A/N: Well, hello there! It's been a bit of a long time now, hasn't it? Sometimes real life gets the better of you, and it got the better of me. Things got too much at one point, blah blah blah. I'm sure you don't want to read all of this, me just rabbiting on. No, you want more chapters, and so I am pleased to bring you this chapter, with lots of love!
Kari's head was absolutely reeling, the trip from the tractor beam making her feel a little queasy. "Stupid bloody Daleks." She grumbled, finding that she was face down in a mass of fluffy white snow. "Stupid bloody snow." Kari was definitely not happy. It was bad enough that she was stuck there in the cold, but knowing what was going on seemed to be the breaking point for her.
Her eyes scanned the area, and all she could see was a lot of white. Snow seemed to cover everywhere, she wasn't even sure it was real snow. At least Kari knew that Amy was going to be safe with the Doctor, and that the woman who was calling herself Oswin would be looking after Rory. That just left her standing there, wondering what she was expected to do.
All of a sudden, a Dalek eyestalk popped out of the ground some distance away from her. Kari had noticed it but didn't bother to move, as a few seconds later it popped up once more, only slightly closer to her this time. After a few more times of it disappearing and reappearing, the eyestalk finally emerged from the ground right in front of her.
"Are you okay?" A familiar voice called to her through the bitter cold air, concern certainly filtering through when the woman spoke.
"Can't say that this is the best day I've ever had, but I know there are so many worse days to come." Kari replied, feeling slightly awkward. "Is everyone else safe? This whole planet is crawling with Daleks, and most of us aren't exactly on good terms with them."
"As safe as can be. I've just found one of them, but then I lost the signal."
Kari let out a slight sigh of relief. "The guy with the chin?" She asked, even though she already knew the answer. She knew that the Oswin would have found the Doctor lying in the snow, laughing. "Please tell me you found the guy with the chin."
There was a pause for a moment, and the eyestalk seemed to refocus. "The one with the chin, I like that. Yeah, he's fine. He's not too far away from where you are actually, I think." She didn't really sound that confident, and that didn't help Kari to feel any better either.
While she wanted to get back to the Doctor, she also wanted to make sure that Rory was okay. There just seemed to be far too much going on, and she didn't know what to do. While Amy was with the Doctor, Rory was out there on his own, and that made him a lot more vulnerable. He was also a little bit more niéve than Amy was and Kari knew the trouble he was going to get into. "Do you think you could get me to him, Oswin? You've got all that tech in front of you, I'm sure you can do something."
"Well, uh, I suppose I could try." Oswin responded, clearly a little stunned by Kari's request. "Finally, something to do other than make soufflés."
I couldn't help but let out a small chuckle. "Well if you can hack into all this Dalek technology, then a simple teleportation should be very easy for you. Even if you can't manage to make a soufflé."
"Hey, I can make them!" Oswin quickly protested. "They're just too beautiful to live."
"I'm sure you'll finally get it right someday, but until then, how about that teleport?" Kari said, getting a little nervous. As the moments passed she kept thinking about what was going to happen, about what the Doctor would find when he went to fetch Oswin. The thought of it all just made a stomach turn.
It took Oswin a few minutes, but eventually she managed to get into all that Dalek technology and was able to transmat Kari directly to where Amy and the Doctor were. Kari also would have appreciated a little bit of warning, instead she was just blinded by the beam that surrounded her, before she was dumped back somewhere else.
She heard something clang shut, and then a familiar voice. "Is it bad that I've really missed this?" Amy said, having not noticed that Kari was standing right behind her and the Doctor.
The Doctor simply smiled at her. "Yes."
"Very bad, Amelia." Kari said rather sternly, grasping the attention of both of them. Amy was looking at her with pure shock, but the relief was evident on the Doctor's face, he was glad that she was safe.
"Kari, where have you been? How did you get here?" He asked, quickly wrapping his arms around her as he tried to calm both of his racing hearts. He had panicked at first, when they had all been split up and he couldn't find her, he had been so worried about her. But now she was there, it didn't matter he could calm down and they could focus on finding the missing Pond.
"Unauthorised personnel may not enter the cockpit." A voice called out from nowhere, but a voice that was very familiar to Kari, even with the strange accent she had used, and becoming more familiar to the Doctor.
At the point, Kari managed to wiggle herself free of the Doctor just as he called back to the voice. "Shut up." He said, not angry or upset, but maybe just a little frustrated.
"Oh, Mister Grumpy. Bad combo. No sense of humour and that chin." Kari couldn't help but let a little laugh slip out.
Amy looked between the Doctor and Kari, a hint of confusion visible on his face. "Is that her again, soufflé girl?"
The Doctor noticed that the woman seemed to be talking to them through a screen, and although he couldn't see her, she could see him clearly. "Yeah, she…" He started, before realising what the woman had actually said. "Oi, what is wrong with my chin?"
Kari had to hold in her giggles as Oswin replied. "Careful, dear. You'll put someone's eye out. Scanning you. You're in another of the escape pods from the Alaska, right? Same ship I was on." The nerves that Kari had been feeling had started to fade a little, and for that she was pretty grateful.
"How can you hack into everything? It should be impossible. You're in a crashed ship!" The Doctor exclaimed, trying to work it all out. "And how did you get here?" He said, spinning around and looking at Kari. "You didn't answer me."
A hint of surprise made its way onto Kari's face, she hadn't expected him to spin around so quickly and bring that question back up again. "Oh, I um… I…" She didn't really know what to say to him, she didn't know how to get her words out.
Lucky for her, Oswin had caught on to her situation and decided to quickly interrupt. "Long story. Is there a word for total screaming genius that sounds modest and a tiny bit sexy?" She asked from her crashed pod, hoping that her distraction would work.
It certainly worked, and a small smile stretched across the Doctor's face. "Doctor. You call me the Doctor." He replied, before deciding to wrap his arm around Kari and kissed the top of her head. Once again, relief washed over her, he was not going to keep questioning her, which was a good thing.
While Kari knew that everything that was being said was pretty harmless, she just wanted to get a move on now. "Oswin, there was someone else with us, another bloke, name's Rory. Be a dear and try to locate him for us, he's an integral part of our team." She wanted to get a move on, even though she was dreading the end result.
"Okay, sure. Before I go, I'm picking up a breach at floor level. There could be a way out." The woman informed them all. "See you later."
Amy was already move some of the things that were on the floor. "Ah ha!" The Doctor exclaimed, much to Kari's relief. She really didn't need him asking her any questions, because she didn't want to answer them. "Looks like it's been used already and they've tried to block it off behind them."
There was some rather loud banging on the door, the door that was holding out the living dead. "Can't imagine why." She said, while Kari helped them to shift everything.
"The lower part of the pod is buried." Kari decided to say, knowing what was coming next. "I'm going to take a guess and say that this goes down and into the actual Asylum." She kept an eye on Amy, and her reaction while the Doctor used his sonic screwdriver on the hatch.
Just as she expected, there was a hint of relief on her face, as well as a smidge of worry. "Where Rory is." Amy was clearly worried about him, anyone could tell just by looking at her, but she was really trying hard to cover it up.
"Speaking of Rory, is there anything you want to tell us?" The Doctor asked, really trying his best to get the hatch open.
"Are we going to do this now?" Amy asked, looking at Kari and then back to the Doctor.
Kari looked at her, her eyes already telling her everything, telling her friend that she knew what was going on. "Tell us what happened, Amy." She said softly. This was something else that Kari hated, knowing that they had split up and that all they really needed to do is talk things through. She wanted to just get them both and bang their heads together.
Now Amy was looking nervous, but she was doing her utmost best to cover it. "Oh, stuff. You know, we split up. What can you do?" The Scottish redhead made out like it was no big deal, like it was nothing to her at all. And yet the Doctor and Kari could see straight through it all, they could see exactly how she was feeling.
"What can I do?" The Doctor soon asked her, just wanting to make everything better for her. He had seen the expression on Kari's face, he had seen the way she had looked at their friend, and he was pretty confident that she knew something.
"Nothing." Amy told him, firmly. "It's not one of those things you can fix like you fix your bowtie. And don't give me those big wet eyes, Raggedy Man. It's life. Just life." She added, before looking over at Kari. there was still a sad smile on her face, because she knew, and she just wanted to reassure Amy that everything would all be okay in the end. "That thing that goes on when you're not there."
The Doctor continued to work on the hatch, while Kari spoke to Amy. "Everything isn't always as black and white as you think it is, Amy. Sometimes you need to read between the lines." She wanted to tell her so much that everything would work out fine, but she knew that she couldn't.
A few moments later and the Doctor had finally managed to get the hatch open, and they all looked down through the gaping hole and at the long ladder below. "Okay, so somebody else got out this way, then." Amy concluded, deciding completely forget the conversation that had just happened with her and the two time travellers.
"Yup, I suppose we might as well go and find them." Kari said, before looking they all looked up at the door. The dead, Dalek zombies were hammering on the door, in fact, Kari was sure that they hadn't stopped making a racket.
In an instant the Doctor was up and off the floor, looking at them through the small screen on the side of the wall. "Whoa! Hello, hello, hello. What are they up to?"
One of them was holding something, something with the light in the middle of it, something looking slightly similar to a watch. "What's that?" Amy asked, not yet realising what it was that they had.
Kari quickly picked up the Doctor's wrist. "One of these. Problem is, where did they get it from?" She said, pointing to the wristbands that they were wearing to protect them from the nanocloud, to stop them turning into Daleks. Her own one was in view, along with the Doctor's, making it pretty clear to Amy that she already knew where they had gotten it from.
That was when Amy checked her own wrist, before it dawned on her. "Kari, they got it from me."
"It's going to be okay, Amy. Just trust me, yeah?" Kari assured her, not wanting her friend to start panicking. "It will be fine."
"Kari, what's going to happen to me?" Kari didn't answer her, she couldn't answer her. "Doctor, seriously, tell me what." He knew as well, be he really didn't want to tell her.
"Like Kari said, you're going to be fine. Nothing to worry about at all." He ended up saying, while the monsters banged at the door some more. "Come on, we need to move." He dragged Kari and Amy along with him back over to the hatch that he had managed to get open.
The Doctor insisted on going down first, quickly followed by Kari, and then Amy. The redhead was still trying to get the information she wanted, to get them to tell her what would happen without that wristband the zombie Daleks had taken from her. Neither of them really wanted to tell her, they didn't want to, but eventually relented and Kari gave a very quick and brief explanation of what it all meant, that she would be rewritten, and turn into a puppet for the Daleks.
Unfortunately, Amy didn't stop there, and a few minutes later she asked the same thing again. "So tell me, what's going to happen to me?" The redhead asked as they carefully made their way down the ladder still. "And don't lie, because I know when you're both lying to me and I will definitely fall on you."
This time it was the Doctor who answered her, much to Kari's relief. "The air all around is full of micro-machines, robots the size of molecules. Nanogenes. Now that you're unprotected, you're being rewritten." He explained, just as his feet finally met some solid ground.
He reached for Kari the moment she was within his reach and pulled her close to his side. A second later and Amy was standing in the corridor as well, looking at the pair of them. "So, what happens? I get one of those things sticking out of my head?"
"Physical changes come later." The Doctor answered quickly, scanning where they were with his eyes and trying to work on a plan. Kari wasn't really paying that much attention to her own surroundings now, she was thinking about Rory, and the fact that he was escaping from a bunch of deranged Daleks who wanted to kill him.
"What comes first?" Amy now asked, not yet giving up. "How does it start?" She added, following the Doctor, who was partially dragging Kari, along the dark and dreary metal corridor.
He wanted to let out a sigh but managed to refrain from doing so. "With your mind. Your feelings, your memories, and I'm sorry but it's started already." The Doctor said, suddenly coming to a stop and turning to face his friend.
Amy looked at him with panic and worry in her eyes. "How do you know?" He didn't answer her immediately, he began walking once more, not wanting to see the face the reality of what was going on.
"Because we've had this conversation four times." Kari said quietly at exactly the same moment that the Doctor did while they were walking. Suddenly her emotions were starting to get the better of her, and she couldn't explain why. She was now worrying over her friend, even though she knew Amy would be okay.
Finally the redhead managed to get them both to stop and stand still for a few moments. "Okay, scared now."
Kari closed her eyes and took a deep breath as the Doctor quickly turned and gently held Amy's face between his hands. "Hang on to scared. Scared isn't Dalek." He informed her, before lightly kissing her forehead. A second later and he was facing Kari, his hand gently resting under her chin and lifting it up to that she met his gaze. "Being scared is good, right?" All she could do was nod at him, she knew better than anyone else what it was like to be scared.
Right now, she couldn't explain why she was feeling an utter whirlwind of emotions. One moment she was fine, and ready to charge on through the asylum to find Rory and get out of there, then the next she is ready to curl up in a ball and hide. She knew everything that was going to happen, she knew that they would find Rory, get the shields down, and the planet would be blown up. They would make it out safe, the Doctor would be alive and so would the Ponds.
A few moments later Kari closed her eyes and took a deep, calming breath. She knew she had to stay focused, now was not a good time for her to have one of her little breakdowns. "We need to find Rory. Oswin?" She called, looking at the ceiling. "Oi, soufflé girl!" There was no reply, not even the crackling of static to let her know that she was out there. Nothing. "Guess we're on our own at the moment then."
There was a frown on the Doctor's face as he looked at her, even he could see that something wasn't right, that there was something bothering her. "Don't worry, we will find Rory." He said, trying to reassure her, wondering if that was what was getting to her.
She turned to face him and smiled a little. "Yeah, I know. Rory's tougher than he looks, actually, I have to admit, he does look pretty good these days. He's come a long way since we first met him, that nurse with the tiny little car." He was far braver these days, and he was ready to challenge the Doctor when he had an opinion. All of her friends were growing up, changing into better people. "Anyway, come on. We need to keep moving." Kari ended up dragging him over to the metal barred door, one that led into a room she was not very keen on entering.
With Amy standing next to her, the bars rose and they were able to clearly see the room. There was nothing in sight, but they could hear the Dalek's screaming and screeching, calling out to exterminate. "What's that?" Amy asked, before Kari started stepping back, taking both the Doctor and Amy with her.
When the door had finally closed again the Doctor let out a breath of relief. "Keep a look out, don't open that door." He warned Amy, before grabbing Kari's hand and tugging her away slightly, reaching deep into his pocket and pulling out his sonic screwdriver. "Oswin? Oswin can you hear me?"
"Hello, the chin. I have visual on you." A voice suddenly replied as Kari rubbed her head a little. She wasn't entirely sure what was going on with her, but that uneasy feeling was just getting worse and it was making her head hurt as well.
"Why don't I have visual on you? What can't I ever see you?" The Doctor asked, before noticing the way Kari was acting. Before he could open his mouth to say anything, she gave him a weak smile and shook her head at him a little. He took the hint but it didn't stop him from frowning at her.
"Limited power, bad hair, take your pick." Oswin replied, having only seen the Doctor on her screen and not who he had been looking at. "There's a door to your left. Open it." Kari was one step ahead of him and already had it open for him. "I'm going to send you a map on that screen. I put your little friend somewhere safe. I can get you to him."
Kari noticed how the Doctor seemed to fill with relief at that piece of information, just like she knew he would. "Rory. You found Rory?" He asked, just needing that little bit of confirmation.
"I call him Nina. Personal thing. Hush now."
While the Doctor was busy listening to Oswin, waiting for her directions, Kari made her way back over to Amy, who was gazing through the bars of the door, looking into the room that the Doctor told them to stay away from. "Who are you?" She heard Amy whisper to herself, before her redheaded friend opened the door.
"Amy! Amy don't!" Kari called, before chasing after her. She could see the Daleks, but she could also see what Amy was seeing, the man in the sharp suit and the woman in the long dress. "Amy, wait, it isn't real." But her friend wasn't listening to her and she walked straight towards two Daleks.
Kari was quick to rush to her, taking a gentle hold of her friends arm. "Shush. It's okay." Amy assured her. "It's just people in here. It's just people."
Suddenly the Doctor was there as well, taking a hold of Amy's other arm. "Amy, it's the nanocloud, it's altering your perception. Look again." He told her, doing his best to stay calm. "Look again. Those aren't people."
She did as she was told and took another look at them all. The young girl she had seen with the bright red hair wearing the tutu and tiara, spinning and doing ballet suddenly became something a lot more scary. The man who was dancing with the woman changed into something completely different as well. Instead she could see the Daleks, including one who was constantly spinning on the spot.
"Out, come on, get out." Kari hissed, tugging on her friend's arm and pulling her back towards the door and away from the Daleks.
With the Doctor leading the way, they head back through the corridor and towards where the ladder was hanging down. That was when they encountered their second problem. "Look, they're coming down!" Amy cried, noticing the zombie Daleks climbing down the ladder and heading towards them.
"And we have a Dalek coming for us from that direction as well. Lovely." Kari groaned, watching the Dalek roll into the corridor, crying out 'intruder' over and over again. "Get in here." She threw Amy into the tiny opening where the computer had been, the Doctor then forcing her in and squashing himself against her. It was a very tight fit, but it didn't matter.
Before it reached them, the Dalek seemed to come to a halt, as if it had run out of battery power. The Doctor had noticed it as well and quickly looked out and at it. "It's damaged." He ended up saying, watching as the metal creature tried and failed to fire its weapon.
"Okay, but what do we do now?" Amy asked, having nudged Kari out so that she too could get out of that small space.
He paused for a minute, looking at Kari was a hint of worry clear on his face. She shrugged her shoulders at him, acting very much like she didn't know what was going on or what to do. "Identify mye. Access your files. Who am I?" The Doctor asked, hoping that there was enough power in the thing to at least do that. "Come on, who's your daddy?"
"You are the Predator." The Dalek screeched, the two lights on his head lighting up brightly as it spoke. It then turned to Kari. "You are the Wife of the Predator."
"Access your standing orders concerning the Predator." The Doctor was sounding slightly panicked. Kari noticed the way he was keeping her behind him along with Amy, the way he was being protective with that Dalek in front of them.
A few seconds later and the Dalek began to speak once more, the lights on top of its head flashing with each word. "The Predator must be destroyed." The monster screeched.
While Kari knew what was going to happen, she still couldn't shake that uneasy feeling that she was having. She knew that Rory was safe, and she knew that Amy would be fine in the end, so she couldn't explain why she had a pit growing deep in her stomach. The Doctor's next words seemed to do nothing to help. "And how are you going to do that, Dalek? Without a gun you're a tricycle with a roof. How are you going to destroy me?"
The Dalek didn't hesitate and an alarm suddenly started bleeping and coming from the oversized pepper pot. "Self-destruct initiated."
"What's it doing?" Amy asked, trying to get passed Kari and see what was actually going on better.
But Kari held her arm out to stop her while the Doctor turned on his sonic screwdriver. "It's going to blow itself up, and us with it. Only weapon it's got left." The Doctor explained as he approached the Dalek and lifted part of the top up and took a look inside. There was an eerie red light coming from inside of it, and Kari wasn't sure she wanted to see any more than that.
"Self-destruct can not be countermanded." The Dalek ended up screeching, assuming that the Doctor was trying to find a way to stop it.
"Yeah, he isn't looking for a countermand, actually." Kari said, as the Doctor dropped the lid on the head of the Dalek back down.
There was now a slight grin stretching across the Doctor's face. "I'm looking for reverse." He said, before the Dalek began to roll backwards at a rather high speed.
"Forwards! Forwards!" The creature screaming over and over again. Nothing happened, it didn't change direction, it just kept on backing away from the trio and into the room that Amy had entered.
It was only then that Kari realised what was going to happen next, and her eyes quickly widened. "Uh, Doctor…" She said, just as the rolling Dalek struck another. There was a massive explosion, flames bursting in all directions.
The Doctor realised why she was so concerned when he saw a ball of fire heading their way from out of the room. The explosion was greater than he had anticipated, and he didn't have any more time to think. The Time Lord quickly threw himself at Kari and Amy, knocking them both to the ground and using his body to shield them from the incoming inferno.
Time seemed to slow down, and Kari could feel the heat of the flames that were approaching them. Even she hadn't thought that they would be in too much danger where she was, she couldn't remember the flames ever being that strong. Both of her hearts were pounding in here chest, her eyes scrunched tightly closed as she waited for the danger to pass.
After what seemed like forever, the Doctor finally pulled himself up off the ground. "Okay. Are you both okay?" He asked, kneeling on the ground and helping Kari up.
"I am, I think. Not so sure about Amy, though." Kari replied, looking down at her red haired friend. "The force of you knocking us both down may have knocked her out slightly." She knew that Amy would be okay in the end, and that was what she had to keep reminding herself. Even after everything, it would all be okay.
After helping Kari to stand, the Doctor quickly gathered Amy up in his arms. In silence, and with Kari hanging onto the Doctor's arm slightly, they headed into the room where the explosion had been. There was debris from all of the destroyed Daleks, and plenty of smoke still filling the room.
"Oswin? What happened?" A voice called out in the darkness, somewhere beyond the destruction. "Who killed all the Daleks?"
Suddenly the Doctor stepped through the smoke and appeared, Amy in his arms and Kari beside him. "Who do you think?" The Doctor replied, relieved to see Rory standing there, to see him and that he was unharmed.
Kari unlatched her arm and quickly darted over to her old Roman friend. "Oh, you have no idea how happy I am to see you, Rory." She said, throwing her arms around him and giving him a rather bone crushing hug. "I am so glad you are okay." Kari really was relieved to see him, it was turning into one of those trips where her anxiety levels were extremely high, even though she knew everything that was going to happen.
It didn't take long for Rory to respond to the hug, before panicking over Amy as he led them all to the room Oswin had directed him to. "Will sleeping help her? Will it slow down the process?" He asked, worry seeping into his voice as the Doctor carefully laid her down.
"You'd better hope so." Oswin's voice called. "Because pretty soon she's going to try and kill you."
A groan came from the woman lying on the floor. "Amy?" The Doctor said, leaning over her, watching her carefully. She let out a moan of pain. "Amy, you still with us?"
She didn't get a chance to reply, as now it was Rory who was speaking to her. "Amy, it's me. Do you remember me?" Without any hesitation, she slapped him, rather forcefully, across the face. "She remembers me." Rory said, shaking his head a little to disperse the pain while Kari chuckled a little in the background.
"Do you know how you make someone into a Dalek?" Oswin asked while the Doctor took a moment to check over Kari a little better. There were a few bruises from where she had landed, but that was all he could find. "Subtract love, add anger. Doesn't she seem a bit too angry to you?"
"Well, somebody's never been to Scotland." Amy responded, resting herself up on her elbows as she tried to pull herself together.
Kari slipped her hand into the Doctor's and frowned a little. She could tell that his mind was running over more than just want was going on with the Dalek's, and with the Ponds, and it troubled her. "What about you, Oswin?" Kari ended up asking, trying to drag the Doctor back from his thoughts. "How come you're okay?"
The Doctor glanced down at her, a smile on his face. "Actually, yeah. Why hasn't the nanocloud converted you?" Kari couldn't help but smile back at him. Whatever it was that was bothering him, she had managed to bring him out of it.
"I mentioned the genius thing, yeah? Shielded in here?"
"Clever of you." The Doctor replied, before getting right down to business. "Now, this place! The Daleks said it was fully automated. But look at it, it's a wreck." He was right, it was nothing how he had imagined it, nothing at all. It was more like a deserted Dalek theme park. All the Dalek's were there, but none of their rides were working, even most of the lighting wasn't fully functioning.
"Well, I've had nearly a year to mess with them, and… not a lot else to do." Oswin admitted, not exactly sounding proud of what she had done. To Kari, it sound more like she had done it as a distraction, even if she did know the truth.
This time it was the Doctor who chuckled a little. "A junior entertainment manager hiding out in a wrecked spaceship, hacking the security systems of the most advanced warrior race the universe has ever seen. But you know what really gets me about you, Oswin?" He asked, knowing that Kari was following his train of thought. "The soufflés. Where do you get milk for the soufflés?" Both Amy and Rory were looking at him with confusion and slight disbelief, while Kari simply smiled at him. "Seriously, is no one else wondering about that?"
"No." Rory replied, still crouching down on the floor next to Amy. "Frankly, no. Twice!" It was clear to see that the soufflés were the much further down on his list of things to worry about, such as the Dalek's and how they were going to get out of there. His top priority was making sure that his wife was going to be okay.
A/N: Yeah, we haven't reached the end of the episode here, but I HAVE written it! I was determined to get it done this week and I have, took me a few days to plough through it, but I've made it. That means the next chapter should be here in a few days, yay!
I just want to say a massive thank you to every single one of you, especially those of you who have messaged me and left reviews, encouraging me to continue. It's because of you guys that I somehow keep coming back and making things work again. So thank you.
I'm going now. I'm not going to ramble on. Toodles!
Pippa.