Dear Readers,
I sincerely-erely-erely apologize for how long it took me to post this chapter. It has been FAR too long and I feel horrible about it. I have excuses, but I won't bother you with them. Point is, too long, I'm so, so sorry, and here is the next chapter. The next chapter I post shall be, sadly, the last. :(
Also, I recently received a review from someone who I was unable to reply to, and since I appreciated what they had to say, I've decided to answer them here.
Firstly, (and this is important to note to everyone who is following this story) to address the cannon you noticed, when I first started this fic, I actually hadn't watched the 11th Doctor's episodes in their entirety and much of my information was incorrect. Believe me, it bothers me that they're there, and once this story has reached its end, I will be re-uploading the chapters with updated versions. (The Rory being plastic thing is a nagging and horrible mistake on my part, along with another thing that I won't mention in case you didn't notice it yourself ;P )
Secondly, thank you so much for those amazing and humbling compliments! I'm really honored. Thank you!
Okay, sorry for the interruption. On with the chapter! Allons-y!
"Are you certain you don't want me to use my gun?"
The Doctor hesitated, pursing his lips in worry as he looked at the scene playing out before him. He watched, a little overwhelmed as Cybermen, Daleks, Sontarans, Silurians, security guards for the facility, Judoon, and even some Sycorax fought each other in the hallway in front of them, blocking their path to the TARDIS completely.
Mr. Boots stood behind James and the Doctor, arms crossed as he looked to the Doctor for the go-ahead to use his weapon. James was quiet, slightly pale at all of these creatures who were currently after him, although thankfully none of them had spotted him yet. The Doctor stood in front of the both of them, trying to figure out what to do. He could probably find a way around, but then again he couldn't exactly just leave them all there and give them the opportunity to hurt any innocents.
"Um... no..." he said unconvincingly, quite daunted by the amass of enemies ahead of them, who had luckily still not noticed them yet.
"Very well. Then how do you plan to get out of this?"
"Well we can't just leave them here to do who knows what kind of damage," the Doctor said, "There are people on this vessel... not good people, but people still and I can't leave them. We need to figure out how to get everyone off of this station."
"I have an idea," James said.
The Doctor looked back at him. "What's that?"
"Easy. I'm going to politely tell them to leave. But to do that, I need to get to the engine room."
"Which would be where?" Mr. Boots asked.
"Well, if I remember the build of this kind of vessel- which I do- it should be down that hall down to the right, I believe," the Doctor said.
"Right, well we still have the problem of getting past this lot," the Doctor said. "Maybe if we create some sort of diversion..."
"Can you throw your voice at all?" James asked.
"I don't think so... what do you have in your pockets, James? Maybe we can throw or make something that will draw their attention down that hallway and away from us," the Doctor said, gesturing down the hall to their left.
"Yeah! Like a ball or maybe a rubber band."
"Something loud. Like a horn, maybe."
While the two of them dug through their pockets trying to find something useful, Mr. Boots opened his jacket, reached into an inside pocket and pulled out two small canisters. He then knelt down and tossed them on either side of the fighting horde in front of them. The Doctor and James stopped their searching and watched the canisters roll out into the hall, eventually coming to a stop. Not a second later, there came two large puffs of smoke, obscuring everything from view.
Mr. Boots wasted no time in grabbing James' tie again and the Doctor's arm and hauling them both up and out of the doorway they had been hunkering in, making his way along the wall until they were clear of the smoke and running down the right hallway.
When they had gotten enough distance between them and the fighting, James wrenched his tie out of Mr. Boots hand and pulled it off his neck, coughing a bit. He tossed it on the floor like it had burned him. "That's the last time I'm wearing a tie," he said, rubbing the back of his neck, glaring at Mr. Boots.
Mr. Boots ignored him, looking back behind them to ensure they weren't followed.
The Doctor straightened his jacket and clapped his hands together. "Alright, the engine room should be just up ahead."
They got to the engine room without any hassles and Mr. Boots stood at the door like a bouncer as James and the Doctor rushed inside.
James wasted no time, rushing over to the nearest control panel and making quick work of sabotaging the vessel's systems. The Doctor caught on immediately and followed his lead, running over to the panel opposite and overloading all of the systems.
Mr. Boots glanced into the room, brows raising in realization. "How long will that give us to find your friends and get back to the TARDIS?"
"Fifteen minutes," the Doctor replied. "Twenty at most."
Mr. Boots sighed. "Do you get a thrill out of cutting your escapes this close?"
"You'd think so," the Doctor said with a laugh. "Are you finished there, James?"
James pulled one last switch with a flourish, turning to him with a grin. "Yep. We should probably go find the Ponds ad River now."
"My thoughts exactly," the Doctor agreed.
Mr. Boots led the way as the three of them headed back down the hall they had just come from just as the warnings began to sound all throughout the vessel.
Warning. System failure. Emergency protocols are now in effect. Please board an escape pod on level C, 208 in a calm, orderly fashion. Warning. System failure...
River looked up at the speakers, unable to look at the floor, lest she forget again and lose valuable time. She knew the Doctor was behind whatever malfunction had occurred, which meant that the Doctor had gotten James and it was time to leave. Careful to step over the bodies of the Silence she knew were on the floor without looking at them, she began making her way back. She ran into a few obstacles, but she took care of them, leaving a trail of bodies behind her. Most of the aliens on board didn't concern her. She only really had a problem if a Dalek showed up.
Which, inevitably, one did. It spotted her from across the hallway.
"EXTERMINATE!" it screamed, firing shots at her back.
She ducked at the first blast, then ducked into a doorway to get out of the line of fire. She fired off a few shots back, but she knew it wouldn't do any good. Unlike the last Dalek she had encountered, this one was fully operational. Before she even had a chance to weigh her options, she heard a deep, rumbling voice shout.
"Halt! Drop your weapon!" a Judoon shouted, raising its weapon. The line of Judoon- who were effectively blocking off the hall- beside the speaker did the same.
The Dalek did not comply, but elected to shoot one of the Judoon dead. The ones still standing each took a doorway to take cover behind and return fire.
Through the flurry of blasts and the warning , River heard her name.
She looked up and could see Amy and Rory at the far end of the hall, peeking out of a corner at her. Judoon stood on either side of them like body guards. Beside Amy stood the Shadow Architect, red eyes glaring hatefully at the Dalek, who the Judoon were managing to keep at bay.
"River, come on!" Amy and Rory shouted at her.
River took the first chance she got to jump out from behind the doorway, shooting back at the Dalek as she went, and dash over to Amy and Rory, who grabbed her and pulled her back to safety.
"That was a little close for comfort," River said.
Amy smiled with relief and hugged her. "Are you alright?"
"Always," River replied.
"You didn't find James?" Rory asked, looking back down the hall for him.
River shook her head. "The Doctor did," she said, pointing up at one of the speakers, which was still informing everyone to get to the escape pods.
"That was the Doctor?" Amy asked.
"He's set the whole facility to blow."
"How long?" the Shadow Architect asked.
"I'd guess fifteen minutes at most," she replied, then looked at the Shadow Architect seriously. "I would suggest you get yourself and your goons off of this ship as soon as possible."
Suddenly shots made all of them duck and a Judoon next to them dropped to the ground with a thud. The other Judoon whirled around and fired on the Silurians that had opened fire on them from the left.
"Fall back," a Judoon growled.
Amy, Rory, River and the Shadow Architect were pushed back as the Judoon retreated down the hall to escape the Dalek and Silurians advancing on them. Eventually the Silurians walked into the Dalek's sights and they began fighting each other, giving the Judoon the opportunity to retreat.
"Return to the ships," the Shadow Architect commanded. "Make sure nothing leaves this vessel."
Her Judoon captain nodded and the group began making their way back to the docking chamber when a shout turned all of their heads.
"I found them!" the Doctor shouted, spotting River, Amy and Rory up ahead. He went into a run, waving his arms wildly to get their attention and grinning from ear to ear at the sight of them.
The Doctor ran up to them, beaming. "Hello, you three!" he exclaimed. "Everyone still in one piece?"
"For the moment," River said with a smile.
"Good. Well, everyone look who I found!" the Doctor said, grabbing James' shoulders and presenting him to them with a big smile.
"James!" Amy said happily, wrapping him up a hug.
James, surprised, took a moment to hug her back. "I wasn't gone that long," he said, befuddled.
"We're glad to see you," she said.
Rory nodded in agreement. "You alright?"
"Couldn't be better!"
"Why are you going in there? The TARDIS is back the other way," the Doctor said.
"Doctor," the Shadow Architect said, making her presence known.
"Well, hello!" the Doctor greeted her. "Didn't expect to see you. What are you doing here?"
"Righting a wrong," the Shadow Architect said, then looked at James, who was regarding her with nervous suspicion. She said nothing as she beckoned one of her Judoon soldiers, who brought to her a brown bundle. She held it out for James to take.
He unfolded it and could barely contain his joy. "My coat!" he exclaimed excitedly, throwing it on. "I thought I'd lost it forever!"
The Shadow Architect looked at him and the Doctor thought he saw a glimpse of a smile, but no such smile remained when she looked at him. "I'm afraid we're overwhelmed here. It wouldn't be surprising if we lost track of a few people..."
The Doctor looked at her for a second, then smiled gratefully. He looked at his companions and clapped his hands together. "Right. Time to go everyone! Where is everyone?" he asked, looking around. Mr. Boots was nowhere to be seen.
"Mr. Boots?" River asked. "He was with you?"
"Yes, apparently he's sort of good in a not good way," the Doctor said. "He must have used the manipulator when he saw the Judoon."
James jutted his jaw angrily. "He got away," he said quietly, running a hand through his hair in frustration. After all he had done, he was going to get away with it.
"For now," the Doctor corrected him, although he wasn't entirely sure if he was going to be able to find him again now that he had gone. That, however, was a problem for another time. Right now, they needed to get off of this facility. "Now we'd better hurry. Everyone is going to be headed this way to get back to their ships before the whole place blows up."
The Doctor, taking hold of his wife's hand, led the way back down the hall to the TARDIS.
Nothing was going according to plan. The assassin who had caused her so much headache was nowhere to be found, River Song had just killed several of her Silence, the Doctor had eluded her clutches, and upon arriving at the black market vessel where the Cowboy was reported to have been, she discovered that the man she had presumed to be an earlier incarnation of the Doctor was actually something far more different... and dangerous.
What made it worse was not that long ago she had been sitting across a desk from him- the man that was a key part in their destruction. He, too, was nowhere to be found.
And now the Silence were scattered all over the facility, hunting them down while having to fight off everything they encountered. She knew that this battle was over and she needed to get back to her ship before the entire vessel exploded, which was no doubt the Doctor's doing. The countdown had already begun blaring overhead.
Warning. Five minutes, thirty-six seconds until engine meltdown. Evacuate the facility immediately. Warning, five minutes, thirty-two seconds until engine meltdown...
She and her three bodyguards were nearly there when a man stepped in their path, each step making a familiar, spine-tingling clink.
"Kill him!" she shouted, knowing she could not hesitate a moment with this man.
It didn't matter.
He didn't pull his weapon. He instead charged forward, dodging to the side as the first body gun swung his gun at him. He came up again behind him, elbowed his back, kicked out the back of his knee. He grabbed the first guard's head smacked it against the wall beside him while simultaneously taking hold of the second guard's gun with his free hand and shoving it backwards into the guard's nose. The two guards dropped to the ground like rag dolls. The third, alarm mounting, tried to back away in order to shoot him, but the Cowboy had already rounded on him, swatting his gun away before he could back up and reached out, pinching him at the base of the neck. As the guard dropped, the Cowboy pulled the third guard's side arm from its holster and aimed it at Madame Kovarian's head.
Warning. Five minutes, ten seconds until engine meltdown...
For a moment, she thought she was dead, but no shot was fired. When she realized there was a chance she could regain control of the situation again, she grabbed hold of it.
"Are you trying to prove a point or were you out of bullets?" she asked, looking around at the bodies at her feet.
The Cowboy smiled. "I was instructed not to remove my weapon from it's holster."
"You wouldn't prefer your own weapon to exact your revenge?"
"Revenge? Now, Kovarian, whoever said anything about revenge?"
"You didn't come here to kill the Doctor and it's not for money, or you would have sold the Meta Crisis, so if it's neither of these, and it's not revenge, then what is it?" she asked, her voice silky and calm as she took a step closer.
Evacuate immediately...
He grinned. "You know, I shouldn't have been surprised you didn't remember me the first time we met. After all... why would you? What threat would a boy from an Neo-Luddite planet be to you?"
She stared at him for a moment. Had they met before? What connection did this man have to Agora? Her gaze fell on his amber eyes, focused, calculating. And suddenly it hit her and his face, removing twenty or so years, became clear.
"You forgot to clean up your mess, Kovarian," he taunted.
She laughed. "So this is just the tantrum of an orphan. A little boy missing his mummy and daddy," she jeered. She could handle a boy and for a moment, she believed that was all this was, which meant he was just a broken man. Broken men could be destroyed.
Again, he smiled and it bothered her that nothing she said would penetrate him. "You're operating under the impression that the death of my parents was the cause of what I am now. I'm afraid you're mistaken," he said, then took a step forward, saying softly, "It accelerated it."
Her confidence fell. This was no broken man. There was no anger or sadness in this man's eyes, as there would have been in anyone who had experienced loss. Instead, he appeared offended.
Warning. Four minutes, fifty-four seconds until...
"You took what was mine and then had the audacity to assume I was no threat to you. Now, tell me... am I now?" he asked, the plasma gun in his hand whirring as he prepared to fire. "Revenge had nothing to do with it. This is respect and principle. You took what was mine, and now I'm going to take what's yours... starting with your life."
She saw he was ready to fire and was just about to begin bargaining with him to stall for time, when her salvation arrived in the form of six Silents. She smiled smugly. "I think not."
They hadn't gone far before they were noticed. Cybermen were the first to notice them and followed them as they ran down the halls. The Doctor, River and James managed to keep them at a distance. A few Sycorax and Silurians looked as though they were considering joining in the chase, but as the alarm began to steadily count down, they turned and fled, hurrying to return to their ships.
The TARDIS was just one hall away when they saw it; a standoff between Mr. Boots, Madame Kovarian and several of the Silence, all of whom were raising their long fingers towards the hit-man across the hall.
The Doctor had noticed it first, and knew they were going to kill him. Mr. Boots looked to preoccupied with Madame Kovarian to have noticed them. He frowned, looking behind them at the oncoming hoard of aliens and Cybermen, trying to decide what to do.
He struggled for a moment with whether or not to just leave him, but before he could even begin making up his mind, James had already pulled out his sonic screwdriver.
James had noticed Mr. Boots' predicament as well and, without even thinking about what he was doing, had decided to take action. "No!" he shouted, aiming his sonic at the light above the Silent's heads, making it spark and then burst completely, distracting them from their target. He then sprinted forward, no plan in mind except to stop Mr. Boots from taking another life.
Mr. Boots turned at the noise and shout, pulled out the gun in the holster on his hip and began firing with both weapons at the Silence behind him, taking out the first three within a second.
Amy and Rory meanwhile looked round at the sudden flash of light, stopping in their tracks and causing River to stop as well. After gathering what was happening, she waved at her parents to go. "Get to the TARDIS!" she shouted at them as she fired on the Cybermen, Sycorax and Sontarans that were rushing up the hall behind them. She knew there were too many of them for her to take on alone. "Sweetie," she shouted, "we don't have time for pit-stops."
"I know!" the Doctor yelled back at her, watching as Mr. Boots shot the last of the Silence down. His eyes drifted off to Madame Kovarian when he saw her raise her arm. "Boots, look out!" he shouted.
Madame Kovarian had pulled a gun from the small of her back, aimed it, and fired.
Mr. Boots convulsed, then dropped to the floor.
"No!" James screamed as he watched the hit-man fall to the floor. He looked up as Madame Kovarian turned her gun on him. He ducked as she fired off a shot, but he wasn't quite fast enough. The blast nicked his shoulder and from the pain and surprise he fell onto his back, grasping at his arm.
Madame Kovarian advanced on him, passing Mr. Boots body. She stopped when she was standing over James, smiling cruelly down at him. "You've all failed," she hissed.
The Doctor went wide-eyed. "Stop! Don't!" he shouted, sprinting down the hall to stop her. He was almost within reach of her...
James squeezed his eyes shut and turned away as a loud bang! echoed down the hall.
He waited for it to hurt and wondered if maybe he was in shock... or dead and didn't know it. Carefully, he opened his eyes, looking up at Madame Kovarian. She was staring at him, but her eyes were glazed over, not really seeing him. Slowly, she dropped to her knees, then onto her side, letting out a quiet breath before she stopped moving completely.
Mr. Boots raised his gun. "Get down, River Song."
River, who was being overrun by the monsters coming toward her, did not hesitate. She backed off, letting the first of the Cybermen walk into Mr. Boots' line of sight.
He fired, dropping each of them, their bodies shaking as electric currents danced over their bodies. In a matter of seconds, River and Mr. Boots had cleared the hall.
The Doctor, who had up to this point taking refuge behind one of the doorways to stay out of Mr. Boots' way, took his opportunity and went to James, checking his shoulder. "Are you alright? Let me see. Move your hand," he demanded, swatting James' hand away from the wound. "Oh, that's not too bad. You'll be fine." He then moved on to Madame Kovarian, checking her pulse. His face fell and he swallowed. Without saying a word, he looked up at Mr. Boots.
He was breathing far too heavily.
The Doctor jumped up as Mr. Boots began to fall, catching him just in time and easing him to floor. He gently laid him on the floor, looking over the wound. When he saw it, he swallowed. "Rory!" he called, but when he looked at Mr. Boot again, his face fell.
James, picking himself up off the floor, went over to check on Mr. Boots. He looked down at him and paled. Amy, Rory and River came up beside him, all of their eyes locked onto Mr. Boots.
His body was still.
Warning. Twenty seconds until engine meltdown. Evacuate the facility immediately...
"Sweetie," River said, gently placing a hand on the Doctor's shoulder. "We need to leave."
"We can't leave him here," Amy said.
"There's nothing we can do. He's gone," River said. "We need to leave right now, Doctor."
The Doctor's chin raised as his lips tightened, frustration etched into his features. Slowly, he nodded, standing up. "River's right. Everybody get to the TARDIS," he said softly, his hands balled into fists at his sides.
Warning. Twelve seconds until engine meltdown. Evacuate the facility immediately... nine... eight... seven...
The five of them hurried back to the TARDIS. The Doctor opened the door and ushered each of them inside.
The Doctor, James and River immediately rushed over to the console, everyone grabbing onto the railings and console as the TARDIS flew into the vortex just as the spaceship they left behind exploded into debris.
The end!
Just kidding. Haha. Last chapter is actually the next one. :( It's kinda sad to be ending this...
Oh, and HOLY CRAP this was a difficult chapter to write. I had A TON of ideas on how this last scene should go, because it's such a difficult bit, but eventually I decided this one was the best as painful and difficult as it was for me to write.