Chapter 56

The Doctor walked back into the halls of the TARDIS. After the rest of the day, it was nice to be back in the old girl. But she couldn't enjoy it now. She had an important reason to be here, and went deeper inside. Because she had a feeling she knew who was behind this, and if she was right, someone very important was in the TARDIS. Her secret weapon, in a sense.

She heard the sound of movement.

"Porter?" she called out. "Hey Porter!"

The cyborg spun around on his metal foot to face her. He didn't seem overly angry right now, but that didn't mean much.

"Doctor. To what do I owe the pleasure?" Porter asked sarcastically.

"Fancy a little trip? I've got something I want you to help me with."

"And why would I ever help you?"

"You get to leave the TARDIS."

There was a pause. "I'm listening."


"What do you think's going on?!" Pride called out as they moved through the sky.

"NO IDEA. WE DON'T HAVE PERFECT SECURITY, BUT SOMEONE WOULD'VE NOTICED IF A DALEK OTHER THAN ME WAS HERE."

They passed the main part of town, flying overhead and moving out into an area of the planet that had cliffs and canyons. There was a figure on one of the platforms, a butte, high above the ground, separated from the main cliff and canyon ledges. There was only a small bridge made of rope and wood to get there. The figure was standing by some sort of small tower, probably the dalek thing they'd been talking about. And the figure was glowing.

"I know that person!" Pride shouted as they drew closer.

Nate slowed down. "OH?"

Pride nodded. "That's the Creator. They escaped from a mirror in the Doctor's TARDIS and can . . . create things." He didn't know how else to word it. The Doctor had talked about them a little, but Pride hadn't expected that he'd need to explain them to someone else. "They probably made that dalek signal. And the dalek from earlier."

And Pride was not happy to see them. Last time the Creator had been involved they'd tried to dump lava on Pride's head and had caused his act to be dropped.

"WELL THAT'S AN IMAGINATIVE NAME," Nate said sarcastically. "ANY IDEA WHAT TO DO ABOUT THEM?"

Pride didn't know, actually. "Last time the Doctor sucked the Creator out into the time vortex," he said, trying to remember the exact way she'd worded it.

"YEAH WE CAN'T DO THAT."

It was around that point Lilly reached the bridge. She stepped on, reaching about the middle before stopping. It was impossible to hear what they were saying from this distance, but Lilly and the Creator were clearly talking.

"PLAN OR NO, WE SHOULD PROBABLY INTERVENE NOW. LISTEN, IF WE'RE GOING TO FIGHT, YOU SHOULD PROBABLY STAY BEHIND ME. YOU'RE HUMAN AND-"

"I'm not a human! I'm a homunculus!"

"SORRY. I BELIVE YOU."

Pride blinked a few times. Even with the dalek voice, it sounded sincere. And there had been no hesitation at all. He'd just spoke. "No one's responded like that before."

Nate tried to shrug. A little hard with Pride holding the weapon limbs. "I JUST SAID WHAT I'D LIKE TO HEAR."

Right. Nate had literally been converted to another species. A large part of Pride was screaming that it wasn't the same thing. He was insulted that Nate had compared them and should take it up with Nate. The only reason he didn't tell Nate how wrong he was was that laugh earlier. The strained one Nate made. Now Pride knew where it seemed familiar from, and apparently it was himself. And Nate had just unquestioningly took Pride's word for it, even though he had a dalek scanner that would read Pride as human. Looking at it that way, his opinion on Nate bumped up just a little.

"I WOULD STILL PREFER IF YOU STAYED BEHIND ME. I HAVE A SHIELD. I DON'T THINK YOU DO?"

Pride shook his head. "I can't attack much either. I've got a restraining bolt."

"I THINK I CAN TEMPORARILY SHUT THAT OFF. BUT I HAVE TO PRIORITIZE THE DALEK SIGNAL."

"That, I can do something about," Pride said, glaring at the round, short, metal device on the butte. He could attack nonliving matter all he wanted after all.

They had to stop talking after that, because Nate was lowering them onto the bridge. Lilly was more surprised to see them than the Creator.

"So, here's the great rescue. A trashcan and the little homunculus. And all three of you on a small, rickety bridge. Not the best plan."

The bridge did look rickety, but it was supporting Nate so it must've been sturdier than it appeared. And Nate could fly, so that was a moot point.

More importantly, now that they were there, it was clear something was different about the Creator. Their glow was fainter, showing more of a solid flesh face, instead of the glowing being flickering in and out from before. Their voice also echoed less.

The Creator pulled a dagger out from behind their back to cut the rope bridge, and Nate immediately shot it out of their hand.

"YOU SHOULDN'T UNDERESTIMATE US," Nate said.

"I'm shaking in my boots," the Creator said dryly.

Pride didn't like it when other people took that tone with him. That was his tone. But the best way to shut the Creator up was to destroy their creation. As soon as Nate and the Creator started the actual fight, it would be a good enough distraction for Pride to cross the bridge.

Sure enough, a moment later, Nate fired at the Creator, who dove out of the way instead of making something. Nate's blast hit the dalek signal tower, but didn't do any damage. If he was still set to stun, the weapon probably wasn't powerful enough.

Nate fire again, and this time the Creator did bring up a sort of invisible shield, the same they'd used against Porter over a year ago. Nate fired at the ground instead. Dust flew up everywhere. Which meant the Creator wasn't watching.

Pride ran across the bridge, clapped his hands together, and pressed them against the ground beside the tower.

The ground rose up in spikes, ripping pieces out of the tower. Nate cheered. One metal plate slid off and landed near the bridge. Another slid towards the Creator. They made the ground below curve, sending the plate away.

Then bolts of lightning hit the invisible shield and it seemed to tremble with the effort of staying up. But where had the lightning come from? Pride looked in the direction it had been fired from and saw two figures up on the cliff. One of them was Clare. The other was a dragon. Much smaller than the last dragon Pride had seen, and black and snake like instead of big and bulky, but clearly a dragon.

"Did you think everyone else in town missed this?" Clare asked, waving a hand at the destroyed dalek tower. Then she turned to the dragon, putting a hand on her head, and her tone instantly softened. "Good job Galaxy."

"Woo! I did it!" Galaxy said in a higher, clearly young voice.

"Bastards!" the Creator shouted, losing whatever semblance of calm they'd head.

They swung there arm and an orb of fire appeared next to Clare and Galaxy. It quickly formed into what looked like a salamander of fire, maybe lava in some places. It began to set fire to the short grass in the area, launching forward. Clare and Galaxy might've been able to handle it, but the Creator made another one, the light around them flickering out in entirety for a moment. Clare and Galaxy were forced further away, on the defensive.

The Creator took a deep breath, trying to return to calm. "But, you can't defeat me."

"Maybe not. But I can," the Doctor said.