~ The Rescue Part III ~

Present Day in Avalon:

Opal eyed the threesome thoughtfully behind the laser cage. The Doctor stared right back at her, unblinking. She may have had a trap ready for them, but she was still devising as events occurred.

"I'm putting all of you in the dungeon until you give me the TARDIS." She narrowed her eyes, as if she'd been expecting them to protest. No sound came from their mouths.

"Fine!" she snapped, throwing her hands in the air. "Be that way, Doctor. I can let you rot down there with your companions. And even if you manage to escape, I will make sure you'll never leave this planet." She pulled out a small, square object from her belt, and pressed it. The floor under them started to rumble and move downward through a gaping hole in the floor that hadn't been there before. It was like being in an invisible elevator. All John saw before the tile swung upwards and covered them in darkness was the flash of silver hair as Opal turned away from them.

The elevator kept moving downwards, smooth and silent, until they seemed to hit solid ground. The Lasers blinked out leaving them in a cell, two sides of it thick iron bars running vertically. John wondered how it was that he could see this. Sherlock seemed to know what he was thinking and pointed towards a small rectangle shape letting in beams of light. "There's a small window there. We must still be above ground. This is good. If we can just-"

John tuned out Sherlock's talking and looked to the other side of the cell, through the bars. He was still kneeling on the ground, his hands attached by rope. He tried to make out what the slumped shape was on the ground in the other cell. He was snapped out of his thoughts then when Sherlock called his name.

"John. John, pay attention, we're about to break out of here."

"Huh? Pardon, what were you saying?"

"We need to get out of here before she finds out how to use the TARDIS."

John motioned to his hands, tied together in front of him. The Doctor was busy with his Sonic Screwdriver, so Sherlock bent down and after a good minute of struggling with the stubborn rope managed to release John's hands.

"Ah, thank you. That was unpleasant." John rubbed his wrists where the rope had bit into his skin, leaving angry red marks. Sherlock didn't even notice this, he was to busy pressing the cold iron door. He tried picking at it with his keys to their flat in London. London. It was so far away, and as distant as a lifetime ago. John felt as if he'd always been traveling with the Doctor.

John reached for the keys before Sherlock could break them. Looking almost defeated, Sherlock handed them over grumpily and leaned against the wall. John suddenly had an idea. "Doctor, why don't you use that, uh, buzzy thing?" He mimicked the Sonic screwdriver's noise.

"Use the Sonic? I know, but I'm already using it."

"What for?" John felt completely and utterly annoyed at this.

"Long story. I'll explain later." He stopped pressing the Sonic and muttered under his breath. He hit the screwdriver against one of the iron bars as if it had stopped working, and then pointed it at the door. There was a high-pitched squeak, and the door flung open. They tumbled out of the small cell, stretching their arms and legs.

"Right, now we just need to do the same with the window, John should go first, he's small-" The Doctor paused, looking around for his companions. They were in front of the other cell, this one with a wooden door rather than an iron one. Sherlock bent down, and retrieved something that was half poking out of the bars. It was his blue scarf. He showed the other two, and then knelt down in front of the cell. "Clara, are you in there?"

A hand groped around in the darkness for one of the iron bars. Clara came into view, her eyes wide and scared. One side of her face was matted in blood. John turned to look at the Doctor. There was no expression on his face, and he didn't move except for a small muscle in his jaw that twitched slightly.

Sherlock got to his feet and eyed her thoughtfully. "You're going to need to back away from the door. Are you ready to get out?"

Clara smiled and turned to look at the Doctor. "Absobloodylutely."

After pulling the other three out, John looked at his surroundings. They were in a hollow, grassy area at the back of the castle. He looked down at his jeans, now stained green. He'd have to wash them when they got home. "If we get home," he muttered to himself.

He turned to look at the trio. Sherlock was brushing grass of his coat, the Doctor was back to using his Sonic, and Clara was stumbling around, looking dazed. John's inner-doctor self took over, and he sat her down on the grass. Her knees were scratched, the blood on her head nearly dry. Her pupils swallowed up the brown in her eyes.

"John, we don't have that much time. What do you think happens when Opal looks out a window and sees us not in our jail cell?"

"Sherlock, please. She has a concussion, she needs care." John used the scarf to rub away most of the blood. He addressed her as he took a bandage from a pocket and placed it on her temple. "So Opal found you even when you hid?"

Clara nodded and said nothing, just looked in the distance. There were a few trees here and there. Far away, the buildings started popping up. They lead down to the main square.

"Alright," John motioned for Sherlock to sit down next to Clara.

"I'm fine, John, I don't need a check up." Sherlock took something from his pocket and handed it to John as discreetly as he could. It was his gun.

"Thanks for that, but you do have a gash across your hand." He stood up and took another bandage from his pocket. Luckily, he brought a few everywhere he went.

Sherlock was looking back at the castle. He jerked back suddenly and John looked up at him in confusion. "What's wrong?" he asked.

" I don't mean to alarm anyone, but there's a great metal beast coming towards us."

The Doctor whirled around, Sonic in hand, and spoke for the first time since the dungeon. "Run."

John just barely had time to glance back at what was stalking towards them from the castle. It was a machine, steel and iron, and very, very tall. Under different circumstances, he would have thought it looked like a life sized toy robot. Now he just thought it was going to kill him.

He turned and grabbed Clara from where she was still sitting in the grassy hollow. Together they ran towards the tree line, where the other two were waiting anxiously. Something zapped close above their heads and hit a tree straight up ahead. If they had been any taller, the beam would have killed the both of them. They reached the black fence gate that the Doctor had already managed to open. All four of them ran through it, and a few seconds later they heard the crunching sound of one broken fence as the robot-machine stepped on it. Clara tripped and fell on the dirt road, badly scratching her already bloody knees, and Sherlock fell back to help her up. Just ahead the first shop was coming into view, the dirt road turning into brick and stone.

They turned and stood in defensive positions. The Metal beast was snarling and spitting sparks, slowly advancing towards them. John took his gun from its holster and shot at it, but all it did was bounce off the metal chest. All four ducked for cover to avoid the stray bullet, and then rolled behind a shop corner.

"It's like one of those transformer things from the American series!" breathed John.

"I can't believe you watched that movie!" Clara whispered back fiercely.

"All of you, shut up and run!" the Doctor yelled at them. They shot out from behind the shop and ran, dodging the lasers shooting out from the monsters metal palms. They were close, so close to where the TARDIS had landed. They all skidded to a stop when they noticed that the time machine was gone.

"It was right here! Where could it possibly have gone?" The Doctor paced the ground and searched the horizon with his eyes.

"Doctor…" Clara warned. The beast was getting close, and its aim warmer. All the Avalonians on the street had ducked into shops and homes to avoid the large machine and its beams of killing light.

"There!" They all looked where Sherlock was pointing. "The sewers. It's our only chance of getting away from it."

Pushing the grating aside, they noticed it went down an awful long way, and there were no ladders leading down into the darkness.

John's hands were shaking nervously. Sherlock had already jumped down with Clara, hoping beyond hope that there would be something to catch their fall. The Doctor put a hand on his shoulder to steady him.

"John, you need to jump. That monster won't be long in finding us. I have a quote I use now and then from the Internet in these circumstances: "'True courage is to keep on traveling when you can't see the map.'"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Geronimo."

John gasped as he felt himself pushed by a hand, and the feeling of air rushing up into his face as he fell.