It wasn't until well past tea time that the Doctor came back to Aickman Road. The Time Lord saw, right away, that the kettle had been moved out of place and that the lights were on underneath his flatmate's – and soulmate's – door. He'd known she'd be okay or he wouldn't have left, but somehow seeing the proof made his hearts threaten to skip. Or maybe it was just the reminder that he was so close to his soulmate, his other half, his better half. He went to her door and thought about knocking. He wanted to talk to her, share what he'd found. Inside, soft music was playing with the somewhat grainy sound quality of a cheap laptop computer and underneath that was the noise of a keyboard being clicked. Knowing she was busy stopped his hand from knocking, and the traveller caught himself, remembering the problem upstairs.
That problem upstairs had almost killed his soulmate. The light, lurchy feeling in his chest transformed into something dark and ugly. It wasn't foreign to him, but it still weighed like cinderblocks. It was the way he'd felt when Alaya the Silurian had been lain down on a hard floor, unmoving and wrapped in a barely-clean wool blanket. It was the way he'd felt when he'd seen the Daleks roving freely in Churchill's bunker. He turned his gaze up to the ceiling, breathing out slowly to tamp down the anger racing from his head to the tips of his fingers. His rage would do nothing to protect Kathleen or Amy.
Amy's time was running out. The TARDIS could only take so many more disturbances before she refused to land, and without him there to pilot her, the odds were slim Amy would get back to her home. There was always the chance she would unintentionally activate an old emergency protocol, but the Doctor keyed them to very specific situations that were usually dependent on some form of trigger he himself provided. It wouldn't do to have the TARDIS moving when he didn't intend it to. Since he had been booted out he hadn't had the chance to prepare one for her. His ship would keep her alive, but as for getting her home… The Doctor knew it as surely as he knew that, sooner or later, Kathleen's life would be threatened again by her upstairs neighbor. Passive investigation had to come to a close.
But first, the results of his reconnaissance. Going in blind was too foolhardy with the most important people in his life at stake. He left Kat to her work and cracked open the door to the shared entry and its stairwell, then baked himself some fish fingers while he waited. Living like a human was making him domestic in a way that would have put his big-eared self into a proper fit.
He didn't have time to finish his snack before the tabby was slinking down the stairs and letting out a soft mew. The Time Lord put his plate by the sink and went out to learn what he could. The cat's hair was up on the back of her neck and her claws were out defensively. Never a good sign. Humans were quick to dismiss their instincts, but animals were sharp enough to know better, not as influenced by social conventions.
"Hello," he murmured softly, taking a seat on the bottom steps to soothingly stroke her ears. Her fur started to smooth. "Have you been upstairs?"
Cass had said to take her time, and Kat appreciated it a lot, but she enjoyed her work too much to just not do it for very long. Especially now that she had the opportunity to put together a vacation package she'd been pitching for months. The brown-haired woman had been at her computer for hours before she felt like any time had passed, and wasn't too surprised when she listened to her body long enough to realize her restlessness was a result of hunger. The growl of her stomach seemed to echo, just to emphasize how empty her belly was. Reluctantly, she saved her progress and stood, cracking her fingers and popping her back quietly.
The moment she opened her door, she could smell meat. The smell wasn't particularly strong, but she knew the fishy aroma well. It sent her back to evenings with her grandmother, when they'd had an easy dinner of nuked sweet peas and deliberately burnt fish fingers. Just a little bit of burn made them crunchier, and all the better with the mayo. The memories made her mouth water and Kat let her nose lead her to the kitchen, where, to her delight, a tray was still on the stove. There were more fish fingers than one man could possibly eat, so she stole just one off of the tray before seeking him out to ask for a whole serving.
The heat seared her tongue, and the breading wasn't as crunchy as she liked, but she wasn't feeling very picky. The nostalgic flavor made her happily sigh while she chewed and she leaned against the counter to enjoy. Between her munches of battered fish, she heard a familiar voice, soft and faint, and when she looked around to see where he was and if he minded her helping herself, she saw the door was open.
Kat didn't consider herself a paranoid person, but to be sure, she always preferred her doors and windows closed. She took a few steps to go close it, but curiosity got the better of her when she realized the Doctor's voice was coming from the other side. She waited curiously to hear what had him using such low tones and reasoned that, if he didn't want to be eavesdropped on, he probably shouldn't leave the doors open in an area that wasn't, strictly speaking, private.
"You can do it," he was saying. "Show me what's behind that door?"
The sound of a short, disgruntled, feline hiss came in response. The Doctor clicked his tongue disapprovingly.
"Now, that's just rude," he chastened before continuing more kindly, "Just try to show me. It's alright."
Is he… talking to the cat? Kat stayed put with a bewildered frown.
On the other side of the door, the Doctor kept his fingers nestled in the cat's fur against its head. The cat was purring now, appreciative of the rubs near its ears. The Time Lord mentally pulled back and made a face. Much as he liked lower animals like cats and dogs, communicating with them sometimes left a bit to be desired. "Oh, but that doesn't make sense," he murmured, sorting through what the cat had reported back. "Ever see anyone go up there? … Oh, lots of someones. What kind of people?"
Kat grew increasingly worried. She was close enough that she should have been able to hear if a second person were there. A cat meowed in a way that would have had her backing up and giving its claws a wide berth.
"People who never come back down…" The Doctor trailed off. "Oh, that's bad. That's very bad. Don't you worry," he reassured next. "I'll fix it right up. No one else will disappear upstairs, I promise." Cat or not, he reasoned, the creature was unnerved by the being living next door to it. He took his hand off the animal's head and since she wasn't receiving more petting, she leapt off the last two stairs to trot to the door.
It was an uncomfortable feeling to both be grateful to someone for helping her and to be afraid of what might happen if they stayed near. Kat's inner Sophie was practically hoisting a red cloth up a flag pole now. The little things she had been willing to wave off as eccentricities, or his own private business… well, now Kat had to think a little bit more critically. He was talking to a cat, deriving responses from cat sounds, and talking vaguely about taking action regarding a man he'd never met upstairs. Quirkiness was seeming more and more erratic, and, Kat reluctantly admitted to herself, possibly delusional… possibly even like psychosis. Neither were situations she were equipped to handle. Nor, she assumed, was her neighbor.
Cautiously, Kat stepped out of the door, still hoping to see another person who'd just been whispering right in the Doctor's ear. The man was sitting alone on the stairs, and they were the only two people in sight. She put her hand slowly into her pocket, wishing she'd thought to grab her keys from the kitchen… just in case she needed something in her fist.
The Doctor brightened when he saw her face, which only made her feel worse about what she was about to do. He thought they were friends. Kat had liked being his friend. Maybe she still could be, but the man needed help in a way she couldn't ignore. It wasn't fair to the upstairs neighbor for her to turn the cheek any more, maybe not even safe.
"Oh, hello!" His cheerful greeting followed the clear-eyed and boyish grin.
There was no point in beating around the bush, but Kat tried to be as polite and tactful about it as she could. "Look, um, I can't think of a way to say this delicately," she muttered, mostly to herself, before raising her voice to a regular volume. "You're not gonna go upstairs and bother the guy."
The Doctor popped up onto both feet and hopped deftly off the bottom step to stand on even flooring with her. "Bother? Absolutely not!" He denied with an almost playful grin, reaching for her shoulder. Another bad feeling was beginning to mix in his chest, and it became a full concern when Kat sidestepped so he didn't make contact with her. "Not a bother," he promised, dropping his arm. "More of a… helpful nudge."
Kat swallowed and the Doctor knew she knew something was wrong, but somehow he suspected that what she thought was wrong wasn't what was actually wrong. He hoped he wouldn't have to row or have a conflict with her. That was the last thing he wanted, for a number of reasons, not the least of which being time and safety. Also, that he'd like her to have some good will towards him when he told her the truth about her mark wasn't at the bottom of the list.
"This was cool at first, and thanks for, you know, helping me," Kat said, unsure what else to call it. She still wasn't wholly certain she hadn't imagined some of it, especially that part where her veins changed color like in a movie. "But you can't stay if you're going to harass my neighbors, and what you were saying to that cat, it sounded like that was your plan?" It came out like too much of a question and so Kat circled back. "And, also, you were talking to the cat."
"Loads of people talk to cats!" The Doctor said defensively.
"Not while expecting a response!" Kat disagreed swiftly, tightening her fingers in her fist. She decided not to let herself be drawn in. It wasn't worth it, especially if he was as ill as she had started to suspect. "You can't do this," she said before the man could disagree about how natural it was to talk to pets. "You're gonna have to go, I'll give you all your money back."
Actually, that seemed like something she should do, pronto, to avoid any potential problems. Kat turned and power-walked back into the apartment, heading straight for her bedroom. She'd get all the cash, give it back to him, and he'd hopefully be on his way with no grudge. Nothing lost, after all. She said a silent thanks to whatever powers that be that had fortunately arranged the last few days so that she hadn't had the chance to take it to the bank yet.
The Doctor followed her inside the flat. She was acutely aware of him at her back as he called for her to slow down and wait. When she didn't, intent on proving she was serious and wasn't stiffing him, the Doctor frustratedly stopped in her bedroom doorway. "Your neighbor is not really your neighbor!"
Her drawer slid open smoothly and Kat withdrew the cash, refusing to hesitate. "Remember when I asked you if the cash was drug money and you didn't answer?" She didn't give him a chance to respond as she made sure all the bills were in the paper bag he'd arrived with, then kneed the drawer shut. "Well, that was fine then, but not if you're gonna break from reality 'cause of using."
The Doctor watched her roll the top of the bag and clenched his jaw with frustration. He couldn't intimidate her into letting him stay, and he also couldn't hurt her. This was his soulmate, and more importantly, he wasn't that kind of person. If he put himself in her shoes, he could understand that she was trying to do what she thought was right, keeping herself and her neighbor safe while urging him to get psychiatric help. The problem was that if he allowed her to hustle him out of the apartment, getting back in would be more of a challenge – not to mention that if she caught on, she was likely to phone the police. More people in potential danger, and more delays on him fixing the real threat.
"Break from reality?" He repeated while his mind sped, buying himself time while he found a solution. "Kathleen, I understand how it must sound to you, but it is not breaking from reality to have a different understanding of the universe!"
He couldn't let her kick him out. That would lead to her being in danger, and possibly the same for any other people who were lured inside before he could get back. Possible police involvement. Possible detainment. He had to convince her to let him stay.
"That's exactly how a psychotic person would justify psychosis!" She countered, crossing the bedroom.
Kat put a hand out and it landed on his chest. Rather than being a companionate gesture of affection or solidarity, he just found himself being pushed back against the doorframe while Kat slipped past him into the hall. She backed away, keeping her eyes on him. He followed after her, slowly, his arms down at his sides. He didn't want her feeling unsafe.
"And what sane person does this?!" She asked him, opening up his bedroom door on her right side. The door swung open to show the makeshift scanner. Kat had clearly seen it already and the Doctor winced. So much for being less detectable.
"It's art!" He lied emphatically. "A statement on modern society," he appealed, seeing the skepticism on her face. It took all his will to keep his arms down at his sides, knowing if he advanced, she would see it as hostile. "Ooh, ain't modern society awful!"
Not that the mentally ill couldn't have valid artistic endeavors, but Kat still wasn't buying it. Even if she were willing to let him sell her an excuse for one red flag, there were plenty of others that, when she looked at them in whole and in the context of his paranoid delusion, she could not dismiss in good conscience. He was aggravated, and it made her feel equally wary and guilty.
"Look," she said, trying to be as diplomatic as possible and holding out the bag of money. "Best of luck, I can point you to some other rentals – better yet, I can point you to some clinics." He wasn't taking the bag. Kat shook it, just a little, to make him look and act. "Rehab or mental, whichever you need."
"Kat," he said, his green eyes and boyish face looking much darker and more angular. "I can't leave this flat. I have to stay." Kat shook her head, slowly bending down and putting the money on the floor, if he wouldn't take it from her. "You aren't safe if I go!"
"Yes you do, no you don't, and I'm sure I'll be fine. Thank you for your concern!" She wished she'd called Craig and Sophie over before going about this. She kept her hands up at her hips, elbows bent, unthreatening but poised to move quickly.
The Doctor groaned. Not even he could come up with a way around this. She was too on guard and convinced. The only way she would let him stay was if she knew the truth. He could craft some elaborate lie, about being undercover, maybe, but he knew from her quick grab of his psychic paper days ago that she was clever. Especially now that she doubted him, she would try to confirm with law enforcement. No, that wouldn't work. The real truth was the only way to go. And if she wouldn't believe the relatively tame excuses he was making now, there was no chance she'd accept the truth without seeing it for herself.
"Right," he said, shaking his wrists, preparing to move in quickly. "I'm sorry about this," he said apologetically. It was going to be a lot to take in at once, in addition to what she would consider an invasive sensation. "I'll be gentle."
"Oh, no," she scoffed. "You're not touching me now."
"I'm going to show you someth-"
The Doctor didn't get his hands within six inches of her before Kat acted, grabbing the shoulder closest to her. She pulled his shoulder towards herself and down towards the floor, simultaneously sweeping hard at his shins with one leg. The man went down gracelessly and wheezed on the carpet.
"Ow," he said tersely, rolling awkwardly onto his back in the narrow hall.
Kat took a step back, moving her legs out of reach of his long arms. The Time Lord lifted his right knee up towards his chest and hugged his shin, mouth open in a long, pained hiss.
"Sophie'll be proud," she muttered to herself, bringing her hands up again in case he didn't get the message.
He received it loud and clear. "Ow! Okay! I get it!" He groaned, rolling to his side and scrabbling to get up. His arm smacked into the bag of money and knocked it on its side, where it laid, ignored. "Bad Doctor!"
"Just take your money, get your stuff, and go. Okay?" Kat really didn't want to do that again. Now that he knew she wouldn't hesitate, she might not have the advantage of surprise. And she knew that had worked in her favor, because the stunned look on his face as he crashed down was memorable. "I can call you a cab wherever you want to go."
"Okay!" The Doctor groaned, ceasing his hopping. She wasn't even wearing shoes, it shouldn't have been possible for her to strike his legs so hard. Maybe he shouldn't be so worried about her safety. Leave her alone upstairs for five minutes and he bet she wouldn't be the one on the floor. "Okay."
"Okay," Kat parroted, hopeful the confrontation was ending.
He smoothed out his shirt and untwisted a band of his suspenders over his front. Alright, if gentle wasn't an option, he'd have to do it the less gentle way. This time he knew better than to give her any warning, including a preemptive apology, but he was not looking forward to it.
"Just one thing, before I go, I want to say," he put out one hand, putting the other behind his back to show he wasn't going to overpower her. "Thank you for your hospitality and your friendship. You've been a marvelous host. Truly the best."
Kat doubted anyone would agree, since she had just jiu-jitsu'd him to the floor like a sack of potatoes, but if this was what it took to get him to leave, fine. She kept an eye on his shoulders so she'd know right away if he moved his arm to come after her, and reluctantly let him shake her non-dominant hand, leaving her right side free to strike defensively.
The Doctor shook her hand vigorously for a couple of seconds while shoring up the nerve, then lunged. Kat raised her arm to strike and yanked her hand away, but the Doctor hadn't telegraphed the move and she didn't have time to reel back before he could connect his head with hers. Loudly. He groaned while she stumbled back.
Just before he slammed into her, Kat expected pain in her skull, and possibly her back if he took her down. But that wasn't what happened. The moment his forehead cracked against hers, she felt inundated with sensations that weren't her own. It felt like she'd been dropped into an icy pool and her body was frozen with shock. There was an uncomfortable feeling like she wasn't alone, just for a second, in a strangely intense way. Of course she wasn't alone, she managed to barely think as her frozen sensation waned. She was under attack. Yet even as she thought that, she knew it wasn't at all what she had meant.
The shock eased, but as it did, the feeling of a head rush took its place. She pictured an old telephone booth, somehow a bright blue even after all these years, and as soon as she saw the image in her mind's eye, she knew exactly what it was. The TARDIS. And inside, she knew with absolute certainty, was a frightened ginger woman from Leadworth. The adrenaline that had shot through her wasn't necessary anymore, because she wasn't under attack. The Doctor had no interest in hurting her – the opposite, in fact, as he was very much interested in helping. It was sort of his thing, running around galaxies and helping whenever he saw things going wrong.
Kat gasped. It felt like she were waking from a blackout, finally able to process what she was physically seeing again. Her skull throbbed. The Time Lord had backed up and was holding his left hand to his own forehead, grimacing.
"Ow!" He complained, scowling and checking his hand for blood. There wasn't any, but he still pressed his palm to his head again. "Oh, I knew I'd regret that."
The emotional processing came next. Factually, she knew she'd been lodging with a beneficent alien explorer who'd had no choice but to forcibly create a telepathic connection, just for an instant. Really, there was no chance she could just accept that and move on without a visceral reaction.
"Oh my God!" She gasped, not sure where to focus first. On the alien from Gallifrey who changed his face repeatedly? On the fact that someone had just been directly in her mind, like fucking Spock?
"Right," the Doctor panted, taking his hand down and gesturing at his face. "General background, and this is the eleventh. Hello."
"Oh!" He'd made the decision for her. Alien from Gallifrey it was. Kat must've looked stupid, staring at him with her jaw dropped. "That's-"
"Yes," he agreed, fully anticipating her shock and slow uptake. A psychic bombardment like that was never pleasant, but he hadn't had much choice, since she didn't give him the chance to do it gently.
The way he'd looked at her when she'd talked optimistically about benevolent aliens made a lot more sense now. "Friendly alien!" She gasped.
"Yes, very friendly," the Doctor agreed again, glad that they were back on good terms. It was nice not to have his soulmate trying to kick him out of her invaded apartment. "Which is why I'm telling you your neighbor is not really your neighbor!"
"What?" Again, jaw dropped. Kat glanced up at the ceiling.
The Doctor nodded. He'd had to prioritize. "Specific detail. Okay? Can I?" He put his hands up in offer but didn't force her. Psychic connections were considered intimate with a species who never consciously created them, and in just a few seconds, her entire worldview had been violently shifted. So long as she wasn't still bent on getting him out, or running off to touch more of that rot, he wasn't going to force her to let him do it again.
Kat saw she had a choice, but did she really? She knew enough to know the Doctor being here, without his TARDIS and without Amy, was unusual. Unusual, plus his erratic behavior about the upstairs neighbor – she almost felt the blood draining from her face. Something dangerous was upstairs. She'd been living underneath it for ages now, and needed to know. The woman nodded shakily, keeping still and bracing herself for another hit.
He only touched her face first, seeing her tense. "It'll be different this time, I promise," he reassured, stroking his thumbs across her cheekbones before raising his hands to her temples and bending his head to hers. It wasn't strictly necessary, but it facilitated a clearer connection.
Both of them were relieved by how painless the second go-round was. Kat was amazed by the feeling of someone else in her head. That feeling of not being alone that had struck her a moment ago was back, but now that she knew what it was, she didn't feel so frightened of it. She could distantly feel his breath fanning across her nose and cheeks, but it was hard not to focus on what he was deliberately showing her.
The ground rushing up and the TARDIS dematerializing. Sticky notes with red marker messages at the Ryman's bulletin. Her own address, in her own penmanship, on her own flyer. The flat from Aickman Road, and the flickering lights, the repetition of a few seconds on a loop. Amy's screams and Craig's soda, and Kat herself, noticing something was wrong but unable to put her finger on what was happening.
The Doctor skimmed through the highlights and kept her from seeing any part of his memories related to their shared marks. That was a conversation best had through words. It was an emotionally fraught subject that Kat deserved to be able to process and express without any of his own opinions or feelings bleeding through and influencing her in the moment. Once she was all caught up with the cat's message and his suspicions about the upstairs neighbor, he pulled back mentally and physically.
Kat opened her eyes when the heat of his hands left her head, unsure when she had closed them. "But I didn't write the address," she objected, frantically trying to sort through days' worth of condensed memories and information in just a few seconds. "Someone added a post-it-"
"Yes, in your handwriting," the Doctor added. He had noticed straight off from the calendar by the door. "Which is odd, because-"
"Because I haven't written it yet!" Kat's hands flew to her mouth. Something she had yet to write in her future had already turned up in her past. The TARDIS was amazing. "Oh my god, time travel!"
The Doctor smiled at her as if they were sharing a secret. "It's exciting, isn't it?"
"That's-" Kat frowned, already distracted by something else. "You built a homemade scanner?"
"I'm very clever," he shrugged, trying for humble.
"With a broom?" She asked skeptically.
He frowned at her, taking it in jest but unable to resist the tiniest bit of defensiveness. "It's multipurpose! Any other pressing questions?"
Kat thought about it, working through the details. She herself had led – would lead – well, would in her future, had in his past, bring him to her own apartment, because the upstairs neighbor was not who he appeared to be. Whatever he was up to was causing time loops which destabilized the TARDIS and put Amy in jeopardy. On top of which, the people going missing were likely related to the timing of the time loops, both of which were somehow related to the strange, toxic rot in the ceiling. Which all begged the questions – who was upstairs, and what were they doing to the people? But if the Doctor knew that, he would have dealt with it and showed her. The Doctor thought he knew, so Kat knew what he suspected, but they couldn't be sure just yet.
"… Time Lord?" She thought to ask, raising her eyebrows as she calmed. The travel planner wasn't fully certain that her calmness was wholly her own, but if it was a bit of an impression from the friendly alien, well, it wasn't amiss. "A bit pompous, isn't it?"
"Oi, I didn't pick the name!" He protested, rubbing his face briefly where his head was still pounding. Then, as an afterthought, he admitted, "Yes, they were." He groaned quietly. "I am never doing that again. Ever."
Kat felt guilty about the pain they'd both had to go through just to get on the same page, but still didn't think she'd been wrong to come to the conclusions she had with what limited information she'd been working with. It helped that she'd felt no ill will from the Doctor – just compassion and concern. Still, she had taken him to the floor. That had to be a low point.
"Sorry I jiu-jitsu'd you," she offered.
The Doctor waved it off and switched on his earpiece. Now that she was on his side, nothing was stopping him from fulfilling his promise to the cat. And the sooner the better, with this literal headache. "Amy!"
"Amy Pond?" Kat asked before she could stop herself, then drawing the connections between his remembered conversations and her own remembered eavesdropping. What had sounded like random silliness was just encoded. "Of course, I've been hearing you talk to Amy!"
The Doctor glanced at her with brief surprise, but realized the cause of the change quickly. The scramble mode was really just another form of perception filter; the more aware a person was, the less effective it became. "Right, you can understand us now. Hurrah, welcome to our club." He threw an arm around her in camaraderie and, to his relief, Kat didn't back away or send him back to the floor. "Amy, got those plans yet?"
The earpiece crackled just a bit. Kat could barely hear it, though that she could hear it at all concerned her for the Doctor's hearing. "Still searching for them, Doctor," the redhead reported from the TARDIS.
"I've worked it out with psychic help from a cat," the Doctor announced.
"Oh my God," Kat said again, having another delayed reaction. "You're really psychic."
"Telepathic, actually," the Doctor corrected, and at the same time, Amy asked in confusion if he'd really talked to a cat. He answered impatiently, "Yes, can we move on? I know he's got a time engine in the flat upstairs. He's using innocent people to try and launch it. Whenever he does, they get burnt up – hence the stain on your ceiling."
"And whenever the engine fails," Kat realized with dismay, "It causes that – that time loop thing." The neighbor was trying desperately to time travel, but couldn't get any further than a tiny disturbance that reset itself. Kat looked to her hand when a wave of nausea threatened to roil her stomach. "I touched it."
"Yes, well, I did advise against that," the Time Lord reminded her. "And you, Miss Pond, nearly get thrown off into the vortex."
The woman put a hand to her stomach while she urged her queasiness to settle, but was threatened by another realization that made her feel even worse. "But, wait, that – if that's the engine we keep hearing – he's been killing people daily!" A shudder tingled down her back. "Multiple times a day!"
The Doctor looked sideways at her to see how she was taking it and the answer was not wonderfully. The blood looked to be racing out of her face. He tried not to be discouraged – she was adjusting to a lot at once. Maybe at a more normal pace, she would be more enthused and less sickened.
"Yes," he said slowly, trying to be sensitive. "Unfortunately, your neighbor is actually an alien interface committing serial murder right under your nose. Or – above your nose, I suppose." The look that his soulmate sent him could have made even the Master quail. "Sorry," he muttered.
"Maybe you can break your lease 'cause of it?" Amy suggested.
"Oh my god, not helpful, Amy!" Kat groaned.
Somewhere over their heads, it sounded like several cinder blocks landed. It might have been her imagination, but Kat thought that she felt the building shake, just a tad, and bits of plaster dust fell from the ceiling further down the hallway, closer to her own bedroom. The lights flickered. The planner recognized the signs with a lurch of her heart that felt on par with a cardiac event. She could tell the Time Lord did, too, from the way he looked at her with worry and alarm.
"He's killing someone right now!" Kat cried, grabbing onto his arm. In his earpiece, Amy yelped as Kat reversed course and the time loop began. His soulmate went for his arm again. "He's killing someone now!"
She blinked, and even as she let go and reversed course, mouth moving as if she were speaking in rewind, her voice quieted and Kat frowned. With effort, she shook her head and dropped her arm, clenching her fists tightly as if muscular control had been the problem. "Oh, my god," she said, disconcerted, "Was that-?"
"Localized time loop, more unsettling and more resistible the more aware you are." The Doctor confirmed gravely. "Amy!" The only response he got was a long cry of his name, interrupted by a hitched breath that sounded like Amy lost her balance. He trailed his eyes up to the ceiling. "Someone's up there."
He looked down at Kat to tell her to stay put, where it was safer, but one look at his human and he knew he would've had better luck telling young Amelia not to pack her little suitcase. A part of him was thrilled. Whether her determination was a result of inquisitiveness and a need to know or of a strong moral compass, she was like him in some way that suggested compatibility. He grabbed onto her hand and turned to dash for the upstairs flat, Kat running at his heels.
The door to their flat was open like they had left it when he'd gone chasing Kat to the hall, but bright afternoon light was striking the hardwood floors in front of the stairwell. The outer door was opened. Someone must have come in while they were distracted with the telepathy and the talking. If the Doctor were one to curse, he might have done so; of all the times, why did it have to be then?!
The two rushed out of their flat and almost ran straight into a shorter, rounder man on the way. The Doctor swerved to duck right and continue up the stairs, but Kat, trailing on his left, had to halt. The woman looked up with shock, and the Doctor did a double-take as he realized he recognized that face.
"Craig?" Kat wondered aloud, peering to the building door. Her friend's car was parked along the curb on the other side of the street.
"What's happened?" Craig asked, reaching for her elbow to steady her. He was laughing at their speed, but his tone turned nervous when he got a good look at Kat's face. She knew she must still be visibly flushed and terrified. "Soph wanted to pop in, I was just gonna wait in the car but then I saw the door left open-"
"Doctor!" Amy screamed so loudly that the Doctor flinched down and Kat turned in the direction of him and his earpiece.
It was worse this time, Kat could hear it in Amy's fearful cries. The effect on the TARDIS was more sudden and more intense. The ship wouldn't be able to hold out for much longer. Neither would the next victim in the flat upstairs. Her best friend.
"Sophie!" She screamed, bolting for the stairs and shoving past the Doctor, who turned to follow. She bounded up two at a time in her desperation to get there. The very idea of Sophie becoming another casualty, another part of that spreading rot – if she hadn't been so full of terror, she would have gagged and heaved.
Craig followed them, alarmed by their panic. "Sophie!" He called loudly, anxiety quickly filling his voice.
Amy screamed again, her voice coming through louder. "Wait!" She shouted, and the Doctor, knowing Amy wouldn't dissuade him from saving herself and Sophie without a very good reason, halted, reaching out automatically to grab the back of Kat's shirt as well. "Are you upstairs?!"
"Stop! Let go!" Kat batted at his hand, pulling against him with rising panic. He tightened his grip and dismissed the stinging from her slaps and knuckles. "Sophie!"
"Just going in!" He reported to Amy over Kat, additionally aware of Craig trying to shove him aside. The Doctor spread his left leg further to make sure the man couldn't easily push him away or squeeze past.
"But you can't be upstairs!"
"Of course I can be upstairs!" The Doctor replied shortly.
Kat was even less polite, heatedly snapping, "There are stairs and we are up them, let go!"
"No, I've got the plans!" Amy argued, equally hotly. "You cannot be upstairs! It's a one-story building! There is no upstairs!"
That stopped Kat's and Craig's panicked shoving and pulling and the Doctor let out a breath, able to relax his body while his mind worked harder. He came to a conclusion that was both simple and unsettling, looking slowly back down to the steps his feet were on and then to his soulmate, who had one foot on a landing that shouldn't have been there to stand on.
"But we're on the upstairs now!" Kat objected, pointing down. "Look, stairs!"
"Will someone tell me what is happening?!" Craig shouted angrily. The Doctor was empathetic to his fear and frustration, but also hoped that his outbursts would end there. Humans, when they were afraid and angry, were one of the scariest beings in the universe.
"Oh. Oh." He looked up to Kat, who'd been waiting for his reply with her muscles all taut, prepared to spring for the upstairs flat's door the moment he released her shirt. "The time engine isn't in the flat, the time engine is the flat! Someone's attempt to build a TARDIS!"
Kat turned her head to look at the door, pieces of hair sticking to her neck. "No," she said, shaking her head, clearly remembering the pale brown door when she'd moved in. "There's always been an upstairs!" She could think back on how eerie it felt to come home at nights, in the dark, knowing someone might be at the top of the stairs before her eyes would adjust to the dimness.
"Has there?" The Doctor urged. "Think about it!" If he were wrong, he needed to know – but with perception filters in play, Kat would have to fight her own mind to answer.
"Yes!" Craig yelled behind him, giving his back a shove that nearly sent him forwards. The Doctor snapped out his other arm to keep his balance.
Kat had looked back at the door at his prompting, trying to think harder. She and Sophie had always been mindful of the reclusive upstairs neighbor, always complaining to the landlord about his tendency to drop things and risk property damage. But the more she thought about it, the less sense it all made. If she'd really been making complaints for months about loud, destructive noises, surely the landlord would've sent someone, or given the man a notice? And what about the toast she and Sophie had made to having their own flat? It was the first time either of them had lived in a place that was fully their own – no parents cosigning, no university dorm contract. Why would they say that if they shared the building? And, just as easily as she could remember being creeped out by the shadows up the stairs, she could remember feeling completely at ease once she was off the street.
"… No?" Kat guessed, breathing harder. What was wrong with her? "I don't know!"
"How can you not know?!" Craig shouted, which was not helping.
"Perception filter," the Doctor said, answering Craig but looking at Kat, hoping to soothe her building fear. "Living so close to it, it's more than just a disguise. It tricks your memories."
He could see in her eyes how truly frightened she was becoming, and he couldn't blame her. Being unable to trust her own memories, how could she fully know how to proceed? The Doctor released her shirt. Now they knew what they were dealing with. No part of the upstairs was safe. Even now, they were standing on unstable alien technology.
A woman's scream ripped through the air, only muffled by the closed brown door.
"Sophie!" Craig yelled. Kat had already snapped around and taken off, ripping at the door handle. It wasn't locked – the Doctor wasn't completely convinced it was a real door – and Craig barrelled right past them both, rushing inside. "Sophie, oh my god, Sophie!"
Kat hurried in behind him and the Doctor followed at her back protectively, casting his eyes around to see anything that could provide a clue. Kat gasped at the inside of an alien spaceship. She knew already what the TARDIS looked like – the Doctor had shared that with her – but this was her first time truly seeing a spaceship with her own eyes.
The most surprising thing, she thought at first, was that it resembled the TARDIS. Was there a sort of industry standard for spaceship design? Cast in a cool, chilly blue light, the floor plan was empty barring a cylindrical console in the center. The controls were a sickly pale ice color, with bright, glassy screens and convex domes less than a foot wide. Sophie, in her favorite green skirt and a warm wool cardigan, was standing with one foot back and her right hand outstretched, connected to one of those crystal domes by what looked like a bolt of fluorescent purple electricity.
"Craig!" Sophie cried, her eyes wide. Her other hand was up on her wrist, trying uselessly to push her hand down so she could run away. Even as she leaned all of her weight back to break away, her feet were dragged closer in stumbling, unwilling steps.
"It's controlling her," the Doctor warned, searching the controls for something he would recognize as an off switch. "It's willing her to touch the activator."
"If she does, she's dead!" Kat told Craig, rushing to Sophie to intervene.
That equally scared and infuriated Sophie's soulmate. "It's not going to have her!" He yelled at the console, it being the most alien thing present to blame.
The Doctor kept an eye on the humans and whipped his screwdriver from inside his tweed coat. Subtlety was a lost cause now, so he scanned the console for speed's sake. The console issued a spark as if annoyed by his meddling. Across the console, Kat had parked herself in front of Sophie, her body to the side of the electrical beam but firmly in place to keep Sophie from advancing, whether it was the blonde's choice or not. Craig had gone behind Sophie and wrapped his arms around her middle, leaning back and holding tight so that, hopefully, Kat wouldn't have to test the strength of the beam herself.
His sonic whirred and the Doctor took a look at its miniscule screen. It was no good. "Ah," he huffed, "Deadlock seal!"
"You've got to do something!" Craig yelled over the crackling sound of the ship's tractor beam.
No sooner had Craig said it than did the beam cut off. Craig and Sophie both went flying backwards from their combined efforts to lean away, Craig puffing on his back and Sophie gasping for air in relief. The console sparked again. Kat turned so her back was no longer to it and she eyed the dome that had tried to pull in her friend distrustfully.
"What?" The Doctor looked from the console where he'd scanned to the humans on the floor. "Why's it let her go?"
"Don't complain!" Craig retorted, getting up and helping Sophie to her feet.
"Maybe you scared it?" Kat suggested, but the tremble in her voice told him that she didn't really believe that. Smart – he didn't, either.
The planner looked over her shoulder just briefly to check on her friends. Both were standing with their arms around each other, eyes on the alien controls nervously. They looked skittish, like deer that hadn't yet decided which way to run. Kat was about to tell them to get the hell out when a man appeared out of thin air between them and the door. Kat brought her hands up and moved a foot back, getting in stance for a fight.
As she kept her eyes on him, though, she began to see that he wasn't fully there. The definition of a three-dimensional object was missing, and his colors seemed muted, like he was barely out of greyscale. She could also see the changes in light on the other side of him. With a jolt, she realized it was a hologram. How much harm could a hologram do? She glanced to her fists, thought of the rot spreading in her parlor downstairs, and decided she didn't really want to find out. No – best to stay put until they had a clear shot to the door.
The image of the man crackled like snow on a telly screen. "You will help me," it intoned.
"Right," the Doctor said, tipping his head and taking a step around the console, closer to the hologram. "Stop. Crashed ship, let's see… hello, I'm Captain Troy Handsome of International Rescue. Please state the nature of your emergency."
The hologram didn't move. Now that Kat was looking for a face, she couldn't even make one out. Just the vague impression of where one should be. It almost ventured into uncanny valley territory. "The ship has crashed," it reported tonelessly. "The crew are dead. A pilot is required."
"It's an autopilot," Kat realized with surprise. It was amazing that an autopilot programme could be so complex. It was also horrifying that a computer programme had murdered people right above her home. "But… it can't power the ship on its own?"
"Of course it can't, it doesn't have a body. It's just another piece of computer. What, you've been luring people up here to try them out?" The Doctor scowled at the hologram with disapproval. Kat thought privately that if he were going to sound so dismissive of her surprise that it couldn't actually pilot the ship, he probably shouldn't expect it to have a moral clause, either.
In response to the accusation, the hologram flickered. It eerily changed between those flickering bursts, first into the form of a young man or older teen and then into a small prepubescent girl in the vague outline of a dress. It repeated the same demand for help as it changed, and the voice changed with it, to match the silhouette of a person. It settled back into that of the old man.
"It was the little girl?" Sophie whispered in horror behind her.
That answered the question of why she had come up to begin with – lured, presumably like the rest. Sophie had a soft spot for children. Kat had always thought seeing red was just a vivid metaphor, like tunnel vision, but in that moment she understood it in a more literal sense. Some homicidal alien computer preyed on her best friend's kindness to take her life. It was lucky it was a hologram, because otherwise, Kat would've been throwing hands. Hard.
"Kat, what is this?" Sophie nervously questioned. Kat didn't want to take her eyes off of the hologram in case it changed again or moved. "Craig, where am I?"
"Unfriendly alien murder-ship," Kat summarized briefly without looking back.
"Hush, all of you!" The Doctor raised his voice to make his point. Sophie's questions ceased. The Doctor took another step closer to the hologram as if conversing. "Human brains aren't strong enough, they just burn. But you're stupid, though, so you just keep trying."
The autopilot confirmed it for him in its near-monotone voice. "Seventeen people have been tried. Six billion four hundred thousand and twenty-six remain."
Kat felt like she'd been punched right in the gut. "Seventeen," she whimpered.
"Seriously," Sophie asked again, voice rising in pitch. "What is going on?!"
"Oh, for goodness' sake," the Doctor spat impatiently. There was a time and a place for Q&A and this was neither. He summarized in greater detail, rushing through his words hastily so she would stop distracting him and he could focus on getting them all out alive. "The top floor of your old building is, in reality, an alien spaceship intent on slaughtering the population of this planet for a ship that will never fly! Any questions? No? Good!"
"Yes!" Sophie argued, turning towards Craig's chest and cradling her stiff arm. "I have questions."
"So many questions!" Craig vehemently agreed.
Kat felt for her friends, but she was beginning to share the Doctor's irritation. They had to focus on their priorities, and the planner had a bad feeling that if they didn't work out a way to shut down the ship for good, it might just go through with its plan of killing the whole species in spite of the Doctor's warning.
She felt like her entire brain paused as she remembered that the programme was, at its core, a computer. Computers did as they were told. They took input and behaved accordingly. Its software wouldn't allow it to disregard the Doctor's words, not after he had identified himself as a legitimate authority.
The brunette looked across the meters of empty space between them and happened to catch his eye while he'd been assessing the controls. "Doctor," Kat said, trying not to sound too frightened. "You just told it it can't use humans. But if it's smart, then it will know-"
She was interrupted by the hologram, which would have been annoying if it weren't so terrifying. "The correct pilot has now been found," it informed them, devoid of emotion.
The Doctor flipped his screwdriver in his hand to put it back into his breast pocket. "Yes, I was a bit worried that you were going to say that," he remarked lightly. It had occurred to him a few seconds before Kat began to point it out. Between his advanced technology and the biological scanning abilities the ship doubtlessly had, he would stand out on Earth like a Macra among Rutans.
"He means you, Doctor, doesn't he?" Amy groaned with trepidation. From this far away, Kat was surprised she could still hear the redhead.
Most definitely. The Doctor considered whether running would be of any use. It would get him out of the ship's immediate vicinity, which presumably would put him out of beam range. Why else go to the trouble of luring victims with holograms? Since it knew humans wouldn't work, it might even let Craig, Sophie, and Kathleen go free without paying them any mind. But that wasn't a long-term solution – there were plenty of nonhumans roaming around the Earth and it would only be a matter of time before one of them became trapped in the ship. Not to mention that that eventuality assumed the ship wouldn't do something drastic like explode if it couldn't fulfill its role.
He nixed running, but didn't have the chance to consider anything else before the beam lanced out of the nearest crystal interface. It grabbed onto his hand and pulled with such an intense force that the Time Lord staggered forward.
"The correct pilot has been found," the autopilot repeated as the Doctor resisted.
It took an enormous amount of strength not to just rush his feet forward. The strength of the electric pull felt like the bones of his wrist were shifting to let his hand be yanked closer. The Doctor graoned loudly while Amy chimed in his ear, extra worried because she couldn't see.
"Could you do it?" Amy asked him, equally desperate and hopeful when he told her that the ship had locked him in. "Could you fly the ship safely?"
"No," the Doctor panted, pulling on his wrist. It was futile to try moving backwards, but at least he could refuse to move any further forward. "I'm way too much for this ship. My hand touches that panel, the planet doesn't blow up, the whole solar system does!"
"The correct pilot has been found," the autopilot reiterated. Kat could've sworn it was scolding the Doctor for taking so long to oblige.
"No!" The Doctor complained, swearing to the programme. "Worst choice ever, I promise you! Stop this!"
Kat crossed to the Doctor, careful not to put her own body in the direct path of the beam but helping him the same way Craig had helped Sophie. She locked her arms around his middle and braced her feet firmly. He looked like he was in pain resisting. She doubted her help would ease the pain, but she might at least buy more time if the pull of the purple light had to fight her, as well.
He ignored the heat of her against his back. Or, well, he tried. A part of his brain noticed. A part noticed very clearly. A hug from his soulmate… well, a sort-of hug. Her attempts to help let him focus on his power of will. The drag of his hand and the burn in his wrist made him ache to move his feet forward. Without worrying about sliding from the strength of the tractor beam, he concentrated on refusing to move his legs at all to relieve the pain in his wrist, even as it spread upwards to his shoulder.
Amy screamed. In his ear, he could hear the cloisters of his own ship resounding throughout her interior, echoing and nearly drowning out his friend. "Doctor, it's getting worse!"
The Scottish woman's voice had an unintentional vibrato, like she were trying to talk while bouncing on a roller coaster. Kat's heart clenched tight in her chest. The feeling of helplessness threatened to overpower her sense of stubbornness. Inside herself, she searched for that piece of her that loved Sophie and was furious that some piece of machinery tried to take her away. She found that rather large piece and held it as tightly as she was holding onto the Doctor, whose shoes were slipping just a bit on the smooth spaceship floor. It would have to go through her before it took Sophie.
… Why didn't it, actually? Now that she thought about it, it was weird that the ship went to the trouble of luring someone who'd moved out and not the downstairs tenant. Even weirder, it attracted people who'd never been in the building before, enticing them to come be buzzed in, and then to wander up a stranger's dark steps. But it had waved Craig away before the football match, and although Kat thought she'd talked to the man several times, if she'd tried even once, why didn't he bring her within target range?
"Doctor!" She exclaimed over the TARDIS's distress, Amy's screams, and the rumbling of the spaceship as the floor trembled under their feet. It was as if it were so angry by the alien's resistance that it was shaking. "It killed seventeen people, right? But it hasn't tried to get me. What's different about me?"
"Ah!" Of course. The Doctor had been operating under the assumption that it was a matter of when, not if, Kat would be in danger; but why had the when been put off when she was the only one immediately available, unless there was some qualifying criteria that she didn't meet? He turned his head a little, talking over his shoulder so they could brainstorm together. "It didn't want Sophie before today, either, and Craig, it didn't want you!"
Craig nodded a little, keeping his arms tight around his soulmate. "I spoke to him and he said I couldn't help him!"
"It's something about you and Kat," the Doctor said, thinking through every bit he knew about the three humans with him. "Something that changed in Sophie! Agh!" He couldn't help the moan of pain as it felt like his bones shifted in the shoulder joint.
Think, think. Kat flinched through his pain and tried to figure out what was so different. Sophie was a white woman, but so was she. They were close to the same age, too – and it couldn't have been an exact age that the ship needed, because she remembered the news reporters talking about the missing people, all of different ages and demographics. No, it wouldn't be something that mattered to humans, because it was an alien spaceship. It had a specific purpose it needed to fill and that was it, no compunctions about ethnicity, gender, age, experience.
What was the purpose of a pilot? To fly the ship. Sophie didn't know how to fly a spaceship any better than Kat or Craig could've… maybe that didn't matter. It didn't need the how, it needed… function? The role fit? The willingness to go?
Yes. For as long as she'd known him, Craig had been content to stay in Essex, where his job, family, and home was. Kat herself had made a comfortable life, knowing she'd leave in the future but content to settle for the time being; she couldn't support herself as a nomad, so she had to pick a place, and Essex with Sophie and Craig was where she wanted to be. All of the missing people were homeless, or drug addicts, or runaways. People who had no ties to the community and probably wished they were anywhere else in the world if it just meant a little bit of security.
"It's a ship, it wants to fly, it doesn't want the people who don't want to fly!" She cried out excitedly.
The time traveler could have turned around and kissed her right there, if not for the ship doing its best to dislocate his shoulder. His hearts swelled with pride as he realized she was right. She was brave and good in a crisis. Perfect... except for that one little detail that kept her safe from the wrecked ship. "Yes! Exactly! It's a machine that wants to leave, and you don't want to go!"
Craig and Sophie looked at each other at once, stunned and guilty. Sophie looked down to Craig's chest, in shock that her fanciful wishes put them all in such grave danger. Craig tightened his arms around her and shouted back to the two who seemed more informed. "But me and Soph decided she'd put in an application to go help the monkeys!"
"Doctor!" Amy shrieked, voice growing distant quickly as she lost her grip on the TARDIS and fell to its clear floors. "Hurry!"
Kat could have gone right over and slapped the blonde, except the Doctor's feet were slipping underneath him. She bore back with her weight, helping him stay upright and far from the controls. "You and your monkeys!" She groused loudly.
Shutting down the ship suddenly looked so simple. Requiring the willpower of a pilot to act meant that the pilot had a meaningful influence on how the ship expended its stored energy. It would never take off, but it could be forced to stay put. With no future of leaving, the autopilot would be rendered irrelevant and shut itself down, hopefully permanently.
"Craig, you can shut down the engine!" The Doctor looked over to the human, who was as close to the far wall as he could get with his girlfriend. The man's blue eyes widened so he could see white all around the irises. "Put your hand on the panel and concentrate on why you want to stay!"
Sophie gasped audibly and dug her nails into his sleeve. "Craig, no!"
Kat swallowed hard. The idea of either of her close friends being exposed to the thing that killed seventeen other people made her balk. "Can I do it?" She asked the Doctor, resolutely steeling herself to make the risky play.
"No!"
His vehemence startled Kat and the Doctor paid for his lost attention, losing a step of space between them. Kat grunted with the effort of keeping him back while he regained his balance. Both of his hearts hammered against his chest. The very notion of his soulmate touching the console made a protective anger shoot through his veins. It made him feel guilty for urging someone else's soulmate to do it in her place, but there was no better alternative – and it wasn't just his loneliness talking.
"No, you want to leave eventually," the Doctor panted, helping her straighten back out as much as he could. She wasn't suitable now, but the long-term intention could be plucked and magnified if she came into close contact with the machine. "If it picks up on even that intent, it could blow!"
The rumbling underneath their feet became louder. A thunderous crack from over their heads echoed in the mostly empty space as one of the minimalist columns cracked. Sparks flew down from the broken piece and stung Kat where they sizzled on the thin fabric over her shoulders.
She looked to Craig, apologetic but hopeful. She hoped he knew that she would throw herself down if it would have let them walk over the wire. It wasn't just her own friends she would be protecting, it would be the whole world – at least, the whole world as she was conscious of it, separate from the Doctor's mingled impressions – and to put herself above that level of catastrophe was a level of selfishness Kat never could have lived with. In the off chance there was some form of consciousness after death, she would sacrifice her life for the world in a heartbeat, and if there wasn't, she'd do it anyway, because it was right, and the world deserved to keep turning.
Craig swallowed hard, looking at the dome Sophie had been forcibly drawn towards. "Are you sure it'll work?" He asked. His uncertain tone was almost pleading for a second opinion or a way out, but there was something else there, a sort of resignation, that told Kat he was up for the challenge.
The Doctor replied immediately, "Yes!"
Craig hesitated. "Is that a lie?"
"Of course it's a lie!" The Doctor screamed, his feet slipping again.
Kat stumbled forward with him this time and they lost almost two steps towards the console. The proximity was starting to freak her out. Knowing it would be low on dignity, Kat kept her arms tight around the Time Lord's midsection and squatted down lower to get her center of balance closer to the floor. His jacket was scratchy on the side of her face. She leaned back, working all the pressure and tightness she could into her core, and made quick, short hops, gaining back inches of space at a time. Her fingers were going numb from the effort of gripping her opposite hands to pull the Doctor back with her.
"What on-" the Doctor started to ask before he realized that she was managing to pull them back and buy more space. With only a few feet remaining between his unwillingly outstretched hand and the central console, every bit was crucial.
"Tug of war," she grunted in answer, hopping back a few more inches and hefting him flush to her chest again.
"Tug of war!" The Doctor repeated indignantly.
"Shut up, you're the rope."
"Probably," Craig said, running his hand through his hair and making up his mind as he saw their struggle. If Kat were watching from his perspective, she didn't think she'd favor their odds of lasting much longer. He took a deep breath. "Good enough for me!"
Sophie nervously clasped her hands under her chin as Craig pulled his arm away from her. "Craig, don't," she begged, terrified of losing her partner. It made both the Time Lord and the travel planner flinch inwardly.
"I have to, Soph." Craig looked at her, torn in half by having to ignore her pleas. He could only see the tears in her eyes for a second before her expression threatened to change his mind. For Sophie, for all of their survival, he had no choice. "Geronimo!"
Craig slammed his hand down onto the dome. Purple electricity snapped through the crystal to meet his hand, locking him in place. Craig screamed at the tight pull on his hand and the heat that locked up his muscles. The autopilot released the Doctor, and without anything to fight against, he and Kat crashed to the floor, just as Craig and Sophie had.
The Doctor's fall could have been worse, though the knee in his back was unpleasant. He scrambled off of Kat and ran to Craig while Sophie screamed for her boyfriend, the tears falling from her eyes. Kat blinked the stars out of her eyes to slowly climb to her feet.
"Doctor!" Amy was screaming again. The cloisters were ringing constantly now and his beautiful old girl was wheezing almost as loudly as Amy was calling out.
The ship hummed to life underneath their feet. Unlike the tremors threatening to rip the structure apart, this was a constant hum, the crackle of electrical life. The Doctor didn't risk touching Craig and making a connection indirectly, but he stood as close as he could to coach him.
"Craig, what's keeping you here?" He demanded. The soccer player opened his eyes and they darted to Sophie. The Doctor felt his hearts thud faster. If Craig went down the line of thought of following Sophie to the monkeys, that was the battle lost. "Think about everything that makes you want to stay here! Why don't you want to leave?!"
"Sophie!" Craig cried in a gasp, biting hard on his lip and barely able to breathe through the pain. Somehow he found the air to shout her name. "I don't want to leave you, Sophie! I love you!"
The Doctor couldn't imagine how unbearable it must feel. This ship was meant for someone more technologically advanced and telepathic by nature. The autopilot was demanding more of Craig's brain than biology could allow. He glanced at Kat to make sure she was still alright and found that the brunette had joined them, all crowding around Craig like a posse ready for a trust fall.
"I love you, too!" Sophie promised, holding onto Craig's arm. "I'd rather stay with you than go without you!"
Kat saw the moment Sophie realized that loving Craig enough to stay with him was also going to be enough to help him. She slapped her hand down on top of his, lacing her fingers between his so that the purple energy locked onto her fingertips. Sophie squeezed her eyes shut tightly for a moment and blinked them open with more tears welling, this time in pain that she fought to work through to look up into her soulmate's eyes. She was going to damn well make sure he knew she was at his side, supporting him always. No matter what.
The Doctor grinned as the hum of the engines began to power down. "Craig, the planet's about to burn, for God's sake, kiss the girl!"
"Kiss the girl!" Amy cheered unevenly, yelping halfway through but finishing her phrase. She was a sucker for a good romance.
Craig ducked his head down to Sophie, who stood on her toes. The kiss landed forcefully enough to look awkward, but neither of the pair cared enough to pull away for a do-over. Another loud crack boomed and more sparks drifted from overhead, raining down on the couple like unsafe fireworks. Kat and the Doctor both laughed. Kat felt giddy with relief and disbelief. The power of love was saving the world. She couldn't believe real life was that embarrassingly corny.
Sparks started erupting from the controls. Kat noticed with interest a spongey sort of slot that looked like it was meant for a creature with only four fingers. That spongey stuff caught on a low fire when several sparks landed on it, and as the fire trailed through the substance and deeper into the controls, the sounds of crackling and snapping grew. The fire starved itself inside the mechanics, and plumes of smoke billowed out of the slot while the dome under Craig and Sophie's hands split from a sudden change in temperature. The heat from the energy was gone, just like the purple tendrils.
Craig lifted his hand, Sophie's on top of his. They pulled apart to look down and see and grinned at each other. "I did it," Craig breathed in shock, before saying it again, louder, and squeezing Sophie in an enormous hug. "We stopped it!"
"You've done it!" Amy agreed, delighted. The Doctor tapped his earpiece with a grin, the closest he could get to affectionately touching Amy. The woman in the TARDIS squealed eagerly. "Oh, you've done it! The screen's just zeroes!" Kat beamed brightly, heart still pounding and every muscle in her body seeming to ache from exertion and adrenaline. "Now it's minus ones, minus twos, no, minus threes – big yes!"
The Doctor looked fondly at the humans around him. Craig and Sophie, normal couple, exceptional couple, saving their solar system with the power of emotion and passion. He looked to Kat, seeing the gorgeous sparkle in her eyes as she giggled her stress out. He smiled at her even wider when he caught her looking back at him. Exceptional, incredible humans, and one of them his own. He was beyond proud of her for her courage and cleverness, and admittedly, proud of himself for being somehow deserving of someone with such a good heart.
Their celebrations were interrupted by a robotic voice. "Help me," the autopilot said tonelessly. "Help me. Help me." The hologram hadn't moved since it first appeared, but its image flickered unsteadily. The power that had been sustaining it was failing. Coherence was the first to go. Second was the voice, pitch wavering and pace picking up.
Between the violently quaking floor and the crisis of the hologram, Kat started to suspect they'd counted their ducks too soon. "That's not supposed to happen, is it?" She asked the Doctor, feeling she already knew the answer.
"Ah." He raised a hand to point to the hologram emphatically, other arm sneaking around her shoulders to make sure he didn't lose her in a hasty rush out of the ship. "That would be a big no," he confirmed, borrowing from Amy.
Third to go was the image. The hologram switched between the forms of the old man and the little girl, its voices mixing, garbling, and breaking down. "Help me. Help me. Help me."
"Didn't we switch it off?" Craig asked warily, looking at the smoking console and then back to the hologram.
"It's like it's overloading," Kat guessed, gesturing widely with her hands for Sophie and Craig to take the lead and retreat. Sophie was quick to listen, giving Craig a nudge.
"It's much worse than that," the Doctor said gravely. "It's imploding! Everybody out! Out, out, out!" The hologram's voice cut out entirely, leaving it flickering in place. In other circumstances, Kat might have said it was having an identity crisis and laughed, but the Time Lord's tone put laughter at the very back of her mind. He nudged her right along after Craig and Sophie.
The Doctor's press at her back moved Kat to rush her friends out faster. The shaking of the floor became so intense that staying upright was difficult to do while moving for the door. The ship continued glitching, smoking, and breaking, falling apart with increasing rapidity and noise.
"Doctor, question!" Kat called over her shoulder as they started on the stairs.
"Kat, answer!" The Doctor brightly replied.
"Imploding, yeah, not great. Dangerous?"
"Not for us," the Doctor assured her quickly. "Well – not for anyone, there's no one in there. Just a computer that didn't know when to quit. Best possible outcome, really."
The upstairs landing was so much creepier than Kat had imagined it to be when she came home at night. Her brain helpfully reminded her that it was just another part of the imploding spaceship. Sophie hurried down the stairs so quickly her feet blurred, while Kat and the Doctor were both leaping two at a time to get to the bottom even faster. Kat figured that if she lost her balance and fell, well, she'd be falling down, so it wouldn't exactly be a loss.
Sophie blew right past Kat's flat and through the open flat door. Craig had the same idea of getting as far away as possible. Given that Kat would have said an hour ago that her upstairs neighbor was not a serial killer, and that she had an upstairs neighbor to begin with, she wasn't sure she trusted her own perception of her apartment and decided that was a smart move. That the overhead in the hall was ominously flickering certainly hastened her decision. The Doctor followed, though whether out of necessity or group action, she wasn't sure. Sophie crossed the street without looking and Craig pulled her down to the other side of his car. Kat followed their lead in case the implosion was violent. The three kept their heads up high enough to see what would happen, but with their knees ready to buckle and drop behind the vehicle.
The Doctor smiled at the three friends taking cover and stood on the sidewalk beside them. If it were dangerous, he would still be rushing them away, or perhaps calling the TARDIS now that the time distortions were taken care of. Being included was a little guilty desire of his, so he dropped down into a crouch beside Kat to watch.
The building, sandwiched tightly between two other brownstones, seemed to waver. The top floor shimmered like they were looking at it through hot gas. Then the shimmer evaporated, and in its place was a spaceship atop a single-story building. It balanced on the roof through four spindly legs, almost like an insect, and the shape resembled a horizontally pinched egg with pale blue rings circling the lower half. The Doctor hummed curiously at the unfamiliar design. Craig inhaled loudly and deeply and started slapping Kat to make sure she saw.
"Ow! Quit it!"
Kat watched with a mix of awe and fear as the great legs moved. She half expected the weight of it to force the legs through the roof of her building, but the roof stayed in one piece. The insectlike ship raised itself up out of its crouch and a sound like a blast from a massive furnice emanated from its direction. It smoothly floated up several meters above the house, and then – anticlimactically, in her opinion – shrank down, smaller and smaller, and then had its shape crumpled up like wadded paper. The ship continued losing mass until it was barely visible, and in a tiny pop of light, it was gone.
She closed her jaw as soon as she realized it was hanging open.
A man with a young boy walked past, drawing a play wagon with a squeaky wheel behind them. They walked right in front of Kat's building, paying no mind to the spectacle. The man did look unnerved, but only by the four adults across the street hiding behind a car.
The Doctor popped up once it was over and Craig was the first to follow his lead. "Look at them!" He said, twisting around to see everyone in the vicinity. Some people in the park, a few others at various points on the street. "Look at – didn't they see that?! The whole top floor just vanished!"
"The whole top floor was a spaceship!" Sophie gaped, smacking Craig on the shoulder.
"But there never was a top floor," Kat said, rubbing the back of her head. That's what Amy had told them, and now she could clearly see, the building was a single-story. It had always been that way, she knew it now.
"Perception filter," the Doctor explained before Craig and Sophie asked. "We only saw it because we became part of the illusion."
Sophie shook her head with amazement. "No one at work's going to believe this."
Sophie and Craig tried to convince Kat and the Doctor to go with them for drinks, but both apologetically turned them down. Sophie got several hugs because she seemed so anxious about leaving Kat on her own in what used to be a murder flat. It took promising to answer her phone when they got home, and to call first thing in the morning, to reassure Sophie that it was alright to leave her behind.
Going back inside the house felt like waking up from a fever dream. The absence of stairs felt right because they had never truly been there, not in all the time since she had moved in. How the perception filter managed to fool her so well was something Kat didn't think she'd ever get over. After everything, it was a relief to find that nothing in her apartment had been fake. Everything was as she left it.
She went to the corner of the parlor to check the ceiling while the Doctor went to his bedroom. The rot was all gone. Kat wasn't sure if she'd touched the spaceship that night or if it was like toxic waste leaking through her ceiling, but whatever had happened, it had vanished. Just to be sure, she took a knife from the kitchen cutting block and used it to prod and press at the plaster. It was fully healthy and firm.
The Doctor came out of his room with his arms laden by household items. He put the cleaning supplies in the corner of the kitchen and laid things like the clothesline and traffic cone on and beside the marble counter. Kat took that to mean the scanner was disassembled. There was no use for it anymore, and without the threat upstairs, she knew there was no reason for the Doctor to stay. It made her feel sad to say goodbye. She'd only known him a few days, but she felt they'd been close to friends, if not already bonded through their near-death experience – not to mention that, having felt him telepathically in her mind, she felt she knew him better than she'd know most people after such a short time. Yet, because she felt she knew him, she couldn't bring herself to be surprised that he was cleaning house to leave.
"I think the rot's gone," Kat said, pointing up to the ceiling. "Another part of the perception filter?"
The Doctor looked at the ceiling and squinted to stare closely, then shook his head. "It was a leak from the time engine," he explained, unwrapping a string of Christmas lights from where they were wound around his neck to be carried. "Time machines generate this sort of radiation. It's self-cleaning. When the ship imploded, it opened a temporospatial vacuum and anything with its same radiation signature was sucked in with it."
Time travel was radioactive? Someone should tell Hollywood – they could add that to their list of disaster tropes. It also made Kat wonder how the Doctor and Amy were kept safe within the TARDIS. "But you're alright, aren't you? I mean, you don't seem sick."
"Artron radiation's harmless," the Doctor said, waving off her concern good-naturedly. "You didn't get sick 'cause of that, you got sick because of the nuclear byproducts from their engine. The power source wasn't properly contained. That's what caused the time rifts. It couldn't travel with a human because it couldn't keep enough fuel."
"Like a hole in a petrol tank," Kat nodded in understanding. "Sorry – one other thing, though." She hoped she wasn't annoying him with all her questions.
"No, don't apologize," he chastened kindly.
"What happened to the original pilots? How come the ship was left abandoned to begin with? And if it had gotten through seventeen people – maybe about a week's worth, at its rate – is there a chance they're hurt somewhere?"
The Doctor looked up at her with his mouth slack and she realized he hadn't thought of that. "Oh," he said out loud.
Abandoned ship, he'd assumed the pilots had died in the crash. But there had been no halls to go down and no closed doors on the inside, and no bodies, either. If it was unfit to fly and the pilots didn't intend to return, why not turn off their computers first, conserve what little energy they had? And if they had intended to return, surely they knew how long it would be before their emergency programmes would activate, so why hadn't they come back before that?
"Something else," Kat added as she kept thinking, "You said the ship could never fly. Well, it wasn't made by humans but it still got here, so obviously it did fly. What if the crash put the hole in the tank? If that's the case, where'd it come from and why'd they go to the trouble of disguising the ship?"
"Oh," he said again, with more emphasis.
That made it more complicated. Someone came to Earth either knowing enough about humans to know they wouldn't react diplomatically to an alien spaceship or deliberately hiding their presence. Now they were stranded here, for some reason not returning to their ship which had at least the power stores to safely sustain them for a while longer, if it hadn't been for the predictable activation of emergency programming. Either they hadn't intended to come back and didn't care to neutralize their dangerous technology, suggesting some sort of covert operation, or they had been prevented, suggesting harm done to them. He flashed back to Van Statten and his obsession with collecting. That had been in 2012. In 2010, Kat and Amy's time, the man could still be active. Who was to say that, or something similar, hadn't happened to the stranded pilots? If that weren't the scenario, if it were a covert operation, exactly what were they planning?
And to think he'd been about to write it all off as a job well done. There was nothing done about it. Good thing he had his clever soulmate to set him straight.
Speaking of which… with no imminent threat, it was probably about time she learned about their matching marks.
By the nervousness spreading from his hearts through his body until his hands felt unsteady, the Doctor might as well have been back in a ship trying to wipe out the solar system. "Kat," he said, stepping out from behind the counter to stand closer to her. "I think there's something wonderful you need to know."
A/N: That's a wrap! I hope you all enjoyed reading. I do actually have a few ideas to carry this into an extended story reaching into season six. If you'd be interested in reading more about Kat in this AU, please let me know with a review!