A/N: Disclaimer: This chapter's plotline is from Doctor Who's comic stories. Most of the dialogue is directly written from the comic. The plot is NOT mine.
A golden wasp of energy drifted from one side of the TARDIS. Avalon poked her head from another side of the box and frowned. She came around and watched the energy drift further from the box. She moved after the waft of energy and, without much thought, she touched it with a finger, yelping when the energy burned her. "Ow!"
"Avalon!" the Doctor called from a distance.
Avalon dropped her burnt finger and turned around, scowling once she remembered where they were. She walked around the TARDIS to see both her husband and Amy looking around the jungle the Doctor brought them to. "I'm not doing it," she huffed.
The jungle was fairly beautiful but the fact that Amy was trying to turn it into some Indiana Jones adventure wasn't making it fun for Avalon, especially when Amy had even dressed for the part. Her grandmother wore the tradition khaki colored jacket with matching shorts and a white T-shirt. What really drove it home was the bowl-shaped khaki hat on her head.
"I'm not wearing the stupid hat," Avalon said with finality as she hopped into the ground.
"I think you'd look adorable," the Doctor turned to her with a grin on his face.
"Nice try but I'm keeping my pants and no hat on my head," she returned the grin with a tight smile. "Now where the hell are we?"
At first glance, the forest looked like one you would find on Earth. But, if you looked very closely, you would see some things that you would definitely not find on Earth. For one, there were huge mushroom-looking things that could almost rival a mountain. Said mountains, actually, looked more like a volcano towering the forest.
"What is that?" Avalon neared a magenta-colored structure on the ground with blue vines sprouting from it.
"Don't touch!" the Doctor yanked her back and, in the process, almost tipped them into the river on the side.
"Well thanks for that!" the ginger playfully hit him on the arm.
"Don't touch things," the Doctor was adamant on that detail. "At least not until we know what it is."
"Maybe I should've just stayed with Rory," Avalon grumbled and walked to where Amy was admiring a pink butterfly in the air.
"Rory's with his Dad, enjoying some nice father-son time. You're just being a debbie-downer." Amy said. She gasped when she was able to touch the butterfly, almost laughing when the butterfly zipped around her.
"Where are we, Doctor?" Avalon sighed in resignation. The place was just a little hotter than what she would've liked. Not to mention it was sticky. Why were things sticky?
"A brand new world!" the Doctor exclaimed with his arms in the air. "And it's waiting to be explored! This is the best bit! New stuff to discover!"
"Settle down," Avalon patted his arm. She made to walk towards some purple leaves, part of a huge purple plant, when a mechanical machine - that resembled a spider with a huge circular camera in front of it - sprouted in front of her. Avalon's scream turned both the Doctor and Amy in her direction.
"30 seconds from the tardis doors to being threatened at gunpoint! Gotta admire the efficiency!" the Doctor said as he raised his hands to show he was neutral.
"Are you kidding?" Amy elbowed him on the side. "All the things you have to be proud of, you choose this one?"
"Scanning for concealed weaponry," the machine's automated voice silenced the trio. It passed a green light over each of them until it concluded. "Scan complete. Results: negative."
"Could've saved you the time with that one," Avalon said with a huge scowl on her face. She lowered her arms then crossed them.
"Negative unauthorized arrivals are tolerated."
"I see…Your job is to keep people in, not out. In that case..." the Doctor started grinning for some reason, "Take us to your programmer."
The look on Avalon's face was comedic, in Amy's opinion, but it really did look like she was about to smack the Doctor. "Who let him watch Star Wars!?"
~0~
The spider machine walked the trio of travelers through the forest until they reached some sort of colony that had seen better days. Unlike the bright green forest, the colony was dull, sandy and had a lot of machinery around it. Looked more like a military base.
"Love the whole botany bay thing you have going on…" the Doctor's remark went over the machine bringing them in.
"Could you not antagonize the group of people taking aim on us?" Avalon nodded him at the weapons some of the people had already taken out for them.
"What - hey!" Amy suddenly yelped when a man clamped an ankle bracelet on her. Just as Avalon and the Doctor looked her way, they felt the same clamp Amy had just gotten.
"I wouldn't struggle," the man who'd placed the ankle bracelet on the Doctor warned. "Not unless you want to be buying your shoes individually in the future!"
"I want to speak to who ever's in charge!" the Doctor demanded but another man nearby scoffed at him.
"No one's in charge, we're all exiles here!"
"Wait…" Avalon blinked and slowly started looking around at the group. "You mean to tell us that every single one of you is a convicted criminal?" She didn't know whether to feel at home...or fear for her life.
"Nice going," Amy whacked the Doctor on the chest. "How are you going to talk us out of this one Doctor?"
"Hold on…" the same man from before spoke again, now looking at the Doctor somewhat differently, "Did you say 'doctor'?"
"Jump on it, jump on it," Avalon whispered to the Time Lord. "Before they change their minds and kill us."
The Doctor figured it was the best choice they had right now.
~0~
The trio was now led into one of the buildings, under the warning not to try anything, all the way into an office where a woman was rearranging boxes. She was tall and looked tough in a green leather outfit. Her blakc hair was pulled into a high ponytail tail with two strands framing her face.
"Hey Cargill!" one of the men with the trio called. The woman stopped working and looked their way. "Got a surprise for you. It's the doctor."
That seemed to get her attention. "The doctor?" she repeated with wide eyes. A big grin spread across her face as she dashed up to the Time Lord and hugged him. "Oh thank God!"
"... I'm about to forget that we're surrounded by convicted criminals…" Avalon glared at the woman who was handsy with her husband.
Amy elbowed her on the side, reminding her that they were greatly outnumbered. She would be damned if she died because her granddaughter was jealous.
Cargill pulled away from the Doctor and sighed in relief. "We've been begging the empire to send us emergency medical assistance for weeks! I assumed they were just going to let us die." Something seemed to strike her as a new flash of excitement etched across her face. "How did you get here? Do you have a ship? Where did you land?" The woman seemed absolutely desperate.
"We...crashed…" the Doctor said slowly, his eyes flickering to the gingers beside him, "Me and…my nurses...Pond and...Pond…?"
"We're sisters," Amy said as a means to help him but then they heard Avalon's scoff on the side.
"You wish."
"We've been wandering for days trying to find you all," the Doctor went on to explain. "So, what's the emergency?"
Before Cargill could answer, a strange noise drifted in.
"...what was that?" Avalon didn't want to say it sounded like what you would hear in a horror movie but... that's exactly what it sounded like.
All traces of excitement left Cargill. "I'm guessing that's another batch of unwilling volunteers."
The trio ran to the nearest window and saw a large metal ship landing.
"It's a ship?" Avalon blinked. "That's some horrific ship!"
The ship let its cargo door open and slid down as a means for people to get off. And boy did they let quite a group get off.
"More convicts?" Amy's mouth fell open at the amount of people that fled down the ship.
"What do you expect?" sighed Cargill as she came up to the window. "It's the standard Earth empire policy, you know? They use undesirables as human guinea pigs to see if a planet is viable for colonization. In the unlikely event that we do make it, they'll start City forming the planet with traction varies. So, every few months they send us another transporter full of criminals."
"That's awful," Avalon said, though it was unclear if she meant the situation or the fact they were now watching the newcomers beating each other to a pulp.
"And the transporter…" the Doctor examined the ship as much as he could from his place, "Let me guess, there's only fuel for a one way trip."
Cargill nodded. "And they send along more Snoops to keep us in check."
"Snoops?" Amy realized Cargill meant the spider machines that, apparently, had electrifying abilities in case convicts got out of line. One Snoop had just used it to end a quarrel between two newcomers.
"This is terrible," Avalon turned to the Doctor, almost begging him to do something on the spot.
"What about you, then?" the Doctor suspiciously looked at Cargill. "What are you in for?"
Cargill lowered her gaze for a minute. "I was a clinician in a previous life, but I deserve to be here the most."
"You don't look like a criminal," Amy remarked.
Cargill shook her head and turned away from the window. "C'mon, let me show you why you're here. You need to see the plague victims."
"Plague victims!?" Both Avalon and Amy exclaimed together, equally horrified as they followed behind.
"Really? Where's Rory when you need him?" the Doctor sent them a look for their outburst. "Can can you at least try to pretend to be nurses?"
"Sorry if we're not used to plague victims," Avalon quietly snapped so Cargill wouldn't overhear. "And the fact we're surrounded by convicts is enough to put someone on edge, you know?"
"Oh don't worry," the Doctor slipped an arm around her waist and pulled her to his side. "I'll protect you, my princess." Avalon rolled her eyes at him but she hid her smile by looking away.
Cargill walked them up to a closed door then pointed them to the small window giving them view into the silent room. Inside were dozens of medbed holding brown, motionless creatures. Each of them were different, but all were scary as hell.
"What are they?" Amy was in horror.
"They're people. Used to be us. But we've no idea where this plague is coming from," Cargill shook her head.
"I need to go in," the Doctor's sudden request earned himself crazed looks from the Ponds.
Cargill seemed to be on board because she told him exactly where they needed to get the proper suits to go inside. It resembled space suits except these were green.
"I know I've said this before but now I really do mean it: you're insane," Avalon helped the Doctor put his helmet on. And she felt just as insane for actually helping him go through with his stupid idea.
"And I love you," he grinned like a true idiot.
Avalon sighed and sent him on his way with Cargill. The two remaining gingers were confined to watch from the window.
"When did this start happening?" the Doctor inquired from Cargill once they were inside the room. He looked at all the creatures that really just seemed dead.
"About a month ago?" Cargill sounded like she was trying to estimate. "But we have no idea if it's transmitted by physical contact or if it's airborne. Each case, there is no common factors and no consistent pattern. They were perfectly healthy. And then they'd...turned into this." She stopped by one creature that resembled a large humanoid fly and grimly stared. The sound of the Doctor's sonic turned her attention away from the creature.
"It's some form of pathogenically induced mutation," he noted, but it seemed like Cargill had already discovered that.
She walked up behind him and nodded her head. "We've given them everything we have but nothing's made effect. Would you like to see my own results?"
The Doctor turned his sonic off and nodded for her to take lead. They discarded their suits outside and followed Cargill into her lab. The Doctor immediately got hands on with the exams Cargill had kept.
"It's incredible! A disease that makes absolutely no sense!" he exclaimed in honest excitement.
"I apologize for him," Avalon told Cargill after noticing the woman's strange looks on the Doctor. "He means well...most of the time."
"It's good! I hate it when things make sense!"
Avalon shut her eyes. "Stop talking," she muttered to her clueless husband.
~0~
The colony was visited by a shaggy brown creature with large elf ears and wicked claws. It growled at anything that came its way, but when a group of the colonizers banded together to shoot it, it retreated into a corner. The Doctor, being who he was, put himself in the middle to try to border some peace, only for the creature to escape with the distraction.
"You idiot!" one man, Finch, screamed at the Time Lord. "You let it escape!"
"Did I?" the Doctor innocently turned around to face the empty spot the creature had been in. "Oh. My bad. We'll be back!" He took Avalon and Amy by the wrists and ran in the direction the creature had run off in.
"You let that thing escape on purpose, didn't you?" Amy sent the man a suspicious glance.
"Well, I had to," he shrugged. He used his sonic to lead them to the creature, which turned out to be hiding in some sort of storage room.
"What did you see, fairy tale man?" Avalon asked after studying his curious face. It looked like he had gotten answer.
"Look," he shined his sonic's light ahead so they could see the creature, along with the familiar metal bracelet ankle on one of its ankles. "That's the reason why the Snoops wouldn't shoot it."
"Hold on - it used to be one of the colonizers," Avalon blinked.
"It still is, technically," the Doctor said after reading off some of the results from his sonic's quick tests. "It seems like there's something on this planet that's causing human metamorphosis!"
"Guys…" Amy called. She was dangerously close to the creature, but it appeared the creature wasn't interested in attacking her. It had knelt down in front of her but when it tried to move again, a group of men burst into the room.
"Move away from the monster!" Finch was at the head holding a metal crowbar in his hands.
"Mr. Finch, you don't understand," the Doctor turned to face the group.
"Oh I think I do," Finch disagreed. "I think you are behind this infection."
"Oh you can't be serious," Avalon walked up beside the Doctor, and that was as far as she would get because he grabbed her arm to keep her still. "We just got here, you moron! Cargill said this all started a month ago!"
"This creature needs urgent medical attention. Can't you see it's in pain?" the Doctor's attempt at being reasonable was met with a collective scoff from the group.
"Then we should do it a favor and put it out of its misery," Finch said with all intention of doing it.
"Uuh...Doctor…?" Amy had gotten up from the floor. She felt woozy all of a sudden and even though she knew the ground wasn't moving, she felt like she was about to collapse from dizziness. "I feel kind of funny…"
"Funny ha-ha? Or funny in a peculiar kind of way?" the Doctor glanced her way but immediately became worried at her paleness.
Amy clutched her head when a pain jabbed through it.
"Amy—" Avalon has tried rushing up to her but Amy screamed.
The right side of Amy clothes started tearing as her skin bubbled purple. The same half of her face garnered black veins. Amy lurched forwards with her half her face and half of her body morphing into an insect.
Avalon had no immediate reaction but to scream. "Oh my God!"
Amy collapsed on the ground, completely unconscious.
~0~
The next time Amy opened her eyes, she saw herself inside the same dim room full of motionless creatures she'd first seen a couple hours ago. She felt her body was heavier than what she knew she was, but when she tried to move her hands, only one responded.
"Aaaah…" She heard a nasty clicking noise from her right arm, as well as the constant noise coming from her insect eye.
"You're okay," she heard Avalon's voice on her side. There stood her granddaughter in the green spacesuit meant to protect her from the disease.
"I think...I'm far from okay…" Amy groaned and closed her eyes. "What's happening to me?"
"Umm…" Avalon didn't know how to respond to that mostly because she herself didn't know what was going on. "You know what? You don't need to worry because the Doctor's on it. It's all going to be sorted out. Promise." But by the time Avalon finished talking, Amy was unconscious again.
With a sigh, Avalon left her grandmother and went in search for the Doctor. He'd collected something off the creature they'd followed and was studying it. Of course when she walked into Cargill's office, he had wires all over the place along with scraps of metal.
"What is going on here?" the ginger demanded from him and Cargill. "I've got Amy asking me what's wrong with her and I had no idea what to tell her. Please—" she walked up to the Doctor's side and gazed down at the work in front of him, "—tell me you've figured something out. I do not want to go back to Earth and tell Rory how his wife turned into a bug!"
"Oh, I have something," the Time Lord nodded. "The creature was a man named Buchan Foster."
"Foster?" Cargill seemed to recognize the name. "Are you sure?" the Doctor nodded. "I guess that makes sense considering all he did was explore the jungle. He said he'd discovered some great dark secret!"
"Did he ever tell you what that secret was?" Avalon dreaded that this precise secret was the reason they were now in this mess.
Cargill shook her head. "No. The last time we saw Foster he was leading another expedition into the jungle. None of them came back."
"And let me guess," the Doctor ran a hand through his hair, his expression weary, "This happened last month?" Cargill nodded but by the look on her face, she hadn't understood the reason for his question. "Same time the transformation started."
"So it's this guy's fault—" Avalon jerked a thumb at Foster's ankle bracelet, "-my grandmother is turning into a bug."
"What? You mean Foster started all this infection?" Cargill's face was that of outrage but at the same time concern. "But….how could he…?"
"It's not an infection," the Doctor turned and leaned back against the table. "What we're seeing is a type of hybridization. It's two distinct life-forms amalgamating to become an entirely new species."
"That's kind of cool but at the same time wouldn't that mean it's a two way street?" Avalon's face was that of horror the more she thought about things. "Like...like…if we become nature, then nature becomes...us?"
There was a mutual understanding amongst them all.
Before anyone could say anything more, a collective scream from outside caught their attention. They hurried out of the building to see another creature trying to lay siege on the colony, only this creature was bigger and scarier than the last. It had four different mouths with sharp teeth trying to gnaw at anything in its way.
"I knew you had something to do with this!" Finch came crying out.
"Oh marvelous!" the Doctor rolled his eyes. "There's a homicidal creature destroying the colony but you're still focused on me!?"
"Doctor, run!" Avalon panicked when she saw the creature getting far too close to them. "Everyone run!" she yelled at those near them and led the run herself. "Is there a plan!?" she quickly asked once the Doctor was running beside her.
"I think so!" he picked up his pace and led the group behind a building. "If you want to live, listen carefully and do exactly as I say!"
"While you do what, exactly?" Finch was the first one to retort amongst the group.
"Do something clever of course," the Doctor grinned momentarily before rushing out of their hiding spot. He nabbed a Snoop from the air and quickly used the sonic to rearrange its settings.
"Doctor!" Avalon poked her head out from the hiding spot. "What are you doing!?"
"Reprogramming, what else!?" he shut the Snoop's lid and wickedly flashed his sonic at it. "Alright, now cross your fingers everybody!"
"I'm afraid to ask why," Avalon mumbled.
"This could go disastrously wrong or…" the Doctor hoped if he didn't say it out loud, things might work their way this time. His sonic's tip lit a bright green that, at his command, forced the Snoop to fly up into the air and gather with several more Snoops to create a forcefield and keep the creature out of the colony.
"It worked!" the Time Lord and whirled around to the group who'd come out to see it.
"What did you do?" Cargill looked up at the blue forcefield keeping them safe.
"I set up an energy relay. It'll keep things out!"
"But for how long?" Finch scowled. "The Snoops' batteries won't last forever."
"Well let's not focus on that," Avalon glared at him. "Instead let's focus on getting us saved, right? Doctor?"
"Working on it, darling," the Doctor turned in a different direction and took off, prompting her to follow. Cargill and Finch decided to go along as well.
~ 0 ~
Avalon pressed her face to the window that overlooked the room Amy was kept in. Despite being half conscious, Amy was aware enough to realize she was not okay. She groaned on her bed and turned her head side to side, calling out for the Doctor and Avalon herself.
"She's getting worse," Avalon grimly noted. Amy's entire human face was gone and replaced with a bug head. Her entire body was almost that of the bug too. "What can we do to stop it?"
"I need to go back to the jungle," the Doctor's announcement pulled her attention from the window.
"You what!?" she said with wide eyes. "But if you go out, you'll get killed!"
"That's never stopped me before," he offered her an encouraging smile for her to go along with the plan. It was their only way, after all, to save Amy and the others.
"Let me come with you, then," she said as she followed him into Cargill's office where the other two waited. "You can't go to the forest on your own."
"Oh no, I'd rather you stay here with Amy." The Doctor went on a hunt for some things around the office.
"You want to go out there?" Cargill pointed at the window with the same widened-eye expression as Avalon. "Are you mad!?"
"Little bit," the Doctor mumbled as he pulled a lengthy piece of rope from a shelf.
"Doctor!" Avalon hissed at his nonchalant attitude. "You're not going out there on your own!"
"I can come with," Finch volunteered. Due to his recent behavior, it was only natural for him to receive strange looks from the trio. "I mean...I guess it's the only way to save us."
"Finally come to your senses, then," the Doctor grinned. "Alright then." Avalon groaned and turned away in frustration. "Ava, you keep an eye on Amy—"
"Not like I have a choice," Avalon grumbled and stormed out of the room.
"She'll get over it," the Doctor said quickly but did make a mental note to stay on her good side when all this was over. Something was hidden in the jungle and he needed to find it in order to put a stop to it.
~ 0 ~
Using a Snoop as a means of transport through the sky, the Doctor led himself and Finch through the jungle in search of the last location Foster's ankle bracelet registered before he changed into a creature. It brought them to a waterfall and after a further look they discovered a cave behind it.
"Best be careful and stay behind," the Doctor warned Finch as they crossed into the cave. He used his sonic as a torch and the first thing they saw was another spider-like creature on the ground.
"What is that thing!?" Finch screeched.
"It's another victim," the Doctor made a face. "The effect of the whatever-it-is seems to be more powerful here."
"What!?"
"Sorry, I haven't given it a name yet. Would you prefer if I called it the 'thingy'?"
Finch deadpanned the man as if he were looking at a kid. "I'd prefer if I knew what the hell was going on!"
The Doctor agreed it was the better option. He led the way down the cave until he spotted a bright light at the end.
He followed the glimmering light until it brought him into a large room shining room. "Woah, now this is what I call an ancient ruin!" He gazed at the shining golden orbs placed on either side of a supercomputer.
"Uuh...Doctor?" Finch's voice has gone frail for a second, not that the Doctor noticed as he got to work on the supercomputer. "The whatever-it-is...how long do we have before it starts to affect us?"
"Oh, not sure. Could be a couple hours, maybe days, or even just a couple of minutes." The Doctor then turned around, making Finch retract a step back. "Why do you ask?"
Because now the Doctor looked like another of the creatures instead of himself..
~0~
"Amy, you should lay down," Avalon tried to keep Amy from sitting up on the medbed, but Amy continued to refuse.
"And you should be wearing protective gear, bit that's not happening either is it?" Amy gave her a stern look (half a look anyways).
Avalon shook her head. "No point if this thing's Airborne. Plus, who cares? My Fairytale man is off somewhere and I have no idea if he's coming back. So the least I can do is make sure you're better."
"I feel bad no matter what I do," her grandmother sighed. At this point, only the left side of her face remained human. The rest of her body was now part of an insect body. "I'm going to die here."
"Amy, you're not—"
"You just said you have no idea if the Doctor's coming back," Amy once again sternly looked at her grandmother. "Either way, what if there's no cure for me?" Avalon was devastated at the mere idea of Amy's death. "I didn't even get to say goodbye to Rory - oh, Rory…" Her one human eye glistened with tears.
"Amy, that's not - that's not—" But before Avalon could try to comfort Amy, a creature burst through the wall, overturning some of the tables and, by force, Avalon's whole body.
At the sight of the creature, Amy felt even woozier than before. She fell back on her bed just as the creature came for her.
"No, you stay away from her!" Avalon screamed and scrambled to get up from the floor. "I don't care if you were human I will shoot you!" She reached a hand down her boot and pulled out a mini-blaster. But even as she took aim, she witnessed something strange.
The creature had gently picked up Amy's body - which was now fully insect - and carried her with the same gentleness. Stunned, Avalon lowered her weapon and blinked with wide eyes.
"What in the…?"
The creature had carried Amy's body into the colony where the rest of the terrified colonizers were fighting off the rest of the creatures.
"The forcefield's down!" Cargill told Avalon as soon as the ginger made it out. "What are we going to do!?"
Avalon had put away her blaster and was keenly watching the creature holding her insect-grandmother. When Amy fell out of the creature's arms and rose with wings, she spoke in a different type of language. All the creatures in the colony seemed to freeze at her talk and, a few seconds later, they turned her way and started heading out of the colony.
"What did she do?" Cargill asked in full confusion.
"She's told them to retreat," Avalon said once she herself understood what had just happened. She saw Amy's butterfly self begin to leave and knew that she couldn't just stay behind.
"Avalon!" Cargill called when the woman broke into a run into the direction the creatures had gone off in. "Avalon! Come back! You'll get yourself killed!"
Avalon ran as fast as her legs could carry her. "Amy! Amy!" she shouted for the butterfly. "Amy, please wait!" She was desperate to catch up even if it meant getting close to those creatures again. "Grandmother!" A minute later, she crashed into something furry and landed on the ground. She shook her head and looked to see giant pink butterfly wings flapping in front of her.
"Do not call me grandmother," Amy's voice was a bit distorted but otherwise it was her.
A slight smile came to Avalon's face. "Got you to come back, didn't it?"
"You shouldn't have followed," Amy landed on the ground.
"Oh don't give me that crap," Avalon rolled her eyes and got up. "My husband is off somewhere and I need to help him. So the question here is, will you help me or am I going to have to go through the jungle myself?"
Well, there wasn't much of a choice was there?
~0~
"Well this is…lovely," the Doctor muttered as he got a good look at his new appearance. Even though it was a reflection from a nearby water crater, he could very much see the realness in his new insect appearance. He even had claws now. "Don't think my Ava is going to like this very much," he shook his head and return to the supercomputer. All the answers were right there and just needed to find them.
He scoured the computer with his sonic until he found what he was looking for. "Oh of course! This is a general splicer!"
"A gene...what?" Finch blinked. This man just loved talking in a foreign language, didn't he?
"It's a device that's used to accelerate evolution," the Doctor explained while he used his new third arm as a holder for his sonic while his normal claw-ish hands worked on the computer itself. "But you never want to accelerate evolution. That's a big no-no."
"So is that...that what happened here?" Finch glanced back at the only two statues in the room. But they weren't even statues. They were morphed into weird creature figures made out of...God knew what.
"I'm afraid so," the Doctor said with a sigh. "Some Advanced race must have been trying to make this planet habitable! But then something went wrong, the process was too powerful…"
"And this 'advanced race'...where the hell are they now?"
"Well, don't you get it?" the Doctor looked back and pointed with his third arm around the room. "They're all around us!"
Finch's eyes widened as he quickly looked at the room again. "You mean...like...everything?"
"They're the jungle!" the Doctor turned back to the computer. "Buchan must have activated the computer last month."
"So we know the 'how this happened' but now can we get to the part where things get fixed? I don't want to become whatever the hell you are."
The Doctor took no offence at the insult. He was more interested in shutting the computer down as well. Now that he had garnered some of the jungle, the jungle now had a piece of him as well and that was a huge no-no. Having strands of Time Lord DNA could be utterly dangerous.
River Song and his own wife came to mind. Thanks to him they were in existence and let's just say that Avalon herself could be quite dangerous already.
"All I have to do is trigger a biological reset and everyone should return to normal!"
Finch continued to misunderstand. "Trigger what now?"
"Oh, it's a funny little process, really," the Doctor shrugged. He cracked his fingers - claws now - and grinned with his small bug mouth. "I call it regeneration!" He slammed his hands down on the computer and allowed his regenerative energy to cross into its wires.
Finch shielded his eyes from the blinding golden light that erupted from the computer. He heard a few cracks of electricity as the entire computer sparked.
"There we go!" the Doctor exclaimed happily after pulling his hands off the computer. He watched his regenerative energy slowly fade away, leaving the computer back to normal again. "That should've reversed the hybridization effect. No more metamorphosis! You know, Sometimes I surprise myself and I already know how clever I am."
"Not clever enough!" Finch yanked the Doctor back and punched him across the face, knocking the Time Lord to the ground. Finch jumped over his body and went straight to the supercomputer, eager to get it back on.
"Finch, what are you doing!? I'm helping you!" the Doctor exclaimed in utter offence. If his face wasn't already turning back to normal, that probably would've hurt a bit more since his insect face was mushier.
"Don't you get it?" Finch looked back with newfound rage. "This—" he gestured to the computer, "—is my ticket out of this place! I can bring this to the Empire and—"
"Do what? Get pardoned?"
"I was an innocent man!" Finch shouted angrily. "My boss framed me for embezzlement! I don't belong here!"
"I'm very sorry about that, but you can't give this to the Empire," the Doctor got back on his feet which were thankfully returning to normal as well.
"You know, I think it's time you met with an unfortunate accident," Finch turned completely to face the Doctor.
"What kind of accident?" the Time Lord stared oddly at Finch as he reached for something inside his jacket.
"The deliberate kind!" Finch pulled out a futuristic gun on him, but instead of being scared the Doctor seemed impressed.
"I say, is that a homemade gun?" he stepped up to it to get a better look at it. "You know, my wife would be very impressed. Don't let her touch it, though, you'll never get it back."
"What — I'm about to kill you, move away!" Finch nearly knocked the head of his gun on the Doctor's forehead.
"I knew there was someone who tampered with the Snoops," the Doctor went on like he wasn't being threatened. Now that he was completely back to normal, he tidied up his hair and his bowtie. "You prevented them from being able to detect weapons."
Finch was the one who surprised to hear this. He lowered his gun only slightly to ask, "How'd you know?"
"Well, for one, my wife always carries a hidden blaster and the Snoops didn't pick up on that," the Doctor shrugged but one of his hands was silently sneaking for his sonic in his pocket. "And secondly, the Snoops would've noticed me carrying this!" he brandished his sonic like a sword and activated it.
Finch almost laughed in the man's face. "Your screwdriver? What the hell are you going to do to me with a screwdriver!?" But just as he finished his question, he felt his gun begin to loosen in parts. Before he knew it, the gun disbanded and crumpled to the ground.
"Well," the Doctor began oh-so-innocently, "I think a screwdriver is a very good choice of weapon when the other weapon is being held together by screws!"
At the Doctor's smirk, Finch lost it and tried lunging on him only to be thrown back by an actual blaster's ray.
"Get the hell away from my husband!" Avalon shrieked after Amy had put her down on the ground. The Doctor blinked at the sight of the giant pink butterfly floating behind Avalon. Seeing his confused face almost made Avalon laugh. "That's my grandma!"
"Don't call me 'grandma'!" snapped Amy.
"Amy, that's you!?" the Doctor gaped.
"Well of course it is," she snapped. "I can fly! I picked up your scent and followed you here!"
"My scent?" the Doctor frowned for a second as he sniffed himself. Did he smell bad and not even know it? "Do I have odor issues, Pond?"
"Trust me, if you did I would've said something already," Avalon chuckled and rushed up to hug him.
"Oh, I bet you would have," he laughed himself and hugged her back, pressing a kiss to her head. "I thought I told you to stay back," he murmured against her voluminous hair.
"The fact you actually thought I would stay back is almost offensive. Do you not know me?" she pulled away to give him a look. She patted his shoulders then noticed his jacket was torn at places. "What happened to you? Did Finch actually get to you?"
"Nah, I turned into one of those bugs too," the Doctor said, sounding almost giddy about it...because he was.
"What!?"
"Well, I turned back—"
"Not the point!"
The Doctor just laughed and went back to the computer, going around Finch's unconscious body. "Just one more thing we have to do before leaving."
"Which is?" asked Amy as she landed next to Avalon.
"I've going to make it so that the computer directs its powers back in on itself. That way no one will ever be able to switch back on again."
"Doctor, what about me?" Amy raised her new claw-like hands and turned them over. "Am I going to stay like this forever?"
"Oh no, not at all!" the Doctor whirled around after finishing the job on the computer. "You'll change back shortly, don't worry."
"Oh thank God!" Avalon was the first to react to the good news. "It would've been a long explanation for Rory. And this would have been the last time he agrees to let you come with us while he's on a shift."
"What are you trying to say?" Amy turned on her, one claw hand on her furry hip.
"Nothing," Avalon quickly said. "Hey, uh, why don't we get out of here?"
"Good idea," the Doctor flapped his hands together. "This place will self destruct in a few minutes."
"What about that guy?" Amy pointed one claw at Finch on the ground.
"Can we leave him here?" Avalon didn't hesitate to ask. She was, however, subjected to two different yet equally disapproving looks. "What?"
~0~
Cargill was ecstatic when the trio returned. Not even the fact that Finch had been taken away as a true criminal could dampen her mood.
"Everyone changed back! And there's no sign of any lingering effects!" she went on about their cured civilians. "I don't know how you did it, Doctor, but you cured them!"
"Well, I am a Doctor," the Time Lord fixed his bowtie quite proudly.
"You're milking it," Avalon said in-between a cough but then offered him a warm smile afterwards.
"I deactivated the Snoops as well," the Doctor told Cargill. The group began walking down the colony which had, seemingly, returned to normal by now. The spread of the cured victims had put everyone in such a good mood one could almost forgot that it was a colony of convicted criminals.
"You did!?" Cargill blinked and quickly looked around to see if there were any Snoops. She hadn't even noticed that in the midst of the curing.
"Yup! now it's up to you to make a success of this place!"
"You're kidding right?" Nerina stopped walking for a moment.
"Why would I? You've got everything you need here."
"Yeah, it's like the Garden of Eden," Amy, who was now back to normal and in Finch's clothes, made a gesture at the green jungle.
Nerina scoffed and folded her arms. "The danger might be over now, but sooner or later the empire will just sending their traction factories in concrete over this planet."
"So let's make the planet undesirable," Avalon suggested, though warned herself a strange look from Nerina.
"What?"
"I like your way of thinking, Ava," the Doctor grinned at her idea. It was fantastic. "Nerina, what was the last message you sent out to the Empire?"
"Um, an emergency request for medical assistance due to the infection," she shrugged.
"Well, how's about you send another message saying the colony's been wiped out?" Avalon smirked. "Bet that'll make stay away for good."
Nerina blinked at the idea but it didn't look like she would refuse. It would mean total control of themselves. "Would it really work?"
"I think it would," Amy nodded. "You'll just have to try it."
~0~
"Well Nerina sure was convincing," Avalon laughed once the trio returned to the TARDIS. Before leaving, they helped Nerina send out the last broadcast to the Earth empire warning them that the infection had reached a critical no-return point. It was a fatal move coming to the planet now. "That oughta keep any civilization from coming here again."
"That was the point, after all," Amy shrugged and reached the TARDIS first. "Now they can leave in this ecological paradise to their heart's content."
"Or Basingstoke," the Doctor happily said, but quickly earned the suspicious looks from Avalon and Amy. "What?"
"I thought you said this wasn't Basingstoke," Avalon folded her arms over her chest.
"Well, sometimes I make mistakes…"
"Yeah, or sometimes you just pretend you do."
"Mhm," agreed Amy.
"Um, also true. Let's go home, ladies," the Doctor snapped his fingers and opened the TARDIS doors. Amy rolled her eyes and walked in first.
"Hey Doctor, I've got a question," Avalon lingered outside for a second.
"What is it?"
"Amy changed, you changed...how come I didn't change?"
"Well, you didn't touch anything," the Doctor shrugged.
Avalon didn't seem to think about it so casually like he was. "Except...I did…" the Doctor gave her a strange look for her words. "I mean...it wasn't like something straight out of the jungle but...but it was in the jungle. At the time."
The Doctor could sense her uneasiness and wondered what she was getting at. "What did you touch, Ava?"
Avalon licked her lips and nervously answered, "The TARDIS released some energy when we got here. I don't think it touched anything but the fact the infection might have been airborne troubles me and — why are you looking at me like that?"
The Doctor's eyes had widened in what could almost be described as alarm. He strode up to her and grabbed her arms. "You touched the Time Vortex!?"
"Well, it was just drifting in the air and—"
"Avalon!" the Doctor shook her frantically. "You know how dangerous that is! You know that's how I lost Donna—"
Avalon shook his hands off her, somewhat upset he'd talk to her like she was a brand newcomer to the TARDIS. "Hey I know what could happen! You're forgetting I exist because of the Time Vortex!"
"I just...I don't want you touching that stuff. It's dangerous, and more in a place like this," the Doctor now eyed the jungle with weariness, something he hadn't done even when the infection was around. "I should run some tests on you."
"Doctor, is that really necessary — ah!" Avalon exclaimed when the Doctor yanked her into the TARDIS. It appeared she'd be getting these exams done whether or not she wanted to.
When the TARDIS started to de-materialize, a little girl stepped out from behind a few trees. She watched the box slowly disappear into thin air. A wide smile spread across her face. "Finally," she bit her bottom lip and looked around the forest. "And now it can really start. Poor little TARDIS."
Chiyoko stepped back from where she came from and disappeared as well.
A/N:
As always, I have a tumblr account dedicated to my fanfic works! It's a place where anyone can comment about a story or even just talk to me! I often drop aesthetic work belonging to my stories too! Feel free to check it out, my URL is "saiilorstars"