Thanks to IsobelFrances for her review! Enjoy!

CHAPTER THREE

Rani looked ashamed of herself when her melodramatic pronouncement about the school blowing up caused Al's face to drain of colour.

'Good one, Rani,' Clyde told her sarcastically as joined them, giving the First Year a slap that was supposed to be reassuring. 'Now he'll run for the hills.'

Al drew himself up to his full meagre height. 'I won't!' he declared. 'I like Sky, even though she's awful weird.'

Clyde gave him a sceptical look. 'Yeah, and let me guess. Your name is… Albus, right?' The younger boy went from white to red so quickly that Clyde felt guilty. He wasn't trying to humiliate the kid. 'Just sayin',' he added quickly. 'Everyone's weird, somehow.'

'Enough!' Rani told them firmly. 'We need to find Sky. Al, do you have any idea of where she would go?'

'Not me,' Al said regretfully. 'I only met her this morning. I know she's not in any of the usual places, including the toilet.'

'If she was Luke, she'd head for the library,' Clyde muttered. 'What about the generator?' he went on. ''Cos she's Sparky, yeah?'

Rani beamed. 'That's a stroke of genius, Clyde, and it's the best idea I've heard yet! Come on!' She turned and started to run down the darkened corridor as the bell sounded for the end of the lesson, leaving the boys with no choice but to follow.

'Why would Sky go to the generator?' Al panted as he tried to keep up with Clyde. Even though the other boy wasn't tall, it was quite a job, especially when the other kids were milling around them.

Clyde glanced back at him over his shoulder. 'Too difficult to explain now, kid,' he called. 'When we've found Sky, and everything's back to normal, then we'll – oh, great!' he finished abruptly.

Al cannoned into him hard from behind, startled by the sudden stop, and only just prevented himself from going headlong. Once he was steady, he looked to see what had caused the halt, and gulped.

Mr Chandra was looming tall in front of them, his arms folded, and quite literally looking down his nose at them. 'And where do you think you're going, Mr Langer?' he enquired silkily.

'We're trying to find Sky, sir,' Clyde told him urgently. 'She's disappeared.'

The Headmaster raised a satirical eyebrow. 'Into thin air? Hardly. No, she'll be around somewhere. Back to class, Mr Langer –'

'But the lecky's gone!' Clyde protested.

'Yes, and the generator should kick in at any moment,' Mr Chandra said. 'In any case, it's no concern of yours. You'll be told when and if you need to worry.'

'But sir,' Clyde tried again.

'March, Langer!' Mr Chandra barked. 'On the double, or you can forget any references for art college!'

Al saw Clyde cast the Head a dark look as he obeyed, but he had no time to ask what would happen about Sky, because Mr Chandra's dark gaze had turned on him.

'And you, Mr Potter. Being led astray, are we? We can't have that. Back to class with you too!'

'Yes, sir,' Al agreed meekly, and began to trail disconsolately down the corridor towards the history room to collect his gear. If only –

His thought was cut of by the wailing screeching sound of the fire alarm.

At least now Sky'll have to show, he thought with relief as he turned around to head out to the playground. Won't she?

'Did you find Sky?' Clyde muttered into Rani's ear as they waited for roll-call to end and the all-clear to return to the building. 'Was she in the genny?'

'No such luck,' Rani whispered back to him, frowning as she squinted in the direction of the lines of juniors at the opposite end of the playground. 'Surely she'd have come to earth when the alarm went?'

Her friend gave her a look. 'Rani, does Sky even know what the sound means, or what she's supposed to do when she hears it?'

She stared at him. 'Crikey, you're right. She wouldn't, would she?' She pulled out her phone and started scrolling for the younger girl's number.

'Where'd you get that, 1999?' Clyde jeered, indicating her mobile. 'It looks ancient. Thought you were gonna get a smartphone after we lost the last lot.'

'What's the point in that?' Rani hissed in return. 'It'd only get smashed up. Ah, here we go… Bugger.'

'No joy?'

'She's not answering, anyway.' She looked at Clyde. 'If she's upset… could it be draining her phone?'

At that point, someone started bellowing for attention through a microphone, and the Sixth formers had to quieten and listen.

'SKY SMITH!' the speaker boomed, the little girl's name echoing around the grounds. 'Has anyone seen SKY SMITH?'

Rani and Clyde waited with bated breath, half expecting to see the familiar form of their young friend materialise in front of them.

A minute passed, sixty long seconds ticked off by the beat of their hearts.

Still there was no sign of Sky. The fire brigade came shrieking up, lights blaring and sirens wailing.

Sky remained absent.

Clyde sighed and nodded at Rani. 'Do it,' he mouthed. 'Call Sarah Jane.'

'Missing? What d'you mean, missing?' Sarah Jane demanded as she narrowly avoided crashing her car. 'All right. All right, Rani, calm down. I'm not blaming you … Listen, I'm driving, but I'll be with you as soon as I can, OK? Don't panic.'

She pushed the END CALL button on her phone and took a deep breath, trying to take her own advice and still her thumping pulse. Sky was still a relatively new part of her life, but she'd wound tendrils deep into Sarah Jane's heart. She adored Luke, but – as she'd told her young friend Maria Jackson some years before – she'd always secretly longed for a daughter, and now she had one along with her precious, brilliant son. A proper family at last.

A proper family that always seems to be teetering on the brink of disaster, she thought ruefully as she waited for the traffic lights to change to green. If it wasn't one thing, it was another, and having two brilliant kids caused almost as many problems as they solved.

Just as well their mum's brilliant too, she thought grimly as she turned the car into the road that ended in Park Vale Comprehensive's car park. Otherwise she'd have been a candidate for Lavender Lawns long before now…

Oh, snap out of it, Smith! she ordered herself as she slammed the brake and pulled the car to an abrupt, protesting stop near the school's main entrance. She sat and looked at the glass doors, remembering Luke's first day five years previously when the kids – her kids – had come barrelling out, Slitheen trailing in their wake.

At least I'm sure it's not aliens this time, Sarah Jane thought when she got out of her little green Nissan, locking it automatically. Hopefully, it's just a frightened child…

Guilt assailed her as she jogged around the buildings to get to the playground at the back, where Rani had said she and Clyde would be waiting. Sky didn't want to come, and I didn't take her concerns seriously…

She was panting slightly when she finally found her young friends. Teachers were shouting orders, and kids were milling around, ensuring that her arrival was obsured by the general bedlam.

'I'm here,' she puffed as she came up to Clyde, thinking regretfully that she really had to start those old UNIT exercises again. That episode with Ruby White haunted her; she wasn't getting any younger, and the worry that she would some day, some day soon, put her beloved friends (she hesitated to use 'companions') in danger through being too slow nagged at her.

'Any sign of Sky?'

'Sarah Jane,' Clyde greeted, his head shaking no in answer to her question. 'Want a drink?' he offered, passing her a red can of something noxious.

'Thanks,' she panted as she took a swig. 'Urrgh, that's revolting, Clyde,' she complained as she returned the can to him. 'Sugar and caffeine, no wonder you're always bouncing off the walls.'

'Hey, that stuff fuels my creative genius!' Clyde retorted, pretending to sound indignant, but he sobered almost at once. 'Any ideas on how we'll find Sparky?'

And that's Clyde all over, Sarah Jane thought affectionately. Complainer and joker he might be, but he's always there when it comes to the crunch… 'I'll try calling her,' she decided aloud.

'We tried that,' Rani mentioned. 'No answer.'

'Did it ring?' Sarah Jane asked, glancing up from her own phone as she started to dial Sky's number. 'Or was it dead?'

Rani hesitated. 'Dead, I think.'

'Whaddya mean, think?' Clyde pressed. 'You told me you thought the battery was flat.'

'I did, but now I think about it, it didn't sound quite right. There was a funny buzz, and there was no automated message.'

'Well, we'll soon find out,' Sarah Jane told her as she hit CALL and raised the mobile to her ear. 'Hmmm…. No answer. I see what you mean, Rani,' she ended uneasily, snapping her old clamshell shut to end the call. 'No auto message, and there is a buzz –'

'That's 'cos the pair of you have got last-century phones,' Clyde said jauntily, extracting his own cutting-edge smartphone from his pocket. 'Betcha I can get through to her, just wait –' He touched his phone to unlock it and promptly dropped it, causing it to clatter on the rough gravel at their feet.

'Oh, well done Clyde,' Rani said, giving him an ironic pat on the back. 'Hope you've got insurance.'

'Not much use in that,' Sarah Jane told her as Clyde bent down to gingerly retrieve his phone. 'I don't think any phone insurance company would accept "alien activity" as a reason for needing a replacement.'

Rani grinned, but Clyde did not laugh as Sarah Jane had expected him to. Instead, he handed her his phone, now looking rather the worst for wear, but the message on the screen was bright and clear.

THE END IS NIGH scrolled repeatedly across the black screen, flickering in neon green.

'That's odd,' Sarah Jane muttered. She hit a button, but nothing happened. 'Try turning it off and turning it on again,' she instructed as she handed the phone back to its owner. 'It must've got upset by the fall.'

Clyde's fingers were already working. 'It didn't,' he said. 'That's why I dropped it, and somehow I don't think restarting is gonna help much.'

'Well, give it a go,' Sarah Jane counselled. 'Rani, you haven't had this, have you?'

'Nope,' Rani told her, pouting to give her 'p' emphasis. 'But then, I decided to do what you do and deliberately got an old, cheap phone when my last one got trashed. Not got money to burn, unlike some people,' she finished, casting Clyde a meaning look.

Sarah Jane blinked. 'That's it,' she breathed. 'Clyde's phone isn't working because it's a new one, with 3G and wifi and whathaveyou. That's what Sky has, so I bet that's why we can't get hold of her –'

Rani already had her phone to her ear. 'You're right,' she said. 'I'm getting exactly the same funny noise when I try to ring Clyde.'

Clyde glanced down at his rebooted phone. 'And there's no sign here you even tried to call.'

Sarah Jane's lips thinned. 'I'll try Mr Smith,' she decided. 'He can trace Sky through her phone's signal, no matter what the thing itself is doing…' She pushed the button that would connect her to her supercomputer and they waited.

Mr Smith's response was so loud that Sarah Jane flinched back and only just avoided sending her own phone crashing to the ground.

THE END IS NIGH stated Sarah Jane's phone in the calm, authoritative tones of her Xylok supercomputer. THE END IS NIGH. THE END IS NIGH.

Sarah Jane shut it off by closing her phone with a particularly vicious snap.

Clyde and Rani were watching her, wide-eyed, but it was the former who spoke first.

'The end of the universe, again. Time for Team Sarah Jane to swing into action!' Grinning, he put an arm around Rani, and his other about Sarah Jane's shoulders, but the older woman could not share his flippancy.

'We can't always win,' she murmured, mostly to herself. 'What if this is the time we lose?'

Some thirty feet away, deep in the bushes, Sky was curled into a tight ball. Her eyes were clenched shut, and her hands squeezed against her head with all the strength they could muster, as if the pressure could alleviate the drilling, throbbing pain that was taking her breath away and robbing her of the ability to think. Nausea churned her stomach, frightening her even more than the pain did. She had felt pain like that once before, when she'd attacked the Metalkind, but the other symptoms were new, and at least then Sarah Jane and Rani and Clyde were there. Now she was all alone, and with every second the pain intensified.

I'm going to die, she thought desperately as darkness fringed the edges of her vision. It's just going to get worse and worse, and I'll die…

TBC