Finding It
Adelaide didn't actually know how long she and the Doctor had been sitting in straitjackets in Area 51. Generally, if they focused, Time Lords had a good grasp of time wherever they were, but it was a bit more difficult when they were in straitjackets and kept a few levels above the surface of the Earth. It also didn't help that the only person they had been able to speak to was Canton and he didn't make that regular of visits.
The rest of the time they were just sitting there, looking out at the room as various soldiers guarded them. The Time Lords had never wished for a mental connection more than at that moment; then, at least, they'd be able to talk.
It had been months since the Time Lords had spoken to each other, since they'd even touched each other.
It was infuriating.
Adelaide did not like being trapped in her own mind. It brought back too many memories of being Caroline after the reboot of the universe, even of just being inside the fob watch in general. All of that had happened so recently in their timeline, the memories were still terribly fresh.
Still at the point where if Adelaide wasn't careful the world would fade to buzzing and she would start shaking and breathing wouldn't be possible and neither would speaking, even if she could.
But she could be careful. She had to be careful. She knew the only reason it was so difficult to stay careful was that her body was still settling after the broken chameleon arch. Everything was still adjusting itself, fixing any holes or issues that had developed from a human who'd had the essence of a Time Lady slowly drifting into her.
Once more time had passed, she'd be better. She'd be normal.
At least, Adelaide's normal.
At the moment, she was sitting with her eyes closed, distracting herself from what lay before them. Once upon a time, she would have been among the scientists, studying the alien they'd captured. Thankfully, Canton had kept them from being dissected or tested in any way.
Just focusing on breathing. On counting it, keeping her breaths slow, steady.
"We found Amy Pond," Canton said, making Adelaide open her eyes. He and another man in a suit stood before the Time Lords with a folder of pictures. "She had strange markings on her arm." He held up a picture, showing Amy's arm covered in tally marks. "Do you know what they are?" He tossed the picture just over the yellow line that encircled them, keeping anyone from getting too close
The Doctor glared at him. The Time Lord had grown a beard in the time that had passed. "Why don't you ask her?"
Canton just smirked.
|C-S|
The Time Lords watched as scientists built a wall of black bricks around the Time Lords. One of the corners was already quite high, which was honestly bothering Adelaide. Combined with everything else, it was getting even harder to keep her breathing still.
"We found Dr. Song," Canton said, walking up again.
"These bricks," Adelaide asked, ignoring his statement, "what are they made of?" She was pleased that she was able to speak at all right now. The words took time to form, but they came.
Canton didn't answer. "Where is she?" the Doctor asked him.
"She ran. Off the 50th floor."
"I'd say zero balance dwarf star alloy," Adelaide said casually. "The densest material in the universe. There's nothing in existence that would be able to get through it. How kind; you're building us the perfect prison."
The Doctor nodded. "And it still won't be enough."
|C-S|
The prison completed, Canton walked towards the Time Lords with two soldiers behind them, the pair of them dragging body bags. They dropped the bodies on either side of the Time Lords before leaving just Canton standing before them.
"Is there a reason you're doing this?" the Doctor glared at Canton.
"I want you to know where you stand."
"In a cell."
Canton nodded. "In the perfect cell. Nothing can penetrate these walls. Not a sound, not a radio wave, not the tiniest particle of anything." He turned and closed the door, sealing them inside completely. "In here, you're literally cut off from the rest of the universe. So I guess they can't hear us, right?"
The Doctor grinned. "Good work, Canton."
"Door sealed?"
Canton smirked. "You bet."
With hardly any effort, the Time Lords stood and shook off the chains and straitjackets. Almost instantly, Adelaide felt herself calm, breaths coming easily and the world staying stable. Just what she needed. On their sides, the body bags sat up, and the Time Lords turned to open them. Amy and Rory gasped for breath.
"Are you okay?" the Doctor asked Amy.
"Finally."
Rory turned to Canton. "These things could really do with air holes."
Canton shrugged. "Never had a complaint before."
"Isn't it going to look odd that you're staying in here with us?"
"Odd, but not alarming." He tapped one of the walls. "They know there's no way out of this place."
"Exactly." The Doctor walked over to Adelaide, grabbed her hand, pulled her into a kiss, pressed his forehead against hers, and then moved to the corner. "Whatever they might think we're doing in here, they know we're not going anywhere." Together, spinning her into his arms, they slumped to the side and leaned against the TARDIS. He snapped his fingers and the doors opened. "Shall we?"
Amy and Rory ran into the TARDIS and Adelaide pulled the Doctor in after, relishing the fact that she could touch someone. That she could feel herself touching someone and know they were entirely real.
"What about Dr. Song?" Canton asked, following them. "She dove off a rooftop."
The Time Lords worked to pilot. "Don't worry, she does that."
"Amy, Rory, open all the doors to the swimming pool," Adelaide called, and a few seconds later there was a splashing sound as River fell through the TARDIS.
The Doctor didn't wait for River to arrive before speaking. "So, we know they're everywhere. Not just a landing party, an occupying force, and they have been here a very, very long time. But nobody knows that, because no one can remember them."
Canton frowned. "So what are they up to?"
"No idea. But the good news is, we've got a secret weapon." Adelaide spun a computer screen for the companions to see, showing the Apollo 11 rocket they'd landed close to.
"Apollo 11's your secret weapon?" Amy asked.
"No, no. It's not Apollo 11. That would be silly." The Doctor walked to stand beside Adelaide, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. "It's Neil Armstrong's foot."
|C-S|
Once the Time Lords had changed their clothing and River had dried herself, everyone reconvened in the console room of the TARDIS. They were all scattered around at various points, the Doctor fiddling with something, before he stepped forward and shot something into Canton's hand.
"Ow!"
"Three months," the Doctor said, just spinning around and leaving Adelaide to go quickly apologize to the man. "What have we found out?"
"Well, they are everywhere. Every state in America-" Rory was cut off when the Doctor shot his hand. "Ah!"
The Doctor nodded. "Not just America, the entire world."
"There's a greater concentration here, though," River called.
"Ow!" the Doctor shot Amy's hand as well.
"Are you okay?" he asked her quietly, Adelaide close enough to hear.
Amy nodded. "All better."
"Better?"
"Turns out I was wrong. I'm not pregnant."
Rory stepped closer. "What's up?"
"Nothing." Amy smiled at him. "Really, nothing. Seriously."
"So you've seen them, but you don't remember them," Canton said, drawing them back to the issue at hand.
River nodded. "You've seen them, too. That night at the warehouse, remember? While you were pretending to hunt us down, we saw hundreds of those things. We still don't know what they look like."
Rory shook his head. "It's like they edit themselves out of your memory as soon as you look away. The exact second you're not looking at them, you can't remember anything."
"Sometimes you feel a bit sick," Amy offered, "though, but not always."
"So that's why you marked your skin."
Amy nodded. "Only way we'd know if we'd had an encounter."
"How long have they been here?"
"That's what we've spent the last three months trying to figure out."
"Not easy, if you can't remember anything you discover."
"How long do you think?"
"As long as there's been something in the corner of your eye, or creaking in your house, or breathing under your bed, or voices through a wall," the Doctor said, moving forwards. "They've been running your lives for a very long time now, so keep this straight in your head. We are not fighting an alien invasion, we're leading a revolution. And today, the battle begins."
Canton frowned. "How?"
"Like this." The Doctor spun and quickly injected River's hand.
"Ow!"
The Doctor laughed. "Nanorecorder. Fuses with the cartilage in your hand." He injected himself quickly, wincing. "And it tunes itself directly to the speech centers in your brain." Adelaide stepped up next to him and he injected her too. "It'll pick up your voice, no matter what. Telepathic connection. So, the moment you see one of the creatures," he tapped the center of his palm, making the recorder glow red, "you activate it, and describe aloud exactly what you're seeing." A second later, the recorder repeated back what he'd said. "'And describe aloud exactly what you're seeing."
"The moment you break contact, you're going to forget it happened," Adelaide said. "The light will flash if you've left yourself a message, which means you'll need to keep checking your hand. If you've had an encounter, that's how you'll know."
"Why didn't you tell me this before we started?" Canton asked them.
"We did, but even information about these creatures erases itself over time. We couldn't refresh it because we couldn't talk to you."
Canton glanced over his shoulder for a moment before turning back around, stepping forward and straightening his bow-tie. He stopped when he saw Amy, Rory, and River now standing behind the Time Lord, staring at him. "What? What are you staring at?"
"Look at your hand," River nodded towards it.
Canton looked down and the light was blinking red. "Why is it doing that?"
"What does it mean if the light's flashing?" Adelaide prompted carefully, using what Amy instantly placed as the woman's 'teacher voice', which she tended to apply seemingly without thinking about it. "What did we just tell you?"
"I haven't…"
"Play it."
Canton pressed it, and they heard his voice saying, "'My God, how did it get in here?'"
"'Keep eye contact with the creature and, when I say, turn back and when you do, straighten my bow-tie.'"
"'What? What are you staring at?'"
"'Look at your hand.'"
When Canton looked over his shoulder again, he saw one of the creatures standing in the TARDIS.
"It's a hologram," the Doctor explained, "extrapolated from the photo on Amy's phone. Take a good, long look." Adelaide flicked off the image. "You just saw an image of one of the creatures we're fighting. Describe it to me."
But Canton just shook his head. "I can't."
"No, neither can I. You straightened my bow-tie because I planted the idea in your head while you were looking at the creature."
Amy's eyes widened. "So they could do that to people. You could be doing stuff and not really knowing why you're doing it."
"Like posthypnotic suggestion."
"Ruling the world with posthypnotic suggestion?"
"Now then," the Doctor interrupted, "a little girl in a spacesuit. They got the suit from NASA, but where did they get the girl?"
Canton shrugged. "It could be anywhere."
"They'd likely stayed close to the warehouse," Adelaide said, "and take her from somewhere that would cause the least amount of attention." She brought up a map on the TARDIS quickly.
"But you'll have to find her," the Doctor said as she worked. "Adelaide and I are off to NASA."
"Find her? Where do we look?"
Adelaide spun the screen over to let him see. "Children's homes."
|C-S|
Adelaide had forced the Doctor to take her along, saying that since he was breaking into a government facility, it might be good to have someone along who wouldn't just instantly offend the soldiers who would eventually find them. That wasn't saying she'd be able to do anything to keep them from being arrested, she wasn't going to claim that skill - her past encounters with the Atraxi were evidence enough of that - but she honestly didn't trust the Doctor to go on his own.
Now, as he worked, Adelaide was standing a bit away from the rocket, holding onto her phone and waiting for Amy to call.
When she did, Adelaide answered immediately. "Hello, Amy."
"I think we've found the place she was taken from."
"How do you know?"
"Because those things have been here. But the whole place is deserted. There's just one guy here and I think he's lost it."
Adelaide nodded. "Repeated memory wipes will destroy your mind eventually. Find out anything you can, but don't stay long."
"Where are you?"
Adelaide was about to answer when she looked up, having gotten a bit distracted by both talking to Amy and listening to the Doctor make an interesting noise from inside the shuttle, to find the scientists had spotted them, as they'd guessed. "Sorry, we have company. Goodbye."
The Doctor looked out with a wide grin. "Don't worry, I've put everything back the way I found it, she would have killed me otherwise…" then he noticed the wire dangling from his hand. "Except this. There's always a bit left over, isn't there?"
Adelaide just sighed at him.
|C-S|
The Time Lords sat handcuffed in the middle of a lecture room, the large chalkboards beside them filled with various diagrams. A bit too close for comfort with the past three months, but Adelaide felt as comfortable as she could have.
"Now, one more time, sir," the man seated in front of them sighed. "How the hell did you get into the command module?"
"We have already told you," Adelaide said, getting a bit perturbed that the man hadn't been acknowledging her. "We're on a mission for the President."
The man looked at her. "Well, maybe if you just get President Nixon to assure us of that, ma'am, that would be swell."
"We did send him a message," Adelaide said, nodding towards the door behind the man just as it opened.
Nixon walked in, River and Rory following him, both of them dressed quite formally, looking the part.
The seated man almost fell to the ground as he struggled to stand from the shock of it all. "Hello. I believe it's Mr. Gardner. Is that correct?" Nixon shook the man's hand. "Head of Security?"
Gardner nodded frantically. "Er, yes, sir. Yes, Mr. President."
Nixon turned to the man who'd been next to Gardner, who was in a similar state of shock. "Mr. Grant, is it?"
"Yes, Mr. President!"
"The hopes and dreams of millions of Americans stand here today at Cape Kennedy, and you're the men who guard those dreams." Nixon smiled at them. "On behalf of the American people, I thank you."
"You're welcome, Mr. President."
"I understand you have a baby on the way, Mr. Grant."
Grant's eyes widened. "Yes, Mr. President."
"What are you hoping for, a boy or a girl?"
"Just a healthy American, sir."
Nixon nodded. "A healthy American will do just nicely. Now, fellows, listen. This man and woman here, code name the Doctor and Manner's Lady…" the men glanced back at the pair, who both waved, though Adelaide did give the Doctor a glare when they turned around at the nickname he'd given her, "are doing some work for me personally. Could you cut them a little slack?"
"Er, Mr. President, they did break into Apollo 11."
Nixon glanced at them, the Doctor mouthing 'sorry' while Adelaide mouthed 'his idea'.
"Well, I'm sure they had a very good reason for that. But I need you to release them now so they can get on with some very important work for the American people. Could you do that for me?"
"Well…"
"Son, I am your Commander in Chief."
Gardner nodded. "Then I guess that would be fine, Mr. President."
"Glad to hear it."
Gardner motioned for the guard to release the Time Lords, letting them jump up. "Thank you!" The Doctor ran to the men to shake their hands. "Bye, bye."
"Terribly sort for breaking in," Adelaide told them, dragging the Doctor away from the men and back towards the TARDIS.
"Carry on, gentlemen," Nixon said to the men, following the pair of them. River followed almost immediately, but Rory took a bit longer.
He was quite glad Adelaide couldn't see him break a bit off one of the models because he was fairly certain he'd get a right scolding for it.
|C-S|
The Time Lords returned Nixon to his office, pausing to take a moment and explain whatever they could of the current alien threat before they left. "You have to tape everything that happens in this office," the Doctor said. "Every word, or you won't know if you're under the influence." They turned and walked back towards the TARDIS, but Nixon called after them.
"You have to give me more than this. What were you doing to Apollo 11?"
"A thing. A clever thing."
"Sorry, no more questions at the moment." Adelaide smiled at him. "You have to trust us and nobody else."
River came out of the TARDIS, holding Adelaide's phone. "Doctor, Adelaide, it's Canton. Quick! He needs us!"
The Time Lords didn't wait a second before running back to the TARDIS.
|C-S|
When they ran into the children's home, they could hear Amy calling for help up the stairs. The group rushed up immediately to find Canton attempting to break down the door. "Amy! Amy, can you hear me? Amy, I'm going to try to blow the lock. I need you to stand back."
They entered the hall just as Canton pointed his gun at the lock. "Okay, gun down!" the Doctor called, Adelaide running forward to unlock the door. "We've got it."
"Amy, we're here," Rory said, right behind her. "Are you okay?"
"I can't see."
Adelaide got the door open, and she led the way into the room, the rest of the group rushing in after. There was a spacesuit on the ground, which the Doctor rushed to look at.
"Where is she?" Rory asked, frantic.
River knelt beside the Doctor, opening the visor of the spacesuit. "It's empty."
"It's dark," Amy said. "So dark. I don't know where I am. Please, can anybody hear me?"
Rory bent down and picked up the recorder. "They took this out of her. How did they do that, Doctor?" Amy was crying. "Why can I still hear her?"
"Is it a recording?"
Adelaide quickly soniced it. "It defaults to live; this is current." She took a deep breath. "Wherever she is right now, this is what she's saying."
Rory held it to his mouth. "Amy, can you hear me? We're coming for you. Wherever you are, we're coming, I swear."
"She can't hear you," Adelaide said quietly. "I'm so sorry, but it's one way."
Rory looked at her. "She can always hear me, Adelaide. Always. Wherever she is, and she always knows that I am coming for her. Do you understand me? Always."
"Doctor?" Amy's voice interrupted them. "Adelaide? Are you out there? Can you hear me? Doctor? Oh, God. Please, please, just get me out of this."
Rory swallowed hard. "They're coming. I'll bring them, I swear."
"Hello?" someone said from the hallway, and when they turned they saw the director of the children's home. "Is somebody there? I think someone has been shot. I think we should help. We c…I can't re…I can't remember."
Adelaide quickly got the director to bring them to his office, the Doctor admitting that she would likely be a bit more careful than he would. Together, they looked down at one of the aliens. "Okay," the Doctor said. "Who and what are you?"
"Silence, Doctor and Protector." They heard the voice in their minds. "We are the Silence."
The Time Lords looked at each other, remembering each of the times one of their threats had mentioned the Silence, each time they'd passed it off or forgotten.
"And Silence will fall."
A/N: What's this? A little mention of possible residual effects from the messed up fob watch/chameleon arch? Now, I do wonder if that will ever come up again ;) I have said before, after all, that just because Adelaide returned to the universe doesn't mean that Caroline is gone forever.
Notes on reviews:
AGBreads: The entire River situation was interesting to think through, that's for certain. Glad you enjoyed it! :)