Chapter 3 - The Unquiet Dead
Sage was in her room the TARDIS had created for her, lying on her bed on top of the covers as she sighed for the hundredth time. Sitting up on the soft black covers, she looked around her room, the same as her small loft room she had while she was at university all those years ago. It even had the led strip lights she had put up at the beginning of her second year. She missed those times. They were simpler. But her years at university were a long time ago now for the woman and not something she particularly wanted to repeat.
The only thing she thought the room was missing were her plants, although the TARDIS mentioned it was because she wanted Sage to pick them herself. Already, she had been on board the ship for a few weeks, and quickly she realised that the ship was indeed sentient and able to speak to her. Although, she had mentioned this wasn't commonplace with companions, or even the Doctor. While the Timelord had a bond with the blue-box, she rarely spoke to him directly like with Sage. Something she had asked the girl not to mention to her 'thief' as she referred to the bald man.
Still, Sage found she couldn't sleep, and after hours of tossing and turning, she gave up and went to explore the ship, hopefully landing on some bourbon or some form of alcohol. She certainly couldn't eat the inhabitants while in flight.
So, she left her room, clad in only a pair of black fluffy socks, a black rugby fleece and a pair of red thongs. She knew that if Rose had seen her, she would have looked down at her but Sage lost any modesty she had centuries ago and to be perfectly honest, didn't particularly care for it.
Skating down the corridors in her socks, she hummed to herself a tune she did not want to sing aloud, due to the rather... explicit lyrics and almost lost concentration when she came to the kitchen, expecting it to be empty yet the Doctor is sat at the table, nursing a cup of tea.
"Sage." He says before his eyes widen slightly and he quickly glances at her bare legs. "I... You should be asleep."
Smirking to herself, she walks into the modern kitchen, raiding the cupboards for the drink she was in search for. As she opens them, she feels the mans gaze on her as she reaches to the top shelves, knowing her bare ass was most likely on show as her fleece rode up. "Yeah. I don't really sleep well. I just need something though..." She trails off as she can't find it and huffs as she turns and watches the man in a few seconds as his guilty eyes meet her annoyed ones.
"What are you looking for?"
"I need bourbon." She says as she looks at him expectantly. "Got any?"
"Bourbon...?" He questions as she nods. He smirks then as he shakes his head. "I'll be honest. No companion of mine has ever asked for bourbon before."
"Well, they obviously had no taste." She smiles as she comes to lean on the table next to where the doctor is sat. "Any chance there's some around or do I need to stock up whenever we're on Earth next?"
"You see that cupboard there?" He points to a cupboard next to the oven. "Just ask for what you want, and she'll get it to you."
Tilting her head, Sage looks wary before deciding to try it and kneels down to the cupboard. She whispers for what she's after and the cupboard beeps as she jumps back a little. Pulling the door open, she grins as she sees a bottle of her favourite bourbon and two glasses. She takes them to the table as she sits next to the alien and pours them each a glass.
"Oh no... I'm okay." He waves off as she pushes it to him forcefully.
"Just drink it will ya?" Looking at the amber liquid in the glass he shrugs before sipping the drink as she watches amusedly. "See? It's good."
"I hadn't pegged you down as a bourbon girl." He admits as she grins.
"There's a lot you don't know about me Doctor." She says as she takes a sip of her own drink.
"Obviously." He laughs. "So, tell me. About you. I know loads about Rose, she's quite chatty that one."
"That's one way of describing her..." Sage says slowly as the Doctor chuckles. "What do you want to know?"
"Where are you from? Cos that's not a London accent. I'd almost say you sound... northern." He points to her as she rolls her eyes.
"I'm from North Wales but lived in Liverpool for years." She admitted, as he raised his eyebrows.
"Where in Wales?"
"Anglesey? I take it you know it." She says as she throws her curly hair over her shoulder.
"Anglesey! Now, that's a beautiful place... Why did you leave it? How did you end up in Liverpool?"
"I left for university. I studied Physics at University of Liverpool, stuck around after I fell in love with the city." Sage told him as she looked down fondly at her glass.
"Do you speak welsh?" The timelord wondered, happy to be learning about his new companion. She had quickly caught his eye since travelling and he found himself wanting to learn about her all the time.
"I do." She laughed. "Although, I reckon I'm rusty. I don't speak it as much as I used to."
"Love the welsh. Very friendly bunch. Scousers too. Although, I tend to find myself in London on my travels." He told her as she watched him talk.
"What about you? I know your home's but what was it called?" Sage carefully asked, knowing the topic would be a painful one for the man.
He looked down at his hands as he waited to answer her, guilt weighing heavily on the mans soul. "Gallifrey." He whispered. "I'm from Gallifrey."
"Gallifrey." She spoke lowly. "That's a beautiful name."
"It was a beautiful place." He uttered before looking at her, eyes already on him. "The sky looked like it was on fire, and it had fields of silver grass. The twin suns used to rise over the mountains Solace and Solitude and it looked like heaven. They used to call it the Shining world of the Seven Systems. It was amazing." He spoke reverently.
"You must miss it." She added as she watched the grief in the mans eyes. She had lost a lot herself but at least she still had the Earth, and her people.
"Very much so." He whispered, looking up as she took his hand in his, unsure of herself in that moment. He smiled at her and squeezed her hand in return. "You would have liked it? It's no Albert Dock though." He laughed as he shook himself off. "How come you aren't sleeping then?" He asks, still holding her hands in his.
"I've always been bad for it. Chronic insomnia the doctors said when I was a kid. I tried sleeping pills and all sorts but they never worked for long. But it's okay. You miss a lot of time when your asleep for so long anyway." She muttered.
"True." The Doctor said as he watched her pour another drink. "The bourbon? Does it help?"
"It used to... Now, I drink it cause I like it." She shrugged. "What about you though? You're still up?"
"Timelords don't need as much sleep as humans." He explained. "I'm usually awake when you lot are sleeping."
"Well... expect me around more often then Doc." She laughed. "It's common for me to not sleep for a few days."
"So, your parents? They're welsh?" He asked as the two turned to face each other more in their seats.
"No. Not really. My dad's from Nottingham, some family coming from Italy. My mum was born on Anglesey but her mums from London and her dad welsh through and through. So a little welsh." She explains as she dips her head. "It's been a while since I've seen them." She admitted.
"Why?"
She looks at him for a few seconds as she tilts her head at his curious gaze. "We're not very close." She waves off, not wanting to go to deep into the real reasons.
"I'm sorry to hear that." He says as she laughs.
"Don't be. It's on me really." She mentioned. "It's not a big deal. I'm closer to friends." She said, as the Doctor understood it was a topic she didn't want to talk about although he couldn't have known just why that was. "The TARDIS. She's sentient, right?"
"Yeah, she is." He grins as she takes another glass of bourbon. "You can feel her right? She likes you, you know. Nicest to you than she's been to anyone." He admits as he grins proudly.
"Yeah, I can... feel her. It's weird, you know." She says as she stretches out suddenly, her fleece riding higher, exposing her stomach as Sage smells the slight hint of arousal as his own pupils delight. She laughs on the inside. "Well, Doc. I'm gonna go back to bed but, I'll see you in a few hours." She says as she pulls herself away, bourbon with her. "Night." She waves as she leaves the room, the doctor stuck watching her legs as she leaves and he breathes in deeply, shaking his head. He felt the Tardis laugh at him as he rolled his eyes and went to the console room to do some repairs, wanting Sage to return quickly.
A few hours later...
Sage enters the console room later, eating a piece of toast coated in honey as she looks at the Timelord tinkering away at the console. "Morning Doc." She muttered, mouthful of toast.
"Morning." He laughed. "Sleep well?"
"No. I just watched some tv instead." She admitted as she took a seat in the chairs.
"Really? You should have said, you could have joined me." He uttered. "Do you want to fly her?"
Her head shot up, curls all over the place as she grinned. "The tardis? You want me to fly the tardis?" He nodded as she finished her toast and bounded up to him quickly. "Where do I start?"
The pair spend about half an hour on the TARDIS controls as the doctor tried explaining them to the best of his abilities to the confused human. Rose had come in about ten minutes ago, watching the pair closely as they ran around the room, the doctor shouting orders to the brunette. "Hold that one down!" He screamed as Sage laughed, the Tardis jerking around them.
"I'm holding this one down."
"Well, hold them both down." He snarked as she rolled her eyes.
"It's not going to fucking work." She laughed as he looked at her shocked.
"Language." He warned while laughing himself as she stretched halfway across the console. "Oi! I promised you a time machine and that's what you're getting. Now, you've seen the future, let's have a look at the past. 1860. How does 1860 sound?" He says as Rose chimes in from where she's stood, grabbing onto the railings with dear life.
"What happened in 1860?" She wondered as the Doctor spared a glance her way.
"I don't know, let's find out. Hold on, here we go!" Outside, the TARDIS materialises at the end of a snowy street, the group all on the floor. Rose groaned as she dragged herself up the railings as the Doctor and Sage, who had landed next to each other in the turmoil laughed as he pulled the girl up from the rough landing.
"Blimey!" Rose uttered.
"You're telling me. Are you two all right?" He wondered as Sage shook him off her.
"Yeah fine, I'm not dead yet. So where are we?" She wondered as she watched the doors in wonder.
"Yeah. I think so. Nothing broken. Did we make it? Where are we?" Rose replied at the same time, glaring slightly at the other as she seemed to take up all the mans attention.
"I did it. Give the man a medal. Earth, Naples, December 24th, 1860." The doctor said as he looked proud of himself, watching Sage as she scoffed.
"Ugh, don't you mean we?" She looked at him pointedly.
"I guess you helped." He sarcastically added, as she slapped his arm causing him to gasp in pain and look at her in shock as she laughed.
"That's so weird. It's Christmas." Rose wondered as she came closer to the door.
"All yours." The doctor said as she carried on.
"But, it's like, think about it, though. Christmas. 1860. Happens once, just once and it's gone, it's finished, it'll never happen again. Except for you. You can go back and see days that are dead and gone a hundred thousand sunsets ago. No wonder you never stay still." She gasped as Sage laughed at herself. Happens just once for her I guess.
"Not a bad life."
"Better with two. Come on, then." Rose spoke as she glanced at the man flirtatiously as Sage held her mouth over her hands, turning away from the blonde at the obvious attempt.
"Hey, where do you think you're going?" He wondered, ignoring the comment.
"1860." She deadpanned as he rolled his eyes.
"Go out there dressed like that, you'll start a riot, Barbarella. There's a wardrobe through there. First left, second right, third on the left, go straight ahead, under the stairs, past the bins, fifth door on your left. Hurry up!" He ordered as she ran off and he turned to Sage. "You two."
"Aye aye captain." She added as she turned and ran the way Rose had gone, shaking her head at herself.
She made it to the ships wardrobe quickly, speeding along as she found Rose already deep in dresses for the occasion. She watched on helplessly at the girl as she decided to leave her to it. The last thing she wanted to do was to spend time helping her find clothes. Sage hated clothes shopping as it was, a closet this big didn't make it any easier.
She figured that the TARDIS could help in that department and felt a tender hand touch her mind at the suggestion as lights down the hallway popped on and she made her way to find a dress, perfect for the era, a dark blue, just like the TARDIS, waiting for her and a pair of sturdy but nice leather boots as Sage wondered the dress looked to warm for Naples but also realising they were most likely not in Naples.
She got dressed quickly and fled the room before the blonde could ask for her help and came to the stairs in the console room as the Doctor tinkered at the console again. "Changing your jumper doesn't count as fitting into the era you know?" She pointed out as he flinched, not having heard her silent footsteps.
"Sage. I... you look.." He got stuck in his words as he looked over her outfit and smiled stupidly, something the girl noticed and grinned at internally. It would make it easier for him to trust her. "You look beautiful." He forced out as he tried not to fumble over her words, before shaking his head. "Considering."
"Considering?" She laughed. "Oh, you cheeky bastard."
"Language." He pointed as she walked to him. "Are you always this bad with swearing?"
She smiled innocently at him without answering as he sighed. She would be hard work. Rose entered the room not long after and as she forced her way to the door first, she steps out gingerly onto fallen snow as the Doctor calls out from behind, arm in arm with Sage suddenly. "Ready for this? Here we go. History."
The trio walk down the street while a choir sings God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman nearby and Sage keeps herself from laughing as she recognises the streets around them, shoulders shaking as she raises a brow to the doctor. She walks him over to a newspaper stand as she hands him todays edition and he looks guiltily as she laughs. "What is it?" Rose calls out from in front, noticing the two have stopped and the Doctor looks annoyed as Sage laughs at him openly.
"Go on. you tell her." She breathes out.
"I got the flight a bit wrong." He admits as Rose responds.
"I don't care."
"It's not 1860, it's 1869." He adds as she still looks on like it doesn't matter.
"I don't care."
"And it's not Naples."
"I don't care." Rose says again, not getting the point as Sage walks off a little, muttering to herself.
"It's Cardiff." He mentions as her face drops and she stops in her tracks.
"Right." She says before turning and following after Sage hurriedly. The two girls walk on as Rose mumbles about everything. "He promised me Naples... Naples! Not bloody Cardiff..." Sage agrees to her as she laughs before the three hear creaming coming from nearby and the Doctor runs past them shouting, "That's more like it!"
The Doctor runs into the theatre the sound is coming from as Rose goes off towards a pair nearby who she believes to be suspicious. Looking around and seeing she's alone. Sage decides it was time to feed as she speeds off quietly, making sure knowing saw her until she reaches a bar in the centre of the city, where, back in the day, she had inhabited often before its closure in 1921. She grinned at the owner behind the bar, knowing him well over the years.
"Sage..." He drawled in a thick welsh accent. "I heard you were in America."
"I am." She mentions, coming to lean against the bar. "It's complicated but how are you Tommy? Doing well?" She questions the vampire as she recalls first meeting him quickly.
"As fine as always Miss." He winks at her, his brown eyes glinting with familiarity. "I take it you're here for more than a catch up."
"I'm travelling with people who don't know what I am. It's a thing." She waves off as he grins and shouts for a waitress to bring something forward as he moves her to s nearby table.
"Ah, and are you going to tell them you're a vampire or not?" He wonders as he sits with her, laughing as she grins darkly.
"Well, by the time I tell them, I'll have drained them." She admits as the two laugh.
"It's not like you to play the long game." He wonders as the waitress brings forward a young girl, most likely in her 20's as she steps forward naively, not truly aware of what she had agreed to for the extra money. "Will she do?"
"Oh, she'll do fine." She admits as she pulls a chair up for the girl. "Shall we share?" Sage grins as the man eyes up the girls throat, veins coming up but she sits frozen, having already been compelled to not react.
"If you insist." The fangs on the two vampires drop as their true face shows and each take a side of her neck as they bite and the girl moans in pleasure as they both take long gulps of the rich liquid flowing from her wounds. Its a few minutes as they slowly drag the blood from the girl when Sage pulls away, noticing her friend had lost quite a bit of blood. She sighs at the other vampire, Tom still having not released the girl.
"Tom." She rolls her eyes as the vampire slowly pulls himself away, still not quite there with the control as she was. "Let the girl go and pay her, before you kill her. It's hard-work finding willing feeders, you know this more than anyone."
The ginger vampire rolls his eyes as he wipes his mouth clean. "I'm well aware. But there is still such a turn over..." He whispers. The pair catch up a bit before Sage realises she must leave soon, before any real doubt is cast and they start coming after her. "Keep safe won't you Tommy?" She says as she stands at the doorway of the establishment, grinning as the owner waves her out into the street. She picks up on the doctors scent quickly, wondering how no other vampire had come across him yet. The scent was indistinguishable.
She speeds until she reaches a street and sees the Doctor stood with none other than Charles Dickens as he talks to a girl in the doorway. She tried remembering when she herself had met Dickens, realising it would have been about 4 years ago for him and sighed as she realised she'd have to compel the man to forget her for now, rather she raise suspicion with the Doctor. He ran into the house as she could hear Rose screaming from inside the morgue and as she walks to the door, she grabs Charles by the arm as he spins to look at her and before he can recognise her she grabs his eyes as her pupils dilate. "You will not remember me, until I say so."
Pulling away, he looks at her in confusion. "Well, who are you?" He wonders as the Doctor turns.
"Sage! There you are!" He says as he nods at her to follow him.
About to step in the house, she realises it must be privately owned as she can't enter the threshold and sighs as she knows now she needs an invitation in. Dickens has already gone ahead as the maid speaks, "You're not allowed inside, sir." She speaks as she eyes the girl at the doorway, leaning against a barrier almost.
Sage eyes the flickering gas lamps as she smells gas but with a tinge of something different from inside before sighing and turning to the girl. "You, what's your name?" She asks the girl as she ignores the Doctor for now.
"Gwyneth miss." She speaks before turning. "What's..."
"I don't know, but could I come in? I'm sure my friend and I can help." She whispers as she hears the Doctor mention something was in the walls. "Unlike him, I don't barge in without an invitation."
"At least someone has manners." The girl speaks before nodding. "Of course, come in. Sage, was it?" Gwyneth spoke as the vampire grins and walks in cautiously, breathing in deeply as she can now step foot in the house.
"The gas pipes. Something's living inside the gas. Sage!" He turns to her. "Where have you been?"
"Got caught up, I'm here now." She mentions as she smiles warmly at him.
"Right, don't go off again. I was worried." He says before they hear Rose screaming from the other side of the wall.
"Open the door!"
"That's her."
"Please, please let me out."
The Doctor runs down the hallway, holding onto Sage's hand tightly as she eyes up the man at the end of the corridor hungrily, already disliking the man. "How dare you, sir. This is my house!" He grumbles as he looks affronted at the bombardment.
"Shut up!" Dickens calls from behind the pair as the man then turns to Gwyneth, 'I told you.'
As they reach the door, Sage automatically kicks it in as the Doctor looks shocked at her before she smiles cheekily and they just catch Rose being grabbed by a foul smelling corpse. The Doctor pulls Rose away from the corpse, keeping the two girls behind him as his other hand still holds Sage. "It's a prank. It must be. We're under some mesmeric influence." Dickens wonders as he walks closer, eyeing up the corpse with hesitation and fear.
"No, we're not. The dead are walking. Hi." The Doctor calls.
Rose, turning to see the new person, watches him before asking, "Hi. Who's your friend?"
"Charles Dickens." The Doctor grins happily as Sage laughs.
"Okay." The blonde accepts.
"My name's the Doctor. Who are you, then? What do you want?" The timelord demands as he watches the corpse with bated breath and Sage tries to get her mind off the foul stench invading her nose.
"Failing. Open the rift. We're dying. Trapped in this form. Cannot sustain. Help us. Argh!" The corpse speaks with several voices, each covering the other in a cacophony of pained whispers. The gas leaves the corpses and returns to the gas lamp and the pair collapse and Sage looks at the Doctor with expectations for him to explain as he shrugs a shoulder, bewildered at the sight.
Not long after, the group find themselves in the living room sat around, Rose sitting on the couch as Sage leans against the doorway and the Doctor on the mantelpiece, watching the man she now knows as Sneed with concealed disgust and hunger. Gwyneth goes around, pouring tea as Sage waves her off.
"First of all you drug me, then you kidnap me, and don't think I didn't feel your hands having a quick wander, you dirty old man." Rose admonishes as the man looks away from her haughtily.
"I won't be spoken to like this!" He warns as his anger rises, Sage warning him in her head as she really wanted to sink her teeth into his veins.
"Then you stuck me in a room full of zombies! And if that ain't enough, you swan off and leave me to die! So come on, talk!" The blonde demands and Sage looks impressed at the attitude from the young girl.
"It's not my fault. It's this house. It always had a reputation. Haunted. But I never had much bother until a few months back, and then the stiffs, the er, dear departed started getting restless." Sneed explains as Dickens chimes in from his seat nearby.
"Tommyrot." Ah, she hadn't missed the slang from the late 1800's that's for sure.
"You witnessed it. Can't keep the beggars down, sir. They walk. And it's the queerest thing, but they hang on to scraps." Sneed exclaims, trying to dig himself out of the mess he's made.
Gwyneth places the Doctor's cup beside him as she whispers, "Two sugars, sir, just how you like it."
"One old fellow who used to be a sexton almost walked into his own memorial service. Just like the old lady going to your performance, sir, just as she planned."
"Morbid fancy." Dickens utters as the Doctor speaks.
"Oh, Charles, you were there."
"I saw nothing but an illusion." He argues, refusing to believe what he saw.
"If you're going to deny it, don't waste my time. Just shut up. What about the gas?" The Doctor snaps as Sage snickers and he grins at her quickly.
"That's new, sir. Never seen anything like that."
"Means it's getting stronger, the rift's getting wider and something's sneaking through." The Doctor mentions.
Looking up from her stare at Sneed, Sage chimes in, "What's the rift?".
"A weak point in time and space. A connection between this place and another. That's the cause of ghost stories, most of the time." He explains as Sneed mentions it was how he got the house so cheap, with stories going back generations. If she hadn't smelt the creatures inhabiting the gas, Sage would have bet they were supernatural souls on the Other Side but she had seen ghost possession before, this wasn't it. She noticed Dickens leave the room and she jumped at the sound of the door slamming going through her sensitive ears.
She follows him quietly, not noticing the Doctors lingering gaze on her as she follows Dickens to the morgue and catches him waving his hand in front of the bodies, looking for strings. "It's not fake, you know?" Sage utters from her place at the doorway as he watches her carefully.
"Wires, perhaps. There must be some mechanism behind this fraud." He uttered as Sage felt the Doctor come up next to her.
"Oh, come on, Charles. All right. I shouldn't have told you to shut up. I'm sorry. But you've got one of the best minds in the world. You saw those gas creatures." The Doctor says from his spot beside her as the famous author shakes his head in denial.
"I cannot accept that."
"And what does the human body do when it decomposes? It breaks down and produces gas. Perfect home for these gas things. They can slip inside and use it as a vehicle, just like your driver and his coach." The timelord further explains as Sage looks at the man worried. She knew of many supernatural creatures who frequented around Charles Dickens. It was quite obvious none of them had told him to the truth too... if this reaction was anything to go by.
"Stop it. Can it be that I have the world entirely wrong?" The old man wonders as he watches the corpse.
"Not wrong. There's just more to learn." Sage adds from beside the Doctor as he turns to smile at her.
"I've always railed against the fantasists. Oh, I loved an illusion as much as the next man, revelled in them, but that's exactly what they were, illusions. The real world is something else. I dedicated myself to that. Injustices, the great social causes. I hoped that I was a force for good. Now you tell me that the real world is a realm of spectres and jack-o'-lanterns. In which case, have I wasted my brief span here, Doctor? Has it all been for nothing?"
The two leave him to this own thoughts as they come up on the pantry and catch the end of the conversation between Gwyneth and Rose as Sage notices just what Gwyneth was.
"I can't help it. Ever since I was a little girl, my mam said I had the sight. She told me to hide it." Gwyneth mentioned as the Doctor stood in the doorway, Sage just in front, almost leaning against him. She narrowed her eyes at the girl as she smelt her and knew she was right, she had caught a whiff of magic. Just a tiny bit, it would explain how she knew of Rose's life in the future... She must be a witch, even if she's an untapped one. Deciding to not touch the girl, in case she touches her and sees what she is. Witches were known for doing that and it was a pain in Sage's arse on more than one occasion.
"But it's getting stronger, more powerful, is that right?" The Doctor wonders as the girls turn to the pair in the doorway, Sage eyeing up the witch carefully.
"All the time, sir. Every night, voices in my head."
"You grew up on top of the rift. You're part of it. You're the key." He explained as Sage wondered what the rift had to do with magic. If maybe it had an effect on the such, Cardiff always had been a hotspot for the supernatural.
"I've tried to make sense of it, sir. Consulted with spiritualists, table rappers, all sorts." She admitted as she looked fearful for whatever power she held.
"Well, that should help. You can show us what to do." The Doctor grinned as Sage peered over her shoulder at him curiously.
"And what are we doing?" Sage questioned as he grinned secretly to her.
"We're going to have a seance." He whirled out as the two girls followed him, passing the still Sage as she swore to herself. The last thing she needed was a bunch of dead witches getting involved in a seance when these creatures were also here...
She makes her way to the living room carefully after that, still unsure about the Doctors plan but keeping it to herself for now. Everyone at the table is already gathered as the Doctor pats a seat beside him, causing Rose to send a glare at the girl missed by everyone other than herself and Gwyneth. "This is how Madam Mortlock summons those from the Land of Mists, down in Bute Town. Come, we must all join hands."
"I can't take part in this." Dickens announce and Sage almost agrees with him but the Doctor beats her to it.
"Humbug? Come on, open mind."
"This is precisely the sort of cheap mummery I strive to unmask. Seances? Nothing but luminous tambourines and a squeeze box concealed between the knees. This girl knows nothing." Dickens warns.
"Now, don't antagonise her. I love a happy medium." The Doctor grins as he looks at Sage, wanting her to laugh as she rolls her eyes and shakes her head.
"You really just said that?" She watches him. "Fucking hell."
"Language." He warns as she smiles at him. "Come on, we might need you." He tells Dickens as he reluctantly sits between Gwyneth and Rose. "Good man. Now, Gwyneth, reach out."
"Speak to us. Are you there? Spirits, come. Speak to us that we may relieve your burden." Gwyneth speaks as whispering starts from all around them.
"Can you hear that?" Rose whispers as she looks to the Doctor.
"Nothing can happen. This is sheer folly." Dickens announces as Rose tells him to look at her while the Doctor looks to Sage, somehow knowing she was about to swear.
"I see them. I feel them." Tendrils of blue gas drift above the groups heads as the Doctor speaks.
"They can't get through the rift. Gwyneth, it's not controlling you, you're controlling it. Now, look deep. Allow them through." He tells her as she denies she can. "Yes, you can. Just believe it. I have faith in you, Gwyneth. Make the link."
Gwyneth breathes out a 'yes' as Sage gets a chill running down her back and she looks on in worry at the poor young girl. Being possessed by spirits from the other side was one thing. These were aliens. It was a whole new issue. She watches as blue outlines of people appear behind the witch and barely hears Sneed as he mentions the other side.
"The other side of the universe." The Doctor corrects, eyeing the creatures before them.
"Pity us. Pity the Gelth. There is so little time. Help us." The figures speak with childlike voices and Gwyneth copies them.
"What do you want us to do?" The Doctor questions as Sage feels an aneurysm in her mind, she huffs as she turns away, having a feeling what it was from.
"The rift. Take the girl to the rift. Make the bridge." They tell him and he questions what for. "We are so very few. The last of our kind. We face extinction."
"Why, what happened?" Sage questions, ignoring the explosion in her mind.
"Once we had a physical form like you, but then the war came." The Gelth spoke as Dickens questioned what war. "The Time War. The whole universe convulsed. The Time War raged. Invisible to smaller species but devastating to higher forms. Our bodies wasted away. We're trapped in this gaseous state."
She felt the Doctor tense at the mention, knowing that it must have been the same war that took his people. She squeezed his hand as he spoke, "So that's why you need the corpses."
"We want to stand tall, to feel the sunlight, to live again. We need a physical form, and your dead are abandoned. They're going to waste. Give them to us." The Gelkth demand as Rose shouts.
"But we can't." She speaks and the Doctor turns to her in disbelief.
"Why not?"
"It's not. I mean, it's not..."
"Not decent? Not polite? It could save their lives." He argues, watching the teenager darkly.
"Open the rift. Let the Gelth through. We're dying. Help us. Pity the Gelth." The Gelth go back into the gas lamps and Gwyneth collapses across the table. Sage goes to her back as she rubs her shoulder, and pulls her up, almost dropping her at the headache that then hit her again, like shots. She breathed deeply as it went and with Roses help, moved the girl to the chaise longue.
"It's all right. You just sleep." Sage tells the girl as she watches the rest near the Doctor arguing about the Gelth using the bodies.
"But my angels, miss. They came, didn't they? They need me?" She whispers as Sage looks at her wearily but the Doctor cuts in.
"They do need you, Gwyneth. You're their only chance of survival." He tells her as Rose warns him.
"I've told you, leave her alone. She's exhausted and she's not fighting your battles. Drink this." She hands a cup to the girl as Sneed questions the Doctor again, allowing everyone to be distracted as Sage hisses and Gwyneth looks at her worriedly.
"Well, what did you say, Doctor? Explain it again. What are they?"
"Aliens." The Doctor states as Sage rubs her forehead. Fucking witches. She guessed it was the girls ancestors warning her to keep the girl safe and away from the Gelth.
She blocks out most of the conversation as the headache dies down and she curses the witches in her head. I fucking hate witches... She joins back in when the doctor asks Rose if she has a donor card.
"That's different. That's..."
"It is different, yeah. It's a different morality. Get used to it or go home. You heard what they said, time's short. I can't worry about a few corpses when the last of the Gelth could be dying."
"I don't care. They're not using her." Rose says as Gwyneth chimes in.
"Don't I get a say, miss?" She wonders.
"Look, you don't understand what's going on." Rose condescendingly says as Sage just rolls her eyes at the tone she carries.
"You would say that, miss, because that's very clear inside your head, that you think I'm stupid."
"That's not fair." The blonde sighs as she feels upset at her behaviour.
"It's true, though. Things might be very different where you're from, but here and now, I know my own mind, and the angels need me. Doctor, what do I have to do?"
"Wait..." Sage says as she sighs. "As badly said as it was, Rose is right. Sort of. Those creatures... I don't trust them." She admits and the Doctor looks at her in shock as she looks at him pointedly. "We can't just let them through without knowing anything."
"What is there to know!?" The Doctor exclaims at her as he watches her angrily. "They need our help."
"Don't you get pissed off at me." She warns, her icy blue eyes piercing his as she stands up, fists clenched at her side. "You don't know how many corpses they ened. What if it's more than we have? What then? What about when the corpses deteriorate?" She shouts. "Think about this carefully."
The Doctor ignores her as he turns to Gwyneth, blocking his two companions out as Sage scoffs as he hears her whispers of 'fucking child'. "You don't have to do anything."
"They've been singing to me since I was a child, sent by my mam on a holy mission. So tell me." Gwyneth says as Rose looks at Sage imploringly.
"We need to find the rift. This house is on a weak spot, so there must be a spot that's weaker than any other. Mister Sneed, what's the weakest part of this house? The place where most of the ghosts have been seen?"
"That would be the morgue." The man adds.
"No chance you were going to say gazebo, is there?" Rose sighs.
They all go into the morgue as Sage still feels the witches hitting her with aneurysm after aneurysm. She tried... the girl can do what she wants as far as Sage was concerned. In the cold basement. the recently departed lay under white sheets as the Doctor speaks, looking towards Sage guiltily when she ignores him.
"Urgh. Talk about Bleak House."
"The thing is, Doctor, the Gelth don't succeed, 'cos I know they don't. I know for a fact there weren't corpses walking around in 1869." Rose mentions, peaking her interest.
"Time's in flux, changing every second. Your cozy little world can be rewritten like that. Nothing is safe. Remember that. Nothing." The Doctor warns.
"Doctor, I think the room is getting colder." Dickens whispers as they see the Gelth leave a gas lamp by the door and stands under a stone archway.
"You've come to help. Praise the Doctor. Praise him." They whisper as Rose screams at them. "Hurry! Please, so little time. Pity the Gelth."
"I'll take you somewhere else after the transfer. Somewhere you can build proper bodies. This isn't a permanent solution, all right?" He adds as he stares the Gelth down.
"My angels. I can help them live." Gwyneth whispers as she gazes at the creatures.
"Okay, where's the weak point?" The timelord wonders as the Gelth direct Gwyneth to beneath the arch. Sage stands back, watching the girl carefully as she stands beneath the arch, inside the creatures gas form.
"My angels." She whispers. But Sage scoffs as she notices what noone else could. The second she stepped into that arch, she died. Her heart stopped beating and she smelt of death.
"Establish the bridge. Reach out to the void. Let us through!" The Gelth screamed out.
"Yes, I can see you. I can see you. Come!"
"Bridgehead establishing." They spoke as the young witch shouted reverently, already lost to the rift.
"Come to me. Come to this world, poor lost souls!"
"It is begun. The bridge is made." Gwyneth opens her mouth as blue gas pours out.
"She has given herself to the Gelth. The bridge is open. We descend." Sage was tense as the blue apparition turned flame red with sharp teeth and its voice hardens with cruelty. "The Gelth will come through in force."
"You said that you were few in number." Dickens mutters as Sage glares into the Doctors back.
"A few billion. And all of us in need of corpses." The dead begin to rise.
"Gwyneth, stop this. Listen to your master. This has gone far enough. Stop dabbling, child, and leave these things alone, I beg of you." Sneed begs as the girl stares with dead eyes.
"Get back!" Sage warns but a corpse already grabs him and snaps his neck as a Gelth enters the body.
"I think it's gone a little bit wrong." She hears the Doctor whisper as Sneed wakes, now with the voice of a Gelth inhabiting his body.
"Really?" Sage screams at him. "Aren't you fucking smart?" She remarks.
"We need bodies. All of you. Dead. The human race. Dead."
"Gwyneth, stop them! Send them back now!" He screams as Sage laughs.
"She can't!" She says as he questions her. "She was dead the second she stepped into that arch... she can't stop them now. She's already gone." She explains to the timelord as he watches her in shock.
"Four more bodies. Convert them. Make them vessels for the Gelth." Dead Sneed backs Rose and the Doctor up against a metal gate as Dickens flees and Sage stands looking around. "Give yourself to glory. Sacrifice your lives for the Gelth."
"I trusted you. I pitied you!" The timelord cries.
"We don't want your pity. We want this world and all it's flesh." They explain.
"Not while I'm alive."
"Then live no more." Blue gas seeps around them as Sage moves towards Sneed, about to take him down when Rose cries out.
"But I can't die. Tell me I can't. I haven't even been born yet. It's impossible for me to die. Isn't it?" Sage blocks them out as she forces Sneed to her, showing that strength she hides so carefully as the Doctor and Rose are distracted. The corpse runs for her as she makes her way out of the house. She eyes the Gelth fleeing back into street lamps as her and Dickens both grin and run back in, only to be met with Sneed. Sage quickly snaps his neck as Dickens shouts.
"Doctor! Doctor! Turn off the flame, turn up the gas! Now, fill the room, all of it, now!"
"What're you doing?"
"Turn it all on. Flood the place!" He explains as the Doctor grins.
"Brilliant. Gas."
"What, so we choke to death instead?" Rose adds angrily.
"Am I correct, Doctor? These creatures are gaseous." Dickens wonders as the Doctor takes over.
"Fill the room with gas, it'll draw them out of the host. Suck them into the air like poison from a wound!" The corpses leave the Doctor and Rose as they make their way towards Sage and Dickens and the Doctor looks worried at the sight.
"I hope, oh Lord, I hope that this theory will be validated soon, if not immediately."
"Plenty more!" The Doctor shouts as he rips a gas pipe from the wall. Sage speeds around, quick enough noone sees, as she releases the gas.
"Gwyneth, send them back. They lied. They're not angels." The Doctor tells the girl.
"Liars?" She breathes out.
"Look at me. If your mother and father could look down and see this, they'd tell you the same. They'd give you the strength. Now send them back!" The Doctor shouts as Rose says she can't breathe.
"Charles, get them out." The Doctor says.
"They're too strong." Gwyneth screams.
"Remember that world you saw? Rose's world? All those people. None of it will exist unless you send them back through the rift."
"I can't send them back. But I can hold them. Hold them in this place, hold them here. Get out."
Dickens grabs her and Rose as he pulls them away. Sage turns to him as she compels them both and whispers, "Go now." She comes up to the Doctor as he tells her to leave. "Quiet. You won't remember any of this once we leave this house." She compels the timelord, happy it works considering he's an alien. She turns to Gwyneth as she takes a box of matches from her apron pocket.
"Miss, you need to go." She tells Sage. "You might not die but he will." She nods to the Doctor.
"Tell your ancestors I'm sorry I didn't try harder but I can give you this one thing." She grabs her gaze as she compels her. "You will feel no pain." She watches as the girl smiles and takes out a match. In the corner of her eye she sees the Gelph swirl around her as she speeds the Doctor through the house and the two fall to the street just as the house blows up.
"She didn't make it." Rose whispered as she made her way to them.
"I'm sorry. She closed the rift." He spoke as he held Sage tightly to him.
"At such a cost. The poor child." Dickens added in sorrow.
"I did try, Rose, but Gwyneth was already dead. She had been for at least five minutes." The Doctor said as he looked down to Sage who he refused to let go of. She shouldn't have been with him. "You were right. How did you know?"
"That she was dead. It was like her eyes went out." Sage made up. "She was dead the second she stepped into the arch."
"But she can't have. She spoke to us. She helped us. She saved us. How could she have done that?" Rose wondered as she stared at Sage in the mans arms.
"There are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy. Even for you, Doctor." Dickens remarks.
"She saved the world. A servant girl. No one will ever know." Rose carried on as Sage watched her.
"That's not true." Her travelling companions both looked to her. "We will. We'll know."
Later on, the four stood outside the TARDIS as they said their farewells. Sage leaned against the side as the Doctor held her hand, not wanting to let go. He still thought he had to rush to get her out, the compulsion filling in the blanks for him. "Right then, Charlie boy, I've just got to go into my, er, shed. Won't be long." He motioned to the blue box.
"What are you going to do now?" Rose wondered.
"I shall take the mail coach back to London, quite literally post-haste. This is no time for me to be on my own. I shall spend Christmas with my family and make amends to them. After all I've learned tonight, there can be nothing more vital." Dickens announced.
"You've cheered up." The Doctor pointed out, still rubbing his thumb over her hand in his.
"Exceedingly! This morning, I thought I knew everything in the world. Now I know I've just started. All these huge and wonderful notions, Doctor. I'm inspired. I must write about them." He uttered.
"Do you think that's wise?" Rose asked.
"I shall be subtle at first. The Mystery of Edwin Drood still lacks an ending. Perhaps the killer was not the boy's uncle. Perhaps he was not of this Earth. The Mystery of Edwin Drood and the Blue Elementals. I can spread the word, tell the truth."
"Good luck with it. Nice to meet you. Fantastic."
"Bye, then, and thanks." Rose says as she kisses his cheek and enters the TARDIS.
"Oh, my dear. How modern. Thank you, but, I don't understand. In what way is this goodbye? Where are you going?" The famous author wonders as the Doctor smirks.
"You'll see. In the shed."
"Upon my soul, Doctor, it's one riddle after another with you. But after all these revelations, there's one mystery you still haven't explained. Answer me this. Who are you?"
"Just a friend passing through." He mentions.
"But you have such knowledge of future times. I don't wish to impose on you, but I must ask you. My books. Doctor, do they last?"
Sage shakes her head in amusement as the Doctor proudly says, "Oh yes!"
"For how long?"
"Forever. Right. Shed. Come on, Sage." He says as he pulls her into the box.
"You go in, let me say goodbye, would you?" He grins as he reluctantly lets her hand go and she turns to the man. "Hello Charlie. Just know, I did what I had to." She looks into his eyes again as he melts. "Remember." He gasps as he looks her over. He whispers her name as he hugs her tightly but she laughs and turns to enter the box at his shock and grins as she goes to the Doctors side.
"In a week's time it's 1870, and that's the year he dies. Sorry. He'll never get to tell his story." He mentions.
"Oh, no. He was so nice." Rose adds as she eyes up the closeness between the other two. Sage catches her eyes and raises a brow.
"But in your time, he was already dead. We've brought him back to life, and he's more alive now than he's ever been, old Charlie boy. Let's give him one last surprise."
The Tardis dematerialises in front of Charles Dickens astonished eyes as he laughs and walks away, a choir singing in the background. "Doesn't that change history if he writes about blue ghosts?" Rose questions as the doctor pilots the ship away from Cardiff, 1869.
Inside, Rose sighs as she leaves the console not long after, wanting to change out of the stuffy dress. The Doctor watches Sage as she leans against the console. "I'm sorry. For getting angry earlier. That wasn't okay."
"It's fine." Sage sighs, trying to ignore any anger she may have still had from the incident. "Just next time. Trust me a bit more?" She looks at him with eyes tainted in fake innocence but to her delight, he falls for it as he grins and hugs her to him again. She leaves it for a while before deciding it was too much and her teeth were dangerously close to his neck. "I need to change. I'll see you later?" She questions as he nods and she turns away, just in time for her veins to come out under her eyes as she growls lowly to herself.