The Doctor and Sasha looked at a screen in the dark room, searching the through surveillance camera footage one after the other.
"There's hundreds of them here," Sasha gasped, watched children in cells through each camera view. "Can you hear that? There's an alarm," she added, hearing the wailing siren.
"And see who set it off," the Doctor smiled.
Sasha peered at the screen, and there, Alec and Shannon ran through the corridors of the building, the crown rattling in his hand. "Oh my God. He hasn't changed. Not on bit. I still remember that exact face after ten years. Who's she? Trust him to get a girlfriend this quick!"
"Ha!" the Doctor laughed. "This is all new for him. He must've been here for only a couple of hours, maybe days if he was sleeping. Non-capsulated time travel over this distance can scramble your head if you're not lucky."
"Come on then, let's get him!" Sasha cried leaping back into the TARDIS. "Come on, Doctor! He's being chased; we have to hurry!"
"Yes, of course," the Doctor called, following her in the TARDIS. "I suspect it'd be quicker on foot, you know."
"Yeah, but you've got a time machine. Quicker has no meaning. Get in Granddad!"
"You just contradicted yourself."
"I'm under stress, give me a break!"
"Run!" Shannon screamed, steering past corners, hand-in-hand with Alec. "Mr Derbyshire is following us!"
"I know! There's a reason I'm running!" Alec shouted. They twisted through corridors, and swerved around corners, followed from footsteps coming from behind them. Alec stopped.
"What? What is it?" Shannon asked, pulling Alec closer in fear.
"The footsteps," Alec gasped, "there's more than just one set." He was right. Footsteps and silhouettes approached from every corridor and corner surrounding them. They two of them were circled. The echoed footsteps matching the drumming beat of flowing blood through their skulls. "We're trapped," Alec whimpered.
A group of men in guard uniforms appeared from the darkness around the corners, and from them, Mr Derbyshire appeared. He spat on the floor, then ground the saliva further into the ground with his foot. "Hello again, Mr Parker," he smiled. "I see you, and your glamorous assistant, have made a break for freedom. Please, before there's an unfortunate accident, I ask you to return to your rooms . . ."
"Rooms?" Shannon barked. "Those were cells, not rooms. I've slept in that room, on the floor, without a bed, for months."
"You had your privacy and a place to call home. All I wanted was to keep you safe, as I do with every other child in our . . . What word to use? Hostel." Mr Derbyshire explained, holding his grim smile on his face, like a clown from a horror story. "You must stay to be safe."
"Who says I need to be safe? I'd rather die than spend another minute in this prison."
Alec squeezed Shannon's hand. "I agree. I'm away from my sister, and my family, so I'd rather die than never see them again."
"Then so be it," Mr Derbyshire sighed. With a simple gesture, Derbyshire's men raised their guns, arming them at Alec and Shannon; their fingers tickling at the triggers.
Alec pulled Shannon closer, embracing each other as the surrounding army aimed for them, knowing he was doomed.
Then came the bright white light, and the spiralling wind, and that unforgettable wheezing. Alec and Shannon looked up around them. Blinding light sparkled in their eyes and scattered in their tears, the wind whipped their hair across their faces, and the mechanic groaning turned to a gentle, warming hum.
They were no longer it that damp, cold corridor, they were in a blue room. A large blue room which glowed around them. Hexagonal shapes covered the walls and a large column stood beside them. Alec gasped. Where was he? With a movement in the corner of his eye, Alec raised the nail in his hand, waving it in the air, pointing it at the Doctor's heart.
"Who are you? Get back! Where are we?" Alec screamed.
"Leave us alone! Let us go! We don't mean any harm!" Shannon cried, raising her fists.
"No, no, no!" the Doctor called. "Stop it! Put the nail down Alec!"
"How do you know who I am?" Alec asked, still armed and ready to attack.
"I've come to save you," the Doctor said, speaking calmly, reaching out his arms.
"Alec?" a woman asked.
Alec turned his attention to the woman that stood beside the Doctor. He softened a little when he saw her. It was as if he recognised her, but from his recollection they had never met. There were tears in her eyes and she trembled a little as she stepped closer. "Who are you?" he asked, dropping the nail.
"It's me Alec. I'm Sasha. I'm your sister," she smiled, yet tears stained her face. "Alec, it's me."
Alec was confused. No, his sister was 15 and wore a yellow dress to a wedding reception only hours ago. No, she wasn't his sister. She could've been. She certainly looked it. But she wasn't. "No!" Alec spat. "Don't pretend to be Sasha! I know my own sister so don't think you're capable of tricking me. You got the age wrong as well; my sister's 15!"
"I'm from our future," Sasha explained. "That night, at the reception, you disappeared. You were missing for ten years and everyone thought you were dead. I found the Doctor, and his time machine, and we've come to find you. Ten years have passed, but only weeks for you."
"Shut up!" Alec screamed, raising the nail again. "I'm not an idiot! Tell me who you are!"
"I'm telling you the truth!" Sasha pleaded, a tear rolling down her cheek.
"Then prove it! Tell me something only Sasha would know; then I'll believe anything you have to say," Alec decided, giving in as he threw the nail to the floor, gesturing to Shannon to relax. He stopped to listen.
"November 23rd 2003: the worst night of our lives," Sasha began, stepping forward, past the Doctor, "our mother passed on. She died peacefully in her sleep as her cancer took over. I remember it so clearly. I sat by the side of her bed, watching as her heart stopped beating, squeezing your hand because you couldn't bear to watch. You cried more than I did, and you never cry. When her heart finally stopped, we couldn't move. We just sat there and waited for the nurse to take her away. There was nothing we could say or do to comfort the other," Sasha continued, taking Alec's hand in hers as he began to believe. "But that wasn't the worst part," Sasha whimpered, "no, not at all. The worst part was Dad." At that point Alec broke free, walking in the opposite direction to her, his hand over his mouth.
"No!" Alec cried. "Don't talk about that. Don't ever talk about what happen to Dad. We said . . ."
"We said that we'd never do the same to each other," Sasha remembered. "We agreed to never react in the way he did. We agree to never walk out on our family. He couldn't handle the death, so he gave up. He couldn't look after us, so Meredith took his place to stop us being placed in care. Any more hurt would break his heart. It was months until he came back to the house. But we forgave him, Alec. We agreed to never do what he did, but we also agreed to always forgive." She stepped beside Alec, taking his hand in hers. "I am Sasha."
Alec turned to face his sister, his face red and damp with tears. "I believe you," he stuttered. "It's you isn't it? My sister, the girl in the beautiful yellow dress. You came back after ten years? Look at me; it's been hours and I'm already a wreck!"
Sasha slapped Alec across the cheek.
"What the hell was that for?!" Alec cried, putting his hand to his raw cheek.
"You're in MI5, Alec! How could you not tell me? All those years and you never once said! And I know about the crown. You're taking it straight back to whoever it came from, even if MI5 want it back!"
"Yes, of course!" Alec groaned.
The Doctor laughed to himself.
"What's so funny?" Sasha barked.
"You two!" Shannon said, also laughing. "You're like an old married couple. One minute we're sobbing our eyes out for you, then you go and smack your brother and tell him off as if you're his mother!"
"So, what do we do now?" Alec asked, placing the crown on the TARDIS console. "Do we go after him? Do we go after Mr Derbyshire?"
"I don't think we have a choice," the Doctor frowned. "He's got hundreds of children in that building, and who knows why? We need to get those children out."
"How?" Sasha asked. "Do you have a plan?"
"Yes," the Doctor grinned. "And I'm going to need help from all of you."
The TARDIS landed, a figure emerged from its doors, and then it vanished. Out stepped the Doctor, straightening his coat and adjusting his shirt. He raised an eyebrow, and out of his pocket, took a bag of Jelly Babies. "Hello, I'm the Doctor. Who you like a Jelly Baby?"
"Thank you, but I decline," Mr Derbyshire smiled, kicking a chair back from the table for the Doctor. They were in a dark room, yet Mr Derbyshire's face was illuminated by a single, ghostly torch. "Sit. Let's talk."
The Doctor sat opposite his nemesis, still with his bag of Jelly Babies outstretched. "Are you sure? You could have a purple one; they're the best."
Mr Derbyshire took his hand to his mouth, licking it with his long pink tongue, then placed it into the yellow bag, taking a fistful as the Doctor pulled a face. From the sweets in his hand, Mr Derbyshire picked a purple on, and placed the other saliva coated ones back in the packet. He opened his mouth widely to engulf it. "These are nice," he grinned. "I should've taken more."
"Pleasant," the Doctor frowned, dropping the packet in the table in front of them. "Let's talk."
"About what?"
"For a start, what are these children doing here? I've seen them. There are hundreds. Why?"
"Ah. My little secret," Mr Derbyshire grinned, chewing the sweet with his mouth half open.
"Then why are they here? Why these specific children?" the Doctor asked, growing sterner by the second.
"No reason, I assure you. I hand pick them by random."
"Alec? You picked the only child spy I've ever met; it seems a little more than a coincidence."
"I was intrigued by that boy. I wanted to see what he would become. Obviously you had a similar intent."
"No, not at all. I intend to save Alec, and Shannon, and all the over children you've kept here."
"And how exactly do you intend to do that?" Mr Derbyshire asked, leaning forward.
"With a Jelly Baby!"
"I don't understand," Mr Derbyshire frowned, running his tongue around his mouth.
"Never trust your foe, Mr Derbyshire, I expect that's lesson one in being a villain. That Jelly Baby is no ordinary Jelly Baby. That Jelly Baby is a miniature explosive, brought from my old friend, Dorium, yet it will be powerful enough to tear this building down and all of us with it." The Doctor took a yellow Jelly Baby from the packet. "This is the deactivator. When you give me the code for your teleportation device you can have as many as you like."
Mr Derbyshire kept his mouth shut.
"You may want to reconsider, Mr Derbyshire. I've grown old, you see. My friends die, my enemies always return, and I've watched my planet disappear from this universe. I've had enough bargaining for a lifetime. Time for a new approach, I think. Tell me the code, or any moment now, we'll all be on fire."
Mr Derbyshire recoiled, gritting his teeth. "Well played, Doctor. The code is 31415, now give me the baby!"
"Did you hear that?" the Doctor said, speaking into his pocket.
"Affirmative!" a voice chimed. Sasha's voice.
"Ha! You've forgotten, Doctor, that my teleportation device is not on me!"
"No, but I know where to get it," the Doctor teased.
Just as the TARDIS disappeared from the wedding reception in 2004, it reappeared. Out jumped Sasha, racing past the reception guests who waited patiently outside for the fire alarm to stop ringing. She pushed her way into the manor house, bounding up the stairs onto the third floor. There she saw Mr Derbyshire, exiting a room with guards around him.
"Excuse me!" she said, snatching the silver device from Mr Derbyshire's hands. "I just need to borrow this," she laughed, running back down the stairs with it, typing 31415 as she skipped down the steps.
"Who is that girl?" Mr Derbyshire panicked. "Get after that girl?"
Sasha bounded down the steps, almost laughing. Suddenly, stepping out from behind a door, a man in a suit grabbed Sasha, trapping her in his arms. Sasha kicked at him, desperate to get free. "NO! Get off!" Sasha screamed.
The man - with a gruesome expression - moved his face so it nearly touched Sasha's. She gasped, terrified as the man covered her mouth.
"Sssh," he whispered. "You bad girl. Did you never learn that stealing is bad?" the man snarled, his revolting breathe sticking to Sasha like saliva.
As Sasha screamed, the grasp around her was loosened; she watched in horror in confusion as the man's eyes rolled back into his head and collapsed to the floor. Looking down, Sasha watched as a girl in a yellow dress cowered behind the concussed man, brandishing a chair.
"Was he going to kill you?" the girl asked.
"I think so. Thanks . . ." Sasha said, and then her jaw dropped. The realisation hit her. The girl in the yellow was the fifteen year old version of herself.
"Are you OK?"
"Yes," Sasha replied awkwardly. She measured the girl against herself and shrugged, realising she was nearly fully grown. "Good job, Parker. You should be a police detective."
"Ok . . ." the girl shrugged, watching in confusion as Sasha disappeared from the building.
Sasha jumped back into the TARDIS, avoiding the rest of the guests. "I'm ready, let's go!"
As commanded, Alec flicked a switch at the TARDIS console.
Mr Derbyshire scowled at the Doctor. "You've taken it haven't you?"
"Yeah," the Doctor smiled. "You really should be more careful in the future, or the past, to be more accurate. I've given Shannon instructions on how to use the selective reset. Your victims will be sent back to where they came from" The Doctor tossed Mr Derbyshire the entire packet. "Have them all. Oh! Some of them might by poisonous, by the way. Dorium did warn me. 'Never eat the yellows' he told me."
Mr Derbyshire frowned, already with his hands in the packet. "You said the yellows were the deactivator?"
"They might be. Or they might kill you. That's the thing about being over a thousand, you tend to forget some details."
"You tricked me!" Mr Derbyshire screamed.
"No I didn't," the Doctor began, "I did tell you not to trust me, after all."
"DOCTOR!" Mr Derbyshire screamed but it was too late. Within moments, the Doctor was disappearing into a blue box.
"Well done!" Sasha applauded, hugging the Doctor as he took his place by the TARDIS console.
"And well done to you!" he smiled.
"So where do we go from here?" Sasha wondered.
"Ah, I'd better be taking Shannon back to her own time and place," the Doctor sighed.
"And me?" Alec asked.
"I'll get to that in a moment," the Doctor replied, hiding a smile.
Shannon stepped out of the TARDIS into a London housing estate, 2014. The air was as she had always remembered. She'd only been gone an hour. Alec followed behind her, back on home ground.
"Wow! It's smaller on the outside!" Alec gasped, turning back to face the TARDIS.
"Bigger on the inside!" the Doctor corrected from inside the blue box.
"It really is!" Shannon agreed. "That's . . . I don't know how to describe it. Argh, it's freaking me out to look at it!" she laughed, turning back to face Alec. "This is goodbye, isn't it?"
"Not quite," Alec smiled. "I'll come back, whenever I can. I won't just leave you after all of this."
"You'd better not!" Shannon giggled, skipping a little, breathing in her long lost London. "Nice clothes by the way."
The two of them had left their grey clothes behind, and changed into new ones from the TARDIS wardrobe. Alec now wore black chinos, a white jumper and blue converse. Shannon wore a purple knitted jumper over a white T-shirt, along with a skirt, tights and plimsolls.
"You too," Alec agreed.
"Ah," she sighed. "I've missed that dog of mine, and my mum. What do I tell her?"
"Anything you want," Alec replied. "But I think she'll doubt that you were sent to a cell with hundreds of other kids by a nutter from the future."
"You're right. I dunno. I'll say I went to Charlie's."
"Charlie's?"
"She's a friend, not a boyfriend so don't worry."
"I didn't say I was."
"Of course not," she said sarcastically. "See you soon, MI5!" She waved her farewell to Alec, then she ran into the distance, screaming her mother's name at the world. She turned back one last time, smiling at her new friend.
"See you later, Shannon!" Alec smiled, turning his back on the estate, and Shannon, letting a gentle breeze wash over him as he stepped into an entirely different world.
"So," the Doctor began. "I've got a time and shape machine, let's not spent all our day here."
"I agree!" Sasha smiled. "Let's go somewhere."
"You've got all of time and space to choose from. Where do the Parkers want to go? Aztecs? Ancient Egypt? The hanging mountains of Babylonia 6? You decide!"
"Somewhere amazing!" Sasha replied.
"Same," Alec said. "But there's somewhere I want to go first. One trip before the real adventure."
The TARDIS wheezed to a halt, landing within the golden halls of Buckingham Palace.
"Ah," the Queen smiled, watching her old acquaintance step out of the TARDIS, "it's splendid to see you again, Doctor. Fabulous work with the Titanic. I did hope that I'd be seeing you soon!"
"I too," the Doctor flirted, kissing her gloved hand, making Her Majesty giggle.
"And what do you have for me today?" she smiled. "I regret to say that I have rather too many corgis."
"It's not what I have; it's what my friend has," the Doctor announced, letting Alec past.
Sasha curtsied as her brother presented the Queen with the lost crown. "I believe this is yours. Sorry it took so long, it's been one hell of a journey. Consider this as the resignation gift of Agent Alec Parker," he said, handing the Queen her crown. "You can take that plastic one off display now. I can't believe anyone thinks it's the real thing."
The Doctor and the Parkers returned to the TARDIS. Those blue doors closed behind them, as the old machine wheezed into life, disappearing from the palace in bright white light, departing for a new adventure . . .