Previously on Doctor Who:
"Easier to show you." said Delacourt with unnerving excitement in his eyes, as he pressed an intercom button on the wall and spoke into it.
"You may begin now."
As soon as the words came out of his mouth a buzzing sound came and a panel slid open in the wall that a man in a white coat and one of the men in the black uniform and combat boots walked through. The man with the gun stood in the corner of the room and the white coated scientist sat on the bolted down chair holding a small crate of objects.
"Good Morning Cordelia. How are we today?"
Nothing.
"We are going to start with the numbers game? You like that one don't you Cordelia?"
Still no response. Just a twitching movement of her shoulders which could almost be described as a shrug. The scientist stood up and as he did so the soldier who had been stood at attention snapped into a combat stance, one foot planted n front of the other, gun raised and aimed straight at Cordelia, as though daring her to move. The scientist stood by the wall, withdrew a thick black marker pen began to write the numbers 1 to 25 in a random order scattered all around the wall, in various sizes as well, the number 7 being the size of a penny and 16 being the size of a small cat. When he was finished a he stepped back and pulled out a stop watch.
"Begin." he commanded.
For about fifteen seconds nothing happened. Cordelia just sat and looked at the numbers. Then came the shimmer. At first The Doctor thought it was a light flickering in the room, before he realised what it was. The air just around her head, Cordelia's head was vibrating minutely, minutely enough that he was sure only his eyes, the eyes of a Timelord could see it.
And then they moved.
The numbers moved.
Some grew as the others shrank, all to the same size, and as they did so they began to shift along the wall. The ink quite literally began to seep along he wall until the numbers were all arranged in an exact order. Five rows, five columns, of 25 number, all in uniform size.
Behind him he heard Martha say
"But that's-" before she ended her own sentence due to amazement.
"Brilliant" the Doctor finished, in a voice that made Martha extremely worried. It wasn't his normal "Brilliant" voice, the one that sounded like every Christmas had come at once on his birthday. No. It was the same voice he had used when he had to kill the only Dalek in existence who had a conscience. The vice he had used when he spoke about the time war. It was a voice that meant nothing good was going to happen.
"Isn't she just?" came the smarmy voice of Delacourt, and Martha was surprised and a little afraid that she saw The Doctor actually clench his jaw a little.
"Well done Cordelia! A new time set, very impressive." the Scientist in the room said in a voice which was obviously full of fake happiness. It got no reaction from Cordelia who just looked back at her hands, completely expressionless.
"You may proceed Moors" said Dr Snyden into a mic and the scientist who must have been Moors nodded to the guard in the corner who snapped to attention before exiting the room. Two minutes and thirty seen seconds later he was back and this time not alone. Two more black booted guards entered behind him, dragging between them a third form.
This one was definitely not a guard.
He was young, maybe 21 or 22, with a mop of curly brown hair that looked like it hadn't been washed in weeks. he was dressed in the same clothes as Cordelia but he was bare foot. The two guards deposited him on the bolted down chair before bending to thread a long length of chain through a drain in the floor that the Doctor hadn't really paid attention to before now. One end of the length of chain was connected to the shackles that were around the mans wrists and the other end was now tethered through the drain in the floor.
"Now Cordelia this is Ben. Andrew is still in M wing, so Ben is here to play with you today. This time we want you to play the finding game. Ben has something very important inside his mind which he is hiding from us. We've tried to find it and now we would like you to find and extract it please."
The man, boy really, managed to wearily lift his head and Martha stifled a gasp at the look in his eyes.
Abject. Terror. There was no other word for it. Ben the boy was terrified.
"And begin." commanded Moors.
The Doctor couldn't see Cordelia's face as she was sat with her back to them.
But they could see Ben's.
And Ben did not look well.
His young face seemed to be slowly taking on a grey quality, as though his skin was fading, getting paler and paler. Next went the eyes, the black of the pupil seemed to expand leaking through the warm chocolate brown of his iris until his entire eye was pitch black. His whole ody began to convulse, and finally just as a small trickle of blood began to drip from the corner of his left eye Ben screamed in pain.
And then it all stopped.
Ben slumped forwards but he was quickly regaining colour, is eyes returning to normal.
"Cordelia recommence search! Cordelia that is an order recommence!" Barked Moors but nothing happened.
"Sir she's gone into withdrawal again." sighed Moors into his mic, and Delacourt snarled something incoherent.
"What's Withdrawal?" whispered Martha to one of the other scientists in the room but she was steadfastly ignored. Snyden sighed impatiently and went to say something but hesitated and looked to Delacourt, who gave a curt nod of confirmation.
"Ok Moors, bring her back."
Martha assumed that meant that they were going to bring her back out of the room. Oh how wrong she was.
Inside the room, Moors nodded to the three guards who now stood in the corners of the room. The two who had bought Ben in adjusted their guns so that they were behind them, on their back, out of the way. The third, the one who had come in with Cordelia once again raised his gun and took aim. Finally, Moors pulled a small silver tube from his pocket and flipped open the top revealing a small blue button.
Martha found herself thinking over and over "don't push it, don't push it, don't push it" even though she didn't know why.
But of course he did.
And all hell broke loose.
Duh duh duuuuhhhh
What are they going to do?
What exactly is Cordelia?
More to come soon
Geronimo xx