I'm sorry at how close this is to cannon. Originally I was going to have the Doctor and Elena go back in time to another time period but I wasn't satisfied with where it was going so this is what came out instead. I'm going to do a few more chapters of Elena and the Doctor traveling before having them return to Mystic Falls to give them a closer bond- should it still be a year that's passed for everyone in Mystic Falls or a bit longer? And where should they go next?
Chapter 5: The Unquiet Dead
It had taken her a bit, but Elena had finally calmed down enough after the Doctor left to fall back asleep. And she kicked herself repeatedly as she did.
The nightmares about Klaus had stopped about a week ago- just abruptly halted, without her having to take any form of sleeping pills or anything to achieve it. She thought that had been the end of it, that maybe she'd be able to get a decent night of sleep for the first time in about a month.
After the first nightmare free night, she had begun meditating and other mind strengthening exercises to continue keeping them at bay, with amazing results as the nightmares stayed away. She was able to be more productive and active at work and even had time to try and get things back to normal.
And until last night- or whenever, as she had been told time didn't exist here in the Vortex- it had worked, to the point she had forgotten about them until Jeremy brought it up again when she'd asked him to listen to Matt's explanation.
The brunette wasn't sure why they all of the sudden returned but the more she thought about it the more certain she was it had to do with their brief visit to the Eye of Orion. The planet's calming effects must have caused her to let her mental guard down after returning to the TARDIS, allowing the nightmares to seep back in.
Shivering as she got up out of the bed she made her way towards a conjoined bathroom, eager to wash off the lingers of the dreams. She could still feel the heat of the fire, the pain as Klaus bit into her and the agonizing feeling of having her blood forcibly drained, and found herself scrubbing her skin harder, until it was beet red.
Standing under the water for a few seconds to let her now irritated skin settle she stepped out and put her clothes back on, which thankfully didn't seem to be in that bad of shape.
Exiting the room she began making her way towards where she remembered the console room was, trying to hide the awkwardness she was feeling. How exactly did one go about facing someone like a Time Lord after having a nightmare in front of him or her?
The Doctor was standing next to the control console and glanced up when she entered. She sent a prayer that he wouldn't bring up the nightmare. She wasn't ready to share it with him- or anyone.
"How does the past sound? 1860." He asked. "You've been to the future and the Eye of Orion- it's about time you saw a little history."
"What happens in 1860?" She asked, grateful he wasn't bringing the nightmare up. She raked her brain for any important historical event; all she could think of was the Civil War- and that Damon and Stefan would both still be human at this time.
The idea of seeing either of them as human was almost as hard to wrap her head around as time travel and aliens were. She knew they once had been but she'd always known them as the vampires she had come to care deeply about. Even love. She added, remembering her and Stefan, and automatically pushed that away. The brunette had made it her mission to let go of him and move on and wasn't about to slip up now.
"I don't know, let's find out. Hold on, here we go!" He replied, plugging in the necessary coordinates.
She did indeed need to hold on to something as the TARDIS, for whatever reason, decided to land rougher than usual this time. Her grip slipped when they landed, causing her to stumble into the Doctor. It caught him off balance and the two landed on the floor, slightly on top of each other.
"Are you alright?" He asked.
"Nothing broken. I think." She replied as he got off of her. Standing up, she added, "Where are we?"
He glanced at the console and grinned. "I did it. Give the man a medal. Earth, Naples, December 24th, 1860."
"It's Christmas." Elena said, feeling her head spin. For her, Christmas was still months away- but here it was hardly a day away.
"All yours."
"Come on." She said, smiling, her excitement taking hold of her. She began making her way towards the door when she felt the Doctor lightly grab her arm, halting her.
"Go out there dressed like that, you'll start a riot, Barbarella." He told her. The brunette glanced down at her attire: jeans, t-shirt, jacket. Definitely not 1800's style. She thought.
"There's a wardrobe through there. First left, second right, third on the left, go straight ahead, under the stairs, past the bins, fifth door on your left. Hurry up!" He continued, and she rapidly tried to remember the directions as she turned away to find the wardrobe and more appropriate attire.
-DW-VD-
Elena did indeed find appropriate attire of their current time period- along with appropriate clothes for what must be almost every other time period possible. Changing into a dress she found that looked similar to the ones she knew were typically worn in this time period, she slowly retraced her steps to the console room.
The dress was dark red with black lace over the bodice and short off shoulder sleeves. Seeing as it was winter she draped a black shawl around her shoulders and tied it. All in all it wasn't bad, but it took a bit to get used to walking around in it.
"Blimey!" She heard the Doctor exclaim when she finally reached the console room.
"Don't laugh." She told him, halting.
"You look beautiful, considering." He said, making her pause and her heart to unwillingly start beating a little faster.
"Considering what?" She asked, curious, ignoring to the best of her ability the reaction she was having to his compliment. Big deal. She told herself.
"That you're human."
"I'm going to take that as a compliment." Elena told him. "Aren't you going to change?" She added, seeing the Time Lord was still wearing his leather jacket and dark jeans- not as noticeable as her previous clothing but still might look somewhat out of place.
"I've changed my jumper. Come on." He replied, heading for the doors. She hurried to catch up and ended up reaching them before him. Opening them, she gingerly stepped out into freshly fallen snow. Everywhere was covered in snow, making it both chilly and beautiful.
"Ready?" The Doctor said, coming up behind her and offering Elena his arm, which she took trying to hide her surprise. "Here we go. History."
The two walked down the street, still arm in arm. Elena could faintly hear Christmas carols being sung by choirs on street corners. As the Doctor stopped and bought a newspaper she clearly heard 'God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen' being sung and couldn't help but start humming along.
"I got the flight a bit wrong." He suddenly said, causing her to stop humming in the middle of a phrase and look at him. "It's not 1860, it's 1869."
"I don't care." She said, not really minding what year it was. To her 1869 had to potential to be just as interesting as 1860, and already was since it was Christmas Eve.
"And it's not Naples. It's Cardiff." He continued like she hadn't spoken. This made her stop.
"Right." She said, not entirely sure what to make of this.
Suddenly, screams pierced the otherwise rather quiet night, making the singer's stop in the middle of a song to look around in alarm. The Doctor, however, smiled and tossed the newspaper away before grabbing Elena's hand and running towards the source. "That's more like it!"
It was utter chaos inside the building. People were flat out running towards the exits, making it hard for Elena to see what was going on as she was concentrating on not getting separated from the Doctor.
Finally the pair fought their way to the front in time to see what looked like a blue shadow leave a woman's body and begin flying around, no clear path in mind.
"Fantastic." She heard the Doctor say just before the woman collapsed on the floor. Someone- a man- was up on what looked like a stage trying to calm everyone down but it was in vain; by now almost everyone had already left their seats and were joining the mass trying to reach the exit.
The brunette was vaguely aware of the Time Lord joining the man on stage and saying something as she was too busy trying to form some sort of idea as to what was going on. Movement caught her eye and she saw two people- a middle aged man and a young women who was maybe a few years older than Elena herself- grab the woman who had fallen and begin to carry her away.
"Leave her alone!" She found herself calling out, wondering who these people were and what they wanted with the woman. She had a feeling it had to do with whatever the blue ghost-type thing was. "Doctor, I'll get them." She added, proceeding to follow the people knowing the woman was their best chance at finding out exactly what was going on at the moment.
"Be careful!" He yelled back before continuing interrogating the man. She didn't hear exactly what he asked as she was already running to catch up with the two strangers and the woman.
Bitter winter air assaulted her as she ran out onto the street, momentarily making her falter from the shock, but she pushed through it and continued her pursuit. Thankfully they didn't seem to be carrying the women too far away; she spotted them stop by a carriage and open the back doors.
"What are you doing?" Elena yelled, halting beside to them, causing them to start.
"Oh, it's a tragedy, miss. Don't worry yourself. Me and the master will deal with it. The fact is, this poor lady's been taken with the brain fever and we have to get her to the infirmary." The young woman said quickly, feeding the girl the first lie she could think of.
As the young woman was speaking Elena reached over and grabbed the unconscious woman's arm- and automatically noticed how cold it was. Concerned, she felt around the wrist for a pulse… and found none.
"Oh my god." She heard herself breathe. "She's dead. What did you do to her?!"
In her shock the brunette failed to notice someone sneaking up behind her until a cloth was suddenly pressed against her mouth. Acting on instinct she began struggling. However as she breathed in whatever the cloth was soaked in she found her struggles becoming weaker and weaker until they seized and her vision went black.
-DW-VD-
Meanwhile back inside the theatre the blue entity suddenly flew into a gas lamp hanging on one of the walls just below the ceiling.
"Gas! It's made of gas!" The Doctor exclaimed, seizing his questioning of the man and abruptly turning away to tell Elena about this recent development.
He made it outside in time to see some young brunette woman who definitely was not Elena loading what looked like his human companion into a hearse before closing the door, hopping up front, and taking off.
Spotting a nearby carriage, he automatically made his way towards it, feeling worry and a hint of anger bubble up inside him. He noticed the man he'd questioned in the theatre following him but paid the human little mind. Right now, the blue gas entity and Elena held his focus.
"You're not escaping me, sir. What do you know about that hobgoblin, hmm? Projection on glass, I suppose. Who put you up to it?" The man demanded from behind the Time Lord.
"Yeah, mate. Not now thanks." The Doctor shot back not bothering to hide the irritation in his voice, reaching the carriage. "Oi, you! Follow that hearse." He added to the driver of the carriage as he climbed in it.
"I can't do that sir." The driver told him from up front.
"Why not?"
"I'll tell you why not." The man who'd followed him said from beside the carriage. "I'll give you a very good reason why not. Because this is my couch."
"Well, get in, then!" The Doctor said, practically dragging the man into the carriage. "Move!"
The driver cracked the whip and the carriage took off down the street.
"Come on, your losing them." He muttered realizing the hearse was steadily getting further and further away.
"Everything in order, Mister Dickens?" The driver called from up front, making the Time Lord pause for a moment.
"No! It is not!" The man in question called back indignantly.
"What did he say?" He had to be certain the theory he was developing was correct- which was steadily turning into a plan of how to get to Elena faster if it was true.
"Let me say this. I am not without a sense of humour-"
The Doctor cut him off. "Dickens?"
"Yes."
"Charles Dickens?"
"Yes."
"The Charles Dickens?"
"Should I remove the gentleman, sir?" The driver inquired but the two occupants in the carriage ignored him.
The plan he'd been forming in his mind ever since he first heard 'Dickens' looked like it was going to work after all.
"Charles Dickens? You're brilliant, you are. Completely one hundred percent brilliant. I've read them all. Great Expectations, Oliver Twist and what's the other one, the one with the ghost?" He told the man. It was true- no matter what incarnation he was in; he'd always enjoyed the author's work for some reason. However that had nothing to do with his plan to get to Elena faster. If there was one thing he'd learned about humans over the course of his nine hundred some years, it was that humans loved flattery.
"A Christmas Carol?" Charles Dickens replied, looking at him with surprise.
"No, no, no. The one with the trains. The Signal Man, that's it! Terrifying. The best short story ever written." He continued.
Once again, the driver interrupted them. "You want me to get rid of him, sir?"
"Er, no. I think he can stay."
"Honestly Charles- can I call you Charles? I'm such a big fan."
The man looked at him with confusion. "A what? A big what?"
"Fan. Number one fan. That's me."
"How exactly are you a fan? In what way do you resemble a means of keeping oneself cool?"
"No, it means fanatic, devoted to." The Doctor elaborated. "Come on, faster!" He added when he realized the hearse was practically out of sight.
"Who exactly is in that hearse?" Charles inquired.
"My friend. She's…young. It's my fault. She's in my care, and now she's in danger." Every word of that was true and not a part of the plan he'd formed. He felt a flash of guilt at that; it really was his fault Elena was now in danger.
"Why are we wasting my time talking about dry old books? This is much more important. Driver, be swift! The chase is on!" The man cried, sensing the other man really did care about this woman in the hearse.
With a "Yes sir" the driver cracked the whip a couple more times and they began gaining ground on the hearse.
-DW-VD-
The first thing Elena was aware of when she finally came to was that she lying on some hard, unfamiliar wooden surface. Sitting up- wincing at the vertigo the sudden movement caused- her brown eyes scanned the room she was in.
It was fairly spacious and lit warmly by gas lamps. She slowly swung her legs off the table-thing she was lying on—and noticed the coffins for the first time.
The brunette couldn't help but jump when one of the bodies- that she recognized with a jolt as the woman from the theatre- began moving in one of them before rising.
"This is a dream." She told herself, closing her eyes, counting to ten, and opening them again, knowing if it was a dream the woman would just be lying in the coffin. Only to see the woman was now completely out of the coffin. Her heart sank- could she go nowhere without something supernatural happening? However when the woman began shuffling towards her, instinct kicked in and Elena ran as fast as she could in the shoes and dress to the door. "Let me out!" She yelled, pounding on the door upon realizing she was locked in the room.
She kept at it, glancing back every now and then to see how much distance was between her and the zombie woman. Her ears vaguely picked up on some sort of commotion somewhere in the house and she began praying that it was somehow the Doctor, because she doubted she'd be strong enough to kick this heavy wooden door in and had no weapons that would stop the woman.
"Somebody open the door! Please!" Elena tried again, only to feel a very cold hand grasp her arm and begin pulling her further into the room. She began struggling but the woman's grip was strong despite her elderly appearance.
The door was suddenly kicked in and Elena whipped around to see to her immense relief the Doctor. The relief was trumped somewhat by the expression she saw flicker across his face briefly.
"I believe this is my dance." He said, grabbing her free arm and pulling her away from the woman to the doorway where he stood with three people- two that she recognized as the ones whom kidnapped her.
"It's a prank. It must be. We're under some mesmeric influence." The stranger said in denial.
"No, we're not. The dead are walking." The Doctor told him before turning to Elena. "Hi."
"Hi." She replied a small smile making it's way across her face. "Who's your friend?"
"Charles Dickens." He said, like this kind of thing happened all the time. Which, being a Time Lord, she supposed it did.
"Okay." No point in making a big deal out of it- I might as well get used to running into long dead historical figures. She told herself.
He turned to the woman who was staring at them with her lifeless, cold eyes. "My name's the Doctor. Who are you, then? What do you want?"
The woman opened her mouth to speak, and when she did it was in several voiced, making the fine hairs on Elena's neck rose and chills shoot down her spine. "Failing. Open the rift. We're dying. Trapped in this form. Cannot sustain. Help us. Argh!" On the last word the same blue entity from the theatre left the woman's mouth and flew into the nearest gas lamp.
Elena was in the process of trying to decipher what the thing's speech meant and hardly noticed they had moved into what she assumed was the living room until the smell of tea hit her nostrils. She looked up to see the woman who had helped kidnap her- whom she learned was Gwyneth- pouring tea.
"It's this house. It always had a reputation. Haunted. But I never had much bother until a few months back, and then the stiffs, the er, dear departed started getting restless." The man- Sneed- said. This caught Elena's attention.
"Tommyrot." Charles Dickens said, obviously still denying what he'd seen.
"You witnessed it. Can't keep the beggars down, sir. They walk. And it's the queerest thing, but they hang on to scraps." Sneed replied. "One old fellow who used to be a sexton almost walked into his own memorial service. Just like the old lady going to your performance, sir, just as she planned."
"Morbid fancy." The author told him.
"Oh, Charles, you were there." The Doctor said from his position leaning beside the mantlepiece.
"I saw nothing but an illusion." He continued.
She could tell the Doctor was starting to get annoyed by his next words. "If you're going to deny it, don't waste my time. Just shut up." He told him. "What about the gas?" He asked Sneed.
"That's new, sir. Never seen anything like that."
"Means it's getting stronger, the rift's getting wider and something's sneaking through." The Doctor muttered.
"What's the rift?" Elena asked.
"A weak point in time and space. A connection between this place and another. That's the cause of ghost stories, most of the time." He elaborated.
"So… like a Hellmouth." She said.
"A what?" He asked, looking at her with obvious confusion on his face.
"Nothing." She told him quickly, waving it away and hoping the redness she could feel on her cheeks wasn't visible to him.
"That's how I got the house so cheap. Stories going back generations." Sneed said. The sound of Charles Dickens slamming the door as he exited the room followed, but he carried on anyway. "Echoes in the dark, queer songs in the air, and this feeling like a shadow passing over your soul. Mind you, truth be told, it's been good for business. Just what people expect from a gloomy old trade like mine."
Elena noticed the Doctor leave in the same direction as the author shortly after Sneed fell silent, and Elena chose to see where Gwyneth had gone.
She found the young woman busy lighting gas lamps in what she assumed was the kitchen, as there were a bunch of dirty dishes stacked next to a soapy basin of water. Wordlessly Elena went over and began washing the dishes.
"Please, miss, you shouldn't be helping. It's not right." Gwyneth told her.
She glanced up and smiled at her. "I don't mind. Besides, it looks like Sneed works you to death." The two worked in silence for a bit before Elena decided to try conversation again, coming to the conclusion that despite the fact Gwyneth had helped kidnap her she wasn't that bad. "So, did you go to school?"
"Of course I did. What do you think I am, an urchin? I went every Sunday, nice and proper."
"Only once a week?"
"We did sums and everything. To be honest, I hated every second."
"Ugh, me too." She shuddered as she remembered the torture she'd faced every school year with math. Not that she was horrible at it, but because she'd much rather be in say, English or some other class.
"Don't tell anyone, but one week, I didn't go and ran on the heath all on my own."
Elena smiled at this, remembering the few instances her, Caroline, and Bonnie skipped school. "Some of my friends and I used to do that every once and awhile. We would end up exploring the shops in any nearby towns, mainly looking at boys." Well, Caroline mainly.
"Well, I don't know much about that, miss."
"Come on Gwyneth, I bet you've done the same."
"I don't think so, miss."
"You can tell me. I bet you've got you're eye on someone."
Gwyneth finally seemed to give in at that. "I suppose. There is one lad. The butcher's boy. He comes by every Tuesday. Such a lovely smile on him."
"He sounds nice." She said, smiling. "Why don't you ask him out? Offer him some tea or something as a start? You need a bit more in your life than Mister Sneed."
"Oh, now that's not fair. He's not so bad, old Sneed. He was very kind to me to take me in because I lost my mum and dad to the flu when I was twelve."
For the second time in what must have been a day, she felt her heart clench in sympathy. "I'm sorry."
"Thank you, miss. But I'll be with them again, one day, sitting with them in paradise. I shall be so blessed. They're waiting for me. Maybe your parent's are up there waiting for you too, miss."
Elena looked sharply at Gwyneth. "Who told you they were dead?"
"I don't know. Must have been the Doctor."
It made sense, but she doubted he'd just go around telling people that without a reason. "How do you know all this?"
"Mister Sneed says I think too much. I'm all alone down here. I bet you've got dozens of servants, haven't you, miss?"
"No, not where I come from."
"And you've come such a long way." The woman said.
"What makes you think that?"
"You're from America. I've seen drawings of its cities before but never like the town where you grew up. Nothing that could strike so much false sense of security, nothing so full of the creatures of nightmares. And the noise, and the metal boxes racing past, and the birds in the sky, no, they're metal as well. Metal birds with people in them. People are flying. And you, you've flown so far. Further than anyone. The things you've seen. The darkness, the big bad wolf. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, miss." Gwyneth continued, and Elena noticed her voice had taken on a faraway tone, like she was seeing something only she could see.
"It's alright." Elena said, wondering what she meant by 'darkness' and 'big bad wolf' but pushing those away for now.
"I can't help it. Ever since I was a little girl, my mam said I had the sight. She told me to hide it." She replied, and Elena realized with relief that her voice had returned to its normal tone.
"But it's getting stronger, more powerful, is that right?" A voice from the doorway asked, startling both of them and making them jump. Elena whipped around and saw it was the Doctor. A flash of panic shot through her- what if he heard Gwyneth's talk of Mystic Falls and connected it with Klaus? But if he did, he gave no indication.
"All the time, sir. Every night, voices in my head."
"You grew up on top of the rift. You're part of it. You're the key." Once again, Elena had no idea what he was talking about.
"I've tried to make sense of it, sir. Consulted with spiritualists, table rappers, all sorts." Gwyneth admitted.
"Well, that should help. You can show us what to do."
"What to do where, sir?" She asked with confusion, echoing Elena's train of thought.
"We're going to have a séance."
-DW-VD-
Elena had had a very bad feeling at the séance, and it turned out her feeling was right instead of just the bad memories of the time Bonnie preformed a séance which had almost killed her witch friend.
It turns out the blue entities were really these aliens called the Gelth who need Gwyneth to open some sort of bridge that would allow them to pass into the bodies of the deceased, which was apparently the only way to save their species.
"You can't let them run around inside dead people!" She exclaimed when it became clear to her the Doctor was seriously considering letting it happen.
"Why not? It's like recycling." He replied.
She felt an overwhelming urge to hit him. The only thing that stopped her from doing it was a voice in the back of her head reminding her that he was an alien. "Seriously though, you can't." She said as calmly as possible.
"Seriously though, I can." He shot back.
"It's just wrong. Those bodies were living people! We should respect them even in death." Elena pressed. She felt horrible that a race was going to die, yes, but at the cost of interrupting the respect the dead deserved? She knew which one she stood by.
"Do you carry a donor card?"
"That's different. That's-"
"It is different, yeah. It's a different morality. Get used to it or go home. You heard what they said, time's short. I can't worry about a few corpses when the last of the Gelth could be dying." The Doctor said, and she could detect anger in his voice.
The sensible thing would be to let the subject drop for now, but she found she was unable to.
"They're not using her." She said firmly.
"Don't I get a say, miss?" Gwyneth asked softly from her position on the couch, where they had laid her after she'd passed out when the séance had finished.
"Look, what's going on… it's complicated. It could kill you, possibly." Elena told her.
"I know my own mind, and the angels need me. Doctor, what do I have to do?" The young woman said, directing the last part at the Time Lord.
"You don't have to do anything." He said.
"They've been singing to me since I was a child, sent by my mam on a holy mission. So tell me." Gwyneth assured him.
"We need to find the rift. This house is on a weak spot, so there must be a spot that's weaker than any other. Mister Sneed, what's the weakest part of this house? The place where most of the ghosts have been seen?" The Doctor turned to the man, who'd been silent throughout the exchange.
"That would be the morgue." He replied.
Elena stayed silent as Sneed led them to the chilly stone basement, where she was greeted with the sight of the recently deceased covered in white sheets.
"Doctor… the Gelth don't succeed. I would've heard if there were corpses walking around in 1869." She told him as they halted, trying one last time.
"Time's in flux, changing every second. Your cozy little world can be rewritten like that." He snapped his fingers for emphasize. "Nothing is safe. Remember that. Nothing." His eyes met hers, completely serious and she found herself staring back.
"Doctor the room's getting colder." Charles Dickens said, interrupting.
"Here they come." Elena said, tearing her gaze away and watching a Gelth come out of a nearby gas lamp and materialize under an archway she just realized was there.
"You've come to help. Praise the Doctor. Praise him." The Gelth said, it's voice still managing to raise the fine hairs on the brunette's neck.
Taking a step towards the Gelth despite this she pleaded, "Promise you won't hurt her."
The alien either didn't hear her or ignored her. "Hurry! Please, so little time. Pity the Gelth."
"I'll take you somewhere else after the transfer. Somewhere you can build proper bodies. This isn't a permanent solution, alright?" The Doctor told it. "Okay, where's the weak point?" He continued.
"Here, beneath the arch." The entity replied.
"Beneath the arch." Gwyneth repeated, moving until she was standing under the arch and inside the Gelth. "My angels." She said, a small smile crossing her face.
"Establish the bridge. Reach out to the void. Let us through!" The Gelth said.
"Yes, I can see you. I can see you. Come!" The woman told it, her gaze taking on the same faraway look it had during the séance. The smile was still on her face.
"Bridgehead establishing."
"Come to me. Come to this world, poor lost souls!" Gwyneth cried.
"It is begun. The bridge is made." The Gelth said. As it did, Gwyneth's opened and blue gas- another Gelth- came out. "She has given herself to the Gelth. The bridge is open. We descend."
At that moment, the blue appiration turned a brilliant, red flame color with very sharp teeth. "The Gelth will come through in force." It said, it's voice deeper, harder, and more sinister than before.
"You said that you were few in number." Elena turned to see it was Charles Dickens who had spoken. She noticed his face had gone very ashen.
"A few billion. And all of us need corpses."
All around them, the dead began to rise, tearing the sheets off of themselves and standing up before shuffling towards them.
Sneed took a few steps towards Gwyneth, who was motionless under the arch. "Gwyneth, stop this. Listen to your master. This has gone far enough. Stop dabbling, child, and leave these things along, I beg of you!" He said, both firmly and pleadingly.
"Mister Sneed, look out!" Elena shouted, noticing one of the possessed corpses heading towards the man. Too late, he turned just as the corpse's hands reached up and twisted his neck.
The all too familiar sound of a neck breaking rang out. The brunette watched as a Gelth zoomed into his mouth, and like the other corpses he stood up.
"I think it's gone a bit wrong." She heard the Doctor state beside her. She gave him a look that clearly said 'you think'. "Gwyneth, stop them! Send them back now!" He said, louder.
"Three more bodies. Convert them. Make them vessels for the Gelth." The demon-looking Gelth said.
The corpses began advancing on them, and Elena found herself and the Doctor being rapidly backed against a metal grate.
"Doctor, I can't. I'm sorry. This new world of yours is too much for me. I'm so-" Dickens began but what he was going to say next they never heard.
As the author was speaking, the Doctor opened the metal grate and dragged Elena into the small alcove behind it before shutting the grate, using it as some sort of barrier between the Gelth and them.
"Give yourself to glory." The one Gelth was saying. "Sacrifice your lives for the Gelth."
"I trusted you! I pitied you!" The Doctor shouted at them and Elena could see the betrayal on his face clear as day. He really had trusted the Gelth.
"We don't want your pity." The Gelth said that word with a vague hint of poison. "We want this world and all it's flesh."
"Not while I'm alive." He replied.
"Then live no more." Elena was vaguely aware of Dickens running out of the room and presumably the house as fast as possible as the corpses tried to reach her and the Doctor through the bars in the grate.
"I can't die, right?" She said, looking at the Doctor. "I haven't even been born yet. Isn't it impossible for me to die?"
The look he gave her- one of sadness- told her everything. "I'm sorry." He said, confirming what she already suspected.
"But- how?"
"Time isn't a straight line. It can twist into any shape. You can be born in the twentieth century and die in the nineteenth and it's all my fault. I brought you here." The Doctor elaborated.
"I wanted to come." She protested.
"What about me? I saw the fall of Troy, World War Five. I pushed boxes at the Boston Tea Party. Now I'm going to die in a dungeon in Cardiff." He told her, and she wasn't sure if he was being serious or if it was his attempt at humor.
"We'll go down fighting, right?" She asked, knowing she wasn't going to die and let herself be possessed by some alien thing without a fight.
"Yeah."
"Together?"
One corner of his mouth seemed to twitch at that. "Yeah."
She nodded, took a deep breath and turned to face the Gelth trying to force there way through the bars when she felt a hand grab hers. She glanced up to see it was the Doctor.
"I'm so glad I met you." He told her and she saw a genuine smile cross his face.
"Me too." She replied, returning his smile and squeezing his hand lightly. She felt almost… comforted by the fact that if she was going to die- again, permanently- it wouldn't be alone.
"Doctor! Doctor!" A voice yelled. The two turned in unison to see Charles Dickens run back into the room. "Turn off the flame, turn up the gas! Now, fill the room, all of it, now!" He continued.
"What're you doing?" The Doctor asked him as the man proceeded to turn off the flame of the gas lamp and apparently turn up the gas.
"Turn it all on. Flood the place!" He continued as if he hadn't heard the Time Lord.
The Doctor finally seemed to catch on. "Brilliant. Gas." He said.
"Am I correct, Doctor? These creatures are gaseous."
"Fill the room with gas, it'll draw them out of the host. Suck them into the air like poison from a wound!" With that, the Gelth possessed corpses shuffled towards the author, allowing the Doctor to rip a gas pip off the wall near them without worrying if the Gelth would manage to kill him in the process.
The Gelth began to leave the bodies and he opened the grate. Elena stuck close to him as the left the alcove they'd sought refuge in.
"Gwyneth, send them back. They lied. They're not angels." He told the young woman.
"Liars?" She echoed.
"Look at me. If your mother and father could look down and see this, they'd tell you the same. They'd give you the strength. Now send them back!" He added.
Elena quickly realized the high levels of gas in the air was beginning to effect her when suddenly every breath felt like someone was stabbing her lungs with a thousand white hot knives. "Can't breathe." She managed to choke out, resisting the urge to both cough and gasp for air.
The Doctor glanced back at her and she was slightly surprised to see the amount of concern on his face. "Charles, get her out of here." He told the other occupant in the room.
She was allowing the author to led her to the stairway, hardly hearing what the Doctor and Gwyneth talked about, when she noticed the woman pulling out a box of matches from her apron. She halted and, despite the pain it caused her, yelled "You can't!"
"Elena, get out! Go now. I won't leave her while she's still in danger. Now go!" He yelled back at her, and it took being dragged out of the room by Dickens to get her to move.
"This way!" He told her as they ran through the hallways back to the front door, with him still dragging her behind him even though she was running.
The two stood outside under the street lamps watching the house. Elena kept an eye on the front door, waiting for any sign of the Doctor and Gwyneth. Finally she saw the familiar form of the Doctor emerge from the house and run towards them- just as the house behind them exploded.
"She saved the world." Elena said as the Doctor joined them. She already knew Gwyneth hadn't made it, and by the look on the Time Lord's face he had tried to save her. She remembered the talk they'd had in the kitchens, how the young woman had told her about the crush she had on a butcher's son, and felt her heart flood with remorse. "A servant girl. No one will ever know."
-DW-VD-
The journey back to the TARDIS was a fairly solem one, but the goodbye to Charles Dickens was a bit happier- especially when she realized her and the Doctor had helped bring life back into his eyes.
"But, wait. Doesn't it change history if he writes about blue ghosts?" She asked when her and the Doctor were back inside the console room, remembering the plan for the book that he'd told them.
"In a weeks time it'll be 1870- the year he died. He'll never get to tell his story." He told her.
"He was nice." She said, before falling silent and just watching the Doctor send them back into the Vortex. She remembered what he'd mentioned back in the basement. "Wait… is there really a World War Five?"
"Yep. And a World War Three and World War Four." He said. "Why do you humans seem to enjoy killing each other?" He asked her as an afterthought.
"To be honest, I'm still trying to figure that out." She replied. "Do you know who won the wars? And who was on whose side?" She inquired, curious and hoping he wouldn't mind- she knew what the Time War had cost him and had no idea if talking about any type of war might awaken memories better left buried.
"In the third one, it was because Russia decided it wanted to expand its borders. The Untied Nations of course wouldn't stand for it…" He began, seeming to not have a problem explaining it to her, and she listened eagerly hardly noticing they just sat in the console room talking for hours, too engrossed in his story.
-DW-VD-
Holy—this is the longest chapter I've written in my entire life. I hate to think of what the word count is. Kudos to you if you managed to read this far- I'm sorry it's so long; it just wouldn't end! Any suggestions for where they should go next? And what did you think- good, bad, horrible, etc.? And what about some fluff later on where Elena manages to convince the Doctor to watch episodes of Buffy: the Vampire Slayer with her? (where the Hellmouth reference came from)
Hopefully updates will be faster as in a few weeks school will be out and exams done with. Both this and 'Soulmates' are going to be my main focuses. Be warned, though, the chapters will end up being long so it may take longer to get them out.