Final Five

Adelaide glanced over at where the Doctor was standing watching Clara's laundry go around the machine. It was a testament to how bored he was that he was being entertained by that. She was reading through an essay for Clara, as despite the fact Adelaide hadn't been an English teacher Clara had just wanted someone else's opinion and neither had trusted the Doctor to be any help. Besides, the student had decided to take a slightly scientific approach, so Adelaide was more than equipped to help with that aspect.

"The Satanic Nebula," the Doctor offered, having occasionally shouted out places they could go that would be far more entertaining than whatever Clara was currently getting ready for. "Or the lagoon of lost stars. Or we could go to Brighton. I've got a whole day worked out..."

"Sorry," Clara stepped into her doorway, "but as you can see," she gestured at her clothing, "I've got plans."

The Doctor turned to look at her. "Have you?"

"Look at me."

"Yeah...okay."

"No, no, no, no. Look at me."

He nodded. "Yep, looking."

Clara shook her head. "Seriously?"

Adelaide glanced over too, finishing her final page of jotted down notes. "Use your eyes, Doctor."

He frowned. "Why is your face all colored in? Are you taller?"

Clara gestured at her feet. "Heels."

"What, do you have to reach a high shelf?"

"Right," Clara stepped past him, "got to go. Going to be late."

"For a shelf?"

Clara shook her head, passing Adelaide. "Thank you for your help and bye."

"Enjoy your date." After all, even if Adelaide had never been on one herself, not really, not the kind that humans had, she knew enough to recognize all of the signs.

A phone rang, quickly identified as the TARDIS, which was a bit surprising since it tended to be Adelaide's that rang. "There you go, you've got another playmate."

But both Time Lords were frowning at the phone. There was a reason they gave Adelaide's number out to people instead of the TARDIS. "Hardly anyone in the universe has that number."

"Well, I've got it," Clara shrugged.

"Yes, from some woman in a shop. We still don't know who that was or why she gave you that one."

Clara frowned. "Is that her now?"

The Doctor shrugged, stepping closer to the TARDIS. "There are very few people that it could be."

He moved to answer it, but Clara cut him off. "Don't."

Adelaide turned to her. "Why not?"

"Because, if you answer it, something will happen."

"And?"

"It'll be a thing."

The Doctor shook his head. "It's just a phone, Clara." He stepped aside, gesturing for Adelaide to answer it. "Nothing happens when you answer the phone." Adelaide picked up the receiver.

|C-S|

The three of them jolted, blinking, as they woke on one side of a table in a dark room with two others on the other side. There were worms, memory worms, in all of their hands, which they all threw down in disgust.

"Doctor?" Clara said, breathing hard.

"Don't touch it."

"Where are we? How did we get here?"

The man across from them, with pieces of technology grafted to his face, shook his head. "Who are you? Sorry, what's going on? I don't understand."

The woman, her face bulging in what looked like an imitation of the worm's horns, made a face. "Argh! What is that thing?"

"A memory worm," Adelaide said.

"What happened to your face?"

"Deletes your memories..." she continued.

"Did you see her face?" Clara asked.

"Are you honestly asking me that, Clara?"

The woman looked around the room. "How did I get here?"

"The same way we all did," the Doctor said, "but we've all forgotten."

"And who are you?"

There was a crackle and a speaker went on somewhere in the room. "I am the Doctor, a Time Lord from Gallifrey." It was clearly a recording. "I have agreed to this memory wipe of my own free will."

"I am Adelaide," her turn, "a Time Lady from Gallifrey. I have agreed to this memory wipe of my own free will."

"I am Clara Oswald, human. I have agreed to this memory wipe of my own free will. Do I really have to touch that worm thing?"

"Yes, you do," the recording of the Doctor said. "And change your shoes. You're next, Psi."

"I am Psi, augmented human," the man. "I have agreed to this memory wipe of my own free will." He took a chip from his head, studying it for a moment.

"I am Saibra," the woman, "mutant human. I have agreed to this memory wipe of my own free will."

Once it went silent, the case in the middle of the table clicked open, emitting a golden light. There were two screens, one on either side of the table, with an electronically manipulated voice speaking. "This is a recorded message. I am the Architect. Your last memory is of receiving a contact from an unknown agency. Me. Everything since has been erased from your minds. Now, pay close attention to this briefing." The image switched to a planet that seemed to be comprised of a singular building. "This is the Bank of Karabraxos, the most secure bank in the galaxy. A fortress for the super-rich. If you can afford your own star system, this is where you keep it. No one sets foot on the planet without protocols. All movement is monitored, all air consumption regulated. DNA is authenticated at every stage. Intruders will be incinerated." It switched to a woman breathing on a tube, only for the light to turn red and the woman to be burned alive. It changed to a couple putting a painting in a drawer. "Each vault, buried deep in the earth, is accessed by a drop-slot at the planet's surface. It's atomically sealed, an unbreakable lock. The atoms have all been scrambled. Your presence on this planet is unauthorized. A team will have been dispatched to terminate you."

At that moment, someone started to pound on a door they hadn't realized before. "This is bank security. Open up!"

"Your survival depends on following my instructions."

"Open up and you shall be humanely disposed of!"

"There's another exit," Saibra called, pointing at it.

"All the information you need is in this case."

Psi pulled another chip from his head, plugging it into the case without a word. "What are you doing?" the Doctor asked.

"Downloading."

The Doctor nodded. "Ah. Augmented. Nice."

"The Bank of Karabraxos is impregnable." The Doctor grabbed a small device from the case, all of them standing as they prepared to run. "The Bank of Karabraxos has never been breached. You will rob the Bank of Karabraxos."

The video ended as glass shattered from behind them.

|C-S|

They kept running until the Doctor stumbled, taking deep breaths. It forced them all to stop but also gave them a chance to establish exactly who these two strangers were. "Okay, okay, okay," the Doctor said. "Augmented human. Computer augmented, yes? Mainframe in your head?"

Psi shrugged. "I'm a gamer." He frowned. "Sorry, you put you in charge?"

Adelaide shook her head. "Is that a natural human response?" She nodded at Psi's neck. "Prison code on your neck."

Psi narrowed his eyes at that. "I'm a hacker slash bank robber."

"Good. This is a good day to be a bank robber." He turned to Saibra. "Mutant human. What kind of mutant?"

"Like he says, why are you in charge now?"

"I'm in charge of plans, she's" he pointed at Adelaide "is in charge of theories. Special power?"

Saibra sighed, turning to Clara, and took her hand. A wave went over her, transforming Saibra into an exact copy of Clara until she let go of her hand. "I touch living cells, I can replicate the owner."

Clara's eyes widened. "Your face, when we first saw you..."

"I touched the worm."

"You can replicate their clothes too?"

"I wear a hologram shell."

The Doctor held up the thing he'd taken from the case. "Human cells."

Adelaide nodded. "Likely DNA from a customer. A disguise to get us inside."

Clara looked between the Time Lords. "We're actually going to do it? Rob a bank?"

"I don't think we really have a choice. We've already agreed to." He held the device out to Saibra, who touched it without a word.

|C-S|

It appeared that Adelaide had been right, as Saibra had been transformed into an older man. Now she led the way through the halls of the bank towards the main hall. The Doctor stepped up closer to Saibra. "How long can you maintain the image for?"

"For as long as I like."

Adelaide nodded. "Very intriguing." Saibra glanced at her. "Scientist. Can't help the curiosity, sorry. Normally I can hide it a bit better."

They stepped into the main hall, surrounded by even more people. "Question one," the Doctor said. "Robbing banks is easy if you've got a TARDIS. So why are we not using it?"

"Question two," Clara said. "Where is the TARDIS?"

He nodded. "Okay, that probably should be question one."

They froze when an alarm sounded, though thankfully everyone else in the room did the same thing. All of the exits were instantly blocked. "Banking floor locking down."

"They know we're here," Saibra hissed.

"Banking floor locking down."

One of the doors opened to reveal a woman who reminded Adelaide a bit of her faint and fuzzy memories of Miss Foster from Adipose strode out. A large alien, wearing a straightjacket, was led out after her, surrounded by a large set of armored guard.

"What is that?" Saibra asked.

"I don't know," the Doctor said, glancing at Adelaide.

"I hate not knowing," was all she could say, frowning.

The woman strode up to a male customer. "Excuse me, sir. I regret to say that your guilt has been detected."

"What?" the man tried to laugh. "That...that's totally ridiculous."

The woman didn't laugh. "Is it, sir? Well then, we will certainly double-check. The Teller will now scan your thoughts for any criminal intent. Good luck, sir." She stepped to the side to allow for the alien to be brought forward, the man putting down his briefcase.

"Interesting," the Doctor mumbled.

"What is?" Psi asked.

"The lasted thing in sniffer dogs. Telepathic. It hunts guilt."

The Teller emitted an extremely high pitched sound, making waves in the air as it projected forward onto the man, who was currently gripping his head in pain.

"What about our guilt?" Clara asked.

"Currently being drowned out."

"What's he doing?" the man had closed his eyes.

"If he has a plan, he's trying not to think of it."

"Ever tried not thinking about something?"

"No."

Saibra let out a breath. "You may have to."

The Teller roared and the woman stepped back into place. "Ah, criminal intent detected. How naughty. What was your plan? Counterfeit currency in your briefcase, perhaps?"

"No, not at all!" the man cried, clearly still in great pain. "For God's sake."

"It doesn't really matter," the woman continued, "we'll establish the details later. The Teller is never wrong when it comes to guilt. Your account will now be deleted, and obviously your mind." She smirked at the Teller. "Suppertime."

The Teller moved forward, two eye stalks moving so that they faced each other and formed a pulse of energy that it fired at the man's head. Psi flinched as the man's started to scream.

"It's wiping his mind," the Doctor breathed. "Turning his brain into soup."

"Your next of kin will be informed," the woman continued, speaking as though a man wasn't screaming right in front of her, "and incarcerated, as further inducement to honest financial transactions."

Clara made to move. "We've got to help him."

But Adelaide shook her head. "He's already gone."

"He's in agony, look at him."

"Those aren't tears, Clara," Adelaide said, not needing to say anything else for Clara to understand.

The man finally stopped screaming as the Teller separated its eye stalks, but that was only because the front of his skull was caved in. One of the guards caught him as he fell. "Account closed," the woman said. "Take him away. He's ready for his close-up." She turned to face the gathered crowd, a few looking quite ill, and addressed them with a microphone. "Apologies for the disturbance. Everyone have a lovely day."

|C-S|

They managed to find an open deposit booth shortly after. "Deposit booth locking," the computer said once they'd all stepped inside. "Please exhale. Your valuables will be transported up from the vault."

Saibra stepped up to the computer at the other end of the room and breathed into it, everyone tensing until the light turned green. Saibra rippled back to her original form as a case arrived.

The Doctor stepped up to the case as Psi frowned. "If he can break in here and plant this thing, then why does he need our help?"

"Depends what the thing is." The Doctor opened the case. "Okay, well, I'm no expert, but fuses, timer...I'm going to stick my neck out and say bomb." He turned to Psi. "Bank schematic. Now."

Psi stepped up to one of the four columns, inset with a monitor, and attached himself to it via a wire. After a few seconds, he gestured them all over.

"The floor below is all service corridors, the veins and arteries of the bank," the Doctor reasoned, stepping back to the middle of the room to test the floor. "He wants us to blow through the floor."

Saibra scoffed. "Well, we'll die if we do that."

"Not necessarily," Adelaide told her.

"What if we're blowing up the floor for someone else?" Clara asked. "What if we're not supposed to make it out alive?"

The Doctor sighed. "Oh, don't be so pessimistic. It'll affect team morale."

"What, and getting us blown up won't?"

He shrugged. "Well, only very, very briefly."

Psi shook his head, stepping back. "Er, no. No way. You can do what you like. I'm going to take my chances out there."

"Psi..."

He went for the doors. "No, no, no. These two, your mates, they're lunatics."

"What do you want, Psi, more than anything else?" the Doctor called. "Whatever it is, it's in this bank. You agreed to rob the most impregnable bank in history. You must have had a very good reason. We all must have. Picture the thing you want most in the universe, and decide how badly you want it. Well?"

Psi was quiet for a moment. "Still don't understand why you're in charge."

"Basically, it's the eyebrows." The Doctor bent over the case, messing with it for a moment before he placed it in the center of the floor and they all backed up, holding onto various bits of the wall. There was a brief flash when the power peaked and then they could hear bits of machinery. The bomb had very neatly made a hole in the floor. "Nice. Dimensional shift bomb. Sends the particles to a different plane." He grinned at them. "Come on then, Team Not Dead."

They all climbed down just as guards started hammering on the doors, having found them. The Doctor just used the bomb on the floor again, resealing it perfectly. "Well, so, what are we supposed to do now?" Saibra turned to the Time Lords. "What's the plan?"

"I don't know." The Doctor shrugged. "The Architect set all this up. It should make sense. My personal plan is that a thing will probably happen quite soon."

"Ah, so that's it. That's your plan?"

"Yep."

"A thing will happen?"

He nodded. "A thing. Probably."

Clara stepped to the side, nodding at something. "Hey, look."

Adelaide smiled at her. "Good job, Clara."

The Doctor grinned. "There you go. Thing time."

They all walked over to gather around the case. "How does he get the cases here?" Clara asked.

"He breaks into the bank prior to breaking into the bank."

"Well, how did he do that? And if he can do that, why does he need us?"

The Doctor shook his head. "Not our problem."

"Well, what is our prob...prob...prob...prob...pr..." Psi jerked as his voice stuttered, shaking himself in order to stop.

"You okay?"

Psi nodded. "Drive glitch. It's fine."

"Guilt is our problem," the Doctor continued. "Guilt, in this bank, is fatal. The Teller can hear it. Ever since that first case was opened, we've been targets. The more we know about why we're here, the louder our guilt screams. That's why we wiped our memories. For our own safety. Now, once I open this," he put a hand on either side of the case, "I can't close it again."

"Would it be safer if only one of us learned it?"

The Doctor nodded at him. "I'm waiting for you to volunteer."

"Er, why me?"

"You can perform a manual delete," Adelaide said.

Psi sighed. "Okay." They all stepped away, letting Psi pull the case towards himself. He opened it carefully before frowning. "I don't know what it is. You may as well have a look." He turned the case so that they could see; seven short tubes with pins. "Well, what are they?"

"Not a clue." The Doctor didn't look at Adelaide.

"Hmm, interesting."

He glanced at Saibra. "What is?"

"You're lying."

"Why would he be lyi...lyi...lyi...lying?" Psi shook himself again. "Ugh. Sorry. Stress. Drains the batteries."

Adelaide nodded at a console close to them. "Interface."

"Do we have time for this?" Saibra asked.

"Well, why not? There's no immediate threat."

The Doctor was quickly proven wrong by the alarm that sounded. "Warning. Intruders detected!"

He groaned. "I should stop saying things like that."

"Intruders detected!"

The Doctor stepped to Adelaide, the two nodding at each other before turning to the three variants on human. "Clara, you stay with Psi. Saibra, let's go and investigate."

|C-S|

The Doctor was the one who ended up kicking open the grill and helping the two women out if the vents. "Aren't you going to ask me?" the Doctor asked Saibra as they started to walk.

"Why did you lie? Those hardware things, you know what they are."

"Exit strategy of sorts."

Adelaide looked to Saibra. "How did you know?"

"I've had a lot of faces. I find them easy to read."

He nodded. "Quite a gift."

"Gift?" Saibra scoffed.

"It got us in here."

"Mutant gene," Saibra corrected. "No one can touch me. If they do, I transform. Touch me and you'll be looking at yourself. I am alone."

The Doctor frowned. "Why?"

"Could you trust someone who looked back at you out of your own eyes?"

There was a moan and the group followed the sound, finding a row of cells. Psi and Clara ran up just as they reached a particular cell that held the man from before. "Oh my God," Clara gasped. "Why is he even still alive?"

"Someone is watching..." Adelaide said, nodding up at the red light of the security feed above them.

"However this goes," Psi mumbled, "whatever happens, don't let me end up like that."

An alarm sounded, though this time they were less surprised about it. "Intruders on the service level. Intruders on the service level."

The Doctor hurried over to another grill, sonicing it open. "Now this" he nodded at the 'No Entry' sign above it, "says place to hide."

They all hurried inside, Adelaide leading that time, and came out in a room that they certainly should have been nowhere near: the Teller's room. The Teller himself was inside a humid glass case, looking like he was hibernating.

"Where are we?" Saibra whispered, not daring to speak loudly with the Teller so close.

Adelaide stepped closer to the Teller and watched it react. "Nobody move or say a word. It's cocooned. Forced hibernation." She frowned. "The power may be dormant..."

There were boots and voices outside, serving as enough sound to wake the Teller. "Clara," the Doctor said carefully, moving closer to her. "It's locked on to you. It may still be asleep. Don't wake it."

"Okay. How do I not do that?"

"Block everything," Adelaide told her. "Think of a wall and don't let anything through." The Teller let out a low growl. "A wall, Clara. Just a wall."

The Teller roared. "This way," Psi called, guiding them all to another vent. Adelaide pulled Clara after her while Saibra guarded the vent they'd entered through. The Doctor managed to get it open, everyone but Saibra managing to get through immediately. He'd just turned to check that Saibra was coming when Saibra fell back with a scream. "Saibra!" Psi shouted, trying to see around the Doctor.

"She's still in there," Clara gasped. "How do we get her out?"

"It's scanning her brain," the Doctor said.

"Then what?"

"Soup."

Clara looked between the Time Lords. "Then help her!"

The Doctor stepped forward. "Saibra."

"What should I do?" it was actually slightly impressive that she was able to talk at all with the Teller rooting through her brain. "How can I get away?"

"It's rooting through your brain. It's tasting all the secrets stashed inside. Any moment now, it will finish its sweep and start feasting on what's left."

"And then I become one of those things we saw sitting in a cage?"

He nodded. "Yes."

"Can you not get me out?"

Adelaide stepped slightly closer. "I'm not certain if it's possible once it's locked onto your thoughts." Even if she didn't know exactly what the creature was, she could make conclusions based on her knowledge of what she assumed were similar things. Once it had broken past the wall, once it had truly gotten inside...there was no turning back.

"Exit strategy. That means what I think it means, right?"

The Doctor handed Saibra one of the devices. "Atomic shredder."

"Painless?"

"And instant."

Saibra nodded. "When you meet the Architect, promise me something. Kill him."

"I hate him, but I can't make that promise."

Saibra managed a small smile. "A good man. I left it late to meet one of those." She pulled the pin from the device, vanishing into a flash of light that made the Teller roar.

A/N: It's a good thing that Adelaide is more about manners than the technicalities of law - so long as they're breaking into the bank for a good/polite reason, she's completely fine :)