Doctors

The room flickered, quickly replaced with a lab that honestly impressed Adelaide. It reminded her of her own TARDIS...which, speaking of, she really did need to look for. Didn't really want it just sitting somewhere where any old human or alien could just waltz in...though it was most definitely well locked and guarded. "And the façade drops because what use are scientists without a lab?"

A large number of the people vanished too. "Teleporter?" Perkins asked.

"Hard light holograms," Adelaide said. "They were never actually here. Fake passengers to make up the numbers."

One of the monitors switched from the train's logo to a monocle. "Good morning, everyone," the voice from before, Gus, said. "Around the room, you will find a variety of scientific equipment. Your goal is to ascertain the Foretold's true nature, probe for weaknesses with a view to capture, after which we will reverse engineer its abilities. Isn't this exciting?"

"You said capture, implying that you can't control this thing. And yet somehow you got it on board. How?"

"There is an artifact, an ancient scroll. I have highlighted it for your convenience. For reasons currently unknown, the Foretold appears in the vicinity of this artifact."

At the end of the room, a light turned on that illuminated what looked like an ancient scroll. "And kills at regular intervals," the Doctor commented.

"Then just maybe we should throw this thing out in the airlock," Quell said, moving to grab it.

"No!" the Doctor shouted. "No! No!"

But Quell couldn't even get close, getting an electric shock. Perkins shrugged. "Looks like they've thought of that."

"What if we say no?" Moorhouse asked. "Down tools. Refuse to work."

"That is your choice, of course," Gus said. "But it would be very upsetting were you all to die at the hands of the Foretold."

"So hurry up, before it kills you," Perkins supplied.

"Any hints on the species?" there were methods to determine the Foretold's appearance despite only one person being able to see it for sixty-six seconds, but it would always be helpful to have a hint.

They didn't get a chance. The lights flickered. "Perkins," Adelaide said, watching each of the gathered people, "start the clock."

"Approximately one point eight meters tall," Moorhouse started to say, staring at where the mummy must be. "Actually, seeing it in the flesh isn't nearly as rewarding as I thought it might be."

"Details, Moorhouse, please."

Moorhouse nodded. "Yes. Yes, of course, of course. Uh...well, it just looks like...er...a man in bandages. I..."

"What kind of bandages?" the Doctor asked. "Old? New?"

"Old."

"Whole? Ragged?"

"Ragged. Falling off in places. I don't know what you want me to tell you."

"Listen to me! You can see this thing. We can't. Tell us what you can see. Even the smallest detail might help save the next one."

His eyes widened. "The next one? You mean you can't save me?"

The Doctor frowned. "Well, that is implied, isn't it? Yes, this is probably the end for you. But make it count. Details, please."

"Er...flesh. Some of it is visible."

"Thirty seconds," Perkins called.

"Er...leathery. Ancient looking. Peat bog preserved."

The Doctor nodded. "Keep talking. Don't waste this chance." The Time Lord followed the man as he moved backward, though Adelaide stayed where she'd been, trying to piece together even the most basic theory about what the Foretold was based on all the information that they had. It was very annoying to have to rely on other people's descriptions. They would never be of a high enough quality.

"I want to bargain for my life!"

"What?"

"Well, it says, some of the myths say if you...if you find the right word, if you make the right offer, then it lets you go."

"This is not a myth," the Doctor reminded him. "This is real. Forget your superstitions. Tell us what you can see."

Moorhouse shook his head. "This is my life, my death. I'm going to fight for it how I want. Er...I give you..."

"Ten seconds."

"My soul! I confess all sins. I give you all my worldly goods. Only...please, please, please," he started to swat the air, trying to push something away. "No!" He crumbled to the ground.

"Zero," Perkins mumbled.

"We apologize for any distress you may have just experienced," Gus said. "Grief counseling is available on request. On the bright side, I'm sure you've all collected a lot of data. Well done, everyone!"

"It's recording every death."

Adelaide nodded. "That's why we're here. To study our own demise." She couldn't help but grin. "Let's get to work." The Doctor started to hand out lab coats to the scientists, which Adelaide took with a slight eagerness. She'd forgotten how much she liked lab coats after so long without them.

After a few minutes of examining the equipment they had access to, she took out the phone she'd taken from the wall earlier, dialing their still trapped companion. "Clara."

"Okay. So, first things first. The sarcophagus is actually a secure stasis unit."

"Yes, I meant to tell you that that's where they want the Foretold to be placed if we do manage to capture it."

Clara sighed. "Well, that would have been good to know."

"We got a bit caught up. Forgot to call. Apologies. Anything else?"

"Please terminate your call and return to work," Gus ordered.

"We have some paperwork," Clara continued. "Passenger manifests from other ships. Maisie recognized a couple of the names. These are missing ships."

Adelaide met the Doctor's eyes. "We're not the first."

"No."

"Please terminate your call and return to work."

"I've got some progress reports. The Gloriana spent three days getting picked off by the Foretold. All died. Performance marked as poor. The Valiant Heart. Forty-two crew, four died. Performance, promising."

"Please terminate the call and return to work."

"I think you should do as it says," Quell said quietly, making Adelaide turn to the window.

The catering staff was floating outside, dead.

Adelaide set her expression. "Clara, stay safe." She hung up.

"I'm sorry," Gus said, not sounding sorry. "I know that must have been distressing for you. But if you are disobedient again, I will decompress another area containing less valuable passengers."

The Doctor frowned. "Less valuable passengers? How does it choose?"

"Well," Perkins shrugged, "I'm assuming qualifications."

"No, no, no. Not the computer, the Foretold. How does it choose who to kill?"

Adelaide nodded. "We assumed it was random, but it likely isn't." She turned to the scientists. "Full histories on all the victims. Medical, social, personal."

"Well done," Quell said.

The Doctor pointed up. "I'm the only one who compliments her."

"Not the time, Doctor."

|C-S|

Once they'd gathered all the records, Adelaide, the Doctor, Perkins, and Quell gathered around one of the monitors. "Doesn't seem to be any pattern," Perkins said. "Their travel history, interests, health. It's all over the shop. Health?"

"Health? Are you sure? Mrs. Pitt, the first victim. She was over a hundred years old. The frailest passenger on board."

"But the next to go, the chef, was young and fit. It's random."

"The chef was ill," Quell said.

"What?"

"A rare blood disorder. Not contagious, but we kept it quiet."

The Doctor nodded. "Because he worked with food. The next one, the guard?"

"He wasn't ill as such, but he did have synthetic lungs implanted last year."

"Professor Moorhouse," Perkins pointed at something on the screen. "It seems he was physically fine but suffering from...here we are. Regular panic attacks after a car crash last year."

"It's picking off the weakest first. Sensing the illness somehow. The fake organs, even psychological issues." The Doctor looked to Adelaide. "But this is good news, because it means we can work out who is next. We need the medical records of everybody who is still on board. If anyone's had as much as a cold, we need to know about it."

Perkins nodded, getting to work, but Quell glanced at the Time Lords. "You really think it can sense psychological issues?"

"Current evidence points to that conclusion. Why?"

"When you said I'd lost the stomach for a fight, I wasn't wounded in battle as such, but...my unit was bombed. I was the sole survivor. Not a scratch on me. But post-traumatic stress. Nightmares. Still can't sleep without pills."

The Doctor nodded. "Which means that you are probably next. Which is good to know."

Quell frowned. "Well, not for me."

"Well, of course not for you, because you're going to die."

Adelaide shrugged. "But from a research perspective..."

Quell shook his head at them. "You know, it's a good thing that you're not a doctor because both of your bedside manners leaves..."

The lights flickered. "Well, there goes our head start. Perkins, start the clock." They followed Quell's gaze as it landed on something. "What can you see?"

"Almost feels out of focus." Quell squinted. "Gives me a headache just looking at it." He started to move back, drawing his weapon.

"No, no, no, no," the Doctor said. "That didn't work before."

"What kind of soldier would I be, dying with bullets in my gun?" He fired, shooting until his gun was empty.

"Fifty seconds."

"Someone shut that man up! For the record, it didn't even flinch."

"Where is it now?" Adelaide asked.

"Approximately twenty feet in front of me and closing."

"Forty seconds."

The Doctor moved to the area Quell had indicated. "Am I close?"

Quell gasped, trying to move away quicker. "It's passing right through you, like a ghost."

Perkins scanned the area. "It's not a hologram."

"If you move, will it follow?"

"Do you want me to move? Because I can certainly still do that."

Adelaide nodded. "Keep looking at it, but move back quickly."

Quell did so, turning, but he just jumped back. "It's teleported away. It's behind me."

"Twenty seconds."

Quell swallowed. "I think this is it. Still, suppose it's not a bad way to go. Blood pumping, enemy at the gates and all that. And thank you, Doctor, Adelaide, for waking me up. It's reaching for me." His head, like the others, moved back. "Hands on my head."

"Zero." As Perkins said it, Quell fell to the ground.

The Doctor glanced over as Perkins's scanner beeped. "Teleporter. That means tech. Then sixty-six seconds to do what?"

Adelaide frowned. "Sixty-six seconds is very specific. Possibly organic, but likely too specific. More tech? A countdown clock? Something charging?"

Perkins looked between them. "A man just died in front of us. Can we not just have a moment?"

"No. No, no, no," the Doctor shook his head. "We can't do that. We can't mourn. People with guns to their heads, they cannot mourn. We don't have time to mourn." He turned to the crowd of scientists. "Everybody, what takes sixty-six seconds to charge up or to change state? Anybody? Are we surrounded by idiots?" Adelaide didn't even comment, but he looked at her anyways. "If only I could see this thing."

"Don't even joke about that," Perkins said.

"I'm not joking about it. One minute with me or Adelaide and this thing, it would be over!"

Perkins shook his head. "You know, Doctor, I can't tell if you're a genius or just incredibly arrogant."

"On a good day, he's both," Adelaide offered. "Mostly the second."

The Doctor grinned. "Ancient tech. This thing has been around for centuries. How? Tech that keeps it alive. Tech that drains energy from the living."

Adelaide held out a hand. "Scanner." Perkins handed it to her and she quickly scanned Quell's body. "Deep tissue scan. He's been leached of almost all energy on a cellular level. The heart attack is simply a side effect."

"Oh, it's not just a mummy, it's a vampire. Metaphorically speaking."

"But why take sixty-six seconds to drain us? Why not just pounce?"

"Phase," Perkins said, eyes widening. "Moving energy out of phase. That takes about a minute, doesn't it?"

The Doctor snapped at him. "That's why only the victims can see it. It takes them out of phase so it can drain their energy. You, sir, are a genius! This explains everything!"

"Apart from what it is and how it's doing it," Adelaide reminded him.

The Doctor shrugged. "Sorry, I jumped the gun there with the 'you're a genius, this explains everything' remark."

Perkins frowned at his tablet. "I think we know the next victim." He handed it to Adelaide.

The Time Lady nodded. "Of course." After handing it to the Doctor, she pulled out the phone again, calling Clara. "Clara, we've identified the next victim of the Foretold. It's targeting those with either physical or mental weaknesses, which means that Maisie is likely next."

"Look, she's had a bad day," Clara said, her voice quieter than before. "That's all."

"The Foretold doesn't care. Her current bereavement makes her as the next victim."

"Okay, but...but we're in here and...if we stay in here, that thing can't..."

"It can teleport. We need her here. Even the computer agrees." She made the assumption based on the fact Gus had yet to order her to stop.

"Okay, so you can save her? Right?"

"Unfortunately, not at the moment. But this would be another chance to observe it in action."

"As it kills her."

Adelaide nodded. "As it kills her. If it happens in there, her death would be a waste. We need her here."

"How? How exactly? She's never going to agree to this."

Adelaide sighed. "Lie to her. Tell her the Doctor can save her. Whatever you can do to get her here." She hung up the phone, looking at the Doctor. They couldn't speak about a possible plan, but the man's nod confirmed Adelaide's assumption.

After all, after spending so long stuck together on Christmas, they'd maintained an ability to understand each other without speaking.

It took a few minutes for Clara and Maisie to reach the laboratory, but Gus opened the door for them when they did. The Doctor rushed over to shake Maisie's hand. "Hello, again," the woman said, smiling. "I'm Maisie."

"Good for you."

"We passed the TARDIS on the way here," Clara said, moving to Adelaide. "Thought about getting inside, hiding, pulling the levers and hoping for the best. But we couldn't even get in. There was a forcefield around it."

The Doctor used Perkins's scanner on Maisie. "Likely Gus attempting to block our escape," Adelaide nodded.

"But how does he even know what it is? Cos if he knows what it is, then he knows what you two are."

Adelaide shrugged. "He has attempted to entice us here before. Free tickets, mysterious summons. Once he even phoned the TARDIS number, which is quite a difficult number to get access to."

Clara, however, frowned at her. "You knew. You knew this was no relaxing break. You knew this was dangerous."

"We didn't know," the Doctor called. "We certainly hoped."

Clara nodded. "Okay, this." She gestured at them. "You see, this, this is why I'm leaving you. This. Because you lied. You lied to me, again. And now you've made me lie. You've made me your accomplice."

"Sometimes lying is necessary, Clara. Especially in experiments."

"What?" Maisie called, having overheard the conversation. "Sorry? When did you lie? Clara?"

"Maisie, I am...I am so sorry."

But Maisie was focused on something else, her eyes wide as the lights flicker. "Do we start the clock?" Perkins asked.

"Not yet." The Doctor moved to stand in front of Maisie, scanning her. "Focus. Focus. Focus! All of that is your grief, your trauma, your resentment. And now..." He scanned his own head. "It's mine."

Adelaide had to clench her jaw. She'd guessed his plan, been almost completely certain about it, but being confronted by it felt different. To be reminded of how much danger the Doctor was currently putting himself in based on the assumption that he'd be able to figure out how to stop the Foretold before it killed him. She would have offered to take the danger herself, but she knew the Doctor well enough to know that, after her last regeneration, he would never allow it.

Maisie gasped. "It's gone."

But the Doctor was focused where she'd been looking. "No. No, it's not. Not for me. Cos now it thinks I'm you." He tossed the scanner to the side. "Start the clock." He spun to face the mummy. "Hello. I'm so pleased to finally see you. I'm the Doctor and I will be your victim this evening. Are you my mummy?" He smirked. "But you can't hurt me until my time is up." He glanced at Adelaide. "I think. So are there magic words? Is there a way to stop you in your tracks?" He frowned, processing Maisie's mind. "Oh, you really didn't like your gran, did you? There's something visible under the bandages. By the way, you weren't being paranoid. She really did poison your pony."

"Oh!"

"Markings like the ones on the scroll." He made a face. "Oh, and your father...sorry."

"What..."

"A tattered piece of cloth attached to a length of wood that you will kill for."

"Thirty seconds."

Adelaide closed her eyes, processing everything the Doctor could tell her at that moment, everything they learned so far, because she needed to stay calm in order to help the Doctor. She needed to stay logical. "It's not a scroll, it's a flag."

"If this is a flag," the Doctor ran to the 'scroll', "that means that you are a soldier, wounded in a forgotten war thousands of years ago." He spun back to where the mummy apparently was. "But they've worked on you, haven't they, son? They've filled you full of kit. State of the art phase camouflage, personal teleporter."

"Ten seconds."

"And all that tech inside you, it just won't let you die, will it? It won't let the war end. It just won't let the war end. It just won't let you stop until the war is over." He nodded. "We surrender!"

"Zero." Perkins winced as he spoke, bracing for the worst. But the Foretold was just standing in the center of the room.

"I can see it again," Maisie gasped.

The Foretold stepped back, lowering its arm. "It's okay," Clara said. "I think we all can."

"Do I start the clock?"

Adelaide shook her head. "No."

The Foretold saluted the Doctor. "The clock has stopped. You're relieved, soldier." The Foretold disintegrated into dust and old bandages, but the Time Lords couldn't be together immediately. Instead, the Time Lord pulled a small device from the pile.

Clara frowned at it. "We were fighting that?"

"So was he."

"Listen, what I said..."

"Not now, Clara," Adelaide told her. "We're not finished yet."

The Doctor straightened to address the computer. "Well, Gus, I think we solved your little puzzle. Ancient soldier being driven by malfunctioning tech."

"Thank you so much for your efforts," Gus said. "They are greatly appreciated. Unfortunately, survivors of this exercise are not required."

The Doctor pulled out his sonic, grabbing more tools from the surrounding tables. "Ah, well, there's a shocker."

A hissing noise started, all of the passengers grasping at their throats. "Air will now be removed from the entire train. We hope you have enjoyed your journey on the Orient Express."

"I take it you know a way out?" Clara asked the Time Lords.

"My enemy's enemy is my friend. Especially when he has a built-in teleporter." A few passengers started to collapse.

"Great! So use it!"

"A little more work..."

"Doctor!"

"Couple of minutes," the Doctor didn't seem that bothered, glancing at Adelaide to ensure she wasn't too affected yet. "Max. We'll give you a shout."

Clara collapsed too and, a few seconds later, the train exploded.

|C-S|

When Clara woke, she was honestly shocked to both find herself on a beach and the Time Lords looking at something the Doctor was writing in the ground. From what Clara could see, it looked like Gallifreyan maths, which this regeneration of the Doctor seemed more interested in than the previous one Clara knew. Adelaide had never expressed a particular interest in it, claiming that maths had never been her strong suit, but the Time Lady did seem interested in the moment.

"Oh hello, again," the Doctor said, glancing up when he spotted Clara was awake. "Sleep well?"Adelaide edited something the Doctor had written.

Clara frowned. "Weren't we just on a train?"

"Oh, that was ages ago."

"And?"

"And what? Oh, and we got off the train." He glanced at Clara's expression. "Oh, well, the teleporter worked eventually. Beamed everyone into the TARDIS. No casualties, just a bevy of sleeping beauties. I tried hacking Gus from the TARDIS, find out who set this all up. He really didn't like that. Set off some fail-safe thing. Blew up the train."

Clara's eyes widened. "Blew up the train?"

Adelaide nodded. "Blew up the train. The Doctor and I left everyone on the nearest civilized planet." She nodded at the skyline in the distance.

"You seemed happy asleep so Adelaide made me leave you."

"It was your idea to let her sleep."

Clara shook her head. "So you saved everyone."

"No, we just saved you and we let everyone else suffocate," the Doctor deadpanned. Clara didn't laugh. "Yeah, this is just our cover story."

Clara sighed, looking at Adelaide. "So, when you lied to Maisie, when you made me lie to Maisie..."

"I was taking a gamble with the Doctor's plan because we couldn't risk Gus learning the plan and stopping him."

"So you were both pretending to be heartless."

That silenced both Time Lords. "Would you like to think that about us?" the Doctor asked quietly. "Would that make it easier? We didn't know if we could save her. We couldn't save Quell, we couldn't save Moorhouse. There was a good chance that she'd just die too."

"At which point," Adelaide continued, "we would have continued onto the next, and the next, until we solved it."

"Until we beat it. Sometimes the only choices you have are bad ones. But you still have to choose."

Adelaide said nothing.

Once upon a time, Adelaide wouldn't have cared about Maisie's death if it helped them determine what the Foretold was and how to stop it. She might not even have cared about how many died. Sometimes, the ends justified the means, so long as she solved it in the end.

If she didn't, perhaps she would have mourned them. Regret it.

Perhaps.

She'd never thought that the Doctor understood that, the way her mind used to work. The way it still did, sometimes, if she didn't focus on shifting her perspective since she'd now realized the detriments of her previous position.

Perhaps she had influenced him just as much as he had her.

|C-S|

Once they'd re-entered the console, the Doctor hurried to find where Perkins had gone since they'd left him. Clara stayed on the upper level with Adelaide, though she didn't look at the Time Lady. She just held her phone, looking down at it, and Adelaide watched her.

She knew that everyone was different, she knew that people changed. But she'd been with Clara this entire time. This wasn't just Clara making the decision to stop. It wasn't what she wanted. And Adelaide didn't like people who tried to make choices for someone else.

The Doctor and Perkins, who'd gone to look at the bottom section of the console, re-emerged. "Well, we won't keep you," the Doctor told the man. "Goodbye, Perkins. Good to meet you."

"You too, Doctor." He nodded at the man before looking at Adelaide. "And you, Adelaide." Between both of them. "And...good luck." He shook the Time Lord's hand and tipped his hat towards Clara as he left.

Once the TARDIS doors closed, the Doctor coming to a stop beside Adelaide, it took Clara a second to speak. "Do you love it?"

"Love what?"

"I know it's scary and difficult, but do you love being the man...and woman making the impossible choice?"

Adelaide said nothing.

"Why would we?"

Clara let out a breath. "Because it's what you do, all day, every day."

"It's what the Doctor does," Adelaide corrected.

The man nodded. "It's my life."

"Doesn't have to be." She paused. "Is it like..."

"An addiction?" Adelaide offered, making Clara flash a smile.

The Doctor shrugged. "You can't really tell if something's an addiction till you try and give it up."

"And you never have."

"Let me know how it goes."

Clara's phone rang and, glancing at them again, hurried up to the upper level to have a bit of privacy as she talked. The Doctor, meanwhile, moved to lean against the console next to Adelaide. "Why'd you say that? About it just being what I do? About addictions?"

Adelaide turned so that she could see him. "Do you really have to ask?"

Adelaide knew that she'd made choices before. That she'd made impossible choices, bad choices, choices when there'd been no right way. That throughout her time before she and the Doctor traveled together she'd made various choices for civilizations and planets.

She wouldn't have amassed an army that could have had the smallest chance against the Daleks if she hadn't.

But she hadn't liked it. She hadn't wanted to do it. She'd never wanted to. The Doctor, no matter what he said, liked to make those choices. He liked to get involved, liked to help solve a problem. Liked to help save people.

And she did too. Adelaide had learned to love to save and help people when she could. But she didn't like to choose for them.

It was why she ran from the Time War. She hadn't wanted to choose for all those planets, all those people.

She hadn't wanted to blow up or save the moon.

She hadn't wanted that weight on her.

In Adelaide's ideal universe, she could travel the universe with nothing holding her back. No responsibilities, no restrictions. Just her and the stars. Just learning. Not interfering.

"Sometimes we're the only ones who can make a choice."

"I don't believe that." Adelaide pushed herself away from the console, but the Doctor grabbed her hand. "Really, Doctor. The only time that Time Lords have that authority is when time itself is involved, and then it's only a matter of maintaining the order of events as they've always occured. Things like moons shouldn't be our concern."

Clara went quiet again and both Time Lords turned to look at her. "Was that Danny?" the Doctor asked. "What did he want?"

She took a deep breath, smiling. "He's fine with it."

The Doctor frowned. "Sorry..."

Clara started to descend the stairs. "Danny. He's fine with the idea of me and you two knocking about. It was his idea that we stop but...he's decided he doesn't mind and neither do I." Her smile grew. "Oh, to hell with the last hurrah. Let's keep going."

"That's a big change of heart."

She shrugged. "Yeah, they happen."

"Seriously?"

Clara fixed them with a look. "Look, as long as you get me home safe and on time, everything is great." She nodded. "I am so sorry. I've had a wobble. It's a big wobble, but it's fine. Forget about it. Now, shut up and give me some planets."

Adelaide let herself smile too. "What about one made entirely from shrubs?" But then she paused. "Are you sure?"

"Are you?" Clara looked between them. "Have you ever been sure?"

"No." The Time Lords answered in unison.

"Then what are you waiting for?" she stepped up to the console between them. "Let's go."

Together, they pulled three levers, sending the TARDIS into flight again.

A/N: It seems the Time Lords really have had an effect on each other, for better or for worse...