Author's Note:

Oh my goodness you guys thank you so much for all the lovely reviews and messages, I am so incredibly happy that you're enjoying the story thus far! I hope you stay with me, because the big reveal is coming! I know you'll be surprised, and I hope you're going to love it!

On another note, I would like to make writing Doctor Who fanfiction a regular thing for me this summer, so I have decided that every two weeks, I will be working on a story. (Meaning, you will get a complete story from start to end within the span of two weeks.) So every two weeks, there will be another story in progress. I hope you'll follow my literary journey with me, and happy reading!

Chapter Five: The Clever Man

"Doctor!" Artima cried out, running after the Doctor. "Doctor, wait for me!"

The Doctor was quite a ways ahead of her, maneuvering around the soulless Niscorites that crowded the streets. His expression was determined, his dark eyes black with the fury that was raging inside of him. He scanned the face of each Niscorite he passed, his brow furrowing at each result.

"This doesn't make any sense; they have absolutely no brain functions." He said, banging his sonic against his hand and scanning again to see if the result would be different. "Not even a little blip. The brain gives off electrical signals, like the static shocks you get if you rub your feet against the carpet too much."

"Carpet? What is a carpet?" Artima looked at the Doctor with a perplexed expression. "Doctor, you talk nonsense."

"I am nonsense." He said with a sad grin before he looked intently into the eyes of the Niscorite he was examining, waving his sonic at their face again. "But there's not a single spark of function in their brains, it's like they were…shut off. They shouldn't even be alive, let alone moving. And then there's the thing about the eyes, why are their eyes like that?" The Doctor was speaking to himself, a thousand arguments running through his head at once. "What sort of thing is in your head…?"

The Doctor continued on, stopping every once in a while to take a deep breath. The smell of sulfur was getting stronger. The Doctor stopped for a moment and licked the side of a building, smacking his lips together with his brow wrinkled. Artima looked on with a horrified disgust.

"Doctor!" She gasped, large eyes wide. "Licking buildings?"

The Doctor looked at her with an innocent expression, not completely understanding why she was upset.

"Taste it, it tastes of sulfur. Sulfur and a little bit of dust. The entire city reeks of sulfur, the buildings taste of sulfur…but why? There's something I'm missing, something I've overlooked. But what is it?" He paced, frustrated as he hit his forehead with the heel if his hand. Artima looked up at the sky at the dark rain clouds that loomed above and pulled on the Doctor's jacket.

"Doctor, we should get inside. It's going to rain." She said, still looking up at the sky.

"A little rain isn't going to hurt me." He spoke quickly, still pacing. "How, how does this connect? Come on, what am I missing? I'm missing something big, something right in front of me!"

"Doctor, it's going to rain!" Artima insisted, tugging once more at the back of his jacket. Again, the Doctor paid no attention.

"It's right in front of me, what am I missing?" He was growing more and more frustrated and his pacing was growing quicker. "Come on, what am I missing?!"

"Doctor!" Artima yelled. "Doctor the rain!"

The Doctor suddenly turned to Artima, his dark eyes black with anger and frustration.

"Artima, the rain isn't important! Right now, Clara is dying. My…" He swallowed, stopping himself. "My…my friend is dying and I can't let that happen. Not again. If you want to go back then go back, but I can't just leave her to die." The Doctor swallowed again, his expression changing from anger to a frightened concern. "I can't leave her to die just because of a little—"

The Doctor stopped, his eyes widening as though he were looking into the headlights of a car.

"….Rain. Rain!" The Doctor grabbed Artima and picked her up, spinning her in a circle with excitement. "Oh Artima, you brilliant, clever girl! Rain! It's the rain, the sulfur isn't just in any water, it's in the rain! Oh that's beautiful! That is absolutely brilliant! Oh these guys have done their homework haven't they? Oh but they're so thick because an atmospheric converter of that magnitude would need a huge space to operate and I know just where they would put it!" The Doctor grinned darkly.

"Where?" Artima asked, looking briefly up at the sky again.

The Doctor's smile grew wider as he grasped Artima's hand.

"The top of your grandfather's church."

"Doctor, what sort of thing is it that we're looking for exactly?" Artima asked as the Doctor pulled her up the stairs with him. The church tower was the tallest building in the city, and the only way to reach it was by the winding staircase that was carved into the wall.

"An atmospheric converter, it looks like a round metal thing with a big huge red button in the middle." He smiled, tilting his head a little. "Oh I do love me a big red button."

"A round metal thing? Doctor, could you be a little more specific? How am I going to know it if I see it?"

"Oh trust me; you'll know it when you see it. Lots of blink-y knobs and dials, flashing lights, it's a big alien thingy!"

Artima stopped on the steps to catch her breath, looking up at the Doctor as she shook her head.

"Doctor, you are an impossible man." She huffed, taking a deep breath.

"I'm not a man." He said with a grin, waiting for Artima to catch her breath.

"You're a woman?" She looked confused, her eyes quickly flicking over the Doctor's figure.

"No!" The Doctor looked a little disgusted but mostly just insulted. "You think I look like a woman? Is it the hair? It's the hair, isn't it?" He ran his fingers through his hair, his lips drawn into a tight frown.

"No, I'm not saying that, you just said you weren't a man!" Artima defended.

"Because I'm not a man, I'm a Timelord! We came first but people still confuse us, honestly—"

"Timelord?" Artima interrupted, her eyes widening. "But that's impossible. The Timelords died out ages ago."

The Doctor looked down at Artima with a frown before he continued up the stairs, moving with haste. "I know." He murmured quietly.

The Doctor did not speak again until he and Artima reached the top of the stairs. Just past the huge Tepitin archway, glittering within the shining cavern, was a large metal device. Just as the Doctor had said, the metallic surface was adorned with several knobs and lights, with what looked to be a conductor buzzing with light in the center. But what the Doctor did not expect was the emptiness of the room. Other than the converter, there was nothing but dust in the room.

The Doctor scanned the room with his sonic, his jaw tightening. He had thought he had the culprit within his grasp, he was absolutely sure they would be here to man the device. But the room was completely empty, and it looked as though it had been empty for ages with the thick layer of dust that had collected on every surface. The Doctor covered his mouth with his hand so he wouldn't breathe in the dust and scanned the atmospheric converter.

"Where are they?" He murmured to himself in anger, looking around for any signs of life. "They were supposed to be here."

"Who was supposed to be here, Doctor?" Artima asked, opening some of the heavy doors to see if she could find anyone. "Who's causing this?"

"I don't know." He admitted, wiping a hand down his ancient, worn face. He had never looked so old and tired. His Clara was waiting for him in such immense pain downstairs, and here he had reached a dead end. "I don't know, I don't know."

Artima glanced at the Doctor with sad eyes. He looked like such an old man then, such a broken creature. She saw him for who he truly was in that moment, just a poor, lonely old Timelord with the weight of a thousand worlds on his shoulders. She watched as he rubbed some of the dust between his fingers, his eyes blankly examining it as he leaned against the converter.

Suddenly, the Doctor stood up straight, his eyes widening.

"Of course…" he breathed, his lips quirking into a wide grin. "Ha! Of course! Oh, I am getting old, I am getting thick! Of course it's you, it was always you, it could only be you!"

"Doctor?"

The Doctor didn't answer Artima and moved to the window, shouting into the wind.

"I know who you are!" He shouted, eager and delighted. "I KNOW WHO YOU ARE!"