Sorry for the delay in posting. My mom was in town and it was my daughter's birthday this past week. I hope you enjoy this chapter. I'm pretty excited to hear your thoughts on it. :)
Zoe braced herself against the railing while the Doctor raced around the console room, pushing buttons and yanking on levers seemingly without thought. Listening to the TARDIS take off with its grinding wheeze, she felt torn between extreme relief, confusion and guilt. Relief that she wouldn't be left behind to live a lie and confusion over the Doctor's unexpected change of heart. Honestly, he looked like someone who'd been let in on a big secret. She wish he would clue her in. (When she asked how she was 'dangerous,' he only deflected and started talking about the evolution of different aliens.)
Then there was the storm cloud of guilt hanging over her head. It seemed to double in size after she'd left Rose's mom behind without any explanation. She'd remembered to grab her tan blanket, her last physical reminder of August from her world, but she couldn't figure out how she could explain to Jackie why she was leaving. If she can't accept the truth she's not Rose, there's no way she'd accept her running off with a Time Lord.
The TARDIS shook and groaned around her, resonating a deep wheezing sound that seemed to vibrate her bones from the inside-out. She shoved her inner turmoil aside, unwilling and unequipped to deal with it right now. She told herself she'd bring Rose home, straight back to the exact moment she left with the Doctor. Jackie would never know her daughter was missing.
The time-traveling ship shuddered to a jerk as it landed. The force of the landing threatened to knock Zoe off her feet, and it was only her secure grip on the rail that kept her from flying across the room.
The Doctor recovered faster from the landing and dashed to the other side of the console, pulling a screen full of Gallifreyan text towards him. The green light of the console cast his face in harsh shadows.
"She did it," he said. "She didn't like it, but she did it. Brought us right under the London Eye, and at midnight like you asked. Most people should be home asleep with the stores closed for the night." He tore his gaze from the Gallifreyan symbols to turn to a dark screen. He tapped a couple red buttons, and the screen lit up with a picture of what looked like an underground cellar with an open vat of frothy lava. The fiery orange liquid lit up the room, casting half the room in dancing shadows. "And there it is, the Nestene Consciousness, just like you said it would be. Right there inside that vat, a living plastic creature."
"Won't it see us?" Zoe asked. "Know we're here?"
"The TARDIS has cloaked herself. It won't know we're here until we want it to."
"Doctor, what exactly do you plan to do?"
"Negotiate with it, of course."
"And if that fails?"
He pulled out the vial of anti-plastic from his jacket to show her before re-pocketing a moment later. "I've got insurance, but you knew that already. You know exactly what this is."
"Anti-plastic," she said a tad impatiently. Her brow drew together, her mouth drawing into a thin line. "But Doctor, there isn't any negotiating with it," she said. "It wants to kill the human race!"
"Maybe," the Doctor said easily, but added with a lazy shrug, "Then again maybe not. Things have changed with your introduction into the time stream. This could turn out different, too."
She opened her mouth to argue further but closed it when she realized he was right. The conversation with the Nestene Consciousness could go down completely different than it did on the show. Then her mind reminded her of an important fact. "You can't ignore it's been hostile though. It sent those things after me."
"Oh, so now everything is about you?"
Zoe rolled her eyes and huffed. She barely suppressed the urge to cross her arms. "That's not what I meant, and you know it. One of the Autons killed a girl! Her name was Vicki. She was innocent, and, and…" She covered her mouth as the emotions she'd been suppressing overwhelmed her. "She was still in the building when the bomb went off, and I just left her there," she whispered. She looked at the Doctor's pained expression at hearing someone had died on his watch. "I forgot her. Her body was left to burn, and I forgot her."
She must have looked like an emotional wreck at this realization because the Doctor hesitated only a fraction of a second before pulling Zoe into a tight hug. She stiffened at the sudden contact, but she melted into the hug when her senses were overwhelmed by the Doctor. He was all warmth and cool leather.
"You couldn't have done anything," he said, rubbing her back in a soothing gesture. "We were surrounded by gun-happy Autons, running was our only option. Survival is one of the most ingrained primal instincts, even Time Lords have them."
"She didn't deserve that though," she said, her voice muffled slightly by his jacket. "I tried to get her to leave. I should have done more. I should have - "
"It's not your fault," the Doctor cut off her self-incriminations, unconsciously tightening his hold on her. "It's mine." She couldn't see his face, but he sounded furious with himself. "The Nestene sent a signal, alerting its soldiers that I was coming."
She pulled back to look into his stormy eyes. In this moment, it was easy to see the Doctor had lived several lifetimes. His eyes wore the look of a man who has seen and done too much. Guilt and responsibility swirled in their depths like streaks of lightning in a thunderstorm, the remnants of the Time War. She decided she didn't like what she saw.
She forced herself to laugh and tease him like Rose had in the show. "Oh, so now everything is about you?"
The Doctor released her from the hug as if lightning had struck him. "Yes!"
Zoe couldn't help it, she giggled for real this time. The Doctor looked genuinely affronted at the thought the universe didn't revolve around him.
"Oi!" the Doctor said, wagging at his finger at her, even as he started to grin.
Her giggle evolved into full-on laughter, and the Doctor joined her after a moment. She laughed at the absolute insanity of her situation and the absurdity of their conversation. She was on the TARDIS under the London Eye with The Doctor preparing to face down a liquefied plastic alien in a vat. What had become of her life?
Her laughter dwindled at the same time as the Doctor. "I see what you did there. Using humor to distract me. Clever girl."
She smiled, but brushed the compliment aside with her hand. She didn't feel particularly clever. The guilt over Vicki hadn't quite subsided, but she pushed it back down into the same corner of her mind she'd banished her guilt over August, Rose, and Jackie.
Two loud knocks against the TARDIS doors drew both the Doctor and Zoe's attention, but a glance at the surveillance footage on the monitor showed nothing outside the entrance.
"Stay in the TARDIS. I'll be back."
"Fat chance! I'm coming with you," Zoe said, following him close behind.
"You'll be safer inside the TARDIS," he began, but when he caught her determined stare, he heaved a sigh. "Oh, alright," he said, "but follow my lead."
The Doctor opened the TARDIS doors in one forceful move that sent the blue doors swinging, nearly crashing full-force into its frame. They stepped outside, the doors closing behind them with a secure click. Upon finding no one waiting for them, no one with the ability to knock on the TARDIS doors, that simple click seemed almost ominous.
The heated orange glow splashed shadows across the steel staircases. A heavy steam emanated from the living plastic creature writhing in the vat with what she imagined was impatience. She paused at the feeling of animosity and ill-intent she sensed emanating from it.
The Doctor showed no sign of sharing her hesitation. He showed every sign of sweeping across the floor in long strides until he stood right on the edge of the platform looking down on the Nestene Consciousness. She tugged on the sleeve of his leather jacket, stopping him before he could do exactly that. "Doctor, please wait," she said, anxiety pitching her voice higher than normal. "Something's not right."
He shrugged her hand off gently, giving her a look she supposed was meant to be reassuring. "It'll be OK," he said, "you'll see. But I've got to give it a chance first."
The Time Lord turned away from her to address the Nestene Consciousness in a loud, authoritative voice. "I seek audience with the Nestene Consciousness under peaceful contract according to convention 15 of the Shadow Proclamation."
As if it had been waiting for this address, the living plastic bubbled and stirred until a mound of liquid plastic rose up like a small hill. Plastic liquid dripped down its sides, leaving impressions in the mound until a humanoid figure seemed to be carved from it.
Zoe's blue eyes widened at the sight, her breathing growing shallow, as her heart stuttered in her chest. In her peripheral vision, she saw the Doctor's startled expression, reminding her of a doe caught in the headlights. Like the monster Auton back on the department store's roof, this was something new, something unexpected to the Time Lord. What was her presence doing to this reality? Why was everything the same, yet so different? Or was it always like this, and the show had it wrong?
The Nestene appeared to stand tall and confident, its posture almost regal. Its face reminded her of a mannequin's, smooth and blank, except for the indents carved out to indicate eyes and a mouth that stretched across its face like a not-quite-smile. It was one of the creepiest sights Zoe had ever seen.
The Nestene raised a melting hand in a placating gesture as if to say, Go on.
The Doctor seemed to take it that way as he smiled and said, "Thank you. If I might have permission to approach." When the Nestene's head nodded, or in the semblance of a nod, the plastic shifting in on itself to imitate movement, he returned the nod once and crossed the final steps across the platform to stand directly above the vat.
"If I might observe, you infiltrated this civilization by means of war shunt technology, so may I suggest with the greatest respect that you shunt off."
Zoe resisted the urge to cover her face, feeling worn out. This was the Doctor's way of giving it a chance? By antagonizing it? Is this what he said in the show, too? She couldn't remember. Watching the show had been a whirlwind experience. She knew the general details, but some of the specifics evaded her.
The figure's mouth opened wide, melting plastic stretching between what would have been its lips had it been human. To her surprise, a scratchy rumbling voice sounded through them, and she realized with a start that the TARDIS was translating for her. Unlike Rose in the show, she'd traveled in TARDIS before the confrontation with the Nestene Consciousness, even if only briefly. "We are exercising our galactic constitutional right to recover and rescue resources unappreciated and abused by a lower species. We are -"
"Oh, don't give me that!" the Doctor said outraged. "It's an invasion, plain and simple. Come talk about constitutional rights."
"Earth has everything our people need!" the Nestene said. "All this smoke, oil, and pollution for the taking. These inferior humans -"
"I. Am. Talking!"
The Nestene's imitation of a mouth snapped shut, the plastic melting into each other until only the wide indent remained. It may have been a trick of the light, but she would swear there was a hard glint to its indented eyes.
She forced herself to look away from it. That's when she caught movement behind her, back where the TARDIS waited for them. "Doctor," she called in alarm.
"Not now, Zoe," the Time Lord said, sparing only a glance at her before turning his full attention back to the Nestene. "You must know, must have realized, that these stupid little people have only just learned how to walk, and, and…"
His words faltered as he took in the living plastic figure rapidly growing in size, his eyes following its growth up and up and up until the creature towered over him. He started to inch back, even as he continued in a more subdued voice, "And they're capable of so much more…"
The Nestene figure began to stretch and morph, bubbling over into something different, the orange liquid-plastic expanding at a rapid rate before the Doctor's eyes.
"So, so I'm asking you…"
Its ambiguous face melted and reformed into a sharp, angular head with horns and sharp teeth.
"I'm asking on their behalf…"
The living plastic creature's body tripled in size, right as horned tail shot out from its back and hot plastic wings erupted, fanning out at its sides. The Nestene had morphed itself into the semblance of a dragon, red hot plastic rippling down its body like gleaming, mutated scales.
"Please just go," the Doctor finished, his voice seeming small beneath the monstrous form hovering over him.
The dragon-imitation ripped open its face, jagged teeth dripping plastic-like drool, and roared. The scent of burnt plastic carried on the heatwave of the Nestene's roar. Like the giant Auton, plastic spittle flew down on them like fiery rain. They didn't need the TARDIS to translate for them to know the living plastic creature's answer was a decisive NO.
"Doctor!" Zoe cried out, and the Doctor finally looked back and saw what she'd tried to call his attention to earlier.
Mannequins walking in drones, coming down the staircases along the walls to surround the TARDIS, which was no longer cloaked, the vivid blue box a bright spot in a dark room. A few of the mannequins were wearing wedding dresses and black-tie suits she recognized from the show. Broken glass clung to their outfits, and she knew they must have broken through their stores' display windows to come here. Zoe could only hope no one had been attacked by the mannequins on the way here and wondered absently how many stores at the nearest mall would find their window mannequins missing tomorrow morning.
Zoe ran up to the Doctor, grabbing his hand, and tried to tug him away, but the stubborn Time Lord resisted her pull. "Come on. We need to go."
As he turned his face up to the Nestene's current form, she saw he was already grieving for the living plastic creature. "What have you done? I wasn't here to attack you! I wanted to help."
"Doctor, what's happening?" she asked him quietly.
He shifted his gaze to hers for a moment, but only a moment, returning it back to the threat in front of them, though he did tug her closer to him as if his proximity alone could protect her from the threat surrounding them. "The TARDIS. The Nestene has identified it as superior technology. It's terrified. It's initiated the final phase."
The Nestene-dragon growled, the sound rumbling from low in its make-shift throat. "I know who you are, Time Lord. You destroyed our nutrient planets. You are responsible for our predicament."
"No, no, that's not true. I was there, but I tried to stop it."
"You are an enemy to the Nestene," it declared.
"I don't have to be," he said. "You have a choice. Stand down now, leave this planet, and I will show you mercy."
The Nestene-dragon lowered its head until its glowing fire-red indents for eyes were leveled with the Doctor's and an empty laugh escaped like a hiss. "Mercy? After everything you've done, would have done, you would show us mercy?"
Two Autons seized Zoe and the Doctor from behind. They struggled against the firm grip of the mannequins holding them, as the Auton holding the Doctor slipped its hand into his inner jacket pocket and pulled the anti-plastic out from its hiding place. Zoe's hope for a different outcome sank with her heart, as it held their only means of escape high above its head.
The Nestene's sharp-angled head snapped up to consider the incriminating evidence. "And what would you call this?"
"That was just insurance," the Doctor said fast. "I wasn't going to use it."
Zoe struggled harder in the Auton's arms when she realized she was going about this all wrong. The Auton holding the Anti-plastic was standing right next to her, after all. She kicked at its legs with as much force as she could muster, just barely missing the Doctor's own. Not expecting it, the Auton stumbled letting go of the Doctor and sending the anti-plastic spinning across the floor. The vial stopped right at the edge of the platform. Just a little further, Zoe despaired, and it would have fallen right into the vat.
"Get the weapon!" the Nestene commanded. To her amazement, the Auton holding her released her in its haste to obey and go after the anti-plastic. The one that had been holding the Doctor followed soon after. In fact, the whole horde of Autons guarding the TARDIS started to move in sync with each other in the direction the anti-plastic, leaving the ship unguarded.
"Zoe, run! Get to the TARDIS," the Doctor ordered.
She found herself moving forward until her heart caught up with her head. She jolted in place, her legs taut like the spring in a trap, ready to hurtle toward the TARDIS, at the same time her head and torso turned toward the Doctor. "I can't just leave you."
The Doctor fixed her with a firm stare. "You have to. I'll get the anti-plastic. You were right, the Nestene has to be stopped."
"But I can help!"
"No, you've done enough. Now go! I want you safe."
A roar from directly behind them interrupted Zoe's ready retort. They both looked back to see one pissed-off Nestene-dragon flapping its plastic hardened wings, sending a rush of hot air blazing right at them.
"No!" it hissed. "I will not allow you to leave, Time Lord. You will be absorbed, and your knowledge, your ship, will become ours. With your last breath, you will help us conquer this planet."
The Doctor shook his head, the glimmer of grief and pain and anger she glimpsed earlier had returned to his eyes full-force. "Now I know without a doubt you're beyond my help."
"Seize him!" the Nestene commanded the Autons.
Zoe and the Doctor braced themselves to be attacked, but all of the mannequins actually halted in their steps, their progress toward the anti-plastic abandoned, as their arms and legs began to jerk and twitch in place.
"The Nestene's sending mixed signals," the Doctor said in wonder, a small grin forming, as he looked around curiously. "They're torn between two opposing commands: to retrieve the anti-plastic and to capture me. It's causing the Autons to malfunction." The Doctor's grin spread from ear to ear. "Fantastic!"
"No!" the Nestene howled, seeing its error too late, and twisted around to swipe its powerful tail at them.
Zoe saw it coming, but the Doctor wasn't looking at the Nestene, his gaze intent on the vial of anti-plastic. "Doctor, watch out!"
Without thinking, she shoved him out of the tail's incoming path and screamed as a blistering, bone-deep heat knocked her down, vivid orange ooze clinging to her jeans. The liquid plastic seemed to burn through the thin fabric to her skin. Distantly she thought she heard the Doctor calling her name, there was a desperate edge to his voice that begged for a response, but she couldn't find it in her to answer. Her thoughts were hyper-focused on the terrifying sensation of a blowtorch scorching her legs from the inside-out. She felt herself begin to hyperventilate, her hands a trembling mess above her burning flesh.
She heard the Doctor say something to the Nestene. She couldn't make out what he said, but the words sounded harsh and merciless to her ears. Then came the condemning warble of the screwdriver. As a shrill scream surrounded them on all sides, she felt the Doctor lift her into his arms bridal-style, carrying her swiftly to the TARDIS. Autons were falling left and right into hapless piles on the cement floor at the edge of her dimming vision.
"I've got you, Zoe," she heard the Doctor say, as her vision gave way to black. "Hold on."
The last sound she heard was the swoosh of the TARDIS doors opening.
So, how did I do? This was really fun to write, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on what's happening and why everything is different from the show. Please review! And thank you for those who have reviewed. Your reviews seriously make my day.
With Halloween around the corner, the question for this chapter is obvious:
If you're dressing up for Halloween, what's your costume?
I have a Gryffindor Hogwarts robe (which is funny, really, because I'm a Slytherclaw - sorted in Slytherin and Ravenclaw in two different instances by the official Wizarding World quiz.). All I need is a wand (I used to have one, but it snapped in half last year. T_T ), and I'll be a witch.
Bonus question: If you're a Harry Potter fan and you've done the Sorting House quiz, what house were you sorted in?