Episode: A Journey in the Dark

Chapter: The Palantír [2/5]

Summary: Amy wanted to have a good time with her boys, one last trip before the wedding. Rory wanted a party to make up for his stag, something truly worth of traveling in space and time. A businessman wanted to find the saboteurs so work could continue… and he wanted his daughter back too. The Master wanted to get rid of those annoying Ponds so he could get back to figuring out a way to bring the Doctor back. Or the one where some people get what they want, others get what they need, and the time travelers only lose.

Rating: T

Warnings: Period-typical homophobia, talk of genocide.

"Are you sure you have everything?" one of the workers asks them for the umpteenth time, and Koschei doesn't even bother glaring this time.

They were supposed to just check the kit and go, though they didn't even need that. However, at the mention of medical supplies, Rory had insisted on checking more thoroughly and, after a quick glance at Koschei's hand that she doesn't know he caught, Amy agreed.

It is completely unnecessary. Koschei just wants to get back to the TARDIS and fly them all away. Forget about this so-called 'monster'. Regardless of Arthur's suspicions, Koschei is still convinced it's nothing more than company sabotage, according to what little he remembers about this period of human history.

"I still say we should take the guns," Flint huffs, straightening proudly but curling slightly into himself as Koschei glares.

"And I say that if you want to take a gun, you're staying up here," Koschei hisses back, snarling at the insufferable human as he scans the tunnel one last time to make sure it is as stable as it seems.

The TARDIS is his only priority, sure, but keeping Amy and Rory alive until they can get to it goes without saying. Amy will kill him if they miss her wedding just because he couldn't find the TARDIS or he got her fiancé killed on the way.

Not that Koschei will let that happen. No TARDIS means no Doctor, and there is no way he's going to allow that. The bastard is coming back whether he wants to or not.

Even if that means I have to deal with a couple of irritating primitives with a penchant for guns.

"Oh, come on! They're not all that bad, just look at Arthur. And imagine if we actually found the creature! And what if there are other species living down here? There could be a whole ecosystem. This will be brilliant!" Theta chirps happily from the end of the tunnel, trying to see around the bend while Koschei calmly catches up, leaving Flint behind to give his workers some last instructions before they set out.

"Always the scientist, aren't you?" he huffs under his breath, rolling his eyes mockingly, but the ghost keeps beaming, completely unaffected.

"Well, in-between some bouts of action, it's nice to have this kind of adventures. Cheer up! It's a new discovery! Not everything has to be about burning planets to the ground," Theta protests, still grinning as they walk around the bend, ignoring Amy's hey! and the loud steps as the humans catch up.

"I like burning things. Lots of pretty sparkles and figures in the smoke," he grumbles under his breath, scanning a small patch of yellow-green moss with a different kind of structure than the luminous one – which puffs into a small flame before it quickly extinguishes. "Huh, magnesium cover. That's new."

"Should we worry about that reaction just after that comment?" Rory asks Amy at his back, and a part of Koschei grimaces when he realizes they'd been there long enough to hear him talk to Theta, while the bigger one has him turning around to give them a sharp grin. "Yep, definitely should," Rory answers himself when their eyes meet, though Amy huffs with a smile and steps past her fiancé to look over the smoking and twisted remains of the moss.

"Were you talking to yourself? Aloud? You do know that's the first sign of insanity, don't you?" she asks with a teasing grin, and Koschei huffs and straightens proudly, returning the grin.

"Yes, I was talking aloud to myself. A habit of the old – they choose the wisest person present to speak to," he explains pompously, and while Rory frowns softly, as if trying to figure out the meaning of his words, Amy laughs, shakes her head to end the conversation, and turns to the slightly smoking spot of charred moss.

"I didn't know the screwdriver could do that."

"Me neither. Now we do."

And, as one, they laugh.

Flint catches up a moment later, harrumphing in annoyance but restraining himself before he delivers a scathing comment, and so Koschei sobers, directs one last fleeting look at Theta before he pops out of existence, and leads the way down the tunnel.

There's quite a lot of moss growing on the walls, both the regular luminous one and the incendiary, alongside other types and some lichens, but Koschei doesn't bother with more than some general readings when they come across a new species. The Doctor will love to pour over all this information once he's back, so Koschei is going to save at least the general facts to the TARDIS' database, but to do that, they need to find the TARDIS first.

Besides, with two Time Lords, it'll be easier to steer the TARDIS back to this time period for more in-depth readings. Never mind the fact Koschei still doesn't know how he'll do that, but that's yet another reason to find the TARDIS. She has all the data about the cracks, and how they could use them to get the Doctor back.

"What do you think this creature is?" Amy asks once the large centipede Koschei was scanning scurries away, the group walking slowly behind them. "Could it really be just a saboteur from that other company you mentioned? Because, what you said about the spiders…"

"Yes, I truly believe this is nothing more than lovely human interaction. And will you stop worrying about the spiders? This is Earth, not Metebelis III. These spiders haven't evolved into giants yet."

"Yet?!"

"Urgh. Look, I don't really know, it could be anything. But between you and me? It's probably nothing," he tells her with a tired grimace, but Amy still gives him a slightly worried look.

… Taking into account they've dealt with almost everything from alien refugees to Daleks and Neverwere, Koschei can't fault her for that, but it's still insulting. Whatever the creature is, it's an earthling. He can deal with that!

"I think I'll prepare some riddles anyway, just in case," Rory deadpans, and Koschei can't help but turn to him with a frown, utterly lost by that nonsensical sequitur. "You know, what do I have in my pocket?"

"… Your phone, the weird kit you never leave behind and a handkerchief," Koschei answers after a moment, still puzzling over what in Skaro is going through Rory's brain now. "Did you breathe in some spores while I wasn't looking? You know you shouldn't touch stuff without my saying so, right?"

And, bafflingly enough, Amy breaks down into loud cackles while Rory stares at him dumbfounded before joining his fiancée.

Koschei stops and stares at them, trying to push down the note of worry growing in the pit of his stomach, before turning to Arthur, Flint and Boyce to see if whatever is affecting his companions has got to them too, but they are as lost as Koschei.

"Do you have any urges to start talking nonsense or laugh uncontrollably?" he asks the other three anyway, and when they shake their heads, Koschei pulls out his screwdriver and starts scanning Amy and Rory. "Alright, I want the truth, now. Which of the plants have you been poking and what did you do after? Rub your eyes? Scratch your nose? You didn't lick anything, did you?" he asks, checking the screwdriver and running more scans when, scarily enough, all checks come clear.

"No, we—Stop that!" Amy protests, calming down her laughter and pushing the screwdriver away before reaching to rub her eyes clear. "Have you never heard of Gollum? You know, the creature who lives in the tunnels deep into the earth, using a magic ring that grants invisibility to evade the goblins, and eating fish from an underground lake?" she adds when she sees Koschei's blank face. "Oh, come on! The game of riddles? The One Ring? Thorin Oakenshield and his band of twelve dwarves, journeying to the Lonely Mountain to retake their kingdom from the dragon Smaug with the aid of a wizard and a hobbit burglar?"

Amy and Rory are looking at him expectantly, but Koschei merely blinks, trying to process all of that nonsense while pushing his worry back.

They haven't touched anything dangerous, or been stung by an underground bug, or breathed in any fumes. They're fine. Koschei's humans are fine, just… being humans. Which means a lot of nonsensical babbling, apparently.

… Also, not 'Koschei's humans', what in Skaro is he thinking? Maybe he is the one who has breathed in fumes without noticing.

"What's a 'hobbit'?" Arthur asks almost timidly, looking from Amy to Rory and finally to Koschei.

"They are a race of little people, about half your height, capable of disappearing quietly and quickly when some idiot blunders around too close to them. Good hearing, too, which means you won't be able to get closer than a mile before they vanish. They tend to be wider in the stomach and dress in bright colors, though they don't wear shoes – their feet grow natural leathery soles. They have curly hair, from their heads to their toes, but no beards. Long clever fingers too, and you better beg if they manage to get a stone, their aim is excellent with those. But they're generally good-natured, love to eat, gossip and enjoy the comforts of their hobbit-holes, the tube-shaped tunnels where they live," he explains absentmindedly, glaring at their surroundings and the moss, paying special attention to the incendiary one, in case that one released something when it burned. "Still, nothing to worry about, they live in Hobbiton, way past Anduin… And how have you heard about those? I never told you about hobbits," Koschei finally asks, registering his own words, as he turns a confused frown to the gawking Ponds.

"Oh my God, hobbits are real? I thought it was just a story!" Amy squeaks, caught between stunned and elated, while Rory lets his head drop into his hands with a long-suffering sigh, and, embarrassingly enough, that is when it clicks.

A story. A human story. Regardless of how a human has come to learn about hobbits, who are about the less travel-inclined race in the universe, it's still nothing more than a human story.

"I don't have time for your ridiculous tales," Koschei scoffs dismissingly, resuming their walk once more before they can notice the subtle blush on his cheeks. "You should know that by now, Amelia. And you, Rory! I expected better of you!"

"But it's a classic!" Rory protests, catching up alongside Amy, but Koschei ignores them, still steaming at the realization that he'd worried about these two idiots who think pranking him with quotes from nonsensical childish stories, when there's the very real danger of something down here being noxious for humans, is a good idea. "I get that you don't want to know about the time travel tales, or, I don't know, The War of the Worlds—"

"Oi! Careful what you say about Herbert!" he warns sharply as he whirls to point threateningly at Rory, who immediately lifts his hands as if that could protect him from Koschei's glare.

"You've met H. G. Wells?" Amy asks with wide eyes, and Koschei straightens with a grin. "Don't tell me you were the one to give him the ideas for his books!"

"Wouldn't surprise me," Rory sighs, relaxing now that Koschei isn't glaring at him anymore.

"That's for me to know and for you to wonder," he answers cockily, turning back to the passage around them, listening cheerfully to Amy's huffing and puffing and Rory's sighing.

Herbert had never said as much himself, which already put him above most of humanity, but the Master could smell the hint of artron energy when he'd gone to get his signed copy of The War of the Worlds. Such a thing never really vanishes from someone who has time traveled, and, seeing how this was a human, the Master had been fairly sure Herbert had encountered the Doctor and been roped into one of his adventures. After, once he'd convinced the man to sit and have some tea as they talked about some details in his books, he'd confirmed as much—the 'Martians' had been fairly reminiscent of the Daleks, and the 'time machine'? If that wasn't a TARDIS, the Master was going to eat his gloves.

No, Herbert had never even breathed the word 'Doctor', but the way he'd talked about an 'expert' he'd had some 'enlightening scientific discussions' with, and some spirited women and other companions he'd traveled with, had been all the Master had needed to make sure.

Besides, leaving Amy and Rory to wonder about his connection to Herbert is little payback for worrying him with their tales about hobbits and whatever.

Still, when the Ponds turn to Arthur to tell him about their stories after the man asks about them, Koschei focuses back on the present. He doesn't like the way Flint and Boyce keep exchanging looks and whispers when they think he's not paying attention, but their position at the back of the group mostly keeps them out of Koschei's hearing range, especially now that the other three are chatting excitedly.

"Oh, now I know you are joking! There's no way that actually happened!" Arthur exclaims a bit louder after Amy's latest retelling, and Koschei can't help but turn around with a grin.

"You are right. All good stories deserve embellishment," he explains, turning to the front before the triumphant grin on Arthur's face can turn to confusion, though he practically hears it in his next words.

"Wait, embellishment? Then… Something about that was real?"

"Sorry, Arthur, but yes. He doesn't lie."

"But what is real in there? I mean, it all sounds so… otherworldly," Arthur asks, befuddled, and Amy and Rory barely keep their snickers quiet. "And how would you know about—Oh. Oh, no way. You mean the Gandalf from your story is him? Actually him?" he asks, chancing a furtive look at Koschei's back that he senses nonetheless.

Gandalf… Come to think of it, that's what Amy called him, and what Arthur has been calling him since. Though, judging by the uncomfortable look on Rory's face and the amused one on Amy's, they probably didn't mean for it to catch.

"But no, it cannot be. How could anyone do all that?"

"Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, Arthur, for they are subtle and quick to anger," he calls over his shoulder, making sure to send them a sharp grin too when their eyes meet, and delights in not only Arthur's wide eyes and scared gulp, but in Amy's doubletake and Rory's suspicion.

He's not sure what he's done, but those two have obviously read something in his words. Whether it's because they relate to that story of theirs or they suspect some sort of revenge on his part, that's a mystery for later.

Maybe he'll ask them what story they're talking about and read it when they sleep. It's been a while since he could just sit back with a book and enjoy himself, and the TARDIS will still need some time to run analysis and simulations, anyways.

It's not like he has anything else to do while they—

"Wait," he orders as soon as they round the next corner, stopping and lifting a hand to keep the humans still, eyes roving over the wall blocking their path.

Solid, part of the walls rather than fallen boulders, which would be why Flint huffs in displeasure while Amy grumbles about the 'dead end' in disappointment.

But after a second of disbelief, realization dawns and Koschei's face falls. He lets his head drop onto his chest and massages the bridge of his nose with a groan, thinking about the mess they are in now.

"Great, just great," he mutters under his breath, and ignores it when Amy pats his shoulders with a reassurance about how they can just try to rappel down for the TARDIS once they get back to the main tunnel. "But it's not that simple. We're in deep trouble now," he tells her, straightening and meeting Arthur's eyes. "Your monster is real."

"Nonsense!" Flint harrumphs, straightening again, and Koschei seethes silently at him without successfully silencing him this time. "It is a rival or one of the many miscreants who oppose the underground's development. There is no such thing as 'monsters' or 'demons' or—"

"Oh, be silent! And keep that forked tongue behind your teeth. I did not survive fire and death to listen to the crooked words of a witless worm," he scoffs, and whether it is because of his snappish tone or the warning in his eyes, Flint actually obeys, tensing warily. "Something has crept or has been driven out of the ground. The second, taking into account all the activity happening overhead. There are older and fouler things than whatever your tiny brain can conjure, waiting in the depths of this world," he explains calmer but not less solemn, meeting the Ponds' wide eyes and Arthur's worried gaze, before turning to the antagonistic Flint and his pet Boyce. "If we are to be successful, if we are to get out of this alive, this will need to be handled with tact, and respect, and no small degree of charm… Which is why you will leave the talking to me."

"Talking? With whom?" Boyce scoffs, snarling back at Koschei, while Amy and Rory exchange disbelieving looks that Koschei is too busy rolling his eyes to properly analyze.

"You really don't see it, do you? Not even this one door, actually meant to be found?" he asks the humans, but their blank looks and frowns are more than answer enough. "Pay attention," he tells them with a sharp grin, stepping up to the 'wall' at the end of the tunnel, devoid of plant life, and running his hands over its surface while he murmurs softly under his breath. "Come on, where are you… Oh, definitely a different model, maybe even a different subspecies… But still, can't be that different – ah, here!"

And he presses the pad camouflaged with the rest of the wall, but easily found if one knows which kind of grooves to search.

The 'wall' lights up with slender silver threads that soon grow to form images and patterns, and, though blurred and broken in many spots due to age and decay, Koschei can still make them out with ease. At the top there's an arch of interlacing letters in a different dialect than he's familiar with, but which he easily manages to make sense of despite the TARDIS' inability to translate it, either due to distance or the damage done to the text. Below it, despite the unsteady outline, he manages to recognize the pattern as a ceratopsid skull, with the frill and short horns in it fairly intact, alongside the central horn and a couple of smaller ones on the cheeks, but with the eyes mostly lost, which give the impression of a crown with stars in it hovering over an ornate altar of some kind. Still further down there are two trees bearing crescent-shaped fruits, and a single star sits between those, symbolizing the sun, with its many rays reaching outwards.

"Is that an anvil?"

"Trees! Those are trees!"

"What manner of witchcraft is this?!"

"It's a gate," Amy whispers, holding onto Rory's arm while her fiancé gawks at the markings. "It is, isn't it? It's a gate," she asks, meeting Koschei's grin, and the Time Lord nods condescendingly as he listens to the practically inaudible whirring of sixty-five million years old machinery coming back to life, lifting his hands—

"The Doors of Moria, made by Narvi and carved by Kele'rimor, of the land of O'lin. Speak, friend, and enter," he reads, timing his words so that the doors open as soon as he's done—

"Mellon," the Ponds speak in unison, and, with a sound akin to a sigh, the wall splits down the middle and pulls back, revealing a passage almost too bright with luminous moss to be properly distinguished at first.

By humans, that is, because Koschei has no problem walking inside to perform a quick scan and make sure it's safe to go in.

Which is why he's the first to walk to the edge of the parapet and look down—

And he feels his stomach drop.

Where a large city or pocket of civilization should've been, there's nothing but a cavern full of collapsed rubble, though the wall into which their tunnel opens is still intact, revealing the way it has been carved with columns that remind them of trees, and dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures all over the walls, where the moss hasn't covered.

"It wasn't a net of caves," he whispers as the humans finally catch up, and though lost in their awe, Rory and Arthur still turn to Koschei when they hear his voice. "The city of K'shad Dun, destroyed by human greed and their thirst for 'progress'. A whole colony, lost in the blink of an eye."

"A colony? What manner of beasts would choose the depths of the earth to make their home? Nothing more than animals, surely! With the industry rising further and better every day, only barbarians would choose this… hole over the magnificence of the city of London," Flint scoffs, straightening pompously and earning himself cold glares from the Ponds and a confused look from Arthur.

Koschei takes in a deep breath and literally forces himself to not curl his hands into fists, in case the impulse to just shove the idiot off the parapet becomes stronger then.

"It is wisdom to recognize necessity, when all other courses have been weighed, though it may appear to be folly to those who cling to false hope," he says before Amy can do more than open her mouth, looking out into the dilapidated colony for one more breath before turning to Flint. "But you? You think yourself so wise, weighing all things according to the scales of your measure. But that measure is desire, desire for power, and so you judge all hearts according to what might give you power, without considering their circumstances or needs. And so, it didn't even cross your mind that they couldn't refuse it, that having all of the world above, they would seek to live underground to escape their reckoning," he hisses, and his glare is enough to make Flint cower and Boyce stew in silence behind his employer, too subdued to even meet his gaze despite the scowl on his face. "They were Silurians. A sentient race, evolved from and alongside the dinosaurs, long before the first hominids. Reptile-folk, if you would, far more advanced than humanity has yet to become. They went into hibernation before the end of the Cretaceous, different colonies and subspecies isolating themselves, to wait for a time after the Earth recovered from the upcoming cataclysm and they could reclaim it again. There have been some attempts for them to rejoin the surface world, but you humans… You really don't like to share, do you?" he asks mockingly, sending a look to Flint and Boyce, who answer with dirty looks, while Arthur turns to Amy and Rory for reassurance.

"Have you dealt with these Silurians before?" Amy asks after sending their new friend a smile, waiting calmly as Koschei examines a couple openings that lead to different corridors going downstairs.

"Oh, yeah, back in the seventies. Or the eighties. I can never remember when, it was a while ago. The Sea Devils were some favorites of mine, but the humans blew them up. As usual. Really, you just can't stand not to be the 'superior' race. It would be pitiful if it wasn't so annoying. Seriously, they have been around even longer than humans, what makes you think you have more of a right to the planet than they do? If anything, you should be sharing with them, learning from them. Silurians didn't destroy the environment like humans do. You would really benefit from coexistence," he tells them, making his choice of passage even as he reaches telepathically for the TARDIS, to try and probe ahead and see if he can get a response.

If only they had a telepathic bond… But then again, after the Year that Never Was, it's no surprise that she wants nothing to do with him. It's more than he expected to have her welcome him aboard and let him pilot her. Koschei certainly wouldn't be as forgiving as she has been.

He slows his next steps as that thought crosses his mind, curling the fingers of his right hand tightly enough to pull on his scars.

The TARDIS called for him, protected him, when the Daleks shot him and he was left injured and disorientated aboard their ship, at their non-existent mercy. She called for him, to get him back into the forcefield, and helped Amy operate the infirmary's machines to heal him after that, amongst other examples.

The TARDIS takes care of Koschei, even after he killed the Doctor.

And Koschei lost her.

"I'm coming for you," he whispers, reaching out once more and sending the message out telepathically, hoping she'll receive it. "I won't leave you, not now and not ever. You and me, we're sticking together until the end of time. I won't lose you too. I'm coming. I'll fix this. I promise."

He still gets no answer, but the next time he has to choose at a crossroads it's faster and far more determined.

Amy and Rory are telling Arthur an edited version of their adventures so far, when Flint grows tired and finally steps up to Koschei's side.

"Well, Mister Gandalf? Where are we going?" he asks almost accusingly when Koschei stops to scan another niche, but as all others before, the computer hidden under the rocky exterior is offline due to time and the damage to the buried colony.

If only they could find one functional one…

"We're looking for my box. And if your daughter managed to fall into one of the sinkholes, we're looking for her body too. But mainly, we're looking for my TARDIS," he answers easily, but when he feels the human's anxiety spike, regardless of the practiced scowl on his face, Koschei turns to face him rather than go down the current corridor. "Look, the door was closed. There is no way your daughter managed to get here, and now that I know there was a Silurian colony down here, the odds of her still being alive and lost in one of the upper tunnels are higher than ever. Silurians are clever, far more than most humans, and, judging by this discovery, I'm willing to admit I was wrong about a human being behind your workers' deaths. I don't know anything about poisonous Silurians, but this is a colony I don't know, and I wouldn't discard them being a completely different subspecies. So, tell me, was your daughter dressed like a worker or was she wearing a dress?"

"A dress, of course. A lady should be dressed in nothing else," he sniffs disdainfully, but the hope in his eyes and the trembling of his fingers before he curls them around his lapels is more than obvious.

"Then there's a chance that the Silurian might leave her be. Just a chance, and, frankly, it's not very high. Humans are all the same for them, nothing but apes, and these ones have been rudely awakened by your workers collapsing the cave on top of them. They will look for blood, for revenge. But if your daughter was wearing something that was obviously not meant for construction work, she might be spared. Then again, I don't know this colony, this subspecies," he answers, and, once more, Flint's fear and loss and the conflict about just how much he's hurting stabs at Koschei's feelers.

He should retract them, distance himself from the humans, but he can't do such if he's to feel the TARDIS.

So, he lets out a deep breath, runs a hand through his hair before rubbing his face, and meets Flint's eyes once more.

He may look like nothing but a downright idiot, but Koschei can't ignore the anxiety he feels practically radiating off of the man, not now that he knows it's not just a matter of a girl getting lost in some tunnels or a human killer being on the loose… Wait.

"Why was your daughter in the tunnels?" he finally asks, frowning at Flint, who stiffens and scowls with about the same intimidation factor as a drowned kitten.

"She disobeyed me, of course. That girl is far too stubborn to attend her lessons like a proper lady, insisting instead on 'learning the trade'. This is no position for a woman, and no daughter of mine will disobey me as such again. As soon as I find her, she'll be sent to the country house with her mother, I will have no more of her disobedience."

Amy looks ready to slap him, scowling impressively, while Rory rests a hand on her shoulder but glares at Flint too. Boyce is in complete agreement, if his self-satisfied sniff and nod are any indication, but Arthur hesitates with a hint of a grimace.

Hm. There's something there that they're not telling him.

Judging by Arthur's expression and Flint's desperation, Koschei assumes the girl is stubborn enough not to change her ways, which, for a businessman like Flint, should be bad enough… But if Arthur believes sending her away from London is that bad…

Koschei draws from his own travels and experiences – and almost slaps himself when he realizes what the secret is.

For a moment, he almost wishes he was as blind as the Doctor when it comes to these matters. The next second, he finds himself opening his mouth before he can think it through.

"Does it seriously matter that much whether she prefers women to men? You have other heirs to bother, leave the poor girl alone," he scoffs, and this time he does bury his face in his hands as soon as the words get out. "Ugh, why did I say that? I wasn't going to get involved!" he chastises himself, but the moment he hears Amy snicker after she recovers from her shock, he looks up and sends her a glare that falls flat. "This is all your fault."

"How come? You're the one who decided to play detective."

"You—"

You are the one who made me care, who made me want to give the two of you a wedding gift, who insisted on hanging around when I should be focusing on getting the Doctor back, is what he wants to say among other things, but Flint's hands closing on his collar force him to rudely focus on the irate human instead.

"Who has told you about my son? About my daughter? Who have you had spying on my family?! What have you done to my Jenny!"

"Let. Go," he hisses threateningly, glaring Flint into stillness but holding back on hypnotizing him just yet.

Humans don't feel pain as badly when they're hypnotized.

He cocks an eyebrow after a couple seconds, and Flint's hands drop off of him as if burned.

"No one told me anything. I deduced from your words and reactions, and you have given me an answer to it all just now," he answers calmly, judging whether it's worth dirtying his hands with this pathetic specimen as he dusts his jacket, but the way Flint staggers back another step is pitiful enough to make him think he's most definitely not worth the trouble.

If he'd had his TCE or laser screwdriver, maybe he would've given in to the temptation, but killing without those is a lot more personal and, to be frank, too much trouble and time wasted on these inferior creatures.

"But—From two sentences… How…?"

"Oh, we've been chatting away, I forgot to tell you. I'm brilliant," he answers with a grin, satisfied at putting the puny human back in his place, and, behind Flint, Koschei can see Amy smile widely while Rory looks at him with a half-grin—

"I'm brilliant," he says, with a smile that warms up his chest in a way the working machinery hasn't done, than the realization that this is it, they can send everyone to Utopia now…

He has done it, this last of the Time Lords, this hermit with friends, this doctor with no knowledge of science, he has done it. He has filled his chest with hope and his head with more questions than he's had since he first managed to make sense of words. This widely grinning fool has done it! And judging by the way his two companions grin at his back, this isn't the first time he has managed such a miracle, but Yana doesn't care, because this is the only miracle he could've ever asked for, this—this—

Lacking the words to express himself, he pulls the Doctor into his arms and buries his face into the man's chest. It'll be just a moment, they have work to do, but for this instant, Yana just wants to hug the Doctor, who answers in kind a second later, once he's recovered from the surprise.

For the first time in his life, Yana feels regret when the echo of the drums vanishes when he lets go of the Doctor. Just for once, they had been almost comforting.

Koschei flinches and immediately turns around to hide his pale face and pained expression from the humans, tripping on his own two feet before he grabs onto a wall, clutching his head tightly with his free hand, and closing his eyes so tightly that he sees spots.

"Shut up, shut up, shut UP!" he roars, both to the voices rising at his back and the heartsbeat drumming in his ears, threatening to swallow him whole for three point fourteen seconds, before he manages to push it down.

That had been one way-too-clear memory. That shouldn't have happened. Koschei knows he's not at one hundred percent yet, but he shouldn't have drifted anymore… But that wasn't drifting, was it? It was just a memory, popping up when he'd quoted the Doctor without realizing he was doing so. Just a memory.

But why such an impact? Sure, Amy and Rory were grinning like Martha and Jack, but that's still not enough. And he's used to his heartsbeat once again, he doesn't get triggered as if it was the drums, not unless something else reminds him of them.

Besides, what would the end of the universe have in common with an abandoned Silurian colony? This place doesn't smell of paradox, it just smells like moss and stale air and time energy and dust and rust and fire and—

Fire? Time Energy?

Koschei straightens, frowning as he looks around. The moss in here is the same species he has already checked over, and those things don't have hallucinogenic spores or anything of the like. He's pretty sure the colony didn't release any gases or chemicals that could be harmful either, but he scans the air nonetheless to make sure.

The scan comes in clear, so he looks at the humans, who are staring at him with worry, concern, fear and suspicion, respectively.

Koschei takes another sniff and scowls, keeping his screwdriver in hand as he looks down the tunnel.

"Raggedy Man?"

"Do you smell the fire?"

"… What fire?" Amy asks after exchanging a look with Rory, who has taken his weird kit out of his pocket in preparation for who knows what.

"It hasn't been lit yet," Koschei answers softly, closing his eyes and tilting his head as he listens, shuddering once he catches the faintest of crackling. "But it will, soon. Let's move, I'd rather not be here when it all blows up," he orders, moving further down the corridor, and, after a second of silence, the humans hurry to catch up.

AN: This chapter shares its title with the last chapter of Book Three of the Lord of the Rings. And no, I don't mean the Return of the King, I mean Book 3, which is actually the first half of The Two Towers.