Chapter LXXVI
Doctor's POV
He had locked the door with the Sonic Screwdriver, but he was certain that that wouldn't stop Lazarus for long. He was just too strong in his mutated state. And, just as if to confirm his fears, the lights flickered as they had reached the lift, accompanied by loud bangs as Lazarus was trying to get in.
"Are you okay?" Martha asked her sister.
"I was going to snog him."
The next moment they all stood and listened as a voice over the speaker announced, "Security one. Security one. Security one."
Then all the lights went out and the doors closed.
"What's happening?" Martha asked.
"An intrusion," Tish replied. "It triggers a security lock down. Kills most of the power. Stops the lifts, seals the exits."
"He must be breaking through that door," he said and looked around. "The stairs, come on!"
They all hurried down the stairs as he heard a somewhat final, loud crash, followed by a howl. No doubt that Lazarus was in again, so he hurried the others, leading them down to the reception room. They had to evacuate the building.
"Tish, is there another way out of here?" he asked once they were down, remembering that all doors were closed. The people down here didn't seem to have the slightest idea of the danger, he realised.
"There's an exit in the corner, but it'll be locked now," Tish replied.
"Martha, setting fifty four. Hurry," he said and threw the Sonic Screwdriver over to her.
It was too dangerous in here, so she had to get out with the rest of the people in here, and for once she did not object but ran off towards the exit, Tish following her.
"Listen to me!" he yelled. "You people are in serious danger! You need to get out of here right now!"
But, of course, as if he would have guessed, they didn't believe him.
"Don't be ridiculous," a woman said. "The biggest danger here is choking on an olive."
But just then Lazarus appeared on the mezzanine, jumped down, smashed a table, causing the people to panic. He turned his head and saw that Mira was trying to lead the panicking crowd towards the exit.
"Over here!" she yelled. Obviously Martha had managed to open the door. "Everyone downstairs now! Hurry!"
The next moment he saw Lazarus towering over the woman who had believed just a moment ago that there was no danger. She was frozen to the spot, unable to move, staring at the monster in utter terror.
"No! Get away from her!" he yelled, but it was too late, next thing he saw was the corps of the woman falling to the floor, as squeezed out as Lazarus's wife had been.
Then Lazarus turned to Martha's mother and her brother, who seemed to be wounded.
"Lazarus! Leave them alone," he yelled, seeing how Martha and Tish were running to their family, followed by Mira.
"What's the point?" he continued, as Lazarus finally turned to him. "You can't control it!"
Suddenly, Mira was at his side again, slipping the Sonic into his hand. She must have taken it back from Martha.
"The mutation's too strong," he said, making sure he still had Lazarus's full attention. "Killing those people won't help you. You're a fool. A vain old man who thought he could defy nature. Only Nature got her own back, didn't she? You're a joke, Lazarus! A footnote in the history of failure!"
He ducked away as Lazarus was reaching out for him and ran off, reaching out for Mira's hand to pull her with him, but she was already a step ahead.
They hurried through some corridors, and after a few turns they had put some distance between him and them, though they could still hear him following. They were further down now, in the cellar, clambering between pipes and control panels.
Suddenly there was his voice again, "It's no good, Doctor. You and your little friend can't stop me."
"Is that the same arrogance you had when you swore nothing had gone wrong with your device?" he replied, carefully listening.
Lazarus was close, but he couldn't quite say how close.
"The arrogance is yours. You can't stand in the way of progress!" the mutant replied
"Progress? Uncontrollably mutating? You're not only a fool, you're a delusional freak!" Mira shouted, obviously not quite sure herself how far Lazarus was away.
Oh well, he would have rather seen her outside, relatively safe, but at the same time he was glad she was at his side now.
"And let's not forget you feeding on innocent people. Mind you, humans normally don't consider that socially acceptable," he added.
"It is a necessary sacrifice," Lazarus replied.
"That's not your decision to make!"
They made their way through the maintenance corridor for a few more moments, until Mira whispered, "He's getting closer."
"How close?"
He watched her how she turned her head, obviously trying to to make out in which direction she could feel Lazarus. He always found it fascinating to watch her, imagining how it must be for a human to live with her psychic abilities. Not too long ago he would have never believed he would ever meet someone like her; that someone like her could even exist. At times it still seemed a bit surreal to him. But now was not the time to think about that. She suddenly stopped in her tracks to look up, and he followed her eyes.
There he was. Hanging from the ceiling, saying, "Peek a boo," seemingly enjoying hunting them.
"Oh, hello," he replied, and off they ran again, this time they tried to get upstairs. Down here in the cellar it was just too easy for Lazarus to hide and ambush them.
…
Little later they arrived in a laboratory, Lazarus still on their heels.
"So, what now?" Mira asked. "We can't go on like this for forever. I've hoped he would change back, but obviously it's too late for that..."
"Yeah, well, don't think he will do that any time soon," he replied. "Ooh..."
He had spotted something. Bunsen burners. He quite liked them and their never ending supply of gas. He started to take a light fitting apart, then he turned on one of the burners and extinguished the flame, whilst the gas was still turned on. It took Mira only a moment to understand, and she pulled the tube off a gas fitting of another one. He nodded at her approvingly and then he heard Lazarus again.
"More hide and seek? How disappointing. Why don't you come out and face me?"
He turned the gas up as much as possible, then peered over the desk he was hiding behind, "Have you looked in the mirror lately?" He stood up and made sure Mira was at his side. They had to be fast now. "Why would I want to face that, hmm?"
With this said he ran off, pulling Mira with him, hitting the light switch on his way out. Only seconds later – they had made it only a few metres into the corridor – the laboratory exploded. And what an explosion it was. The blast threw them to the floor, where they slid a few feed. He tried to cover Mira with his body, at the same time avoiding to fall right on top of her with his whole weight.
"Well, that went well," he said, jumped up and hold his hand out to help Mira up.
But his smile faded as he saw the look on her face.
"Is he dead?" he asked.
"Nope," she said and looked around, then started running, pulling him with her. "Deadly annoyed, but not dead yet!"
Now he could hear Lazarus as well. Not that he had really wanted to kill him, but on the other hand, there was no way to reason with him, was there? He had tried it.
Mira's POV
And running it was again. Running down to the reception room, as well as running out of options. If they would survive that, she definitely had to talk to the Doctor about his 'no weapons' policy. They would have had Lazarus by now, if she only had a decent weapon. And right now she actually preferred shooting him over being eaten by him.
"We can't leave the building," she said as she followed the Doctor, "We're probably the only reason why he's still in here. We can't let him get away!"
"I know!"
"But I won't have him eat me! What irony, being eaten by someone immortal." They had now almost reached the reception room again, with Lazarus still on their heels. "Wait, he's not immortal yet, is he? If he doesn't go into that machine again, he'll just age and die?"
"Guess so," the Doctor replied, "Wouldn't count on out-waiting that though – could take a while. But he may starve to death..."
"He will get out before that," she replied.
"We can't let that happen," the Doctor replied, "Come on, get in!"
She followed him as he ran over to Lazarus's device.
"That's-"
But before she could protest, he had pulled her with him, inside the chamber and slammed the door shut. It was quite a tight squeeze in there, and they could do little more than to stand and face each other.
"Okay," she said after looking at him for a moment, waiting for him to say something, "I really hate to spoil it, but now we've effectively trapped ourselves."
"But we're save in here," he replied and looked at her out of huge eyes, as if that had been his plan from the very beginning.
"Are we?"
"Oh come on, it's his masterpiece. His ticket to immortality. He won't destroy it just to get us."
"But still, we're trapped. And there I thought you were joking when talking about out-waiting him."
"Joking? I? Never!" he said indignantly. "Well, I'll think of something."
"Oh well, take your time then," she replied. "I'm afraid I just ran out of ideas. There's not even a bloody control panel in here so we could use-"
"You're brilliant," he said, beamed at her and suddenly, besides the lack of space in there, managed to pull her into his arms and place a kiss on her forehead.
"Hey!"
But he ignored her protest, got his Sonic out of his pocket, not without nudging her accidentally, and slid down to the floor.
"So, I get you have a plan now?"
"Yes! Sorry though, no control panel. Just a lot of wires and processors."
"Well, whatever you're doing, just hurry, would you?"
She could hear Lazarus outside, and he didn't sound – and feel, as for that – particularly happy about them being in here. He was raging, and she wasn't too sure he wouldn't destroy his masterpiece.
"I try!" He said and looked up. "Oh, you got a bruise there," he added and pointed at her knee.
"Yeah, guess what, they didn't bother to carpet their corridors. Don't touch it!" she yelled as his hand was still hovering a few inches away from her knee. "I warn you, I'm ticklish!"
"At your knee?"
"Yes!" she said between gritted teeth. Could he not hurry a bit? "So if you don't want do get kicked you should really leave my knee alone and get back to whatever you were about to do. He's more than slightly annoyed now."
The next second both his hands were back in the floor panel he had just opened. Suddenly it sounded as if the machine was powering up.
"I really hope that's because of something you just did?" she asked quietly.
"Nope, sounds like he's switched the machine on."
"Oh shit."
"Well, I was hoping it was going to take him a little bit longer to work that out."
"What are you doing anyway?"
"I'm trying to set the capsule to reflect energy rather than receive it," he replied.
"Hm," she said, "Sounds good if you get it done before we start mutating like he does. I'm mutated enough already for my taste."
"Just one more!"
Then there was an incredible noise and the whole chamber shook violently for a moment. Then – silence. On every level, not even Lazarus's anger and emotions were there any more. After another moment they both spent listening, the Doctor cautiously opened the door, and she left the chamber after him.
"You did it," was all she could say after looking around, unable to find a trace of the mutant.
She had to admit, she had been afraid in there. Ending like Lazarus was the last thing she wanted. There was dying, in a more or less horribly way, and she had seen a lot of horrible ways, and then there was turning into something she couldn't control, just like Lazarus, and she would gladly chose the first option, any time.
"Really shouldn't take that long just to reverse the polarity," the Doctor said, slightly indignantly. "I must be a bit out of practice."
Then she finally saw Lazarus. He had returned to his human form again, lying on the floor, looking young as he had stepped out of the chamber. Naked. Dead. At least dead as far as she could tell. It was sad, and suddenly she felt incredibly sorry for him. He had wanted nothing more than she herself had wanted. Only for him it had went incredibly wrong. He had not been aware of the price to pay - but had she been back then? No. Not even after her first two-, three-hundred years. Now he was dead, dead as any other human would be at some point. So, even if he had lost his humanity somewhere on the way, here it was again. No matter who one had been in life, in dead somehow they were all equal. Equally pitiful.
"Eliot saw that, too," the Doctor said quietly and with a voice as if he knew exactly how she was feeling. "This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang, but with a whimper."
"Sounds like I should read Eliot," she replied as quiet as he had spoken.
"Never read him?"
"No."
Martha's POV
She had waited outside, though not totally voluntarily. She had given Mira the Screwdriver as they had evacuated the building, so she had no excuse to go back in; and her mother hadn't let her anyway. So all she could do was staying here and guessing what was going on in there. She had heard the bang from the explosion and a bit later had seen the flash of blue lightening behind the windows, all the while praying that nothing had happened to the Doctor.
Then, finally, him and Mira came out of the building, sending in the men from the waiting ambulance.
The Doctor walked over to them, spotted her mother and said, almost cheerfully, "Ah, Mrs Jones. We still haven't finished our chat."
But before he could go any further, her mother darted towards him, lifted her hand and slapped him hard across the face. Mira had leaped forward to stop her, but she had been a few steps too far away.
"Keep away from my daughter!" her mother shouted at him.
"Mum, what are you doing?" she said, trying to get between them, just in case her mother would make another attempt to hit him. God knows, she probably would.
The Doctor just hold his cheek, she had really hit him hard, saying, "All of the mothers, every time."
"He is dangerous. I've been told things," her mother turned to her now.
"Things?" Mira got involved now as well. "With all due respect, Misses Jones, but when you obviously have no idea what's going on, it's best to just sh-"
"What are you talking about?" she asked her mother and interrupted Mira, who seemingly was in the mood for confrontation.
"Look around you!", her mother replied, "Nothing but death and destruction. Do you want to end up like her? All beaten up and obviously no manners?" she pointed at Mira, who, she had to admit, had seen better times, with her knee bruised, her hair messed up, and yes, definitely had had better ways of expressing herself. But then again, Mira was right. Her mother had no idea what was going on.
"This isn't his fault," she said to her. "He... They saved us, all of us!"
Out of the corner of her eye she saw how the ambulance was leaving. So obviously Lazarus was dead, because the stretcher they had carried him out on, just minutes earlier, had been completely covered by a blanket.
"And it was Tish who invited everyone to this thing in the first place," Leo added. "I'd say technically, it's her fault."
But before Tish could protest, they all heard a big crash, right from where the ambulance had been heading to. The Doctor and Mira looked at each other, and, much to her mother's discontent, she said, "Fuck. I thought he was dead." Then they ran off, right to where the bang had come from.
She was about to go with them, as her mother said, "Leave him."
But she couldn't. How could anyone leave him? She ran off, and a moment later she could hear her sister running behind her.
When she reached the side of the accident, she saw that it was indeed the ambulance. The back of the car was open, and inside only desiccated corpses.
"Lazarus, back from the dead," the Doctor said. "Should have known, really."
"How would you? He seemed pretty dead to me...," Mira said.
But the Doctor didn't reply, just took his Screwdriver and started to scan the area.
"Where's he gone?" she asked.
"That way. The church," the Doctor replied.
"Cathedral," Tish explained. "It's Southwark Cathedral. He told me."
Minutes later they were inside.
"Do you think he's in here?" she asked and watched how the Doctor was still scanning.
"Where would you go if you were looking for sanctuary?" he simply asked in return.
"Certainly not to a cathedral," Mira whispered under her breath, then said a bit louder, "But he's here."
They continued and once they walked up the nave to the alter, they could all see him. He was wrapped in the red blanket they had covered him with, shivering all over. But at least he was in his human form.
"I came here before, a lifetime ago," Lazarus said quietly as he had spotted them. "I thought I was going to die then. In fact, I was sure of it. I sat here, just a child, the sound of planes and bombs outside."
"The Blitz," the Doctor replied.
Of course, Martha thought. Lazarus was old enough to have witnessed it.
"You've read about it," Lazarus assumed.
"I was there."
"You're too young."
"So are you."
Lazarus didn't reply, only laughed. Then his body stretched unnaturally, making painful cracking sounds.
"In the morning, the fires had died, and I was still alive," Lazarus said as it was over. "I swore I'd never face death like that again. So defenceless. I would arm myself, fight back, defeat it."
"Oh," Mira said, "So you thought it's a good idea to throw your device right into humanity's face? Not even considering the possibility that there are people out there who want it, and also want to prevent others from having it? They would kill each other for it, even wage wars for it! Or is it just about you? No more dying for you? Don't care what happens with the rest? Just like the people you ate today?"
"They were nothing. I changed the course of history," Lazarus said, his voice filled with arrogance.
"Yeah, that's exactly what I'm trying to tell you," Mira replied. "You would have changed the course of history. In a rather bad way. I've seen what people are willing to do to each other, to their friends and comrades, when the gift of immortality is within their reach."
"How can you know?" Lazarus asked Mira disdainfully. "You know nothing. How old are you? Twenty-five?"
"Old enough to have seen every major city on Earth in dust and ashes, as well as watched them being rebuilt again," she replied calmly whilst walking around Lazarus, so he had to turn his head to follow her with his eyes. "So much for seeing war. Old enough to know that avoiding death is not the ultimate solution. It always comes with a price. A high price. Not even I have figured out yet if it is too high. Apart from the fact that taking death away means taking away everything that makes one human."
"No. Avoiding death, that's being human," Lazarus replied. "It's our strongest impulse, to cling to life with every fibre of being. I'm only doing what everyone before me has tried to do. I've simply been more successful. I doubt any price is too high for that."
"Yes. Our greatest motivation. And you were about to take it away. But I'm afraid you don't understand it," Mira said sadly. "You just don't. How could you? Guess you're just too young."
Lazarus remained silent, looking at Mira and the Doctor. Martha just feared he would turn into a monster any second.
"And you didn't even succeed," the Doctor finally broke the silence. "You're mutating! You've no control over it."
"I call it progress. I'm more now that I was. More than just an ordinary human."
"There's no such thing as an ordinary human."
But Lazarus couldn't answer right now, as his body started to bend again.
"He's going to change again any minute," she whispered to the Doctor.
"I know," he replied just as quietly. "If I can get him up into the bell tower somehow, I've an idea that might work."
"Up there?" she asked, and the Doctor nodded.
"You're so sentimental, both of you. Maybe you are older than you look," Lazarus was finally able to say.
"Old enough to know that a longer life isn't always a better one," the Doctor said quietly, walking around him like Mira had. "In the end, you just get tired. Tired of the struggle, tired of losing everyone that matters to you, tired of watching everything turn to dust." He paused, walked over to Lazarus, crouched next to him and looked him in the eyes, before he continued quietly, "If you live long enough, Lazarus, the only certainty left is that you'll end up alone."
"That's a price worth paying," Lazarus said stubbornly.
"Is it?" the Doctor said.
Her eyes fell on Mira; she was shaking her head silently. What was that all about? Either she was a dammed good actress, or... And what about the Doctor? How old was he? Sure, he was an alien, but she had always assumed that... Well, he would just age the same speed as any human would?
"I will feed soon," Lazarus said.
"I'm not going to let that happen," the Doctor said.
"You've not been able to stop me so far."
"Leave him, Lazarus!" she said, her voice loud enough to get his attention. They had to stop him, no matter the cost. "He's old and bitter. I thought you had a taste for fresher meat!"
"Martha, no!" the Doctor tried to stop her, but someone had to do it. And he certainly wouldn't follow some melancholic people like him and Mira.
And it worked. Lazarus lunged for her, and she started to run. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed that Tish was following her.
"What are you doing?"
"Keeping you out of trouble!" her sister replied.
Doctor's POV
He watched quite horrified how Martha, followed by Tish, ran up the stairs, Lazarus jumping up and going after her. Seconds later he heard how he finally changed into his mutated form. He ran a few steps back, looking up the tower, trying to find them.
"Where are they?" he asked himself, and then yelled, "Martha?!"
"Doctor!" he heard her and saw her looking down from one of the stone arches.
"Take him to the top. The very top of the bell tower, do you hear me?!"
"Up to the top!"
"Then what?" she yelled, but she had to run off before he could answer her.
"Come on!" he yelled to Mira who was still down with him and ran off to the organ.
"What are you doing?" Mira asked him.
"Hypersonic sound waves. Inspired," he said and stuck the Sonic into the power socket. It would supply more than enough power for what he was planning to do. Then he started to pull out stops.
"I hope it's a good acoustic in here," he said.
"Well, it's a church, it's built for-" Mira started to say, but then bended forward in pain, covering her ears as he started playing.
But it wasn't quite loud enough yet.
"We need to turn this up to eleven!"
The whole cathedral started to reverberate, he could feel that the very stone was vibrating with the sound. Finally, after what seemed ages even though it had only been minutes, he heard a nasty crash of something soft hitting the hard floor. He stopped playing – something had fallen down all the way from the tower, and he just begged it had been Lazarus.
"Martha?" he yelled, and for an awfully long second there was nothing but silence.
But then, just as Mira removed her hands from her ears, he heard Martha's voice, shrill with panic, "I'm okay! We're both okay!"
He took a deep breath, unplugged the Sonic and then asked Mira, who still looked quite shocked from the noise, "You're fine?"
"Think so," she replied slowly. "Just hope the ringing in my ears is not permanent."
"What? Oh, sorry, I'm sure I can fix-"
"Don't worry. My cells are quite good at regenerating, remember?" she said and smiled at him,
Then she walked down again, and he followed her. Lazarus was lying there, on the floor, naked as before. This time he must be dead for sure, no chance he could survive that. They crouched next to him, and then, almost within the blink of an eye, he changed back to his old, former self. He reached out to close Lazarus's eyes.
"Think he's really dead now," Mira said, then continued with a sigh, "I know he really went too far, and he's a murderer. But... He certainly was a great scientist. It's a pity it had to end like this. He should have focused on other things instead. He could have done much good, with all his motivation and with what he went through."
He watched her for a moment, then said, "Yeah, you're right I guess."
Then he heard Martha and Tish coming down, and ran over to him, giving Martha a big hug. He hadn't thought that of her, he had to admit. And even if he would have her rather stay down here, she had saved them by leading Lazarus up to the tower. She certainly would be a great companion, and apart from that, she and Mira seemed to get along quite well with each other.
"I didn't know you could play?" she said after he had released her.
"Oh, well, you know, if you hang around with Beethoven, you're bound to pick a few things up," he replied with a smile.
"Hmm. Especially about playing loud," she said.
"Sorry?" he beamed at her.
Of course he could hear as well as before. That little bit of noise had been nothing for him.
…
He had brought the TARDIS back from where he had parked her next to the laboratory to Martha's flat. Mira was staying inside, after saying goodbye to Martha. Well, that was it then, wasn't it? No way he could take her with him, even though he really liked to. She was a bright, courageous young woman, and, in opposite to Rose, much more sensible.
"Something else that just kind of escalated, then," he said and smiled at her.
"I can see a pattern developing. You should take more care in the future. And the past. And whatever other time period you find yourself in," she replied teasingly.
"It's good fun, though, isn't it?"
"Yeah."
Oh, he should just say goodbye, and leave. And never return. It would be better for her health and safety. And Mira would certainly agree with that. But- well, she wasn't here to protest now. So...
"So, what do you say, one more trip?" he heard himself say before he could help it.
"No. Sorry," Martha said to his great surprise.
"What do you mean? I thought you liked it," he replied disbelievingly.
"I do, but I can't go on like this. One more trip. It's not fair."
"What're you talking about?" he asked, really quite clueless.
"I don't want to be just a passenger anymore. Someone you take along for a treat. If that's how you still see me, I'd rather stay here."
Well, that was brave. She knew what she wanted, that was for sure.
"Okay, then," he said, his hands in his pockets. "If that's what you want."
He just couldn't leave her here. He had had more than one companion on his travels before – it had be fun, and apart from that, Mira was... Well, he had no idea what she was, what they were, but she definitely was more than any other companion.
"Right. But we've already said goodbye once today. It's probably best if you just go," Martha said in a miffed tone, turning her back to him.
Oh what now? Had he said something wrong? Wasn't that what she wanted? Humans. Sometimes they had a hard time understanding. He stared at her back, waiting for her to explain.
"What is it?" she finally asked and turned around again.
"What? I said okay."
"Sorry?"
"Okay," he repeated and nodded towards the TARDIS.
"Oh, thank you, thank you!" she finally understood and hugged him.
"Well, you were never really just a passenger, were you?" he said and hugged her in return.
Then they went into the TARDIS.
djmegamouth, OneWhoReadsTooMuch, Anubis Enfield, Julia N SnowMiko, NeoMulder: Thanks for leaving a review :-)
Type40TARDIS: Funny, believe it or not, but this idea had actually crossed my mind, I just completely forgot about it after the end of season 2, because I had no idea how to put it into the story. But maybe now I have an idea :-) So thanks for bringing it up, otherwise I certainly wouldn't have remembered and thought about it again :-)
