Cradling Theodore in her arms, feeling his pulse normalizing as she looked up at Al, Lila blinks as she echoes, "The Family?"
His walnut eyes darting around the cellar, Al affirmed that he knows their work from anywhere, it should've made sense that it was their doing.
However, he'll tell Lila about them later, all that matter's making sure Theodore's still with them.
Kneeling beside them, Al worryingly looked at Theodore's expressionless face, Lila asking him if he can see Theodore's vitals.
Nodding, Al confirmed that he can and he sees stabilization, a good sign, a good thing the Family used their royal honey.
It's a long story, but basically when the Family abducted people, they'd force feed specially made liquid, called royal honey, no bees were involved in the making of this, nor did it have ties to royalty.
The purpose's keeping their victims from withering away while they're being pumped for their blood. No good letting them starve and if their bodies can't keep up with demand, they'll die from extreme blood loss.
Of course, there are complications with doing this, sometimes involving anemia, but those who take to the royal honey stay hooked up for years, until their bodies finally give out, or the Family gets bored of the wine made from them.
Sometimes, though, the Family gets a victim, finds their blood doesn't make for good drinking, and just uses it to bathe in, no good wasting, they told Medikus.
"Al, help me," Lila implored his help and Al briefly disappeared, the TARDIS appearing before her, Al popping his head out front he opened door.
With his guidance, Lila carefully pulled Theodore inside the TARDIS, towards the medical bay down the hall, where Al did the legwork, hooking Theodore up, making sure his body's able to flush out the royal honey safely, it'll be slow, but for Theodore, it's his only hope.
While Theodore's recovering, Al carefully monitoring him, Lila worryingly asks him, "Will he…?"
His walnut eyes on Theodore as he's hooked up to the machines in the medical bay, precisely tuned to his needs, Al comforted Lila, telling her that Theodore's fine, he'll just be out of commission for a spell, but he'll spring back, as he did before.
"How come we didn't know anything about them?" Lila asked Al how she and Theodore weren't made aware of the Family's presence and Al tells her that Medikus slaughtered them, thought that was that.
He took no pleasure in doing it, but they were dangerous, enough that they came close to killing him at points in time, and they've killed countless people in their heinous bid for immortality.
"Then, how…?" Lila blinked as Al lured her away from the medical bay, allowing her to focus on the matter at hand, and because Theodore's in safe hands.
Shrugging, Al suggested that the Family knew that it was a longtime coming, killing people, using their blood, that they'd plan everything down to the letter how they'll survive any attacks on them.
Didn't expect Medikus to go the nuclear option, but Al digresses.
"Al, how are we going to stop them, we don't know how many we're looking at?" Lila frowns as she crossed her arms, Al deep in thought as he then said that because of their nature, he doesn't think they're dealing with more than one remaining Family member.
Unlike vampires that turn victims into more vampires, the Family can't turn an entire island into another Family member.
It's… a little… more than that.
"What do you mean?" Lila raised a brow as Al became evasive when describing the Family, that he leaned into her ear, whispering why he's evasive.
Hearing his response, Lila had a look on her face, as she exclaimed, "Well, that explains a few things!"
If one needed to know, for whatever reason, well, all Al will say, those common insults doled out are uncomfortably closer to the truth.
"They can't reproduce with humans and cloning's out of the question!" Al summed that they're dealing with the last remnant of the Family and there's no hope for them to "bulk up" the numbers.
Gesturing, Lila goes, "Wouldn't it made sense to squirrel away a boy and a girl?"
Shaking his head, Al tells her that the Family's… curated bloodlines have produced more females than males, but the troubles come with the males sometimes having blood disorders that they can't consume any human blood, causing them to starve to death, and that occurs in infancy.
High mortality rate for a twisted family.
No doubt the Family wanted to do just that, but with the mortality rate for males, it wasn't working well in their favour.
"Problem is, which one are we looking for?" Lila gestured as she asked Al if he can figure out who's part of the Family and he affirmed that he can track vitality.
Family members have an unusual heartbeat, think of it as the mamba, consuming that much blood's bound to cause a mutation or three.
Going through the Declan Family's digital inputs and outputs, going through their records, everywhere he can get his fingers into, Al discovered someone who fit the bill.
It was someone Theodore and Lila met.
Dolores.
"Wait… we… we met her, back at the police station, but she didn't come off as some sorta… alien?" Lila almost found it impossible that a woman who they just met could've been the long-lost daughter of the Family, but Al confirmed that he's certain it's her.
The readings told him so and he pointed out that Dolores looks far older than she appears, digging out buried photos, and whatever else he can find, depicting her at various points.
Unlike Keanu, Dolores wasn't naturally like this, all that blood she drank kept her no older than thirty.
"Uh, Al, problem, how could she have done all this on an island?" Lila pointed out that while someone using a business as a front for their nefarious deeds is as good as time, someone would've discovered Dolores's unusual traits, sooner than later.
It was then Al said that Dolores used the fog that sometimes permitted the islander as her cover as she kidnapped people, nobody saw anything because of how late it was, and she made sure to cover her tracks.
She probably didn't take on her persona until recently.
"She managed to capture eleven people?" Lila found it impossible that one woman could've had the capability of capturing a total of eleven people with a short amount of time, but Al reminded her that they weren't dealing with a normal woman.
The Family prided itself with natural strength and dexterity, if anything, Dolores used them to her advantage.
She'd just gotten sloppy lately since she's been at this for years and fell into an old trap, compliancy.
Comfortable.
However, with the recent trend of people getting sick from her vintage wine collection, that's coming to a head, and quickly, this won't last long.
"And no one on the island knew about her, wha-where'd she even come from?" Lila wanted to know how the islanders didn't pick up something was wrong and where Dolores came from.
Informing her as his digital cigarette burned, Al says, "Like I said, they're quick when they want to be, she doesn't need conventional food like you do, and she didn't come off a boat, I'll tell you. She probably swam here and used the islanders's ignorance against them for a few generations."
Why Dolores came to the island, they'll never know, but whatever reason's important enough for her to swim to it, rather take a boat, and prey on the islanders's ignorance for a few generations until she managed to get a footing on the island.
It's stupid, of course, coming to an island with limited amount of people, that relied heavily on tourisms money, but somehow Dolores made it work, until now of course, but it was something.
"And you don't think she could try to turn some of the islanders on her side by promising them immortality?" Lila asks Al's thoughts on the chance Dolores tried turning the island into a cult, by promising them a chance at immortality, for the price of their souls, only for Al to laugh at this, calling it fiction.
No.
The Family couldn't do that if they tried, blood rejuvenation only worked for them, no one else, and it'd be egregious for Dolores trying to start a cult with the islanders on that premise, all she'd do's introduce blood borne diseases.
It'd be the Aztecs, all over again!
Good thought though, Medikus had a similar idea, too, back when he first encountered them.
If Dolores's smart, she'll put on a veneer of friendliness while plotting her next move, which resulted in her capturing Theodore and Lila, but something's funny.
Lila wasn't hooked up and draining like Theodore was when Al found her.
Even if she wasn't part-Time Lord, it didn't make sense for Dolores to keep her alive if she wasn't going to use her for the wine.
"I… I don't know," Lila blinked, her mind drawing a blank on how she managed to avoid dying in the worst way possible or becoming a human blood bag.
Wouldn't make sense leaving her unchained in the cellar, but somehow, she was, and it bothered her more than it did Al, before she shook her head, telling Al they needed to think.
"Okay, but if it's only Dolores, then shouldn't it be easy to sneak a close proximity bomb to her?" Lila weakly gestures as she suggested that they locate Dolores, when she's not looking, sneak a bomb somewhere nearby, get the hell out of dodge, and watch the fireworks from afar.
Shaking his head, Al reminded her that there's other variables to take into consideration.
An explosion on the island, for one, not a good idea, the bomb that Medikus used was large enough to make a crater the size of Mt. Olympus, that's just to make sure the Family couldn't regenerate from a piece of flesh!
For them to make sure they catch the last member of the Family, they'd have to make a comparable bomb, and the radius's still too close for comfort.
Even if they managed to control the radius spread, the hole that'll form from the bomb's a cause for concern, too.
It's a peculiar situation.
Chewing on her bottom lip as she's thinking, Lila goes, "How often do they need to drink human blood?"
Harkening back to Medikus's adventures, Al says that the Family used to drink their blood wine occasionally, but after multiple run-ins with Medikus, it forced them to consume their blood wine daily, and that's how Medikus caught them the final time he saw them.
"What are you thinking?" Al asks Lila what she had in mind, seeing the cogs turning in her head, before she asks if there's any way for him to sabotage the blood wine, make it impossible for Dolores to consume.
If Theodore's blood is the Château to the Family (and his father's the Cabernet), it'll be too tantalizing for Dolores not to partake, especially if she thinks he's still hooked up to the machines.
In fact, she'll want to celebrate capturing him, with his blood.
"Medikus always wanted to try and tamper with their stock, but he didn't know if he could it do, what with their regenerative abilities," Al mentions that Medikus had the same ideas, but doubted it'd work because of the difficulties he faced fighting them.
Cogs turning in her head, Lila says, "You know everything about Time Lords, right?"
Shrugging, Al says, "Well, I was made by them, piloted by one or two, I'd like to think I do."
Continuing, Lila then asked if Al knows enough about the Family to get an idea of their capabilities and he nodded.
Pointing at him, Lila goes, "How possible is it that can you can somehow make an enzyme or something, something that works with his blood, and put it in the vats, and it-it'll poison her somehow. Like a paper cut is an end-all. Something that she can't easily regenerate and cure herself?"
Medical terms and Lila weren't friends, but she tried describing an idea to Al, and when she haphazardly finished, Al nods as he understood what she's getting at, saying, "Yeah-yeah, that could work. Medikus had me study every piece of the Family. With the pints they took out of the kid, I got enough to work with!"
He stopped as he brought up, "What if it doesn't work?"
On the off-chance the Family figured out that it was a longtime coming, ensuring their only daughter wouldn't suffer from an attempt at making her white blood count hit the basement, before Lila gave him another idea.
"What if… you mix in some of the toxins from those bastards, make the wine something she won't forget?" Lila suggested as Al's walnut eyes widened as he sputtered at the thought, pointing out the dangers, before Lila pointedly asked him if it'd work.
Going through the calculations, Al said that it'll work, but it won't be pretty.
With the concentrations of every illness imaginable, combined into one toxic solution, pumped by claws, toxins from the Drekker would easily do a number on anyone, even Theodore.
In theory, if Dolores consumed tainted blood with the toxins, wine burps won't be the worst thing to happen to her.
In theory.
"But it will work?" Lila raised her brow as she gestures toward Al.
Nodding, Al waved his free hand as he assured her that it'll work, it just needs time.
Since Drekker only went after animals and humans, he'll have to modify the toxins.
Which.
He'll need to find some.
Words Al thought he'd never utter!
"Okay, okay, I think I know what to do, I need to make a house call, though," Al informed Lila that he has a plan, but he needed to call someone.
Of all phone calls Al placed over the years, this would be the first time he'd placed a phone call that wasn't to Bumble in a flirtatious matter, but to someone who knew more about these creatures than he and Lila.