Chapter Eighteen
"Quickly; get out. Quick!" Isabella urged as she ushered the group out of a doorway to the canal where Guido was waiting. Once everyone was outside, she tried to follow, only to be stopped by a stream of sunlight burning her skin.
"Come on, run!" yelled the Doctor.
"I can't!" Isabella replied as she was dragged back inside forcefully.
The Doctor's eyes widened and he ran to the door, pounding it with his fists. It didn't last long, however, as the door came to life with electricity, causing the Doctor to spasm and fall down the steps to the ground.
"Is he dead?" asked Scarlett nervously as she watched Rory check his pulse.
"No, he's breathing."
Scarlett breathed a sigh of relief and knelt down to help Rory, while Amy looked back at Guido who then realised he would never see his daughter again.
"Long way from Saturnyne, aren't you Sister of the Water?" asked the Doctor with a small smile as he sat on Signora Calvierri's throne. Scarlett sat perched on the arm, trying not to shift at the uncomfortable position.
"No, let me guess," said Signora Calvierri as she stepped closer, "The owner of the psychic paper. Then I take it you're a refugee, like me?"
"I'll make you a deal. An answer for an answer. You're using a perception filter. It doesn't change your features, but manipulates the brainwaves of the person looking at you. But seeing one of you for the first time in, say, a mirror, the brain doesn't know what to fill the gap with, so leaves it blank... hence no reflection," the Doctor spouted off.
"Your question?" she asked, being much politer than Scarlett would have imagined.
"Why can we see your big teeth?" Scarlett asked.
Signora Calvierri laughed. "Self-preservation over-rides the mirage. The subconscious perceives the threat and tries to alert the conscious brain."
"Where's Isabella?" asked the Doctor.
"My turn," she said. "Where are you from?"
"Gallifrey."
Signora Calvierri's eyes widened slightly. "You two should be in a museum. Or in a mausoleum."
"Yeah, no, I'm not from Gallifrey," shrugged Scarlett. "I'm just an ordinary human."
"You're not ordinary; not you, not Amy, not Rory. You're all magnificent," said the Doctor to his companion before turning back to the matter at hand. "Now, why are you here?"
"We ran from the Silence. Why are you here?"
"Wedding present. The Silence?"
"There were cracks. Some were tiny... some were as big as the sky. Through some we saw worlds and people and through others we saw silence... and the end of all things. We fled to an ocean like ours and the crack snapped shut behind us... and Saturnyne was lost," Signora Calvierri explained.
If she wasn't killing innocent people, and if she hadn't bitten Amy, Scarlett would've felt sorry for her.
"So Earth is to become Saturnyne Mark II?" the Doctor asked.
"And you can help me. We can build a new society here, as others have. What do you say?"
"Hm," said the Doctor as he stood up and faced the leader of the fish from space. Scarlett followed him, and stood close. "Where's Isabella?"
"Isabella?"
"The girl who saved our friend," Scarlett explained.
"Oh, deserters must be executed," she shrugged. "Any general will tell you that. I need an answer, Doctor. A partnership. Any which way you choose."
"I don't think that's such a good idea, do you? I'm a Time Lord. You're a big fish. Think of the children," the Doctor joked.
"Carlo!" said Signora Calvierri, and a man – presumably Carlo – stepped forward. "You're right. We're nothing alike. I will bend the heavens to save my race, while you philosophise."
"This ends today. I'll tear down the House of Calvierri, stone by stone." said the Doctor as Carlo put his hand against his chest to try and move him. "Take your hands off me, Carlo."
Carlo did as he said and instead, tried to move Scarlett. He grabbed her arm and when she resisted, dug his fingers tighter into her skin. Scarlett let out a gasp of pain, certain that he was going to leave a mark.
"Get your hands off her!" ordered the Doctor with ferocity in his voice, the kind that Scarlett had only ever heard when he was facing the Daleks. Carefully, he took Scarlett's hand and started to walk her to the door. "And you know why?" He asked, continuing his previous conversation. "You didn't know Isabella's name." The door opened and he repeated himself. "You didn't know Isabella's name."
"Open the gates," said Carlo and, once the gates were opened, the Doctor and Scarlett strode out.
"You're fine," said the Doctor, placing his sonic screwdriver in his pocket after examining Amy's neck, "Open wide."
Amy frowned in confusion but opened her mouth anyway. The Doctor then placed a sweet in her mouth, which only added to her confusion.
"Right, your turn," he nodded towards Scarlett and crouched down in front of her. "Turn your arm over." Scarlett sighed and shook her head. She really didn't want him to fuss over her.
"Doctor, I'm fine."
"No arguing. Do it."
They held eye contact for a moment before Scarlett gave in, and turned her arm over on the table. When the Doctor saw the deep red fingertip marks left on her skin, he outwardly cringed but said nothing. Instead, he just took a tub full of a strange liquid with a blue tint, and opened it up.
"What's that?" Rory asked, his nurse instincts kicking in.
"It'll take away the redness and hopefully numb the pain," the Doctor explained as he carefully spread the cream along Scarlett's forearm. It left a tingling sensation behind, but almost instantly, she felt the pain start to subside.
"Now," he continued as he put the tub away and took a seat at the table. "I need to think. Come on brain, think, think. Think! Think!"
"If they're fish people, it explains why the hate the sun," said Amy with a slight lisp due to the sweet she was eating.
"Stop talking, brain thinking. Hush," the Doctor replied, putting his hand over her mouth.
"It's the school thing I don't understand," Rory added.
"Stop talking, brain thinking. Hush," the Doctor repeated, placing his other hand over Rory's mouth.
"I say we take the fight to them!" Guido said enthusiastically.
"Ah, ah, ah!" said the Doctor.
"What?" he frowned.
"Ah!" he said again, nodding to Rory who rolled his eyes before placing his hand over Guido's mouth. "Her planet dies, so they flee through a crack in space and time, and end up here, then she closes off the city and, one by one, changes people into creatures like her to start a new gene pool. Got it. Then what? They come from the sea, they can't survive forever on land, so what's she going to do? Unless she's going to do something to the environment to make the city habitable... She said, 'I shall bend the heavens to save my race.' Bend the heavens... Bend... the heavens...," continued the Doctor as he moved his hands from Amy and Rory's mouths to their heads, forcing them to nod. "She's going to sink Venice."
"She's... she's going to sink Venice?" asked Guido.
"And repopulate it with the girls she's transformed," nodded the Doctor.
"You can't repopulate somewhere with just women. You need... blokes," said Rory, looking a little bit disgusted.
"She's got blokes," Amy said in a moment of realisation.
"Where?" Scarlett asked, her finger lightly brushing across the cream on her arm.
"In the canal. She said to me, "'There are 10,000 husbands waiting in the water.'"
"Only the male offspring survived the journey here," concluded the Doctor. "She's got 10,000 children swimming in the canals, waiting for Mum to make them some compatible girlfriends. Ugh… I mean, I've been around a bit, but, really, that's... that's... Ugh."
There was then a loud clattering from the floor above and they all turned to look up at the ceiling.
"The people upstairs are very noisy," the Doctor noted.
"There aren't any people upstairs," replied Guido.
"I knew you were going to say that. Did anyone else know he was going to say that?"
"Is it the vampires?" Rory asked.
"Like I said, they're not vampires. Fish from space," the Doctor corrected, holding up his torch.
There was a loud thump and the sound of breaking glass as more girls from the Calvierri School entered the room. There were even more outside the window. The TARDIS residents and Guido stood up quickly, startled. The Doctor brandished his ultraviolet light.
"Aren't we on the second floor?" Rory frowned.
The girls at the window broke through the glass and the Doctor used the light to keep them back. He then used the sonic screwdriver on them, which showed the humans – and Time Lord – their true selves.
"What's happened to them?" asked Guido.
"There's nothing left of them. They've been fully converted. Blimey, fish from space have never been so... buxom." The Doctor commented before shaking his head, "Move. Come on."
Following his orders, Amy ran off, quickly followed by Rory, Scarlett, the Doctor, and then Guido.
The door opened and the group ran out, disturbing the chickens that were wandering around outside. Guido stopped, however, before closing the door and locking the Doctor out.
"Stay away from the door, Doctor," he ordered.
"No! Guido!" the Doctor yelled as he started to pound on the door.
"What are you doing?!" Scarlett asked, but she got no response.
"We're not leaving you! What are you doing?!" the Doctor tried again before his eyes widened.
"What? What is it?" Scarlett asked urgently.
"We need to move," he said simply before grabbing Scarlett's hand and pulling her quickly in the opposite direction. He did so just in time as, seconds later; they were thrown to the ground as the house behind them exploded.
A/N: So, yes, I have changed the perspective of this story. Please remember that it took me a few days to change the chapters around and, although I have re-read each chapter multiple times, there may still be some small errors or pieces that I have missed. I hope you'll see past any little mistakes, and continue reading like the wonderful people you are.
One more thing, however; I'm currently experiencing some technical difficulties. As in, my laptop needs it's power pack and hinges replaced. Therefore, updates may be a little slower than usual until I can get it fixed. I hope you can understand! Thank you for reading, as always. Xx