I know, I know. It's been two long weeks. I've been too busy; away at an uncles, trying to do exams, etc, etc. I am so sorry. BUT I'm back now! Here's chapter 28! For a little while at least, I won't update as regularly as I used to, but I am writing whenever I get the chance so please, everyone be patient! And there's a few days between the last chapter and this one ^_^

Chapter 27: Double Trouble

I came to slowly. Cold, metal floor underneath. The rush of wind not directly hitting me but nearby. The sound of voices.

"Just drop them. Let the Onduits take care of them, if they survive the fall that is."

"What about him?"

"He's coming with us. The two are luggage, and they could cause problems."

"You're right. They're waking now. Now's the best time."

The memories came flooding back. Mum had called and said that some of my friends had disappeared from their homes. We followed the source, but found them all to be living at home like normal, until the Doctor noticed something on one of their properties that made him scoot us away from there very quickly. "Onduits." He stated. "Shapeshifters. They've replaced your friends." They were very dangerous, he had said, and had a mindless need to kill anything that invaded their territory without permission. Their goal for stealing my friends' identities? He didn't know. We had headed back to the TARDIS, but a teleport interrupted us and brought us onto a large helicopter. Its pilots were human servants of the Onduits and instantly attacked.

Everything after that was a blur. Clearly, I was knocked out, but I didn't feel injured in any way, nor did my head hurt.

I opened my eyes gingerly to see Donna slowly climbing to her feet and the two pilots, who had been talking, holding a semi-conscious Doctor gagged and in cuffs.

I followed Donna's example, standing with a brief glance to the ominously open door of the helicopter; the source of the wind. One of the pilots approached me.

"Now, you fuss, and you'll be thrown out. Unconscious." He warned in his thick Northern English accent. (Think Christopher Eccleston's voice)

I frowned, remembering the words that greeted me upon awakening. We were hovering directly above the Onduit property…and if we were dropped onto it…Besides any injuries, we would be there without permission. I mentally swore.

The Doctor seemed to regain awareness and stared from Donna, to me, to the pilot, eyes wide with horror. "No!" he screamed, the word heavily muffled by the gag.

"Keep him quiet!" the pilot near me snapped, and the other whacked the Doctor's side with a rather heavy looking club, making him collapse to the ground in pain.

I gasped in outrage, glaring at the pilot. Donna, her mouth usually non-stop, was wisely staying quiet.

"Out." He said, nudging me towards the open door.

I edged over, looking down carefully, aware that the pilot could push me if he wanted. Donna came next to me. I was glad we weren't afraid of heights, for we seemed to be about ten metres up, hovering above a sparse cluster of fairly short trees. Looking around, I could see the house way too close for comfort; within twenty metres. Looking down again, at the helicopter, I saw that we didn't have to jump; there was a pole curving from the side of the helicopter, around a propeller and down to fold underneath. Even that metre of difference would help.

I turned once to look back. The Doctor, still on the ground, was staring at me, trying to communicate one message; take care.

I nodded once at him, then at Donna, before leaning out and grabbing hold of the pole.

"Hey, what are you doing?" the pilot shouted, reaching out to grab my arm. I yelped as it almost made my hand slip.

"Leave them alone, if they think it'll help them." The other one said in an almost bored tone. "If they survive the fall, they won't survive the Onduits."

"Good point."

He released my arm, to my great relief. I continued, moving little over an inch at a time, to shimmy down the pole until I was hanging underneath the helicopter.

My heart felt like it was in my throat and my stomach twisted with fear as to what I was actually about to do. But the only thought in my mind was that it was either this or I, Donna or the Doctor would be killed.

I waited until she was next to me, the terror in her face mimicking mine.

"Ok!" I shouted above the noise of the propellers. "I'll go first, then you have to let go. Try to hit a tree!"

"I don't think a tree's going to do me much good!" she snapped back.

"It'll soften the fall so you don't hit the ground hard enough to break every bone in your body." I said, probably harsher than I'd intended due to nerves.

She nodded with a frown.

I began taking deep breaths, positioning so that I was above a tree and looking up at my hands gripping the rail. Then I let go.

The free fall was exhilarating. The landing…not so much.

I hit the first few branches and fell through them easily, before a larger branch left a harsh bruise on my back. My left arm hit a third and this time I felt something pull. Before the gasp had left my mouth I was dropped onto the ground underneath the tree.

Several seconds passed in which I could do nothing more than breath and admire the fact that I had survived. Then I heard a series of groans and huffs and Donna landed a few metres away. My instincts told me to get up and see if she was alright. A quick assessment of myself told me that I had several nasty bruises and my left wrist was sprained, but luckily nothing had broken.

I then turned and stumbled over to the heap that was Donna.

"Donna." I murmured, kneeling and shaking her shoulder. She stirred and looked around.

"You're alright?" she said in wonder.

"Yeah." I replied. "Sort of. You?"

She pulled a face and indicated her ankle; it was clearly sprained, maybe fractured. Swollen and red, I knew it would have been very painful and was impressed at how she hadn't yet cried out.

"Bit unfortunate, that." She muttered.

I nodded before looking around and spotting a nice solid stick that she could use as a crutch. Handing it to her and helping her to her feet, I realised that the noise of the helicopter had gone. Looking back towards the house, I noticed that we weren't very far away…too close.

"We should move further back into the forest." I turned and took a few half-hearted steps. "We're too exposed…"

But something seemed to stop me. I remembered the Doctor mentioning that my real friends would have to be close by in order for the Onduits to keep up their façade; something about needing their minds close to use their psychic energy. That could mean that my friends were in that house now, being held prisoner.

"What is it?" Donna asked, no doubt noticing the faraway look in my eyes.

I explained my thoughts. "I can't just walk away. What if the Doctor can't break free?"

"He will."

But I noticed the doubt in her voice. She, too, looked towards the house.

"I can fly the TARDIS, remember?" She murmured. "We could go and rescue the Doctor. But…"

"But you're thinking that you'd like to be able to do something on your own and not always need the Doctor around." I guessed. "I know the feeling." Briefly, I told her about getting sucked into another world.

"Wow." She said, impressed. Then she frowned. "You're right, though. That is how I feel. It's like…I've got all his intelligence now, I wanna actually use it and not always be the companion that's the damsel in distress."

I grinned at her. "Then, what are we waiting for? Let's go rescue my friends!"

She grinned back, albeit a bit more hesitantly. We started creeping towards the house, hiding in the shadows of trees and keeping low and out of direct sight from the windows. Donna struggled on her sprained leg, but not as much as I would have expected; maybe she also got a tiny bit of the Doctor's healing ability. If I knew how, I would have healed her…but I still wasn't sure about just using the Time Lord energy.

We hid out of sight from one of the open windows and listened to see if we could hear anything useful.

"…amazing how we blended so easily into society."

That was the voice of their mother, Rachel.

"I know. The humans do not suspect. Reports indicate that it is the same with all other operations." A younger voice responded, who I recognised as Lucy.

"It's so exciting!" cried a third voice; Julia. "Humans are so fun to be!"

Donna and I shared a look that said, I'm sure they are.

She mouthed, "Is there anywhere you can think of?"

I bit my lip. "Yeah. The laundry, follow me."

I crept around the back of the house, still making sure to keep out of sight, and towards the laundry room. As expected, it was open; the fake Rachel must have adopted the real one's habits.

I remembered there being a larger-than-anyone-could-need linen cupboard. Spotting it, I realised now that there were muffled noises coming from in there.

Donna had heard before me and was already working on pulling the door open. It appeared that it had been jammed shut with some sort of alien glue. I added my weight, but we still couldn't get it open until Donna had the sense to grab an iron and melt the glue.

When we finally got it open, a series of muffled but loud cries came from the three people inside. Donna and I shushed them hurriedly.

"Yes, it's me. This is a friend." I indicated Donna. "We're going to help you."

I again realised how incredible it was that, in the Doctor's universe, I was still friends with Lucy and Julia. Parallel worlds really aren't that different.

"I'm going to ungag you." Donna said gently. "But you can't make a noise."

They nodded, then both girls threw their arms around me and thanked me in hushed whispers while Rachel, although thanking me as well, was looking around nervously.

"What are they?" she muttered.

"I'll explain everything when we're out." I replied.

Then I heard something that chilled me to the bone.

"There's someone here. Intruders!"

I'm not nice, am I? To leave you on a cliffy with no solid answer as to when I'll update again...

Argetaie , I am waiting for the 'monkey' comment XD