Chapter Fifteen

"Sir!" Yahlas cried, turning the Doctor's head toward her own as Yahs pulled her body out of the space suit, "they're blocking me!"

The Doctor looked out from Yahlas' rotted eyes and nodded. Her flesh was dry, wrinkled and dead, but waiting, like the vampire on Ahkaten.

"I'm aware, Yahlas! If they try to block me, they'll get a surprise- my data ghost has better encryption and a way cooler firewall. Let me just… update your…"

But Jack Harkness appeared in the blast door just as Yahs tried to close it, and slammed at him, knocking the Xja emanation out of phase.

Yahs's misty body sailed toward a section wall, but his claw manifested again in mid-flight clutching a corner of broken door, dragging him back into corporeal space.

"Yahlas, he's heading for the Doctor!" he clicked, his white mantis head cocking at her as his big eyes flitted back and forth between her and the Doctor, gleaming in the near dark brought on by the burst lighting.

"Doctor, are you strong enough? Give me your hand," Yahlas yelled, summoning a blast of golden light and blowing it from the Doctor's fingertips toward the oncoming Time Agent, his mouth ringed by wisps of sharp, petulant grey- the telltale sign of the pirates.

"Hey, that's my starstuff you're spilling!" the Doctor squeaked with Yahlas' half-fermented throat, but he worked himself through her veins anyway, using the jumpstart of fear to fire her engines and cut through the blocks placed on her powers by the pirates.

"My god, you 'don't' have much left, do you, sir?" she coughed, considering the dangerously deplete amount of artron in the Doctor's body as she waved at Yahs.

While Yahlas reassessed the Doctor's resources, Pirate Jack took a swipe with a tendril-y hand at the Doctor's head then reached back to grab Yahlas' throat.

"I'll be frugal- hold on! Yahs, aren't you hungry? Get them!"

"What? Oh. Oh! Yes, yes I will…"

Aging his appearance to an adult Xja for size advantage, Yahs pushed off the doorway and surrounded the pirates, enveloping Jack's body in a bright blue-white aura-bubble.

Yahlas grabbed her body by the wrist, and a sliver of gold sparked from the Doctor's body to hers, and from hers to the Doctor's.

Then she pressed her own crispy, dry hand to Jack's chest as Yahs made a hole in the protective envelop of his essence for her, and…

Her body gleamed with gold and shimmered once, dissolving in a halo of molten jewel tones. Then in a burst, grey sick smoke flooded out of Jack and into Yahs. Yahs spiraled his essence, tunneling, coiling, merging with the screaming emanation of the pirates. Then their cries faded into sneers and whimpers, and finally sighs. They were gone.