Discovery

by LizzeXX

11/OC -Time Lady- The Doctor has lost all his people again after his confrontation with House...or has he? When a mysterious contact appears that leads to an old friend, the Doctor might just find himself with more than he bargained for. A dear friend who went Mad at the Untempered Schism, a friend of his AND the Master's. What will happen? First in the Mysteries of Space and Time.

2. The Rebel Flesh

The Rebel Flesh

The Doctor chuckled to himself as he watched the Detective spreading her arms wide as she half rested on top of the console, like she was hugging the TARDIS. The humans might find it odd and, given the way Amy and Rory kept glancing over while they played darts, they very much did. But HE understood, any Time Lord who'd been stuck teleporting around with a Vortex Manipulator would be overjoyed to be back in a TARDIS. It was like humans who didn't like flying kissing the ground once their plane landed.

"Happy?" he asked her, moving the monitor over to him as he used the Ponds' distraction to run another scan on Amy, as he had been since he'd gotten a rather cryptic missive in a blue envelope.

"Oh, this is bloody brilliant!" the Detective beamed, pushing herself up, resting her hands on the console and looking at him, her arms in a fixed shrug for the moment, "I still can't believe you stole this old thing though. Of ALL the TARDISes I could have broken into for you…"

"Oi, don't knock it!" he pointed a warning finger at her, grinning despite her slight against the TARDIS. He knew she loved the old box. When he had wanted to leave Gallifrey, had taken his granddaughter Susan with him, the Detective had been right there with them, helping him 'pick the lock' so to speak and somehow managed to break the Chameleon Circuit along the way, hence the first place they set down, Earth in the 60s, the box had forever been stuck like the police telephone box he'd come to adore. He'd wanted her to come with them, Susan wouldn't have minded, but she'd chosen to stay on Gallifrey. The Master would have been cross he hadn't been invited, she'd said, she had to stay and try to give him a head start on the Master's ire.

"And thank you," she added, pushing off the console to move closer to him, taking his left hand in her right, "That outfit was entirely too uncomfortable. This is much better."

He glanced at her, at her new outfit, chuckling as she used the grip on his hand to lift it up so she could spin under it, giving him the full view. It was quite basic. A simple grey hoodie with a pocket pouch on the front, a pair of jean shorts, and trainers. Her hair was up in a high ponytail. She probably looked more like a normal human than he did, but he always had an interesting fashion sense. Frankly this was a bit TOO normal attire for her compared to some of her old outfits.

"You look wonderful," he told her, earning a beam, though the results of the scan drew his attention back.

The Detective pouted at the quick loss of his attention and stepped closer, right beside him, seeing a spark flicker across his eyes when they took in the monitor, one that she knew meant there was something wrong or interesting going on, probably both, that he needed to figure out. She DID love a good mystery!

"Blimey," she put her free hand to her chin in a thinking motion as she observed the scan he was running on that Amy girl, a pregnancy scan that was going back and forth between pregnant and not-pregnant, "How is THAT possible?"

The Doctor sighed, rubbing his face, "I've no idea," he admitted, "I've been trying to work it out for a few months…"

"Good thing you've got a detective on the case now," she chuckled, poking him in the cheek, "Give me all the details."

He shook his head, batting her finger away, "I actually think I may have worked it out, thanks," he told her, "I just need to make a quick hop to confirm it and…"

She coughed an 'et hem.'

He frowned, giving her a questioning look.

She rolled her eyes and coughed a bit more forcefully.

He still looked confused.

She huffed, "WHO needs to make a quick hop?" she asked, leaning in with her eyes wide in as pointed a look as she could possibly give him.

He really tried hard to fight his smile, "We," he corrected himself, now fighting a pout when she leaned back to where she'd been standing and not as close to him, "We just need to make a quick hop to confirm it and..."

"Where to?" she cut in, her eyes wide, "Melissa Majora? Pyrovillia? Apalapucia? Akhaten? Messaline? Poosh? Midnight? Sontar? New Earth? Mars? The Medus…" she was cut off by the Doctor pressing a finger to her lips.

"I'd forgotten how much you talk," he told her, though his smile was more sad than anything.

She reached up to grab his finger, removing it from her lips but holding onto it, swinging her arms slightly between them, both her hands now holding both of his, "I'm here now to remind you," she told him, "So, where are we all going?"

"WE," he gestured between the two of them, "Are going to Earth, a bit into the future, 22nd century. The Ponds," he glanced at them, "If I'm wrong, I don't want it to be a waste of an adventure. If I'm right, I don't want them to realize what I came for and…"

"Say no more," she nodded, serious, and spun on her heel, "Who wants fish 'n' chips?" she shouted, throwing her own arm in the air, just as Rory did the same, "Thank you, Rory, please pick me up one order, extra crispy, with exactly 32 chips. Doctor," she turned to him, "If you could please drop them off at the nearest shop?"

The Doctor could only blink, he really had forgotten how invested she could be in mysteries and getting them solved, in accepting and beating challenges that came up, too. He couldn't count the number of times he or the Master would merely suggest something only to have her jump into it with both feet and her eyes closed.

He chuckled, it WAS a way to get the Ponds busy for a short while, "Can do," he nodded, moving to the controls, "Take your time. Don't rush."

"Well, don't lollygag either," the Detective remarked, moving to help him, "I'm hungry."

"You're always hungry," the Doctor countered, poking her stomach as he passed her to another control.

"Need food to keep up with you," she shot back, flicking him in the ear and dashing away before he could retaliate, just barely escaping the tickle he'd aimed at her side.

He snorted, rubbing his ear, "And I need wheelbarrows of sugar to keep up with you."

"Uh," Rory cut in, a little thrown off, "Sorry…you're not coming?"

"We have things to do," the Doctor answered, shooting her a look for some help.

"Yes!" she nodded, "Things involving...other things."

HOW was it possible she could think of some excuses at the drop of a hat, yet other times the ability escaped her? He'd known her centuries and still had no idea.

"Thanks," he shot her a look.

"Well, we'll stay with you," Amy argued, "We'll do the other things."

"Time Lord things," the Detective shook her head, "No humans allowed."

"Are you serious?" Amy crossed her arms, moving closer to the console with Rory, their game forgotten, before turning to the Doctor, "Is she serious?" she had to ask, because he hadn't denied her and, well, there was a part of her getting a bit annoyed at the thought that he was willing to ship them off without hesitation or a fight just because the Detective didn't want them to be part of something. The woman might be an old friend, but SHE was the Companion, he chose HER to travel with him, the Detective just showed up, "Cos whatever you're up to, I, personally, would like to be a part of it."

Not a moment later, the klaxon began to blare, the TARDIS jostling this way and that.

"Wasn't me!" the Detective shouted, grabbing onto a lever and yanking it down when the ship twisted and threw her off her feet, causing the console to spark violently, "Ok…THAT was me…"

The Ponds weren't fairing any better, stumbling into the railing and grabbing hold of it while the Doctor tried to get the box under control.

"Solar Tsunami!" he called out to the Detective as she got her footing again, "Came directly from your sun," he added to the humans, "A tidal wave of radiation. Big, big, big!"

"Ohh, Doctor, my tummy's going funny," Rory grimaced as they were thrown about even more.

"Ooh, this isn't good," the Detective winced, "The gyros are dissipated," she warned the Doctor, "Target-tracking is smashed."

The Doctor tried to pull another lever, but nothing happened, the only thing that did was an image of the Earth growing closer and closer on the monitor, "Assume the position!"

Amy threw herself onto one of the pilot chairs, her hands over her head as Rory ducked down on the floor, clinging to the railing base. The Doctor and the Detective both launched themselves at the console, nearly lying flat on it as they gripped the controls, one of their hands finding the other's as they held on, waiting for the inevitable crash. And while it had been jarring, it was nowhere near as bad as they thought it would be. Everything stilled rather quickly, allowing them to straighten up.

The Detective looked around a moment, before spinning to the Doctor and holding up a hand to high-five him, "Perfect landing! Woo!"

The humans could only stare at her for that, but the Detective didn't seem to notice, turning to quickly run to the doors.

"Oi!" the Doctor hurried to follow her, "Wait for me!"

Amy and Rory glanced at each other before sighing and heading for the door after them.

They all stepped out to see they were on some sort of island, a weathervane sitting on top of a spire near a medieval looking castle just on the verge of falling to ruin.

"Behold!" the Doctor cheered, spinning to face them, his arms out wide, "A cockerel!"

"LOVE those!" the Detective laughed, rushing to his side to look up at it.

"And! And, underneath, a monastery!"

"No way!"

"13th-century, too!"

"My favorite century!"

The Doctor beamed and laughed as she half threw herself into his arms in her excitement, his own coming around her and spinning them both about. He always loved when she got excited, it made him even more excited and just...it felt so nice to have someone else there who understood WHY they should be excited. He loved explaining new things to his Companions, he did, but it got a bit tedious after a while, to have to keep explaining everything and hope they got the WHY part of it. Having her there, having her know, having her just be excited even when she didn't know, he missed it SO much.

...and if a part of him maybe also missed how physical she could get in her excitement, the hugs, the grabbing of his hand, the way she'd loop her arm through his so they could explore it together? Well, no one really needed to know.

Or at least the humans didn't. The Detective already did and he'd rather keep that a bit secret from the Ponds, at least for now. The Detective was a bit back and forth when it came to personal space and other people. At times she could invade it, if she was curious enough about something, not realizing she had or that it was considered rude. But other times, she would remember his own repeated comments that most humans preferred to have their personal space and she'd hold back so as not to be too invasive. And, still, other times, when it was more about someone else in her own space, she got a bit touchy on the subject, an aftereffect of her time at the Untempered Schism. She trusted him, she was used to him, she could let him into her space, the Master too, but others she wasn't familiar with, if she didn't make the first move or the choice to initiate contact, she could be a bit of a feral cat with them.

Literally.

She hissed at someone once for leaning in to examine a cut on her head.

It meant the world to him to know that she still felt as comfortable with him as she had, even after their time apart, even after the War. If he wanted a bit of that to himself, sue him.

"Oh, we've gone all medieval," Amy remarked, looking around, not displaying the same exuberance as the Time Lords were.

"I'm not sure about that," Rory remarked.

"Really? Medieval expert, are you?"

"No, it's just that I can hear Dusty Springfield."

They all fell silent, listening intently, and now able to hear 'You Don't Have to Say You Love Me' by the singer going in the distance.

"So, NOT the 13th century?" the Detective pouted, letting go of the Doctor to close her eyes and sense the time. She sighed, "Nope," she let out a squeak when the Doctor tugged her closer, having nabbed her hand when she lowered herself back to the ground, and spun her around, tugging her in to a sort of mock-dance to the song, and doing so badly enough where she ended up laughing the pout off her face,

"There we go," he teased, tapping her nose, beaming himself to see her smiling and not disappointed.

"Alright, alright," she took the finger he'd tapped with, "13th century castle is good enough for me! Let's go!" and used it to half pull him towards the monastery, the two walking towards a stairway with a hole in the ground, a bit of pipe exposed within it, "These fissures are new," she remarked, nodding to herself as she observed them, reasoning how, "A Solar Tsunami can send out a huge wave of gamma particles which would cause a magnetic quake, distorting the ground."

"Brilliant," the Doctor grinned. Really, had he mentioned how much he was loving that he didn't have to be the one explaining everything to everyone any longer? Though, he knew he'd still have a fair bit of that, she was more prone to explaining observations or conclusions.

"Well, the monastery's standing," Amy noted.

The Doctor reached into his pocket and pulled a snow globe out, shaking it around and watching how the snow was falling, "Yeah, for now," he agreed, putting it away.

"Look at that," Rory pointed at a part of the pipe labeled, 'DANGER Corrosive.'

"So it's a supply pipe," the Detective reasoned.

"Ceramic inner lining," the Doctor scanned it with the sonic, "Something corrosive. They're pumping something nasty off this island, to the mainland."

"Probably acid of some sort then."

"My mum's a massive fan of Dusty Springfield," Rory said after a moment of quiet.

"Who isn't?" the Doctor asked, tossing the sonic in his hand and sliding it into his pocket, "Right, let's go. Satisfy our rabid curiosity," he smiled at the Detective, gripping her hand tighter and leading her on this time, rushing up a set of wooden steps into the courtyard of the castle, where the decaying state of the building was even more noticeable.

"So, where are these Dusty Springfield-loving monks, then?" Amy asked, glancing around.

The Doctor, however, was scanning this area too, murmuring to the Detective, "I think we're here, Sigma. This is it."

"This does not look like a chip shop, Theta," the Time Lady pointed out to him.

"No, the other 'it,'" he gave her a look which took her a moment to sort out.

"OH!" she nodded, "Right. Yes, this is very 'ity.'"

"What are you talking about?" Rory frowned at them, "We've never been here before."

"We came here by accident," Amy reminded him as he began to head up another set of stairs.

"Accident?" the Doctor muttered, "Yes, I know. Accident."

The Detective remained quiet at that. She and the Doctor had been putting in coordinates for the chip shop, but with a secondary location already set so that dematerialization could occur as soon as the humans were out of the TARDIS. They hadn't finished putting in the first set by the time the tsunami hit, and so it had defaulted to the coordinates already programmed. Not much an accident, but she let it slide.

"Ow!" Rory hissed, having reached out to touch one of the pipes that were also running alongside the stairs, snapping his hand back and shaking it out, his finger stung.

"Oh, you never want to do that!" the Detective chastised, turning to scoop something off the ground to hand to him, "Here you go!"

Rory took it and gave her a look "…this is a stick."

"Yup!" she nodded, holding up her own that she'd pulled from the pouch pocket of her hoodie, "Can't go wrong poking things with a stick."

The Doctor bit back a grin at that, scanning the pipe and nodding, "Definitely acid. They're pumping acid off this island."

"This must be old stuff," the Detective discerned, tapping the pipe with the end of the stick, "Any fresher and he'd have 9 fingers…" she blinked, turning to the Doctor, "Let's go find the fresh acid!" and hurried up the rest of the stairs.

Amy could only shake her head at that, turning to look at Rory's hand, when an alarm began to go off, "Intruder alert. Intruder alert."

The Time Lords returned with a wince of apology, "There are people coming," the Doctor warned, "Well, almost."

"Almost coming?" Amy asked.

"No!" the Detective cheered, literally bouncing on her toes with excitement, "Almost people! Isn't that brilliant?!"

The Doctor clapped, turning to rush off with the Detective, leaving the humans little option but to follow.

~8~

The quartet rushed into a room of the monastery, coming to a halt when they spotted the room wasn't abandoned or empty like much of the building had been, but instead had human-shaped harnesses set up in the alcoves of the windows…with people in orange jumpsuits strapped into them.

"Well, don't see that everyday," the Detective remarked, moving over to one of them and leaning in as close as she could to observe the person sleeping in it, one of the men, the oldest one by appearance.

"What are all these harnesses for?" Amy frowned, a bit creeped out and really NOT wanting to know why the Detective was tilting her head to try and look up the man's nose.

"Uh, the almost people?" Rory offered a guess.

"What are they, prisoners? Or are they meditating, or what?"

"Let's find out," the Detective moved to try and poke the man she'd been observing in the cheek with her stick, when the Doctor reached out to lightly grip her wrist and stop her.

"Let's just say that, at the moment, they fall into the 'or what' category," he said.

She pouted, "Spoilsport," but put the stick back into her pocket.

The Doctor just lifted her hand to press a small kiss to her knuckles in thanks when a computerized voice called out, "Halt! And remain calm."

"Well, we've halted," he glanced around, "How are we all doing on the 'calm' front?"

"I know what can help!" the Detective cheered, pulling something else out of her pocket and offering it to the rather not-calm humans, "Jelly Baby?"

"Ooh, I love those," the Doctor beamed, reaching out to take one from the small packet in her hand, popping it into his mouth as three humans, two men and a woman, ran into the room, the men holding lances in their grip.

"Don't...move!" the older of the two men threatened. The Detective just popped a Jelly Baby into her mouth and tilted her head, he looked quite familiar...

"Stay back, Jen," the second man tried to usher the young woman with them more behind, "We don't know who they are."

"So let's ask them," she huffed, turning to glare at them, "Who the hell are you?"

"I'm Sigma," the Detective introduced, "Otherwise known as the Detective. And this is Theta, or, if you prefer, or he prefers, the Doctor. And that's Amy and Rory, or, as I've come to know them, Thing 1 and Thing 2."

"Oi!" Amy and Rory huffed.

"And you are?" she continued as though they hadn't said anything.

"Um…I'm Jen," the woman offered, it was only fair, "Buzzer," she gestured to the younger man, "And Jimmy," and the older.

"Hold up," Amy noticed something, pointing between the three before them and two people in harnesses who were identical to the two men, "You're all…what are you all, like, identical twins?"

"Well, that explains it," the Detective murmured, nodding to herself, Jimmy had been the man she'd been looking at in the harness. She'd gotten a bit distracted by his rather ridiculous amount of nose hair, that was why she hadn't recognized him sooner.

And yet two more people, this time another young man and an older woman, rushed in, both wearing padded leather suits with helmets on, also identical to two others in other harnesses.

"This is an Alpha-grade industrial facility," the older woman stated, "Unless you work for the military or for Morpeth Jetson, you are in big trouble."

"Actually, you're in big trouble," the Doctor cut in, stepping forward with the psychic paper.

"Meteorological department, since when?" the woman scoffed.

"Since you were hit by a solar wave."

"Which we survived."

"Barely," the Detective muttered, "Which means the bigger one on the way is going to be a doozy for you."

"And we'll survive it too," the woman defended, "Dicken," she ordered the other young man who came with her, "Scan for bugs."

He stepped forward, a device in his hand, "Backs against the wall. Now."

The four travelers did as told, backing up to the wall behind them.

"Well," the Detective remarked with a shrug, bumping her hip with the Doctor's, "At least we're not facing down a firing squad this time."

He chuckled at that memory, "Who would have thought it would be the Master getting us out of that one?"

She reached out to take his hand, seeing the sadness of the smile that had grown on his face, "So…" she changed the subject, "Not a monastery," she huffed at the lost opportunity to shock a few Monks and moved on to making a list of what she'd noticed, "A factory then, 22nd century, army-owned…"

"You're army?" Amy eyed the five people before her, incredulous.

"No, love, we're contractors and you're trespassers," the older woman stated.

"It's ok, boss," Dicken called over as the scan finished.

"Alright, weatherman, your I.D. checks out," she nearly shoved the psychic paper back to the Doctor, he and the Detective, leaning over his arm, to see the paper now read 'Miranda Cleaves, Foreman' before he put it away, "If there's another solar storm, what are you going to do about it, hand out sunblock?"

The Doctor gave a very fake laugh, "I, and my associate here," he gestured to the Detective, "Need to see your critical systems."

"Which one?"

"Don't play dumb," the Detective stepped up, a serious, almost threatening quality in her voice that startled Amy and Rory to hear, "You know which ones. And, unless you want trouble…I suggest you show them to us. Now."

Cleaves' lips pursed, but she nodded, turning to lead them away, not seeing the Detective grin and toss a Jelly Baby into the air to catch in her mouth before they followed.

~8~

"Oh look at that, look at that!" the Detective nearly squealed as they were led into a room of the monastery that had a vat on a raised platform, with an open tub the size of a human resting before it, filled with a white liquid, "Oh, she's a beauty!" she cheered, dashing forward, her fingers curling along the edge of the vat to peer down into it, "Theta, come look at this!"

"There you are," the Doctor murmured, joining her as he observed the liquid.

"Meet the government's worst-kept secret," Cleaves sighed, "The Flesh. It's fully programmable matter. In fact, it's even learning to replicate itself at the cellular level."

"Right," Amy nodded along, "Brilliant. Lost."

Cleaves rolled her eyes, "Ok. Once a reading's been taken, we can manipulate its molecular structure into anything, replicate a living organism, down to the hairs on its chinny-chin-chin. Even clothes, and everything's identical, eyes, voice."

"Mind," the Detective supplied.

"Soul," the Doctor added.

Cleaves scoffed, "Don't be fooled. It acts like life, but it still needs to be controlled by us from those harnesses you saw."

"Wait," Rory jerked back at that, "Whoa, hold it. So..." he pointed at them, "You're Flesh now?"

She nodded, "I'm lying in a harness back in that chamber. We all are, except Jennifer, here. Don't be scared. This thing? Just like operating a forklift truck."

"You said it could grow," the Doctor pointed out, "Only living things grow."

"Moss grows," she deadpanned, "It's no more than that."

The Detective snorted, crossing her arms on the edge of the vat, "You've no idea how many people said that about you humans before you evolved from your single-celled organisms to now. You grew, it can t...OOH!" she suddenly shouted, startling the humans into jumping, "Sea Monkeys!" she turned to the Doctor, "We should get some actual Sea Monkeys."

"What?" Rory shook his head, even more lost now than he was sure Amy had been before.

"Sea Monkeys," she looked at him, blinking as though she couldn't imagine why he wasn't following this, "You remind me of them."

"What, us?" Amy gestured around, before a thought struck her, "Or humans?'

"Both. You know, simple, reproduce like rabbits, come from water…"

"I'm lost, what do sea monkeys have to do with anything?" Ganger Dicken cut in.

"Look," Ganger Cleaves shook her head, getting a little fed up with all of this nonsense, "We have to utilize the Flesh. This acid is so dangerous, we were losing a worker every week. So now, we mine the acid, using these doppelgangers, or 'Gangers.' If these bodies get burnt or fall in the acid..."

"Then who the hell cares?" Ganger Buzzer, too, got back to topic, "Right, Jen?"

Jen looked uncomfortable with his ribbing, clearly she was the only one who actually considered the Flesh to be something more, but not by much, "Well, the nerve endings automatically cut off, like airbags being discharged, except we wake up and get a new Ganger."

"It's weird," Ganger Jimmy spoke, "But you get used to it."

"Jennifer, I want you in your Ganger," Ganger Cleaves ordered, "Get back to the harness."

The Doctor turned to sonic the Flesh as Jen left the room.

"Hang on," Ganger Buzzer frowned as the vat began to bubble, "What's he up to? What are you up to, pal?"

"Ooh, look at that!" the Detective leaned in close, "It's bubbling!"

"Stop it!" the Doctor grunted, though a quick look over showed he was speaking more to something else, not her as he struggled to pull the sonic away, "Ahh!" he frowned when he was released, the Flesh calming as he frowned at it, "Strange," he looked at the Detective, "It was like, for a moment there, it was scanning me."

"Hmm," she glanced at it, before reaching out to touch the Flesh with her bare hand, causing it to bubble, "Oh that is cool!" she laughed, pulling her arm back, the Flesh calming. Till she touched it again, restoring the bubbling, "It bubbles," she said, "It stops," and pulled her hand away, "It bubbles, it stops," and began to do so repeatedly, "It bubbles, it stops, it bubbles, it stops, it bubbles, it…"

Ganger Cleaves reached out to grab her wrist, pulling it back, "Stop," she told her.

And then they heard the bubbling noise sound again and looked over to see the Doctor had touched it now.

"Oi!" she pouted, "How come you're not telling HIM to stop?" she huffed, pulling her arm away to cross them over her chest.

"Doctor," Ganger Cleaves glared at him, though he appeared to have a harder time pulling his hand away, "Get back, Doctor. Leave it alone!"

The Doctor struggled a moment longer, before managing to yank his hand back with a gasp and wide eyes. He looked over at the Detective, "Do you…"

"Understand?" she finished, before nodding, "Yes. Did you feel it…"

"In my mind? Oh yes."

"Doctor?" Amy glanced between them, "Are you alright?"

"Incredible," the Doctor turned to her, "You have no idea. No idea. We reached out to it and it, to us…"

Ganger Cleaves didn't look impressed, "Don't fiddle with the money, Doctor."

"To quote a famous doctor, not you Doctor, sorry, another one, equally as famous, or more famous, depending on the planet, but this is Earth, so yes, probably more famous," the Detective spoke, "It's alive. It's alive!" before throwing her arms out and wiggling her fingers with a dramatic finishing flourish of, "IT'S ALIVE!"

The Doctor had to chuckle at the reference, "It is, though," he added to the humans, "SO alive. You're piling your lives, your personalities, directly into it…" he trailed off as lightning began to strike and thunder rumble. He pulled out the snow globe, shaking it and examining the pattern before the ground began to shake, "It's the solar storm. The first waves come in pairs, pre-shock and full shock…"

"So basically you and the Master, then," the Detective reasoned, turning to rest an elbow on the edge of the vat so she could speak to him.

He pointed at her like he was going to argue, before turning back to the snow globe, "It's close," he warned, putting it back in his pocket.

"Buzz, have we got anything from the mainland yet?" Ganger Cleaves turned to her associate.

"No, the comms. are still too jammed with radiation," Ganger Buzzer shook his head.

"Ok, then we'll keep pumping acid until the mainland says stop. Now, why don't you stand back and let us impress you."

The group looked down as the Flesh began to pour out of the vat and into the tub, filling it. A moment later a few ridges appeared in the stillness, bumps forming, till a face began to appear. The mouth came first, then eyes, floating in the white liquid, till it began to condense and shift, merging together and solidifying into the shape of Jen. Clothing began to outline along her body, rising up from where the skin would be, hair appearing on the top of her head, the face too smooth, not fully formed…until, with a gasp, Ganger Jen sat up in the tub, fully defined, looking entirely real, identical to the Jen now resting in her harness.

"Well, isn't that wizard?" the Detective murmured, moving to squat near Ganger Jen, reaching out to poke her in the cheek with her finger, only managing to do it once before Ganger Jen swatted her hand away.

"I can see why you keep it in a church," the Doctor glanced at Ganger Cleaves, "The miracle of life."

"No need to get poncey," Ganger Buzzer huffed, "It's just gunge."

Ganger Cleaves shook her head, "Guys, we need to get to work."

"Ok, everybody," Ganger Jimmy called out, reaching a hand to Ganger Jen to help her from the tub, "Let's crack on."

The Doctor looked at them, frowning, "Did I mention the solar storm? You need to get out of here."

"Well, where do you want us to go?" Ganger Jimmy countered, "We're on a tiny island."

"And we have a ship that can get you off the tiny island," the Detective pointed out as she stood up, pulling a magnifying glass out of her pocket pouch to examine the finger she'd poked Ganger Jen with for a moment before slipping it back and wiping her hand along the side of her hoodie.

"Don't be ridiculous," Ganger Cleaves waved it off, "We've got a job to do."

The room rumbled just slightly, the Doctor looking up at the ceilings, "It's coming," he breathed, moments before an alarm blared.

"That's the alarm," Ganger Jen stated.

"No, was it?" the Detective asked, sarcasm heavy in her words, "I thought that was just the lunch bell."

"How do you get power?" the Doctor turned to Ganger Cleaves, frantic and serious.

"We're solar," she reminded him, calm as ever, "And we use a solar router. The weather vane."

"Big problem," the Doctor ran a hand through his hair.

"Boss…" Ganger Jim stepped up, "Maybe if the storm comes back, we should get underground. The factory's seen better days. The acid pipes might not withstand another hit."

Ganger Cleaves didn't look impressed, "We have 200 tons of acid to pump out. We fall behind, we stay another rotation. Anyone want that?"

"Please," the Doctor reached out to grab her arm as she moved to head out with the others, tugging her to the side, "You are making a massive mistake here."

"Massive," the Detective agreed, joining them.

"You're right at the crossroads of it."

"Crossroads," she nodded, crossing her arms in a large X for further emphasis.

"Don't turn the wrong way."

"The wrong…"

"Can you stop that?" Ganger Cleaves cut in, shooting the Detective a glare that had her pouting, sticking her nose in the air, and spinning on her heel to walk away.

"Look, if you don't prepare for this storm, you are all in terrible danger, understand?" the Doctor finished.

Ganger Cleaves just yanked her arm back, "My factory, my rules," and turned go with her crew.

"I don't like her," the Detective remarked, rejoining the Doctor at his side.

He sighed, "We need to check the progress of the storm."

"Right," she nodded, turning to sling an arm around Ganger Jen's shoulders as the girl tried to leave, "Jen, can I call you Jen? Though, you look more like a Carol to me. Anyway, could you direct us to your monitoring station?"

"What…" Ganger Jen began.

"Monitoring station," she repeated, "It's a room set up to monitor things, usually on a series of televisions, affixed to a station…"

"I know what a monitoring station is!"

"Brilliant, where's yours?"

"Three lefts, a right, and a left. Third door on your left."

"Brilliant!" the Detective beamed, the Doctor grabbing her by the hand to pull her out of the room in that direction, Amy and Rory following, "Thanks Carol!" she shouted back.

~8~

"You know, for a facility running on solar power, mining acid, and utilizing the Flesh, I expected this to be a bit cooler," the Detective remarked, let down, when they arrived at the monitoring station to see it was quite simple and small, so very basic.

The only interesting thing happening right now was the room shaking as the storm got closer.

She sighed, "And that would be the wave disturbing the earth's magnetic field. Rubbish."

The Doctor seemed a bit more on edge than she was, turning to the Ponds to try and explain what he needed from them as quickly as possible, "There is going to be the mother and father of all power surges. You see this weather vane, the cock-a-doodle-doo? It's a solar router, feeding the whole factory with solar power. When that wave hits…"

The Detective made a whistling sound and then a blasting noise.

"Kaboom," the Doctor pointed at her, then back to the Ponds, "We've got to get to that cockerel before all hell breaks loose!" he reached out to grab her hand, pulling her to the door, only to stop and look at her with a chuckle, "I never thought I'd have to say that again."

"It's never as fun as the first time, is it?" she mused.

He nodded…before noticing the Ponds staring at them, unamused by their discussion, "Ah, right, Amy," he added, pointing to her, "Breathe!"

"Yes," the Detective moved to run backwards as she was pulled out, "Yes, hee, hee, who, and all that…"

"What?" Amy could only shake her head as they disappeared out the door.

~8~

The Doctor and the Detective rushed across the courtyard of the castle, to get to the tower where the solar router was fixed.

"Race you!" the Detective challenged, launching herself at the side of the tower, climbing up it like a spider monkey.

"There's a ladder right there!" the Doctor pointed out, making his way towards that to climb up the side instead.

"Not as much fun!" she laughed, scaling the wall with more ease than one would think, but, then again, she never did anything the easy way to begin with.

The two Time Lords hurried up, both managing to reach the top almost at the same time though the Doctor was faster, having a straighter path, and flicked the sonic on to try and get the power box open. The Detective reached him in time to yank it off, holding the lid up for him to work…

When lightning shot out of the sky and struck the tower, sending the two aliens flying off the side of the battlement and to the ground below…

~8~

The Doctor woke with a gasp, sitting up from where he'd fallen, and half flopping to the side, looking for the Detective. He let out a breath when he saw her only a few feet away…not unconscious, but literally sleeping. She was actually curled up on her side, her arms under the side of her face, snoring.

He couldn't help the small chuckle that escaped him at the sight. He and the Master used to joke that she had to be part robot because she only had 2 modes, hyperactive or 'sleep-mode.' More often than not it was quite literal too. It was like if she stopped moving for more than two minutes, she'd just nod off…which did make for some rather laughable moments when they'd go look for her to do something or another and find her in the weirdest positions. Half dangling out of a tree upside down by one leg was one of the most memorable. Under a table, hugging one of the center legs was another. But then there was also the time she fell asleep on the stairs of the Academy spread out like a starfish, but on her stomach like she was crawling up them and just stopped. Oh, so many fond memories, so many oddly timed naps.

It actually reminded him of how she'd regenerated that first time…

He shook his head, scrambling over to her, about to reach out to wake her when another one of her habits came back to him. He couldn't be sure if it persisted into this incarnation, for this her was not the same her he'd seen last, but, given the fact that she always seemed to develop it at some point in a body, it was better to be safe than sorry. He'd rather not have to explain why his nose was bleeding or his lip was split or his eye was blackened when they got back to the others. He looked around for something else instead, grabbing a nearby stick and backing up a safe distance. He tentatively poked her in the cheek and the tip of the nose, watching her face crinkle, before she suddenly jerked awake, half-flailing in all directions, one hand curled into a fist and swinging out…before she settled and looked around with a yawn.

"Sorry," she spoke when she caught sight of him, "I was just…it got a bit boring, didn't it?" she asked him.

"No," he laughed, tossing the stick to the side, grateful it had taken the punch to the face he'd been victim of more times than he'd like to admit for waking her, and reaching out a hand to help her up, his eyes trailing over her to make sure she was truly unharmed, "We got electrocuted and thrown off a tower."

"Oh," she nodded, before she began to pat herself down and flicked her hair in front of her eyes to examine it.

"Still you," he chuckled, "No regeneration for either of us."

"Oh," this time it sounded more disappointed, which had him roll his eyes.

"Sigma..." he sighed.

"What?" she defended, "At least being electrocuted off a high tower would have been a better way to go than half my other ones."

"Only half?" he teased.

She shot him a glare, then reached out to flick his nose, before grabbing his hand before he could rub it, "Best check on the others," she changed the subject rather than admit it was a fair bit more than half her past regenerations that were rather foolish ways to go, "They probably would not handle that as well as we did."

He nodded in return, the two of them making their way into the monastery once more. They were halfway down a set of stairs when they spotted Cleaves standing at the bottom, looking around, a bewildered expression on her face.

"Cleaves, you're not in your harness!" the Doctor pointed out, letting go of the Detective's hand to go check on the woman.

"I'm sorry, Doctor," Cleaves turned to them, "You were right."

"Looks like you've lost all power to the factory," the Detective looked around.

"…I abandoned my team," Cleaves swallowed, and they could tell she was genuinely shaken by what happened.

"Then let's go get them," the Doctor offered, putting an arm around the woman's shoulders to lead her on, the Detective moving to take her hand in comfort (that was what you were supposed to do for distressed humans right?), only to drop it quickly.

"Sorry," she offered them a look, "Too narrow to really fit three of us and that would be awkward hand holding for you."

The woman didn't seem to care at all, didn't even notice the look the Doctor and Detective exchanged over her head.

'Her hand feels like Carol's face did when her Ganger was first formed,' she warned him in his mind.

He nodded at her, having suspected that the woman before them was the Ganger as the other Cleaves would have been in a different part of the castle, strapped in a harness and unable to get out quite this quickly. Not SO much time had passed since the storm hit to now.

"How long would you say we were unconscious for, Cleaves?" he asked, if just to get a feel for what the humans had experienced. He and the Detective had a better sense of time upon waking, but he needed to know how jarring it would be for the humans, how much he needed to ease them into the time lapse.

"Not long," she shrugged, "A minute, two minutes."

"Times 30," the Detective added, a bit of a sing-song quality to her voice as she skipped down the hall behind them.

"What?" Ganger Cleaves frowned at her.

"It's been an hour," she told the woman bluntly.

The Doctor sagged a bit, shaking his head, he'd been hoping for a bit of a lighter easement than that, "An hour," he confirmed when Ganger Cleaves turned to him, as though to ask if she was serious, "I've seen whole worlds turned inside-out in an hour. A lot can go wrong in an hour."

"At least it's not the Master this time," the Detective commented as they began to head up a set of stairs they'd taken before to get to the harness room, "If he was here, the whole world would turn inside-out in less than 5 minutes."

The Doctor had to nod at that, she wasn't wrong.

"Doctor!" Amy called as soon as they stepped into the room at the top, seeing Amy, Rory, Buzzer, Jimmy, Jen, and Dicken there as well, "Look, these are all real people. So where are their Gangers?"

"Are they real?" the Detective asked, pulling the magnifying glass from her pocket and walking up to each of the humans, eyeing them critically through it, "Are ANY of us real? How do we know we're not just the figment of someone else's very overactive imagination?"

"Yeah, less philosophical-slash-existential questions, Sigma," the Doctor cut in, the humans were freaked out enough.

"Don't worry, Amy," Ganger Cleaves answered, "When the link shuts down, the Gangers return to pure Flesh."

"Mhmm, sure they do," the Detective hummed, eyeing Ganger Cleaves, the woman so unaware of what she actually was.

Ganger Cleaves ignored her, continuing to Amy, "Now, the storm's left us with acid leaks all over, so we need to contact the mainland. They can have a rescue shuttle out here in no time."

"One more question," the Detective spun around, holding her magnifying glass to her eye, enlarging it as she spoke to them.

"What?" Ganger Cleaves huffed, getting back to her old self now that she was with her crew and had to be on top of her game again.

"There were five of you here, right?"

"Yes."

The Detective made a point of counting each of the human workers, using the glass to point at them while she did, "So all five of you, still here?"

"Yes."

"In this room?"

"Yes!"

She smirked, "Then who's playing that music?"

The group fell quiet, the Doctor standing in the back with a tiny smirk and his arms crossed, as they listened, able to hear Dusty Springfield playing once more, all of them sure that it had been turned off before the storm hit.

"That's my record," Jimmy straightened, "Who's playing my record?"

"Your Gangers," the Doctor answered, "They've gone for a walkabout."

"No, it's impossible," Ganger Cleaves shook her head, "They're not active! Cars don't fly themselves…"

"Yet," the Detective had to add.

"Cranes don't lift themselves."

"Yet."

Ganger Cleaves glared at her, "And Gangers don't…"

The Detective crossed her arms as the others turned to look in the direction the music was coming in, "They do now," she waited as they looked around at each other, "Now, there's only one thing to do," and till they returned their attention to her, before she beamed, "Let's go say hello!"

Ganger Cleaves could only turn to Amy and ask, "Is there something wrong with her?"

Amy sighed, "I'm starting to ask myself that, too."

"Oh, WAY more than you could ever count," the Detective assured them as she walked past, heading to the Doctor who laughed, putting his arm around her shoulder as they led the way out of the room.

~8~

Cautiously the group followed the Doctor and the Detective into the dining hall of the castle, looking around to see if there were any other Gangers around, but there was nothing, just the record playing on its turntable. However, while, there weren't any people there, there was still evidence that others had been through the room, things moved, meals left on the tables, chairs pulled out.

"No way," Buzzer breathed, eyeing the items.

"I don't…I don't believe this," Ganger Cleaves murmured.

"They could've escaped through the service door in the back," Jimmy stepped towards it to check.

"This is just like the Isle of Sheppey," Buzzer began.

The Doctor moved over to sit at the table, eyeing a house of cards that had been in the process of being constructed, though his gaze drifted past it to the Detective, who was going through a cupboard and squealing when she found some crisps to much on. He rubbed his left hand at the sight of the bag, which made him glance down at his hand, then to Ganger Cleaves, reminded of her presence and what it would mean, "It would seem the storm has animated your Gangers."

"They've ransacked everything!" Ganger Cleaves frowned at the state of the room.

"No, they didn't," the Detective said through a mouthful of crisps, before she swallowed, "I've seen ransacking. I've ransacked plenty. This was not ransacked. This was searched. There's a distinct difference, you know."

"What were they searching for?" Jimmy frowned.

"Spare coin?" she shrugged, "Glasses? Keys? Gum? I dunno, what do humans search for when they go through their things?"

"Confirmation," the Doctor answered, "They need to know their memories are real."

"Oh, so they've got flaming memories now!" Buzzer complained.

"They feel compelled to connect to their lives, yeah."

"Their stolen lives," Ganger Cleaves frowned.

"Copied," the Detective corrected, "They can't steal it if you're still living it. It's copied, not stolen, YOU didn't forget anything, nothing was removed. You should all be quite flattered, really."

"What?" Dicken gave her an odd look.

"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."

The Doctor snapped his fingers and pointed at her for her point, "You gave them this. You poured in your personalities, emotions, traits, memories, secrets, everything. You gave them your lives. Human lives are amazing. Are you surprised they walked off with them?"

"I'll say it again, Isle of Sheppey," Buzzer repeated, "Ganger got an electric shock, toddled off, killed his operator, right there in his harness. I've seen the photos. This bloke's ear was…"

"Buzz," Ganger Cleaves cut in, giving him a look.

"What?" the Detective asked, glancing between them as she took another munch of the crisps, "What about his ear? Where was his ear?"

"Even if this has actually happened," Jimmy spoke, cutting off Buzzer from answering, shooting Jen a look as the girl appeared quite upset, a little green at the thought, "They can't remain stable without us plumbed into them, can they, boss?"

"I guess we'll find out," Ganger Cleaves sighed.

"Oh, that's my favorite answer!" the Detective beamed, tipping the bag up to get the last of the crumbs out and into her mouth.

Jen gasped and flinched, stumbling back, drawing Rory's attention and concern, "Are you ok? Do you need some water?"

"I feel funny," Jen moaned, "I need the washroom…" she called, before rushing out of the room, Rory going after her.

A sneeze rang out, drawing all eyes to Dicken, who gave them an apologetic look "Sorry."

Buzzer glanced over at the Doctor as he leaned in to examine the house of cards, "That's me. It's good to have a hobby. So, what, my Ganger did that, all on its own?"

"Who taught you to do this?" the Doctor asked, keeping an eye on the Detective as she began to rummage through a small refrigerator now, a smile cracking the corner of his lips, she really was a bottomless pit of food, a black hole of snacks…a snack hole. He chuckled at that.

"Me granddad," Buzzer answered.

"Well, your Ganger's granddad taught him to do it, too. You both have the same childhood memories, just as clear, just as real."

"No," Buzzer nearly snarled, reaching out to smack the cards, knocking them down.

"Well, someone's certainly cranky," the Detective muttered loudly, lifting up the corners of some Tupperware containers to sniff the food inside.

"They're scared," the Doctor pointed out to the humans, "Disorientated, struggling to come to terms with an entire life in their heads."

"Which is never good," the Detective remarked absently, finally choosing food, on a plate with some plastic wrap across the top, and putting it in the microwave, "Fear leads to anger, anger to hate, and hate to the dark side…"

"This isn't Star Wars," Amy shot her a look.

The Detective just turned to lean on a small counter next to the microwave, shrugging, "The sentiment still applies."

"We need to protect ourselves," Jimmy began, a bit on edge with how much her words had made sense to him.

The Doctor tilted his head to eye the man, "Are you a violent man, Jimmy?"

"No."

"Then why would the other Jimmy be?"

The microwave went off and the Detective turned to check on the food, lightly tapping the top of the clear wrapping to test the food's warmth, before pressing some buttons for another few seconds.

"You're not seriously going to eat at a time like this," Ganger Cleaves frowned, moving over to her.

"Well, it's gone quite boring right now," she said simply, "It's either I eat and stay awake or I go take a nap till something interesting happens."

"You're not napping in the middle of this," Amy threw her a look, too, honestly wondering what her definition of 'interesting' was because this would do her.

"Which is why I'm making food," the Detective repeated, "Eating is good, napping is better, eating while napping, now THAT is something to strive for. I haven't quite managed it yet, though…it's a tragedy," she turned back to the microwave to test the food one more time, going for one last round in the device.

"Cleaves," the Doctor called, causing the woman to look over, "You told Sigma and I that we were out cold for a few minutes, when, in fact, it was an hour."

"Sorry," she frowned, not sure why he was bringing it up now, "I just assumed…"

"Not your fault," the Detective shrugged, watching the food intently.

The Doctor nodded, "Like I said, they're disorientated. Amy, when you got to the alcoves, who was in harness?"

"Um, Jimmy and Dicken were helping Buzzer out," Amy answered.

"Where was Carol?" the Detective inquired, pulling the food out when the microwave dinged, using a towel to hold the now-hot plate, inhaling the scent of it deeply, and smiling. She turned to Ganger Cleaves, the nearest to her, "Could you hold this a mo?" she asked, handing her the plate.

The hot plate.

With NO towel.

"She was standing on her own when we got to her," Amy replied, rolling her eyes at how she'd called Jen 'Carol.'

But it was clear to the Doctor that none of them seemed to notice what had happened, what had been revealed in how Ganger Cleaves didn't hiss or drop the food or shout from the sting of it all…

"Cleaves," the Doctor called, drawing her attention as he slowly stood, "That's hot, isn't it?"

Ganger Cleaves looked down at the ceramic plate, that had just spent a good few minutes in the microwave, held in her bare hand. As soon as she realized that, she gasped and hissed, about to drop the plate when the Detective snatched it out of her hand with the towel, not about to waste perfectly good food.

The Doctor hurried over to Ganger Cleaves and took her hand in his as she stared at it, "The transmatter's still a little rubbery," he leaned in like he wanted to get closer, when the Detective shoved her magnifying glass in front of his face. He took it quickly, not missing a beat, and examined the hand, "The nerve endings are not quite fused properly."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Ganger Cleaves yanked her hand back, taking a few steps away from him.

"You're upset," the Detective spoke, looking from the woman to the plate in her hand, to the woman, before sighing, "...pasta?" she offered reluctantly, holding out the plate, a fork in her other hand with a bit of pasta on the end. The plate was already halfway eaten.

...food was often a comfort to humans, right? And she was trying so hard to be good with them for the Doctor.

Ganger Cleaves ignored her, spinning to the Doctor, "Why didn't I feel that?"

"You will," the Doctor reassured her, "You'll stabilize."

"No, stop it! You're playing stupid games. Stop it!" she spun around, her shoulders heaving as she tried to get herself together.

"You don't have to hide," the Doctor cautiously approached her, offering the Detective back her magnifying glass to put away as he passed her, "Please, trust me. I'm the Doctor."

The woman spun around, hissing at him, her face now half-formed, as though reverting to its Flesh state. Buzzer was on his feet, grabbing a knife from the table to protect them while Jimmy hurried to pull Amy back behind him to keep her safe.

The Detective merely leaned back against the counter, scooping another forkful of pasta and eating it as she watched the goings on.

"Where's the real Cleaves, you thing?!" Buzzer demanded, "What have you done with her?!"

The Doctor shot Buzzer a glare, turning a softer look back to the Ganger, "That's it, good. You remember. This is early Flesh, the early stages of the technology. So much..." he reached out to touch her hand again, "To learn."

"Doctor, what's happened to her?" Amy called hesitantly, warily eyeing the woman.

"She can't stabilize," the Detective answered, swallowing her food, "It's like static on the TV, going between the show and snow, half formed to fully formed and back."

"We are living!" the Ganger hissed at them, lunging at the Doctor and using the action to distract the others enough to dash out the room with a scream.

"Let her go," the Doctor warned Buzzer, reaching out to grab the man's arm to stop him trying to attack the Ganger. He sighed, rubbing his head as he looked over, hearing a clicking noise, to see the Detective putting the plate in a small sink, "Yes, thank you for your help, Sigma, much appreciated."

"You're very welcome Theta," she responded, not missing a beat. She'd tried the helping/comforting thing twice now, hadn't worked, why keep doing it?

"Doctor," Amy turned to him suddenly, "Rory."

"Rory?" he frowned.

"Rory!" she gestured to the doorway he'd run through before, after Jen, who she was now sure was really a Ganger.

"Oh, Rory!" he realized, "Rory! Always with the Rory!"

"Are we doing the running now?" the Detective asked, beaming, "LOVE the running!"

~8~

Jimmy, bless him, had volunteered to lead the Time Lords and Amy through the castle in search of Rory. It was just as well, Buzzer had proven to be too hostile and Dicken didn't feel right doing anything without the 'real Cleaves' say so. Jimmy at least had understood Amy's concern for her husband and offered to go. Right now they had just stepped out of one of the buildings, only to find the way blocked by acid bubbling on the ground.

Jimmy sighed, seeing it, he'd been afraid of this happening, "The explosion must've ruptured the acid feeds. We're going to need the acid suits."

"That sounds wicked!" the Detective beamed, just imagining what she could do without having to worry about the acid as much.

"No, no, no," the Doctor shook his head, seeing a familiar look in Amy's eye that told him she was about an inch away from trying to jump over the acid if they were delayed any longer, "We haven't got time. Back, back, back," he ushered them back into the building, "We need another way to the washroom."

Jimmy nodded, turning to lead them off.

~8~

"Huh," the Detective remarked, tilting her head at the stall door of the washroom as they finally reached it, a giant hole in the middle of it, "That doesn't seem very efficient. Anyone could see you."

Amy rushed over to it, touching the hole, "Rory…" she breathed, fearing that whatever had caused it had also attacked Rory.

"Of course, Jennifer's a Ganger, too," the Doctor realized.

The Detective glanced over at him, "I thought that was obvious?" she whispered to him, though they could all hear her.

"You said they wouldn't be violent!" Amy rounded an accusing finger at the Doctor.

"But I did say they were scared, and angry," he reminded.

The Detective nodded, "Fear leads to anger, anger to…"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Amy huffed.

"And early technology, is what you said," Jimmy added, looking at the Time Lords, "You seem to know something about the Flesh."

"Do you? Doctor? Um, Detective?"

"You're no weatherman."

"Urgh," the Detective threw her head back with a groan, "How does anyone get 'weatherman' from Doctor or Detective?" she asked no one in particular, turning to the Doctor for an answer, but he could only shrug. They HAD introduced themselves as the Doctor and Detective, yet Cleaves had believed his meteorological department fib.

"Why are you really here?" Jimmy frowned, crossing his arms.

The Doctor shook his head, turning to the Detective, "I have to talk to them. I can fix this."

She nodded, following close behind as he ran from the room, Amy rushing after.

"Wait!" Jimmy called, going after them, "What's going on? Where's the real Jennifer?!"

They didn't make it far, coming to the top of a set of stairs and down before steam burst from a pipe in front of them, acid dripping on the ground from the rupture.

"It is too dangerous out here with acid leaks," the Doctor sighed.

"We have to find Rory," Amy insisted.

"Yes, I'm going back to the TARDIS. Wait for me in the dining hall. I want us to keep together, ok? No more wandering off," he paused in his attempt to leave, hearing someone following, to see the Detective was close behind him, "What are you doing?"

"Going to the TARDIS," she said simply, "You said keep together. I thought you meant humans on one side, us on the other."

The Doctor shook his head, not having time to argue, but Amy used his distraction to grab his arm, "And what about Rory?"

"If he's stepped into the TARDIS she'll be able to track him," the Detective told her, "And if he's with Carol, we'll find her too," she reached out her forefinger and thumb to lightly pinch Amy's pinky, tugging it till she let go of the Doctor's arm, allowing the Time Lords to hurry off.

"What do you think?" the Doctor asked her as they went, "She going to listen?"

The Detective snorted, "I'll be highly disappointed in your choice of companion if she does."

"Oi!"

~8~

"Ooh, can I do it?" the Detective asked as she and the Doctor dashed into the Flesh Room, the Doctor immediately heading over to the vat of Flesh, "You got to do it last time! All I got to do was touch it…"

The Doctor chuckled, he'd actually forgotten how much fun she was, always up for some new challenge or adventure, always so curious, as ready to leap into the unknown as he was. He flipped the sonic over in his hand and held it out to her.

She let out a squeal and leapt at him, hugging him tightly as she pressed a kiss to his cheek, pulling back and spinning around to face the vat, not seeing his startled expression, before she flicked the sonic on and aimed it at the vat. The Flesh immediately began to bubble as she scanned it.

"Oh, brilliant!" she looked at him, "This is going to be SO cool!"

He laughed at her exuberance, taking the sonic back from her as they ran out of the room, neither of them seeing something forming in the vat nor the words whispered through the air…

~8~

"Watch out!" the Doctor shouted, skidding to a stop just outside the steps of the castle where he'd set the TARDIS down.

The Detective, having been running behind him and too quickly to stop, jumped up, landing on his back with an 'oomph,' to avoid crashing into him and pushing him into the puddle of acid currently saturating the ground…exactly where the TARDIS was, causing it to sink into the earth.

"What are you doing down there?" the Doctor huffed, his arms automatically moving under the Detective's legs to stabilize her and keep her feet off the ground, "Really!"

"Well," the Detective wound her arms around his shoulders, her hands resting near his hearts, "That's one way to get out of being a glorified cab."

The Doctor rolled his eyes, shifting her to have a grasp with one hand, before trying to dig into his pockets with the other.

"Do you smell that?" the Detective asked, absently fiddling with a piece of his hair sticking into her face, "Smells like when a rubber spoon gets caught in the washer and melts…"

They both looked down to see that the Doctor had come to stand in a shallow puddle of acid, which was quickly burning through his shoes. He jumped back onto the steps, half dropping the Detective onto the stone behind him and began to kick off his shoes before it could eat to his socks and skin. He let out a huff, turning to point a finger at the Detective as she giggled behind him, before taking her hand and tugging her on, back to the castle.

~8~

It didn't take much to work out where the Gangers had gone and gathered. With all the acid around, they would hole up in the place where there was the most of it, to keep the others back. So it wasn't a surprise when the two Time Lords rushed into the Acid Room to see all the Gangers except Jen's there, the acid suits lying on the floor off to the side.

"So…" the Detective spoke when they saw the Gangers, with their half-formed faces, glaring at them, "How's it going?"

"Why don't you tell us?" Ganger Cleaves spat.

"Well," the Doctor began, keeping an eye on the Detective as she meandered over to Ganger Dicken and began to poke his cheek, the man allowing it longer than the others hand, two pokes before pushing her hand away, "We have two choices. The first is to tear each other apart…"

"Which is only amusing when it's Theta and the Master doing it," the Detective warned, "FYI."

"Also, not my favorite exercise," the Doctor admitted, "The second is to knuckle down and work together. Try to work out how best we can help you."

"And how do we do that?" Ganger Cleaves demanded.

"Field trip!" the Detective cheered.

~8~

It took longer to convince the Gangers of their plan than it did to find them in the first place, but ultimately they did get the Gangers to agree to at least speak to their other counterparts, baby steps.

"Now, I know it's hard for you to hold your fully human form," the Doctor spoke as he and the Detective led the now full-formed Gangers down the hall, "That's why you keep shifting between the Flesh stages, but do try, it'll make the others less scared of you."

"Yeah, those smooth-faces are really creepy," the Detective began, only for the Gangers to stop and turn to shoot her a glare, "What? They ARE," she defended, before making a shooing motion to urge them on.

~8~

"Do humans do nothing but bicker?" the Detective had to ask the Doctor as they drew nearer to the dining hall, able to hear Buzzer going on with his usual barbed responses, "And I thought you and the Master were the champions of it."

Amy, at least, was trying to be reasonable, "Ok, let's not do anything at all…"

"Until the Doctor gets here," the Doctor called out, the same time Amy said the same thing.

The Detective looked around, noting that Rory was back, with who she assumed to be Ganger Jen sitting on one side of the table, Buzzer, Jimmy, and Dicken across from her, though Rory was behind her like a support. Amy was standing across from him, on the men's side, opposing him in stance even if the words they heard had been less so.

"Hello!" the Detective called out, "Dinner time? Please set some extra plates for our friends here…" she stepped aside to allow the four other Gangers to enter.

Those gathered around the table slowly stood, gaping at their own faces staring back at them.

"This is…" Jimmy began, but the words failed him.

"You're telling me," his Ganger muttered.

Leave it to Ganger Cleaves to get to the point, "Alright, you've brought us together, now what?"

The Detective reached out to cover the Doctor's mouth, "Before he gets going, because he will NOT stop any time soon after," she looked around, "Anyone have any shoes? Size…" she looked down at the Doctor's socks, "10?" she guessed, "Probably as wide as you can manage?"

The Doctor chuckled, reaching up to pull her hand from his mouth, "That would be helpful, yes. Wouldn't be good if I stepped in more acid now, would it?" he squeezed her hand, pressing a kiss to her palm, "Thank you, Sigma."

She smiled and nodded, patting his cheek with her hand before lowering it to his shoulder, "I was asking more because those socks are atrocious."

He pouted, but accepted the shoes Jimmy had hurried to get him with a thankful smile. He moved to sit at the edge of the table to put on the brown boots and looked between the two sides, the originals and the Gangers, "The Flesh was never merely moss. These are not copies. The storm has hardwired them. They are becoming people."

"With souls?" Jimmy asked, glancing at his doppelganger.

"Rubbish," Dicken muttered, before sneezing.

"Bless you," his own Ganger immediately responded, "What?" he added when Ganger Cleaves threw him a look.

"We were all jelly, once, little jelly eggs, sitting in goop," the Doctor remarked.

"Yeah, thanks," Amy grimaced, "Too much information."

"What sort of jelly?" the Detective wondered, "Hmm…" she hummed, moving over to the cupboards near the microwave and sink, "I could go for some jelly on toast…" she murmured, starting to search the cupboards for the bread and jelly.

The Doctor was the only one who appeared unperturbed by her antics, continuing on, "We are not talking about an accident that needs to be mopped up. We are talking about sacred life. Do you understand? Good. Now, the TARDIS is trapped in an acid pool. Once Sigma or I can reach her, we can get you all off this island, humans and Gangers, eh, how does that sound?"

"Good to me!" the Detective called.

Jimmy glanced between them, before asking, "Can we get home for Adam's birthday?"

"What about me?" his Ganger turned to him, "He's my son, too."

"You? You really think that?"

"I feel it."

"Oh, so you were there when he was born, were you?"

"Yeah. I drank about 8 pints of tea and they told me I had a wee boy and I just burst out laughing," the Ganger laughed at the memory, "No idea why. I miss home. As much as you."

"…so anyone for tea?" the Detective asked when the humans and Gangers fell silent at the man's words, she might as well go for three strikes in the comforting humans department, one more offer and then she'd call it quits and let the Doctor handle that part, "Anyone? Tea? Nice hot cuppa? That's good for nerves right?"

The Doctor pointed at her that she was right, giving her something to do now that she couldn't find any bread or jelly (how rubbish was that!?), and turned to get a tiny pot of tea going, "Look," he sighed, addressing the others, "I'm not going to lie to you…"

The Detective burst out laughing for one loud moment, but continued on her task as though nothing at all had happened.

And so the Doctor ignored it, "It's a right odd mess, this. But, as you might say up north, 'oh, well, I'll just go to t' foot of the stairs,'" he tried to mimic some sort of accent, "'Eh, bye-bye gum?'"

"That was terrible," the Detective told him, looking over her shoulder at him, shaking her head as though she was deeply shamed for him, "Don't ever do that again," she added, waiting till he rolled his eyes before she went back to the pot.

"The first step is we get everyone together…"

"Mostly check."

"Then get everyone safe."

"Almost mostly check."

"Then get everyone out of here."

"Pending."

Amy shook her head, focusing on the Doctor as the, shockingly, more rational one of the aliens, "But we're still missing Jennifer and Cleaves."

"Hence the 'mostly' and 'almost mostly,'" the Detective remarked.

"I'll go and look for them," Jimmy offered, turning to make his way to the door.

"I'll give you a hand, if you like," his Ganger offered, waiting till he was given permission before making a move, not wanting to alarm or overstep, "Cover more ground."

Jimmy eyed himself a long moment, before nodding, "Yeah. Ok. Thanks."

The Doctor smiled as he observed man and Ganger getting along, working together, proving his theory was right and that this wasn't a cause for chaos or fear…

Of course, the original Cleaves, who had snuck into the room while they were distracted by the show of goodwill, had other ideas, calling out, "This circus has gone on long enough!" and drawing their attention over to see her standing there with some sort of device in her hand that was crackling with electricity.

To her credit, her Ganger appeared both unsurprised and unafraid, "Oh, great. You see, that is just so typically me."

"Doctor, tell it to shut up."

"Please, no," the Doctor turned to Cleaves, his hands up to try and placate her, "No! No!"

"Circuit probe," Cleaves gestured to the device, "Fires about, oh, 40,000 volts. It would kill any one of us, so I guess she'll work on Gangers, just the same."

"Why is it a SHE?" the Detective eyed her, seemingly more lost about that than anything else that had happened, "What if it's a boy circuit probe?"

"What are you going to do to them?" Amy demanded, ignoring the Detective, because that was really NOT the biggest concern right now.

"Sorry, they're monsters, mistakes," Cleaves glared, "They have to be destroyed."

The Doctor frowned and stepped towards her, "Give me the probe, Cleaves."

"We always have to take charge, don't we, Miranda?" her Ganger sighed, done with herself, "Even when we don't really know what the hell is going on."

The Detective looked over at the Buzzers, internally debating which of them would attack Cleaves as they seemed the most violent…and it was his Ganger, throwing himself at the woman as she fired at him three times, sending him crashing to the ground. Well, that made sense, the original Buzzer would be in agreement with the original Cleaves and not want his Ganger there.

"Buzzer!" Ganger Jen gasped, jumping back.

"Is he ok!?" Ganger Jimmy rushed to try and help.

"I dunno," the Detective answered when no one else did, "Does he normally just lie on the floor like that without moving?"

"Oi!" Rory glared at her, taking her words to be a lack of compassion than her genuine answering of a question.

The Doctor moved over to the Ganger's side to check on him, "He's dead…" he sighed, rubbing his forehead.

"We call it 'decommissioned,'" Cleaves smirked, pleased with herself, turning the probe on the others, causing Ganger Jen to back away and duck when it moved on her.

"You stopped his heart," the Doctor stood, glaring at her, "He had a heart! Aorta, valves, a real, human heart! And you stopped it."

Ganger Jen backed up, glaring at Cleaves though she spoke to the Doctor, "What happened to Buzz will happen to us all, if we trust you!"

"Wait," the Doctor rounded on her, "Wait. Just wait."

"No!" Rory called as he threw himself at Cleaves as the woman tried to fire the probe again, managing to knock her to the ground and grab the probe, throwing it to the side so it smashed into the wall, giving the Gangers time to flee.

"You idiot!" Cleaves snarled at him.

"Well, that wasn't very smart, was it?" the Detective commented, leaning against the counter beside a small stove, her arms crossed, focused on Cleaves, her comment meant more for her than Rory.

"Look at what you've done, Cleaves!" the Doctor frowned at her.

"If it's war, then it's war," Cleaves defended, "You don't get it, Doctor. How can you? It's us and them now."

"Seriously, worst person ever to bring up war to," the Detective warned her, "Don't tempt him or me to blow up the planet just to stop you."

Cleaves ignored her, taking her words as more of her typical nonsense than the threat it well and truly was, turning to her remaining crew, to Jimmy, Dicken, and Buzzer, "Us...and them."

"Us and them," Dicken agreed, though he sounded more like a soldier obeying an order from his commander than out of a genuine belief.

Jimmy sounded even more resigned, "Us and them."

Buzzer was the only one who seemed firm when he agreed, "Us and them!"

The Detective shook her head, sending the Doctor a look, 'He does realize she just killed him, right?' she asked in his mind.

The Doctor sighed, shaking his head, before glancing at Amy and Rory, the two humans working to cover the dead Ganger with a tablecloth while Cleaves pulled her team closer for a hushed conversation. This was never going to work if they kept fighting, by Cleaves attacking a Ganger, it gave the others full right, or what they would believe was full right, to attack them back…and they didn't even realize it, so sure they were in the right. He had to get them to safety before the Gangers reached the acid suits they had stashed and began to use the acid against them.

"The most fortified and defendable room in the monastery?" he called out, "Cleaves!" he rounded on her when no one answered, "The most fortified and defendable room in the monastery?"

"The chapel," she replied.

"Thank you."

"Only one way in, stone walls, 2 feet thick."

He nodded, it wouldn't do much against acid, but it would buy them time, "You've crossed one hell of a line, Cleaves. You've killed one of them. They're coming back. In a big way," he looked at those remaining in the room, "Let's go, lead the way."

The Detective sighed, "So is that 'no' to tea, then?"

~8~

Cleaves led the way down the tunnels of the castle, heading for the chapel as fast as they could manage.

"What about the flares?" Jimmy called over, trying to think about things that could help them.

"We'll worry about the flares when we're locked inside," the Doctor huffed, urging them onward, into the chapel. The humans ran on until it was just him, Amy, Rory, and the Detective left, though the only reason they stayed out was because Rory had stopped moving.

"Rory Pond!" the Doctor snapped, trying to grab his arm to pull him on.

But Rory heard something down the halls and yanked his arm back, clearly about to rush down it.

"Rory!" Amy yelled, "Come on."

Rory turned to them, reminding them, "Jen's out there. She's out there and she's on her own."

"Brave heart," the Detective remarked as Rory started to head down the tunnel away from them.

"Well, if she's got any sense, then she's hiding," the Doctor argued, "Rory!"

"I can't leave her out there!" Rory snapped.

"Rory!"

"I know you understand that."

"You certainly taught your companions well," the Detective murmured, moving to help the Doctor push Amy towards the doors as Rory bolted, "Helping people at his own peril AND wandering off. I like him. I think I'll upgrade him to Thing 1."

"There they are!" Ganger Cleaves shouted, appearing at the end of the hall.

"Amy!" the Doctor shoved the ginger more, finally managing to push her through the doorway of the chapel, the Detective close behind, slamming the door after she was through, the humans rushing to help block it as there was no lock.

"Amy, Amy, they are not after him, they're after us," the Doctor reminded the woman, still struggling to go after her husband.

"Why?" a voice whispered from the corner of the room, an area too dark to see into, "Why?"

The Doctor spun around, reaching out to grab the Detective and yank her back by her hood as she moved to immediately go to the shadows and see what it was, "Show yourself."

"…wizard…"

The Doctor's head snapped a few feet away, hearing something else, "Show yourself!" he frowned, slowly stepping towards the area, his eyes flickering from one end to the other.

"Doctor!" Amy called, ignoring the other humans behind her calling for more supplies to block the door.

Jimmy though, his voice cut through, because he was laughing in the middle of all this chaos, "This is insane. We're fighting ourselves!"

"It is," the Detective nodded, "It is very insane."

"And it's about to get even more insanerer," the Doctor murmured in agreement, "Is that a word?"

"Sounds like the best word ever," the Detective remarked.

"Show yourself!" the Doctor demanded to the darkness, "Right now!"

"Doctor!" Amy shook her head, moving to the Time Lords' sides, "We are trapped in here and Rory is out there, with them. Hello! We can't get to the TARDIS and we can't even leave the island."

"Correct, Pond," the Doctor said…except the words did not come from his mouth, which was pressed into a thin line, "It's frightening, unexpected, frankly…"

"Absolutely, utterly brilliant, isn't it!?"

The Detective let out a loud laugh, beaming as she heard her own voice speaking words she hadn't said too.

The Doctor's voice chuckled, "And I'm certain, 100 percent certain…"

"Eh, 87 percent," the Detective's voice corrected.

"That we can work this out."

And then, from the shadows, two Gangers emerged, both with their faces half-formed, of the Doctor and the Detective.

"Isn't this wizard?" the Detective's Ganger grinned, her too-smooth face stretching unnaturally.

"Trust me," the Doctor's Ganger added, tugging on his bowtie, "I'm the Doctor."

A/N: Oh, dear lord. I don't think the universe could survive not only two Doctors but TWO Detectives as well O.O

I had a lot of fun writing Sigma :) I feel like all the other TLs are serious or mature in their own way, or they have fun and go along with the Doctor's plans, but none of them were really even MORE mad than the Doctor. They all had some sort of thing in their past to pull them down a bit, so I wanted a person who was just fine with everything, coped well with the War, and is just absolutely mad lol :)

I know there are times here where Sigma seems a little unconcerned with the humans or gangers. Keep in mind, she IS the Doctor's friend...but she was also the Master's too. She has many similar interests as the Doctor, but not all of them. Humans are interesting to her, she finds them funny, but she IS as mad as the Master, it manifests in a different way than his homicidal tendencies. She doesn't care as much as the Doctor about humans. She's likely to care more about Amy and Rory or whoever his companions are than other humans. She'll care about some of them, like kids, or the elderly, but any random human wouldn't amount to much to her. She's more interested in their creations and mysteries than them.

Also, SUPER excited, I just realized that I was 30k away from hitting my next million words archived before posting this chapter. So the next chapter means I'll be at my next million :D

As a hint for the 'find the quote' little game: there are 4 intentional quotes in this chapter ;)

I say intentional because, you never know, I might have a line in that I may not realize is from a show or movie because it's common or is a genuine coincidence and you may spot it and I go 'oh wow, I didn't notice that!' :) There's also 3 teeny weeny intentional references to a show/movie/book that's not a full quote, but are little nods to that show/movie/book bonus points if you spot them ;)

Bit of a funny little moment, I really debated having Sigma regenerate in this chapter, like falling off the tower and being electrocuted, for the chaos it would cause having to explain that to the humans :) But since the Doctor was hit the same and survived, I felt she probably would too. And, it IS a much cooler way to go than many of her past regenerations so I couldn't quite give her that till we learned a bit more about how those happened ;)

So now we've gotten our first full episode chapter of Sigma and we see a bit more of her personality and quirks :) There's still way more to uncover about her, but I hope you like what's there so far ;)

Some notes on reviews...

Oh wow! I'm so happy you guys are excited to see more of Sigma! I really hope this chapter delivered :)

Lol, she will not temper him at all ;) I think she's more likely to go 'ok, so, good plan, but you know what would make it better? Dynamite.' and just sort of escalate his ideas way more than they should be :)

Thank you for the quote recommendation! You've actually read my mind, that quote will be appearing at some point in this story ;)

I think Rose would be super, super annoyed with her and but heads with her, because here's this woman (blonde too) who not only CAN keep up with the Doctor but egg him on and who he's super fond and affectionate of :) 10 would probably LOVE this, while 11 seemed a bit more child-like to me maturity wise, 10 struck me as the more curious and energetic of them, so he'd probably fit with Sigma very well, he also had that sort of dark edge to him that we'll see some hints of in Sigma too :) River, we'll find out about her very soon so I don't want to spoil too much ;) I can say I may have 2 potential AUs in mind for Sigma, which I'll talk more about at the end of the story, but one of them might let us see that ;) We'll also get more insight to the Doctor's wife and Sigma's thoughts on her and her relationship with the Doctor before this story is over ;) But yup, for once the Doctor is the more mature one, -gasp!- :) I can say the next 2 TLs will not be blonde starting off ;)

River is definitely going to be interesting to include and tweak when it comes to Sigma, we'll find out very soon what she may or may not become to Sigma ;)