Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who, all rights go to the BBC
Outfit's: claires_outfit_chapters/set?id=93117839
Playlist: /theshadowphantom102/the-artist-and-the-doctor
We came to a stop at the end of the alleyway, a dead end keeping us from going any further. I quickly wriggled my hand out of The Doctor's and wiped it on my jeans in disgust. "Next time you decide to lick your fingers don't grab my hand shortly after, ok?"
Completely ignoring me, The Doctor ran up to the brick wall in front of us and sniffed it before finally licking it. He pulled his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket and scanned the wall before carefully examining the results.
"What are you doing?" I asked crossing my arms and raising an eyebrow at him.
"Ah Ha! Thought so!" He exclaimed happily as he continued to ignore me. "Definitely the source."
"Doctor, what's going on?" I asked again, this time finally being acknowledged.
"Radiation! I thought something was off. You can smell a tiny bit of radiation in the air, not enough to harm anyone, but enough for someone with a good sense of smell to pick up. And for some reason this brick wall is giving off radiation…" He put his ear up to the wall and a faint smile tugged at his lips. "Got cha!"
The Doctor then flicked out his sonic screwdriver and ran the glowing green light in some sort of pattern along a few of the bricks. The bricks then started to glow neon blue before they disintegrated away leaving a small passageway open.
"Ready?" The Doctor held his hand out to me, a small smile gracing his lips.
I tentatively placed my hand in his earning a gentle squeeze of reassurance before he led me through the passageway. It was pitch black.
"Holy crap it's dark!" I whimpered gripping The Doctor's hand tighter.
The Doctor suddenly pulled out a huge bar of light from his coat pocket.
"Where were you keeping that?" I asked in shock, not have the slightest idea where he could've been hiding a torch that big.
"Doesn't matter. We have light!" His face lit up happily before he tugged me along with him down the narrow passageway.
We continued on in silence until we reached a spacious circular room.
"Oh my god." My breath hitched in my throat as I took in the disturbing sight before me.
The room was pitch black except for glowing blue tanks set in a circle around a larger tank in the center. Inside the tanks were children… unconscious children… It appeared as if they were sleeping, but I wasn't entirely sure. Please let them be sleeping I prayed. The tank in the center glowed the same blue shade as the tanks that held the children, but there were tiny white orbs floating about.
The Doctor immediately dropped my hand and walked up to the tank in the center scanning it with his sonic screwdriver. A frown crossed his features as he read whatever sort of readings he was picking up. He continued to run around the room scanning the tanks, his frown growing deeper by the second as he started to grow frustrated.
"Doctor, what's going on?" I asked biting my bottom lip in worry. I moved to stand next to him, watching the many tiny orbs dance around one another in the eerie blue glow.
"They're draining something from these children, but the sonic isn't reading the substance for some reason. But, whatever they're draining from these children is being collected into this tank and its being mixed with other components of very high energy. Which explains the reading for radiation. If this continues however, this tank could explode and destroy every living creature on this planet."
"How do we stop it?" I asked quickly.
"Easy, we turn off the tanks, release the children and bring them back to their families, and we find whoever's doing this and stop them." The Doctor answered coolly. "Oh and we only have thirty five minutes."
"Thirty five minutes?" I asked in disbelief. "How is that easy?"
"Meh, I've saved the Earth in 20 minutes before, it shouldn't be too hard. Hopefully I didn't just jinx that." He clapped his hands together and turned to face me. "Right, now Claire, what I need you to do is take the sonic and point it like so while pressing this button." He demonstrated on one of the tanks containing a little boy probably around the age of three in human years, Transylvanian year, I has no idea what age he was. The glowing blue water that held the child started to drain and the young boy started to wake up.
"Once they're all awake and out of the tanks do the same thing to the tank in the center. That should stop the process. Got it?"
I nodded my head in understanding.
"Now do not lose this ok? I'm trusting you with the sonic, do not break it, disrupt it, or change the settings. If you do, I will drop you off on a planet and trust me it won't smell very pretty. " The Doctor scolded before placing it gingerly in my outstretched hand.
"Don't worry, I'll take good care of your baby." I joked.
The Doctor smiled slightly shaking his head at me in amusement. He pulled the ultra violet torch out of his jacket and placed it in my other hand. "Might need this as well. Now promise me one more thing." The Doctor placed both of his hands on my shoulders and looked me square in the eye. "If anything goes wrong, run. Run as fast as you can to the TARDIS and do not stop for anyone. Good luck." With that he kissed the top of my forehead before running out of the room.
I stared at the empty spot where he once stood and shook my head slightly. Right, run if something goes wrong. But what do I do with the children? I can't just leave them here?
"Where am I? Where's my mommy?"
I quickly snapped out of my thoughts and turned to the little boy banging on the glass of the tank. Tears were rolling down his chubby white cheeks and he stared back at me fear tainting his features.
"Don't worry I'll get you out." I said in an attempt to reassure him.
I sonicked the door open and the little boy practically jumped on me and cried into my stomach.
"Oh its ok, little one. You'll see your mommy soon." I reassured him. "But right now we need to be brave and get everyone out safe, ok?"
The little boy nodded and stood off to the side. I ran around the room letting children out as quickly as possible. I had only one child left when all of a sudden the lights flickered on and off several times. Hurry up, hurry up, hurry up. I quickly finished releasing all of the children, knowing that I needed to get out of here as soon as possible.
I pointed the sonic screwdriver at the tank as The Doctor instructed. One by one the little white orbs began to die out and the tank started to lose its glow.
Suddenly the lights flipped on blinding me, I shielded my eyes from the brightness of the light. A familiar breeze picked up and I uncovered my eyes.
"Perious?" I asked in disbelief as the lizard-humanoid clad in Roman armor approached me. The children beside me huddled behind me in an attempt to hide themselves. "Shh it's okay." I comforted them.
"Must protect-" A loud bang rang throughout the room as Perious fell to the ground in a heap.
A gasp escaped my lips as I stared at Perious lying on the ground. He wasn't moving.
At that moment The Gatekeeper from earlier that day stood in the doorframe blocking the entrance. The same sinister smirk that chilled me to the bone continued to grace his thin lips. His unsettling pale eyes examined me carefully. A low chuckle escaped his lips as I ushered the children towards the dark corridor The Doctor and I originally came through, but it sealed shut before we could reach it.
"How sweet, trying to protect the children?" He laughed causing the blood in my veins to run cold.
Behind him loomed a pair of shadowy figures with glowing red eyes. They made to step forward, but The Gatekeeper stopped them with a flick of his hand.
"Looks like you don't have much of a plan to go off of now do you? Too bad because I was looking forward to a bit of a challenge, but I guess that won't be happening today." He sniffed the air in my direction and shivered as a creepy smile tugged at his lips. "My, my, are you powerful; just what I need for my plan to take route."
He motioned for the shadow men to come after me. I gulped nervously, my heart pounding furiously in my chest as my palms began to sweat. Frantically I searched the room for a way out, only to turn up fruitless.
A loud explosion rumbled throughout the room as a nearby wall burst sending stray rocks every which way. The Doctor crawled out from the debris; coughing and waving dust out of his face.
"Last time I use dynamite like that." He muttered to himself. Looking up he greeted us with a sort of surprised look. "Oh, hello. Sorry, was I interrupting something?" He asked innocently. I felt a wave of relief wash over me. Thank God!
His lovely grey-green eyes landed on me and a smile brightened his face. "Claire, great job freeing the children I knew you would do splendid. Good thing I gave you the sonic" He winked before turning to The Gatekeeper.
"Ah Mr. Gatekeeper, there you are. Been looking everywhere for you and you're little cronies."
"Restrain them." The Gatekeeper said with a yawn.
A pair of shadow men suddenly appeared behind The Doctor and restrained him as another pair made their way for me.
Not knowing what else to do, I quickly shoved the sonic into the hands of a little girl with pink hair and yellow eyes who was standing behind me and nodded in the Doctor's direction before they restrained me. I tried fighting against them but their grip was too strong.
"Ooh, this one's got some fight in her, I like that." The Gatekeeper smirked.
"Leave her out of this." The Doctor growled suddenly catching both The Gatekeeper and I by surprise.
"Now someone's being a little overprotective, don't you think?" The Gatekeeper chuckled darkly.
"I will not lose anyone else! Not again! Now let her go!" The Doctor threatened. I had never seen the dark side of The Doctor, he always seemed so cheerful and carefree, but there was definitely more sides of him. I don't know why, but that terrified me.
A loud buzzing noise filled the room and The Doctor was suddenly free.
"Brilliant! Thank you, Valeria." He gratefully took the sonic screwdriver from the little girl beside him and turned to face The Gatekeeper.
"Now, tell me. What were you draining from these children?" The Doctor asked coolly.
"I might as well tell you, since you're going to die anyways." The Gatekeeper said with a shrug. "I was draining them of their souls." He smiled maliciously. "The perfect ingredient for my concoction to destroy this planet so my species may be reborn. The Ameniatacs will start anew!"
"Ameniatacs? I thought you lot burned out centuries ago?"
"We did, but I survived. I am the last of my kind. For all of these years I've been searching for a way to rekindle my race. Now I have finally found it and I will no longer have to weep in loneliness."
A dark shadow seemed to cast itself over The Doctor as a wave of deep sorrow and regret flashed in his eyes.
"If you were to follow through with this plan of yours, has it ever crossed your mind that you will be killing off a whole other race? What if someone of the Transylvanians ended up surviving? Then they will be the last of their kind. Right in the same place you stand now. Trust me; you don't want to be the cause of the extinction of an entire species. I know." The Doctor spoke with such passion the room stayed silent for a moment after he spoke.
The Gatekeeper stood there in shock before he collected himself.
"You have no power over me, Doctor, last of the Time Lords. The Oncoming Storm. You seem to really live up to your name." The Gatekeeper smirked evilly.
The Doctor glared back at him, his jaw jutting out slightly in anger.
I averted my eyes from the scene for a moment and noticed that the spot where Perious once lay was empty. What happened to him?
"If you continue on like this, then this whole planet will explode, wiping out another treasured race. Do you really want that?" The Doctor warned.
"Whatever it takes to get my species back!" The Gatekeeper thundered as he slammed his boney hand down on a button on the center tank.
The tank began to glow once more and the children around me suddenly began slipping into a coma again.
All of a sudden a blue fire engulfed The Gatekeeper. The Doctor and I shielded our eyes from the brightness of the flames as a chilling wind filled the room. When I uncovered my eyes The Gatekeeper was nothing, but a pile of glittering ash on the floor. The Doctor looked down solemnly at it before rushing to my side. The shadow men that were restraining me had disintegrated allowing me to move freely once more.
"Thank the stars." The Doctor sighed in relief as he pulled me into a comforting embrace.
"Perious…how?" I started
"He's immortal, yes." The Doctor said before quickly running back to the tank. He scanned it with the sonic screwdriver only to growl slightly under his breath. "No, no, no! He kicked up the process!"
"What?" I gasped.
"We have fifty seconds. Ok I'm about to do something really stupid. Do you trust me?" He asked taking a hold of my hand.
I squeezed it in return.
"Yes."
"Geronimo!" He yelled pointing the sonic screwdriver at the tank. A loud explosion rang throughout the room. The blast from the explosion sent us flying across the room and the last thing I remembered was being engulfed in darkness.
A/N: Feel free to leave a review! They make me happy! :D