"This is a boring town," Elias glumly kicked some dirt with his foot, missing the Doctor's discreet smirk beside him. Leave it to his son to get bored because there's no action yet. "When do we get to save Mommy?" Elias looked up at his father questioningly.
"As soon as Bennett gets out from the TARDIS," the Doctor shot a look at the only human with them. "We need to get going, you know."
"Oh, he's still throwing up," O'Donnell explained sheepishly. "One small step for man, one giant bleaurgh."
"Oh, time travel does that sometimes," the Doctor waved her off with his free hand. His other kept Elias' hand firmly tight. He was not risking his son to get lost on his own in the town, despite it being so incredibly small.
"Somehow I doubt that Rose or Martha or Amy lost their breakfast on their first trip," O'Donnell remarked, surprising the Doctor with her knowledge.
"You seem to know an awful lot about me," he eyed her suspiciously.
"Just you, actually," O'Donnell said with a bit of disappointment. At the Doctor's look, she elaborated a bit. "Your wife's not as known for some reason. Neither was your son."
"She & UNIT are on a need-to-know basis," the Doctor left it at that. Minerva of course trusted Kate Stewart but to say that she fully trusted UNIT was another thing. It was hard to forget the organization that wanted to hunt you down as an extraterrestrial case. "And absolutely no one creates a profile on my son."
"Ha, ha," went Elias triumphantly despite not fully understanding what they were talking about. He then pulled on the Doctor's hand, making him look down. "When are we, Daddy?" O'Donnell crinkled her nose when the Doctor licked his finger and held it up. Elias giggled. "Mommy said you can't do that."
"Yes, well, maybe Mummy shouldn't know about it, then," the Doctor winked at Elias. "We're in 1980."
O'Donnell nodded her head. "So, pre-Harold Saxon. Pre-the Minister of War. Pre-the moon exploding and a big bat coming out."
"The Minister of War?" the Doctor repeated, unfamiliar with that one.
"Yeah…"
The Doctor opened his mouth to further question it but then shut it and shook his head. "No, never mind. I expect I'll find out soon enough."
"Sorry about that," Bennett finally came out from the TARDIS. "Had a prawn sandwich. Might have been off."
"Ah ha. Don't worry. Shall we go?"
"Yes!" Elias hopped excitedly. They'd been waiting far too long and he really wanted to go see what was out in the little town.
"Just one sec, I've just got something in my boot," O'Donnell gestured to her shoe and leaned on Bennett for support.
"Aww, no more waiting," Elias drawled out his disappointment.
The Doctor agreed he was finished waiting too. Like father like son. "We'll get a head start," he announced and then took a headstart with the now happy Elias.
"Can we go to the stores?" Elias pointed at several shops as they passed by.
"Those aren't real, El," the Doctor revealed to the boy. "They're pretend."
"Not even the phone?" Elias pointed to a telephone box across.
"Not even the telephone box," the Doctor subtly corrected him.
"Why have we gone to Russia?" Bennett caught up, making his assumption they were in Russia based on a Stalin poster they saw on their way.
"Er, we haven't. We're still in Scotland," the Doctor replied. "This is the town before it flooded. The Tardis has brought us to when the spaceship first touched down. But here and now, it's the height of the Cold War. The military were being trained for offensives on Soviet soil."
Elias suddenly gasped. "Daddy, I found it! I found the spaceship!" he announced joyfully, pointing a small finger ahead.
They followed his gaze to see that indeed the spaceship was planted not too far from them. Just like at the base, its rear ramp was down and thus its interior was open for the public. The group ran all the way up to it and clambered inside.
"Is that a Mummy!?" Elias asked, almost too happy when he spotted a body wrapped very much like a Mummy. The Doctor was a bit preoccupied in the beginning with the missing stasis chamber actually being there. But when he saw Elias trying to poke said mummy, he yanked the boy back.
"What did your your Mummy tell you about touching unknown things?"
Elias blinked, as if trying to honestly remember what his mother said to him. "Um...no touching...what's not yours?"
"Close enough," the Doctor patted his head. He turned back just as O'Donnell neared the body.
"Oh, is that the pilot? My God, look at size of it!"
"No, that's the body," the Doctor corrected.
"What do you mean, the body?" O'Donnell then took one step away from the body.
"This isn't just any spaceship. It's a hearse."
"What's there!?" Elias ran over to Bennett as the man opened the floor hatch where the 2 power cells were meant to be. Elias squatted next to Bennett, very curious.
Bennett noticed that both power cells were still inside. "The suspended animation chamber's still here, and the power cells for the engine."
O'Donnell glanced over to the wall that was meant to have the markings but saw it was completely empty. "And there are no markings on the wall."
"Yet," the Doctor mumbled. They heard a commotion getting near them and saw a short alien, a familiar one, running towards them. The Doctor reached for Elias' hand and brought the boy back to his side.
"Greetings!" went the familiar alien. He carried a briefcase in one hand and a white handkerchief in the other.
"It's him. That's the ghost from the Drum," O'Donnell gasped lightly when they got a better look.
Elias giggled when the alien got nose-to-nose with the Doctor. "Do you need glasses?" Elias asked him.
The Doctor was unamused and stepped back with Elias. The other alien never noticed. "Remarkable. Oh, and humans, too. Albar Prentis, Funeral Director!" he took out a business cards and handed them to the adults. The Doctor didn't even look at it once before chucking it to the side.
"You're from Tivoli, aren't you?" Bennett inquired.
"The most invaded planet in the galaxy!" Prentis cheered. "Our capital city has a sign saying, if you occupied us, you'd be home by now."
"Yes, I've had dealings with your lot before. I can't say I'm a fan," the Doctor drew from his memory of the moving hotel with Amy and Rory. Just remembering how that Tivoli sold out one of their friends put the Doctor on red alert for Prentis.
"No, we do tend to antagonise," Prentis laughed.
"What are you doing here?" demanded the Doctor.
"Ah, yes. Of course," Prentis moved to the body. "This is the Fisher King. He and his armies invaded Tivoli and enslaved us for ten glorious years! Until we were liberated by the Arcateenians. But, thank the Gods, soon we'd irritated them so much, they enslaved us, too!" No one really cares for his delirious laughter.
"My first proper alien, and he's an idiot," Bennett made a face.
Elias reached over and tugged on his jacket. "I'm alien too," he informed with the brightest smile ever. He thought he was a much cooler alien than this Tivoli.
"And now, in accordance with Arcateenian custom, I've come to bury him on a barren, savage outpost," Prentis informed.
"You mean the town?" O'Donnell looked around the near desolate place.
"He means the planet," the Doctor corrected once more.
"Although, at the risk of starting a bidding war, you could enslave me," Prentis told him rather hopefully. "In the ship I have directions to my planet and a selection of items that you can oppress me with."
"Mommy says no slavery," Elias recited one of his lessons' topic very proudly. "It's wrong."
The words might have been blasphemy for Prentis.
"Listen-" the Doctor cut in, "-we've come from the future. You're about to send some sort of signal. How do you do it? Is it a special pen?"
There was no trace of knowledge on Prentis' face. "What are you talking about?"
"The technology you use. The thing that wrenches the soul out of the body and makes it repeat your coordinates for eternity. Give it to me now, I'm going to take the batteries out."
"We don't have anything like that!" Prentis laughed. "Even this belongs to the glorious Arcateenians."
"So who sends the message?"
Prentis sniffed. Apparently, he just didn't know. The Doctor felt like he'd had enough. "Back to the Tardis. I need to talk to Minerva," he started down the ramp with Elias first.
"I wanna say hi to Mommy!" Elias cheered.
~0~
Back in the future, Cass and Lunn were sitting in front of the glass window where they could clearly see the Doctor's ghost floating. Minerva, Clara and Liv were sitting apart, Minerva with her hands buried in her hair.
"We've been in situations like this before, okay?" Clara comfortingly rubbed Minerva's arm. The blonde had yet to speak or even release any sort of emotion since seeing the ghost of her supposed dead husband. "We're going to figure it out."
Minerva raised her head to meet Clara's gaze. "We've really trained you, haven't we?" Clara shared a small smile with her. Minerva sighed and brought her hands down to the table. "I can't telepathically connect with the Doctor if he's not in this time. I'd love to get a hold of him and warn him that if he dies...I will kill him."
"There's the Minerva we know and love," Liv put a hand on Minerva's back. "And occasionally a bit scared of." Minerva rolled her eyes.
"Guys," Lunn called to them. They could see Cass was signing something to him. She looked ahead pretty determined of something. "Cass thinks the Doctor's saying something different to the others. He's saying Moran Pritchard Apprentice. No, Prentis, O'Donnell, Minerva, Clara, Doctor, Bennett, Cass."
Minerva got up from her chair, eyebrows knitting together. "But that's just a list of our names. And it's missing a few."
"When he finishes, he just goes back to the beginning again, over and over," Lunn said. "That's it."
"Who's Prentis?" Liv asked. At the same time, Clara felt her phone vibrate in her dress' pocket.
"It's the Doctor!" the brunette exclaimed and handed her phone over to Minerva.
"He's alive?" Lunn blinked.
"If he knows what's good for him," Minerva mumbled and took the call. "Martian, please tell me that you're alright? And Elias?"
"Yeah, fine, all of us," the Doctor answered, of course a bit confused. "So listen, the spaceship, it's a hearse…"
"Of course it is," Minerva moved to the nearest table and propped the phone against an empty mug so that everyone could see. In the TARSIS, the phone call was being streamed through the scanner so that everyone could see as well.
So once the Doctor got a good look at his wife's face, he knew something was off. "Minerva, what's wrong?"
"Another ghost has appeared," the blonde grimly answered.
"What? Who? Has someone died?"
"He better not," Minerva found a tiny amuse bit in her but sighed. "Doctor, it's you. Are you sure that you're okay? You're not lying just to make me feel better are you?"
"I am fine," the Doctor assured but got to thinking. He hated that he couldn't talk with her telepathically for the moment. It really would make everything easier, and more private. He hated having so many people around them sometimes. It ruined their moments.
"Okay, but what does this mean?" Clara moved beside Minerva, urging to get to the good part where they came up with a plan to save everyone.
The Doctor stared long and hard at Minerva, willing her to understand him. Minerva upheld the stare with narrowed eyes, a completely indescribable expression sitting on her face.
"Okay," she said after a long while of silence. Clara and Liv stared incredulously at Minerva. "We must do what we have to."
"Thank you," the Doctor gave a curt nod
Clara's eyes flickered between Minerva and the phone. "A-are you kidding me? You're just...accepting it? We can change the sequence of events so-"
"This isn't a potential future. This is the future now," the Doctor so calmly corrected her. "It's already happened. The proof is right there in front of you. I have to die."
Clara couldn't believe her ears. "No. You can change things!"
Liv couldn't understand why the Doctor was giving up so easily. This wasn't the Doctor they knew. There was something brewing inside that dusty head of his and neither she nor Clara were in the loop.
"I can't. Even the tiniest change, the ramifications could be catastrophic," the Doctor said matter-of-factly. "It could spread carnage and chaos across the universe like ripples on a pond. Oh, well, I've had a good innings. This regeneration-" he made a motion to O'Donnell in the background, "-it's a bit of a clerical error anyway."
"Shut up," Minerva's lips twitched into a smile.
Clara was near losing it. "Not with me! Die with whoever comes after me. You do not leave me!"
"That's a bit rude," Minerva threw her a sarcastic glance. Clara huffed and crossed her arms, very much like a child. "I'll ignore that because you're all…" Minerva waved a finger at Clara's face, "...puffy…"
The word did not make Clara feel any better. "Puffy?"
Minerva gave a shrug of her shoulders and returned to the conversation with the Doctor. "So then, shall we get to the autopsy then?"
"Always in my mind, you," the Doctor smiled at her. "So. Ghost me. How do I look? Any signs of trauma, any scars? Any clues as to how I die?"
Minerva glanced back at the glass wall. "No, nothing. You're the same as all the other ghosts with the weird black eyes and."
Liv popped in just in front of the wall to help with the study. "No. No, wait. His coat. It's torn. The right shoulder."
"I assume I'm just saying the same thing as the others…"
"No. You're saying a list of names. Our names, mainly," Minerva said. "Moran, Pritchard, Prentis, O'Donnell, Minerva, Clara, Doctor, Bennett, Cass. Now dear who's Prentis?"
"The mole-faced chap known as the undertaker."
"He's funny," went Elias beside the Doctor. Unfortunately, Minerva and the others were a bit distracted with the fact that the Doctor's ghost had just come through the window.
Hearing her gasp, the Doctor gently pushed Elias to the side and started calling for his wife. "What's the matter, Minerva, what's happening?"
"You've moved inside. You're inside here now," Minerva was studying the ghost as best as she could.
"What am I doing?"
"Er, nothing. You're, you're just standing there."
"I'm not trying to kill you? Why am I not trying to kill you?"
Minerva turned right back to the phone, eyes narrowing. "Well, don't sound too disappointed, dear." The Doctor winced and mumbled a very meaningful 'I love you' that semi-settled her down.
"What is he doing?" Liv was following the ghost-Doctor down the room. He stopped in front of the control panel on the wall and started maneuvering it. In a one, two he opened the Faraday cage and released the rest of the ghosts.
"Oh, no. He's opened the Faraday cage. He's let the other ghosts out!" Minerva exclaimed.
"I need to talk to me now!" the Doctor instructed.
Clara watched Minerva pick the phone to go do the task. "Umm...shouldn't we, I don't know, be hiding?" she called, scratching her head.
"In a minute," Minerva told her. She'd come up to a cabinet and set the phone for it to see the ghost behind. "You better do what you need to, fast."
"Your wish is my command, darling," the Doctor obediently responded, watching her roll her eyes afterwards.
"You're on," Minerva stepped aside.
"Doctor. Such an honour. I've always been a huge admirer-" Minerva rolled her eyes as her husband continued with his sarcasm streak, "This is really a delight. Finally someone worth talking to-"
Minerva then purposely cleared her throat. "Excuse you?"
"Best get on with it before you end up in a divorce, Doctor," Liv chimed in words of care right after.
"Right," the Doctor thought about his next words before he said something else that would get him into trouble. "So firstly, why are you here?" However, his ghost self turned away. "Minerva? Minerva, what's happening?"
Minerva swiped the phone from the table. "You've just stopped...ish…"
"No, he's starting again, look," Clara pointed at the ghost-Doctor who began 'saying' something again like the other ghosts.
"His message has changed," Lunn said for Cass. "He's saying something different. He's saying…"
"What?" all the travelers asked impatiently.
"He's saying, 'the chamber will open tonight.'"
"What is this? Harry Potter?" Clara mumbled under her breath.
"Minerva, listen to me, the ghosts are out, go to the Faraday cage!" the Doctor urgently instructed. "They won't be able to get you in there."
"Yes, perfect plan except for the part where the phone signal is going to get cut off the moment I step in!" the blonde responded.
"What you'll have to do is put the phone outside, and you can watch it through the little round porthole. And when you see it ringing, if it's safe to do so, go out and answer it."
"Or I can answer it too," Liv raised a hand to remind of her special abilities. Unfortunately, they weren't the most trustworthy type.
"Just don't let that phone out of your sight," the Doctor made sure to warn. "I need to be able to reach you, I need to know everything my ghost does. Do you understand?"
"Right, fine," Minerva took him off the speaker and pressed Clara's phone to her ear. "Just...just hurry up please. I'm not a fanatic of seeing a ghost of your supposedly dead self."
Well that made two, didn't it?
"I'll come back for you. I swear," the Doctor said just for her, and missed Minerva's smile.
After ending the conversation was cut, Minerva and the rest made a quick getaway to the Farday cage. Minerva carefully set the cellphone just across the door where she could have a perfect view of it through the porthole window.
Meanwhile, in the TARDIS, the others were preparing to leave.
"But why can't I go?" O'Donnell was refusing to stay behind like the Doctor suggested.
"Someone needs to stay here and mind the shop," the Doctor then pointed to Elias sitting on the chair by the console. "Preferably if you could keep an eye on that one over there, it would be a lot of help."
"I want to go!" Elias pouted, hopping off his chair and running up to his father. "Please, can I go?" the Doctor gave him a weary look.
"See, he wants to go too," O'Donnell crossed her arms, smug smile ready to go. "Plus, the last bloke that said something like this to me got dangled out of a window."
Elias giggled and glanced back at the woman. "That's not nice."
"Maybe the Doctor's right. Maybe it's best if you stay here," Bennett tried to persuade as well but failed.
"Never going to happen. Seriously, have you two met me?" O'Donnell decided she wasn't going to listen to anymore and walked straight out of the TARDIS.
"Me too!" Elias made to break into a run when the Doctor seized one of his small hands.
"At my side, El!"
Elias still happily relented. When the group returned to the spaceship they found Prentis dead inside and the stasis chamber gone.
"Guess that dead body wasn't so dead after all…" O'Donnell looked around the now empty spaceship.
Bennett was staring at the wall wearily. "And now we've got the writing."
"Was it the Mummy?" Elias looked up to his father for the answer.
"Yes," the Doctor replied quietly. "The future is still coming."
"Look over there," O'Donnell headed down the ramp and was pointong to drag marks on the ground.
"He's taken the suspended animation chamber to the church," the Doctor followed the marks with his eyes. There was a great, big roar that kept everyone still for a minute.
"Is that a monster now?" Elias tilted his head, his voice completely calm. "I thought it was a Mummy."
"And that's not a monster to you?" Bennett gave an incredulous look at the child.
"It's an alien," the Doctor corrected them both. "We need to get back to the Tardis. Now!" he pulled Elias into a run and had the two humans followed behind. However, before they could reach the box, they were forced to stop and duck in a narrow passageway courtesy of the alien's second roar. "It's cut us off."
"Let's split up," O'Donnell quickly devised. "Go on, Bennett."
The Doctor decided to lift Elias onto his back, and after making sure the boy had his arms clasped around his neck, the Doctor dashed into a different direction with Bennett. The three made it into a fake bathroom and Bennett opted for an old chair-jamming-the-door trick that hopefully helped.
"Daddy…?" Elias began when the Doctor shushed with a finger on his lips. Elias then mimicked his father and put a finger over his own lips and remained quiet as ever.
They heard the creature stomping around the place but were fortunate enough to evade it. However, a couple minutes later, they heard O'Donnell scream. Bennett wasted no time in throwing the chair under the lock and running out.
"No, Bennett! Wait!" the Doctor rushed after him but with his son still on his back he lagged behind.
Bennett found O'Donnell lying on the floor, moaning in pain. The woman lasted only a couple of more seconds before she died. When the Doctor finally arrived, now holding Elias' hand beside him, Bennett was already figuring things out.
"Who's next on the list?" Bennett took off his glasses, clearly upset and frustrated as he turned to face the Doctor. "That list your ghost was saying, that's the order in which people are going to die, isn't it? I mean, I've only just figured that out. But you knew that all along, didn't you? Moran, Pritchard, Prentis, O'Donnell."
"I thought perhaps, because her ghost wasn't there in the future, like Prentis's was, I thought maybe, maybe it wouldn't happen. Maybe she stood a chance," the Doctor admitted.
"Yeah, but you didn't try very hard to stop her, though, did you? It was almost like you wanted to test your theory. So who's next?"
"...Minerva."
Bennett slipped on his glasses again, his face acquiring a reproachful look. "Yeah, yeah, so now you're definitely going to do something about it, aren't you? Yeah, because it's getting closer to you. You change history to save yourself but not to save O'Donnell. You wouldn't save her."
The Doctor briefly blinked in confusion. "This isn't about saving me. I'm a dead man walking. I'm changing history to save my wife."
Bennett shook his head and stormed off.
Elias tugged on the Doctor's hand as they followed a moment later. "We're still going to save Mommy, right?" he was of course very sad that their friend O'Donnell died but he didn't want to see his mother come next. The ghosts couldn't get her, they just couldn't!
"Of course," the Doctor promised him.
~ 0 ~
Minerva was boredly staring through the porthole window of the Farday cage when she was confronted with O'Donnell's ghost on the other side. Gasping, Minerva stumbled back a step. "O'Donnel's dead…"
Cass and Lun, along with Clara and Liv, hurried to the door to see for theirselves. O'Donnell's ghost stared at them for a second then turned to the phone sitting on the ledge across them.
"And I think she wants to make a call…" Clara dreaded.
"No! N-n-n-n-n-n-no! Don't you - HEY!" Minerva slammed a hand on the door like it would make a difference. "Don't take that!"
"I got it!" Liv exclaimed and vanished. She reappeared on the other side and snatched the phone right on time. "Ha!" she then told O'Donnell's ghost.
"Liv, you can't bring it in here or else we'll lose the signal," Minerva worriedly reminded.
"Not a problem, I'll just hold onto it, then," Liv clutched the cellphone in her hand but stepped back when O'Donnell's ghost advanced on her. "Oh boy, you'll have to catch me for it," she warned the ghost and disappeared.
"Liv, no!" Clara exclaimed but the woman was gone.
"Where'd she go?" Lunn asked the two travelers remaining.
"Never mind that. That's not our problem right now," Minerva watched O'Donnell's ghost start after wherever Liv had gone off to. "Liv's ability to hold tangible objects comes and goes. If she loses control…"
"Don't say it," Clara warned, shaking her head, but it didn't matter because they both knew it would be game over for them if the ghosts got ahold of the cell phone.
~ 0 ~
"Where are we going now!?" Elias excitedly hopped after the Doctor who was making a round on the console. "Saving Mommy, right!?"
The Doctor found it amusing that Elias felt like he needed to remind him of that. Who could blame the four year old? Any young child was absolutely terrified of losing their parents. "Of course we are, El. We're going to time travel - again!"
"When are we going now?" Bennett asked from the rails.
"Off the map. Out of the rule book. What if I don't die?" the Doctor stopped for a minute, feigning thought. "What if I refuse? I'm going to go back to the base and I'm going to save Minerva, because that's what I do. And I don't see anyone here who's going to stop me."
This was nothing like the Time Lord Victorious moment he'd gone through all those centuries ago, he told himself. This wasn't a fixed moment, not from any angle. He could very well go back and save himself and Minerva along the way. He wasn't going to leave his son fatherless nor motherless.
"Uh, oh," Elias went as soon as the cloister bells began to toll. That sound was only made when the TARDIS was upset.
The Doctor hurried out to the door to see what the problem was. "We're still here!" he frowned at the fake Russian town. Then he spotted his own TARDIS around the corner, along with himself walking out of it. "No!"
Bennett and Elias had followed him out and were confused to see they were still in the same spot.
"Daddy, we didn't move!" Elias frowned.
"Oh, we moved," the Doctor turned to the two. "We've moved half an hour backwards. I'm locked in my own time stream. The Tardis won't let me leave."
"Well, what do we do?" Bennett asked.
"Now we have to keep out of sight, until time catches up," the Doctor reached for Elias' hand, warning the boy to follow him cautiously.
~ 0 ~
"We have to find Liv!" Minerva paced back and forth inside the Farday cage. "I love my sister but I know her abilities and I know sooner or later, probably soon, she's going to drop that phone." She stopped pacing and put her hands together, thinking hard and long for a solution.
Clara was trying to do the same and, assuming it was because she wasn't as frenzy as Minerva, she came up with a solution first. "When we found out what the ghosts were saying, we weren't surprised because the words, they were already inside us, but you…" she pointed at Lunn, "...you weren't, were you? You didn't know what the words were going to be."
"Oh, oh that's good," Minerva gave the brunette an approving glance. "We should pay you."
Clara snorted. "That'll be the day."
"But how did you know that?" Lunn asked from her.
"Because you were the one person who didn't see the writing in the spaceship," Minerva replied. "And Elias." That relieved her a bit to know the ghosts wouldn't come for her son no matter what.
"Cass wouldn't let me go inside…" Lunn glanced at the woman in question, signing for her to understand.
"That's why the ghosts didn't hurt you when they had the chance. The message isn't inside you," Clara beamed at the prospect. "So you can get the phone back."
"What?" Lunn hadn't signed that for Cass, leading the woman to query him about it. "She's saying I should go and get the phone from Liv."
Cass' eyebrows knitted together, and neither Minerva nor Clara needed the translation to know Cass was outright refusing.
"We need to be able to contact the Doctor and you are the only one who can do this," Clara said to Lunn desparately.
"Okay," Lunn nodded his head, but Cass still wasn't on board. She grabbed the man by the lapels and fiercely signed something to him. "No, it makes sense. None of you can get it back-"
But Cass signed again, this time sending looks to Minerva and Clara.
"Yes, I'm going to need translation for that," Minerva upheld Cass' look.
"It doesn't matter," Lunn tried not evade translating but both Minerva and Clara forced him to in the end. With a small sigh, Lunn finally explained. "She said to ask you-" he pointed at Clara, "-whether travelling with the Doctor and Minerva changed you, or were you always happy to put other people's lives at risk. And as for you-" he moved his finger to Minerva who was already in the process of becoming offended, "-at what point did you start teaching Clara it was okay."
Clara gaped, of course startled by the accusation. Minerva, on the other hand, was close to rage. It did not help when Cass signed something more and Lunn was left to translate.
"And...will you be teaching your son the same?"
"You listen to me lady," Minerva pointed directly at Cass, all in the meanwhile Lunn was quickly translating back. "No one asked you to stay behind. All of you knew what you were signing up for so don't get all riled up when things get tough. No, we don't enjoy putting others in danger. Unfortunately, it doesn't always go as smooth as we'd like."
Both Clara and Lunn looked between both women, wondering if this was going to continue into a full blown argument. But, slowly, Cass relented. Lunn was to go out and fetch the phone from Liv.
~ 0 ~
Hiding behind a couple of barrels, the Doctor, Elias and Bennett had waited until their previous selves walked away from the spaceship, leaving Prentis inside the spaceship.
"Oooo," Elias suddenly said, his mouth in an 'o' shape while a small finger pointed at the Doctor's shoulder. "You're in trouble now, Daddy."
The Doctor looked at his coat and realized time was reasserting itself. "Oh, I need more time." He stood up, as did Elias and Bennett. "It's too soon. I haven't saved her yet. Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock, tick tock, tick tock…" he looked around thoughtfully. "I've got no choice now, I have to face the Fisher King. You, back to the Tardis."
Bennett understood but Elias pouted, not fully understanding what was going to happen.
"I wanna go too!" he raised a hand to signal his volunteering.
"Oh no you don't," the Doctor took Elias' hand and moved the boy to Bennett. "Do not let him go," he warned Bennett.
"But I want to go too! I want to save Mommy too!" the four year old began to stomp a foot.
"Elias, you have to look after the TARDIS, okay? Because that's the way we're going to get back to your Mummy. This is your part," the Doctor bent down in front of Elias, hoping to persuade the boy that this was a much better task which was also just as equally important.
"I'm helping save Mommy too?" Elias raised a delicate eyebrow.
The Doctor nodded, a big smile spreading across his face. "Yes, you are. Can I count on you?"
"Yes!" the boy exclaimed, all of a sudden happy as ever. The Doctor straightened on his feet and crossed a look with Bennett, both agreeing to divide.
~ 0 ~
Cass was anxiously left waiting at the door of the Farday cage while Lunn went in search for Liv and the phone. Clara was just beside the door while Minerva was across, leaning against the wall.
"Hey!" Clara was startled when Cass went to open the door but quickly stopped the woman. "No, no, no, no! What are you doing!?" Despite not having anyone to translate for her, Cass made it pretty clear what her intentions were. Clara shook her head at the woman and glanced at Minerva for some help. "Minerva? Tell her she can't do that!"
Minerva raised her gaze to Cass but no words of assurance came out. Instead, the two had a stare off which left Clara to wonder what the hell Minerva was planning on.
"Open the door, Clara," Minerva suddenly instructed.
The brunette in question froze, eyes wide. "Wh-what?"
"Open the door - what was so confusing about that?"
"I-I heard but...why?"
Minerva ignored Clara's incredulous looks as she passed to the door. "Because I know that look all too well. She's not going to desist so I'm going to have supervise." She glanced at Cass, firmly. "Now, we do this together." She signaled the basis of her words on the door, and Cass seemed to understand with a nod.
"Minerva are you sure this is a good idea?" Clara asked as the three stepped out of the Farday cage.
"No, but when am I ever?"
~ 0 ~
The Doctor had made it into the (not real) church where he immediately spotted the stasis chamber in the middle of a storage area. He knew better than to head straight for it, especially since he sensed he was not alone anymore.
"I've come from the future," the Doctor's eyes scanned the room for the creature. "I've seen the chaos you cause. The bloodshed."
"Tell me what you have seen," a raspy voice rang in the room, that of the Fisher King's.
"Ghosts."
"Ghosts?"
"Souls wrenched from the dead. Repeating directions to here, to this spot, over and over."
"How many ghosts do I create? How many!"
"Four that I know of. Maybe five by now," the Doctor's mind immediately went to Minerva, but he was hoping that she was fighting them off like always did. He was not going to fail her. "Probably more since I left."
"My ghosts will make more ghosts. Enough to bring an armada. Enough to wake me from my sleep."
The Doctor could hear the Fisher King's stomping but couldn't pinpoint where the creature was. "What will happen when your people arrive?"
"We will drain the oceans and put the humans in chains."
"This world is protected, by me," the Doctor straightened himself up.
"Yes. One man, lost in time," but it didn't sound like it meant much to the Fisher King.
~ 0 ~
"What are you doing here!?" Liv hissed when she saw Lunn enter the mess hall. She'd put the cellphone down on the table nearest to her, her hands having become translucient a couple minutes back.
"For the phone, of course," Lunn hurried up to her.
"You shouldn't have done that!"
And as if to prove Liv's word, the computer system announced the emergency security lock on the doors, leaving Lunn trapped inside.
Liv smacked her forehead.
~ 0 ~
"The seed of their destruction is already sown. They will die," the Fisher King vowed. "The message will be sent. My people will come, and you will do nothing to stop it, Time Lord."
The Doctor finally had the opportunity to see the Fisher King as he was...and he rather wished he hadn't. The alien was three meters high, donning mandible and a spiky plate armour. As if it wasn't enough ,it also carried a large hand weapon.
"Time Lords. Cowardly, vain curators who suddenly remembered they had teeth and became the most warlike race in the galaxy," it mocked and backed the Doctor up against the chamber. "But you, you! You are curious. You have seen the words, too. I can hear them tick inside you. But you are still locked in your history. Still slavishly protecting Time. Willing to die rather than change a word of the future.
You will be a strong beacon. How many ghosts can I make of you?"
The Doctor masked his fear as best he could to respond. "You know, you've got a lot in common with the Tivoleans. You'll both do anything to survive. They'll surrender to anyone. You will hijack other people's souls and turn them into electromagnetic projections. That will to endure. That refusal to ever cease. It's extraordinary. And it makes a fella think." He paused to see what the creature would do against his attacks. "Because you know what? If all I have to do to survive is tweak the future a bit, what's stopping me? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. The ripple effect. Maybe it will mean that the universe will be ruled by cats or something, in the future. But the way I see it, even a ghastly future is better than no future at all. You robbed those people of their deaths, made them nothing more than a message in a bottle. You violated something more important than Time. You bent the rules of life and death. So I am putting things straight. Here, now, this is where your story ends." He shut his eyes and thought long and hard.
"There is nothing you can do!" the Fisher King growled. He took aim at the Doctor but the Time Lord didn't look threatened.
"I've already done it. The words have gone. I got rid of them. The future I saw, none of that will happen now. The message will never contaminate my family and friends!" a great big smirk spread across the Doctor's face. "No one will die. No one is coming to save you. That's the thing about knowing you're going to die. You've got nothing left to lose."
The Fisher King turned and stalked off.
~0~
Liv felt, honestly, offended that everyone had ended up leaving the Faraday cage thinking her tangible abilities would fail her. Minerva, Clara and Cass had reached the mess hall, out of breath, but alright.
"What the hell do you think you're all doing!?" Liv shouted at them all. "The ghosts wanted you here! It's a trap!" and at that moment, the five ghosts walked through the walls. "See!"
"Back to the Faraday cage, now!" Minerva ordered. She motioned them out and then ran herself.
~0~
Inside the TARDIS, Elias was hopping in front of the monitor to get a look at the view outside. Despite being unable to use the TARDIS, the box would often go auto and perform several tasks for him, small tasks at least.
"Water!" He suddenly gasped, making Bennett look up from his spot. "Look! Look! It's breaking!"
Bennett rushed up to see what Elias was talking about. The dam had cracked down the half - curtsey of the missing power cells - andexploded.
A hologram of the Doctor appeared across the room.
"It's my Daddy!" Elias ran up to the hologram.
"This is security protocol seven one two," began the hologram. "The echelon circuit has been activated. Please stow any hand luggage and prepare for departure."
"You have to sit!" Elias then ran back to Bennett and took the man to the small staircase.
"But how will the Doctor get back!?" Bennett asked frantically.
"I dunno," Elias shrugged, turning his palms over. "But my Daddy always knows what to do. The TARDIS won't go if my Daddy is in trouble."
Bennett tried to look as innocent as the boy was. He assumed Elias didn't really understand how the circumstances were.
~0~
Minerva and the others had been cornered into the main hangar and the chances of getting out were looking pretty slim.
"Back, get back!" Minerva ordered the group as the ghosts came in. The suspended animation chamber behind then began ticking.
"Minerva, what now!?" Clara shakily looked around.
"Give me the Silence, Daleks, Weeping Angels...I can fight those...but how do I fight ghosts?" Minerva looked at her hands that billowed with icy smoke.
Suddenly, the stasis chamber opened up, and just as the group turned around the Doctor sat up with his sonic sunglasses.
"You have got to be kidding me," Minerva raised one eyebrow.
"Don't kiss me. Morning breath!" the Doctor climbed out of the chamber.
"Wasn't planning on it!" Minerva exclaimed.
"Really?" the Doctor frowned. "That's never a problem-"
Minerva whacked him on the arm. "Where is my son you idiot!?"
"Perfectly safe, don't worry! Now follow me!" He he took her hand and led the rest of the group out.
They ran to the bridge room with the ghosts quite at a distant behind them. The Doctor made it up to the console and plugged in his shades' earpiece into a socket. As soon as he did, the entire base heard the Fisher King's roaring.
"What's that noise?" Clara frowned.
"It's the call of the Fisher King. The call of their master."
From the security cameras, they saw the ghosts turning back.
"Uh, where are they going?" Liv asked.
The ghosts walked into the Faraday cage where the Doctor's ghost was creating the Fisher King's roar. As soon as they were inside, the Doctor closed and left the ghosts inside without his ghost's presence.
~0~
"Can I have a turn?" Elias stood right beside the Doctor who had just put his sonic sunglasses on Clara to take away the symbols from her thoughts. "I want a turn too, Daddy."
"You don't need it, El. You never saw the symbols," the Doctor tried to explain for him.
"But I want to wear the sonic sunglasses too," Elias pouted and turned to his mother for some help. "How come Ca-yah can wear them? Them too," he pointed to Cass and Bennett.
"Come here," Minerva motioned the boy to her side. "You're tired and you need a nap because you're a bit cranky."
"So what was it?" Clara asked out of curiosity while the sonic sunglasses whirred. "The Doctor's ghost?"
"A hologram," the Doctor replied. "Like the one we made of you to lure the ghosts into the Faraday cage. With a soupçon of artificial intelligence, and a few pre-recorded phrases thrown in."
"And you knew?" Liv threw a suspicious look at Minerva.
"Not immediately but...I know his looks by now," Minerva smiled.
The Doctor took back his glasses from Clara. "It was all beamed from the sonic glasses. As soon as you brought me and the chamber on board, it connected with the base's wi-fi and Bob's your uncle, you've got a ghost Doctor."
"But why did they only come out at night?" asked Clara.
"Because they're electromagnetic projections that were out of phase with the base's day mode."
"So no ghosts?" Elias pouted again.
"Yes, you need a nap, pronto," Minerva took Elias' hand and started leaving the bridge. "Nice knowing you all," she gave the remaining humans a small wave and left, "but this one is about to get ten times worse if he doesn't meet a pillow soon."
Clara shook her head but smiled nonetheless.
~ 0 ~
After a pretty amusing confession, the Doctor, Clara and Liv finally returned to the TARDIS to leave the base.
"What will UNIT do with the ghosts in the Faraday cage?" Clara wondered.
"Oh, drag the cage into space, away from the Earth's magnetic field. With nothing to sustain them, the ghosts will eventually fade away."
Clara nodded her head. "Now here's something I don't understand. You said you couldn't change the future...yet you stopped the Fisher King from returning."
"The Fisher King had been dead for a hundred and fifty years before we even got here. But once I went back, I became part of events. But here's the thing-" the Doctor raised a finger, "-the messages my ghost gave, they weren't for you, they were for me. That list. Everyone after Minerva was random, so…"
"That's what made you go after the damn alien, huh?" Liv smirked. "And saying the chamber will open?"
"That was me telling me to get inside and when to set it for."
"Smart," Liv gave her praise. "You avoided becoming something like me, only, you know, worse than me."
"Not quite. I programmed my ghost to say them because that's what my ghost had said. And the only reason I created my ghost hologram in the first place was because I saw it here. I was reverse engineering the narrative."
"Oh, so what do you know, you're actually smart," Liv said and she and Clara shared a laugh.
The Doctor rolled his eyes at them. "You do not understand. When did I first have those ideas, hm?"
Both women stopped to think.
"Well it must have been…" Clara began but stopped all of a sudden when she realized.
"Wow," went both she and Liv.
"Exactly. Who composed Beethoven's Fifth?"
"No, thank you," Clara pointed at him and started for the corridors. "I am going to bed, and...and...nope!" On her way, she bumped into Minerva, apologized and hurried away while still refusing the Doctor's allurement.
"What's wrong with her?" Minerva pointed a thumb over her shoulder.
"Your husband," Liv said and disappeared.
"I say we should not break our companion or...who will babysit for us when we need some time alone?" Minerva walked up to the Doctor, setting her arms over his shoulders.
"Speaking of babysit…"
Minerva smiled. "Mini-Martian's out like a light."
"Really? And Clara's going to sleep too…"
"Oh, really?"
"Gives me an idea…" the Doctor leaned closer to Minerva, but she teasingly leaned away.
"What sort of ideas, dear?"
"Fun ideas…" the Doctor wrapped an arm around Minerva's waist while his other hand reached the back of her head to stop her from leaning away. "Really fun ideas…"
"I've got an idea too," Minerva pressed her forehead to the Doctor's, a smirk tugging at the corners of her lips.
"Let me hear it," the Doctor assumed and smirked as well.
"You…" Minerva purposely brushed her lips against his as she spoke, "...take...a shower." She pulled back with a laughter as the Doctor processed her request. "Because let me tell you that being locked in a stasis chamber does you no favors Mister! Go shower!" the Doctor sighed, clearly disappointed the conversation had turned to these parts. Minerva cupped his face and pressed a small kiss to his lips. "I can help you if you'd like."
And the Doctor's smirk was back!
Minerva laughed and pulled him for the corridor.