Rose woke with her head pounding. "Fantastic." She grumbled, feeling her fully formed skull and the dried blood on her hair. "Smashed my bloody skull." She grumbled more as she looked to her husband. He was out cold beside her, but unharmed except the already healing burn marks on his hand. She fished into his jacket and pulled out his sonic. Finding the right setting she hovered it over her hair. She could feel the caked strands coming apart as the dried blood was broken down to no more than dusty and fell away. She then shrugged off her jacket, inspecting the leather quickly as the chill in the air brought on by the storm consumed her instantly. There was a bit of her blood on the collar, but nothing she was really worried about.
Pulling her coat back on and adjusting it as necessary, she examined their surroundings. The sky above was golden and gorgeous in a dangerous sort of way, reminding her of the vortex. She headed to the edge of the battlement, peeking over and seeing significantly more damage to the ground and building than there had been before. She heard the grumble of the TARDIS in her mind, the indignant hum that she could almost put a human voice to as she gripped about her circumstance. She wouldn't show Rose what was wrong, only reassuring she'll get out of her mess eventually.
"Rose?" She heard the Doctor gasp out in panic behind her, a spike of fear that wasn't hers striking her in the heart. She rounded the corner, only just realizing she had put him out of her view and her out of his in return, and saw him turning about and patting himself down.
"Borrowed the sonic," She said, realizing what he was doing. The Doctor startled at her voice but as he turned toward her and with a wide grin that fell instantly. He looked over his shoulder at the blood on the stone then back to her. "I'm alright, honest." She said as she stopped in front of him.
He pulled her into a hug. "I hurt you, didn't I?"
"Well, I should know better. Might be strong, but Time Lord's are heavy and you're still quite a lot bigger than I am. Accident, is all." She assured him. "Your thick skull would've taken the impact."
"Quite right." He said as she pulled back. He gave his head a knock as if to prove a point, then he grew serious and looked around. "Can you sense it? The shift?" He asked.
"Not particularly." Rose admitted.
"It's there, in the air, the taste of it: New life." He breathed deep. "This is where it all happens, this is when it comes to be. Flesh made … flesh. Not just liquid, or gunge. Actual living, breathing life. But we need to make sure, have to insure, that the humans here accept their gangers."
"What happens if they don't?" Rose asked.
"Not sure, but I don't care to find out." The Doctor said wearily. "Not with the way Cleaves was treating them."
"Cleaves?" Rose shook her head.
"Cleaves, the leader who equated the Flesh to moss. Come on, we need to move." He said, shifting to take her hand and pulling her along.
Instead of going back inside as she expected, the Doctor took Rose down into the courtyard via the stairs leading from the battlement. He paused part way down, looking over at something, and Rose tried to follow his gaze. All she caught was a head of dark hair before the Doctor gave her hand a tug and they were heading toward it.
It was the woman, Cleaves, as Rose now knew, though she wasn't sure how the Doctor picked up on her name when she had not. Cleaves was staring out at the horizon, looking all the world bewildered.
"You're not in your harness." The Doctor stated as they came up beside her.
Cleaves looked between he and Rose. "I'm sorry. You were right, Doctor. We should have left. We've lost all power and … I abandoned my team."
"The let's go get them." He said, gesturing for her to follow them as he moved at a more human pace back inside.
"The Flesh." He said through their bond as they walked.
"What?" Rose frowned.
"It's how I knew her name. When I communed with the Flesh I learned about them all. Couldn't retain all of it, but I did catch names. Names are important, it's better than calling everyone 'you'." He rambled. Then he paused, turning to look back at she and Cleaves with confusion. "How long would you say we were unconscious?" He asked.
"Not long. A minute, maybe two." Cleaves responded.
"I cracked my head open on the roof." Rose shrugged. "Dunno how long that puts me out for."
"And you were up and moving about before me, had time to clean up a bit before I stirred. No, not a minute or two, I'd say an hour." He fiddled with his bow-tie nervously. "A lot can go wrong in an hour."
"We should find Rory and Amy." Rose said, giving his hand a squeeze.
"Yes," He said, drawing the word out before continuing.
They weaved their way back up to the room where the harness things were, and Rose sighed with relief upon seeing their companions up and about, and no worse for wear.
She expected Cleaves to say something, a small word of pleasure that her crew were all safe, but she merely stood off to the side with her arms folded.
"Good to see you two made out alright." Rose said as she went to hug both Amy and Rory.
"Well, had a bit of a shock." Rory confessed. "Never believed my Gramps when he kept saying standing near a bathtub during a lightning storm was bad."
"Long as you two are fine." Rose said with a slight grin, remembering her own Grandad Prentice used to say the same thing.
"Doctor," Amy said, cutting the pleasantness of the reunion short. She seemed nervous as she shifted toward the Time Lord, glancing at the crew. "These are all real people, so where are the gangers?"
"Don't worry," Cleaves butt in. "When the link shuts down, the gangers return to pure flesh. Now, the storms left us with acid leaks all over, so we need to contact the mainland. The can have a rescue shuttle out here in no time." She was all cold authority, ready to move about and take command.
She stopped short when Dusty Springfield echoed through the monastery hall.
"It's starting." The Doctor said through the bond.
No one said anything out loud for a few refrains, then the blond man said, "That's my record. Who's playing my record?"
"Your gangers, Jimmy. They've gone walkabout." The Doctor explained quite nonchalantly given the panic Rose could see mounting on the faces of the acid miners.
"No," Cleaves said firmly. 'It's impossible. Cars don't fly themselves, cranes don't lift themselves, and gangers don't…."
"Seems like they do, mate." Rose said evenly. "Else someone went walking about while comatose and flicked on the record. Doubt that, though."
"Listen to me, Sweetheart," Cleaves started in with a tremble in her voice.
"Rose," Rose interrupted. "Name's Rose."
"Gangers are just Flesh. Just liquid. Just …." But she stopped, the music seeming to go up in volume and silencing what ever argument she was about to make.
"Where was your record player before?" Rose asked Jimmy.
He turned to her with surprise, then blinked. "Umm, the Dining Hall. Best acoustics, there."
"It's also where all our things are." The dark haired one said.
"Well then, lead on to the dining hall." The Doctor gestured to the door.
The crew looked to one another nervously, then did exactly that.
The hall was a disaster. On the table lay the remains of a snack, half full tea cups and cookies were strewn about. A small card house stood at one end of the table, a few various other nicknack's here and there. Clothes were tossed about, lockers and storage crates emptied of their contents. The record player stopped as if to greet the lot of them while they walked in.
"No way," The dark haired one stated as he looked about.
"I don't … I don't believe this." Cleaves said as she stopped by the doorway, not seeming to dare come any further inside.
"This is just like the Isle of Sheppy," the dark haired one said as he moved toward the card house.
The Doctor moved around him, taking a spot at what appeared to be the head of the table, resting his chin on his propped upped hands as he eyed the card house. "It would seem the storm animated your gangers." He said casually.
"They've ransacked everything." Cleaves said bitterly.
"Not ransacked, searched." The Doctor corrected while Rose came around and stood next to him.
"Through our stuff?" Cleaves practically spat.
"Their stuff." The Doctor corrected again.
"Searching for what?" Jimmy asked, looking at the record player as if he wasn't sure he should touch it again.
"Confirmation." The Doctor replied. " They need to know their memories are real."
"Oh, so they've got flaming memories now?" The dark haired one said.
"Always had memories." Rose reminded him. "They were you, yeah? You have memories. Of where you grew up, who your friends are, the family you have, favorite food, how you take your tea. It's all shared with 'em, can't blame 'em for wanting to connect with all that."
"Memories from a life they stole." Cleaves half growled.
"No, bequeathed." The Doctor corrected. "Rose's right, you gave them this. You poured in your personalities, emotions, traits, memories, secrets, everything. How else do you think I know all your names when we never once had a proper introduction? It spoke to me. It was alive then, and now the storm has animated them. You gave them your lives, are you surprised they walked off with them?" The Doctor challenged.
There was an uncomfortable silence among the crew as they seemed to think on that.
"I'll say it again, Isle of Sheppey." The dark haired one said.
"And why do you say that, Buzzer?" The Doctor asked.
Buzzer shrugged. "Ganger got an electric shock, toddled off, killed his operator right there in his harness."
"Even if this has actually happened, they can't remain stable without us plumbed into them." Jimmy tried to reason. He turned to Cleaves, more unsure than before. "Can they, Boss?"
She chewed her lip nervously. "I guess we'll find out."
"Got to make them see," The Doctor said, his voice in Rose's mind drowning out the minor commotion in the room. She glanced over her shoulder, seeing Rory helping Jen out the room just as Dicken's sneezed. She turned back to the Doctor, the question on her tongue gone as she watched him study the card house with utter fascination.
"That's me," Buzzer gestured. "It's good to have a hobby." He looked it over. "So, what, my ganger did that all on its own?"
"His own." Rose mumbled.
"Yeah, sure, his own." Buzzer replied.
"Looks like." Rose said, looking at it herself. "Never was good at these, me. Terrible, really, could never get past the second tier."
"Took time. Me granddad taught me." Buzzer said with some wistful pride.
"As did your ganger's granddad." The Doctor said, looking up at Buzzer. "You both have the same childhood memories, just as clear, just as real." He stood, looking at Cleaves, Dickens, and Jimmy in turn. He leaned on the table, accenditally knocking down the card house. He grimaced, blushed a touch, but continued as if nothing happened. "They're scared, disoriented, struggling to come to terms with an entire life in their heads."
Amy frowned, Rose noticed, hugging herself a bit before wincing as if in pain. She straightened, glanced about the room as if nothing happened and clearly didn't notice she'd been caught.
"But … that incident on the Isle of Sheppey," Jimmy said nervously. "Never wanted to believe it, but now that we seen it's possible …."
"Was quite gruesome, it was." Dickens said with a sniff.
"We'll just have to figure out a way to turn them back to Flesh." Cleaves said as if it were a simple solution.
The Doctor sighed, pushing his hair from his forehead, and wandered to the refrigerator.
Rose nudged his mind, trying to find out what he was up to, but he waved it off mentally and soothed the brush off with a loving caress.
"You'd be willing to kill someone who looked exactly like you. You could look yourself in the eye and destroy yourself?" Rose asked.
Cleaves turned toward her, no trace of amusement in her eyes. "Do you know how the operator on the Isle of Sheppey was killed?" Cleaves asked, starting with Rose but then looking at the remaining crew.
"Saw the pictures." Buzzer admitted. "Seemed like the ganger didn't want anyone to think he wasn't the original. "
Jimmy seemed to pale at the thought. "We need to protect ourselves." He said.
"Are you a violent man, Jimmy?" The Doctor asked, the sounds of a microwave causing Rose to see what her husband was up to.
"No," Jimmy said as the Doctor watched a container of something that smelled suspiciously like fried rice warm up.
"Then why would the other Jimmy be?" The Doctor challenged.
This gave the crew pause. All except for Cleaves, it seemed, as she rounded and charged toward the Doctor.
"Don't tell me you can eat at a time like this, Doctor." She chastised.
"You told us that we were out cold for a few minutes when, in fact, it was an hour." He stated.
"Sorry," She said slowly, like she wasn't sorry at all. "I just assumed …."
"Well, it's not your fault." The Doctor interrupted. "Like I said, they're disoriented. Amy, when you got to the alcoves, who was in harness?" He asked as the microwave went off. He'd spoken quickly, making it so anyone who didn't know him so well would blow past the implication.
Rose sucked in her lips, preventing her from forming any reaction whatsoever as the Doctor took the dish out of the microwave using a tea towel.
"Um," Amy said. "Jimmy and Dicken were helping Buzzer out."
"Jennifer?" The Doctor asked, turning toward Cleaves.
"She was standing on her own when we got to her." Amy shrugged.
Without saying anything, the Doctor handed Cleaves the dish, and she took it on instinct with her bare hands. He waited, watched Cleavers as she looked thoughtfully at Amy, then finally told her, "Careful, it's hot."
Cleaves startled, looking down at the steaming dish in her hands before dropping it with a hiss. The plate shattered on the stone floor and she glared at the Doctor. "The transmatter's still a little rubbery." He said as he examined her hands. "The nerve endings are not quite fused properly."
Cleaves looked at the appendages like they'd betrayed her, then glared up at the Doctor. "What the hell are you talking about? Why didn't I feel that?"
"You will." He assured. "You'll stabilize."
"No, stop it!" Cleaves growled, and Rose moved closer on instinct. "You're playing stupid games." She turned away from the both of them, and Rose looked to see what her husband would do.
He didn't budge an inch. "You don't have to hide," he said gently. "Please, trust me."
Cleaves turned on him, and Rose moved herself between Cleaves and the Doctor on instinct. She glared at the woman before her, ready to growl but stopped at the sight of Cleaves face.
She hissed at Rose, and making her to lean back against her Doctor in reflex.
Hot shame came over her a moment later, looking at the half formed face before her and realizing that there was no was ganger Cleaves could have controlled it.
"Where's the real Cleaves?" Rose heard Buzzer yell, but she refused to look away from ganger Cleaves. She held her eye, making sure she knew that the fear and instinct to protect the Doctor didn't actually have anything to do with her being different. She wasn't sure how she could accomplish that with just a look, but she was going to try.
"We are real." Ganger Cleaves hissed as she turned away from Rose and the Doctor. "We are living!"
Before Rose could react, ganger Cleaves shoved her out of the way and charged from the room.
"Doctor, what happened to her?" Amy asked, breathing as though she was just as startled by Cleaves.
"Early Flesh," He said clasping Rose's shoulders and squeezing before stepping around her to the crew. He continued, hands flailing about as he explained. "Early stages of the technology. She can't stabilize, shifting between half-formed and full-formed. For now, at least. So much to learn."
"And we should just let her go?" Buzzer asked.
"Yes." The Doctor replied. "Unless the Cleaves you know is murderous, you don't need to worry."
"Doctor, what about Rory?" Amy asked.
"What about Rory?" He countered, confused.
"He's not here," She sassed. "Which means he could be out there. With one of them."
"He's safe, Amy." Rose reassured.
"No, Amy's right." The Doctor said cautiously. "We don't know where he is, which means he might be with one of the gangers and he might say something … wrong." He explained.
"Hey went with Jen to the washroom." Jimmy said, moving away from Buzzer cautiously.
Rose noticed the knife Dicken's had in his hand, the tense posture the dark haired man carried, and decided she liked Jimmy leaps and bounds over the other two.
"Well, lead the way, Jimmy." The Doctor said, waving for him to do just that. He grabbed a bunch of torches, handing them to each of them.
"What about us?" Dicken asked, followed by a sneeze.
"Stay where you are." The Doctor said. "If your gangers come back, don't kill them. Talk to them. You might be surprised what you might learn talking to yourself." He said with a cheerful grin before guiding Rose to follow he and Amy as they hunted down Rory with Jimmy.
Rose moved up to stand by Jimmy, walking as much ahead of him as she dared.
"You seem a bit more accepting of this than the others." Rose said quietly to him.
Jimmy looked a bit bashful as he looked everywhere but at her.
"Just think 'bout my boy, what I'd want him to do." He explained. "I try and teach him not to judge. Be a hypocrite if I didn't try me self."
"You're a Dad." She said with a grin. "Wouldn't expect it, the working being a bit hazardous and all."
Jimmy shrugged. "Do what we have to, right? Washroom's down these stairs." He said, gesturing to the upcoming doorway.
The first thing Rose saw at the bottom of the stairs was the shattered mirror, and she darted to examine the stall with the hole through it.
"Rory!" Amy cried out in panic.
"Not here, Amy. And no blood," Rose tried to reassure. "He got away."
"Got away?" She asked, the panic not quite leaving her voice.
"Of course." The Doctor sighed, moving to lean on the sinks and look at the shattered mirror. "Jennifer's a ganger, too."
"You said they wouldn't be violent." Amy snapped, moving toward him with her hands fisted.
"But I did say they were scared and angry." He straightened and turned toward her, eyes flickering to her fists. "You're scared and angry right now, and look what you're doing. You aren't violent, Amy, and look how you're reacting."
"You seem to know something about the Flesh." Jimmy said uneasily. "You're no weatherman, are you? Why are you really here?"
Rose saw the flicker of guilt in her husband's eye, then noted how he couldn't look at Amy as his mouth twists.
"Not important right now. We have to talk them." He said, suddenly bolting from the room.
"What's going on?" Jimmy asked as Rose and Amy dashed after him. He followed on their heels. "Where's the real Jennifer?"
"We'll figure it out, Jimmy," Rose assured.
They emerged at the top of the stairs, and the Doctor moved his torch about. Rose did the same, stepping just a bit ahead, investigating further into the corridor. There was a low groan, and Rose turned toward the stairs to see if maybe it was due to Jimmy or Amy.
The Doctor came toward her, frowning a bit just as Rose spotted the buckling pipe.
"No!" She said with sudden understanding, shoving the Doctor back hard enough that he collided with Jimmy and Amy just as the pipe broke.
Pain came from all sides, and if she thought it was possible to wretch, Rose would have. Even as she caught sight of her arm , she couldn't manage more than a gag before collapsing.
"Oh my god." Jimmy said, panicked. Amy started screaming.
"Let me die." Rose managed to choke out, extending her hand out for someone to grab. She felt cool hands wrap around hers and pull before she lost consciousness.
"Don't look at her." The Doctor instructed, his own voice choked up but firm. "Not until I give the okay. Umm … Jimmy, will you have an extra pair of coveralls?"
"Yeah." He said, stunned sounding.
"Good. We're going to need it." The Doctor said.
"Why?" He asked.
As he and the Doctor were chatting, Rose was gaining strength. She vaguely recalled the Vashta Nerada from the library all that time ago. How she stuck her hand in its swarm, how she regenerated her skin slowly. Forcing herself to look, she realized her arm was solidifying again, though looked as if she'd stuck in a fire and left it there. Shakily, she dragged herself just a bit further away from the puddle until she could get up on her knees. Feeling like a newborn deer, Rose struggled and wobbled to her feet, pushing hair from her face that felt significantly shorter, much like the haircut she allowed her Mom to give her at Christmas time when the Doctor just regenerated from his ninth to tenth form.
She looked down at herself, seeing her clothes were mostly destroyed.
"Well, bit more naked than one ought to be in a church." She said, her voice still strangled from pain. "Hair cut's a bit unexpected."
The Doctor shrugged off his jacket, coming up behind Her and putting it on. "We'll get you something temporary until I get to the TARDIS." He said then cleared his throat. "Alright, it's safe to look."
Amy turned immediately, Jimmy doing so much more slowly.
"Did … did you?" Amy stuttered.
"No," Rose said with a glare to the Doctor.
He put his hands up. "Couldn't do it, not with knowing you'd simply regenerate the tissue, given a few minutes. Be in less pain than if you died."
Rose looked down at her badly scarred skin. "Not so sure." She admitted. "Feel it burning terribly, and the skin looks like I walked through fire and barely survived."
"How is she alive?" Jimmy asked, gaping at Rose.
"Complicated and unimportant." The Doctor said simply with a smile. "Now, I'm going back to the TARDIS. Too dangerous with all the acid leaks, as we have just learned. Bring Rose to the dining hall, wait for me there, stay together, okay?"
"And what about Rory?" Amy asked.
"We'd find him faster with the TARDIS." Rose said as the Doctor guided her toward Jimmy. He looped an arm around Rose's waist but still looked utterly flabbergasted.
"Which way to the exit?" The Doctor asked him.
"Other corridor, keep going straight, can't miss it. But you're never going to get your vehicle in here."
"I'm a great parker." The Doctor smirked. Rose snorted, but he ignored her. "Just get Rose to safety."
He didn't say anything else before he darted around the corner and disappeared. After the echo of his foot falls faded, Amy back tracked as well, heading around the same corner.
"Amy?" Rose asked.
"I have to go find Rory." She insisted. "I can't … I feel like I need him with us, and I'm restless without him."
Rose went to argue but caught the flicker of pain on Amy's face.
"Alright. Be safe, yeah? Pretty sure I'm the best case scenario for acid burn right now."
Amy smirked. "Better start moisturizing more, Grandma. Skin's looking a bit wrinkled." She teased as she started walking away.
"Oi, watch it, Pond." Rose called back.
"She shouldn't be wandering about without an acid suit." Jimmy said as he started helping Rose back toward the dining hall.
"I wouldn't worry." Rose said with a sigh. "In a small way, she's not."
~DWDWDW~
They couldn't find her a spare jumpsuit, but Jennifer and Cleaves were both about the same size as Rose so Jimmy managed to find her some black sweats, a maroon jumper, and a pair of white runners she could wear. She found some scissors and a mirror, sat at the dinning hall table, and went about evening out the length of her hair. It was very much like the style she had oh so long ago, and a part of her ached for the mother that insisted short was good on her.
The scars on her Rose's were mostly faded, the majority of the damage having hit her limbs and torso. Still, it was enough to make Buzzer and Dicken unwillingly stare for a bit after they returned to the dining hall.
Apparently, despite being told to stay, they went after the acid suits only to discover that the gangers had gotten to them first.
Rose said nothing.
Instead, she quietly observed how the lot were treating Jen when they returned, Amy and Rory with them, to the dining hall. Even Jimmy, who not that long before toted wanting to set a good example for his son, was quick to fall into line with Buzzer and Dicken's thinking. Even Amy was keeping her distance, though Rory stayed near Jennifer as if protecting her.
She fed this to her husband through their bond, but all he did was send her reassurances. He had a plan, and he had a back up plan in case the first didn't go the way he'd like.
So Rose waited, nibbling on some of sort of dried fruit thing that had been in a sealed packet on the table. She'd catch Rory's eye and hope he understood that the Doctor was on the way, and they just had to listen for the TARDIS.
It was not the TARDIS she heard.
"Okay, let's not do anything at all," Amy was saying, "Until the Doctor gets here." She was parroted by the Doctor as he walked in with the gangers behind him.
"Hello." He said on his own, with a wave before catching Rose's eye. "Oh, you're looking better already. And a hundred years younger, maybe a hundred ten." He said with a grin, gesturing to her face and ignoring the growing tension in the room as the crew looked at themselves.
"This is…." Jimmy said.
"You're telling me," The other Jimmy replied, and Rose only knew it was a ganger because of where he was standing.
"Alright, Doctor, you've brought us together. Now what?" Cleaves said with barely masked exasperation. Well, the ganger Cleaves, Rose assumed.
"Before we do anything, I have one very important question." The Doctor said to the room. "Has anybody got a pair of shoes I could borrow? Size 10. Although, I should warn you, I have very wide feet."
"I got a pair," Buzzer said, getting up and heading to his pile of stuff.
"What happened to your boots?" Rose asked before popping another piece of dried fruit, and apricot this time, into her mouth.
"I may or may not have stepped into some acid." He admitted. "And before you start, it was because the TARDIS was in a pool of it. Don't worry, she's safe, just a little put out." He hastened to explain, his hands were moving about as he spoke. Buzzer handed him a pair of boots, brown as opposed to the black he was wearing before, and the Doctor took them with a boyish grin. Sitting on the corner of the table nearest Rose, he took off his ruined shoes and replaced them.
As he changed, the duplicates and Cleaves seemed to shift about, grouping each on either side of the table. Rory and Jennifer remained off to the side, hand in hand, and Amy stood a bit behind the Doctor.
Rose smirked, seeing an all too familiar look in the ginger's eyes as she glanced toward her husband and Jen. At least that green eyed monster wasn't pointed toward her this time.
"Are you starting to see, now? Having stared at yourself all this time, seeing the similarities? The Flesh was never merely moss." The Doctor startled Rose as he got up abruptly, and after her heart settled back in her chest she stood up with him. He then reclaimed his jacket which she had draped over the back of her chair, and he put it on with flourish. "What you are seeing before you is not a copy, but another person. We were all jelly, once. Little jelly eggs, sitting in goop."
"Might not be the best picture." Rose said as Amy grimaced.
"Might not, but that's the point. The storm has hardwired them, made them people."
"With souls?" Jimmy wondered aloud.
"Rubbish." Dicken dismissed before sneezing into his elbow.
"Bless you." The other Dicken said, earning him a glare from Cleaves.
"Look," The Doctor said gently, "I'm not going to lie to you, it's a right off mess, this. But, as you might say up north, 'Oh well, I'll just go t' foot of the stairs.'"
"And I will leave my number for any of the lot of you should your spouse or otherwise need to learn to deal with two of ya." Rose said. "Bit of experience with that."
She smirked at the confused looks exchanged among the crew. The Doctor pouted a bit, grumbling quietly over their bond before turning to the crew.
"Once I'm able to get to the TARDIS again, we'll get everyone out of here safely. We'll take it from there."
"But we're still missing Jennifer and Cleaves." Amy noted.
"And I'm sad to say it'll still be a bit before I can get to the ol' girl." The Doctor noted.
"We should still have everyone together though, yeah?" Rose crossed her arms.
The Doctor considered it for a moment. "Suppose it really can't hurt."
"I'll go and look for 'em." Jimmy said, heading for the door.
"I'll give you a hand, if you like. Cover more ground." The other Jimmy offered with a shrug.
It made Rose smile to see the two of them already getting along, and she wasn't sure the approval and relief she felt in her heart was hers or her husband's.
"This circus has gone on long enough!" Cleaves voice came from behind, and Rose turned with the rest to see her entering from the back holding what looked like a battery with some kind of hose on it.
"Oh great." The other Cleaves said sarcastically. "You see, that is just so typically me"
"Doctor, tell it to shut up." The one holding the weapon said.
"It? Got more humanity than you do right now, mate." Rose countered.
Cleaves looked her over. "Oh, you've seen better days. Which one of those things did that to you, huh?"
"Please," The Doctor said, shifting in front of Rose before she could step any closer to the woman with the weapon.
"What are you going to do to them?" Amy asked apprehensively.
"This thing is a circuit probe. Fires about, oh, forty thousand volts. It would kill any one of us, so I guess she'll work on gangers just the same."
"It's interesting you refer to them as 'it', but call a glorified cattle prod a 'she.'" The Doctor noted, hands still up where Cleaves could see them.
"When the real people are safely off this island, then I'll happily talk philosophy over a pint with you. But they're monsters. Mistakes. The need to be destroyed, now."
"We always have to take charge, don't we, Miranda?" The other Cleaves said with calm. "Even when we don't really know what the hell is going on."
In a flash, the other Buzzer ran, making to tackle the Cleaves with a weapon, but he wasn't fast enough. A charge of electricity found its way to its target, and the other Buzzer twitched and flailed before falling to the ground.
The Doctor ran over to him, checking vitals.
"He's dead." The Doctor choked out.
"We call it decommissioned." Cleaves said, gesturing with the prod.
"You stopped his heart! He had a heart! Aorta, valves, a real human heart, and you stopped it!" The Doctor cried out as Rose made to step in front of the prod, making sure where ever it was aimed it would hit her.
"Out of the way, Sweetheart." Cleaves mocked as people started panicking.
Rose dove, surprising Cleaves enough that she didn't set the charge off before Rose made contact with her. Getting the probe away, Rose took the cord and pulled hard, snapping it to ensure that even if Cleaves managed to wrestle it from her, she wouldn't be able to use it. The sparks left in the wire tingled up Rose's arm, causing her heart to stutter a bit. Already weakened from the acid, Rose fell on her knees but not any further. She stared Cleaves down even as she heard the Doctor coming up behind her.
"Look what you've done," he snarled at Cleaves.
"If it's war, then it's war." She spat.
"It wasn't war until you fired the first shot, you bleeding idiot." Rose growled back.
Cleaves stared at her, then at the Doctor, and snickered. "You don't get it. How can you? It's us and them now." She said as she got to her feet, looking to her crew, the gangers gone from the room. "Us, and them." She reiterated.
"Us and them," Dicken said without hesitation.
Jimmy looked crestfallen as he nodded. "Us and them."
"Come on, you need to sit down," The Doctor sighed, helping Rose to her feet and guiding her over to the table. He sat her down as Rory and Amy went about respectfully covering the other Buzzer's body while the crew chatted among them. "Never once have I ever thought I'd say this, but I should have let you die."
Rose chuckled unamusedly. "Would have been better in the long run, yeah. Pain, but my body would have renewed faster. Not gonna lie, was hoping she'd get me before I got to her." Rose stretched, cracked her neck. "Starting to feel like a hundred thirty."
"Wait til you hit five hundred, that's a doozy." The Doctor said off-handedly.
Rose hummed in agreement, though she'd have no idea if that were accurate. "You said before you had a back up plan in case this one didn't pan out. It hasn't, so what now?"
"Now," he said thoughtfully. "Now, we need to find safety. For all our sakes, as well as for the sake of my plan. And it seems well and good that my plan involves what it does because it appears as though Amy could use some … understanding as to how real they are."
Rose looked to the Ponds as they argued quietly over the other Buzzer's body. "How can we do it, though? After finding out what we have about them, how can we … decommission this Amy simply because she's not ours?"
"Amy is not animated flesh, she's still plumbed in on the other end. But the other end … I think we're running out of time." He said as Amy clutched her side, hand tightening a moment. "Her true self, I believe, may just be going into labor if not already in it, and it's getting to the point of intensity where it's feeding back to her ganger."
"Well then we need to hurry this along." Rose said, getting to her feet. "Never mind me, I'll get through it."
"Right you are." The Doctor said, giving her a kiss on the scared side of her cheek before turning toward the crew. "The most fortified and defendable room in the monastery?" He asked them in a booming voice, cutting through the various chatter.
"The Chapel." Cleaves said, intrigued. "Only one way in, stone walls two feet thick."
The Doctor nodded. "Let's get there, then." He said, gesturing for her to lead.
No one said a word as the lot of them made their way to the chapel inside the monastery. It was nearly suspicious to the point where Rose kept prodding her husband's mind in hopes to find some clue as to why it could be. Even he found it odd, which was never a good sign.
When they managed to get the heavy, wooden doors open, the crew of miners rushed in first.
Just as they were about to follow, a scream sounding distinctly like Jennifer's echoed down the corridor.
Rory paused, looking torn between continuing inside and going after her. Another small whimper, and he turned toward it.
"Rory?" Amy said, reaching out. "Come on." She pleaded.
"Jen's out there." He said as he stepped away. "She's out there, and she's on her own."
"Well if she's got any sense, she's hiding." Amy countered.
"I cant leave her out there," Rory insisted, he looked to Rose, "I know you understand that."
"Knock four times." Rose said firmly, and Rory nodded, taking off and disappearing down a side corridor.
"Get back here!" Amy cried out, drawing the attention of the gangers as they appeared at the end of the hall.
The Doctor grabbed her and pulled her inside the chapel, Rose following behind and helping her husband get the door closed.
Once locked, the Doctor turned and grabbed the hysteric Amy by the shoulders and forced her to look at him while the mining crew barred the door with whatever they could.
"They aren't after him, they're after us." The Doctor assured her, pulling her to his chest and stroking her hair until she calmed down. Rose suspected he may have used a bit of telepathy with how quickly Amy slowed her breathing and stopped trembling, though she would never accuse him of it.
"Why?" A voice whispered. "Why?"
Slowly the Doctor let go of Amy and stepped away, looking about.
"Ah!" The voice cried out, and the Doctor and Rose looked to one of he darkest corners of the chapel.
"And here it is, plan b." He told her privately as they inched toward the darknesss.
"We need something heavy." Dicken's voice came from behind. "Anything you can find."
"This is insane." Jimmy laughed mirthlessly. "We're fighting ourselves."
"Yes, and it's about to get even more insanerer." The Doctor said without looking away from the darkness. "Show yourself, right now!" He demanded of the voice.
"Doctor, we're trapped in here, and Rory is out there with them." Amy said. "We can't even leave the island until you find the TARDIS, and you're telling us it's gonna get worse?"
"Correct, Pond." The Doctor said, though his lips didn't move. "It's frightening, unexpected, frankly a total, utter, splattering mess on the carpet. But I'm certain, one hundred percent certain, that we can work this out."
Rose watched as the figure emerged from the shadows, and somehow not a single bit of her was surprised to find a second Doctor not quite formed. He straightened his bow tie and looked pleasantly pleased with himself.
"Trust me," he said. "I'm the Doctor."
Rose looked to her husband beside her. "Plan B?"
He merely smiled.
A/N: And this is where it gets exciting!
Thank you to all the readers, favoriters, followers, and reviewers.
Dreamcatcher56, panckles (maybe), Ryann Bennett (probably not), Darkelvoriplorellion Tyler, , DuShuZhi, and BadWolfGirl.
Thank you all for leaving word, as always.
Now, important question: What's better? "Mummy on the Orient Express" or "Time Heist"? Or maybe there's a better episode from Capaldi's first series? Let me know.
Until next post!