Epzo looked away from the Doctor. "Fine." He walked away from them.
The Doctor faced the rest of the group. "Now do me a favor. Give me something that will finally make sense of this planet." She began to scan the space with her sonic.
Charity ran a hand along the edge of the room, tapping her nail on some turned off computer screens she found. The Doctor followed her with the sonic, activating them. "There. That's more like it. Angstrom, bring me that route mappy thing." The woman came over and Charity took the device, ducking down to connect it to the screens. "If we sync it, this shows up the whole network of tunnels. Your friend Ilin warned us not to travel at night. We could use the tunnels to keep moving while it's dark, avoiding whatever's on the surface."
The screens shifted, bringing up an image of a rocky area as Charity connected them. "The sight of the Ghost Monument."
Angstrom nodded. "This network could help us cut a diagonal through the route, then bypass most of the mountain terrain. We could cover the distance in half the time."
"Well, if you leave now, you could get there before Sleeping Beauty. You could win." Angstrom considered it, but they were interrupted by more sounds of machines. "What was that?"
"Something through here," Ash called, having tracked the sound to another room with some kind of writing on the floor. Even with his sunglasses on, something settled in his stomach at the sight of the writing, making him quite uncomfortable. "Inscriptions on the floor."
Graham frowned. "What is it, some sort of cave painting?"
"Almost. Left by the people who worked here."
"Can you read it? What does it say?"
The Doctor moved forward, following the writing along the floor. The twins didn't recognize the language, but they didn't have the benefit of a true Academy education and centuries of time traveling the universe on their side.
"We are scientists," she read. "Abducted, tortured, and made to work, while our families are held hostage. We are forced to find new ways of destruction. Poisons, weapons, creatures. We gave them our minds and they made us the creators of death. This planet has been left scorched and barren from our work. The atmosphere and water are toxic. Killing machines and creatures inhabit every corner. We had no choice but to obey...the Senza. We are trying to destroy all of our work before they use it against others." She frowned. "They're coming. That's how it ends."
"The Stenza?" Graham said. "That's the thing we stopped in Sheffield, right?"
Angstrom looked at him. "You know the Stenza too?"
"My wife died because of them."
"Mine too." Angstrom was close to tears. "I'm sorry. They took our planet, sent us into hiding, cleansed millions of us."
They were interrupted by muffled screams. Ash did not think before running towards it, Charity a step behind. They found Epzo with what seemed to be a piece of living fabric wrapped around his face, seemingly choking him. The twins knew they wouldn't be able to shoot whatever the fabric was without actually injuring Epzo, and they didn't carry many other weapons just on their person.
The Doctor ran in behind them, already trying to sonic him free. "Nothing's working on it."
Angstrom went to Epzo's side. She grabbed the free side of the fabric and sliced through. The fabric went limp and Epzo was able to pull it free, gasping. Ash pulled him away from the fabric as it continued to swirl around itself.
"They were all over the planet," Charity said, frowning at the fabric and cursing the fact unless she focused, specifics escaped her. "Like they were lying dormant."
The Doctor nodded. "Lying dormant till night, across the whole planet...clearing up the wounded."
"Doctor!" Yasmin called, rushing in with Ryan behind her. "I found you! The SniperBots are on their way down after us."
"We need to get out of here. Everybody, move fast!"
The twins grabbed the people and led the way out of the rooms, leaving the Doctor to close all of the doors behind them. They kept running once they'd emerged until the tunnels began to clang around them.
Ash came to a stop just before a ladder, holding up a hand as he turned in a circle.
"Why have we stopped?" Yasmin asked.
"Listen," he whispered as the clanging stopped. "They're turning off the life support." Ash caught the Doctor's gaze. "We need to get out of these tunnels."
"But it's night," Graham said.
Angstrom pulled out her map again, looking at the ladder in front of them. "This exit ladder will take us up and out to the surface."
"What's up there?"
"Acetylene fields."
"Acetylene, like the gas?"
Yasmin shook her head. "That doesn't sound good."
The Doctor shrugged. "We're running out of air and options, so let's go up."
The group climbed, emerging at night through a small hut in the fields. They kept running, following Charity and Angstrom's maps.
"That's some smell," Yasmin said.
"What is it, garlic?"
"Wait," Ryan called. "Everyone, stop. Look, it's like the ground's moving."
It wasn't just the ground, as more of those clothes streamed towards the group, surrounding them. The fabric seemed to be whispering something about lies, which made the twins' stomachs twist. Lies were something they had been raised to revel in, one of their mamaidh's favorite tools. They had no problem with telling them, but a slight problem with what would happen when the person being told realized they'd been lied to.
"Nobody move," the Doctor said, though she looked at the twins as she said it.
"Don't let them touch you. They'll squeeze the life out of you."
"Yes," the voice echoed around them, "squeeze the life from all of you."
"The talk is to distract you. That's how they were designed in that laboratory."
The fabric moved closer to the Doctor, focusing on her. "You can't save them. We smell your fear too. The strongest of all."
The Doctor raised her eyebrows. "You want fears? I've got a dozen lifetimes' worth." The twins could almost hear their mother complaining about protecting, but the twins were perfectly happy with the creatures focusing on someone who was not them.
"A dozen lives?" the fabric sounded eager. "We'll take you first."
"Remember any facts, Ryan, as we climbed?" she asked the human.
"It's lighter than air."
The Doctor nodded. "Yes. Smells like garlic and lighter than air. That's right. And one other thing about it, but we'll all have to dig deep for that, right?" The Doctor began to use her feet to dig in the dirt. Everyone else quickly followed her lead, while the twins wished they'd had a bit more experience with chemistry. They were not completely certain they would have realized that solution if left on their own.
"What are you talking about?" Epzo said. "What are you doing?"
"Shut up and dig, Epzo."
"You lead but you're scared, too," the fabric continued, "for yourself and for others."
"Yeah, well, who isn't?"
"Afraid of your own newness." The fabric swirled closer. "We see deeper, though, further back. The Timeless Child."
The Doctor froze, which made the twins still, their attention shooting to their aunt, though they could not read any truth in her expression, or even recognition. "What did you just say?" her voice grew angry, an emotion that this regeneration wielded rougher than others. It was as though it was constantly bursting at the seams, ready to escape from her in every word.
"She doesn't know." Now the voice was gleeful.
"What are you talking about? What can you see?"
"We see what's hidden even from yourself, the outcast, abandoned and unknown."
The Doctor's face hardened, turning something dark and concerning, which was rather impressive given whom the twins had been raised by. "Get out of my head."
"Now we crush those fears from you."
The Doctor spread her arms. "Enjoy your feast, whatever it is. You know what some people like after a feast?" She glanced over her shoulder. "Graham?"
"Huh?"
"Not me. Some people." The Doctor looked to Epzo.
Graham reached into Epzo's pocket, the man giving him a nod. "Oh, yeah, a nice cigar." Charity held up a finger, stilling Graham for a moment, before pointing - even if she didn't know chemistry, she knew time. Graham threw the cigar in the air.
"Down!"
The group dropped, using the holes that had been dug to lie back. The Doctor snapped. In the next breath, the cigar had lit itself and entirely ignited the acetylene and the creatures. The light from the burning gas was almost blinding.
"Third fact, ignites very easily." The Doctor turned her head, grinning at them. "Good old acetylene. See? Teamwork. Now, move. Come on." They crawled away under the burning air, though Ash paused to look back.
Distantly, he hoped those creatures were still there, quite curious to know what fears they'd be able to pull from his head.
-I-I-
By the time that the three suns rose, the twins were quite bored with walking. Specifically, they were bored with walking with a group. It was quite difficult for the twins, so used to being alone, to suddenly be surrounded by so many people, one of whom was their aunt. Even when with their mamaidh, they'd have large swaths of time when they'd only had each other.
It did help that they were able to have full conversations without anyone being capable of overhearing.
"We must be near now," Ryan called.
"Says we're close," Angstrom agreed, still using her tracker.
"There." The Doctor pointed towards the white tent in the near distance. "Your finish line."
"Ah, we made it."
"But where's your ship?" Yasmin put a hand at her brow, shielding from the light. "Where's the Ghost Monument?"
Because the TARDIS wasn't here. Which meant their mother wasn't here.
'There has to be an answer here,' Charity said. 'I know it.' She was vaguely aware of the other people saying things, having some kind of argument, but that didn't matter to Charity. They needed to find the Doctor's TARDIS because then they would find their mother and then Charity would be right.
'Ilin said every thousand rotations.'
'Then we are going to wait here until her ship arrives.'
'Charity...'
'It is here.' Charity's jaw tightened. 'You know it, and I know it. Don't bother denying it because of some half-hearted desire to disagree with everything I say.'
'I am not denying that Zia is here.'
They were interrupted by the Doctor putting a hand on Ash's arm, a look of concern clear on her face. "I'm sorry. We can try again, but we need to help them finish the rally."
"We will find it," Charity said. She did not wait for the Doctor to speak again before striding forward.
Ash faced their aunt. "Even if she is wrong, she can't be stopped. Very determined. I'll keep her nearby." He hurried off after his twin and was such still vaguely aware of their surroundings when the white tent vanished, taking away Angstrom and Epzo but leaving everyone else. If whatever the Doctor had likely tried had worked, he did wonder what would have happened to them, already so far away.
'Can you sense anything?' Ash asked Charity.
She held up a hand, focusing on something, and then pointed a few seconds before a distinct wheeze echoed over the landscape. It had been a long time since the twins had heard the Doctor's TARDIS, but they recognized it. They'd heard it since before their birth, after all, in those days after the year that never was.
When Charity turned to look at him again, she was grinning.
The Doctor ran up to the twins, sonic out and activated. "It's all right, it's me!" In the air before them, the TARDIS began to materialize, faded and distant, but there. "Stabilize. Come to Daddy...I mean Mummy. I mean, I really need you right now." The TARDIS fully materialized with a distinct thud in the ground. It looked slightly different than what the twins remembered, but it was close enough. It was there. "My beautiful Ghost Monument." The Doctor rubbed the side of the TARDIS. "Hello, you. I've missed you. Ah, you've done yourself up. Very nice." She patted down her pockets. "Lost my key. Sorry."
The doors clicked themselves open a crack.
"But it's an old police box," Graham whispered, him and the rest of the humans approaching.
The Doctor shrugged, grinning widely. "Sort of. Not really."
"You expect us all to fit inside there?"
"Yep."
"At the same time?"
"Wanna try?"
The humans exchanged a look. "Okay."
The Doctor made to step inside but paused. "Oh, word of warning. I left it in a bit of a mess." She opened the doors wide.
The interior was distinctly darker than what the twins remembered, even with the crystalline structures surrounding and arching over the center console. The entire room was dark, half-lit with orange from the crystalline structures and blue from shapes on the walls.
"Oh, you've redecorated," the Doctor breathed. She was the first one inside, but the twins were a step behind, their breath caught in their chest as they waited for their mother.
She had to be here, Charity knew it. She had to be. And as much as Ash had not believed his sister, he wanted his mother to be alive too.
He would hate if Charity turned out to be right, but he still desperately didn't want their mother to be dead.
"I really like it," the Doctor said, not seeming fully aware of the twins' apprehension. "This is my TARDIS."
"Wow," Yasmin breathed, taking in the sights.
"Yeah."
"It was a police box."
The Doctor nodded to him. "It still is on the outside."
"How do you fit all this stuff inside a police box?"
"Dimensional engineering," the Doctor shrugged.
Yasmin laughed. "You can't engineer dimensions."
"Maybe you can't."
The group had moved past the twins to the console, circling it. Charity, meanwhile, was feeling close to tears, because her mother was not here, and she was supposed to be. Charity's hands fisted at her side. The humans' voices became a soft buzz in the distance.
Charity couldn't be wrong. She wouldn't be wrong.
"Can I press any of..."
"No."
"It's a spaceship?"
"And a timeship."
Ryan laughed. "Get out."
"Seriously."
"This...is proper...awesome."
"I thought maybe you didn't believe me that I'd get you home."
"I thought you didn't believe yourself for a second there."
"Who, me?" the Doctor shook her head. "Never doubted. Don't know what you mean. Home, then?"
"You can get us there? Really?"
The Doctor grinned. "Start believing." She made to flick some switch on the console with a flourish but stilled at the sight of someone emerging from the darkness opposite the entrance to the TARDIS.
The twins' attention shot to where she was looking. "Mum..." Charity breathed, her voice breaking.
Because the Singer was there, her eyes wide, hair crazed.
Alive.
A/N: Why look who it is! Good to finally see you again, Singer :)
Notes on reviews:
Purplestan: Missy definitely had a strong impact on the twins (and the Singer, now that she's back). Granted, he never did manage to bring the twins back to her since they had to do it themselves, so don't know how much credit we can actually give him ;)
Belle: They've definitely had a lot more time with Missy/Master (over 200 years to their about 3 with the Singer). But they still have a connection with the Singer, just a very different kind.
ellidraco1014: Oh, I have a lot of ideas about what's going to happen for those hours before O's big reveal and what's going to happen in those times afterward ;)