A/N: Sheesh. That was rough. I'm just having a tough time getting through this one, for whatever reason. But I think I've pushed through the worst, so updates should be a little quicker. Thanks to all my wonderful reviewers and readers!
-1851-
-London-
Calypso traced her fingers across the photo she held. She was remembering that day the Doctor had told her that this was her home. It seemed as though it were ages ago. She found it was difficult to keep track of the time, of the years that she lost when she vanished from the world. She didn't seem to age, so it was nearly impossible to track the time that she did spend living in it. Where the rest went, she wasn't sure. She didn't even know if time applied to her at all, or if she just blinked out of existence in one place to appear in another.
And she knew no one longer than a few years before she lost them as well. Aside from the Doctor. But even that wasn't true, did she really know him? She thought she had, he certainly seemed to know her in the future. But this time it had been different. This new Doctor had known of her, but he didn't know who she was. Not like the other Doctor. Was it just his lapse in thought? Was he missing pieces of his past? What it all meant, she wasn't sure. But it reminded her more of her own lost memories. That great void that existed before her time with the Sisters.
Her dreams seemed even more distant now, fading the longer she lived her life. Though they were different, on occasion. Sometimes a smiling face, the familiar hum of a machine. A never-ending hole of blackness. But when she opened her eyes again, they were just fading fragments; turning to dust with the dawn of a new day. When she tried to remember if they had any meaning to her, they were gone as if they had never been.
"There you are!" She said exasperated as both of the men came into view. She stuffed the picture away hastily and breathed out a sigh of relief she hadn't realized she had been holding. The day had trickled into evening, and then night, they had been gone so long. She realized, a little guiltily, that this was not the first time the new Doctor had done this to her, but this had been the first time she had felt well and truly worried. She imagined it had more to do with the fact that she knew this Doctor had a habit of finding trouble wherever he went, rather than worrying about him more. But she couldn't be sure.
She was on her feet, running toward the Doctor before she quite realized what she was doing. She stopped herself just before reaching them, and decided it would be better to hug the new Doctor, though she knew she desperately wanted to throw her arms around the man in the dark suit.
"I thought for sure you had gotten yourself killed this time." She said with a small smile, releasing the man and gazing over his shoulder where the Doctor stood, smiling, almost sadly.
"A little decorum, Rosita!" The new Doctor chuckled and patted her on the back. He made his way into the stables. "Is the TARDIS prepared?"
"Yes sir." She said, hanging back to walk next to the Doctor. "I thought you weren't coming back. Where have you two been?"
"Oh, I always come back." He winked and squeezed her hand reassuringly with his own. She smiled as they both wandered into the warmth of the building. "You live here?" The Doctor asked, taking in the unorganized living quarters within the old stables. In the midst of it all, was the evidence that the new Doctor had recovered from where Jackson Lake had disappeared. His luggage was stacked haphazardly around the room, making it a bit of a mess. But it was warm and dry inside, so Calypso could hardly complain. She had certainly slept in worse places.
"Yes," The new Doctor responded as he splashed himself with water. He seemed a bit distracted now that they had returned, as though something he had discovered was not sitting right with him. "A temporary base, till we rout the enemy. The TARDIS is magnificent, but it's hardly a home."
"And where's the TARDIS now?" The Doctor asked as he began to look at the luggage suspiciously.
"In the yard." The new Doctor nodded to the open doorway that would lead outside. "But the chill of Christmas demands a better coat." He set to searching for something warmer to wear in the pile of clothing that he kept near his cot. He continued to speak as he rummaged about, but Calypso found herself having a hard time focusing on his words, the Doctor had retrieved his sonic screwdriver and was scanning about the room with it. Targeting the bags until one started to whirr suspiciously.
"Are you whistling again?" The new Doctor pulled himself from his musings to look at the Doctor with a frown.
"Um. Yes. I am." The Doctor nodded once, tucking the sonic back into his coat. He motioned Calypso to silence when she gave him a calculating gaze.
"What are you up to?" She moved closer so that she couldn't be overheard.
"Investigating a hunch." He popped open the top case that had hummed loudest and began to look inside.
"A hunch? What happened? What did you find in that house?"
"Had a run in with some cybermen." He said distractedly as he went through the clothing. "Oh…what's this then?" He pulled out a small metal cylinder, something that didn't seem to fit the rest of the contents of the suitcase. Or anything else she had seen, for that matter. "Another info stamp." He said wonderingly with a grin.
"That's someone's property." She frowned. Whatever it was, it didn't look safe.
"Well," He drawled. "A dead someone. I'm sure he won't mind." He said absently as he continued to inspect the canister.
"You…" The new Doctor had noticed their activity, but didn't seem overly bothered by what they had discovered. He seemed distracted. "You were there that night." He fought with his memories as they tried to resurface once more. "How…?"
"I think I can explain." The Doctor said in a calming tone. "Why don't you show me the TARDIS?"
That seemed to satisfy the new Doctor, he was always cheerful when it came to the TARDIS, his great flying machine. It wasn't the Doctor's TARDIS, but it was certainly impressive, Calypso had to admit that much.
"Of course," He nodded, pushing away his doubts for the moment. He waved them both to the courtyard and they followed. She wondered what the Doctor would make of it, it wasn't a time machine by any means, but it seemed like something only the Doctor could have come up with.
"Oh…" The Doctor said, coming up short as he saw it. Jen stood nearby, her tools spread out around her, though it looked as if she were finished with her work. Her father ran the gas company next door, and they had discovered that she was quite handy when the new Doctor had troubles completing the TARDIS on his own.
"You've got a…balloon." The Doctor just stared, a mix of surprise and awe clearly visible on his face.
"TARDIS." The new Doctor corrected him. "T-A-R-D-I-S. It stands for tethered aerial release developed in style. Do you see?" He seemed anxious to impress the Doctor with his creation, even as he crossed the courtyard to inspect the work Jen had done.
"Well, I do now." The Doctor nodded with a grin. "I like it. Good…TARDIS. Brilliant. It's inflated by gas, yeah?"
"Yes, we're conveniently near the Mutton Street Gasworks. I've worked out a deal with Jen's father here. Of course, I'd be lost without Jen." He smiled at the freckle-faced girl who dusted off her knees as the new Doctor approached. "Have you got that ripped panel repaired?"
"Yes Doctor." She said, cheerfully accepting the pound note he handed to her, the Doctor noticed the roll of money he pulled out from his pocket with interest.
"He's got quite a bit of money." He said to Calypso out of the side of his mouth. She just shrugged, it hadn't seemed proper to ask him about his finances when he had asked for nothing in return for providing her with shelter and food.
"Maybe tonight's the night. Can you imagine it? Christmas eve from above?" Jen's eyes were wistful as she looked up into the sky, imagining drifting through it in the balloon's basket.
"That would be grand." The new Doctor said, his own eyes distant. "Not tonight, I don't think." He looked over to where the Doctor stood. "Can you imagine it? The time, and the space?"
"The perfect escape." The Doctor said, his own words somber. His eyes fell to Calypso, though he continued to speak to the new Doctor. "Do you ever wonder what you're escaping from?" She felt her chest seize up, his words striking a chord deep within, though she couldn't explain why.
"With every moment." The new Doctor replied, almost unthinking.
"Do you want me to tell you? Cause I think I've got it worked out now." The Doctor's voice was sad as he stepped closer. "How you became the Doctor. What do you think? Do you want to know?" Calypso and the new Doctor both swallowed.
"Oh yes." He answered, but Calypso wasn't so sure.
She was running, running down the streets, searching out the gangs of children that were being forced onward by men controlled with strange devices. The Doctor followed close behind. There was something very wrong going on, they were all being led to the sewers it looked like, and neither of them had any clue why.
Jackson had remained behind, a broken husk of a man. His wife had died that night, that night he had forgotten his past and become the Doctor. His sense of purpose had been torn away from him and she hated to leave him like that. But he had sent her anyway, knowing the Doctor would need help. She knew that as well as anyone, she supposed. And so she had chased after him.
Even now, his words echoed in her thoughts.
It's not enough to make a man lose his mind. What you suffered is called a fugue. A fugue state.
Why had his brown eyes drifted toward her own when he spoke? Why had his gaze been so intent? And why was it tearing her up inside now?
Where the mind just runs away cause it can't bear to look back.
She knew there wasn't time to think about it now, but her thoughts kept drifting back. She couldn't stop herself from wondering. Was Jackson Lake not the only person to have suffered such a fate? Was that why the Doctor had looked at her so sadly when Jackson had broken down, remembering his wife. Remembering her death.
"Oh that's cheating, sneaking up! Did you have your legs on silent?" The Doctor suddenly turned from their perch where they had been watching the children vanish underground. Two cybermen stood at either side of an elegant looking woman, dressed in a vibrant shade of crimson, she wore a satisfied smirk on her face. The Doctor stepped forward, blocking Calypso from their path, though she didn't know what he could do to stop them.
"So what do we have here?" The woman asked watching them both carefully. The cybermen didn't move at all, Calypso was afraid if they did, she might scream. They looked like men, but men who had been encased in metal. Indestructible soldiers. She thought of the furry creatures that had come after her, horrifying, yes, but nothing compared with these monsters.
"Listen, just walk towards me, slowly, don't let them touch you..." The Doctor beckoned the woman to cross the courtyard where they safely stood, trying to lead her away from the mechanical men that flanked her. Calypso shook her head desperately; there was an uneasy feeling in her gut as she watched the woman. She stood so proudly next to them, as though they were her pets.
"Who are you?" Calypso asked in a horrified voice.
"You can be quiet," The woman snapped, her hard eyes directed at Calypso. "I doubt he paid you to talk." Calypso felt her blood seethe as the woman's eyes returned to the Doctor, that twisted smile forming on her lips again. "My name is Miss Hartigan. But more importantly, who are you, sir?"
"I'm the Doctor." He said grimly, realizing that she had no interest in stepping away from the cybermen. If anything, they looked to be her guard, ready to serve. Calypso shuddered at the thought. As angry as she was with the woman, she wasn't foolish enough not to be frightened.
"Incorrect." One of the cybermen spoke in a hollow voice. "You do not correspond to our image of the Doctor."
"Yeah." The Doctor shrugged and pulled the info stamp from his pocket. "That's because your database is corrupted. Look, check this." He tossed it to the cyberman who snatched it out of the air easily. "Go on, download it."
"What are you doing?" Calypso hissed over his shoulder. If the Doctor was such an enemy of the cybermen, she didn't see the wisdom in admitting who they were. And if they delayed here much longer, it was unlikely that they were going to be able to find the children at all.
"Improvising." The Doctor flashed her a quick grin. Calypso was not reassured in the least.
"The core has been damaged. This info stamp would damage Cyber units." The beast said in its mechanical tone.
"Oh well." The Doctor said with a shrug. "Nice try." Calypso shook her head, exasperated.
"Core repaired. Download." The info stamp was plugged into the cyberman's chest and its eyes flashed as the information loaded into its database. Calypso looked nearby for anything that could be used as a weapon. She wasn't sure what could take down a metal man, but perhaps there was something that could slow it down just long enough for them to run. But what then? What could they do if they were spreading through London? There would be no safe place for any of them. "You are the Doctor." It said as a stated fact.
"Hello!" The Doctor said with an unsettling kind of cheerfulness.
"You will be deleted." The cyberman said with equal matter-of-factness.
"Oh, thought you might say that. Just tell me one thing," He held out his hands defensively as the cybermen started to approach, Calypso felt rooted to the spot. Whatever memories she had lost wouldn't matter if she died here at the hands of these mechanical creatures. "What do you need the children for?"
"What are children ever for?" Miss Hartigan spoke again, cruelly. "They're a workforce."
"But for what?" The Doctor insisted on an answer, Calypso was starting to think that the woman was just mad.
"Oh, you'll see. Very soon now, the whole Empire will see. And they will bow down. In worship." Her smiled had widened to a grin now and Calypso was tugging on the Doctor's arm, urging him to run. "Now," Miss Hartigan said, turning to the cybermen. "Delete them!" She ordered. They lurched forward on their heavy limbs, arms outstretched to grab at them.
"Can we run now?" Calypso insisted, pulling the Doctor's arm further. He started to follow but suddenly the cybermen started to sizzle and spark. Their heads both shone brightly for a moment before they exploded in a shower of light. The electricity faded and they realized it had come from the alley behind Miss Hartigan. Jackson Lake stood there, a smoking info stamp in his hands and a cutlass at his hip; wearing the same swaggering grin Calypso was used to seeing on his face.
"At your service, Doctor." He saluted, tossing the useless info stamp to the side. He had several more strapped across his chest, ready for action.
"Nicely done!" The Doctor laughed.
"Shades! Shades!" Miss Hartigan finally screamed, her face twisted in an ugly way as she was filled with rage.
"Run! Come on!" The Doctor took Calypso's hand and they were running to follow Jackson where he had retreated into the winding alleys.
"One more thing." Calypso dragged her hand from the Doctor's to stop in front of the woman who glared at them so balefully. The Shades were coming, she could see them dropping down from the rooftops above. She was afraid, but she was tired of being afraid. So instead, she latched on to what she could control. Her anger. She made a fist and swung as hard as she could, dropping Miss Hartigan with one blow. Her hand hurt, but that was alright, she felt as though a weight had been lifted. At least briefly.
"Oh, can I say," The Doctor scowled as he grabbed her hand again, tugging her forward as the shades fast approached. "I completely disapprove! Come on!"
"I thought you might," Calypso said with a grin, though she did notice a reluctant smirk cross the Doctor's face as they both raced down the streets.
"Turn left at the corner!" Calypso encouraged the children who were the first to follow. They all seemed to understand that they were running for their lives. "And keep running! Fast as you can!" The ground had started to rumble, and despite all of the children who were coming up from below, she had yet to catch sight of the Doctor or Jackson. She wanted to keep running, running away from the madness of the cybermen, but she knew every step was one further away from the Doctor.
Jackson had been right when he had said the Doctor needed someone, someone to keep him out of the worst of the trouble, or someone to pull him back from the brink. She worried now that she had left him, just when he needed her most.
"Go to St. Stephen's!" She ordered as the children continued to pour out of the old warehouse. Their numbers started to dwindle. "Ask for the warden, he'll take care of you!" That was finally the last of them to emerge, and she watched them disappear around the corner, safely away from whatever kind of factory Miss Hartigan had them working in. But there was no sign of the Doctor. Or of Jackson. She shook her head, taking a deep breath, ready to plunge back into the madness. But the ground beneath her feet rumbled violently, shaking so badly that she was forced to her knees. The initial jolt subsided but the ground still swayed, and she could hear something, the water rushing up from the Thames behind her.
She struggled up to her feet again and ran to the edge of the bridge, searching the darkness of the river. Something was rising, something large. It hissed and groaned as it rose from the water, it was a monster. It was a giant cyberman. Even when she thought it was impossible for it to grow any larger, it continued to ascend into the skyline, water cascaded down, splashing around her like a sudden storm cloud. It glowed with an internal flame, illuminating the woman in red from the chest of the beast. Miss Hartigan.
"Behold! I am risen! Witness me, mankind, as Cyberking of all!" Her voice echoed across the canal and the city, speaking through the creature itself.
"I should have hit her harder." Calypso whispered as she stepped back from the stone railing, away from the river. She had no idea how the Doctor would defeat this thing.
The Doctor.
She spun around, racing back toward the door where she had last seen the children retreating. Instead, she found Jackson holding a small boy in his arms; he looked up at the sky, just as horrified as she was at the monstrosity.
"Rosita!" He exclaimed as he saw her, a rare smile in his eyes. "My son, this is my son!" He said excitedly, briefly forgetting the danger they were all in. "They took him from me. But he is alive, so alive!" He hugged the boy tight to his chest with his eyes closed. Calypso was at a loss for words, they had taken his son? No wonder he had run away from his memories, a lost wife, a lost son. That was enough to drive anyone mad.
"That's wonderful." She said finally, forcing a smile on her face. Were there memories of her own waiting for her? Or was it already too late? "Where is the Doctor?" She asked him, pleading with her eyes.
"I…I don't know." Jackson shook his head, looking properly worried again. "He-" He stopped as Jen came running up to them with a crowd of people rushing past, all screaming and fleeing from the creature. "Jen!" He reached out to stop her. "Have you seen the Doctor?" She looked startled until she recognized them both.
"Oh, yes." She nodded quickly. "He's going up in the TARDIS. He's a bit mad." She said with a frown.
"The courtyard!" Jackson started to make his way through the crowd, back to where the balloon had been last.
"No." Calypso grabbed his shoulder, halting his progress. "You have your son." She urged him. "You have a reason to live."
"And you haven't?" He frowned, truly looking at her for the first time since they had met.
"I do." She said, swallowing. "And one of them is about to go up in a balloon and get himself killed." Jackson looked as though he would ask what she meant, but then he understood.
"I am sorry." He said carefully. "I didn't know…" Of course he hadn't, there was no way he could have.
"Go!" She shouted, tearing out of his grip and running into the crowd, desperate to reach the Doctor in time.
It didn't take her long to reach the courtyard; the crowd had thinned considerably, everyone so frantic to get away from the creature that was taking its first slow steps toward the city. She heard an explosion somewhere behind her as the cyberking displayed its raw power, she didn't dare look back. She knew if she did, she might not be able to continue, too afraid to do anything but find some place to hide. She caught herself as the ground rumbled intensely once more just as she reached the courtyard, she could see the balloon rising now, nearly all of the ropes tossed to the side.
"Doctor!" She shouted, running to stop him. He looked up, startled to see her as he was busy dropping sandbags.
"Calypso! Get to Jackson, get as far from the river as you can!" He shouted, lifting some kind of equipment up into the basket that was now bobbing up and down, ready to lift off.
"Where are you going?" She asked, a little out of breath.
"I've got to stop her." He answered, holding her gaze firm.
"Then I'm coming with you." She said just as stubbornly.
"No, Calypso. You can't." He stopped his progress and held her shoulders, "It's not safe for you."
"And what about you?" She asked angrily.
"That doesn't matter-"
"It matters to me!" She shrugged out of his grip, furious with the man. She had spent the better part of the week afraid that she had lost her Doctor for good, and now he was going to do it to her all over again.
"Calypso." He said more gently. "I need to know you're safe. I'll be fine." He pulled what she thought was his necklace out of his pocket, but she realized it was something else dangling on a string. It was a key and he stuffed it into her hand, clasping his cool fingers around her fist. "Go to the TARDIS. Wait for me there." He started to turn back toward the balloon.
"Absolutely not." She said, following him, determined to make him see reason. He looked back over his shoulder and sighed, running his hand through his short brown hair. He shook his head, muttering.
"Oh, alright." He said, sounding rather disgusted. "Grab that rope there; we'll need it to hook the cyberking." Satisfied she had won, Calypso turned to grab the rope from the corner of the courtyard, but as she started back, she saw the Doctor loosening the last rope and with a running jump, swinging his legs into the basket as it rose from the ground.
"Don't you dare!" She shouted as she dropped the rope, sprinting for the balloon. But it was too late.
"I'm sorry Calypso. Truly. I am. Wait for me in the TARDIS. I promise to come back." He shouted down to her as he raised higher up into the sky. She watched it go, a heavy lump sitting in her stomach. "I promise." And then he was gone.
