The console was faintly glowing. It wasn't much, but it was enough for Sherlock to see the Doctor's distressed silhouette. He was frantically turning a knob, muttering to himself.
"What did you do?" Sherlock sighed.
"I didn't do this!" the Doctor objected.
Sherlock pinched the bridge of his nose. He just hoped John was okay, wherever he was. Clara was with him, so he didn't worry too much. He began to feel his way to the wires underneath the console. Nothing was unplugged.
"Oh! Stupid Doctor!" the Doctor suddenly cried out. "Of course, of course."
The detective stood and faced the Doctor. He was leaning against the console with his face in his hands. "What's wrong?"
The Doctor jumped up and began pacing. "The electric shock drained too much out of her. It's amazing she was still able to activate emergency protocol. I'm so sorry, old girl, that was careless of me."
Everything about the Doctor's posture suggested that he was lying, but Sherlock would press him for details later. Shaking his head in annoyance, he checked the door. "Where have we landed?" he asked.
"We've landed?" the Doctor asked. He sprinted to the door. "Brilliant! Good work, sexy."
Sherlock decided to ignore that comment. He pushed open the door slightly. "That's Victorian London," he said.
"Of course it is! She's very smart, the TARDIS is. Come along." The Doctor hurried away.
Sherlock groaned as he followed him, slamming the door shut behind him. "You can fix this, right Doctor?" he asked.
"It will take about twenty-four hours to charge her, but yes," he answered.
"Great. We've got a homicidal alien on the loose at home, and we're trapped here for a whole day because you drained the TARDIS electrocuting yourself."
The Doctor stopped in front of a house and knocked on the door. "So, my plan had a few flaws. Sue me. We're all still alive. We'll catch her now."
Sherlock refrained from telling him that it was because trapping Dadre was his idea. John would be proud of me, he thought with amusement.
A young women opened the door. "Doctor! What brings you here? Oh, do come in!"
"This is Sherlock Holmes," the Doctor introduced as he stepped inside. "And this is Jenny."
"Pleased to meet ya, sir. Vastra!"
"I hear them, Jenny," called a voice from upstairs. Sherlock looked around the house. It was a typical, upper-class Victorian house. He wondered how such seemingly normal people had become friends with the Doctor until he looked at the woman at the top of the stairs. She was human-sized, but the similarities ended there. She was covered in green scales, and Sherlock guessed that everything else about her was reptilian too.
"Silurian," Sherlock realized.
The Doctor glanced at him in surprise. "How did you know?"
"I read the UNIT website."
"Hello, Doctor," Vastra greeted as she climbed down the stairs. "To what do we owe the pleasure?"
"I need to charge the TARDIS," the Doctor explained.
Vastra chuckled in amusement. "Oh, Doctor, what did you do this time?"
"Damn near killed himself," Sherlock grumbled.
Vastra's reptilian eyes turned to him. "Ah, who is this, Doctor?"
"Sherlock Holmes," Sherlock said before the Doctor could answer.
"Is Clara alright?"
"Yes, she'll be along shortly I'm sure," the Doctor answered. "Now, about the TARDIS-"
"I know," Vastra interrupted. "Strax will be back in a moment. We can take care of it then. However, your timing is interesting..."
Sherlock tuned out their conversation and walked outside. There was no sign of John or Clara. From the sound of things, the Doctor would be busy awhile. He walked back to the street corner where the TARDIS was parked. The door was open. Sherlock paused for a moment to think. When he had left the TARDIS, the door had been closed. Clara and John might have left it open, but he doubted they would have been that careless. Besides, Clara would have probably gone straight to the Silurian's house.
Sherlock sprinted inside the TARDIS. "John!" he called out in a panic. Without thinking, he ran down a dark hall.
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
"What has he done this time?" Clara grumbled.
John blinked, trying to get his eyes used to the darkness, but to no avail. He couldn't see an inch in front of his face. His grip on the stun gun tightened instinctively. The hairs on his neck stood up as he strained his ears.
"Well, we're just going to have to feel our way back," Clara said, unconcerned. A warm hand grabbed his, causing him to flinch. "It's just me, sorry," Clara apologized. "We can't risk losing each other."
She started to pull on his arm. He hesitated, but he followed her slowly down the hallway. Their footsteps echoed loudly in the silence. At one point, John thought he heard the slamming of a door, but he couldn't be sure.
As he walked, he kept a firm grip on the stun gun. His finger was never too far from the trigger. Clara may not be worried, but John couldn't help but jump to the worst possible conclusions.
Clara froze, and John nearly ran into her. "Doctor?" she called out warily. The only response was the scraping of claws against the floor. Within a second, John was aiming his gun at the sound. It stopped. John swallowed hard. Something had gotten into the TARDIS, and they couldn't see what it was.
He heard Clara draw her gun with her other hand. "Who are you?" she demanded. "Answer me, or I will shoot."
"Hunters," a voice hissed through the silence. There was more scratching, indicating somebody shifting uncomfortably.
"Ok, but what species are you?" Clara clarified.
"We are the result of much inbreeding between reptilian species," the same voice hissed. "We are the Amorian Pact."
Clara's pulse was pounding through her palm. John squeezed her hand reassuringly. "Well, you can't hunt us," he said. "Because we'll shoot you."
He could hear more scratching on the floor, and shifted his aim to a different alien. "Don't move," he ordered. "Or I will shoot."
"You cannot see us," a different, softer voice replied, but John could hear the doubt.
"I can," he bluffed. "There's only two of you. There's two of us. We can kill you easily."
The following silence was thick with the fear of four beings. John opened his mouth to speak again but was cut off by a faint call of his name. Judging by the scratching, the aliens had heard too. Sherlock, shut up, John groaned internally.
John fired, and the following thump confirmed that he had struck his target. Clara followed his lead, stunning the other alien. They felt their way towards where the aliens had been standing and knelt down by one of the bodies. "They're not very big," John said. "Sherlock can carry them when he finds us."
The footsteps grew louder. "Sherlock, slow down," John called out. "You're not very far from us." The footsteps stopped. "Now walk towards my voice slowly, but don't trip over the stunned aliens."
Sherlock started walking again, much slower than before. "John, what's going on?" he asked. "Oh!" he exclaimed as his foot hit the body.
John stood, pulling Clara up with him. He hadn't let go of her hand the entire time. While the aliens scared him, the thought of losing her in the dark maze terrified him. He finally released her hand to loop his arm around hers and hold the stun gun with his now free hand. With his other hand, he reached out and grabbed Sherlock's arm. "It's me. You're alright," he said when Sherlock started.
"What happened?" Sherlock asked.
"With the power out, the aliens were able to get into the TARDIS," Clara explained. "They came hunting us, so we were forced to stun them. Where's the Doctor?"
"With Vastra and Jenny," Sherlock answered. John had a feeling he was about to meet them. "The TARDIS ran out of power but somehow managed to bring us to Victorian London."
"Excellent. We can take these aliens to them. Sherlock, can you pick them up?" Clara asked.
After a moment of stumbling in the dark, Sherlock managed to hoist the two limp aliens over his shoulder and grab John's hand. "Who are they?" he asked.
Clara shifted her arm to grab his elbow. She pulled them along, leading them through the darkness. "The Amorian Pact," John answered. "Clara, do you think that's-"
"-Amorian as in Dadre Amorian?" she cut in. "I do. It could be a coincidence, but I don't believe in those." Finally, the light of the console came into view. With relief, the three friends let go of each other. "So, two questions," Clara continued. "Why are they hunting us, and how did they find us?"