Staying close to each other as the bazar swelled with late night patrons of various shapes and sizes, Paul and Taylor continued following the Sonic Screwdriver as it guided them, attempting to circle around to the front where these "dogs" would come towards.
On their minds, how this will turn out.
Malcom showed hope there was a way to reach his beloved, but history proved fickle.
Perhaps he can reach Lydia and get her the help she desperately needed, but at the same time, with those "dogs" Krill alluded to, there's a chance that Malcom's efforts were rendered fruitless.
He may even be killed.
Even.
Lydia may die in some way.
Worse.
Both.
With the teachings embedded into his mind, Paul knows not to get his hopes up, either even a stray thought.
"Paul…" Taylor whispers to him, causing him to stop mid-step.
Looking down at his Sonic Screwdriver, Paul sees it flashing brightly, when his angel eyes glance up, he sees the mood in the bazar suddenly change.
Everybody suddenly disappeared into buildings, stall and kiosk owners disappeared behind their draped hideaways.
Dread seeped throughout the seedy bazar, almost unexplained, until Paul sees two wavering auras in the distance coming towards them.
With his genetics, he saw the outlines better, two tall figures, they weren't Cybermen shaped.
They looked like something Paul saw at the Bembridge Museum.
As he spied them from a great distance, the light on the Sonic Screwdriver wavering as they're coming closer, until they seemingly disappeared into nothing.
The Sonic Screwdriver stopped tracking the figures, though Paul tries, he can't get it to retrace the signatures.
It's as though they disappeared into thin air.
Baffled, Paul tried finding a reason for it, and he did, right in front of him.
He saw himself being hoisted into the air, phantoms clawed hands digging into his clothes, protecting his chest.
"Pa—Doctor!" Taylor almost shouted his name, correcting herself as she tried helping him escape the phantom claws, but she was violently pushed away by an unseen force that sent her backwards, towards a stall of unusual fruits.
Fruits cascading as she's pushed backwards into the stall with a slam, Taylor slid to the ground with a loud thud, dazed and confused.
She barely processed something standing in front of her, she didn't react much when someone hoisted her from the ground, grabbing her hand, and pulled her away from the scene.
Her dazed mind caught up to her and she sees that it's Malcom, frantically running while clutching her hand.
"But… the Doctor!" She tried pleading with Malcom, but he wouldn't stop until they're ways away from the scene.
Frantic, Malcom pulled on her hand as she's forced keeping up with him until they took a sharp turn into an alleyway, there he finally released his grip on her, and told her what happened.
"It was my fault!" Malcom tells her as he exhaled sharply, pain in his chest. "I… I thought if I could tell her…"
Heaving as he felt his lungs throb, Malcom forced himself to finish the sentence.
Like Paul warned him, Lydia thought he was a ghost, incapable of reason, she wouldn't listen to him, he attempted to breach her addled mind by telling her that he brought the Doctor to help her.
Something in her stirred, but it wasn't something that Malcom expected from her.
Swift, undeniable…
Rage.
"She blames him!" Malcom tells Taylor as her emerald eyes wide.
Lydia laid blame for the Cybermen attacking Grissom Academy on the Doctor, believing him the cause for the tragedy that befell them.
"The box?" Taylor summed and Malcom confirmed with a subtle nod, as he tells her that Lydia thinks the Doctor's ineptness resulted in the Cybermen coming to the school.
Fear in her emerald eyes, Taylor gestures as she insisted that they go back, but Malcom wouldn't listen, stating if they go back, the machines guarding Lydia will go after them.
"If he is smart as he says he is, he will get out of it," Malcom asserts that the Doctor always said that he could get out of any trouble.
Chewing her bottom lip, Taylor grew evermore worried about Paul.
"What if he can't?" Taylor gestures towards Malcom, asking him the possibility of Paul not able to escape the machines.
Pointing at her, Malcom says, "Have trust in the Doctor, right?"
Frowning, Taylor slowly nods as she agreed that she trusted Paul's capabilities, but still, in her heart, she worries, before Malcom led her away.
Along the way, he tells her what he discovered in the brief time he spoke to Lydia.
Those machines guarding Lydia were made with the remains of Cybermen and that he believes that there was a purpose for not disabling the signatures.
Not to bring more Cybermen to Putnam and enact a plan of revenge.
To lure the Doctor to the planet and enact a plan of revenge against him, instead!
Even in her state of mind, Lydia wouldn't risk the Cybermen coming back to the planet, she would take extra care when she restored power to the machines after dissecting and reconstructing them.
It's a matter of getting things worked out to where he can do it from a safe distance or else, he risks being pummeled.
Finally stopping in their spots, the two took deep breaths, and nearly leapt in the air when they heard a voice calling them.
Turning her head, Taylor immediately wrapped her arms around Paul, thankful that he escaped the machine's grasp, though there's still bruising from where he was held.
"How'd you escape?" Taylor asks him as she kept her arms around him.
Smiling at her, Paul tells her, "I am the Doctor."
Causing Malcom to feel vindicated as he stated that he knew the Doctor can escape any situation.
Upon releasing him, Taylor sees him turn towards Malcom, a worried look, a bit of annoyance too.
"They're fortunate they've subverted the Sonic Screwdriver, Mr. Malcom," Paul says to Malcom, telling him how the machines managed to shrug off his attempts disabling them with his Sonic Screwdriver.
Pure luck a good swift kick to the midsection was enough for the machine holding him to release its clawed grip.
If not for his sore bum, Paul's no worse for wear.
"Doctor, I tried to reason with her," Malcom informed Paul of his attempts with Lydia.
A frown on his face, Paul responded that he figured it out after the machines attempted to kill him on their master's order.
Before it crossed Malcom's lips, Paul says he knows that Lydia isn't in the right state of mind, that she wouldn't dare do something like this, that the machines wouldn't have tried killing him.
Still, they're terribly fast lumbering beasts, them.
"Can you disable them?" Paul asks Malcom if he can somehow disable the machines guarding Lydia and Malcom affirms that no matter what, Lydia's still the same butterfly that throbs his heart.
He'll need some tools and a workbench, but he can make something that disables the machines long enough for Paul to disable their signatures, since he's familiar with Cybermen tech than him.
Then, hopefully, there's time for him to get through to Lydia, stop her before she gets someone else hurt, or herself.
"We better get going, then," Paul sees the silhouettes of the machines lingering in the distance, having tracked him down.
Among the designed fabrics, pairs of ruby and sapphire eyes pierced the darkness.