Accident
If the humans noticed the fact the Time Lords were a bit distant after the events with Idris, they just assumed it had something to do with mourning their people. That perhaps the Time Lords just needed some alone time, though the pair did continue on their adventures. They just…stayed a bit more apart than normal.
Learning that they were Aligned - or possibly Aligned - was enough to shock the Time Lords into separation. They knew that the various times she had found him as a human were fixed events, that they were more Aligned than casual Time Lords. And they also knew that it didn't technically mean anything.
Being Aligned just meant certain events in their lives were fixed. That was all it meant.
But still…on Gallifrey, being Aligned in the way they were meant they had a certain level of commitment. Even if they'd already passed through all the fixed events they were meant to have, the fact they'd had so many meant something.
Not necessarily romantic, it was up to the Time Lords to interpret the meaning, but if they were going to preserve the expectations that they would have had on Gallifrey, then there would have to be some relationship that lasted. Time Lords didn't have so many fixed events for no reason.
And they were still so early in their relationship. Certainly, they'd both been beginning to fall in love for a while before they admitted it to each other, but in the scope of a Time Lord's life that was almost no time at all. Then to learn that, in the eyes of their people, they were destined to be together…it put a halt on everything. It was daunting. It wasn't something they'd wanted to think about, not this early.
They hadn't wanted to think about their future yet. At least, not that far ahead.
Not with the pressure of knowing they were Aligned, that the universe had forced them together, that they couldn't ignore that, no matter how hard they sometimes wanted too.
Not when they were just beginning to truly know each other.
Not when facing the concept that how they personally feel might not really matter at all.
Thus, they'd essentially hidden from each other, finding ways to avoid each other when they were just in the TARDIS. They both needed to think; being Aligned didn't mean they had to continue a romantic relationship if they didn't want to, not technically, but it meant their timelines were interlocked, that they'd never be able to truly leave the other.
No matter how far apart they would go, they would never escape each other.
On the plus side, the news did explain why the Doctor almost instantly attached himself to Caroline. Even in her state as a human, before the seal had begun to break and Adelaide had begun to drift back in, they were still Aligned. The universe had still wanted them together, building towards the future fixed events.
Now, as Amy and Rory played darts in the lower level of the console room, the Doctor was standing at the console itself, watching the scan he'd been performing on Amy again. Adelaide had gone to look for a certain book she wanted to read, but he didn't know when she would come back.
In order to attempt and drown out his thoughts, the Doctor was blasting a Muse song, which, thankfully, the humans had not complained about yet, and the TARDISes could keep Adelaide from hearing.
The Doctor glanced at the scan. The results were the same as they had always been; it couldn't tell if she was pregnant or not. He wanted to talk to Adelaide about that, but he didn't know if she would be willing to do that.
It felt almost like they'd been right after Caroline had opened the fob watch; they knew they were the last two Time Lords in the universe, but they were still determining what their relationship should be. What expectations they really, honestly, wanted to live up to.
He looked up to see Adelaide standing at the entrance to the console room, her eyebrows raised at him. Quickly, he shut off the music. "Who wants fish and chips?" he called to the humans. Rory raised his hand. "I'll drop you both off. Take your time. Don't rush."
Rory paused, frowning. "Er, and you?"
The Doctor shrugged. "Things to do. Things involving…other things."
Amy moved towards the stairs. "Well, we'll stay with you. We'll do the other things."
"Nope."
"Whatever you're up to, I'd personally like to be a part of it." Amy frowned at the Doctor, having not noticed Adelaide had arrived. "What?"
He was cut off by the klaxon blaring and the TARDIS jerking around the room, making everyone cling to something in order not to be thrown around. Amy and Rory managed to grab onto the railing while the Doctor piloted the TARDIS, but Adelaide was thrown back against a wall before she could do anything.
"Solar tsunami!" he managed to shout. "Came directly from your sun. A tidal wave of radiation. Big, big, big…"
"Oh Doctor," Rory gripped his stomach, "my tummy's going funny."
"Well, the gyrator disconnected. Target tracking is out." The Doctor threw a final lever up, but nothing happened. He froze. "Assume the position!"
They all hunched to the ground as the TARDIS jerked around even more violently. It finally landed with a loud crash, and the Doctor forced himself to look up at Adelaide. She was rubbing her forehead, sitting against the wall, but she did smile when he looked at her. "Textbook landing," the Doctor said, and watched her sigh.
Lose that smile.
|C-S|
The Doctor led the way out of the TARDIS to find they had landed ("crashed", as he'd heard Adelaide mumbling) on an island with a large monastery-like building in front of them, though it was partially ruins. There was a weathervane on top of one of the spires. "Behold, a cockerel!" the Doctor cheered. "Love a cockerel. And underneath, a monastery. Thirteenth century."
"Oh, we've gone all medieval."
Rory shook his head. "I'm not sure about that."
Amy looked at him. "Really? Medieval expert are you?"
"No, it's just that I can hear Dusty Springfield."
Adelaide smiled at Rory. "Good job Rory. Noticing everything." The Doctor instantly felt irritated that Adelaide was smiling at Rory, that she was giving her attention to anyone who wasn't him, even though he also didn't want her attention, not at the moment.
Goodness, learning they were Aligned had complicated everything.
If they'd been on Gallifrey, it wouldn't have been nearly this confusing to manage. There, they wouldn't have had the pressure of the fact they were the last two Time Lords in the entire universe.
There were enough expectations there. Combine it with the fact that they were Aligned, and there was a lot of responsibility for two Time Lords who tended to run away.
The Doctor started walking towards a stairway that would bring them to a courtyard, but he paused when he saw a hole in the ground, waving Adelaide over to see it. Even if they avoided each other in the TARDIS, they still needed to work together on adventures, particularly this one; they'd come up with the plan together, the longest conversations they'd had since Idris.
"The fissures are new," Adelaide said. "Solar tsunami sent out a large wave of gamma particles that must have caused a magnetic quake just before it hit."
Amy shrugged. "Well, the monastery's standing."
The Doctor pulled a snow globe from his pocket and shook it, studying it closely before putting it away. "Yeah, for now…"
"Adelaide, look," Rory said, pointing to the pipe with the words 'Danger Corrosive' on it.
She nodded. "A supply pipe." Pulling out her sonic, she scanned it. "Ceramic inner lining. They're sending something corrosive off the island to the mainland."
"My mum's a massive fan of Dusty Springfield."
"Who isn't?" The Doctor clapped. "Right, let's go. Satisfy our rabid curiosity."
|C-S|
Entering the courtyard revealed that a large portion of the building was actually habitable, though some of it was still in ruins. "So where are these Dusty Springfield loving monks, then?" Amy asked, looking around.
"I think we're here," the Doctor said, speaking more to Adelaide than anyone else. "This is it."
"Doctor, what are you talking about?" Rory said, making the Doctor spin to look at him. Adelaide just rolled her eyes. "We've never been here before."
"Hmm?"
"We came here by accident," Amy prompted.
"Accident?" he nodded. "Yes, I know. Accident."
They all walked towards the stairs, but Rory reached out and touched the pipe that ran along the stairs. "Ow!"
Adelaide raised her eyebrows at him, looking almost like she didn't quite believe he'd actually just done that. "Don't just touch random pipes, Rory. That was acid." The man's eyes widened. "Thankfully, that was just old acid. If it had been fresh you wouldn't have had a finger."
"Intruder alert," an alarm began. "Intruder alert."
The Time Lords turned back to Amy and Rory after exchanging a look. "There are people coming."
"Well, almost."
Amy frowned. "Almost coming?"
"Almost people." They began to walk again.
"I think we should really be going," Rory called.
Amy just sighed, grabbing Rory's arm. "Come on!"
"I'm telling you, when something runs towards you, it is never for a nice reason."
|C-S|
They rushed into one of the monastery rooms to see a collection of human shaped harnesses with people resting inside.
"What are all these harnesses for?" Amy asked.
"The almost people?"
"What are they, prisoners, or are they meditating, or what?"
The Doctor shrugged. "Well, at the moment they fall into the 'or what' category."
"Halt and remain calm," the computer ordered.
"Well, we've halted. How are we all doing on the calm front?" the Doctor looked between all of them.
"Don't move!" a man ordered as a trio burst into the room, the two men pointing lances at the time travelers.
"Stay back, Jen," the younger man said. "We don't know who they are."
"So let's ask them," the woman, Jen, said. "Who the hell are you?"
Adelaide glanced between the group and the people in the harnesses, seeing duplicates. "I'm Adelaide, this is the Doctor, and this is Amy and Rory."
"Hold up," Amy said, frowning. "You're all…what are you all? Like identical twins?"
Two more people, dressed in some sort of protective suits, entered the room behind them. "This is an Alpha-grade industrial facility," the older woman of the pair said. "Unless you work for the military or for Morpeth Jetson, you are in big trouble."
"Actually, you're in big trouble," the Doctor pulled out his psychic paper.
"Meteorological Department, since when?"
"Since you were hit by a solar wave," Adelaide said.
"Which we survived."
"Just, by the look of it," the Doctor looked around the room. "And there's a bigger one on the way."
"Which we'll also survive. Dicken, scan for bugs."
The man who'd entered with her stepped up, holding out a scanner. "Backs against the wall. Now."
The four of them did as he asked, holding up their hands and backing against a wall. "You're not a monastery, you're a factory," the Doctor said. "22nd-century army-owned factory."
Amy eyed the people. "You're army?"
"No, love, we're contractors, and you're trespassers."
"It's clear, boss."
"Alright, weatherman, you ID checks out." The woman passed the Doctor the paper, and when the Time Lords glanced at it, they found that her name was Miranda Cleaves. "If there's another solar storm, what are you going to do about it? Hand out sunblock?"
"We need to see your critical systems."
Cleaves frowned. "Which one?"
"You know which one."
|C-S|
Cleaves brought them to a room which had, apparently, been named the 'Flesh Room'. Near the back was a large vat of bubbling white liquid and it was immediately where Adelaide and the Doctor went. "And there you are," the Doctor whispered.
"Meet the government's worst kept secret," Cleaves said. "The Flesh. It's fully programmable matter. In fact, it's even learning to replicate itself at a cellular level."
Amy nodded. "Right. Brilliant. Lost."
"Okay. Once a reading's been taken, we can manipulate its molecular structure into anything. Replicate a living organism down to the hairs on its chinny-chin-chin. Even clothes. And everything's identical. Eyes, voice…"
"Mind, soul," the Doctor breathed, still looking at the Flesh.
"Don't be fooled, Doctor. It acts like life but it still needs to be controlled by us, from those harnesses you saw."
Rory took a step back from the people closest to him. "Wait, whoa. Hold it. So, you're Flesh now?"
Cleaves shrugged. "I'm lying in a harness back in that chamber. We all are, except Jennifer here. Don't be scared. This thing? Just like operating a forklift truck."
Adelaide raised her eyebrows. "You said it could grow. Only things technically classified as 'living' grow."
"Moss grows. It's no more than that. This acid is so dangerous we were losing a worker every week. So now we mine the acid using these doppelgangers, or Gangers. If these bodies get burnt or fall in the acid…"
"Then who the hell cares, right, Jen?" the younger man, Ganger Buzzer, said.
Jen shrugged. "Nerve endings automatically cut off like the airbags being discharged. We wake up and get a new Ganger."
"It's weird, but you get used to it," Ganger Jimmy added.
"Jennifer, I want you in your Ganger. Get back to the harness." Jen sighed at the order, but she left.
The Doctor looked up at Adelaide, since they were now standing on opposite sides of the vat. He already had his sonic out, but he was clearly asking if she knew it was alright if he was the one who scanned it. Adelaide didn't know enough about the Flesh yet to truly say, but there didn't seem to be a problem with scanning the Flesh. She gave him a small nod and he began to scan.
"Hang on," Ganger Buzzer said, looking over at them. "What's he up to? What you up to, pal?"
The Doctor frowned, trying to pull his arm away, but nothing was happening. Adelaide felt almost like her hearts were stopping. "Stop it," the Doctor said. Whatever was holding him let go and he fell backwards. "Strange. It was like, for a moment there, it was scanning me." Without even looking at Adelaide, the Doctor moved forward to touch his hand against the surface of the Flesh.
"Doctor…" she said, moving to stop him, but it was too late as his hand began to shake and he clearly couldn't pull it away.
"Get back, Doctor," Ganger Cleaves said. "Leave it alone."
Finally, the Doctor could pull himself away and instantly Adelaide rushed to scan him, not caring that they had silently agreed to give each other a break. She needed to know that he was okay. The Doctor grabbed her hands once she was close enough. "Incredible," he breathed. You have no idea…no idea. I mean, I felt it in my mind. I reached out to it, and it to me."
Ganger Cleaves sighed. "Don't fiddle with the money, Doctor."
The Doctor, still holding onto Adelaide's hands, looked over at her. "How can you be so blinkered? It's alive, so alive. You're piling your lives, your personalities directly into it." Lighting crashed around them and the Doctor pulled out his snow globe again, still holding onto Adelaide with one hand without thinking about it. "It's the solar storm."
Adelaide nodded. "The first waves come in pairs, pre-shock and fore-shock. It's close."
"Buzzer, we got anything from the mainland yet?" Ganger Cleaves asked Ganger Buzzer.
"No, the comms are still too jammed with radiation."
"Okay. Then we'll keep pumping acid until the mainland says stop. Now, why don't you stand back and let us impress you?" they all stepped away to look at a tub more to the center of the room. It had already begun to fill with Flesh.
They watched as a face began to form, starting with the mouth and eyes. The rest of the Flesh pressed together until it took a human form, including the clothes, and looked like Jennifer, except the face took a bit longer to look fully formed. She sat up with a gasp.
"Well, I can see why you keep it in a church," the Doctor said. "Miracle of life."
Ganger Buzzer scoffed at him. "No need to get poncey. It's just gunge."
"Guys, we need to get to work."
Ganger Jimmy helped Ganger Jen out of the tub. "Okay, everybody, let's crack on."
The Doctor frowned. "Didn't we mention the solar storm? You need to get out of here."
Ganger Jimmy turned to them. "Where do you want us to go? We're on a tiny island."
"Well, we can get you all off it."
"Don't be ridiculous," Ganger Cleaves scoffed. "We've got a job to do."
Adelaide nodded towards the window, spotting the storm. "It's coming."
Thankfully, at that moment, an alarm sounded which actually made the Gangers stop. "That's the alarm," Ganger Jen said.
"How do you get power?"
"We're solar," Ganger Cleaves said to the Doctor. "We use a solar router. The weathervane."
"Big problem."
"Boss, maybe if the storm's back we should get underground," Ganger Jimmy said, stepping up. "The factory's seen better days. The acid pipes might not withstand another hit."
"We have two hundred tons of acid to pump out. We fall behind, we stay another rotation. Anyone want that?"
The Doctor moved closer to Ganger Cleaves, finally letting go of Adelaide's hand. "Please, you are making a massive mistake her. You're right at the crossroads of it. Don't turn the wrong way. If you don't, if you don't prepare for this storm, you are all in terrible danger. Understand?"
"My factory, my rules."
Adelaide touched the Doctor's shoulder, keeping him from moving forwards. "I need to check the progress of the storm. Can I see your monitoring station?" she looked expectantly at Ganger Jen.
"Three lefts, a right, and a left. Third door on your left."
She nodded. "Thank you."
|C-S|
The Doctor and Adelaide led the way to the monitoring station as the building began to shake from the storm. At the center of the room was a bank of instruments and the Time Lords turned to look at Amy and Rory, who had followed them. "The waves are disturbing the Earth's magnetic field," Adelaide explained. "There is going to be a power surge."
The Doctor pointed up. "See this weathervane, the cock-a-doodle-do? It's a solar router feeding the whole factory with solar power. When that wave hits, ka-boom."
Adelaide nodded. "I'm going to get up there before anything happens." But, before she could move, the Doctor grabbed her arm.
"What do you mean, 'you'?" he frowned.
"I may not know how to fix a TARDIS, but I did study solar flares. I know how solar routers work." She smirked. "And you don't have the best track record with climbing onto high points in the middle of a storm."
He groaned. "You weren't even there!"
She just shrugged and stepped away, turning to run out to go to the roof. The Doctor turned to Amy, very badly attempting to hide the fact he was quite scared for Adelaide. "Amy, breathe."
Amy frowned. "Yeah! I mean, thanks. I'll try."
|C-S|
Adelaide hurried along the roof of the monastery towards the tower the weathervane was on the top of. She climbed it easily, thanking the various adventures she and the Doctor had had for that. She'd never been that good at climbing before she'd once had to climb away from a lava flow.
Then she'd learned quickly.
Halfway up she found a small power box and began to pull relays, but she didn't get that far before lightning struck the tower and sent her falling back off the ladder.
|C-S|
When she came to, wincing, Adelaide looked up to see that the weathervane was completely gone. But she didn't wait before running back down to the monitoring station, knowing the Doctor would wait there for her. She found him lying on the ground, unconscious, and fell to her knees beside him.
She would never admit it, but she was honestly terrified.
Thankfully, he woke quickly, and he looked a bit shocked to see her face so close to his. "What happened?"
"I don't know. I think everyone was unconscious." She helped him stand. "Where are Amy and Rory?"
"They were going back to the harness room." He rubbed his head. "How long has it been?"
She shrugged. "At least an hour, I think." The pair walked out into the courtyard to find Cleaves looking quite confused.
"Cleaves, you're not in your harness," the Doctor called to her.
"I'm sorry, Doctor, Adelaide." She looked at them with an expression that made Adelaide frown. "You were right."
Adelaide nodded. "You've lost all power to the factory."
"I abandoned my team."
The Doctor smiled. "Then let's go get them."
A/N: Ooo, uncomfortable place for the Time Lords to be in. A lot of pressure for two people who really don't function well under that.
And a bit more information on Aligning. Technically, it really doesn't mean anything, but there were a lot of social expectations on Gallifrey for Time Lords as Aligned as the Doctor and Adelaide. Especially ones who seemed romantically inclined.
The Wednesday chapters are probably going to start being a bit later now that I've gone back to college. I'm going to try and continue them, but I hope you all understand that school work takes precedence.
Notes on reviews:
time-twilight: A bit more on how Time Lords view it here, but if you have any specific questions, I'd love to answer them.