Ch 7: One Problem Down, One To Go
The group walked back up the stairs and peered out from the closet door.
"For once, I'm out of ideas." The Twelfth said as he closed the door again.
"Couldn't we just pass off as Zygons?" Henry asked as he checked his sonic blaster.
"Too risky." The Meta replied, "One wrong move and they immediately know the difference. Scotty, can I call you Scotty? No? Anyway, when Zygena tried to take over your Earth, didn't you find a space underground with all the pods of the people the Zygons had taken?"
"Yeah, we-" The Twelfth started before the penny dropped, "Yes. Yes! YES! That is good, that's brilliant. Alright, you and Rose head downstairs and start mapping looking for the pods. Be careful of any Zygons you come across - hit them with a stun sonic pulse. The Andersons and I will start going through the halls incapacitating Zygons and placing them in some kind of detainment."
"How exactly will you detain them?" Rose asked.
"Haven't worked that out yet." The Twelfth admitted, "However, if you find the pods, use the sonics to open them and bring the humans up to speed and then to the surface. If there's enough humans, we should have a big enough force to round up the Zygons and place them in the detention center at Torchwood."
"What's Torchwood?" Jacob asked.
The Twelfth looked at the soldiers, then the Meta, then Rose.
"What do you two talk about?" The Twelfth asked, "Anyway, Torchwood is a secret organization that deals specifically with alien materials, rogue aliens on Earth, you name it. Granted they don't have the most heartwarming methods, but sometimes they come in handy. Maybe I'll help you with that before I go."
"Alright, Rose and I find the pods, you and the Andersons do some scout work." The Meta recapped.
The Twelfth nodded in agreement as did everyone else.
"One thing quick," The Meta said, mostly to the Twelfth, "How did you give Rose this sonic?"
"Well," The Twelfth started, "The TARDIS can create any type of sonic based on implanted designs and based on the Time Lord. Earlier I was going down memory lane with Rose, and I may have recreated my tenth hour sonic. I however already have the sonic specs and another sonic screwdriver which is quite shiny and new, so I figured I'd give the older one to someone who needed it more than I did."
Rose smiled and hugged the Twelfth.
"Alright, you better get going." The Twelfth said as he pulled away.
As Rose and the Meta went back downstairs, the Meta's cry of "Allons-y!" could be heard echoing down into the tunnels.
"Alright, which one of you is Anderson One and which is Anderson Two?" The Twelfth asked the twins.
"I'm Anderson One." They both answered at the same time.
"Oh, right, twins." The Twelfth sighed, "This should be fun."
A few minutes later, the Twelfth was walking down the hall with an Anderson on each side of him. The Twelfth kept the sonic sunglasses on as he scanned the people in the hall. If they passed a human, the Twelfth would nod his head slightly and he and the soldiers would keep walking. If they passed a Zygon, the Twelfth would point and one of the soldiers would hit the Zygon with a stun pulse then quickly drag it into a nearby room and either tie them to a chair or table or close and barricade the room door from the outside.
"So, Anderson." The Twelfth asked as they continued walking, "Are you by chance related to anyone in Scotland Yard?"
"Yes, actually." Henry replied.
"Our mother's name is Phyllis Anderson." Jacob added.
"She's partially the reason we went into UNIT." Henry finsihed.
"Phyllis Anderson?" The Twelfth asked with a chuckle.
"Yes." Jacob replied, "Why's that funny?"
"Does Scotland Yard deal with a woman named Cheryl-Ock Holmes?" The Twelfth asked.
"Is that some gender bent version of Sherlock Holmes, the detective that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote about?" Henry asked in reply.
"Uh." The Twelfth started, "Well, never mind."
The trio came to a stop at a junction that went off three ways: 1) towards the mess hall, 2) towards the hanger and 3) to the shooting range.
"We can't split up." The Twelfth said scanning down each hall, "And in all honesty, none of these choices are any good."
"So what do we do?" Henry asked, "Go back the way we came?"
"We could head to the shooting range and stock up on weapons." Jacob suggested.
"Notice I said, 'None of these choices are any good'." The Twelfth repeated, "We're not killing anyone or anything, end of story."
"Alright then." Henry said, "Leaving a job unfinished is certainly not an option. We could head to the mess and see how many are there."
"Too risky." The Twelfth said, "If there's too many, we'll get swamped and end up in a worse position than right now."
"So we sit here on our arses and do nothing?" Jacob asked.
"Did I say that? Did those words come out of my mouth?" The Twelfth asked as he got in Jacob's face.
"Oi, take it easy." Henry said trying to get between the Twelfth and Jacob.
The Twelfth took a breath then looked at himself in a reflection.
"I'm sorry." The Twelfth said, "I've not exactly been myself lately."
"Seeing Miss Tyler again?" Henry asked.
"Something like that." The Twelfth said after a pause.
The Twelfth started leading the way back to the offices and on the way they were met by the Meta and Rose.
"How's the pod situation?" The Twelfth asked.
"Weellll," The Meta started, "Why don't you ask them?"
The Meta pointed behind him and a group of people equivalent to ten truck loads walked out from the closet where the secret door was. The real Kate walked to the front of the group, walked up to the Meta and smacked him across the face.
"Where the bleeding heck have you been?" Kate asked.
"Yes, well, uh, dead." The Meta said as he rubbed his cheek.
"But how-?" Kate started before noticing the Twelfth, "You must be the original."
"Guilty as charged." The Twelfth said, "Now, do you all have some kind of sonic blasters or devices."
Everyone produced a blaster except for Kate who pulled out a sonic pen and the real Osgood looked at everything as if she'd never been to UNIT before.
"Alright, everyone set to stun and follow the Andersons." The Twelfth said before pointing to Osgood, "You, hang back, we need to talk."
The rest of the group headed down the hallway towards the mess hall while the Twelfth and Osgood stayed in place.
"You really don't know where you are do you?" The Twelfth asked.
"I don't even know why those things took me." Osgood said, "I'm just a customer service rep at TechTown over in Cardiff."
"On top of that, you sound American." The Twelfth said.
"I'd hope so." Osgood said with pride. "Why does that surprise you?"
"The Osgood I know is not only a Brit, but she has a bit of an obsession with my 'past lives'." The Twelfth replied, "Also, she has a twin sister who's Zygon. Long story. But she's a very prominent member of UNIT, she's actually my Kate's daughter and she's scary good with computers."
"I see." Osgood said as the two started walking after the main group.
"I'm guessing that you don't care about computers outside of your job." The Twelfth mused.
"Even then, not so much." Osgood joked.
They joined the main group and discovered that they'd not only gotten all the Zygons in the UNIT building into the mess hall, but they had all been chained to the lunch tables.
"Not bad." The Twelfth said as he walked up to the Meta, "Hopefully we can simply move them to the detention wing."
"It won't be too much of a problem." Kate said, "We'll bring in some forklifts, take the tables directly into cells."
"Excellent." The Twelfth said, "In the meantime, Meta, Rose, Kate, with me."
The four of them headed back to Kate's office where the TARDIS still sat. They reconnected Kate's computer to the TARDIS computer and started running simulations and algorithms on how and why the Twelfth's TARDIS got to Earth Two at all.
"Well," The Meta started, "The good news is you still have a window of opportunity to get back home. The TARDIS somehow punched a hole through a very weak rift near the Tylers' apartment and the hole is still open. The bad news is that the hole is closing and it keeps closing the longer we wait."
"With all due respect, the sooner you leave the better." Kate said, sadness instead of bitterness in her voice.
The Twelfth looked around, looked out the window, then at the TARDIS.
"Alright, everybody in." The Twelfth said as he motioned for everyone to go in.
Before he stepped in behind them, the Twelfth whispered to himself, "One last trip with Rose Tyler."
END CHAPTER SEVEN
Next Chapter - Final Chapter: Chapter Eight: I Don't Wanna Go