Oh dear I apologize. I had thought I had already posted this chapter. There should be another chapter up very soon. I just have to fly back across the Atlantic in the meantime.

"Well, that's a bit better." Biff had released some of the tension in his shoulders and rubbed his wife's back as she inquired how long the rescue vehicle would take to get here. Merlin was too preoccupied watching Sky to hear the answer. As the others kept talking, Sky's mouth was moving. In exact time with them. They couldn't hear the echo, because there was none.

Installment 1: The Clock Strikes at Midnight

Chapter 7: Sowing the Seeds

There was really only one person who needed to be aware of this latest development. Merlin wasn't too sure what he could do about it, but he was the person best suited to handling this crazy situation since Merlin was too terrified to use his magic and give the creature more strength. "Doctor," he called quietly, cutting through the talking.

"I know," he replied in the same tone.

"Doctor, now step back." Hobbes hadn't noticed yet. "I think you should leave her." He paused when his brain caught up to what he was seeing. "Alone. What's she doing?"

"How can she do that?" Val asked, backing away still further. "She's talking with you. And with me. Oh, my God. Biff, what's she doing?"

"She's repeating, at exactly the same time," Merlin explained.

"That's impossible." Dee Dee was still living in a bubble of denial.

"There's not even a delay."

Merlin couldn't help the chills scurrying up the back of his neck. "Oh man, that is weird."

"I think you should all be very, very quiet." The Doctor looked like he was a little closer to figuring this out. "Have you got that?" Merlin and Dee Dee nodded in understanding but Val did not.

"How's she doing it?" Val and Sky asked together.

"Mrs Cane, please be quiet," the Doctor reprimanded.

"How can she do that? She's got my voice! She's got my words!"

"Come on, be quiet," Biff tried now. "Hush, now. Hush. She's doing it to me."

"Just stop it, all of you. Stop it, please." At last everyone stopped asking stupid questions. "Now then, Sky. Are you Sky? Is Sky still in there? Mrs Silvestry? You know exactly what I'm going to say. How are you doing that? Roast beef. Bananas. The Medusa Cascade. Bang! Rose Tyler, Martha Jones, Donna Noble, Tardis. Shamble bobble dibble dooble. Oh, Doctor, you're so handsome. Yes, I am, thank you. A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O." He thought for a minute. "First she repeats, then she catches up. What's the next stage?"

"Next stage of what?" Dee Dee asked quietly, a shiver of fear colouring her voice.

"That's not her, is it?" Merlin didn't want to risk searching for her life force, but he had a feeling that Sky was gone. The creature was just using her body as a host. An empty vessel. "That's not Mrs Silvestry any more."

The Doctor glanced over at him, a look of sadness on his face. "I don't think so, no. I think the more we talk, the more she learns. Now, I'm all for education, but in this case, maybe not. Let's just move back. Come on. Come with me. Everyone, get back. All of you, as far as you can." He stood and tried to herd them to the opposite wall. "Val, come with me. Come to the back. Stop looking at her. Come on, Jethro. You too. Everyone, come on. Fifty minutes, that's all we need. Fifty minutes till the rescue arrives. And she's not exactly strong. Look at her. All she's got is our voices."

Merlin pulled himself away and also walked to the back. He wasn't sure the distance would have any effect but the Doctor was using it to make them feel more safe. Remove yourself physically and it felt like the threat was more distant as well. It was a psychological trick that Merlin had used before when trying to calm people down. Backing away after revealing his magic even though it made no difference; it only made them feel safer.

"I can't, I can't look at her. It's those eyes." Val was visibly shaking now.

"We must not look at goblin men." Merlin wanted to smack Dee Dee. Poetry was all well and good but not that poem and not in this situation.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Biff demanded.

The Doctor looked like he too wanted to sigh. "It's a poem. Christina Rossetti."

"We must not look at goblin men," Dee dee recited. "We must not buy their fruits. Who knows upon what soil they fed their hungry, thirsty roots?"

"Actually, I don't think that's helping."

"She's not a goblin, or a monster." Hobbes had regained his voice now. "She's just a very sick woman."

"Maybe that's why it went for her," Merin realised.

"There is no it," Professor Hobbes argued.

Merlin turned to look at him. "Think about it though. That knocking went all the way round the bus until it found her. And she was the most scared out of all of us. Maybe that's what it needed. That's how it got in."

"For the last time. Nothing can live on the surface of Midnight."

"Professor, I'm glad you've got an absolute definition of life in the universe, but perhaps the universe has got ideas of its own, hmm? Now trust me, I've got previous." Merlin didn't doubt that statement for a minute. He had encountered some pretty strange creatures in his long life too. "I think there might well be some consciousness inside Mrs Silvestry, but maybe she's still in there. And it's our job to help her."

Biff was scornfully amused by what he saw as the Doctor's naivety. "Well, you can help her. I'm not going near."

"No, I've got to stay back, because if she's copying us, then maybe the final stage is becoming us." Merlin's eyes widened slightly. That could be very bad. "I don't want her becoming me, or things could get a whole lot worse."

"Oh, like you're so special," Val scoffed.

"As it happens, yes, I am. So that's decided. We stay back, and we wait. When the rescue ship comes, we can get her to hospital." There was silence and people thought over what this meant. Merlin hoped they would just ignore the Doctor saying he was special. It was never a good idea to admit you are different in a tense situation.

"We should throw her out." A quiet voice from the back drew their focus now.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Can we do that?"

"Don't be ridiculous."

The Hostess continued her reasoning. "That thing, whatever it is, killed the driver, and the mechanic, and I don't think she's finished yet."

"She can't even move!" The Doctor tried to restore reason but Merlin crumpled internally. The next stage in a crisis had begun.

"Look at her. Look at her eyes. She killed Joe, and she killed Claude, and we're next."

"She's still doing it. Just stop it. Stop talking. Stop it!" Biff stormed forward and Merlin nearly lost it and screamed at the idiot. He ran his hands through his hair in frustration instead.

"Biff, don't, sweetheart."

"But she won't stop. We can't throw her out, though. We can't even open the doors."

"No one is getting thrown out." The Doctor should've known this where this was going.

"Yes, we can," Dee dee said and everyone turned to her. Merlin had been hoping no one else would realise what she clearly had. "Because there's an air pressure seal. Like when you opened the cabin door, you weren't pulled out. You had a couple of seconds, because it takes the pressure wall about six seconds to collapse. Well, six seconds exactly. That's enough time to throw someone out."

"Thanks, Dee Dee. Just what we needed," the Doctor stole the words right from his mouth.

"Would it kill her outside?"

"I don't know. But she's got a body now. It would certainly kill the physical form."

"No one is killing anyone." The Doctor stated but the hostess wouldn't give up.

"I wouldn't risk the cabin door twice, but we've got that one. All we need to do is grab hold of her and throw her out."

"Now, listen, all of you. For all we know that's a brand new life form over there. And if it's come inside to discover us, than what's it found? This little bunch of humans. What do you amount to, murder? Because this is where you decide. You decide who you are. Could you actually murder her? Any of you? Really? Or are you better than that?" A pretty good pre-battle speech. Merlin wondered if this Doctor had lead troops before. Really aside from his feeling that the Doctor was very much like himself, he wasn't actually sure what made him trust this stranger. It typically took much longer for Merlin to warm to someone.

"I'd do it." Merlin wanted to knock out the hostess. Just a good solid smack with his magic.

"So would I." Let's add Biff to that list.

"And me."

"I think we should." Val he had expected to agree, but not Dee dee.

"What?" The Doctor was just as amazed by her willingness to murder.

"I want her out."

"You can't say that."

"I'm sorry, but you said it yourself, Doctor. She is growing in strength."

"That's not what I said."

"I want to go home. I'm sorry. I want to be safe." Fear, that's all it was. Fear could drive people to do many things they wouldn't dream of doing otherwise. Merlin knew that first hand.

"You'll be safe any minute now. The rescue truck is on its way."

"But what happens then, Doctor? If it takes that thing back to the Leisure Palace, if that thing reaches civilisation. What if it spreads?" Merlin hated to admit it, but the hostess had a good point.

"No, because when we get back to the base, I'll be there to contain it." Only Merlin wasn't sure he would agree with that statement. If he could contain it, why hadn't he done anything yet.

"You haven't done much so far."

"You're just standing in the back with the rest of us."

"She's dangerous. It's my job to see that this vessel is safe, and we should get rid of her."

"Now, hang on," Professor Hobbes spoke up. "I think perhaps we're all going a little bit too far."

"At last. Thank you." He was glad to have someone on his side.

"Two people are dead." The hostess was quite fixated on that. Although there was no way to prove that the creature had meant to kill them.

"Don't make it a third. Jethro, what do you say?"

"I'm not killing anyone," Merlin said definitely.

"Thank you."

"He's just a boy."

Merlin was outraged that Val could think that way. "What, so I don't get a vote?"

"There isn't a vote." Merlin conceded that maybe that wasn't the best word choice. "It's not happening. Ever. If you try to throw her out that door, you'll have to get past me first." Although those weren't the best words the Doctor could've used either.

"Okay." Once again the hostess was the voice of the rebellion and Biff backed her up like a loyal bodyguard.

"Fine by me."

"Oh, now you're being stupid. Just think about it. Could you actually take hold of someone and throw them out of that door?"

"Calling me a coward?"

"Who put you in charge, anyway?" Merlin wanted to roll his eyes. He had taken charge since everyone else had been frozen in fear and Merlin preferred to work from the shadows. Leading was not his strong point.

"I'm sorry, but you're a Doctor of what, exactly?"

"He wasn't even booked in. The rest of you, tickets in advance. He just turned up out of the blue." Now that was interesting. Merlin watched the Doctor closely for his reaction. Merlin thought all tickets had to be bought in advance. He had tried to secure a ticket but by the time he heard about the contest there were no more. The contest winners would have the last spot. This was extra strange considering the clear capacity for more passengers on the trip.

"I'm just travelling. I'm a traveller, that's all." The Doctor backed away slightly.

"Like an immigrant?"

"Who were you talking to? Before you got on board, you were talking to someone. Who was that?"

"Just Donna. Just my friend," he explained

"And what were you saying to her?"

"He hasn't even told us his name."

He tried to stop himself, but Merlin admitted that some good questions had been raised. And if the Doctor was like himself, then there were many things he was hiding. "The thing is though, Doctor, you've been loving this."

"Oh, Jethro, not you."

Merlin mentally apologised for cracking the Doctor's trust in him, but he could live with it. "No, but ever since all the trouble started, you've been loving it."

"It has to be said, you do seem to have a certain glee," Professor Hobbes added.

"Alright, I'm interested. Yes, I can't help it. Because whatever's inside her, it's brand new, and that's fascinating."

"What, you wanted this to happen?" Val demanded.

"No."

"And you were talking to her, all on your own, before all the trouble. Right at the front, you were talking to that Sky woman, the two of you together. I saw you." There were some good points before, but Biff marked the decline into stupidity. Merlin blocked them out and scoured his memory of everything the Doctor had said so far since the crash. It was usually how a person reacted in a crisis that revealed who they really were. One little thing stuck out.

"You called us humans like you're not one of us," Merlin muttered. Unfortunately, others heard and latched onto this.

"He did. That's what he said." Val picked it up first.

"And the wiring," Dee Dee added. "He went into that panel and opened up the wiring." Merlin wasn't sure how that was connected to the Doctor being human or not.

"That was after." The Doctor was also confused.

"But how did you know what to do?" Biff questioned.

"Because I'm clever!" the Doctor shouted in frustration.

There was a moment of blissful silence before Professor Hobbes spoke. "I see. Well, that makes things clear."

"And what are we, then? Idiots?" Merlin wanted to tell Biff that yes, he was an idiot but the Doctor spoke first

"That's not what I meant," he explained in a calmer voice.

"If you're clever, then what are we?"

"You've been looking down on us from the moment we walked in."

"Even if he goes, he's practically volunteered."

"Oh come on, just listen to yourself, please."

"Do you mean we throw him out as well?" All eyes snapped to Biff.

"If we have to," the hostess agreed. Merlin wanted so badly to use his magic and freeze time so that he could figure this out on his own. He was no longer sure if he wanted the Doctor to help. He did seem to genuinely want to help.

"I know you're scared," he was saying. "And so am I. Look at me, I am. But we have all got to calm down and cool off and think."

Yet Merlin was still feeling like there was a puzzle here.

It was the hostess who brought it to light. "Perhaps you could tell us your name."

"What does it matter?" he quickly said.

"Then tell us," she retorted.

"John Smith." Lie. But it came with so little hesitation that it held some familiarity for the man. Maybe he had used the name before. Frequently.

"He's lying. Look at his face."

"His eyes are the same as hers."

"Why won't you tell us?" Merlin also asked. There were a few answers he could accept; he would be a hypocrite if he didn't. No one on this bus knew who he really was.

"It's a simple enough question." Dee Dee crossed her arms across her chest.

"He's been lying to us right from the start." Val pointed an accusing finger.

"What's your name?" The Hostess brandish the question like a kitchen knife.

"No one's called John Smith." Biff scoffed. "Come off it."

The Doctor backed away with his hands up. "Now listen to me. Listen to me right now, because you need me, all of you. If we are going to get out of this, then you need me."

Hobbes didn't take this for a second. "So you keep saying. You've been repeating yourself more than her." He jerked his thumb in the direction of Sky and Merlin's eyes followed.

"If anyone's in charge, it should be the Professor," Val was arguing. Merlin stared at Sky in shock. It confirmed what he had thought he heard. Or rather what he hadn't heard.

"Mum, stop. Just look."

"You keep out of this, Jethro," Biff snapped, not even glancing in his direction.

"Look at her!" Merlin snapped back, his eyes not leaving Sky's still lips. Dee Dee said what everyone was seeing.

"She's stopped."