin it.
"And you were wrong, earlier, Lyssa," he called, bent nearly double over a protruding panel.
"Wrong about what?" she called back.
He popped back up, holding a section of green wire triumphantly before turning to look at her. "It doesn't sound poetic. Or drab."
"What doesn't?"
"Me and you, against the universe. It doesn't sound drab. It sounds right." He grinned at the look on her face, winking before turning back to his work. "Oh, and you might want to cool your cheeks. These are very sensitive controls, and extreme temperatures could damage them."
Aaaand, there went the blush, replaced with a glare of equal heat. She forgave him though, because after thinking he might have been dead for several hours, she was much more inclined to forgive a bit of teasing. Especially since it was a nice distraction for the both of them. So she helped out where she could - basically just moving things back and forth - and paced the circular room while she waited for the Doctor to finish.
He'd already done most of it while she was navigating the halls earlier, however, so it was only about fifteen minutes before he was done and cautioning her to find something to hold onto, as they were about to leave the stage, and all the loose items on the floor slid forward as the room suddenly tilted forward.
"They're a bit clumsy, but they can move fast enough, so make sure you're holding on to something. Oh. And maybe secure Scott, if you can?" he added as an afterthought as the limp man started to slide as well. Lyssa cast him a withering look, but scooted down next to the man, and braced him against the wall as best as she could, wrapping her other arm around a protruding pipe for stability.
It seemed they had a map in their systems as well, for instead of wandering around for several hours like they had earlier, they were only lurching around in the animatronic for about five minutes before the Doctor had successfully navigated them around the rubble and to the front entrance. The real one, not the one that Lyssa would have ended up by - which apparently was just a door leading to a garbage disposal planet. Not immediate death, but potentially harmful and definitely unpleasant. The real door apparently led back to Earth, where they'd left less then a day ago.
The animatronic opened the door, revealing the fairgrounds from earlier - although the employee and everyone else previously in line were nowhere to be found- and, in the distance, the beautiful blue of the TARDIS. The Doctor had the animatronic beam them all outside and returned to their normal sizes before shutting down the robot and closing the door, locking it with his sonic screwdriver.
"This should keep the people out," he muttered under his breath, flipping the sign on the register to 'closed.' Returning back to the front of the building - once again a casual black building with no sign of the horrors seen within - the Doctor pulled Scott away from the building until he deemed it a safe enough distance, before patting him on the cheeks as the man began to stir.
"Mm, where am I?" he groaned, putting a hand to his head and squinting under the harsh light of the sun. He saw the Doctor leaning over him, and peered up at him drowsily. "Who're you? Wha's goin' on?" he slurred, slowly becoming more aware. "Did I hit my head?"
"Ah, no, Mister... "
"Scott," the man supplied groggily.
"Scott," the Doctor finished. "What do you remember?"
Scott sat up, pressing a hand to his head. "Not much, but with this kind of a headache, it's got to be a hangover. Sugar-induced crash? Unless John spiked my drink. Is that what happened?"
The Doctor ignored his questions, instead reaching down a hand to help him up. "Not as far as I'm aware, Mr. Scott. Can you stand up on your own?"
Scott waved him off. "Yeah, I'm good, thanks. Wish I could remember what happened, though." He slapped his back pocket. "Least I've still got my wallet." Rubbing his chin thoughtfully, he commented, "It'd be fitting if it was gone, though. That was a strange dream. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong. Still had my wallet, though, I think."
He eyed the Doctor. "You ever dreamed that the animatronics in Chuck-E-Cheese's are evil, and hunt you down at night? Because it's a really weird dream. Might make for an interesting video game, though."
"Really?" the Doctor asked in amusement, tilting his head to the side.
Scott nodded eagerly as he became more alert, pulling out a small notepad and scribbling a few notes down in it. "Yeah. I'm a video game designer, and I've been trying to come up with something new for a while now. But this... this could be exactly what I'm looking for, something new and different. A horror game, where you have to avoid the animatronics at the restaurant. Not Chuck-E-Cheese's, though, that'd cause some copyright issues. And not a mouse. Kids don't play with those enough. They like stuff like tigers, and bears, and pirates..." He began scribbling furiously in his notebook.
The Doctor and Lyssa shared a look of amusement, the Doctor twirling his finger by his head, making Lyssa shoot him a reprimanding look. "Sounds like an interesting game," he commented.
Scott looked up suddenly and flushed, as if just remembering that they were there. "Sorry about that. You know how it is. Get an idea in your head, and bam! you just have to write it out, or you're gonna forget it." He looked at them curiously. "Have I met you before? Because you look kind of familiar."
The Doctor shook his head. "I've never seen you before today," he said honestly.
"Hmm," Scott mused, before shrugging. "Must just have one of those faces. Oh! But what if the animatronics are only evil because of a man in a purple suit... a purple man?" he mused questioningly, returning to his book. "And that all started because of a little girl, who's somehow connected to the man. The man and the crying girl? Crying child..." Lost in thought, he barely acknowledged their amused farewells before wandering off, chewing on the end of his pencil.
Lyssa watched him go, fighting the urge to break out into a semi-hysterical laughter before turning back to the Doctor. "He thinks it was all just a dream?"
The Doctor shrugged. "Seems kinder to let him believe that, than to tell him that it actually happened. He survived. People don't always do that." He was quiet a moment, then offered Lyssa his arm. "I don't know about you, but I'm more than ready to leave this place and never return."
"But what if other people try to get in?" Lyssa frowned, glancing back at the building in reluctant concern. "It could still be dangerous."
The Doctor shook his head. "The Master wanted it for us. No more point to it now. And a phone call or two should be enough to have it condemned and torn down. So, what do you say, Lyssa? Shall we go?"
Lyssa smiled, taking his arm. "The Doctor and his fairy-girl, off to save Bria. Sounds about right to me."
A/N: This is the part of the story where I tell you that everything in this story is completely fictional, and made up, and any similarities are completely coincidental. Completely. Scott is definitely not based off of someone. Nope.
Special thanks to everyone who's favorited and followed, and shout-out to guest, afionna262, gabumon7, PikaMew1288, V, and Fakira for reviewing! :) They were all incredibly motivating this week, and very kind, so thank you all. :)
Guest: I don't think I've ever been to Mr. Gatti's, but my personal favorite as a kid would probably be Gigglebees. Although, once again, the animatronic - a coyote, or something like that - creeped me out. :/ Thanks for reviewing! :)
afionna262: Aww, thanks. :D You have no idea how good it is to hear that people are looking forward to each new update. Hope you like it! :)
V: Whoops... :D At least there's not an awful cliffhanger here... I mean, we have no idea what happened to Bria, and the fate of the universe is at stake, but I didn't end it on a cliffhanger... right? ;) Hope this helped slake some of your thirst, lol. Thanks for the review, and I hope you like it! :)
PikaMew1288: To quote River Song, you're good. I'm not saying you're right, but you're good. :D No comment as to what Lyssa actually is, right now, but you're close, I'll grant you that much. :) Thanks for the review, and I hope you like it! :)
Gabumon7: I'm just gonna respond to all your (awesome) reviews in order, so you know what I'm responding to. (It was awesome receiving all those reviews, btw)
1) Yeah, Lance didn't have the best ideas, and kind of acted in the spur of the moment. On the bright side, though, she probably doesn't have any brain damage. :D
2 and 3) Thank you! I always try and add unique ways so that I'm not just following the script the whole time :D
4) Yep. TBH, that was a chapter that I rushed the ending, and it shows. It was shorter than my normal "episode" chapters simply because Lyssa wasn't there for a good portion of it, and I'm writing this from her POV - which is why I didn't write it from a 3rd person POV from the Doctor or Amy. Not the best way to have done it, but I tried to both keep with the normal pattern, and explain what happened in the next chapter. Someday, though, if I ever get the time, I'm gonna go back and do a ton of editing - especially including that chapter. :P
5 and 6) Yep. Based this regeneration of the Master off of Moriarty because he had the perfect creep appeal. :D And I'm generally not a huge fan of horror either - this is just a plot bunny that I took and rolled with, but this is probably the closest I'll ever come to writing horror - there'll be tons of fluff and angst in the future, but very little, if any, horror. Hope that helps. :) And thank you for all your reviews, and I hope you enjoyed! :)
Fakira: Hahaha, that's good. :D Yep. Missy's still here. Fun fact: I despise the Master with a passion, but I loved Missy. No idea why. (unless it was the accent). The Doctor's all right... he said so... and the Doctor never lies, right? Bria... Bria's up in the air. We should be seeing where she grew up next chapter, though... Thanks for the review, and I hope you like it. :D
Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed! :)
General Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who, Chuck-E-Cheese, or FNAF. Just Lyssa and the odd plot bunnies here and there.