The Crimson Horror- Part 2
"Okay, I think they're about done." I said, "Jenny, open Clara's door. I got The Doctor."
I opened The Doctor's door while Jenny opened Clara's. The Doctor stumbled out and I caught and uprighted him. "Doctor." I breathed.
"Amelia." The Doctor said, hugging me. "Ugg." The Doctor groaned. "You're mum's going to kill me."
I grinned mischievously, "She doesn't have to find out."
The Doctor laughed. "What about Clara."
"Doctor." Clara groaned as she stepped closer to The Doctor. "Hi. What's going on?"
"Oh, haven't you heard, love? There's trouble at mill. She's a lizard."
"My people once ruled this world, as well you know, but we did not rule it alone. Just as humanity fights a daily battle against nature, so did we. And our greatest plague, the most virulent enemy, was the repulsive red leech." Vastra said.
"Ooo, the Repulsive Red Leech. Nah. On balance I think I prefer the Crimson Horror. What was it, exactly?" The Doctor asked.
"A tiny parasite. It infected our drinking water. And once in our systems, it secreted a fatal poison." Vastra replied.
"If it's been hanging around, lurking in the shadows, maybe it's evolved. Or maybe it's had help."
"Doctor, I've been thinking. The chimney-" I started.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Way past that now. Yucky red parasite from the time of the dinosaurs pitches up in Victorian Yorkshire. Didn't see that one coming."
"Yeah, but the chimney-" I tried to start again before The Doctor interrupted again.
"But what's the connection to Mrs Gillyflower? Judgement will rain down on us all. An empty mill."
"A chimney that doesn't blow smoke." Clara said.
"Clever clogs." The Doctor said.
"Missed me?" Clara asked, grinning.
The Doctor smiled back. "Yeah, lots."
I fell back next to Jenny, who glanced at me with concern. I shook my head.
We were now in a boiler room. "She's going to poison the air." The Doctor said.
"How?" Jenny asked.
A pilgrim pulls a lever. They are looking at the base of a rocket. "With that, I should think." Clara said.
"And there's the poison. All right, gang, I've got a plan." We stood up and something metal clatters. They duck down as the pilgrims turn towards the sound, "Shush. Okay." Mrs Gillyflower pulls out the stops on a small pipe organ then presses a lever. The contraption turns to present a control board to her.
Ada is crying in the corner of the room that I was held in when I entered the room with The Doctor behind me. Clara was waiting with Jenny and Vastra. "Who is that? Who is there?" Ada asked. I took Ada's hand and held it in mine. "It's You. It's you. My monster. You've come back. But you're-"
"Warm." I replied, "And alive, thanks to you, Ada. You saved me from your mother's trash tip. Now then, what's wrong?" I asked, kneeling beside her.
"She does not want me, monster. I am not to be chosen. Perhaps it was my own sin, the blackness in my heart that my father saw in me."
"Ada, no. That's nonsense. Stupid, backward nonsense, and you know it. You know it."
"What is it?" The Doctor asked.
Ada stiffened, "Who is that?"
"I'm, I'm a friend. A friend of hers."
"Then you are fortunate indeed. It isn't good to be alone." Ada replied.
"Now, Ada, I need you to tell me something. Who is Mister Sweet? Ada?" I asked.
"Oh, dear monster-"
"Please, tell me."
Ada shook her head, "I cannot. Even now, I cannot. I cannot betray Mama."
I glanced at The Doctor and he nodded, I went on to say, "Well, come with us, then. There's something you need to know."
We were in the Drawing room. "Oh, you do seem to keep turning up like a bad penny, young man."
The Doctor shrugged, "Force of habit."
"Can I offer you something? Tea? Seed cake? Oh, a glass of Amontillado?" Mrs. Gillyflower asked.
"No, thanks. We've had a skinful already, as you might say."
"Ha, ha. Very funny."
"Yes. I'm the Doctor, you're nuts and I'm going to stop you."
Mrs. Gillyflower snorted. "I'm afraid Mister Sweet and I cannot allow that."
"Ah, yes. Would it be impolite to ask why you and Mister Sweet are petrifying your workforce with diluted prehistoric leech venom?"
"So when do we get to meet him, this silent partner of yours? Why's he so shy?" Clara asked, stepping forward.
Mrs. Gillyflower smirked, "Mister Sweet is always with us."
"You seem to have a very close relationship, you and your pal."
"Oh yes, Doctor. Exceedingly close. Symbiotic, you might say." She opens the top of her dress to reveal a large red leech attached to her skin.
"Doctor, what is it?" I asked.
"A survivor. He has grown fat on the filth humanity has pumped into the rivers. That's where I found him."
"Very enterprising."
"His needs are simple, and in return he gives me his nectar."
" Mrs Gillyflower, you have no idea what you are dealing with. In the wrong hands, that venom could wipe out all life on this planet." The Doctor spat.
Mrs Gillyflower holds out her hands, "Do you know what these are? Ha, ha! The wrong hands." She goes to the control panel and pulls a lever. Red lights come on all the way up the factory chimney.
"Planning a little fireworks party, are we?" The Doctor asked.
"You have forced me to advance the Great Work somewhat, Doctor, but my colossal scheme remains as it was. My rocket will explode high in the atmosphere, raining down Mister Sweet's beneficence onto all humanity."
"And wiping us all out. You can't!" Clara yelled.
"My new Adam and Eves will sleep for but a few months before stepping out into a golden dawn. Is it not beautiful, Doctor?"
"Now, tell us about Ada, Mrs Gillyflower."
"What?"
The Doctor nodded, "Your daughter. You do remember your daughter? Tell us about your daughter."
"How can you speak of such trivia when my hour is at hand? The child is of no consequence." Mrs. Gillyflower laughed weekly.
"Is that why you experimented on her?"
"Experimented?" I asked sharply.
"The signs are all there. The pattern of scarring. You used her as a guinea pig, didn't you."
"God." Clara said, covering her mouth.
"Sometimes sacrifices must be made."
"Sacrifices?"
"It was necessary. I had to find out how much of the venom would produce an anti-toxin to immunise myself. Don't you see? It was necessary!"
Ada walks into the room, "Mama? Is it, is it true?"
"Ada."
"It is. It's true. True." Ada said painfully.
"Ada, listen to me."
"You hag! You perfidious hag! You virago! You harpy! All these years I have helped you, served you, looked after you. Do they count for nothing, nothing at all?" Ada starts slashing at her mother with her white stick.
"No, stop. Stop."
Clara runs forward.
"Hang on, I've got a sonic screwdriver."
"Yeah? I've got a chair!" Clara smashes it into the control panel, with a satisfying shower of sparks.
"No!" Mrs. Gillyflower yelled.
"Yeah. That worked. I'm afraid your rocket isn't going anywhere, Mrs G." The Doctor scolded.
"Please, come to me, Ada. Oh, my child. You have always been so very useful." Mrs Gillyflower puts a small revolver to Ada's head.
We all froze, "No, Mrs Gillyflower."
"Please, Mama. No more. No more."
"And now, if you'll please forgive us, we must be going. It is long past Ada's bedtime." Mrs Gillyflower forces Ada out of the room and locks the door behind her.
Clara tries to follow, "No, no, Clara. If we follow straight after her, she'll shoot Ada on the spot."
"She wouldn't."
"She would. Chairs are useful." He pulls the chair out of the panel and uses it to break the window.
Mrs Gillyflower drags Ada up the staircase encircling the rocket. The Doctor and Clara run through Sweetville and get to the bottom of the stairs. "Stop!" Mrs. Gillyflower yelled.
We froze. The Doctor put his hands up, "Just let her go, Mrs Gillyflower. Let Ada go."
"Secondary firing mechanism, Doctor. Mister Sweet and I are too smart for you, after all."
"Just let your daughter go, Mrs Gillyflower." Ada gets free and stumbles down to the corner between the Doctor and Mrs Gillyflower.
"Ada!"
"Shoot if you wish, Mama. It is of no matter, for you killed me a long time ago." Mrs Gillyflower shoots at the Doctor, making him retreat.
"I'll labour night and day to be a pilgrim." Mrs. Gillyflower sings. The Doctor gets to Ada as Mrs Gillyflower pulls the lever and the rocket's engines ignite. He shields her with his body as it takes off, with so little flame as to not even singe any of them as it passes mere inches away.
"Now, Mister Sweet, now the whole world will taste your lethal kiss!"
"I don't think so, Mrs Gillyflower." The Doctor snaps his fingers. Jenny and Vastra appear, in pilgrim clothes, holding a bottle of venom.
"Very well, then. If I can't take the world with me, you will have to do. Die, you freaks. Die! Die!" Mrs. Gillyflower yelled madly.
Strax points his honking big gun down the chimney. "Put down your weapon, human female." Mrs Gillyflower shoots at Strax. He returns fire, sending her tumbling over the railing to the floor two stories below.
The Doctor winced, "Ouch."
The leech detaches itself from her, and drags itself across the floor by its suckered forelimbs. "No. No. Mister Sweet, where are you going? You can't leave me now, Mister Sweet." Mrs. Gillyflower rasped.
"What's it doing?" Clara asked.
"It knows she's dying. She's no longer of any use to it." The Doctor responded.
"Mister Sweet. Ada?" Ada taps her way down the stairs. "Ada. Are you there?"
"I'm here, Mama."
"Forgive me, my child. Forgive me."
Silence, then, "Never."
Mrs. Gillyflower smiled, "That's my girl." Mrs Winifred Gillyflower dies. The rocket explodes in the sky.
"What will you do with that thing?" Jenny asked.
"Take it back to the Jurassic era, maybe. Out of harm's way." Ada taps her way across the floor until her stick finds something squishy. She smashes the leech to smithereens. "On the other hand-"
We wrapped up loose ends and such in Sweetville, helping the other trapped people get, well, untrapped and we talked with the police a bit and now we were back in the alleyway with the Tardis. "Right. Right, London. We were heading for London, weren't we?" The Doctor asked.
Clara frowned, "Was there any particular reason?"
"No. No. Just thought you might like it." The Doctor said, not so subtly.
Clara scoffed, "Yeah. Maybe had enough of Victorian values for a bit."
"You're the boss." The Doctor said and I tried to hide my wince.
"Am I?" Clara asked.
"No. No. Get in." The Doctor replied, making me feel a bit better. Clara enters the Tardis. "You too, Lia."
"Can I at least say goodbye to Ada. I mean, she did save my life." I said. The Doctor nodded and we walked back to Vastra, Jenny, Strax and Ada.
"Now, Ada, I'd love to stay and help clear up the mess more, but-" The Doctor started.
"I know, Doctor. You have things to do." Ada replied.
"Ada." I said.
"Ah, my monster." Ada said back. I hid another wince.
"And what about you?" I asked.
"Oh, there are many things a bright young lady can do to occupy her time. It's time I stepped out of the darkness and into the light."
"Good luck, Ada. You know, I think you will be amazing." I said and hugged Ada.
"Well, thanks a million, you three, as ever." The Doctor told the gang. "Have some Pontefract cakes on me. I love Pontefract cakes. See you around, eh, I shouldn't wonder."
"But Doctor. That girl, Clara. You haven't explained." Jenny said.
"No, I haven't." The Doctor said. "Come on, Lia." We walked to the Tardis. "Ah, look at the muck in here. Right!" I let out a tiny laugh. The Doctor stepped inside, I turned around, waved at the gang and went inside, closing the Tardis door behind me.
We had dropped Clara off at her house. The Doctor was fiddling with the controls. "Well, I'm going to get a shower and change into regular cloths." I said after a couple minutes of awkward silence. "Then have something to eat. I'm starving."
I turned and walked away, as I got to the entrance way into the rest of the Tardis, The Doctor called, "Lia."
I stopped and turned around, "Yes?"
The Doctor gave me a small smile, "You did good."
I froze for a second then said with a strained smile, "Thanks." I turned and walked off to change.