Warnings: Language. Angst. Fluff. Sexual Content.
The Dread of Tomorrow and Yesterday
Chapter 86
Cold Blood: City of Ember
The Doctor and Rhea walked past a hatch in the wall but Nasreen stopped to peer in, curiously, as he started to talk.
"We're looking for a small tribal settlement," the Doctor told the two women. "Probably housing around a dozen homo reptilia. Maybe less."
Nasreen looked out at something bathed in a golden light. "One small tribe," she said, slowly.
The Doctor found her absorption curious and walked over to where she was standing. "Yeah," he said, blithely.
"Maybe a dozen?"
Rhea looked in the hatch and winced. "Yeah, uh, that doesn't look like a dozen."
The Doctor frowned, and his eyes widened when he saw the same thing.
"Ah," he said, lamely.
Below them was a large community, verging on a city crawling with buildings and monuments.
"Okay, so maybe more than a dozen," the Doctor amended. "Maybe more like an entire civilization living beneath the Earth."
"Joy," Rhea sighed.
The Doctor, Rhea and Nasreen continued to walk along pathways inside the cavern, past the buildings that loomed outside.
"This place is enormous and deserted. The majority of the race is probably still asleep," the Doctor explained to the other two women, while pulling out his sonic screwdriver. "We need to find Amy, looking for heat signature anomalies."
"I'm sorry, are we ignoring the fact that there's actually supposed to be like kilometres of rock here, and instead we're like invading the Morlock civilisation?" Rhea said, pointedly.
"Exactly, Doctor, how can all this be here? I mean, these plants." Nasreen peered at the greenery.
The Doctor shrugged. "Must be getting closer to the centre of the city."
Nasreen frowned. "You're sure this is the best way to enter?"
"Front door approach!" the Doctor beamed. "Definitely. Always the best way..."
"Yeah, to get shot," Rhea muttered under her breath.
An alarm sounded, and a female voice was heard over a speaker system somewhere in the ceiling of the cavern.
"And case in point," Rhea drawled, smiling mockingly at the Doctor.
"Hostile life force detected, area 17."
"I bet you fifty bucks that we're that hostile life force," Rhea snapped.
The Doctor grimaced. "Apart from the back-door approach," he conceded. "That's also good," He turned around. "Sometimes better."
"Hostile life force detected, area 17."
A door slid open in front of Nasreen and she cringed back.
"Doctor!" she called out.
Armed Silurian soldiers rushed through the open door, the alarm ringing through the air. More arrived behind them, through the tunnel that they had just entered. The Doctor raised his hands in surrender, subtly slipping himself in front of Rhea.
"We're not hostile, we're not armed!" the Doctor warned, pulling up Nasreen's arm and kicking Rhea's leg lightly to persuade her to do the same. "We're here in peace!"
Rhea snorted. "Does that ever work?" she asked him, in a hushed voice. "The whole The Day the Earth Stood Still shtick?"
"Not now, darling," the Doctor hissed back.
Clearly, the Silurians didn't believe the Doctor and they shot a strange gas from their upturned weapons. The moment that the three humans (or human-like, as for the Doctor) breathed it in, they crumpled to the ground, unconscious.
A Silurian, dressed in scrubs and a face mask, approached Amy and she vainly struggled in her restraints.
"Don't you come near me with that!" Amy shrieked.
The doctor lowered his mask, revealing his somewhat elderly face, and switched on a recording device.
"From the clothing, the human female appears to be more resistant to the cold than the male."
"I dressed for Rio!" Amy retorted, sharply.
"Leave her alone! You got me!" Mo told the Silurian, urgently.
The doctor took a small device from the pocket of his scrubs and pressed a button. Clamps locked into place at Amy's wrists.
"Decontamination complete. Commencing dissection," the doctor said, tonelessly, preparing himself.
"Area 17 incursion, species diagnostic requested. Area 17 incursion, species diagnostic requested."
The doctor's shoulders slumped, and he sighed, leaving the two humans in the lab, sweating with relief.
"Yeah! And stay out!" Amy called out after him, in false bravado.
After the doctor had shut the door behind him, Amy looked down at her hand where she was holding the device the doctor had used to fasten her down to the gurney. She pressed the button and the clamps retreated, so that she could slip off the stretcher and go over to Mo.
Mo frowned down at the little device in Amy's hand. "How did you get that?" he asked, almost in wonder.
Amy raised an eyebrow, coquettishly. "You never picked a lizard man's pocket?" She cut away the straps that held Mo down. "Come on, before he gets back," she urged.
The two emerged into the grim, moss-stained tunnel.
"That creature, do you think it was an alien? Any more of them do you think? Do you think the Earth's been invaded?" Mo asked, hurriedly.
"Don't know." Amy shrugged. "But I know some people who could have some answers. We need to get back to the surface and find them." She stopped at a door. "I wonder where this leads," she mused.
"Maybe it's a way out of here," Mo offered.
Amy bit her lip and placed her hand on the panel next to the door. Mo looked inside just as the lights came on, only to find his son attached to wires, his skin pale and looking as if he were in some sort of stasis.
"Oh, my God, no," Mo breathed, his chest caving inside.
Amy looked at him, worriedly. "What is it?"
Mo began to try and force the door open. "It's my son. It's Elliot. What've they done to him?" he bit out.
Amy looked through the window, as Mo frantically tried the panel at the door.
"No!" Mo shouted. "He's in there! We have to get him out! Elliot! Elliot, it's Dad!" He banged on the door with a closed fist.
"Access denied. Unauthorised genetic imprint."
Amy grabbed onto Mo's arms. "Seriously. We can't get in." She said, insistently.
"That's my boy in there!" Mo protested, loudly.
"These screens, they're monitoring something," Amy whispered. "I think they're vital signs: heartbeats, pulses. Why else would he be wired up? He's still alive." She pushed.
Mo took a deep breath, closing his eyes. He counted to ten in his head, his fist loosening.
"All right," he said, with just the slightest tremble in his voice. "We find weapons, get that creature from the lab and force it to release Elliot, yeah?" He nodded, as if to reassure himself.
"Yeah, trust me we'll get him out," Amy soothed.
The two continued down the tunnel and the light in Elliot's room faded from inactivity.
Ambrose knelt on the ground, in the middle of the graveyard, thumbing Elliot's headphones, her weary eyes staring into the distance. Rory approached her, cautiously.
"Ambrose," he began.
"You lied," she said, coldly. "You told us you were the police." She accused.
Rory took a deep breath. "It was a misunderstanding..."
"Who are you?" Ambrose demanded. "You and the Doctor? Why is this happening to us? What did we ever do?" Her voice turned wet towards the end.
Rory swallowed hard and lowered his voice to a soothing register. "The Doctor'll get your son back, I promise. In the meantime, we take turns guarding the creature," he insisted.
Ambrose scoffed. "So that's it? We sit and wait," she said, derisively.
"And then we exchange her for your family," Rory explained. "I promise you Ambrose, I'd trust the Doctor with my life. We stick to his plan. We keep that creature safe." He said, warningly.
"Let him go!" Rhea shrieked, struggling fiercely in her binds.
Next to her, the Doctor, similarly secured, was crying out in pain as the Silurian machine scanned him. Whatever the device was, it was clearly harming his physiology in a way that it wouldn't harm a human.
"Please! Can't you see that you're hurting him!" Rhea insisted, loudly, flinching desperately whenever the Doctor screamed.
The two Silurians ignored Rhea's pleas and the Doctor's pain. The female turned to the doctor.
"How can they have escaped?" she asked the doctor, harshly. "This proves all prisoners should remain under military guard."
The Silurian doctor rolled his eyes. "I'm sure you'd prefer to be in charge of everything and everyone, Restac," he said, bored. "But we rank the same. Is there any word from Alaya?"
"No," Restac said, shortly, watching the Doctor writhe in pain with some sick curiosity.
The doctor lowered his voice. "It's fine to show concern, you know. She's part of your gene-chain. I'm Decontaminating now."
The Doctor's eyes widened as he caught the end of that sentence. "Decontamination! No, no, no!"
He began to writhe in agony, and all Rhea could do was watch, helplessly.
The Silurian doctor clucked his tongue and approached the Doctor. "It's all right. It won't harm you. I'm only neutralising all your ape bacteria."
"But he's not even human!" Rhea barked.
She knew reaching for one of her knives would do no good. The bindings were made of metal and there was no way a blade could cut through them.
She hated this – this feeling of being utterly and completely weak.
"She's right! I'm not an ape! Look at the scans! Two hearts! Totally different! Totally not ape! Remove all human germs, you remove half the things keeping me alive," the Doctor insisted.
The Silurian doctor peered at the scans and seemed to agree with the Doctor, shutting down the machine.
"No," Restac snapped. "Complete the process."
"You sadistic cunt," Rhea hissed. The first thing I do when I get out of his shackles is kill you.
Restac hissed at her, offended by her remark. "You filthy little-"
"Oh, that's much better, thanks!" the Doctor said, loudly, drawing Restac's attention away from Rhea. "Not got any celery, have you?" He received blank looks from the two Silurian. "No, no, not really the climate, tomatoes, though, you'd do a roaring trade in those. I'm the Doctor, this is Rhea." He nodded his head at a still apoplectic Rhea. "Oh," He cried out, seeing Nasreen begin to wake. "And there's Nasreen, good!"
The Silurian doctor went over to examine Nasreen, whose eyes widened as he approached.
"Oh, a green man," she breathed.
The Doctor smiled, pleasantly, at the Silurians. "Hello, who are you?"
"Restac. Military commander," Restac replied, sharply.
The Doctor's shoulders slumped. "Oh, dear, really? There's always a military, isn't there?"
"Your weapon was attacking the oxygen pockets above our city," the Silurian doctor explained, heavily.
"Oxygen pockets! Lovely!" the Doctor's eyes widened. "Ooh, but not so good with an impending drill! Now it makes sense!"
The Silurian doctor nodded and continued to examine Nasreen, who seemed equally fascinated by him.
"Where is the rest of your invasion force?" Restac asked, sharply.
The Doctor blinked. "Invasion force? Us and lovely Nasreen? No!" He shook his head, vehemently. "We came for the humans you took. And... to offer the safe return of Alaya," he said, cautiously. His eyes widened. "Oh, wait, you and she, what is it, same genetic source? Of course you're worried, but don't be, she's safe."
Restac scowled. "You claim to come in peace, but you hold one of us hostage."
Restac motioned for soldiers to take position by the Doctor, Rhea and Nasreen.
"Wait, wait," the Doctor said, quickly. "We all want the same thing here."
Restac scoffed. "I don't negotiate with apes." She turned to the Silurian doctor. "I'm going to send a clear message to those on the surface."
"And what's that?" the Doctor asked, almost afraid of what she would say.
Restac smiled, showing sharp, white teeth. "Your execution."
"Joy," Rhea sighed, tilting her head back to look up at the ceiling.
Amy and Mo were still exploring the cavern, and they came across a chamber with glass-covered alcoves on either side.
"These chambers are all over the city," Amy mused, placing her hand over a sensor, which illuminated the alcoves, revealing masked warriors trapped inside.
Mo took a step back in surprise.
"Uh! Turn it off quick!" he said, urgently.
Amy put her hand on the sensor again and the lights turned off.
"They're not moving," Mo observed.
Amy shrugged. "Maybe they're asleep. Let's have another look."
Mo shook his head, frantically. "No, Amy, don't!" This time, when Amy put her hand on the sensor, the doors slid open, and Amy cautiously walked through one. "Amy, what are you doing? Get out of there," he hissed.
"Some sort of suspended animation," Amy whispered. She looked down, noticing that they were standing on small round discs on the floor. "I wonder what these are." She sighed. "The Doctor would know. The Doctor always knows."
Mo's eyes trailed upwards. "Hey, look."
Amy followed his gaze and saw a chute above each container. Her eyes widened.
"Wait... I've got it. It's how they came up to the surface. Some sort of powered transport discs. It's our way out of here," she explained, quickly.
Mo eyed the frozen Silurian soldiers. "Even better, weapons." He snatched a gun off one of the soldiers. "Come on, now we can fight back."
Amy nodded, approvingly, taking one for herself as well, and they closed the containers behind them.
Mo looked outwards. "Which way now?"
Amy looked thoughtful. "Door at the end," she said, decisively.
Mo frowned. "Are you sure?"
Amy shrugged and smiled at him. "Nope!"
The two continued down the tunnel and through another sliding down. Underneath them, they could see another large chamber filled with more Silurian soldiers in suspended animation.
"Wow," Mo breathed.
Amy licked her lips. "Yeah," she agreed.
"We don't stand a chance," Mo said, grimly.
Amy took a deep breath. "We have to find the Doctor and Rhea." She nodded to herself.
The two left the chamber.
The Doctor, Rhea and Nasreen were being escorted through the Silurian city, through an area of greenery that was most likely their idea of a nature park.
Rhea touched a hand to the Doctor's arm, cautiously. She hadn't been able to get the sound of the Doctor screaming his head off in their hospital and the jerky movements of his arms and legs struggling against his binds out of her head.
"Are you okay?" she demanded.
The Doctor beamed down at her. "Absolutely fine." He drew her into a side hug, to which she acquiesced somewhat reluctantly, the ease of physical affection still new to her.
"I'm glad," Rhea muttered into his side, suddenly grateful for his height looming over her.
His lips brushed against the top of her head, not as gentle as he may have kissed her (and he kissed her hard enough to give her bruises), and she felt something loosening in her chest.
"These must be the only ones awake, the others must still be in hibernation," the Doctor told Rhea and Nasreen.
Rhea frowned, eyeing the Silurian soldiers with no slight amount of contempt. She understood their indignation – probably more than many, she understood. But she couldn't – wouldn't – forget that she had begged them to stop hurting the Doctor and Restac and her doctor friend had just stared at her like she was pathetic.
"Why did they go into hibernation in the first place?" she asked, a little annoyed at her own curiosity.
"Their astronomers predicted a planet heading to Earth on a crash course," the Doctor explained. "They a built life underground and put themselves to sleep for millennia in order to avert what they thought was the apocalypse. When in reality, it was the moon, coming into alignment with the Earth."
Restac stopped in her tracks, overhearing what the Doctor was telling them, and rounded on him, her face contorted with anger and surprise.
"How can you know that?" the Silurian doctor asked, confused.
The Doctor shrugged. "Long time ago, we met another tribe of homo reptilia, similar, but not identical."
"We?" Rhea muttered under her breath.
"I'd say the word you're expecting me to say, but I did just go through a few bouts of horrific decontamination at the hands of Silurians who want to execute us, and I don't know if I could endure the punching that would follow," the Doctor said, teasingly.
Rhea grimaced. "You are such a troll."
Vulnerability showed on Restac's face for a brief moment.
"Others of our species have survived?" she asked, hoarsely.
The Doctor blinked. "The humans attacked them. They died, I'm sorry," he said, solemnly.
Rhea closed her eyes. She's not going to take that well. Not for the first time, she wished the Doctor's moral compass didn't preclude him from lying, when the situation gave reason for it.
As predicted, Restac's face contorted with contempt. "A vermin race."
They continued along the cavern.
Rory peered at the wound on Tony's neck.
"I'm a nurse, you should've told me," he chided, gently.
The sound of screaming had Rory and Tony looking up. They jumped up from their places and headed towards the basement, from where the scream was coming from. They found Alaya lying on the floor, on her side, wheezing desperately, with Ambrose standing over her, almost dazed, a Taser in her hand. Rory rushed to Alaya, kneeling beside her to see if there was anything he could do.
Tony looked at his daughter as if he had never seen her before (and maybe he hadn't, not like this).
"Ambrose... What've you done?" he asked, quietly.
Ambrose blinked and looked at him, pleadingly. "She kept taunting me about Mo and Elliot and you."
Tony looked at her, angrily. "We have to be better than this!" he snapped, snatching the Taser from her.
"She wouldn't tell me anything. I thought sooner or later, she'd give in," Ambrose said, hurriedly. "I would've done. I just... I just want my family back, Dad." She whispered.
Rory ignored Ambrose's defence and kept his attention focused on Alaya. "I'm sorry. How do we help you? Tell us what to do," he begged.
Alaya smiled through her pain. "I knew this would come. And soon the war," she said, triumphantly.
"You're not dying," Rory said, firmly. "I'm not going to let you, not today..."
However, the death rattle in Alaya's chest said differently.
Restac and the Silurian doctor led the Doctor, Rhea and Nasreen, accompanied by their military escort, into a large, ornate chamber, which they took to be the Silurian's version of a courtroom.
"You're not authorised to do this!" the Silurian doctor hissed at Restac.
"I'm authorised to protect the safety of our species while they sleep," Restac retorted.
The Doctor looked up. "Oh, lovely place, very gleaming."
"This is our court and our place of execution," Restac said, slyly.
Suddenly, Amy emerged through another door, her gun aimed at Restac.
"Let them go!" she said, fiercely.
"Oh, thank God, a gun!" Rhea exclaimed, delighted.
"Amy Pond, there's a girl to rely on," the Doctor said, approvingly.
Mo entered through the main door, gun poised in his hands as well.
"You're covered both ways, so don't try anything clever, buster," Amy warned.
"Mo!" Nasreen cried out in relief.
Amy took a deep breath and squared her shoulders, eyeing Restac carefully. "Now let them go, or I shoot." Restac moved closer, her face calm, and Amy took a worried step backwards. "I'm warning you!"
Restac wrenched the gun from Amy, shoving her to the ground harshly with her arm pressed against her back.
"Hey, leave her alone!" Rhea snapped and she would've lunged if the Doctor didn't have a hold on her arm.
Shame, she would've had a better chance than Amy.
"And you," Restac murmured into Amy's ear.
Soldiers approached Mo and he gave up the gun, seeing that he would have absolutely no chance taking on all of them on his own.
"Well, that didn't go the way I hoped it would," the Doctor muttered to Rhea.
Rhea snorted. "You were actually hoping for something. She's a kissogram!"
"Hey!" Amy protested, rubbing her arms as she was pulled to her feet by one of the soldiers.
"Legs, thank you for taking initiative, but have you ever even shot a weapon before?" Rhea demanded. "In what universe do you and the geologist over there actually win against an armed alien military force with a grudge against humanity?"
"I could've shot her," Amy grumbled, eyeing Restac with distaste.
"What part of armed alien military force escaped your mind?" Rhea said, pointedly. "I bet you my bank account they understand the concept of 'acceptable loss'."
Amy grimaced. "Do you have to rain on my parade?" she retorted.
"There's a very thin line between being very brave and being very stupid," Rhea said, sharply. "You should've tried to get the hell out of here instead of trying to play hero. All you did was get yourself caught and proved to them why they should execute us."
Amy gritted her teeth and remained silent, although everything in her reared to argue back – she had just wanted to help; she didn't understand why Rhea was always so critical of everything.
"All right, Restac. You've made your point," the Silurian doctor attempted to soothe.
Restac stormed over to him. "This is now a military tribunal. Go back to your laboratory, Malokeh," she snapped.
One of the soldiers jabbed Malokeh in the back with her gun.
Malokeh looked at the humans. "This isn't the way," he said, softly, and then left.
Restac looked at the other soldiers. "Prepare them for execution."
The Doctor, Rhea, Amy, Nasreen and Mo were tied to pillars.
"Okay, sorry, as rescues go, didn't live up to its potential," Amy whispered to the Doctor.
"I'm glad you're okay," the Doctor replied. He eyed a stony Rhea. "She is, too. She just finds it difficult to say it out loud."
Amy sniffed, disbelievingly. "All she does is tell me when I'm doing something wrong."
Rhea scoffed. "What, you want me to hold your hand-"
"Rhea," the Doctor said, lowly.
Rhea grimaced, and her shoulders slumped. She turned to Amy. "Did it ever occur to you that the reason why I'm so critical of you is because you make stupid decisions that could get you killed and that's something I don't want to happen."
"I was trying to help you," Amy protested.
"Yeah, and look how that turned out," Rhea said, dryly. She paused. "I don't want you to die, Legs. And I don't want your death on my hands. Or his. So, I need you to be smarter. I don't want you to play Tomb Raider or Batgirl 'cause that's fictional logic and it doesn't apply in real life. You didn't even know that gun worked. For all you know, you could've shot yourself in the face. And frankly, I don't think you have it in you to pull the trigger."
"I so could!" Amy retorted, although something softened in her, listening to Rhea.
Rhea's nose scrunched up. "You're too… nice. To pull that trigger, you have to be willing to kill and own that death for the rest of your life. I don't know if you're capable of that kind of act. It's not a bad thing. It's actually a good thing. Just… leave the Wonder Woman antics to me, okay?"
"Only if you promise to teach me," Amy said, firmly. Rhea eyed in her in surprise. "What? I've seen you kill a man with your thighs. And not in the fun way. I want to be able to do that too."
"The fun way's better," the Doctor interjected. He paused. "But get your own thigh-killing martial artist."
Rhea rolled her eyes.
Amy smiled at them, slyly. "Yeah, I'll bet it is."
"Fine," Rhea said. Amy looked at her. "I'll teach you. It'll take some time to get to the… thigh-killing stage, but I'd feel more comfortable knowing that you can take care of yourself. God knows the Doctor gets us into enough of these situations."
"Hey!" the Doctor protested.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I completely forgot how we're not currently tied to a pole in an underground cavern, awaiting execution by a bunch of lizard people!" Rhea shot back.
"How is that my fault?" the Doctor retorted.
"We were supposed to go to Rio!" Rhea snapped.
"Next time, you drive then!"
"I would, if you'd let me!"
"That's because you're such a control freak!"
"I'm the control freak? You're the backseat driver!"
"I think you must've confused me with yourself."
"I don't even know why I bother coming with you anywhere."
"Guys!" Amy said, loudly. "Maybe you guys can start bickering, you know, when we're not going to be murdered."
"We're not going to be murdered," the Doctor said, reassuringly.
Amy snorted. "Oh, yeah? Says who? The lizard men pointing guns at us?"
"Lizard people," Rhea corrected. "Their esteemed military commander looks female, but I don't want to ascribe human definitions for gender to them. For all we know, their gender identity is much more complicated than ours. They could be genderfluid and we could be insulting them right now, as we're talking. I may not like them on principle, but I'm gender neutral and this is the twenty-first century."
"I'm sorry, you don't want to offend them?" Amy blinked.
"For something as irrelevant as gender identity. Yeah, they suck as enemies, but what does their gender have to do with that?"
"Rhea's pansexual," the Doctor explained to Amy. "And she likes her soapbox on social issues."
"Don't silence my voice of righteousness," Rhea retorted.
The Doctor sighed, long-sufferingly. "I would never, darling." He looked at Amy. "And they're homo reptilia... They occupied the planet before humans. Now they want it back."
"After they've wiped out the human race," Nasreen added, helpfully.
Amy sighed. "Right, preferred it when I didn't know, to be honest."
The soldiers were poised in front of them, lined up like a firing squad.
"Why are they waiting?" Nasreen asked, quietly. "What do you think they're going to do with us?"
"They'll want to make contact with those up on top," Rhea muttered. "I think the Silurian we have up there is Restac's family. She'll want her back. Or, at the very least, want to gloat to the others and publicise our execution. It's a power game. So that Rory, Ambrose and Tony will feel helpless."
Nasreen looked at her, sceptically. "How do you know so much?"
Rhea raised an eyebrow. "It's smart and she's pissed."
Rory, Tony and Ambrose stood huddled over Alaya's still body in the basement, unsure of what to do next.
"I didn't know it would go like that, Dad," Ambrose pleaded.
Tony closed his eyes and hugged his daughter to him. "Oh, my little girl, what have you done?"
"What happens now?" Ambrose asked, fearfully.
There was a loud buzzing sound and the lights began to flash. The three looked around, worriedly, and finally their gaze rested on an old computer monitor, which flared to life, showing the face of another Silurian.
"Oh, my God," Ambrose breathed.
"Who is the ape leader?" Restac demanded.
"It's them. How are they doing that?" Ambrose's hands fidgeted. "How do they know that we're in here?" She quickly covered Alaya's body with a tarp.
"Who speaks for the apes?" Restac repeated.
The three humans looked at each other.
"Don't tell them what's happened," Tony whispered to Rory.
The five humans tied to the pillar were able to see the large projection of the church basement and Rory step forward into view.
"I speak for the... humans. Some of us, anyway," Rory said, awkwardly.
"Do you understand who we are?" Restac asked, coldly.
Rory shrugged. "Sort of. A bit. Not really," he confessed.
"We have ape hostages," Restac said, sharply.
The camera zoomed out to show the five humans tied to the pillars.
"Doctor! Rhea! Amy!" Rory shouted, rushing towards the screen.
"Mo! Mo, are you okay?" Ambrose demanded, tearily.
"I'm fine, love! I've found Elliot. I'm bringing him home!"
"Amy! I thought I'd lost you!" Rory said in relief.
"What, 'cause I was sucked into the ground? You're so clingy." Amy rolled her eyes, teasingly.
"Tony Mack!" Nasreen called out, cheerfully.
"Having fun down there?" Tony winked at her.
Rhea groaned and tipped her head back.
The Doctor cleared his throat. "Not to interrupt, but just a quick reminder to stay calm."
"Show me Alaya," Restac demanded. "Show me and release her, immediately, unharmed, or we kill your friends… one by one."
"No!" Ambrose shouted, desperately.
"Ambrose..." Rory warned.
The Doctor tensed, hoping that Ambrose wouldn't set off the Silurians. "Steady now, everyone," he said, lowly.
"Ambrose, stop it!" Tony wrapped an arm around his daughter.
Ambrose shrugged it off. "Get off me, Dad!" She rounded on Restac. "We didn't start this!" she snapped.
Rhea gritted her teeth. "Ambrose, I think you need to keep your mouth shut. Like right the fuck now."
"We're not doing what you say any more." Ambrose scowled. "Now, give me back my family!"
Everyone waited with a baited breath for Restac's reply. The Doctor and Rhea exchanged glances.
"No," Restac said, finally. "Execute the younger girl."
Rory shoved Ambrose aside, unceremoniously. "No! No, wait!"
"Rory!" Amy shouted, helplessly, as the soldiers pulled her from the pillar.
"Leave her alone! She has nothing to do with this!" Rhea protested. "She's just a kid. She's not military; she didn't even have anything to do with the drill."
"She's not speaking for us!" Rory defended, quickly.
Amy was pushed to the centre of the room in front of the soldiers.
"There's no need for this..." the Doctor insisted, loudly, struggling.
"Listen! Listen! Whatever you want... we'll do it!"
"Aim," Restac said, coldly.
"Amy!" Rory shouted.
"Rory!" Amy sobbed.
"Don't do this!" the Doctor yelled.
"No!"
In the church basement, the connection was suddenly lost and all they could see is static.
In the Silurian court, Restac turned to the soldiers.
"Fire!" she ordered.
Amy closed her eyes, waiting for the sting of the blow.
"Stop!"
A masculine voice came from the doorway and they all turned to see Malokeh enter with an ornately-robed Silurian.
"You want to start a war, while the rest of us sleep, Restac?" the robed Silurian asked, calmly.
"The apes are attacking us!" Restac insisted.
"You're our protector, not our commander, Restac. Unchain them."
Restac scowled. "I do not recognize your authority at this time, Eldane," she said, roughly.
Eldane almost smiled. "Well, then, you must shoot me."
Frustrated, Restac stormed over to Malokeh.
"You woke him to undermine me," she hissed.
"We're not monsters. And neither are they," Malokeh replied, simply.
"What is it about apes you love so much? Mm?" Restac asked, provocatively, sneering.
"While you slept, they've evolved. I've seen it for myself."
"We used to hunt apes for sport," Restac said, scornfully. "When we came underground, they bred and polluted this planet."
"And you wondered why they wanted to drill down," Rhea muttered under her breath, falling silent when the Doctor shot her a warning look.
This wasn't the best time for her mouth getting away from her.
"Shush now, Restac. Go and play soldiers. I'll let you know if I need you," Eldane said, dismissively.
Restac looked as if she wanted to pick a fight. "You'll need me, then we'll see," she snapped.
Rory hit the monitor, desperately, trying to get the connection back.
"Nothing!" he growled. "I've got to get down there." He started to walk away from the computer.
"Rory!" the Doctor called out and suddenly his face appeared on the screen. "Hello!"
"Where's Amy?" Rory demanded.
"She's fine, look, here she is." The Doctor moved aside so that Rory could see Amy standing there, unhurt and free from her binds.
"Oh, thank God." Rory closed his eyes in relief.
"Keeping you on your toes!" Amy said, cheerfully.
"No time to chat," the Doctor interjected, quickly. "Listen, you need to get down here... Go to the drill storeroom, there's a large patch of earth in the middle of the floor. The Silurians are going to send up transport discs to bring you back down using geothermal energy and gravity bubble-technology. It's how they travel and frankly it's pretty cool. Bring Alaya. We hand her over, we can land this after all. All going to work, promise. Got to dash! Hurry up!"
The signal ended, abruptly, and the Doctor's face disappeared from the screen.
"The moment we get down there, everything will fall apart," Tony said, quietly.
Rory looked on, grimly. "We have to return her. They deserve at least that."
In the centre of the chamber, at a table, Rhea, Amy and Nasreen were seated on one side, with Eldane on the other, while the Doctor, Mo and Malokeh stood.
"I'd say, you've got a fair bit to talk about," the Doctor offered.
"How so?" Eldane raised what the Silurians had for eyebrows.
The Doctor shrugged. "You both want the planet. You both have a genuine claim to it."
"Are you authorised to negotiate on behalf of humanity?" Eldane asked, curiously.
The Doctor's eyes widened. "Me? No! But they are!" he gestured to the three women at the table.
"Are you fucking insane?" Rhea asked, incredulously.
"What?!" Nasreen said, loudly.
"No, we're not!" Amy protested.
"Course you are! Sunehri Adwani, Amy Pond and Nasreen Chaudhry, speaking for the planet! Humanity couldn't have better ambassadors. Come on, who has more fun than us?" the Doctor moved to the opposite end of the table.
Rhea walked over to him. "This is dumb. No matter what we work out here, there's no way in hell anyone on the surface will go for it. This is humanity we're talking about. The greediest bunch of pricks the universe has ever seen," she said, dryly.
"That's kind of mean, you know," the Doctor chided, gently.
"No, that's what experience and many millennia of history says," Rhea retorted. "We're not actually known for respecting sovereignty. Even if there are people willing to go for what we decide here, it doesn't mean that everyone will be." She snapped.
Amy slipped out of her seat and joined them. "Is this what happens, in the future, the planet gets shared? Is that what we need to do?" she asked, worriedly.
Nasreen heard them and walked over. "What are you talking about?" she demanded.
"Oh, Nasreen, sorry, probably worth mentioning at this stage, Rhea, Amy and I travel in time, a bit." The Doctor grimaced.
Nasreen took a deep breath. "Anything else?" she asked, calmly.
Rhea looked on, approvingly. "I like you."
"There are fixed points through time, where things must always stay the way they are. This is not one of them. This is an opportunity, a temporal tipping point. Whatever happens today, will change future events, create its own timeline, its own reality. The future pivots around you. Here. Now. So, do good. For humanity, and for Earth."
"Optimistic idiot," Rhea muttered, somewhat fondly, even if she didn't believe this would work at all.
Amy sighed. "Right. No pressure there, then." She headed back to the table.
"We can't share the planet," Nasreen protested. "Nobody on the surface is going to go for this idea. It is just too big a leap!"
Rhea gestured wildly as if saying see!
"Come on. Be extraordinary," the Doctor soothed.
"Easier said than done," Rhea muttered.
Nasreen took a deep breath. "Oh...you..." She went back to sit at the table.
Only Rhea remained unwilling.
"Rhea," the Doctor sighed. "Come on. If there's anyone I trust to do this, it's you."
"It's not the three of us that I'm worried about. It's the armies and nuclear codes that I'm worried about," Rhea hissed. She eyed the Silurians and turned back to the Doctor. "They won't be okay with this, Doctor. They'll be angry and possessive and like children throwing a tantrum. This is going to end badly for all of us."
But, nonetheless, she found herself sitting back at the time.
"Okay," The Doctor slapped the table, excitedly. "Bringing things to order, the first meeting of representatives of the human race and homo reptilian is now in session." He paused. "Ha! Never said that before, that's fab! Carry on!" He rounded on Mo. "Now, Mo, let's go and get your son." He walked towards the door with Mo. "Oh, you know, humans, and their predecessors, shooting the breeze. Never thought I'd see it." He mused.
"Can you just get lost?" Rhea sighed.
The Doctor's lips twitched. "She's always so mean to me," he said, conspiratorially, to the others.
A/N: Alright, so that was the end to the first part of Cold Blood. There was only one thing I really wanted to mention in this note. Above, Rhea had this whole gender rant regarding the Silurians and you may have noticed that I identified Rhea as pansexual. Now, the Doctor isn't human and it got me thinking about Rhea's sexuality and how it fits into the world of Doctor Who. Often, she meets aliens that she's attracted to and so I considered changing her sexuality. Is this something that you guys are okay with? I know this can be a complicated issue and I don't want to offend anyone, I'm just curious to see what you think.
Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed the chapter and don't forget to leave a review!
Reviews:
NicoleR85: Thank you!
deathb4beauty: See, I see both points of view. Obviously, the Silurians have a right to live on Earth as well, but are the people of Earth really bound by something that they had no knowledge of. The Silurians went into hibernation, but it's not like they left a note behind saying we're coming back. Yeah, I think Rory and Amy's relationship made sense probably more from the season 5 finale onwards, so we could finally see what Amy felt for him. Until then, it just made me think she was settling for him and couldn't care less honestly. LOL. Feel free.