((French Proposals: Part III))

~~OO~~II~~OO~~

"Seriously," I demanded, fighting the urge to rip my wrist away from the Doctor as he dragged me along after him. We had exited the castle not too long ago and he was now pulling me down an empty path. "What's going on, bowtie man? Clave, stop chasing those chickens and get over here," I added irritably when my pet slid from my shoulders to do exactly that. "What's attacking and stuff?"

"Someone," the Doctor replied without releasing my wrist, "has been messing with clockwork. That prince of yours has been cooperating with them."

My jaw dropped. "I have nothing to do with that man and you know it," I hissed furiously, glowering at him with a look of annoyance.

The Doctor smirked. "He did almost get your hand in-"

"Stop talking about that!" I shrieked to interrupt him. I jerked my hand away from his grasp, skidding to a stop. "Now, slow down and tell me where we're going, what we're gonna do about this, and why you think there's...clockwork running about! I haven't seen a single bit of anything that suggests something's wrong, Doctor!"

Bowtie man stopped, frowning at me. "We're going to the center of it all. We found it by accident earlier; it's where the clockwork is created. And of course you didn't see any clockwork, they're all disguised. You and I are going to destroy whatever's creating them while Amy and River deal with hunting down the remaining clockwork robots. Then you and my previous incarnation are going to deal with that prince. After we put you in the right ally. I think we can do most of that in the six hour limit we've been left. No questions? Good. Let's go."

"You don't need me for this," I told him suddenly, refusing to move. I crossed my arms. "You don't need me to do any of this. For all he knows, I'm sitting there in the castle waiting for him to rescue me like some stupid princess, bowtie man. You can do this by yourself. Give me one good reason why you want my help."

He must have seen the truth in my logic, because his face became the sad look of a kicked puppy. "I watched you die," he said suddenly, startling me. Not once had he mentioned what he'd been doing when I'd...gone in his time line. "I watched you die and couldn't do anything about it without killing everyone in the universe, Ali. So shoot me for wanting to bring you along on one of the few chances I can." His darkened gaze surprised me as much as the phrase.

I stood there for a moment, stunned into silence. We stared at each other for a few moments, and a confused Clave purred as he nuzzled my cheek before blinking innocently at the bowtie man. "...alright then," I muttered. I forced a smile onto my face. "Let's go then."

His dark and almost scary mood was gone immediately. He grinned. "Wonderful, let's go! We're not too far away." He hurried off and I darted after him. Clave latched onto my shoulders carefully with his talons. After a few minutes of running, the Doctor stopped. I panted desperately for breath as he scanned a building before us with his sonic screwdriver, the strange greenish one I had yet to see up close. "Hm...Not picking up anything..."

"Hold on," I told him. I carefully pried Clave from my shoulders, holding him in front of me. He whined, tilting his head curiously. I smiled, kissing his head and whispering, "Sneak in there and take a peek around, would you? If it's not safe, you can bite bowtie over there when you come put."

Clave happily purred, giving a nod, and the Doctor pouted. "I'm not something you can use to bribe," he complained as I set my pet down and sent him scampering away to do as I'd asked.

"Sure you are," I retorted with a hint of playfulness in my tone. Might as well enjoy myself if I was being dragged along to deal with this stuff. "For Clave anyways. Remind me that sometime soon, I need to give you your fez. Still have that thing."

"My fez?" the Doctor mused. "You still have it?"

I raised an eyebrow at him. "Of course. I'm not exactly sure why though," I mused. I leaned back against the building, finally having caught my breath. "Sorry for the tons of questions earlier," I added, "Not really sure how to act near you. Seems wrong to be meeting with more than one Doctor."

"It is," he admitted with a sigh. He adjusted his bowtie, avoiding looking at me. "It should be fine if we avoid my other self, though. It would be bad if we came across each other. Very bad paradox." Changing the subject, he pointed abruptly and said cheerfully, "Oh look, Clave's coming back."

The first thing my little pet did?

Naturally, he bit the Doctor's leg.

As the Doctor cursed and hopped up and down, examining his bitten leg, I cooed to Clave and kissed his head. "Not safe, hm? Alright, we'll need a plan then. Were there any real live people in there?" Clave gave a nod. "Good, that's who we need to get to. Clockwork people or things?" Another nod. I turned to face the Doctor. "Alright, what do we- Doctor?"

He was already walking towards the building, his legs covering the ground in fairly long strides. "Well come on!" he called back, pausing to wait for me. I let Clave get situated on my shoulders, and then darted after him. He offered a hand and I hesitated only for a brief moment before taking it, letting him drag me through a side door of the building that he'd picked.

As soon as we were inside, we ducked behind some crates that were stacked near the door. Bowtie man glanced over the edge before ducking back down. "Hm. Some of them look like poor copies of Cybermen," he whispered in my ear.

I frowned at this, my mind flashing to the time I'd been trapped inside a metal suit. Shuddering, I said sharply, "Well they're not. Poor copies you said? Easy to get rid of them." I reached down, removing my sonic key chain from my bag and showing it to him. "Think it'll do something to them?"

The Doctor tapped his chin thoughtfully, thinking. As he did, I took a glance myself, Clave pressing against my shoulders to avoid being seen. Just as he'd said, a robotic clockwork creature that looked similar to a Cybermen was marching past. I ducked down quickly, stiffening when it went out the side door and returned a few moments later. When I opened my mouth to whisper something to the Doctor, he slapped a hand over my mouth, pressing a finger to his lips in a gesture for silence.

Crankily, I gave in, waiting until he'd just barely relaxed before crossing my arms and hissing, "Hardly necessary. Any big ideas?"

"Why am I coming up with the ideas?" he demanded quietly, voice barely a hiss in my ear.

"You wanted me along and here I am," I pointed out. He seemed to accept this and sighed. "You have something, don't you?"

"I do," he admitted unhappily. "I don't like it at all, though."

"Well too bad," I retorted. "Explain, because we can't possibly have any other ideas to work with. I certainly don't." He gave a slight smile at my words and I rolled my eyes. Did this guy ever stop being happy? "Focus, bowtie man."

"Don't call me that," he muttered under his breath before saying firmly, "You'll distract them, I'll slip past and deal with the one behind it." I had already begun to shake my head by the time he'd finished. "I told you it wasn't likable!" he added with a huff.

I flashed a smile before explaining my head shake. "It might work," I reassured him, "But I don't trust you by yourself to deal with someone. So Clave can distract them, if he agrees, and you and I can work together to deal with their creators-" I broke off with a squeak when something suddenly slammed through crates, a mere inch from my turned head. A shriek of surprise escaped me and the Doctor was startled into silence. Then he snapped out of it, crawling past the arm and shoving me. "No time to plan, move."

"Clave," I pleaded, but he had already scampered from my shoulders. He paused to nuzzle my hand, and then shot off, screeching and howling strange noises that made me want to grimace. The pathetic attempt at a Cybermen jerkily turned in the direction of Clave, along with a few dozen more or so clockwork creatures.

"Move!" the Doctor muttered hurriedly, pushing me. I sprinted for a door at the back of the room, the Doctor hot on my heels. He stopped before closing it, yelling, "Clave!" As soon as he was through, bowtie man slammed the door shut and used his sonic on the deadbolt. When it had clicked shut, he whirled around on his heels. "Hm..." he mused as he joined me in looking at our surroundings.

A completely empty room with no way out.

Completely wonderful.

Just what I needed, right?

"Well, what now?" I rasped, pursing my lips angrily. "What can we possibly do now? Damn it, we're trapped!"

The Doctor shook his head. "I don't know," he admitted. I glowered at him. He'd dragged me into this mess when I could've been perfectly safe back at the castle! Annoyed, I turned away from him as he cried, "I didn't think clockwork could hear us!"

"Of course not," I muttered grouchily, sticking my bottom lip out in a pout. Giving an exasperated sigh, I tilted my head back to look closely around at the space above our heads. Nothing. So what to do…

I received no response from the Doctor. When I glanced over at him, he was studying Clave with a thoughtful look. Wary, I warned, "We're not using Clave like a tool, Doctor, there's no way I'm sending him off to do our dirty work."

Crash!

Damn, they were trying to break in! Cursing quietly under my breath, I listened intently as the Doctor replied quickly, thinking aloud at a fast pace. "Clockwork…I could try the sonic on them…"

"Then do it!" I gasped as there was another slam. Clave hissed, narrowing his eyes and baring his teeth at the door as it exploded open. "We've got nothing better to try."

He nodded his agreement, aiming the sonic screwdriver in his hand. The second the sonic began to ring out with the newer version of my Doctor's sonic screwdriver's buzzing, the attempted Cyberman that had broken through and fifty other kinds of automatons screeched to a halt, jerking as they tried to move. "Run," the Doctor ordered, grabbing my wrist and dragging me past them. One attempted to catch my arm, but I moved out of the way before it could.

Past the clockwork, we dashed out the way we came. He sprinted down an alley and I followed him, calling as I did so, "That could've gone much better than it did."

The Doctor flashed a grin at me. "Much more fun that way though!"

"You're insane," I retorted. We rounded another corner, and I gave a sigh of relief when the Doctor skidded to a halt. Doubling over as I heaved for air, I watched as Clave skittered into view, hissing at the Doctor as he crawled up to rest on my shoulders. Exhausted, my poor pet went limp and simply lay there.

The Doctor pointed to himself. "No, I'm a madman with a box."

I snorted in response. "Alright, madman, what do we do now? Obviously those things are better than you thought."

He narrowed his eyes thoughtfully, rocking back on his heels. "My sonic does well against them. If I could figure out a setting to disable what's animating them, then it would work."

"Then let's try that," I agreed, biting my lip. We needed to disable those things before my Doctor showed up. Just because I'd been able to get away with no paradox didn't mean the Doctor could. I was a completely different being then what he was. "We need to be careful, though. We don't want to get stuck, trapped by those automatons."

"Automatons," the Doctor mused, "A wonderful word for beautiful creations that shouldn't exist here." I rolled my eyes and snapped my fingers in front of his eyes to get his attention. "Right!" he cried. "Let's go! You and Clave, stay by me."

"Got it," I agreed, shaking my head. He peeked around the corner. Then he jerked back in surprise, gently pushing me back. I frowned, muttering to him, "What now, Doctor?"

My answer came in the form of our friendly fake Cyberman stumbling into view, hissing and creaking like any anciently old machine might do. Clave's talons lightly dug into my shoulder and I narrowed my eyes as I stroked his head comfortingly.

The Doctor pointed his sonic screwdriver, calling, "Get ready to run if we have to, Ali." I nodded and he pressed the button on his sonic screwdriver. I watched with intense hope as the object gaze a high pitched sound seconds before the metal man matched the sound with a metallic scream that made me slam my hands over my ears with a cry of surprise. In the distance, dogs howled at a sound only they could hear.

And then, suddenly, the Doctor stopped and the automaton collapsed, making quiet ticking sounds before going silent. Warily, my ears ringing, I dropped my hands from my ears and said shakily, "It'd be nice to have a warning the next time you plan on making something make noise like that, Doctor."

He winced, rubbing the side of his head with an apologetic look. "Sorry, Ali. Didn't know it would do that."

I shook my head in exasperation. Didn't this guy think of anything? Guilty for contradicting everything he did or said now, I murmured, "Well, open the thing up. We can figure out what the guy who is in charge is doing and see if there's an easier way to stop him."

"It doesn't matter what you do, it's still going to be difficult," he reminded me as he crouched and examined the chest of the metal man. He used his sonic, running a scan, then used his hands to pry open a crack down the center of the torso.

I gagged at what I saw. "Oh my- ugh! That's disgusting!" I whipped around and I heard the Doctor make a sound of disgust himself. The automaton had what looked like real organs in it, carefully arranged so that they were in their proper places. The heart was even pounding.

"This isn't just an automaton," the Doctor murmured, eyes darkened with anger as he stood. "Someone harvested a real human being and planted their organs into a metal creature."

I shuddered at the thought, biting my lip. Clave purred soothingly, as if sensing my discomfort, and I stroked his head to get rid of my disgust before focusing on the matter at hand. "Well who is making them? That's the question. If we can find the answer, then we can stop it."

"The prince is involved," the Doctor murmured.

"So let's go question him!" I said firmly.

"I can't." He shook his head angrily. "You and my previous incarnation are the ones who speak with the prince. I can't involve myself with him now."

I cursed quietly in frustration. "So what do we do?" I demanded with a desperate look. "We still have hours before he comes back, I can't just sit around and do nothing in an alley. Especially with random guys running around doing who knows what. If their creator is an alien, he'd recognize who I am immediately and try to kill me, just like everyone else." Maybe I should go get myself a weapon before I do anymore alien hunting…for self-defense, I don't have to attack first…the Doctor couldn't blame me if I did it in self-defense.

"We could go back and disable the rest of the automatons," the Doctor thought aloud. He adjusted his bowtie almost subconsciously as he spoke, and I gave a small sigh. He and his bowtie were just like my Doctor and his strange combination of a suit and a pair of shoes that really, really didn't go with said suit. "I need to check on Amy and River, too, make sure they haven't destroyed my TARDIS just yet."

I flinched at that thought. "I have my phone. Does Amy have one, Doctor? You can call her on it." I offered him my phone, and then suddenly frowned. "Wait, where's that Rory guy I saw last time we met?"

He looked startled and whipped his head around to stare at me for a brief moment. Then he lightly took my phone, dialing in a number as he mumbled, "How do you remember him? You're not supposed to remember Rory…"

I rolled my eyes, crossing my arms. "I'm the Successor, remember, Doctor? I'm different then whoever's not supposed to remember." Not that I wanted to be this kind of different from everyone else in the universe. I tilted my head. Just how had I been labeled as the Successor…? Eh, who knew, now was not the time to wonder such questions. "What happened to him?"

The Doctor held the phone up to his ear. "Complicated story, you'll learn about it eventually. Pond!" Amy had picked up. "Have you destroyed my TARDIS?" She retorted a response and I grinned when the Doctor pouted and replied, "Well, I'm sorry for having to worry that River's going to destroy her! What are you up to now? How many? Good, good, keep doing that, Ali and I have figured some stuff out here. Whatever you do, don't open them up- no! Amelia Pond, I am not doing that!" I raised an eyebrow in curiosity at the shade the Doctor's face turned. Just what was Amy questioning?

I held out my hand. "Give me the phone; let me talk with Amy, Doctor."

He placed it in my hand. I lifted it to my ear. "Hello. Amy? It's Ali."

"Finally someone who can answer a question without creating more!" Amy cheered and I grinned, shooting the Doctor a smirk. "What does he mean by 'don't open them up'?"

I grimaced. "Right, don't do that. Turns out that their creator has been, err, harvesting human organs and plugging them into a machine." Amy made a sound of disgust. "That was my response," I said with a small laugh. "Now, you two having any problems?"

There was a rustling sound and then River was speaking. "Yes, actually. Don't tell the Doctor, but she won't let me move her anymore. I've done exactly as I was taught, as I've done, but she won't move."

I opened my mouth to question why she was telling me this, but then realized why almost immediately. It was me being temperamental and not moving. No wonder she was telling me. "Err, did you ask her to?" I suggested.

"I begged."

"Then maybe it's a good idea not to move her," I answered thoughtfully, turning away from the Doctor and speaking in a low voice. "For all we know, you could blow her up if you get her to move, River. Just let her go and do what she wants. She might have a certain place in mind, you know, that she wants to go to."

River made a small sound of exasperation but agreed. Smiling, I gave the phone back to the Doctor when he held his hand out. He immediately began speaking. "River, keep Amy in the TARDIS, don't let her leave it. Good." With a flourish, he hung up and handed me my phone back. Clave raised his head and tasted the air with his tongue as I tucked it safely into my bag. "Do you still have your sonic keychain?"

I held it up after unhooking it. "Yeah. Do you think it'll work like yours does against the automatons?"

"It should," the Doctor said firmly. "Come on, Ali. We've got precisely four hours and fifty nine minutes before the other version of me shows up."

We took off at a dead run, heading back for the place we'd fled from not even ten minutes previously.

~~OO~~II~~OO~~

"That wasn't supposed to happen," bowtie man protested as I glared at him and flicked a piece of something disgusting that might have once been a piece of a heart out of my hair. "They were supposed to fall down like the first one!"

"Well obviously," I retorted furiously, "They didn't!"

Dozens of automatons, both humanoid and not, and two hours later, the Doctor and I found ourselves sitting in the alley his previous incarnation was supposed to find me in. Both of us were covered from head to toe in oil and what used to be organs. Yep, you heard me right. Guts. Wonderful.

"I apologized!" he insisted.

I rolled my eyes and sighed, resting back against the wall, trying to ignore the sound of Clave licking his scales clean. My stomach twisted disgustingly at the thought of him licking-

Okay, stopping those thoughts!

My phone rang in my ruined back and I dug around in it after wiping my hands off on a safe part of my jacket. Answering it and putting it on speaker so I didn't have to defile my poor piece of technology, I said, "Yo."

"Ali!"

I sat ramrod straight, eyes snapping wide and cursing silently in my head. "Doctor, where the heck are you?!" I demanded, exchanging a nervous look with bowtie man, who'd climbed to his feet.

"The TARDIS is fixed," he replied cheerfully, making my face pale. "My friend Martha and I managed to get it to cooperate with whatever's there; she's going to help us find it when we get there." There was the sound of the TARDIS moving, and I bit my lip. "Where are you in the castle?"

I glanced to the other Doctor, the one beside me. His gaze had saddened, just as it had every time. Guilty, I said, "One sec, need to get away from people." I muted my side of the call, and then set the phone down. "Doctor-"

He cut me off, saying gently, "Third alley to the east from the center of the town behind the castle. I better go find Pond and River. You'll have to take care of that prince."

I bit my lip, then darted forward and, ignoring the disgusting state of myself, threw my arms around him in a hug. He returned it tightly. "Maybe you'll see me again," I whispered to him. "Maybe just one more time, right? If you're lucky?"

He gave a snort. "I doubt it, Ali. You've got a few adventures left. Not very many." He ruffled my hair after pulling back. "Good luck, Alissa." He made a face. "I have to go fix my bowtie, change it out with a new one now. Your badly aimed sonic made it get ruined."

And with that, he was gone, leaving me alone in the alley. I stared after him for a moment, but then jumped when my Doctor's voice came from my phone. "Ali? What's going on?"

Unmuting my side, I answered, "Nothing, sorry. Spying people." I silently gave a shaky sigh. "Right! Location! I'm actually not in the castle anymore, I got out of there. We do need to go back, though. Third alley, east of the center of that town behind the castle."

"We'll be right there," he promised, then asked, "Are you alright? Hurt?"

I looked down at myself and then glanced at Clave. I gave a laugh. We were definitely going to be questioned. "Long story short, automatons, Doctor. I'll explain better when you're here." Without another word, I hung up.

You've got a few adventures left. Not very many.

Damn. My time's running out.

~~OO~~II~~OO~~

A/N: Sorry 'bout the wait! I hope you enjoyed! :3

Maren the fangirl: I always feel bad when Eleven shows up. 'Cause I always make him leave again. XD

d0ct0rwh0l0ckf4n: I love your user. XD Thanks! I'm glad you like it, I have a ton of fun writing when it comes to the TARDIS (and Ali). :3

BrainStormer: You're fine, no need to apologize. :3 I've actually drawn Clave, surprisingly enough. o.o He turned out wonderfully. And then I gave it to one of my friends. Who is actually reading this fanfic and loves him just as much as everyone else does. XD

MaybeALittleBroken: Here you are. XD No need to march over. Again. XD

Guest: Welcome to the world of Ali. XD I'm glad you like it! You shall find out what happens to her eventually! XD