A/N: Hello, everyone. Apologies for long wait. I really enjoyed writing this episode, and I've got a few tricks up my sleeve.
Kari was leaning against the console, completely lost in her own little world. That was where she seemed to be spending a lot of her time since she had appeared in the Doctor's bedroom. Once again she had fallen sleep while watching Harry Potter with the Doctor, they were almost finished with the final film when the Doctor had scooped her up and taken her to his room.
She was surprised when she woke up and found herself curled up in the Doctor's arms, but he was just worried, worried about how much she was sleeping. Their bodies didn't need a much rest as a human, and yet she was still sleeping more than she needed to. Kari just insisted that it was because of stress and worry and so many other things.
"And then we discovered it wasn't the robot king after all, it was the real one." The Doctor's voice rang through her mind, bringing her back to reality. "Fortunately, we were able to re-attached the head."
"Do you believe any of this stuff?" Rory asked his wife as she came down the stairs and strolled past him.
She didn't even look at him when she replied. "I was there."
The Doctor walked around to where Kari was, kissing the top of her head as he went. "Everything okay?" He asked, looking at the console. She just looked at him, forcing a smile on her face as she nodded. "Oh, it's the warning lights. I'm getting rid of those. They never stop." The Doctor moaned as some random lights started flashing on the console.
Kari watched suspiciously as Rory chased after Amy. They were having a whispered conversation, glancing up at her and the Doctor. "Oh, now I know where we are." She mumbled in realisation. "Knock, knock, knock. There's someone at the door." She said, getting a confused look from the Doctor as she let out a sigh.
Before he could say anything, there was a rapping on the door, grasping everyone's attention. "What was what?" Amy asked, coming back up to the console while the Doctor stood there froze, staring at the door.
"The door." He replied in disbelief. "It knocked." The Doctor began to slowly walk away from the console and towards the stairs leading to the door.
"Well, duh." Kari muttered, pushing herself away from the console and following the Doctor.
"Right. We are in deep space." Rory pointed out, joining everyone in staring at the door. The only one who didn't seem phased was Kari.
"Very, very deep." The Doctor reminded him, walking down the last few steps and making his way over to the door. As he did it knocked again.
Kari decided to go and join the Doctor, but bounced down the stairs rather than take them cautiously like the Doctor had. "And someone is knocking. I'd suggest you open the door and see who it is, Doctor." She said, sounding rather bored, when the truth was she was slightly worried about what was going to happen next.
She knew the episode, and she knew it well, but maybe there was a way she could convince the Doctor to ignore the message, to not go to that planet, to save him the heartache of what was to come.
As the Doctor slowly opened the doors, a smile formed on his face. "Oh, come here. Come here, you scrumptious little beauty." He said, reaching out for the glowing box before him.
Instantly Kari ducked, as it flew into the TARDIS, up towards Rory and Amy before heading back and hitting the Doctor. "A box?" Rory questioned, as the Doctor grabbed hold of it and held onto it tightly.
"Doctor, what is it?" Amy asked, still standing atop the stairs with her husband.
Kari was waiting for the Doctor to explain, but he didn't, he was too busy looking at the box. She let out a sigh. "Someone's got mail." She explained, looking over at them. "Time Lord emergency, uh, messaging system."
Finally the Doctor came back to his senses. "In an emergency, we'd wrap up thoughts in psychic containers and send them through time and space. Anyway, there's a living Time Lord still out there, and it's one of the good ones." He told them all excitedly, wandering around the console and twisting knobs.
Rory just looked at him in confusion. "You said there weren't any other Time Lords left." He pointed out.
"There are no Time Lords left anywhere in the universe." The Doctor told him. "But the universe isn't where we're going. See that snake?" He pointed to the image on the box, a snake in a circle, it looked as if it was chewing on it's own tail.
"The mark of the Corsair." Kari said, at the same time the Doctor did.
The Doctor frowned at her, there was something about the way she was acting that was making him feel a little uneasy. "Fantastic bloke. He had that snake as a tattoo in every regeneration. Didn't feel like himself unless he had the tattoo. Or herself, a couple of times. Ooh, she was a bad girl. Never leave him, or her, alone in the same room as Kari. All hell will break loose." He said, just as everything on the console started to spark.
"Uh, Doctor, I really don't think this is a good idea." Kari warned him, holding on tightly. She knew what was coming, and she was preparing herself.
"Oh, what is happening?" Rory asked, holding on tightly now that things were shaking.
"We're leaving the universe." The Doctor shouted over all the commotion.
"How can you leave the universe?" Amy cried back to him as she clung on to the console tightly. None of them really wanted to be tossed around at the moment.
"With enormous difficulty. Right now I'm burning up the TARDIS rooms to give us some welly." He told her, hitting a few of the keys on the console.
"Oh, and there goes the swimming pool." Kari moaned, getting an odd look from the Doctor. "And the scullery. Oh yes, and Sayonara squash court seven. Why do you even have a squash court seven? Is one just not enough for you?"
There was yet another explosion from the console, followed by a shower of sparks. A few moments later they landed with a thump, knocking everyone but Kari off their feet. Straight away Kari felt something different, something that was making her want to scream.
"Okay, okay." Amy said as she picked herself up and tried to compose herself. "Where are we?"
The Doctor could only smile at her. He was so full of hope and excitement, and it was hurting Kari to know what the outcome was going to be. "Outside of the universe, where we've never, ever been."
That was when Kari took a deep breath, and the lights went out throughout the whole of the TARDIS. It suddenly felt cold and empty, and the gentle hum and reassurance she could always sense and feel in her mind was gone.
"Is that meant to be happening?" Rory asked, sounding a little worried.
"The power… it's draining." The Doctor told him, starting to panic himself as he tried to work out what was going on. "Everything's draining. But it can't. That's… that's impossible." He said, before looking up at Kari. There were tears brimming in her eyes, ready to fall the moment she blinked, and only the Doctor had seen them.
"What is that?" Rory asked, hearing a strange hissing type of noise.
"It's the TARDIS Matrix." Kari whispered, trying to keep it together. "It's… the soul of the TARDIS, and it's vanished. Gone."
"Where would it go?" The Doctor wondered, before stepping over to Kari. "You okay?" He asked, brushing his thumb against her cheek and wiping away some of the tears that had fallen.
"Yeah." She replied, her voice cracking a little. "I'm fine. I know where we're up to now. I told you we shouldn't have come here."
He pulled her into his arms and held her tightly. "Oh, you know what's going to happen, don't you, Kari?" He whispered to her, knowing that that must have been the reason why she was getting so upset.
She nodded and rested her head against his chest. "It's going to be a tough day. For all of us." She whispered back to him, making sure that Amy and Rory couldn't hear her.
"Are you going to be okay?" The Doctor asked, the concern for his ship now being taken over by the concern for Kari.
"I'll be fine. I'm just feeling a little… weird, at the moment." She admitted, brushing away the rest of the tears with the back of her hand.
The Doctor frowned at her. "What do you mean, weird?"
"I don't know, it's like… like someone has taken part of me away. Like I'm not completely here, like a part of me is somewhere else." Even she was confused with what she was saying, it was a feeling she had never experienced before and just couldn't really explain it.
"Whatever it is, we'll work it out, I promise you." He told her, before reaching down and kissing her lightly on the lips.
Kari forced herself to smile. "I know. Now come on, we should probably go and investigate now, no point hanging around in here." The Doctor knew exactly what she was doing, the same thing she always done when something was bothering her. She was trying to distract herself, and him at the same time.
The moment they stepped out of the doors, Kari let out a sharp breath. The Doctor was still beside her and gave her a concerned look. "I'm okay, it's fine. I just felt a little dizzy, that's all." She told him, completely avoiding telling him the truth.
Everything wasn't fine. She knew where they were standing, what they were surrounded by, and it was tugging her insides to see it all. Somehow she felt connected to everything she was seeing there, and it was only going to make the adventure harder for her.
"So, what kind of trouble's your friend in?" Amy asked, looking around where they were while he inspected their surroundings better.
"He was in a bind. A bit of a pickle. Sort of distress." He said, not really paying her that much attention. The Doctor had too many other things to worry about, such as Kari and their TARDIS.
"Ah, you can't just say you don't know." The red head said, a smirk on her face.
"But what is this place? The scrap yard at the end of the universe?" Rory suggested, as he too looked at the junk that surrounded them.
"Not end of, outside of." The Doctor reminded him.
"And it's not junk either." Kari whispered, looking down at the broken parts by her feet. She was treading carefully, not wanting to actually step on anything but the ground.
It seemed that no one had heard her comment as Rory began to speak once more. "How can we be outside of the universe?" He asked as the Doctor draped his arm over the man's shoulder as they walked. "The universe is everything."
"Imagine a great big soap bubble with one of those tiny little bubbles on the outside." The Doctor told him, Kari still on his other side.
"Okay."
"Because it's nothing like that so it is completely pointless to even suggest it, Doctor." Kari told them as they reached where the TARDIS was parked.
The Doctor just frowned at her before looking back at their ship. "Completely drained. Look at her." He said, running his hand over the smooth wood of the box.
"Wait, so we're in a tiny bubble universe, sticking to the side of the bigger bubble universe?" Amy asked, trying to get a clearer picture of what was really going on and where they were.
"Yes." The Doctor told her confidently.
Kari just glared at him. "No, we're not." She replied firmly.
The Doctor just gave her a soft smile, he knew she was not in a very good mood at the moment and so knew not to get on her bad side. "But if it helps, yes. This place is full of rift energy. She'll probably refuel just by being here."
"We're not in Cardiff anymore, Doctor." Kari mumbled to herself.
The Doctor just carried on with his assessment of where they were. "Now, this place. What do we think, eh? Gravity's almost Earth normal, air's breathable, but it smells like…"
"Armpits." Amy and Kari said at the same time. Amy just looked at Kari a smiled at her, getting a very weak smile back.
"Armpits." The Doctor confirmed, pleased to see that Amy had made Kari almost smile.
"What about all this stuff?" Rory asked, looking at the mess and junk before them. "Where did this come from?"
"The rift." Kari told him simply. "Every now and again stuff gets sucked through it. Happens a lot in Cardiff."
"A rift? In Cardiff?" Rory questioned, to which Kari just nodded at him.
The Doctor decided it was time to move on, and focus on what was happening so that he could get Kari out of there. "So, not a bubble, a plughole. The universe has a plughole and we've just fallen down it." He told them all.
"Thief! Thief!" A woman shouted, running towards the group. "You're my thief!" She called to the Doctor before looking at Kari. "Oh, my Angel, my beautiful Angel."
"She's dangerous. Guard yourself." An older woman called, chasing the woman and with an odd looking man behind her.
The Doctor was struggling to keep the woman off him, she was all hands on and grabbing at him everywhere. "Look at you. Goodbye. No, not goodbye. What's the other one?" She asked, sounding more than just a little mad.
Kari just gently put a hand on the woman, trying to calm her down. She wasn't scared of her like the Doctor, Amy and Rory were. The woman just looked at her and smiled. "My beautiful Angel." She said to Kari once more.
"Watch out. Careful." The odd man called. "Keep back from her. Welcome, strangers. Lovely. Sorry about the mad person." He said, as the odd looking woman held back the so-called mad woman.
"Why am I a thief?" The Doctor asked, tightly wrapping his arm around Kari's waist. "What have I stolen?"
"Me. You're going to steal me. No, you have stolen me. You are stealing." The woman said, seeming a little flustered. "Oh tenses are difficult, aren't they?" She asked, looking and smiling at Kari at that point. All Kari could do was smile back at her and nod.
"Oh. Oh, we are sorry, my dove. She's off her head. They call me Auntie." The weird looking woman introduced herself.
"And I'm Uncle." The man added. "I'm everybody's Uncle. Just keep back from this one. She bites." He warned.
Immediately the mad woman's eyes lit up. "Do I? Excellent." She said, before taking a bite of the Doctor's ear, making him cry out in pain. All Kari could do was shake her head as she tried to contain the giggles that were brewing.
"Biting's excellent." The woman said, her eyes still gleaming. "It's like kissing, only there's a winner."
"So sorry. She's doolally." Uncle told them all.
That seemed to irritate the woman slightly. "No I'm not doolally. I'm… I'm… It's on the tip of my tongue." She said, before her eyes widened. "I've just had a new idea about kissing. Come here…" She went to step forward, but saw the frown on Kari's face. "No, I'll leave the kissing to my Angel."
The Doctor and Kari just shared a look, the Doctor looked confused, while Kari just couldn't contain her laughter any more and let her giggles burst out. "Oh, you and your giggles." The mad woman said, shaking her head. "Focus, my Angel, focus." She said softly, making Kari look up at her and instantly stop giggling.
The woman looked from Kari to the Doctor, her expression changing to one of sadness. "Oh, but now you're angry. No you're not. You will be angry. The little boxes will make you angry." She told them, looking like she was in a world of her own.
The Doctor just looked at her in confusion. "I'm sorry? The little what? Boxes?" He asked, taking a step closer to the woman once more, Kari right beside him, like she always was.
The woman laughed as she grabbed hold of the Doctors face. "Your chin is hilarious." She commented, before turning her head sharply and looking at Rory. "It means the smell of dust after rain."
"What does?" Rory asked, now joining in on the confusing conversation that only Kari was able to follow.
"Petrichor." Kari and the woman said at the same time, earning a frown from the Doctor, Amy and Rory, while the so-called mad woman just beamed at her.
Rory was still just as confused. "But I didn't ask."
"Not yet. But you will." She told them all.
"No. No, Idris. I think you should have a rest." Auntie said, putting a hand on the woman's arm, trying to get her to shut up and calm down.
"Rest. Yes, yes. Good idea. I'll just see if there's an off switch." She fell to the ground instantly, but Kari and the Doctor were quick to catch her. They rested her down properly so that Rory could check her over.
"Is that is? Is she dead now?" Uncle asked, not waiting for an answer. "So sad"
Kari glared up at the man. "She's not dead. She's still breathing."
"Nephew, take Idris somewhere she can not bite people." Uncle said, taking a step away from Kari, looking slightly scared of her. The glare she had given him made him shiver to the core.
The Doctor spun around to see who this 'Nephew' was, and came face to face with an Ood. But there was something different about it compared to the ones he had met before. This one had green eyes.
"Oh, hello." The Doctor said, going over to the Odd.
Amy and Rory both took a step back, a little more cautious and afraid than the Doctor was. "Doctor, what is that?" Amy asked, as Kari moved from beside Idris, the mad woman and walked over to the Ood.
"Oh, calm down you lot, it's just an Ood. I love an Ood." Kari told them, looking down at the plastic ball attached to its clothing. "Except he can't talk, because his translator is on the wrong frequency." She told them, whipping out her sonic screwdriver and twirling it in her hands. "May I?" She asked, getting a nod from the Ood.
"Nephew was broken when he came here." Auntie told them all. "Why, he was half dead. House repaired him. House repaired all of us."
Kari took a deep breath and closed her eyes as she turned on her screwdriver, repairing the translator ball for the Ood, and allowing several voices to float into the air at the same time.
The ball suddenly glowed green, like the eyes of the Ood. "If you are receiving this message, please help me. Send a signal to the High Council of the Time Lords on Gallifrey." A voice boomed through the tense atmosphere. "Tell them that I am still alive. I don't know where I am. I'm on some rock-like planet." After that, it became harder to understand, as more voices called out for help.
"What was that? Was that him?" Rory asked as the Doctor stepped over to Kari and looked at the Ood some more.
"No, no. It's picking up something else. But that's… that's not possible. That's… that's…" The Doctor really didn't know what to say, he was completely dumbstruck and at a loss. "Who else is here?" He asked, turning sharply to Auntie and Uncle. "Tell me. Show me. Show me!" He pretty much shouted and ordered.
Auntie and Uncle were still rather calm, clearly not fazed by the Doctor's outburst of rage and confusion. "Just what you see. Just the four of us, and the House. Nephew, will you take Idris somewhere safe where she can't hurt nobody?" The Ood nodded and got to work in moving the woman, the woman that Kari was worrying about.
"The House? What's the House?" The Doctor asked curiously, reaching out for Kari's hand and grasping it tightly.
"House is all around you, my sweets. You are standing on him. This is the House. This world. Would you like to meet him?" She asked, stepping closer to Kari and lightly running her fingers down her arm. It sent a shiver down her spine, and Kari instantly thought of all the things that could go wrong and what could happen to her.
"Meet him?" Rory interjected before the Doctor could say anything.
Kari just forced a smile on her face and looked at Auntie. "He'd love to. In fact, I think we all would."
"This way. Come, please. Come." Uncle said, taking the lead with Auntie.
The group hung back a little, Kari was trying to just shake of the bad feeling she had just had. She knew the story, the whole adventure was etched in her mind, she knew what was going to happen and how it all ended. So why was she so scared and worried all of a sudden?
"What's wrong?" Amy whispered to the pair. "What were those voices?"
"Time Lords." Kari and the Doctor both replied quietly.
"It's not just the Corsair. Somewhere close by there are lots and lots of Time Lords." The Doctor told her, glancing at Kari. She had told him she knew what was going to happen, and now she was avoiding his gaze. She knew what was happening, and he could tell from her attitude that it wasn't going to be great.
The four of them continued to follow the odd people, until the eventually stopped. "Come, come, come." Uncle said, beckoning them over. "You can see the House and he can look at you."
They all followed a few more steps, stopping and looking down through a hole in the ground. "I see." The Doctor said, paying close attention to what was in the hole. "This asteroid is sentient."
"We walk on his back, breathe his are, eat his food." Auntie listed off.
"Smell its armpits." Amy joked, along with Kari. They both smiled at each other, but Amy's smile quickly faded as she sharply looked away.
"And do my will." A new voice called. "You are most welcome, travellers."
The new voice seemed to freak Amy out a little. "Doctor, that voice, that's the asteroid talking?" She asked.
"Yes. So you're like a sea urchin. Hard outer surface, that's the planet we're walking on. Big, squashy, oogly thing inside, that's you." The Doctor went on to say, addressing the House.
"That is correct, Time Lord."
The Doctor's eyes seemed to light up. "Ah, so you've met Time Lords before?"
"Many travellers have come through the rift, like Auntie and Uncle and Nephew. I repair them when they break." The House told them all.
"So there are Time Lords here, then?" The Doctor asked him, a glimmer of hope in his eyes. Kari wasn't feeling so hopeful, she knew the truth, and she knew it was going to hurt her Doctor.
"Not any more, but there have been many TARDISes on my back in days gone by."
"Well, there won't be any more after us. Last Time Lords." He said, gesturing to himself and Kari. "Last TARDIS."
"A pity. Your people were so kind. Be here in safety, Doctor. Rest, feed, if you will." The House told them, being ever so polite and kind to them all.
The Doctor nodded and turned back to face his friends. "We're not actually going to stay here, are we?" Rory asked, hoping to just get out of there. Kari wanted to get out as well, but she knew it wasn't that simple.
"Well, it seems like a friendly planet. Literally." The Doctor replied, before turning to the two odd looking people. "Mind if we poke around a bit?" He asked them.
"You can look all you want. Go, look." Auntie said, before reaching over to Kari and touching her face. "House loves you." Kari quickly pulled herself away from the woman, her touch made her quiver and feel sick.
"Come on then, gang. We're just going to, er, see the sights." He said, gasping Kari's hand tightly as they began to stroll away.
"I thought you hated it when people use 'gang'?" She queried, trying her best to act normal.
The Doctor just frowned at her. "So, how bad is this going to be then? Are there really any Time Lords here? Because you didn't want us to come here did you?"
Kari just looked at him, just wishing that she could changes things so that he didn't have to get hurt. "I can't tell you anything, Doctor. I'm sorry, but I just can't. You'll work it out, you always do." She told him quietly.
"Thief!" They all heard someone shout, causing the Doctor to hush everyone.
"So, as soon as the TARDIS is refuelled, we go, yeah?" Rory asked, ignoring the Doctor's hushing and hoping that he was going to be right.
"No. There are Time Lords here. I heard them and they need me." The Doctor told him, concentrating on where he was walking and trying to work out how Kari was feeling.
"You told me about your people, and you told me what you did." Amy said, looking at him sadly.
The Doctor started to get a little flustered, they just couldn't understand what it meant to him to find another Time Lord, so that it wasn't just him and Kari any more. "Yes, yes, but if they're like the Corsair, they're good ones and I can save them." He told her.
Amy just frowned at him. "And then tell them you destroyed the others?"
"I can explain. Tell them why I had to." He insisted, causing Kari to squeeze his hand.
"Doctor, they would understand. You don't need their forgiveness, you just need to be you." Kari whispered to him, hoping that she could get through to him. "There was no other way, we both know that."
The Doctor let out a sigh as he looked from her and to Amy. "What do you need from me?" Amy asked, knowing the look that he was giving her.
"My screwdriver. I left it in the TARDIS. It's in my jacket." The Doctor told her. He seemed to be distracted still, thinking over what Amy had said and what Kari had said as well.
"You're wearing your jacket. And can't you use Kari's?" Rory wondered.
Kari shook her head. "He has several jackets that are identical. And he likes his screwdriver better, he prefers the green glow to it. Plus, I know what happens to his screwdrivers, and after all the work I put into making this, I don't think I want to let him anywhere near it." She said, clasping onto her own one tightly.
"Okay, I'll get it. But Doctor, listen to me. Don't get emotional, because that's when you make mistakes." Amy told him, being deadly serious.
"Yes, boss." The Doctor replied, saluting to her slightly.
"I'll call you from the TARDIS." She said, looking over at Kari who nodded at her. "Rory, look after them." She said, before heading off to the TARDIS.
Kari just looked at the husband who had been left behind, she knew what had to happen next. "Rory, look after her."
He nodded. "Yeah, okay." Rory said, before chasing after his wife.
"Kari, are you okay?" The Doctor asked her seriously as they continued to walk around investigating.
"Just peachy." She replied moodily. The moment Idris, the mad woman, had been near her, she had felt a strong surge of… something. But now she was feeling empty again. "I just don't feel… me. And it's bugging the hell out of me because I don't understand it." She ended up growling in frustration.
Instantly the Doctor wrapped his arms around her and held her close to him. "I'm sorry. Whatever it is, we'll work it out. Okay?"
Kari nodded into his chest. "Yeah, okay." As soon as she said that, the phone that Jack had given her started ringing. "It's Amy." She said, passing it to the Doctor.
"Hey, we're here. Screwdriver's in your jacket, yeah?"
"Yeah, it's around there somewhere. Have a good look." He said, as Kari reached into his pocket and pulled his screwdriver out and turned it on for a brief moment. He hung up the call and handed the phone back to Kari, taking his screwdriver back.
"Come on. Where are you now?" He mumbled, trying to find his Time Lord friends. "Now, where are you all? Where are you?" He pulled back a curtain, revealing a small alcove. "Well, they can't all be in here.
"Yes, they can." Kari whispered as the Doctor opened the doors to a cupboard, revealing a mass of tiny boxes, almost identical to the one that came knocking on the TARDIS doors.
There were so many voices coming from them, so many cries for help. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Auntie and Uncle approach, and his tightened his hold on Kari. "Just admiring your Tome Lord distress signal collection. Nice job. Brilliant job. Really thought I had some friends here, but this is what the Ood translator picked up." He rambled. "Cries for help from the long dead. How many Time Lords have you lured here the way you lured me, and what happened to them?" He asked, his temper beginning to rise.
"House, House is kind and he is wise."
"House repairs you when you break. Yes, I know. But how does he mend you? You've got eyes of a twenty year old." He said, taking a step closer to Uncle.
"Thank you."
"No. Oh, no. I mean literally. Your eyes are thirty years younger than the rest of you. Your ears don't match, your right arm is two inches longer than your left, and how's your dancing?" He growled. "Because you've got two left feet."
"You're patchwork people." Kari told them, doing a better job at staying calm than the Doctor was. "You've been replied and patched up so much, there's nothing left of the people you used to be."
"I had an umbrella like you once." The Doctor added, clasping Aunties wrist and looking at her arm.
"Oh, now, it's been a great arm for me, this." Auntie said, seeming very proud.
"Corsair." The Doctor whispered, not wanting to believe what he was seeing.
"He was a strapping big bloke, wasn't he, Uncle?" He agreed, calling him a big fellow. "I got the arm and then Uncle got the spine and the kidneys."
"You gave me hope, and then you took it away." The Doctor warned them. Kari could sense the Oncoming Storm approaching. "That's enough to make anyone dangerous. God knows what it will do to me. Basically, run."
"Poor old Time Lord. Too late, House is too clever." Uncle told him, looking Kari up and down.
Now Kari had completely had enough. "Didn't you hear him?" She said in a very low and intimidating voice. "He said run." Kari could feel her eyes starting to burn, and Auntie and Uncles eyes widened before they backed away and ran off.
Her phone started to ring again and she passed it straight to the Doctor without even looking at it. "No sonic screwdriver." Amy told him. "Also, the doors seemed to have locked behind us. Rory things there's a perfectly innocent explanation, but I think you both lied to us."
The Doctor closed his eyes and took a deep breath while kissing the top of Kari's head, hoping it would calm her down. "Time Lord stuff. Needed you out of the way." He told her.
"What, we're not good enough for your smart new friends?" She asked, clearly not happy with how things had worked out.
"The boxes will make you angry." He muttered before looking at Kari. "How could she know?"
"Doctor, what are you talking about?"
"Stay put. Stay exactly where you are." He said, hanging up the phone and giving it back to Kari. "How did she know that?"
Kari shrugged, pretending to know nothing. "Why don't we go and ask her that?" She suggested.
He smiled at her, before dragging her with him and starting the hunt for the mad lady who was currently locked up in a cage. "How did you know about the boxes? You said they'd make me angry. How did you know?" He asked when they finally found the woman.
"Ah, it's my thief and Angel." The woman said, looking at the pair.
"Who are you?" The Doctor asked, still confused as to what was happening around him. All he knew was that he had been tricked, and that there were no Time Lords here.
"It's about time." The mad woman said, smiling at Kari.
"I don't understand. Who are you?" The Doctor asked her again while Kari managed to free her hand. She was playing with her screwdriver, trying to ignore the strange feeling she was now getting once more around the woman. She knew who she was, but she had no idea why she was feeling the way she was.
"Do you not know me? Just because they put me in here?" She asked, looking at the Doctor. "She knows me. My beautiful Angel knows who I am."
The Doctor looked at Kari in confusion, and she couldn't look him in the eyes. "They said you were dangerous."
"Not the cage, stupid. In here." She said, pointing to her head. "They put me in here. I'm the… Oh, what do you call me? We travel. I go…" She made the sound of the TARDIS, the rough grinding sound that Kari had been brought up with.
The Doctor scoffed at the woman. "The TARDIS?"
"Time and Relative Dimension in Space. Yes, that's it." She said, before glancing at Kari. "Names are funny." She turned her attention back to the Doctor. "It's me. I'm the TARDIS."
"No, you're not. You're bitey mad lady. The TARDIS is up and downy stuff in a big blue box."
The woman just looked at him through the bars of the cage. "Yes, that's me. A type 40 TARDIS. I was already a museum piece when you were both young, and the first time you touched my console you said…"
The Doctor let out a sigh. "I said you were one of the most beautiful things I had ever known."
"And then you stole me." She said, looking at Kari who had been strangely quiet. "And I stole you, both of you."
"I borrowed you." He protested, but not very well.
"Borrowing implies the intention to return the thing that was taken. What makes you think I would ever give either of you back?" The woman asked, looking between the Doctor and Kari.
"Who said I'd want you to give me back?" Kari mumbled, looking at the woman in the cage still.
"You're the TARDIS?" The Doctor asked, having not heard what Kari had said.
"Yes."
"Our TARDIS?" He asked, gripping Kari's hand a little tighter.
"My Doctor and my beautiful Angel." The woman said "Oh, we have now reached the point in the conversation where you open the lock." She said, looking at Kari. Instantly it clicked open. "But you already knew that, didn't you?" Kari simply nodded to her. "Are all people like this?"
The Doctor frowned at her, while a grin spread across Kari's face. "Like what?"
"So much bigger on the inside." She said, making Kari giggle, but only a little. "I'm… oh, what is that word? It's so big, so complicated. It's so sad."
"But why?" The Doctor asked, getting even more frustrated than ever before. "Why pull the living soul from a TARDIS and pop it in a tiny human head? What does it want you for?"
"Oh, it doesn't want me." The woman said calmly, tilting her head to the side and studying Kari closely.
"How do you know?"
The woman shrugged, but didn't take her eyes away from Kari. "House teats TARDISes."
The Doctor just looked at her, finding it heard to believe what she had just said. "House what? What do you mean?"
"She doesn't know." Kari said quietly. "It's something she heard you say. In the future."
"House eats TARDISes?" He questioned, still not noticing the way the woman was looking at Kari.
"There you go. What are fish fingers?"
"When do I say that?" He asked, looking at Kari then the mad woman who was claiming to be the TARDIS.
"Any second now." Kari told him, rubbing her head a little.
"Are you all right, my Angel?" The woman asked, taking a tentative step towards Kari.
"Of course." The Doctor cried, finally having put the pieces together. "House feeds on rift energy and TARDISes are bursting with it. And not raw, all lovely and cooked. Processed food. Mmm, fish fingers."
"Do fish have fingers?" The woman asked, frowning at Kari, who just shook her head.
"But you can't eat a TARDIS, it would destroy you. Unless… unless."
"Unless you deleted the TARDIS Matrix first." Kari and the woman said at the same time. "So it deleted you." Kari finished off, knowing that the Doctor was going to say it.
"But House can't just delete a TARDIS' consciousness. That would blow a hole in the universe. So he pulls out the matrix, sticks it in a living receptacle and then feeds off the remaining Artron energy." The woman looked from the Doctor and to Kari, a smile on her face before she let her eyes settle on the Doctor again. "Oh, you were about to say all of that. I don't suppose you have to now."
"We sent Amy and Rory in there." The Doctor said, his eyes widening. "They'll be eaten." Kari quickly got her phone out, only for the Doctor to snatch it away from her. "Amy! Amy? Rory? Get the hell out of there." He shouted down the phone to them.
"Doctor, something's wrong."
"It's House. He's after the TARDIS. Just get out, both of you." The Doctor ordered.
"They can't, Doctor. The door is still locked." Kari told him softly. She knew what was coming, and she was ready for it.
He looked at her with wide eyes as Amy confirmed what she had just said. "But I've unlocked it."
"You stupid well haven't." Amy called, before the cloister bell could be heard in the distance and down the phone. "Doctor, I don't like this."
"Doctor, you need to go to the TARDIS. Just go, I'll wait here with… the TARDIS." Kari said. The Doctor nodded at her, kissed the top of her head, and then ran off to where the TARDIS had landed, determined to get to it and save their friends.
A/N: Okay, so coming up next, we have some interesting things. Sexy isn't the Doctor's Wife, so who do you think she could be? I wonder if anyone can work it out.
We soon get to learn more about Kari as well, yay!
I'm still working on getting through the list of request that I have, I'm slowly getting there. Summer has finally hit where I live so have been taking advantage of that and writing out in the sunshine, and actually getting it done.
Now, thank you to everyone who has followed/favourited,you guys rock. And a gigantic thank you to everyone who has reviewed, you guys rock harder! I love reading your reviews, they genuinely make me smile, so remember to leave one.
Pippa.