Yeah, the previous disclaimer was supposed to be Latin. Someone asked about my update schedule a few chapters ago. In theory, I plan to update every Friday. In practice, the chapters come out some time over the weekend. I'm awful with fanfiction deadlines.

Disclaimer: The Doctor Who Universe belongs to the BBC as well as an assortment of scriptwriters who may or may not allow use of their characters. I am not any of these, unless I was sent back in time by a Weeping Angel and created a stable time loop. As I cannot scientifically rule out this possibility, I will not state that I do not, at any point in the past (my future), own any portion of Doctor Who. I can reasonably conclude, however, that I am not the BBC, so I do not own Doctor Who itself.

Chapter 32: Lady Thaw

April couldn't shake the feeling of dread in her stomach. "No. No clue why I'm doing this." Harriet was going to be livid—they had agreed not to interfere. But then again, it wasn't like April had had much of a choice. "Oh, I really hope we don't die."

April took a deep breath as the elevator came to a stop and the metal doors slid open.

In front of them was a dark room that stretched far beyond the reaches of the elevator's light. It smelled of antiseptic, harsh and clean. "D'you think there's a light switch?" Martha whispered. Her voice seemed to echo through the chamber. The two young women stepped forwards. April felt around on the wall for a light switch, eventually turning it on.

The room was sparse, cold grey metal walls enclosing a room with a high ceiling. There was no furniture, except for a bed in the corner. On the ground were seven chicken corpses, all bleached white. They looked like they could crumble into dust at any moment.

"No," April whispered. There was a sound behind her as the elevator doors slid shut. April tried to pry them open, but it was too late. Lazarus. But…he was up there, wasn't he? This has to be him—the husks with their energy sucked out. No, that doesn't make any sense.

Meanwhile, Martha stepped forwards towards the center of the room and leaned down over one of the chicken husks. "It's dead. But this looks...it's like…all the energy has been drained out of it. All the life."

"Martha," April hissed.

The covers on the bed moved as a young woman emerged, pushing herself into a seated position. She had short black hair and smooth skin, her eyes sharp and cold. "Hello," she said, her voice sounding weak. "Are you here to rescue me?"

April didn't recognize her, but she knew that this person had to have been the one who had killed the animals lying on the ground. "Martha, we have to get out of here. She's the one that—"

"I've been trapped here for days. They came with those poor birds, brought out this horrible creature. It was like a giant scorpion, only with this awful stretched out face."

"Martha, I think she's the one that did this."

Martha turned to April. "What do you mean? Is she…a shape-changer?"

"Of…of a sort," April said. "But I don't understand. This was supposed to happen to Lazarus. The experiment was supposed to fail, I don't know why—"

Martha's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean, supposed to?"

The woman stepped out of bed and into the light. She was wearing a thin white hospital gown, her face pale and eyes wide. But there was something behind them, a malevolent spark dancing within. April wasn't the best at reading faces, but somehow, she just knew—this woman was dangerous. "Y-y-you were with them."

"What?" April asked.

"You were with them when they came. Four days ago. You just…stood there, with this clipboard. Oh, have you come to kill me?"

April backed away instinctively. "I don't know who you are or why you're like this, but I swear I've never seen you before in my life." She could almost swear that she had, though. Something about this woman looked vaguely familiar to her.

The woman turned to Martha. "Please, you must believe me."

Martha looked away from April, and then back. "April, do you have any idea what she's talking about?"

"I…know things. I can't tell you how, the Doctor made me promise not to tell you. The experiment Lazarus did—I thought it would turn him into a monster. His DNA would be unstable, and he would transform when he needed energy. The only way for him to get it was to suck living beings dry. But it went well, and I didn't understand why. Only, I think, Harriet and I must've changed something, because I think this time, they tested it first. And this is subject one."

"You're from the future, aren't you?" Martha asked. "A future where everyone knows about aliens, where this incident is a matter of public record."

Well, that was one way to explain it. "I—yes." Something along those lines, anyway. She was from a future, and the public certainly had access to an account of these events. And if Martha was going to come up with her own reasonable explanation, April could just let her believe it. "I swear, I didn't do anything to her."

"But you don't know that she was a test subject," Martha said.

"What?" April asked.

"You can't know that she was a test subject. Not for certain."

April shook her head. "No. But she's lying. Why would she lie?"

The woman shook her head as if confused. "I know I saw someone like you…but maybe it wasn't. Please, can you get me out of here? Before they come back."

"When do you think they'll be coming back?" Martha asked.

The woman shivered. "I don't know. But I'm so scared. Please, help me."

"I can't open the door," April said. "We're stuck down here. And who knows who's waiting on the other side?"

"They'll send someone soon to take the box," the woman said. "If we can surprise them, we might be able to escape."

"That sounds like a good plan," Martha said. "How did they bring you down here?"

"I don't remember. I was with my boyfriend, going to see my father, when everything went black."

"What's your name?" April asked.

"M-Margaret. Margaret Shaw."

Shaw. Margaret Shaw. Shaw. Thaw.

Lazarus had a business partner. She was supposed to die.

He had never introduced her.

"Lady Thaw," April said, her mouth dry. "That's where I've seen your face!"

"April?" Martha asked.

"We need to get out of here. It's her. She's used the process. Lazarus let her try it first. Test it. And then he improved it when it went wrong."

"What are you saying?" Lady Thaw asked.

"It's you."

"Could you be…mistaken?"

I'm not very good with faces, but no. It's definitely her. "No. It's Lady Thaw. She's…evil. And now she's a literal monster."

Thaw's face twisted into a smile, the confused girl disappearing. "Perceptive, this one." Her shoulders began to jerk, back shaking as her spine began to elongate. April could feel the horror spreading across her face. She was going to die, and there was nowhere to run.

Thaw collapsed, skin on her limbs splitting as a glistening black carapace appeared in its place. Her ribcage grew, bursting from her chest along with some muscle until it covered the entirety of her front side. Sharp mandibles stretched apart her mouth until blood and saliva dripped down from her teeth. Standing in front of April and Martha was a monster.

April screamed, stumbling backwards until she was trapped against the elevator doors. Martha desperately tried to pull apart the metal, but it wouldn't budge. "You can't run," Thaw hissed, taking her time as she advanced on April and Martha. "Believe me, I tried. They trapped me away, down here."

"You don't have to kill us," April said. "We can try to cure you."

"And in the meantime, you can have animals," Martha urged. "You don't have to be a murderer to survive."

"Starve myself? No. They have starved me long enough. Wronged me long enough."

"They let you live!" April said. Her heart banged against her ribcage, trying to escape its bounds as the creature advanced. "They let you live. They could have killed you but they had mercy. You don't have to kill us!"

"Oh, but I want to," Thaw said. "I'm hungry, and you are full of energy. Full of life that will soon be mine." The creature paused, mandibles clicking, limbs tapping against the ground. "We were going to be young together, Richard and I. That's what he said. But he knew that the experiment would fail. Oh, he knew! I can remember that look in his eyes. After I am done with you, I will devour all of his newfound life. He will grow old. And I will remain young."

"The Doctor can help you," Martha pleaded. There was a beep behind them and April's heart soared. Just a few more seconds. "Just wait, and then he can cure you. You'll be young, permanently, and you won't have to hurt anyone."

Thaw leapt towards them, jaws thrashing with anger. Behind April, the elevator doors slid open. April and Martha scrambled back into the elevator and the doors slid shut just as the creature reached them.

"You're not supposed to be here." April nearly jumped, turning around. Two women and a man stood behind them, each one carrying a gun in their hands. The elevator began to rise.

"I—" April said. She looked at Martha.

"MI-5. Our associate, the Doctor, is carrying our credentials. As soon as we report to him, he can offer you proof."

"Alternatively, you can consult UNIT, who will assure you that they hold us in the utmost trust," April added. This was bad. They knew that Martha and April were with the Doctor…hopefully ordinary security guards would not be told anything by the Master about what to do. This was one of his traps, though, so they probably knew enough not to let anyone escape.

"I'm sorry," one of the guards said. "You'll have to come with us. Dr. Lazarus will want to know about this."

"You are obstructing a government investigation," April said, trying to project confidence.

None of the guards responded. Two of them kept their guns fixed on April and Martha while the third picked up their walkie talkie to report. Suddenly, there was a bang as something slammed into the floor of the elevator.

"Thaw," Martha said quietly.

The elevator beeped, arriving at its destination, just as the metal floor of the elevator buckled, forming a large dent. When the doors slid open, April, Martha, and the security guards rushed outwards. Through the floor burst Thaw, mandibles clicking as she climbed out of the elevator shaft.

April ran. Behind her, she heard three gunshots. When April briefly looked back, she could see the monster bent over one of the security guards, her skin turning white.

"Backup!" One of the other guards called into his walkie talkie. "Thaw is loose, I repeat, Thaw is loose!"

They took the stairs, racing upwards without daring to look back. When they reached the top, April could barely breathe, slamming the door behind her.

"Don't move!" The remaining female security guard shouted. "We'll hold this position. You're still prisoners, and if you move, we will shoot."

"Hold this position?" Martha asked incredulously. "This is suicide. We need to run before it catches up!"

"We will hold this position!" She repeated as Thaw came into view, bounding off the walls as she ran towards the group. The woman held her gun steady, emptying her clip of bullets into the creature's chest. Thaw roared in anger, leaping towards her. April's eyes flickered back and forth between the creature and the guard with the walkie talkie. Every instinct in her body screamed for her to run, but if she did, he would shoot.

The walkie talkie crackled with static. "Let them go," said a voice on the other end, too obscured by static for April to tell anything about it. "They must be kept alive."

"Go!" The male guard yelled. April felt herself freeze for a moment before Martha grabbed her arm and pulled her along, down the hallway. Fighting off the urge to wrench her arm away, April ran as fast as her legs could carry her.

Turning a corner, they crashed into five more guards, all carrying large guns in their arms. April's glasses slipped off of her face as she stumbled back, but the guards pushed her aside, heading towards the creature.

Everything was blurry. April could barely see the end of the hallway as she tried to regain her footing. She heard a crack as Martha pulled her forwards and suddenly the hallway was alight with gunfire.

The two young women raced down the corridor, feet pounding against the hard white floor. "Left or right?" Martha shouted.

April didn't know, so she didn't respond, her chest heaving as she tried to catch her breath.

Martha turned and April followed her, running down the hallway until they reached the large chamber where the party had been taking place. Prying open the door, the two stumbled into the room.

It was nearly empty, with the glowing Lazarus machine standing in the center of the room. Two security guards were covering the exit while two more were standing with their guns pointed at the Doctor and Harriet. They were arguing loudly, voices panicked. "You need to let us through," the Doctor was saying.

As April and Martha entered, the guards rushed forward, closing the door and training their guns on it. "April!" Harriet yelled, rushing over. April and Martha ran closer to the center of the room. "What happened?" She asked.

"Long story," April said, still gasping for air. There was a large bang as the doors shuddered. Thaw was trying to get in.

"There's this creature," Martha said. "They were keeping it in the basement. This woman, she just transformed." Martha shook her head. The doors shuddered again. "April says she was working with Lazarus. The first test subject."

"But Lazarus was first!" Harriet protested.

"Are you certain?" The Doctor asked.

"That's the creature that Lazarus would've become," April said.

"What do you know about the creature? Quick!" The doors fell off their hinges as the creature crashed through. It loomed over the group. April couldn't see Lady Thaw's face with her blurry vision, but she imagined that the monster's eyes were alight with fury.

"I have been denied long enough!" Thaw hissed as the two closest guards began to shoot towards it.

"Its DNA is unstable," April said, desperately trying to recall everything she knew. "It needs energy to survive—when it doesn't have enough, it transforms. The creature is some sort of aborted evolutionary path."

The monster, having fought its way through the hail of bullets, tackled one of the guards to the ground, leaning over him as the other guard tried in vain to kill it.

"The energy…" The Doctor said, nearly pacing. "If I can overload it…but the Lazarus machine has the process internally directed!"

The other guard fell and the monster clattered forwards. April stumbled back towards the exit.

"Reverse the polarity or something, then!" Harriet shouted.

"When I say run, run! One of you, turn the power on!" The Doctor yelled, gesturing towards the two guards by the exit. One of them rushed over, pulling a large lever. The Lazarus machine began to spin, lights flashing as gas poured out from the top.

Lady Thaw loomed over Harriet, who scrambled backwards. The guard by the door opened fire. April could swear she felt the bullets flying past her as the creature thrashed around.

"Run!" The Doctor yelled.

April and Harriet rushed towards the doors, thrusting them open and racing out into the cold night air. Unable to see what was going on inside, April raced out towards the large crowd of people milling about anxiously. The Doctor came out a moment later, shouting something to the security guards, inaudible over the whirring of the Lazarus machine. They shouted something back and the Doctor slammed the doors shut.

And then there was silence.

Everything was slightly more bearable outside, with the cool air surrounding April as she sat on the steps. Reporters were taking pictures and trying to interview the guests as ambulances arrived to deal with the bodies.

So many people were dead. Less than in Hooverville, and they weren't exactly innocent, having aided Lazarus in keeping Lady Thaw hidden. But seven security guards had died.

None of the civilians had, at least. Somehow, Harriet and the Doctor had managed to convince the guests to evacuate while April and Martha had been exploring the basement and running from the monster.

April tried to look through the crowd. Martha and the Doctor had gone off to talk to Martha's family. Harriet had presumably gone with them, but April had stayed by the entrance to catch her breath. Worried that Lady Thaw might revive like Lazarus had in Doctor Who, Harriet had asked the Doctor to make certain that she was fully dead.

"…and I had no knowledge of this!" April stood up, noticing Lazarus and Ford talking nearby.

"I find that very hard to believe," Ford said.

"I was being kept uninformed by my own company," Lazarus insisted. "They didn't even tell me that we had intruders out of bounds until that Doctor and his niece started yelling about a monster on the loose." He suddenly turned towards April. "You! Why haven't you been arrested?"

April looked around. She couldn't see the Doctor anywhere, but that didn't mean much since she couldn't see that far in front of her. "Why would I be arrested?" She asked.

"You were sneaking around in my building."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"I highly doubt it," Dr. Ford said dryly. "Not everyone is out to get you, Richard." April didn't know why he was covering for her, but she'd take it.

"I have to be going," April said, turning around. Martha should probably be finishing up her conversation with the Doctor soon, April thought as she waded through the crowd, squinting.

I really need to get a new pair of glasses, now. And then tape them to my head. Duct tape them to my head. Okay, that sounds a bit uncomfortable.

"Doctor?" April called. She didn't hear any response. "Martha? Harriet?" April felt a hand on her shoulder and nearly jumped out of her skin. Turning around, she saw Dr. Ford. "Oh, sorry," she said. "Didn't see you there."

"That's alright," Dr. Ford said. April felt exhausted—she didn't like dealing with people on a normal day, let alone one where she had nearly been killed several times in the past twenty-four hours. "Can I talk to you for a moment?"

"Sure." No, can you please just leave me alone? "What is it?"

"Has your agency been looking into Harold Saxon?"

April wasn't quite sure what to tell him. "I'm not at liberty to say."

"There's some…information that you should know."

"I'm sure whatever it is, MI-5 is already aware."

"Why exactly were you investigating Lazarus Industries?" Dr. Ford asked.

"We make it our business to investigate matters of internal security," April recited. It sounded like something secret agents would say.

"I am assuming that you are aware of Mr. Saxon's significant investments into the matter."

"This is not my department. Dr. Ford, if you have something to report, I must insist you contact the government through the proper channels," April said, peering over the heads of the rest of the crowd to try and find the Doctor.

Someone bumped into Dr. Ford, immediately apologizing. "Oh, I'm very sorry," said the woman.

"You dropped this," April said, scooping up her handbag off the ground.

"Thank you," the woman said. She turned towards Dr. Ford, tilting her head to the side as she looked into his eyes. "My aunt Eliza is always telling me to watch where I'm going." April watched as she disappeared back into the crowd.

"Where is the Doctor?" Dr. Ford asked, his voice strangely light.

"I don't know," April said. "Do you see him?"

Dr. Ford shook his head. April stood on her toes, searching the sea of heads for the rest of her group.

April felt a sudden, sharp pain in her shoulder. She turned her head to see Dr. Ford holding something in his hand.

The world began spinning, and then everything went dark.