Clara felt herself start to pierce that black blanket that covered her so soundly, "What?" she tried to mumble. There was noise in the back, it sounded distant but urgent. There was a commotion and she thought she heard glass break. A sharp pain shot to her brain as she was roughly pulled to her feet by a harsh hand.
"Wha-" her eyes were barely opening and she was expected to stand? "What's-what's happening?"
Her voice sounded distorted and groggy to her sensitive ears. There was no longer a monotonous droning sound in her head, which was good, but that also meant she could hear everything else more clear.
Screams and curses echoed through the haze, but the voice was unfamiliar. There was caterwauling and that never happened on the TARDIS. It wasn't River, definitely not the Doctor, not Jack, then who?
A pleasant thought reached her sluggish brain: Had someone answered her message? She was right, the Doctor did have friends out there in the deep, and someone was destined to hear the call for help. If not those friends, then the Galactic Space Police, The Atraxi. Her shoulders sagged with relief.
"Get up!" she heard someone scream, "human girl, please get up!"
Clara, get a hold of yourself, a voice in her mind commanded her, get up, get up!
She grunted with effort as she forced her eyelids to open. A tsunami of lights, colors, and blurs met her sensitive pupils and she immediately shut them again.
Ow….
"Come on," that alien female voice said again, "come-ahh!"
Clara heard a yelp and a hiss.
"Get off me you galactic swine!" the unfamiliar woman screamed with rage, "get your slimy, dirty, Sycoraxan hands off me!"
Oh no, the Sycorax.
This made Clara summon up a burst of energy and she forced herself to open her eyes once more. Her hearing was unreliable, her eyes were adjusting, and her legs were jell-o, but she was aware.
"Yes," Clara's eyes tried to focus on the figures before them. There were two orange creatures with large claws and antennae that were restraining a smaller figure, probably the unfamiliar woman, who had oddly light-brown skin covered in a smoky gray tunic, "yes, that's it!" the woman encouraged, "they can't understand us, they only speak Sycoraxic! I have my space gun in the corner of the room! They, still think you're unconscious, so just go grab-"
The instructions were cut short when the feminine voice became muffled. Clara's still blurry and dotted vision made out an orange claw forcefully closing the woman's mouth. There was a feline growl coming off her as they began to drag the poor girl towards the entrance.
Clara was still on the floor, but her head had managed to lift 3 inches off the ground. Her arm felt amazingly better, wow. She was able to somewhat make out a white wrap on it, but now she could actually move it. The Sycoraxan troops didn't understand English, that was a relief and they were too busy with that poor lady to even notice Clara who started to heed the instructions she was given. Get the space-ray gun at the corner of the room, do something with it. Plain and simple. She placed one tingly hand in front of the other and started to crawl in the direction she thought the gun was. The Doctor was still slumped on that post, her makeshift rope around him clung to his body weakly. Where the heck was River and Jack? She sent the captain away like an hour ago at least.
Her palms touched the cool paneling of the TARDIS floor and she kept her eyes closed. It was better that way. Her knees shuffled across the glass and her dragging shoes made squeaking sounds. Clara was too disorientated to even register the loud, stomping footsteps approach her small form. She felt the tip of a pointy, big boot collide with her stomach and her breath escaped her. The companion wheezed on the floor just as her fingertips wrapped around the trigger of the small space ray gun. She heard struggling from the far corner of the room as the strange woman kept fighting her opponent. The bottom of that evil boot pressed against her small hand and fingers, her eyes watered and she yelled as the alien crushed her bones. The Sycoraxan soldier pulled her up swiftly and wrapped a big burly claw around her neck. Clara's feet barely touched the ground.
Her eyesight finally started to return (now it decided to cooperate) and she saw that the woman being restrained had odd features. Her skin was a light brown but it seemed…furry. Her white teeth were fangs and whiskers jutted out from her cheeks. Her small pink nose was not a regular shape like a humans and it rested below yellow slitted eyes. She wore an ashen gray hat that most likely covered ears.
"Oh-oh my God," Clara choked from under the pressing arm, "you're a-a-"
"Yes," the woman said in a struggling voice, "I'm a Sister of Plentitude, there are no more of us left so I know it must be weird, but-"
"You're-you're a cat."
"What? Of course I am a-"
Her sentence was cut short as the Sycoraxan soldier holding the feline woman down crushed her windpipe.
The familiar creak of the TARDIS door opening was not comforting at the moment. How did they enter? How did they break down those sealed doors? The next thing that came into her vision made her cringe and tears stung her eyes. A group of about 12 alien soldiers entered, a Sycorax led the troop and it had better more advanced gear, distinguishing his high status.
The head alien waved a finger and one Sycoraxan soldier broke the assembled group. It held a small metal device in its hand. The head general said something in a rough foreign tongue. The soldier at his side pressed a few buttons and the translated paragraph echoed through the ailing TARDIS walls.
"Assistants of the Doctor, your help will no longer be rewarded by the Time Lord with travels across the universe as his death will soon follow. This Galifreyan will pay for his crimes against the Sycoraxic race for the massacre of our people. His sins will not be forgiven and this moment will be told through the generations of our new-born young of the day the Doctor fell at the hands of the people he once destroyed."
"No!" Clara struggled, "I know the Doctor, he would never have committed this crime to your people!"
"Enough, Earthling!" The General snarled at her with menacing yellow teeth, "Retrieve the Time Lord!"
"Don't you touch him!" hissed the cat alien, "don't you lay one finger upon his body!"
Four Sycoraxic soldiers broke rank and jogged over to the unconscious Doctor in perfect sync. They heaved his body up like a rag doll, one holding each arm and leg. One of them placed a metal clamp across his torso and a series of chains held his limbs together.
There was a flash and a gust of wind. Clara almost cried as she turned her head to see River Song standing there tall and proud with two large space guns in each hand, one extra large one slung across her back, one strapped on each leg, and another two on her belt.
"Hello, boys," River smiled with malicious glee. She aimed and pulled the trigger faster than Clara could blink. Immediately five of the twelve crashed to the floor with large gaping burn holes blasted into their chests. The smell of cauterized alien wafted through the air.
"KILL THEM!" The General's shout roared through the air.
He melted into his troop's formation as they circled around him and held their weapons up high. The two aliens holding Clara and Novice Hame dragged them over to the TARDIS entrance for a quick hostage get away. The four soldiers holding the Doctor immediately took positions. Two of them ordered to keep the Time Lord confined and they hurried under the TARDIS main console while the other two ran to join the rest of the soldiers. River had vanished. Once she had stopped firing green bolts, she made herself disappear in the dizzying TARDIS secret places, stalking the troop like a hungry jungle cat.
"Come and find me," River's eerie voice echoed off the walls.
"Don't try and play silly games, Professor River Song, we know who you are and your relationship with the Doctor. He will see his final hours today. It's useless to hide, Professor, come out and accept your fate," the Sycoraxan General growled.
Her response was one laser shot that hit a soldier square in the chest. It went down with piercing screams.
"That was a great shot, River!" a new but pleasantly familiar voice echoed off the walls.
"Jack!" Clara shouted with glee before the arm cut her off.
"Well, way to announce my secret cover in front of a horde of Sycoraxan troops, Clara," Jack teased, "but aside from all formalities," the rejuvenated man stepped from his hiding place behind one of the TARDIS beams, "the name is Captain Jack Harkness."
"FIRE!" an angry voice yelled and a chorus of blasters shot at Jack who leapt back behind the beam. River took this opportunity to fire from behind, all attention gone from her now. Novice Hame even dared a maneuver as she unsheathed her claws and swiped behind her. The soldier holding her backed away as green blood spurted from the cat scratches down his face.
Hame was running towards Clara, blaster fire being shot at River and Jack, the Doctor covered by the soldiers. The cat woman was headed towards Clara, sizing up the Sycorax holding her until Clara ordered, "Get the Doctor! The Doctor!"
Hame seemed to understand and dove under the swiping arm of the soldier that approached her. The Sister swiftly stood up and kicked out with her legs. The soldier went crashing down, losing his hold on Clara who scrambled away from him and snatched Novice Hame's gun from the floor. She shut her eyes tightly and fired at the fallen soldiers. Tears stung her closed eyelids.
"Hey!" Clara yelled, her voice cracking. Novice Hame turned around at the exclamation and leapt in the air as the companion threw the gun and it sailed through the air into the Cat Nurse's hands.
Novice Hame fired at one of the soldiers that came at her, a burning hole seared his chest and he screamed in a foreign language. She prepared to shoot another when a bolt zoomed towards the cat and hit her shoulder.
Hame hissed in pain and wailed as she fell to the floor. Clara screamed and ran to help her, but the advancing Sycoraxic soldier got there faster. He picked the Sister up by the injured shoulder and Hame wailed once more.
"Goodbye, Cat," the soldier spat and his greedy smile made something stir inside Clara. The dark haired girl ran up from behind and swiped the dagger from his belt. She charged and stuck the edge of the blade into the back of the alien's neck and it went to the hilt. Hame watched with eyes filled with horror as the end of the blade pierced the skin and appeared through the front of his throat.
The soldier dropped Novice Hame who held her shoulder and struggled to get out of the way as the dead Sycorax fell to the floor in front of her.
Clara held her mouth in shock and tears streamed down her cheeks. The Cat Nurse struggled to her feet and rested a furry hand on the girl's shoulder.
"Hey," the Sister said gently, "let's go save your Doctor."
"W-who are you?" Clara said shakily, she felt light-headed.
"My name is Novice Hame, I'm a friend of the Doctor's, I got the message," she smiled softly.
Clara nodded vigorously, grasping onto that detail with all her sanity. She was never a killer, she never wanted to know that two souls lost their lives because of her hand.
Hame placed an arm across Clara's back as they hunched over to protect themselves from the continuous blaster fight behind them. Clara dared steal a look and saw that 7 more of the vile aliens had fallen to the floor, dead. She silently reminded herself that she would personally give Jack a kiss of her own free will when this was all over. The Cat Nurse Novice Hame stumbled for a moment and held her shoulder in pain. The companion remembered the blaster wound on her arm. Clara unraveled the clean white wrap from her forearm and gave it to the Sister. She smiled with gratitude and placed it against her wound, her painful hisses were barely audible.
"We need to get this chain off," Clara crouched next to the Doctor. Hame and she had dragged his body behind the TARDIS's pillar. Thank God for Galifreyan architecture.
"There's a deactivation mechanism somewhere," Hame stooped next to the Doctor as well, "if I could just find-"
Clara and the Cat jumped back with surprise and escalating anxiety as the Doctor flinched. In his catatonic state, they saw his body jump and fall with pain.
"W-what was that?" Clara's voice was barely a whisper.
"I don't know," Hame was dumbfounded, "he can't be feeling anything, and there are no signs of him waking up," the Sister placed a hand on his forehead, "he's still burning up."
Clara's eyebrows knitted together in confusion and contemplation. What was happening to him? She flinched herself when the Doctor winced again.
"What on Earth-" Clara shouted and ducked as a blaster shot hit the TARDIS interior right above her head, sparks rained down on her.
The Doctor flinched again.
"Wait," Hame examined the Doctor and also peeked her head out to scan the pursuing battle between Jack and River vs. the remaining Sycoraxan troops. The General had a large black blaster in his claws and was firing large and searing shots at the police box's inside.
Everytime a bolt hit the TARDIS, the Doctor would flinch.
"Clara!" the Cat Nurse turned to the scared and confused companion, "grab a blaster! Shoot at the TARDIS!"
"What?" even though Clara's tone was outraged, she obeyed the Sister by picking up a stray blaster between her fingers from a nearby fallen Sycoraxan, "why would we do that? This is our only escape!"
"Trust me," Hame cringed when pain flared in her shoulder, "just do it!"
Clara shook her head with disapproval but heeded the advice from Novice Hame. She aimed the nozzle of the blaster towards the TARDIS walls and began to fire.
"This will wake you up," the Cat Nurse looked down at the fallen form of the Doctor before pointing and shooting. The TARDIS walls began to shake from impact and Clara was bloody well sure she had woken up from sleep mode. The Doctor was now verbally groaning and holding his abdomen like someone was punching him. Clara couldn't watch as the connection between the TARDIS and her Time Lord began to flare with pain signals that resonated right through the Doctor's core.
Jack and River just held on tight and kept firing as only one solider and the General remained. Clara knew this was now or never. She pointed the nozzle of the gun towards the direction of the console and shouted, "All of you! Guns to the console!"
Jack and River looked at each other with outrage and confusion but when they saw Hame and Clara point and the struggling form of the Time Lord, they didn't question. River turned her head away as she fired four shots at the console, her heart wrenching each time she heard the impact. Glass erupted into shards and buttons exploded off of the console mainframe. Jack's face was emotionless and stern as he repeatedly let off bolts from his ray gun. Sparks showered over him like fiery rain.
Deep down within the Doctor, he could feel his gut wrench and his stomach tighten as his brain was attacked by telepathic symbols from his one and only Sexy Thing. He felt her trying to shake him awake, her mental attack pulling him out of that dark and black haze he settled himself in. He knew he wan't supposed to be awake yet, but now was the time to get up and do something. Things felt wrong, horribly wrong, he could feel it. When he wasn't there to buffer the actions of his friends, all bloody hell broke loose across the universes. If the Doctor couldn't save them, no one could. All at once he felt a massive screech from his TARDIS straight through his brain. She screamed in pain and determination as the Police Box urged him to sit up and awaken.
With a roar, the Doctor flew upright. His body was held down by a metallic clamp, but his mind was bright and alive with fury and rage. He tried to get his bearings and look around him, gosh, he couldn't have been out for that long. The Doctor saw a damaged TARDIS on sleep mode, open TARDIS doors, Sycoraxan bodies strewn across the floor, Jack, River, Clara, and…Novice Hame? He hadn't seen her in so long.
What worried him even more was the lack of care to his beautiful, beautiful machine. This was his prized possession, his Sexy Thing, the last item connected to a long and tragic history. There were blaster burns all over her walls, her console was damaged and sparking, bodies and blood littered her floors, and here he was sleeping.
I'm sorry, old girl.
His face darkened with an uncommon rage. His anger ran deep and true, no one messed with his friends and especially his TARDIS. She had kept him safe long enough.
"Clara!" he yelled with a dark and deep tone, "my screwdriver!"
She whipped her head around and it was full of relief. Clara dug the sonic pen from her pocket and threw it over to her alien. It sailed through the air and dropped in his hands. The sonic beam unlocked the metal casing confining his body and he stood up slowly. His eyes flitted back and forth with fury. The Doctor was enraged, and he honestly had no idea what was going to happen next.
"ENOUGH!" The resurrected Time Lord called for silence. All firing and noise stopped. The General stepped out from behind his last man, "ah, General, a coward to the last man."
"I will take no such reprobation from you, Time Lord," the Sycoraxan General snarled and spat, "It's time you die, like Galifrey did long ago."
"You have no right to even speak of my home," the Doctor's voice was cruel and threatening, "you hurt my friends, you hurt me."
"You annihilated my whole race! My family!" the General cried, "it's high time you face your fate, starting with the death of your precious companions," the alien laughed, "look at you lot! So loyal to this Galifreyan man when he will one day leave you behind. Don't you see? It's not worth the suffering and pain for the future. Accept it now and forever be free."
River reloaded her gun, Jack wiped some Sycoraxan ash off his jacket, Clara stood tall, and Novice Hame hissed.
"You see, General," the Doctor raised a smug eyebrow, "my friends aren't like your friends. I actually promise them beauty and warmth in a world of cold, chaotic cruelty. Your men died with the promise of vengeance that will never be served. How can you live with that?" the Time Lord sighed deeply, "you've upset my TARDIS and you've scared my friends but I will find somewhere for you. A planet where you and your surviving man rebuild and regroup, I guarantee it."
The soldier standing next to the General quivered with fear, but the Sycroaxan chief only snarled, "like the guarantee you made to my fleeing people from your precious planet Earth?! I will seek my REVENGE-AH!"
The General sunk to his knees abruptly as a shot from behind interrupted his "promise for revenge". River held a smoking ray gun in front of her as the blaster wound burned the skin of the Sycoraxic General. Green blood freely flowed from the gruesome wound and Novice Hame took a shot at the remaining soldier who crashed to the floor. The Doctor cringed and looked away.
"Doc-tor," the General coughed, green blood pouring from his dying lips, "you don't turn to face your enemy."
"You aren't my enemy, General," the Doctor took a tired step forward. He seemed to have aged a 100 years in a minute.
"Kill me," the alien growled, "I don't want your face to be the one that the last Sycorax in the universe will see. You are our Destructor, Doctor, live…with….that."
The last word that escaped its lips was an exhale.
The Doctor breathed and closed his eyes.