A/N: This comes in the wake of the horrors that befell Paris on Friday night. I'm deeply disturbed as so many of us are about what humans can do to each other when given a weapon and a set of grossly misinterpreted ideals.

I wish I could offer world peace, but I can only dream of it along with everyone else. Therefore I offer a bunch of aliens farting around in space, because I believe creativity is the ultimate freedom of expression. As the Doctor says, the one thing they can't do is stop us thinking. Thinking up all these strange mad worlds full of complex, unique and frankly weird individuals is the way I like to live my life because I enjoy it and I hope it you all enjoy it too, and I'll carry on as long as it continues to spread happiness and enjoyment.

Chapter 8 - N is for Nestful of Spiders

The fall through the ground was a lot shorter than Leah had expected. After a little yelp, a jolt and an instinctive roll she was upright once more, her little hand clutching desperately onto the sonic screwdriver. Her Gallifreyan eyes quickly adjusted to the darkness to see the spider directly on top of Uncle Brax.

It then turned to her.

She hit the button, and immediately the sonic screwdriver burst into bright blue life. The spider immediately recoiled, leaving Uncle Brax's body and instead scuttling off down the tunnel.

'Leah!' her Uncle Brax realised, struggling to pull the webs from him.

'They're Creipian spiders!' Leah told him, glancing around the tunnel but there didn't seem to be anymore.

'Yes, we need to leave,' Uncle Brax said quickly, looking up through the hole they'd fallen into. He immediately reached out to her to give her a lift. 'Run back to the village, scream until they see you and make sure everyone is off of the ground. They detect their prey above ground by vibrations, everyone needs to get off of the ground right now.'

'Aren't you coming?'

'I need to see how big their nest is,' Uncle Brax replied, his arms still out, ready to help her up.

Leah shook her head. 'I'm coming with you.'

The face her uncle responded with was priceless. 'These are Creipian spiders,' he stressed.

'I know,' she said as if he was the biggest moron in the world, before she started off down the tunnel. Her Uncle quickly ran to join her, taking her arm gently.

'What now?' she asked, annoyed.

'I need to temporarily block the bond you have with your father,' he explained. 'If he feels you panicking he might do something stupid.'

Leah nodded, allowing Uncle Brax to touch her temples. For a moment there was silence, until suddenly Leah heard a strange dull thud - though it seemed to be inside her head.

'There,' Uncle Brax said, pulling back and standing up. 'Let's go. Stay close to me.'

The Doctor was sitting on the floor of his cell, rubbing his temples, trying desperately to access the bond with his daughter.

Ten minutes ago he'd been woken up by the distinct emotional charge of his daughter, panicking. For a moment he'd gone ballistic - throwing himself at the door, desperately trying to get out - but it had quickly become apparent he wasn't going anywhere no matter how much he yelled and banged his fists on the door. Now the charged emotion was gone he was drained, and willing himself not to think the worst.

She's okay. She's okay.

Rose kept saying it, not that the Doctor could fully believe it. The feeling of Leah panicking had set his mind on fire. Without being able to get to her or even contact her, he could do nothing but sit there, imagining. Though she felt fine now, the potential images were flooding his head like the worst horror film on repeat.

Brax is looking after her. He promised.

'I know,' the Doctor moaned, his head in his hands.

She's fine now, yeah?

'Yeah.'

She just had a scare.

'Probably…' he muttered, but it still took a good twenty minutes of Rose reassuring him before he finally stood up. As he did the food chute whirred, and out dropped a package containing his breakfast.

'Inmates. Your morning food parcel has arrived,' a voice boomed from overhead. 'Consume the food and proceed to the communal area for socialisation.'

'I'm sorry I yelled at you,' Leah said suddenly, looking up at her Uncle through the darkness as they walked.

'No, I'm sorry,' Uncle Brax replied quickly. 'You're not a stupid little girl. I am just worried about your father. I'm very sorry. I didn't mean it.'

'You can talk to Uncle Jack?'

'... Yes.'

'Has Daddy been hurt?'

'No.'

'Why are you worried then?'

Uncle Brax sighed, before he paused and thought about that. 'You and I, Leah, we are part of a race that's almost extinct. We're special, and there are people who will go to great lengths to try and…' he paused, apparently trying to find the next word.

'Kill us,' Leah completed for him.

He just nodded.

'Will they try and kill me?'

Uncle Brax fell silent again.

'They will, won't they?' she prompted.

He sighed. 'Possibly. But nothing is ever going to happen to you. I promise.'

'What about Daddy?'

'He can look after himself.'

'If he can look after himself then why are you worrying so much?'

Uncle Brax looked at her, slightly stunned. '... Excellent point.'

Leah giggled, and impulsively took his hand. 'Can I ask you something?'

'Of course.'

'What is a bond?'

Uncle Brax frowned. 'Has your father not explained?'

She shook her head.

'A bond is sort of like a family connection, just physically,' he began. 'Your father and I share one, as brothers. Your father and your mother have one as a couple, and you and Alex have one to your father too as his children. You might also have one to Alex when you're older.'

'But what's it do?' Leah wanted to know. 'What's it for?'

'It's a connection between blood relatives and spouses for Gallifreyans. It allows us to keep a sort of tracking system for emotion on our close ones in a biological way. We can know what they're feeling, and if they're hurt. If one of the bonded people feels and extreme emotion, the other person will get a sense of that. If one bonder is hurt, the other won't feel the pain, but they'll know, and they will know their bonded person needs help.'

'Oh,' Leah mused, thinking it through for a moment. 'When will I be able to feel everyone?'

'I'm not sure, you are a hybrid so this hasn't happened before. We just have to wait and see.'

'Do you have one to me?'

He shook his head. 'No.'

'Why not?'

'We need to go through a process of sorts, but we haven't.'

'What kinda process?'

'It's a sort of mind-opening ritual,' Uncle Brax told her. 'Every bond works differently, like your father would have automatically established one with you in the womb, while he had to do the process with your mother.'

'Womb?' Leah repeated, bewildered.

Uncle Brax seemed to wince. 'Ask your mother.'

'But what is the process thing? How does it work?' Leah wanted to know.

'Shush,' Uncle Brax suddenly said, stopping her walking and pointing through a gap in the wall of the tunnel. Leah peered through it, catching a glimpse of a cavern beyond but the view was too obscured to see much. Uncle Brax moved forward, putting his finger in the gap and trying to claw some dirt away. He succeeded, pulling his finger back for them both to peer through…

'By Rassilon,' Uncle Brax cursed under his breath, staring.

Leah could see it too. They were looking into a cavern, which was absolutely filled with Creipian spiders. Along the ground, the walls, the ceiling, and right in the centre was an absolutely giant spider, sitting on a web with the smaller ones running up and down its legs.

Leah just stared. It was like something out of her worst nightmare, and then some. She could only stare, frozen to the spot, clutching onto her Uncle Brax's hand and her daddy's sonic in equal measure.

'We need to go,' Uncle Brax muttered, looking back the way they'd come. 'Quickly and quietly.'

Leah obliged, backing away and turning to leave when suddenly her foot caught on something and there was a very loud and very immediate crack of the rock she'd kicked hitting another rock.

She and her uncle froze, staring at one another. Deathly silence followed, until…

The spiders began to move.

'RUN!' her Uncle Brax screamed, and she was off quicker than a streak of lightning - though it wasn't fast enough. She could hear their spindly little legs behind her, scuttling along the dirt alongside the rapid thuds of Uncle Brax's feet somehow maintaining momentum with the rapid beat of her dual hearts. She kept going, kept running, back to the place they'd fallen into…

'It's blocked!' she realised as they got there, looking up at the hole to see it was saturated with thick cobwebs. She turned back to her uncle, and immediately wished she hadn't. Behind him was an absolute tidal wave of spiders scuttling over each other in desperation to get to the two Gallifreyans…

'Keep running!' her Uncle Brax cried, scooping her up along the way. Then suddenly with a yelp she was under his arm with a perfect view of their pursuers, within inches…

She raised the sonic screwdriver and instinctively blasted them. There was a sudden collective, high-pitched shriek and the closest ones stopped - the ones behind however, just scrambled over their downed comrades and continued. She tried again, dispersing the ones who'd replaced them, but they just kept coming wave after wave after wave…

The tenth time she used the sonic, the spiders didn't react. They seemed to ignore it - tuning to the frequency - and almost immediately they were back within inches of her and her uncle.

One tried to pounce. Leah screamed and flailed her arms, to try and keep it away, but the sonic screwdriver she'd been gripping so tightly throughout the night was suddenly gone from her hand.

'No!' she screamed as the silver device rapidly disappeared under the blanket of spiders. 'Sonic! Sonic!' she screamed, hitting her uncle's back.

'Forget it!' he cried, suddenly letting go of her to stand in front of a small gap in the rock. He practically pushed her through it and she landed awkwardly on her ankle in a small nook, crying out. By the time she'd looked up, her Uncle Brax was gone and the tunnel was awash with spiders.

'No!' she screamed. 'Uncle Brax! UNCLE BRAX!'

A thick hairy leg suddenly burst through the gap. Leah recoiled, scrambling to higher ground but the baby spiders were filtering through the gap the larger ones couldn't get through. She looked up, seeing a bead of light, and immediately began to climb to get to the speck of light. Her ankle was painful but she didn't particularly care, just getting up as fast as she possibly could to reach the light…

She got there, passed through, and emerged onto a hilltop right in amongst a group of the giant cow-like creatures. The cow-like creatures which she knew, under no circumstances, should she approach.

For a moment, none of them seemed to notice. Then, she realised, the entire group were turning… turning to face her.

The largest one gruffed, stamped its hooves, and began to charge at her.

The prison communal room was basically a large hangar, with some benches, some screens to watch and tables for card games. It was filled with all of the inmates, chatting together. Occasionally a fight would break out, but the droids quickly intervened to stop it.

The Doctor was trying to find Jack, but even someone as distinctive as a humanoid wasn't leaping out through the hundreds of inmates. He, on the other hand, was getting plenty of looks. He ignored them for the most part, at least until he reached a camera blind spot and once again, his new stalker - the Jarxon with a nose too sharp for his intellect - was walking straight up to him surrounded by his friends. The Doctor glanced at the droids, but they were busy breaking up another fight. He swiftly moved into the view of the cameras as the life form strode up to him, leaning in close.

'Time Lord,' it hissed in his face.

For God's sake, not him again.

'Ever considered breath mints?' the Doctor wondered idly.

'I will own you, Time Lord.'

The Doctor glanced at his Follow Me, but the other life forms were already on it. Using their strong, powerful tails they swiped at the little robot. It hit the wall, and then the floor with a hiss of broken electrics and a high-pitched buzz that sounded uncannily like an electronic scream.

He'd lost his protection.

'What do you want exactly?' the Doctor asked seriously, deciding to keep the Jarxon in conversation for as long as possible so the droids would have time to find him. 'What are you hoping to achieve?'

'I will have a Time Lord as a slave,' the Jarxon hissed. Then he grabbed the Doctor's shoulder and pushed him with brute force to his knees.

Yell! Shout!

'I'm not a very good slave,' the Doctor said quickly, trying not to panic yet. 'Too lazy.'

'You will have no choice,' the Jarxon told him, placing his hand on the Doctor's head. The probes of the Jarxon's thin fingers were suddenly trying to burrow through his skull, ready to internally damage his brain into submission...

The Doctor had no choice. He headbutted the Jarxon right in his stomach. The alien gasped and stumbled back, allowing the Doctor time to launch to his feet and take a defensive aikido master stance.

He'd expected them to recoil at an aikido master, but none of the Jarxon's friends seemed to care. They ran forward, catching him by surprise and launching into him, throwing the Time Lord against the wall with quite some force. The Doctor managed to stay on his feet and dart to the left, but the leader he had headbutted caught his leg in mid-movement. He stumbled, unable to get his footing before he hit the floor, head first, with an alarming thud that seemed to reverberate around his skull.

Doctor! Doctor!

He desperately tried to get up or even just look at what was happening, but his entire vision was warped beyond belief. He couldn't move. He couldn't see...

The Doctor barely had a chance to conceive of how screwed he was before he passed out.