Vastra whirled round, half thinking it would be the Doctor. But she had always recognised him, whatever his regeneration and this small cloaked figure, leaning nonchalantly against a tree, was not him, even if he had regenerated into a woman.

"Well. It's obvious, isn't it?" The woman continued in a clear voice as she stepped down towards them. "I don't have a vast amount of knowledge. But I've met enough aliens over time to pick up the basics. And that ship is not leaving here any time soon. Certainly not in your lifetimes. Possibly in mine. But then again, I have slightly longer than…Jenny was it? Jenny here." She clapped a hand on Jenny's shoulder, peering at the back of her neck. "Yes." She gave Jenny a commiserating look, but her eyes were cold and unfeeling. Jenny shrugged her off, clasping a hand to the back of her neck, but she couldn't feel anything there.

"And I should probably point out, if your intention is to keep people away to continue attempting to repair it, your best bet would be to let these two go." The young woman walked towards the aliens, nonchalantly gesturing towards Jenny and Vastra. "They know people at Scotland Yard, Torchwood. The Prime Minister owes them a really big favour and they're…very well acquainted with the Queen." She smiled knowingly. "If they go missing up here, there'll be quite a lot of people coming to find them. People who aren't your average human and therefore won't be fobbed off with a fairy story." The aliens were looking very unnerved at this point. "And if you're really unlucky, a very dangerous man might show up looking for them. And if they were harmed in any way, he wouldn't be very happy. And you can't repair a ship if you're dead, now can you." She finished condescendingly.

"Are you from Torchwood?" Jenny asked her, the shock of a complete stranger knowing so much about them over-riding the shock of having a death sentence apparently displayed on her neck. A stern silence was the only reply, as if the woman wished to indicate that such a stupid question was beneath denial.

"So. What are we to do." The figure advanced into the centre of the ring of trees, standing at the edge of the pool by Vastra. "A stranded alien ship. Death dealing aliens, determined to escape. A chronolock. And two detectives out of their depth. Any ideas how to resolve this?" She was given a stern silence of her own. "No? Oh dear. Really, I would've expected better. An entire group of conniving murderous aliens and the Queen's own investigators and you can't come up with something?" She strode up and down at a leisurely pace at the water's edge.

"What's yer point." Jenny snapped, resisting a childish urge to push the woman in.

"Sorry. Yes. On a clock here." The figure went up to the first alien. "Join me. I have a place. A place where you can hide away. We might even have some technology lying around, that could even repair your ship. It's a little bit more…up your alley you might say." The figure laughed. "At least more so than a stagnant pool in the middle of nowhere." She gestured to the aforementioned pool.

The aliens gathered in a small huddle, arguing in whispers. The woman tapped her feet impatiently. Jenny felt a small trickle of sweat run down her neck, despite the cold night.

"We accept." One of the aliens declared, standing away from the group. There were some mutterings, particularly from the first alien but no objections.

"Excellent. One of the first rules of the Street however, is no violence, no killings. So, part of the agreement will have to be taking the Chronolock off my friend here."

Grumbling, the first alien lifted a hand. Jenny felt as if a small weight had been lifted from her spine and the same black smokey substance flew towards the first alien and dissipated.

"Thank you. A Quantum shade, hm? I could do with one of those. It would act as a nice deterrent." The woman shook her cloak away from her arm and held out a hand. The owl stared at her. The first alien stared at her. "Would you like to make an alliance with me?" she asked the owl. "They will die in the end." She pointed at the first alien. "They will all die. And there will be no-one to hand you onto. And we can't have something as beautiful and deadly as you running around free now, can we." The owl turned its head to the first alien who cried out as it swooped down and landed on the woman's hand.

Jenny and Vastra watched in fascination as something detached itself from the first alien, formed the shape of a bird and then flew directly at the figure's chest. The force knocked the figure back several steps but when she regained her balance the owl had disappeared. In its place, on her outstretched fist, was a raven. It clacked its beak.

"The rules of the Street are numerous. And any breaking of those rules is punishable by death. We have a lot of violent species living there. So you'll fit right in, don't worry. But no death, no violence, no thievery. Not even an attempted murder is allowed I'm afraid." The woman grinned at the Raven. "A Quantum Shade will be the perfect method of execution. We can leave now, if you like. A recovery team can be sent for your ship later. Given that these two probably won't be too happy, I'd suggest a swift departure."

"What about Mari?!" Jenny found her voice again, as the aliens began to shuffle into a group.

"No doubt she will recover, given sufficient time." The figure lowered her hood. Jenny was startled. The woman was younger than she was. Barely more than a child. "I know you two like to pry into mysterious happenings. But I'd just take the credit for saving the girl's life and go home. This one is on me. And I saved your life too. I think you owe me a non-interference pact at the very least. I don't go around committing crimes or trying to take over the earth so really there's nothing for you to investigate is there?"

"Who are you?" Vastra asked, striding over to join Jenny.

"I'm like you. I want to keep people safe. The only difference being, in this instance, the people I keep safe are aliens."

"From Torchwood." Vastra's eyes narrowed. She knew what they had been like under Croup and Vandemar.

"Among other things." The young woman's eyes darkened for a moment. "Don't worry. These lot won't be troubling you again." She gestured to the huddled aliens. "I guarantee it." She smiled, but her eyes were as cold as when she'd comforted Jenny.

"But who are you?" Vastra asked, still piqued at the young woman coming out of nowhere and not only saving Jenny but taking charge of the situation and anonymously at that.

The woman smiled all the more broadly but it still didn't reach her eyes. "I'm Me."

Jenny laid a hand on Vastra's elbow. The Silurian looked at her and she shook her head. The woman was now in charge of whatever that bird was that could kill people. Having been newly released from it, Jenny wasn't in the mood to argue.

"Thanks." The woman smiled charmingly at Jenny, winking at her. "Well hopefully I won't see you any time soon. Good luck." She marched the downcast aliens down the mountain, disappearing swiftly in the gloom.

"Where on Earth could you hide that many aliens?" Vastra mused, attempting to distract herself from being excessively annoyed by checking Jenny over thoroughly. There was no sign of anything on Jenny's neck any more.

"Below?" Jenny suggested, sheathing her sword that had been dangling limply in her grasp.

Vastra leaned back to look at her. "Below?"

"Something Albie said." Jenny frowned. "When Peggy took me to see him about the Marchioness. He didn't want any investigations from Torchwood because of an alley that he didn't want coming to their attention."

"Right up their alley hm?" Vastra repeated "Me"'s words. "You think it isn't a co-incidence."

"She seems to know a lot about us." Jenny began coughing again as they started down the mountain on the long walk home. "And Torchwood."

"I think we will have to give her that one." Vastra took one last look at the ship in the ring of trees. "I doubt anyone will come up here before she has a chance to retrieve it."

"An' I do owe her my life. We'll have to be careful though. She was following us." Jenny frowned again. "She couldn't have known to come here any other way."

"Who investigates the investigators…" Vastra mused. "I wonder why she didn't intervene in the case of the Space Pirates."

"She only does aliens by the sounds of it. They was both humans, even if they were from the future. And we had them under control. 'Specially once the Doctor turned up." Jenny tripped over a loose stone, cursing. Vastra looped Jenny's arm in hers to guide her, holding the lamp up to illuminate the path more.

"It sounds as if she knows the Doctor too."

"S'not like he needs keeping safe. Not like anyone could even if he did." Jenny snorted.

Wearied, it took them well over an hour to return to the house and they joined Peggy in the stable to avoid waking anyone up and slept until dawn.

18th April 1888

They were woken by the sounds of a farm in the morning, which involved a lot of clanking and animals. Vastra shivered and huddled closer to Jenny. The young woman tried to go back to sleep, feeling exhausted after the adventures of that night. But there was a cock crowing somewhere, and a herd of cattle mooing and someone flung open the door, letting in bright sunshine.

"Oh! I'm sorry!"

"Good morning Mr Jenkins." Vastra greeted him wearily, from underneath the blanket.

"You got back alright then. From the mountain."

"Yes."

"There was nuffin' out of the ordinary up there." Jenny yawned. "Just a pool of water and trees."

Mr Jenkins looked at them very disbelievingly. Vastra pulled on her veil and then emerged, wrapping the blanket around her as she got up.

"We have come to believe your daughter's sleeping state may have been induced by something she ingested." Vastra said, not untruthfully. "I believe I can concoct a remedy."

Jenny tried to look as if this wasn't news to her.

"Oh. Well." Mr Jenkins still didn't look convinced but stood back to let them out the stable and went to get his horse.

"He's not gonna believe us is he." Jenny shook her head as they walked towards the farmhouse, hoping for some breakfast. "You can make up whatever you like, they're still going to think it's fairies."

"Well, someone did die in rather dramatic circumstances involving a cuckoo. Can you blame them?" Vastra pointed out.

"Can you really cure her?"

"If we can remove whatever they were using to keep her in sleep, she should wake on her own. The trick will be in finding it."

They walked together in Mari's room, where she was still sleeping peacefully. "She walked all the way home before falling into a sleep. That suggests that whatever put her to sleep is in this house, possibly in this room."

"What would it look like?"

"A piece of machinery, possibly quite small. Even a plant. To keep her so continuously asleep, something like that would have had to have been administered consistently."

"Surely they would've noticed machinery though." Jenny checked under the bed. She coughed at the dust, thinking she wouldn't mind being asleep for a few weeks herself.

"Never underestimate an ape's ability to miss the obvious."

"Oh thank you." Jenny muttered. "I was the one who spotted the cyber mat in Japan you know." She grumbled to herself, wriggling back out and looking by the window. She noticed a few petals on the windowsill and swept them into her hand, holding it out for Vastra to see.

"Hm." Vastra hummed thoughtfully to herself.

"Do you know what they are?" Jenny asked.

"No." Vastra grinned. "But I'm sure we can find someone who might."

"Eggs and bacon." Seren told them when they showed her the petals.

"I'd love some." Jenny shot back.

"Daftie. It's the name of the flower. Their proper name is trefoil. Birds foot trefoil. They're common enough. Grow all over the meadows." She shrugged. "Probably Mari picked them on her wanderings. They're not poisonous."

Their search of Mari's bedroom exhausted, the trefoil found to be impossible as a cause of the coma, Jenny and Vastra were back to square one. "We could just wait. If you reckon she might wake up again anyway. Might be long gone, whatever caused it, gone with the aliens." Jenny was led in their bed, resting. She'd sent Peggy to watch over Mari just in case of any changes. Seren had taken her at her word and had made them both eggs and bacon for breakfast which Jenny had gratefully wolfed down before retiring upstairs again.

There was a knock on the door and Vastra threw her veil on.

"Mrs Rowlands come to see you." Seren told them and ushered in the woman who had first told them of the Ellyllon.

"It's all around Flint, how you went up the mountain to Pwll y Wrach and came down unharmed."

"It is an unremarkable place." Vastra told her, completely truthfully. The place itself had been nothing out of the ordinary.

"But Mari still sleeps."

"Yes. We could find nothing in her room either, save some trefoil petals."

"What were you expecting to find ever?" Mrs Rowlands asked.

"Some sort of apparatus or drug that was keeping her sedated." Vastra sighed.

Mrs Rowlands laughed sarcastically. "The on'y thing that will take the curse off her is if the Ellyllon themselves remove it. I was thinking since you went up there unharmed you might have been able to deal with them. Obviously not." She snorted and walked back out the door.

Vastra glared after her for a few seconds before returning to the task at hand. "The only other conclusion to come to then, is that a device remains active on their ship."

Jenny slumped further down on the bed. "You mean we gotta walk all the way back up the mountain again?"