Stop the Monsters

The Time Lords leaned back against the console, thinking as Clara and Rigsy hurried away from the flats. "This explains everything," the Doctor said. "They're from a universe with only two dimensions."

Adelaide nodded. "It's been theorized for a long time, but no one was ever able to go there and prove its existence. I witnessed a debate over it on Gallifrey."

The Doctor turned to her, eyes wide. "Was it while you were a student?" She nodded. "I was there! Where were you sitting?"

"We can discuss this later." She turned back around to the screen. "And what story were you planning on telling Danny?" she asked Clara, transitioning with ease from her conversation with the Doctor.

The Doctor turned around too. "Or haven't you made it up yet?"

"Sorry, what?" Clara asked. "What was that?"

"Excellent lying, Dr. Oswald."

"Yeah?" Clara shrugged. "Well, thought it was pretty weak myself."

"I meant to us. You told us that Danny was okay with you being back on board the TARDIS."

"Well, he is."

Adelaide nodded. "Yes, because he doesn't know anything about it."

"Adelaide..."

"Congratulations," the Doctor said. "Lying is a vital survival skill."

"Well, there you go."

"But Adelaide hates it."

The screen went static, Clara wincing. "You're breaking up a bit."

The Doctor nodded, not seeing the screen. "Yeah, of course we are."

"No, really, Doctor," Adelaide said, making him turn around. "Breaking through the window could have affected the earpiece. Take it out and sonic it."

"Doing it." Clara did so, cutting off their communication with her for a moment. "Does it even still count as lying if you're doing it for someone's own good?" she mumbled, the Time Lords still able to hear her. "Well, like, technically their own good."

"...it's graffiti," another man was saying. "Stan."

Rigsy grabbed the paintbrush at the same moment Clara looked at the murals in question, and the Time Lords realized what had happened. "Clara, Clara!"

The Doctor ran to the TARDIS doors, sticking out his finger to poke Clara's elbow. "Clara, the mural. Clara, it's the mural! Over there, look, the mural! We've found the missing people, they're in the walls!"

Clara replaced the earbud. "What do I do?"

"Act normal, but get everyone out."

Clara walked over to the group of men. "They're very realistic. Who painted them?"

"I don't know," Rigsy shrugged. "A local artist. Probably a grieving relative."

"Did you ever meet them? Or did they just appear after people disappeared?"

One of the men sneered at Clara. "And who are you when you're at home, love?"

Clara showed him the psychic paper. "Health and safety. This subway is unsafe. Everyone needs to leave right now."

But the man shook his head. "This is blank. Try again, sweetheart."

"What?" Clara looked at the paper.

"What?" the Doctor frowned. "It takes quite a lack of imagination to beat psychic paper."

"Stan," the man called. "Do your job."

"Clara," Adelaide ordered, "stop him."

But before she could do anything, Stan had touched the brush to the wall and was immediately sucked in.

"Stan!" Rigsy shouted, all of the images starting to turn.

"What is this?" another man said. "What are they?"

"They're wearing the dead like camouflage."

"Forget Stan," Clara told them. "Your friend's gone."

"Clara, get them out of there!"

Clara grabbed Rigsy's arm. "We need to move. Now."

The remaining group turned and ran down the tunnel, the images chasing them on the walls and floor. They managed to get into a train shed and slam the door behind them, Clara Sonicing it.

"Did they follow us?" one of the men asked. "Cos I didn't see them follow us. Are we safe?"

"Are we really hiding from killer graffiti? This is insane."

"I agree," the Doctor mumbled, glancing at Adelaide. "We'll have to think of a better name for them than that."

"I'm the one who gets to classify it," Adelaide said, the Doctor nodding, before they redirected their attention to Clara and the situation at hand. "Clara, this is a vital stage. This group is currently confused and disoriented, but soon a leader is going to emerge. You need to make certain that leader is you, and that no one questions you."

Adelaide didn't feel like having anyone thrown out into xtonic sunlight today.

"I'm on it." Clara nodded, stepping up to one of the men who seemed the most scared about this whole thing. "George. George, isn't it? Can you watch that area?" she pointed. "If you hear anything, anything moves, you shout, okay?"

"He will do no such thing until I get some answers," the man, who seemed to have been in charge of all the men initially, snapped. "Who are you? That's what I want to know. Impersonating a government official. Trespassing on council property."

"Seriously?"

He nodded. "Seriously."

"Fine, I'll tell you who I am. I am the one chance you've got of staying alive. That's who I am."

Both Time Lords nodded at that. "Well done."

Clara started to give the various men jobs in the surrounding area, looking at Rigsy first. "Rigsy, how well do you know this area? Do you know where that door leads?"

He nodded. "It's the old Brunswick line. But it's not safe."

"Well," another man, Al now that they could see his name tag, shrugged, "there's safe and there's safe."

"Yeah, I know it. I used to go down there all the time."

"Yeah, I'll bet you did," the previous leader mumbled. "Painting your filth."

"Yeah, well, you might be glad he did," Clara snapped at him. "Those things come in here, that is our only way out." She turned and stepped away, speaking under her breath. "I just hope I can keep them all alive."

"Ah," the Doctor shrugged, "welcome to my world." He glanced at Adelaide as he said that, but the Time Lady said nothing to add herself to that statement. "So what's next, Doctor Clara?"

"Lie to them."

Adelaide frowned. "What?"

"Lie to them. Give them hope. Tell them they're all going to be fine. Isn't that what you two would do?"

"Depends on the situation," Adelaide admitted. "People with hope tend to run faster, but if people think they're doomed..."

"They dawdle," Clara finished. "End up dead."

Both Time Lords blinked. "So that's what I sound like," they mumbled in unison, neither really realizing that the other had said anything.

The Doctor moved to something on the console. "Right, here's something that might help you. Do you remember the graffiti from the estate? Footprints, tire treads?"

"Vaguely."

"Well, I don't think it was graffiti."

Adelaide nodded. "It was how the creatures saw us initially, as the impressions made in two-dimensional space. They attempted to reach out and talk, but when they got no response they moved into flattening and dissection. Attempting to understand, to emulate."

The Doctor leaned against the console. "But here's the big question. Do they know they're hurting us?"

"So what? You think this is all one big misunderstanding?"

He shrugged. "That's a very good question. Why don't we ask them?"

|C-S|

Clara ended up finding a speaker system that she had Rigsy get a step-ladder to help her reach. "We need to find a way to communicate," the Doctor said as she worked to sonic it.

"Why can't the TARDIS just translate?"

"Their idea of language is just as bizarre as their idea of space." Adelaide typed a few things into the console. "Even the TARDIS is confused."

"This is a bad idea," the previous leader, a man named Fenton, shook his head. "What makes these colleagues of yours think those monsters even want to talk?"

The Doctor started to move around the TARDIS, attempting to find something, as Adelaide spoke. "I once knew a race made of sentient gas who throw fireballs as a friendly wave."

"I know one," the Doctor called, "with sixty-four stomachs who talk to each other by disemboweling."

"They've got a hunch," Clara translated.

"Our point being that in a universe as immense and bizarre as this one, you cannot be too quick to judge." He returned to the console, reaching for something under it. "Perhaps these creatures don't even understand that we need three dimensions to live in. They may not even know that they're hurting us."

"Do you really believe that?"

"No, I really hope that," he admitted. "It would make a nice change, wouldn't it?"

"Let's start with pi," Adelaide said. "Even flat worlds have circles."

"She doesn't mean edible pie, she means circular pi," the Doctor said, as though Clara hadn't understood. "Which I realize would also mean edible pie but..." Adelaide gave him a look "anyway..." He typed it on the console and sounds came out of the speakers, the TARDIS picking up something. "They're responding. The TARDIS is translating now. It's a number. Fifty-five."

"Fifty-five? What does that mean?"

"Tenth Fibonacci number," the Doctor offered. "Atomic number of cesium."

"I know what it means," Rigsy called. "We all have numbers on our jackets. Have to sign them out. That was the number on Stan's jacket, the man they flattened in the subway."

"They're gloating."

"We can't know that."

Clara nodded. "It could be an apology, for all we know."

"Really?" Al said. "That's nice of them."

"An apology?" Fenton asked him. "Are you seriously..."

There was another sound, the TARDIS translating it too. "Two two. Twenty-two."

"Twenty-two."

Rigsy nodded. "That's George."

Fenton turned to the man. "Looks like your number's up, George. Now they're threatening."

"Maybe," Clara said. "Or maybe they're showing us they can read."

"Oh, grow up," Fenton scoffed. "They're picking targets."

"Of course you'd see it that way."

"What do you mean by that?"

But Clara had focused on George, the man not moving. "George?" the two men had started to shout at each other, but Clara had started to move closer.

"Clara, be careful."

She got close enough that, when she stepped to the side, she saw George as a flat image. It dissolved into the wall and floor a moment later. "The tunnel!" she shouted to the others, turning back to them. "Doctor, Adelaide, they've got George."

"We know. We did see."

"What now?"

"Give me a minute." He stepped away from the console again, starting to make a device. "I'm working on it."

|C-S|

After a bit of running, the group had reached the disused tunnel, though they'd found a door with a flat handle. While the Doctor worked, Adelaide was watching the monitor. "Another flat handle," Clara said. "They were here. Not now. They've stopped chasing us, I think. It feels like they're cornering us."

"You can't apply human logic," Adelaide told her. "These are creatures from another dimension."

"That's three exits all blocked by those creatures," Al said, who'd been keeping track.

"Rigsy, where's the next exit?"

"The only other one I can think of is where the old line joins the new, but it's a fair walk. Getting through that door would be quicker."

"But we can't, can we?" Fenton snapped.

"I'm just saying."

"Clara," Adelaide glanced back at the Doctor's work, "we might be able to help with that door."

"Give me five minutes," the Doctor said, nodding.

|C-S|

It was five minutes exactly when Clara called out to the Time Lords again. "So this thing you're working on?"

"I think I've figured out a way to restore three dimensions," the Doctor said. "At least on a small scale, say door handles."

"So, what's that, then? A de-flattener?"

The doctor made a face, moving to the front of the TARDIS. "We're not calling it a de-flattener." He passed it to her through the doors. "This should be able to restore dimensions. You see what I've called it?"

"Two D Is? Two Dee Iz?"

"No. Twodis. It's called the Twodis." He sighed. "Why'd I even bother?"

"Took the question right from me," Adelaide said, making him roll his eyes.

"Give it a go, then."

Clara aimed the device at the door, sending out pulses of green light, smoke, and a spark...but nothing happened. "Long way round it is." She shoved the device back into her bag to the Doctor.

But both Time Lords spun when an alarm went off. "Clara, we don't know how, but they're doing it again," the Doctor called. "They're leeching the TARDIS!"

"How? Your doors have closed."

"They've changed frequency. This time it's different."

"Listen!" Clara turned to the men. "The Doctor and Adelaide think we might be in trouble. They think they might be close."

"Where, exactly?"

"I don't know. They're not sure. They're getting readings all around." She frowned at a shadow at the edge of her sight.

"Oh, that's just great," Fenton mumbled. "Sounds important but means absolutely nothing. Can you tell your friends-"

He was cut off by a hand that separated from the wall and grabbed Al, pulling him back into the wall as he screamed.

"Of course," the Doctor breathed. "The next stage. 3D."

"Run!" Rigsy shouted, pointing at the ground.

"The door," Clara called. "The handle's flattened."

The Doctor ran to the doors again, passing the device back out. "I've boosted the output."

"And it will work this time?"

"Absolutely." Clara pointed it at the door but, this time, the handle became three dimensional again. Rigsy opened it and they rushed through, locking it behind them, before starting to run again.

"Clara, you need to use it again," Adelaide called. "It should be able to reverse the process."

"There's a ladder at the end of this," Rigsy said. "If we get down into the tunnel, we can make it into daylight."

"Hang on! Hang on..." Clara used the device again, flattening the wheel.

"If it's flat, we're safe now, aren't we?" Fenton asked.

"They can't get through, can they?"

Clara held out a hand. "Wait..."

There was a sound from the other side of the door and it became three dimensional again, making everyone run. "They have a new ability," Adelaide mumbled. "Wasn't thinking straight. Now that they're 3D, they can restore dimensions."

The Doctor came up to Adelaide's side again. "Clara, do you want the good news or the bad news?"

"Were in the bad news!" Clara shouted back. "I'm living the bad news!"

"The good news is I've come up with a theoretical way to send them back to their own dimension."

"Do it! Now!"

"And that's the bad news." The Doctor glanced at Adelaide. "The TARDIS doesn't have enough dimensional energy to pull it off."

"Great," Clara sighed, the small group of them needing to come to a stop to catch their breath again. "What do you want me to do about it?"

"Apparently these things can pump it out as fast as they can steal it."

"Maybe if I ask them really nicely, they'll fill you up again. Hey!"

Fenton grabbed her bag and pulled the TARDIS out, looking for the device. "Give me that machine! Hand it over!"

Rigsy lunged for him, but in the struggle, the TARDIS fell over the railing. Almost immediately, alarms started blaring, both Time Lords running to get anything working.

"Doctor?" Clara called. "Adelaide? Hello? Look, can we please deal with this later? Because we need to move. Doctor? Adelaide? I dropped you down a hole. Where are you?"

"We don't know," the Doctor shouted. "The shields have gone. Structural integrity is failing. Another blow like that and we've had it."

Adelaide ran to the doors, looking out. "We're on the train lines. And there's a train coming."

"Of course there is," the Doctor groaned. "Short-term re-materialization? Not enough power. Teleport?"

"Not enough power."

"Re-route the heart of the TARDIS through – not enough power!" He looked ready to hit something. "Not enough power!"

"Can't you move the TARDIS?"

"Clara, there is no power, pay attention," Adelaide snapped. "The TARDIS wouldn't be able to boil an egg right now."

"Listen, do what you can to get those people out of there. You're stronger than you know."

"No," Clara cut him off, "I mean you move the TARDIS. Like Addams Family."

Both Time Lords' eyes widened and Adelaide turned back to the door, sticking her hand through and dragging the box off the tracks. The Doctor cheered but at that moment the vibration from the approaching train knocked the TARDIS back onto the tracks. It was too close, Adelaide didn't have enough time to get the box back off. They only just had a chance to close the doors and for the Doctor to dive beneath the console and rip something up.

The TARDIS was filled with a bright light, but it faded quickly. Adelaide slowly walked back up to the Doctor, both knowing exactly what he'd done.

Siege mode. Normally not something Time Lords did, but normally it was fine if they did. But not now.

Because now, the TARDIS almost had no power.

Now, they were trapped in the console room with a dead console and no heating and a limited amount of air.

The Doctor turned up his collar to attempt to maintain heat, Adelaide pulling her jacket close around her.

"I don't know if you can still hear me out there," the Doctor called to Clara, even though they both knew that entering siege mode had cut off the communication, "but the TARDIS is now in siege mode. No way in, no way out. I managed to turn it on just before the train hit. But there's not enough power left now to turn it off."

|C-S|

The Doctor would have hit the scanner if he'd been alone in the TARDIS. They could somewhat see what Clara was doing, but not enough that they could really tell what it was or if it would be successful. "No, no, no. What are you doing?"

"You did just call Clara smart," Adelaide reminded him.

"I called her strong. Not necessarily the same thing."

It was a sign of how bad of a situation this was that Adelaide said nothing to correct him.

|C-S|

"Life support failing," the Doctor mumbled. "I don't know if you'll ever hear this, Clara. I don't even know if you're still alive out there." Adelaide frowned as the room started to shake, red energy streaming into the console and giving it back the power it needed. "But you were good!" he cheered. "And you made a mighty fine Doctor."

They moved around the console, bringing it out of siege mode and returning it to the proper size. The Doctor flicked someone on the console, transmitting through the speakers of the tunnel again. "We tried to talk. I want you to remember that. We tried to reach out, we tried to understand you, but I think that you understand us perfectly. And I think you just don't care."

"We don't know if you're here to invade," Adelaide started, "infiltrate or just replace."

The Doctor shrugged. "I don't suppose it really matters now. You are monsters. That is the role you seem determined to play." He looked at Adelaide before stepping out of the TARDIS, the Time Lady bringing up a force field to keep them back. "So it seems I must play mine. The man that stops the monsters. We're sending you back to your own dimension. Who knows? Some of you may even survive the trip. And, if you do, remember this. You are not welcome here. This plane is protected. I am the Doctor." He turned and Clara threw him back his sonic. "And I name you the Boneless!" he soniced the force field, sending out pulses of energy that made the Boneless start to disintegrate.

Adelaide watched him from the console.

The Doctor was the man who stopped the monsters, but what did that make Adelaide? Was she the woman that stopped the monsters? She didn't like that. She'd never been that.

Sometimes she would be, accidentally. But rarely intentionally. Never intentionally, until she'd started to travel with the Doctor.

He was the man who stopped the monsters, but she was the woman who learned about the stars.

That was all they were.

There were monsters, and then there were Time Lords.

When the Doctor turned back to Adelaide, he grinned widely. Adelaide didn't smile back immediately.

|C-S|

With the TARDIS back in full working order, they used the TARDIS to pick up Clara, Fenton, Rigsy, and a train driver named Bill they'd gotten to help. Bill seemed incredibly thankful to be alive, kissing the ground. Clara chuckled at him as Rigsy walked off with her phone, using it to call home. "You all right?" Clara asked Bill.

"I'm alive, and I've been inside that." He pointed at the TARDIS. "I think I'm up on the deal. Come here." He hugged her tightly. "Thank you." He nodded at the Time Lords, still smiling, before looking at Fenton. "You look chipper." With another nod, he walked off.

"Do people still say chipper?"

The Doctor shrugged. "Apparently." He looked to Clara. "Are you okay?"

"I'm alive."

"And a lot of people died."

"It's like a forest fire, though, isn't it?" Fenton asked them. "The objective is to save the great trees, not the brushwood. Am I right?"

Adelaide winced, but the Doctor was the one who spoke. "It wasn't a fire, those weren't trees, those were people."

"They were Community Payback scumbags, I wouldn't lose any sleep."

"I bet you wouldn't."

Fenton looked around them. "It's good to be alive though. Thank you. Seriously, thank you." He nodded and walked off as well.

"Yes, a lot of people died and maybe the wrong people survived," the Doctor mumbled.

Clara shrugged. "Yeah, but we saved the world, right?"

"We did," Adelaide admitted, trying to remind herself that she would have never agreed with Fenton, not exactly. She would have sacrificed people to solve a problem, would have felt that the end justified the means, but she would have remembered, in the end, that they'd all been living things. Wouldn't she have? "You did."

Clara nodded. "Okay, so, on balance."

"Balance?" the Doctor frowned.

"Yeah, that's how you two think, isn't it?"

"Largely so other people don't have to."

She shrugged again. "Yeah, well, I was you today. I was the Doctor. And, apparently, I was quite good at it."

He winced. "You heard that, did you?"

"Yeah, but the power was going off so I suppose you were delirious." She smirked. "You didn't know what you were saying."

"Yes." Rigsy returned to them, finished with his call. "Ah!" the Doctor turned to him. "The return of the fluorescent pudding brain."

"You do realize he can hear you now?" Clara reminded him.

"I know. Your last painting was so good it saved the world. Can't wait to see what you do next."

Rigsy chuckled. "It's not going to be easy. I've got a hair band to live up to." Both Time Lords frowned, but he turned to Clara, holding out a hand. "Thanks."

"Come here." Clara hugged him and he walked off. "Admit it. I did well." Her phone rang, but Clara just tapped the screen and ignored it.

"Is that PE?"

"Just say it," Clara said, clearly trying to distract them. "Why can't you just say it? Why can't you just say I did good?"

"Talk to soldier boy."

"One, you two shouldn't be telling anyone else to talk." Clara gave them a look. "And two, it's not him. Come on, why can't you say it? I was the Doctor and I was good."

He smiled. "You were an exceptional Doctor, Clara."

She grinned. "Thank you."

"Goodness had nothing to do with it." Without looking, the Time Lords took each other's hands, not really thinking about it.

A/N: I must say, I love the moment the Doctor emerges from the TARDIS to face down the monsters.